History Books of the Year (So Far!)

by Warren Farrell

€18.99

'Remember now as you go by, as you are now so once was I, and as I am now so you shall be, so prepare for death and follow me.' Every grave has a story to tell. Glasnevin Cemetery is the final resting place of over one million souls, with some of the most famous names in Irish history resting side by side with those buried in anonymity. The 'faithful departed', as James Joyce referred to the cemetery's population, are reanimated in this book through vivid retellings of their stories. From unmarked plots to striking monuments, Glasnevin Cemetery is a microcosm of Irish society over the last two centuries. Warren Farrell, having immersed himself in the cemetery's history as a tour guide for the past seven years, set out to celebrate the lesser known figures and their contributions to the Irish state. So Once Was I has a story for everyone, representing all threads of Irish society's rich tapestry. Embark on an intruiging tour through our national necropolis in these pages, and become acquainted with the famous and forgotten that once walked the streets of Dublin.

by John Crotty

€18.99

A monastic outpost in the Celtic Sea, a fortress built to defend an Empire, a prison established to intern a nation; Spike Island's remarkable 1300-year history far exceeds its modest acreage. No other place better encapsulates the Irish story. Spike Island tells of religious fervour, frequent rebellion, social endeavour, and a nation's inextinguishable yearning for freedom. After 206 years off-limits to the public, its secrets can finally be divulged. The island has garnered international attention many times, such as the famine-era prison overcrowding and inhumane conditions, the triumphant 1938 handover of the island from Britain to Ireland, and the violent prison riot in 1985. Spike Island echoes with the voices of prisoners past, having housed fierce rebels like John Mitchel, who would inspire the 1916 generation, and 1200 Republicans during the War of Independence. More recent arrivals include the notorious crime boss The General, who terrorised 1980s' Ireland. Told in an entertaining and accessible chronological style featuring accounts from island dwellers and the interned alike, this book is sure to captivate anyone interested in Irish history.

by Arthur Mathews

€17.99

In July 1927, at just thirty-five years old, Kevin O'Higgins was assassinated on his way to mass in Booterstown. A memorial plaque in his honour unveiled at the site in 2012 was removed after just two weeks due to persistent vandalism. In this compelling biography, Arthur Mathews examines the enduring hatred of O'Higgins through the lens of his close friends and many enemies. Appointed Minister for Home Affairs in 1922, O'Higgins resorted to draconian measures to fight the lawlessness that swelled in the wake of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. In an act that would seal his fate, he signed off on the execution of seventy seven anti-Treaty prisoners, including Rory O'Connor, who had been best man at his wedding the year before. As the hostility between former comrades intensified, O'Higgins was now a prime target for the incensed 'irregulars'. Holed up in government buildings in the years preceding his assassination, he described himself as being 'walled in by hate'. The complex legacy of Kevin O'Higgins encapsulates the bitter divisions of the Irish Civil War, and he remains one of the most compelling characters to emerge from the conflict.

by Páraic Kerrigan

€16.95

Marking 50 years of the founding of an LGBTQ rights movement in Ireland, REELING IN THE QUEERS explores the lesser-known stories of the fight for LGBTQ rights . . . beyond decriminalization and Marriage Equality. Uncovering fourteen key moments that reflect the changing social and cultural landscape of Ireland, this book tells the story of the collective gains, losses, devastation and community rising from the ashes of defeat. These stories, from across the island of Ireland - and beyond! - will celebrate a strong community and its allies, providing an exchange across generations. It is a hugely enjoyable and insightful read for those who lived through this history and for those who enjoy its benefits today. Bringing even more to life the great big gay tapestry in Ireland, to enable young queer Irish people to access their own important history, the light, the dark and the brilliance of all of it.

by Peter Frankopan

€17.40

THE TIMES BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2023 A BOOK OF THE YEAR PICK FOR THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE, GUARDIAN, INDEPENDENT AND FINANCIAL TIMES A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Humanity has transformed the Earth: Frankopan transforms our understanding of history' Financial Times 'Vast, learned and timely work' Sunday Times ------ From the international bestselling author of The Silk Roads comes a major history of how a changing climate has dramatically shaped the development-and demise-of civilisations across time. When we think about history, we rarely pay much attention to the most destructive floods, the worst winters, the most devastating droughts or the ways that ecosystems have changed over time. In The Earth Transformed, Peter Frankopan, one of the world's leading historians, shows that the natural environment is a crucial, if not the defining, factor in global history - and not just of humankind. Volcanic eruptions, solar activities, atmospheric, oceanic and other shifts, as well as anthropogenic behaviour, are fundamental parts of the past and the present. In this magnificent and groundbreaking book, we learn about the origins of our species: about the development of religion and language and their relationships with the environment; about how the desire to centralise agricultural surplus formed the origins of the bureaucratic state; about how growing demands for harvests resulted in the increased shipment of enslaved peoples; about how efforts to understand and manipulate the weather have a long and deep history. All provide lessons of profound importance as we face a precarious future of rapid global warming. Taking us from the Big Bang to the present day and beyond, The Earth Transformed forces us to reckon with humankind's continuing efforts to make sense of the natural world. ----- 'This is epic, gripping, original history that leaps off the page' Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland 'All Historians aiming to tell a narrative face the problem of when exactly to start it. Only Peter Frankopan would go back 2.5 billion years to the Great Oxidation Event' Tom Holland A 2023 HIGHLIGHT FOR: BBC NEWS * SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE * FINANCIAL TIMES * NEW EUROPEAN * GUARDIAN * NEW STATESMAN * THE TIMES * THE WEEK * WATERSTONES * BLACKWELL'S

