Author:Robert Gildea
Nineteenth-century France was one of the world's great cultural beacons, renowned for its dazzling literature, philosophy, art, poetry and technology. Yet this was also a tumultuous century of political anarchy and bloodshed, where each generation of the French Revolution's 'children' would experience their own wars, revolutions and terrors.
From soldiers to priests, from peasants to Communards, from feminists to literary figures such as Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac, Robert Gildea's brilliant new history explores every aspect of these rapidly changing times, and the people who lived through them.
First-rate
—— Max Hastings , Sunday TimesIt is gripping and well documented, and deserves a lasting place among histories of the war.
—— TelegraphThe stuff of thrillers ... An enthralling book and a sobering one.
—— Patrick BishopAbsorbing and thoroughly gripping . . . Walters proves emphatically that the reality of Nazi hunting is far more fascinating than the myth.
—— James HollandHunting Evil is a model of meticulous, courageous and pathbreaking scholarship
—— Literary ReviewCompelling and thoroughly researched . . . a timely reminder of the many skeletons in Europe's cupboard
—— TLSThe football season hardly ends at all these days, but for literary (or at least literate) fans who miss it, there is Richard Sanders's Beastly Fury: The Strange Birth of British Football, which traces a game now bedevilled by preening, overpaid cheats back to a public-school culture of "egregious selfishness", and preening, unpaid cheats. Britain's peculiar relationship to professional sport is acutely analysed by Sanders, who asks the winningly unpatriotic question "if we invented football, how come we are so bad at it?", and finds the answer in our ignorance of foreign origins of the game, the cult of amateurishness, and a reluctance to accept the sport's (re-)democratization in the twentieth century.
—— David Horspool , Times Literary SupplementBoth entertaining and informative, Beastly Fury is an impeccably researched book telling an enthralling story in an easily read fluent style
—— Colin Shindler, author of Manchester United Ruined My LifeFascinating stuff
—— Football PunkShows that publishers continue to believe in a market for the thinking person's football book... a good historical read
—— Matt Dickinson , The TimesA fine book... well-researched and superbly written
—— Soccer and SocietyThis original thesis, written with style, wit and authority, explains how the beastly game became more beautiful.
—— Simon Redfern , The Independent on SundayDelightful... a valuable work of social history
—— Rob Attar , BBC History magazineUtterly absorbing, a really good read, sensitive and balanced and surely the definitive last word on the subject
—— Dr Harry Shukman, Emeritus Fellow of Modern Russian History, St Antony’s College OxfordRappaport narrates her story in an original fashion, focusing on the final two weeks inside the Ipatiev House before the murders
—— Times Literary SupplementBrilliantly shows how history is never simple but always enthralling when written with this style
—— The BooksellerExtraordinary and powerful ... Having uncovered enlightening new sources, Rappaport has produced a highly accessible account of the last 14 days in the lives of the former tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexandra and their children
—— Western Daily PressRiveting account of turbulence, social upheaval and murder in early 20th-century Russia, which draws on new evidence uncovered in the icy, remote city where Tsar Nicholas and his family met their bloody deaths. Juxtaposing fascinating domestic details with analysis of the international political scene, the author strips away the romance of their incarceration and the mythology surrounding their murders to reveal an extraordinary human situation and its seismic worldwide repercussions
—— Sainsbury’s MagazineRappaport precisely imagines those last few days ... As the pages turn quickly towards an end that is never in doubt, a picture emerges of a devout, loving and rather commonplace family
—— Waterstone’s Books QuarterlyThe great strength of Rappaport's book is her tight focus on the royal family's final three months in the Iaptiev House... She has told the human story, and the truly appalling tale of what man can do to man
—— Independent (Ireland)A tragic and thrilling account ... Ekaterinburg is really a twofold triumph for Helen Rappaport ... On top of the impressive level of research that Rappaport has conducted in order to produce Ekaterinburg, she also has an excellent and engaging writing style and succeeds in maintaining the tension and mood throughout ... Gritty and compelling
—— suite101.com