The Sale Table

Most of these books are held in very limited quantities and we regret that we may not be able to fulfil all orders. Please order these sale books separately from all other books at History Bookshop. Thank you.

Harold and William 70% off

Patterson, Benton Rain Normal price £16.99 — Discount price £5.10 — You save £11.89  <convert> 

What made Harold give way to his emotions and stake it all at Hastings on Saturday 14 October 1066, changing his nation forever? Without the treason of Harold’s brother Tostig, King Harald Hardrada’s invasion, and the exhausting Battle of Stamford Bridge just days before Hastings, Harold’s army doubtless would have been a more formidable, perhaps indomitable, force. An overwhelming confluence of misfortunes led to an oath of obligation to William, by which Harold promised to support William’s claim to the English throne. This oath became William’s primary justification for his brutal conquest. As Benton Rain Patterson unfolds the events that led to this forced oath, a feeling of oppressive preordination is inescapable.

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History in Our Time 65% off

Cannadine, David Normal price £20.00 — Discount price £7.00 — You save £13.00  <convert> 

This work is a collection of writings by David Cannadine, an historical essayist. Cannadinene's subject is 19th and 20th-century Britain, from Winston Churchill to Margaret Thatcher, King Edward VIII to Diana, Princess of Wales. The pieces included here explore subjects as varied as suicide and divorce, patriotism and empire, class and privacy, and they examine the cult of Victorian values as recently espoused and proclaimed by politicians and historians in Britain and America. Each of these essays evokes a personality or investigates a problem: the mysteries of class distinctions; the difficulties and dangers of being the Prince (or the Princess) of Wales, the malevolence of Lord Beaverbrook, the varied motives for imperial expansion, and the unhappiness of Harold Macmillan. They discuss (and sometimes dismiss) many of the most important - and notorious - works of history and biography to have been published during the last decade on both sides of the Atlantic.

Crusaders 55% off

Housley, Norman Normal price £16.99 — Discount price £7.65 — You save £9.34  <convert> 

The lives, motivations and experiences of Crusaders through their own writings.

Who were the Crusaders? What were they fighting for? How did they perceive themselves and their enemies? In this new book Norman Housley allows the answers to such questions to emerge through the writings of the Crusaders themselves. They were men and women from virtually every country in medieval Europe fired by the conviction that by taking the Cross to liberate the Holy Land they were carrying out God’s command. They believed themselves to be Christ’s warriors and their opponents to be Christ’s enemies. The author builds up a convincing picture of Crusader psychology, a frame of mind in which religious devotion merged seamlessly with acquisitiveness, and piety with intolerance. Throughout he focuses on the central conundrum of the crusading experience: wars which were waged with exceptional persistence and ferocity in the name of the Prince of Peace by individuals who wore the most poignant symbol of Christ’s self-sacrifice.

Eagles Over Britannia 55% off

Bedoyere, Guy de la Normal price £17.99 — Discount price £8.10 — You save £9.89  <convert> 

More evidence survives of the Roman army in Britain than any other aspect of the four centuries of Roman rule. The ruins of their forts bear witness to their physical presence and power, while their tombstones, altars, building dedications and letters tell us who some of these soldiers were and where they came from. This comprehensive survey shows how the Roman army was the effective engine behind the Romanization of Roman Britain.

US Army Handbook, 1939-1945 

Forty, George £12.50  <convert> 

The building of the American Army in World War II from a tiny, outdated and ill-equipped force into one of the mightiest armies of the world was rightly described by Sir Winston Churchill as being a "prodigy of organization". Its value to the Allied cause was immeasurable and it had a fine fighting record all over the world. The US Army was marvellously well-equipped, thanks to American inventiveness, "know-how" and technological prowess, and by 1945 it led the world in weaponry, strategic mobility and logistic capabilities.

Free Born John 50% off

Gregg, Pauline Normal price £12.99 — Discount price £6.50 — You save £6.50  <convert> 

'Lilburne has found an admirable as well as admiring biographer' TLS

This is the biography of the leader of the Levellers, whose unflagging opposition to authority resulted from a fight for civil liberty. Although pilloried by the Star Chamber, imprisoned by the Long Parliament and twice put on trial for his life, he never ceased his fight for the ordinary citizen.

Friends and Apostles 75% off

Brooke, Rupert, Strachey, James; Hale, Keith (ed.) Normal price £25.00 — Discount price £6.25 — You save £18.75  <convert> 

This volume contains the correspondence between the poet Rupert Brooke and his friend James Strachey. As well as their shared interest in politics, literature, art, and theatre, the letters deal often and explicitly with the issue of homsexuality and the scandalous activities of their close circle.

