Categorie archieven: Geschiedenisboeken

Amerikaanse historicus, Geschiedenisboeken, Joden, Romeinen

Barry Strauss – Jews vs. Rome

Barry Strauss Jews vs. Rome review, recensie en informatie Engelstalig boek over twee eeuwen opstand tegen het machtigste rijk ter wereld. Op 19 augustus 2025 verschijnt bij Simon & Schuster het nieuwe boek van Barry Strauss, de Amerikaanse historicus die is gespecialiseerd in de militaire geschiedenis van de oudheid. Bij Uitgeverij Omniboek verschijnt begin november 2025 de Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verschijnen met als titel Opstand in Judea.

Barry Strauss Jews vs. Rome review en recensie

  • “Historian Strauss hits another home run with this thorough account of the tumultuous relations between Rome and its most contentious subjects, the Jews, in ancient times … There is no better history of this important but little-known subject.” (Library Journal)
  • “Judaism as we know it today is not the Judaism of the Bible–it is the Judaism that emerged from the destruction of the Second Jewish Commonwealth at the hands of the Romans. As Barry Strauss illustrates in this riveting account, this pivotal period was defined by conflicting values and visions among Jews, corruption of their religious institutions, infighting when they could least afford it and much more that our own time eerily echoes. This stunning account leaves us with a much deeper understanding of not only the Jews’ past, but their present as well, and perhaps even their future.” (Daniel Gordis)

Jews vs. Rome

Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World’s Mightiest Empire

  • Auteur: Barry Strauss (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: Joodse geschiedenis, Romeinse geschiedenis
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Simon & Schuster
  • Verschijnt: 19 augustus 2025
  • Omvang: 394 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook / luisterboek
  • Prijs: $ 29,99 / $ 14,99 / $ 29,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek Barry Strauss over het Joodse verzet tegen de Romeinen

A new history of two centuries of Jewish revolts against the Roman Empire, drawing on recent archeological discoveries and new scholarship by leading historian Barry Strauss.

Jews vs. Rome is a gripping account of one of the most momentous eras in human history: the two hundred years of ancient Israel’s battles against Rome that reshaped Judaism and gave rise to Christianity. Barry Strauss vividly captures the drama of this era, highlighting the courageous yet tragic uprisings, the geopolitical clash between the empires of Rome and Persia, and the internal conflicts among Jews.

Between 63 BCE and 136 CE, the Jewish people launched several revolts driven by deep-seated religious beliefs and resentment towards Roman rule. Judea, a province on Rome’s eastern fringe, became a focal point of tension and rebellion. Jews vs. Rome recounts the three major uprisings: the Great Revolt of 66–70 CE, which led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, culminating in the Siege of Masada, where defenders chose mass suicide over surrender; the Diaspora Revolt, ignited by heavy taxes across the Empire; and the Bar Kokhba Revolt. We meet pivotal figures such as Simon Bar Kokhba but also some of those lesser-known women of the era like Berenice, a Jewish princess who played a major role in the politics of the Great Revolt and was improbably the love of Titus—Rome’s future emperor and the man who destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple.

Today, echoes of those battles resonate as the Jewish nation faces new challenges and conflicts. Jews vs. Rome offers a captivating narrative that connects the past with the present, appealing to anyone interested in Rome, Jewish history, or the compelling true tales of resilience and resistance.

Bij Uitgeverij Omniboek verschijnt begin november 2025 de Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verschijnen met als titel Opstand in Judea.

Barry Strauss is born 27 November 1953 in New York City. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor in Humanistic Studies Emeritus at Cornell University, and a leading expert on ancient military history. He has written or edited several books, including The War That Made the Roman Empire, The Battle of Salamis, The Trojan War, The Spartacus War, Masters of Command, The Death of Caesar, and Ten Caesars.

Een aantal van de boeken van Barry Strauss over de Romeinse en Griekse geschiedenis is in Nederlandse vertaling uitgegeven.

Bijpassende boeken

Sovjet-Unie, Geschiedenisboeken, Rusland

Tricia Starks – Cigarettes and Soviets

Tricia Starks Cigarettes and Soviets review, recensie en informatie boek over roken in de Sovjet-Unie. Op 15 december 2025 verschijnt bij Cornell University Press het boek van de Amerikaanse historicus Tricia Starks. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar.

