Best history book read in 2020-1: readers' choices

The Library: A World History, 2013

by James Campbell and Will Pryce

This book was not selected by my readers, but I enjoyed it

From fast-paced spy thrillers and moving family sagas to dramatic historical imaginings, BBC History Magazine (Dec 2020) asked historians which new history books they had enjoyed the most. I in turn gave a copy of BBC Hist­ory to a few readers to select their own favourite book read in 2020. They could choose any type of history book, but if they selected a book reviewed in BBC History, I'd publish that.

Agent Sonya

written by Ben Macintyre

Selected by Joe

Reviewed by Gareth Williams

Gareth Williams wanted to jump to 1949 when, without warning, the USSR exploded an atomic bomb. Behind the leaking of atomic secrets to the Soviets was Ursula Kuczynski, a pro-communist German Jew known to her English neighbours as Mrs Burton and as Sonya to her Red Army bosses. As related by Ben Macintyre in Agent Sonya (Viking), her espionage career took her to China, Poland, Germany and England. The cover blurb claims her story has never been told. In fact a translation of Kuc­zyn­ski’s auto-biography appeared in 1991, but, as expected, Macintyre makes this a riveting and thought-provoking read.

Britain’s War: A New World 1942–1947

written by Daniel Todman

Selected by Hels

Reviewed by Keith Lower

As ever, scores of books about WW2 were published this year. For me, the pick of the bunch was Daniel Todman’s Britain’s War: A New World 1942–1947 (Allen Lane), the second volume in his mag­isterial history of Britain during this most pivotal moment in 20th century history. Todman covers the military events in detail, but he also deals with the social and economic costs of the war, huge shifts in party politics, changes in religious thinking, class consc­iousness, attitudes towards empire, women’s rights and much more. Virtually no aspect of British life is left untouched.

Queens of the Crusades: Eleanor of Aquitaine and her Successors

Written by Alison Weir

Selected by Eva

Reviewed by Tracy Borman

The book that I most anticipated this year was Alison Weir’s Queens of the Crusades: Eleanor of Aquitaine and her Successors (Jonathan Cape). The second instalment of her England’s Medieval Queens series, it tells the story of five towering female figures of the Middle Ages who broke the mould of the dutiful queen consort. They were crusaders, reb­els, seductresses and intellectuals, forces to be reckoned with in their own right. Told with all of Weir’s characteristic verve and ex­ceptional eye for detail, this book should find its way into every history lover’s Christmas stocking.

British Summer Time Begins

Written by Ysenda Maxtone-Graham

Selected by ex-pat

Reviewed by booktopia

This is about summer holidays of the mid-C20th and how they were spent, as recounted to Ysenda Maxtone-Graham in vividly remembered detail by witnesses. Through this prism, it paints a revealing port­rait of C20th Britain in summertime: how we were, how families funct­ioned, what hous­es and gardens and streets were like, what journeys were like, and what people did all day in their free time. It explores their expect­at­ions, hopes, fears and habits, the rules or lack of rul­es under which they lived, their happiness and sadness, their sense of being treasured or neglected, from pre-war summers to the late 1970s.

The best part of the summer holidays was when families took off to the seaside, or to grandparents' houses teeming with cousins, or on early package holidays to France or Spain, sib­lings wedged into the back of small cars, roof-racks clattering, moth­ers preparing picnics. Were those unscheduled days  actually the most formative of one’s life?

The Habsburgs: To Rule the World

Written by Martyn Rady

Selected by Student of History

Reviewed by Bookauthority

The definitive history of a powerful family dynasty who dominated Europe for centuries, from their rise to power to their eventual down­fall. Martyn Rady tells the epic story of a dynasty and the world it built, and then lost, over nearly a millennium. From modest origins, the Hab­sburgs gained control of the Holy Roman Empire in the C15th. Then, in just a few decades, their possessions rapidly expanded to take in a large part of Europe, stretching from Hungary to Spain, and parts of the New World and the Far East. The Habsburgs continued to dominate Central Europe through WW1. 

Historians often depict the Habsburgs as leaders of a ramshackle empire. But Rady reveals their enduring power, driven by the belief that they were destined to rule the world as defenders of the Roman Catholic Church, guarantors of peace, and patrons of learning. The Habsburgs is the definitive history of a remarkable dynasty that forever changed Europe and the world.

Dear readers, is there any history book you loved in 2020-1? I will add it to this post with pleasure.