by Graham Tommy

€15.00

Wolfe Tone 225 P/B

by Tyler Anbinder

€25.52

Uncover the gripping narrative of Irish immigrants who transformed America in the aftermath of the Great Hunger. Tyler Anbinder's landmark work exposes the grit and resilience of the Famine Irish, defying hardship to redefine the American dream. From the bustling streets of New York to the heart of a nation in the middle of change, the compelling journey of these unrecognised heroes is unveiled, painting a vibrant scene of hope that echoes through the heart of America. A captivating testament to courage and perseverance, this book is a must-read, illuminating a pivotal chapter in the making of modern America, a testament to the enduring spirit that forged a new home in the land of opportunity. Drawing on previously unavailable records and a ten-year research initiative, stories of the refugees who settled in New York City are reclaimed. Plentiful Country is a compelling tribute to the resilience of these individuals.

by Max Hastings

€18.99

THE SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLERA Times Best History Book of the Year; A Waterstones Best Book of the Year'Reads like a thriller… I couldn't put Max Hastings's new book down' DAILY MAIL'Hastings is a master of drama, a writer intimately familiar with the mind of the soldier' THE TIMESOperation Biting was one of the most thrilling British commando raids of World War II, and probably the most successful. In February 1942 RAF intelligence was baffled by a newly-identified radar network on the coast of Nazi-occupied Europe, codenamed Würzburg. The brilliant scientist Dr RV Jones proposed an assault to capture key components. The nearest accessible enemy set stood upon a steep cliff at Bruneval in Normandy. Winston Churchill enthused, as did Lord Louis Mountbatten, chief of Combined Operations. A company of the newly-formed Airborne Forces was committed to the operation, which took place on the night of 27/28 February. Amid heavy snow 120 men landed, some of whom were misdropped almost two miles from their objective. They nonetheless launched the assault, dismantled the German radar, and after three nail-biting hours in France and a fierce battle with Wehrmacht defenders, escaped in the nick of time by landing-craft across stormy seas to Portsmouth.Max Hastings recounts this cliffhanging tale in a wealth of previously unchronicled detail. He portrays its remarkable personalities: the 'boffin' RV Jones; the peacock Mountbatten; the troubled husband of Daphne Du Maurier, Gen. 'Boy' Browning, who commanded the Airborne Division; 'Colonel Remy', the French secret agent whose men reconnoitered Bruneval at mortal risk; Major John Frost, who led the paras into action; Charlie Cox, the little RAF technician who stripped the Würzburg and became an unexpected hero; Wing-Commander Charles Pickard, a legendary bomber pilot who led the drop squadron. Seldom have so many fascinating personalities been brought together to fulfil a mission that became a front-page triumph in a season of British defeats.Recounted in Hastings' familiar best-selling blend of top-down and bottom-up action detail, Operation Biting tells a story that has become almost forgotten yet deserves to rank among the epic tales of courage and daring that took place in the greatest conflict in history.

by Katja Hoyer

€15.08

AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE TIMES * SUNDAY TIMES * TELEGRAPH * SPECTATOR * PROSPECT 'Utterly brilliant . . . Authoritative, lively and profoundly human, it is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand post-World War II Europe' Julia Boyd 'One of the best young historians writing in English today. . . Well-researched, well-written and profoundly insightful, Beyond the Wall explodes many of the lazy Western cliches about East Germany' Andrew Roberts In 1990, a country disappeared. When the iron curtain fell, East Germany simply ceased to be. For over forty years, from the ruin of the Second World War to the cusp of a new millennium, the GDR presented a radically different German identity to anything that had come before, and anything that exists today. Socialist solidarity, secret police, central planning, barbed wire: this was a Germany forged on the fault lines of ideology and geopolitics. In Beyond the Wall, acclaimed historian Katja Hoyer offers a kaleidoscopic new vision of this vanished country. Beginning with the bitter experience of German Marxists exiled by Hitler, she traces the arc of the state they would go on to create, first under the watchful eye of Stalin, and then in an increasingly distinctive German fashion. From the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, to the relative prosperity of the 1970s, and on to the creaking foundations of socialism in the mid-1980s, Hoyer argues that amid oppression and frequent hardship, East Germany was yet home to a rich political, social and cultural landscape, a place far more dynamic than the Cold War caricature often painted in the West. Powerfully told, and drawing on a vast array of never-before-seen interviews, letters and records, this is the definitive history of the other Germany, the one beyond the Wall. LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER 2023: THE TIMES * SUNDAY TIMES * FINANCIAL TIMES * INDEPENDENT * TELEGRAPH * NEW STATESMAN