Tricia Starks Cigarettes and Soviets review en recensie

  • “Cigarettes and Soviets makes important contributions to recent work on the global history of tobacco use, along with adding to our understanding of socialist consumption and everyday life. Most delightfully, Starks’s book demonstrates a keen understanding of Soviet visual culture in all its unex- pected and paradoxical dimensions, and her beautiful prose evokes the sights and smells of ordinary places in the USSR.” (Russian Review)
  • “Tricia Starks tells the story of tobacco and smoking during the Soviet period. But perhaps it is more accurate to say that she tells part of the history of the Soviet Union through the prism of smoking.” (Moscow Times)

Tricia Starks Cigarettes and Soviets

Cigarettes and Soviets

Smoking in the USSR

  • Auteur: Tricia Starks (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: Sovjetgeschiedenis
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Cornell University Press
  • Verschijnt 15 december 2025
  • Omvang: 324 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 32.95
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst boek van Tricia Starks over roken in de Sovjet-Unie

Enriched by color reproductions of tobacco advertisements, packs, and antismoking propaganda, Cigarettes and Soviets provides a comprehensive study of the Soviet tobacco habit. Tricia Starks examines how the Soviets maintained the first mass smoking society in the world while simultaneously fighting it. The book is at once a study of Soviet tobacco deeply enmeshed in its social, political, and cultural context and an exploration of the global experience of the tobacco epidemic.

Starks examines the Soviet antipathy to tobacco yet capitulation to market; the development of innovative cessation techniques and clinics and the late entry into global antitobacco work; the seeming lack of cultural stimuli alongside massive use; and the expansion of smoking without the conventional prompts of capitalist markets. She tells the story of Philip Morris’s “Mission to Moscow” campaign for the Soviet market, the triumph of the quintessential capitalist product—the cigarette—in a communist system, and the successes and failures of the world’s first national antismoking campaign. The interplay of male habits and health against largely female tobacco producers and medical professionals adds a gendered dimension.

Smoking developed, continued, and grew in the Soviet Union without mass production, intensive advertising, seductive industrial design, or product ubiquity. The Soviets were early to condemn tobacco, and yet, by the end of the twentieth century Russians smoked more heavily than most most other nations in the world. Cigarettes and Soviets challenges interpretations of how tobacco use rose in the past and what leads to mass use today.

Tricia Starks is Director of the Humanities Center and Professor of History at the University of Arkansas. She is also the author of  Smoking under the Tsars.

Bijpassende boeken

Finland, Finse geschiedenis, Geschiedenisboeken, Sovjet-Unie

Gordon F. Sander – The Finnish Front Line

Gordon F. Sander The Finnish Front Line review, recensie en informatie boek over Kekkonen, Kennedy en Chroesjtsjovs in de Koude Oorlog. Op 15 december 2025 verschijnt bij Cornell University Press het boek van Gordon F. Sander over de geschiedenis van Finland in de Koude Oorlog. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar.

Gordon F. Sander The Finnish Front Line review en recensie

  • “The Finnish Front Line adds a vital piece to our understanding of modern world history. It also provides a gripping account of the the greatest crisis in Finnish post-war history, the 1961 Note Crisis.” (Stephen Kinzer, author of Poisoner in Chief)
  • “With Finland on the minds of many observers of international politics, Sander’s thorough account of Finnish strategy during the Cold War is a timely contribution. Well-conceived, useful, and engaging.” (Simon Miles, author of Engaging the Evil Empire)

Gordon F. Sander The Finnish Front Line

The Finnish Front Line

Kekkonen, Kennedy, and Krushchev’s Cold War Showdown

  • Auteur: Gordon F. Sander
  • Soort boek: Finse geschiedenis, Koude Oorlog
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Cornell University Press
  • Verschijnt: 15 december 2025
  • Omvang: 416 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 34.95
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek over de geschiedenis van Finland in de Koude Oorlog

The Finnish Front Line is a historical biography of Urho Kekkonen, the eighth and longest-serving president of Finland. The most controversial as well as the most misunderstood figure in Finnish history, Kekkonen governed Finland for twenty-five years from 1956 to 1981.