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Warden of English 75% off

McMorris, Jenny Normal price £19.99 — Discount price £5.00 — You save £14.99  <convert> 

A biography of Henry Watson Fowler (1858-1933), revealing his work on "The King's English", "Modern English Usage", and the "Concise" and "Pocket Oxford" dictionaries. Against the descriptions of his work is set the story of a man who changed career and risked all to begin a new life as a writer.

Anglo-Saxon Shield 60% off

Stephenson, I.P. Normal price £17.99 — Discount price £7.20 — You save £10.79  <convert> 

For the Anglo-Saxons the shield, more than any other piece of armour or weaponry, epitomised the warrior. Using the full range of archaeological, representational, literary and comparative sources, Ian Stephenson describes both the construction, decoration and use of their shields and is then able to throw considerable new light on the art of war in the Anglo-Saxon period. The book also contains a complete list of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries.

Hitler's Siegfried Line 60% off

Short, Neil Normal price £19.99 — Discount price £8.00 — You save £11.99  <convert> 

The Siegfried Line was a mammoth wall of German defences that stretched from the Swiss border in the south to Aachen in the north, approximately 300 miles long and, in places, up to 20 miles deep. Built by Nazi Germany between 1936 and 1938, over 500,000 workers were involved in its construction. This book provides a detailed historical background to the Siegfried Line, and a guide to what is left to see of it today. The line was not designed to thwart a full-scale offensive, but rather to delay any attack sufficiently to allow the German reserves to mobilize. In the "phoney war" (1939-40) it was effective enough to prevent the French from launching a pre-emptive strike when German forces were heavily engaged in Poland. Certain sections of the defences saw some fo the fiercest fighting of World War II. Many of the defences have since been dismantled, but some still remain today.

Military Lives 70% off

Strachan, Hew (ed.) Normal price £12.99 — Discount price £3.90 — You save £9.09  <convert> 

Under the Molehill 50% off

Bossy, John Normal price £7.99 — Discount price £4.00 — You save £4.00  <convert> 

In the latter part of the 16th century, Elizabethan London was uneasy: was it France's intent to side with Protestant England or with the hostile Catholic powers of Europe? This volume describes the espionage operation that was devised to find the answer. John Bossy speculates on the identity of the mole in the French ambassador's household and tells the details of the arrests, escapes, crises and deals surrounding the affair.

Ted Hughes 70% off

Feinstein, Elaine Normal price £20.00 — Discount price £6.00 — You save £14.00  <convert> 

A biography of the former Poet Laureate and husband of Sylvia Plat; the subject of his 'Birthday Letters', which has sold over 100,000 copies.

Man Who Would Be King 65% off

Pevitt, Christine Normal price £25.00 — Discount price £8.75 — You save £16.25  <convert> 

When Louis XIV died in 1715 after 72 years on the throne, very few regretted hispassing. The great king had becaome a testy and ill-humoured bore, depending more and more on his wife Mme de Maintenon. He knew that his succession was fragile as it depended upon his five year old child and, to support him, the man who became regent, Philippe d' Orleans, who represented everything the king feared and detested. He was a hard drinking womaniser: in 1715 he went on trial accused of poisoning the heirs to the throne, committing incest with his daughter and engaging in treasonable activities in spain. Philippe was 41 when he became Regent and despite his sure ability to shock he possessed another side to his character. He was a cultivated and artist prince, a kind hearted father and curious about the arts,science, history and above all human nature.

Imperial Borderland 70% off

Polvinen, Tuomo Normal price £32.50 — Discount price £9.75 — You save £22.75  <convert> 

General Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov was appointed by Tsar Nicholas 11 to the post of Governor-General of Finland in 1898. A dramatic new phase then began in relations between the Russian Empire and its autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. Nearly a century of political equilibrium abruptly ended. What were Bobrikov's goals? Did he aim at the complete assimilation of Finland, or only at securing the Empire's military interests? Was he wholly supported by the government of Nicholas II or were there differences of opinion in St Petersburg about the policy? These questions are dealt with for the first time in detail by Tuomo Polvinen in his book based on extensive Russian primary sources.

Thomas Wentworth Strafford 60% off

Wedgwood, C.V. Normal price £12.99 — Discount price £5.20 — You save £7.79  <convert> 

As the ruthless servant of Charles I, Wentworth rose to be the most powerful and hated man in Britain, only to be deserted by the master he had served and to go the scaffold to appease the wrath of the people. This biography shows him as a very complex character.

Rosebery 50% off

James, Robert Rhodes Normal price £12.99 — Discount price £6.50 — You save £6.50  <convert> 

The meteoric career of the rich and gifted Earl of Rosebery took him to the Premiership on the resignation of Gladstone in 1894 but ended in disaster. 'I cannot remember when I enjoyed a book more' A.J.P. Taylor, Observer

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