Robert Shiels

How do you present a biography of a person in a different age who travelled the world and attained great fame? Any such subject would test even an experienced writer and Sir Roger Casement more so. All due deference ought to be shown to this study of the life of Roger Casement, not least because, on

In cinematic style, this study launches with a prologue describing a major speech of Lloyd George shortly after the outbreak of the Great War. That great event seems to have epitomised the expedient rallying call by the master of the genre in an unexpected war, or at least a war at an unexpected poi

A simple question: do leaders make history, or does history make leaders? Seeking an answer formed the basis of a course by the author on leaders and leadership in history at Harvard University. The debate in understanding leadership is said to be deciding between those (like Machiavelli) who believ

The Cleveland Torso Murderer, also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, was an unidentified serial killer who was active in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1930s. In parenthesis, it should be acknowledged immediately that these sorts of designations assume that there is one responsible person but that

It is rather sad that the manuscript for this book was completed by its author, Maurice Watkins, a solicitor to and director of Manchester United, shortly before his death in 2021. His relatives and others have assisted with the work to ensure publication. Commendably, profits from the book go towar

Approaching the subject of the personal relations between the monarch and the prime ministers must surely have been somewhat daunting given the longevity of the reign of Queen Victoria. Many of the individual prime ministers are themselves the subject of an extensive literature by specialist histori

Another ‘trial of the century’ book! This one is a narrative account of events leading up to the 1877 prosecution of a feminist free-thinker, Annie Besant, together with her friend, the activist and liberal politician Charles Bradlaugh. They had arranged for the publication of Charles Kn

Robert Shiels commends an important new book on the Dreyfus case which exposed the anti-semitism in French society that would eventually find expression in the Vichy regime and the obscenity of French police rounding up Jews to be sent to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps. Maurice Samuels, a

Robert Shiels commends a new look at the self-invented authoritarian Caesars who present such a clear and present danger to democracy and the rule of law today.

Following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, Britain began to face up to the changing world of the 20th century which would bring an end to the greatest empire the world has ever known. Robert Shiels enjoys a readable new account. With this readable general narrative of the Edwardian period, Alwyn

1848, sometimes known as The Springtime of the Peoples, saw revolutionary fervour sweep across Europe and the ominous publication by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels of The Communist Manifesto. Robert Shiels finds a new history of this European turning point by the eminent historian Sir Christopher Cl

Robert Shiels is impressed by a new history of opium which paints a fascinating picture of an ancient trade with a profound impact on modern society. Opium has its own history and this discursive study by novelist Amitav Ghosh, moving into factual history, concentrates on individual aspects of the o

Robert Shiels uncovers the story of how our everyday truths came to be. This substantial and interesting book has a rather contrived title that suggests a military battle of sorts, although it narrates a crucial aspect of the history of ideas in the British context.

Robert Shiels enjoys a new book on the age-old practice of wine fraud. This modest but interesting study of the murky side of wine-making gives an insight as to the old trade practices and the weakness of the system within which the business has been conducted.

The centenary this year of the first Labour government will doubtless see the publication of a number of new books analysing a game-changing event. Robert Shiels reviews one of the first, by Scottish journalist David Torrance. In 1923 the immediate consequences of an inconclusive general election su