Gordon F. Sander focuses on Kekkonen’s pivotal first term as president, which was bracketed by two crises that together formed the template for both Finland’s relationship with the Soviet Union from 1956 through the fall of the USSR, and Kekkonen’s own “special” relationship with Moscow: the Night Frost crisis of 1957, which derived from the Kremlin’s desire to exert greater influence on Finnish politics, and the Note Crisis of 1961, which coincided with the great Berlin crisis of 1961, and occurred when Moscow suddenly invoked the clause in the 1948 Finnish-Soviet treaty that entitled the Kremlin to call for mutual discussions between the Finnish and Soviet militaries and was perceived as a threat to Finnish independence. Thinking this might presage a Soviet invasion of Finland, a distressed Kekkonen was able to resolve the crisis by flying to Siberia to meet with his erstwhile friend Nikita Khrushchev—who may well have precipitated the crisis in order to insure Kekkonen’s reelection.

The Finnish Front Line centers an overlooked chapter of the Cold War as well as a revealing if forgotten chapter of the presidency of John Kennedy and his secret offer to help Kekkonen, which the latter rejected, ultimately to avoid making Finland into next front of the Cold War.

Gordon F. Sander is a journalist and historian and the author of several books about Finland and the Baltic region, including The Hundred Day Winter War and Off The Map. In 2017 he was knighted by President Sauli Niinisto for his contribution to international journalism and Finnish historiography. He is based in Riga.

Bijpassende boeken

Europa, Geschiedenisboeken, Oorlog

Barney White-Spunner – Nations in Arms

Barney White-Spunner Nations in Arms review, recensie en informatie boek over vijf legers die Europa maakten. Op 14 augustus 2025 verschijnt bij Osprey Publishing het boek van de Engelse militair historicus. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar.

Barney White-Spunner Nations in Arms review en recensie

  • “Nations in Arms is a remarkable book, written by one of our very best military historians… It is a great read for historians that rings alarm bells for policy-makers.” (Michael Clarke, Visiting Professor of Defence Studies, King’s College London)
  • “General White-Spunner’s thoughtful, well-written, occasionally witty but above all profoundly wise book reminds us how focusing on specific periods of history can cast penetrating light on the nature both of warfare and the human condition. With our current uncertainties over Western security, it is also incredibly timely.” (Andrew Roberts)

Barney White-Spunner Nations in Arms

Nations in Arms

Five Armies That Made Europe

  • Auteur: Barney White-Spunner (Engeland)
  • Soort boek: Europese oorlogsgeschiedenis
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Osprey Publishing
  • Verschijnt: 14 augustus 2025
  • Omvang: 352 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: £ 22,00 / £ 15,40
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek over vijf legers die bepalend waren voor Europa

A critical study of five historical armies that offers solutions for how contemporary forces need to change to deal with modern threats.

The most important task of any government remains the defence of its state and its citizens. Traditionally governments have used armed forces to do this. World events and comparative peace in Europe since 1989 have led most European governments to lose their focus on defence. However, recent events have proved that war is now as nasty, violent, destructive and prevalent as it has ever been, and governments need to fundamentally re-think their relationship with armies and soldiers.

History gives us several examples of states who have reconstructed their armies successfully, both on the field of battle but also in terms of how they relate to the state which it is their duty to protect. This book is about five armies who have adapted successfully: the 4th-century Roman army of Constantine the Great; the 15th-century Ottoman army of Sultan Mehmet II; Cromwell’s New Model Army of the English Civil War; the Prussian Army of the Napoleonic Wars; and the US Army of the Second World War.

Former senior military officer and renowned military historian Barney White-Spunner draws lessons from their experience to establish long-standing principles that are as relevant today as they were in the 4th century. It is a book about armies, their loyalties, their organisation and their souls.

Barney White-Spunner commanded British and allied troops on operations at every level from troop to division in Europe, Iraq, Afghanistan, in several African countries and in South Asia, was policy director in the Ministry of Defence during the 1997 defence review, commanded on operations within the US Army, restructured the British Army for Afghanistan in 2010 and commanded the British Field Army. As a military historian he has written Horse Guards (2006), the story of the British Household Cavalry; Of Living Valour (2015), the story of the soldiers who fought at Waterloo; Partition (2017), the story of Indian independence and the creation of Pakistan in 1947 which became an international bestseller and Berlin (2021), a biography of that fascinating city. He has also served as President of the Society for Army Historical Research.

Bijpassende boeken

Amerikaanse historicus, Geneeskunde, Geschiedenisboeken, Gezondheid

Randall M. Packard – Fevered Cities

Randall M. Packard Fevered Cities review, recensie en informatie boek over de geschiedenis van Dengue epidemieën. Op 12 augustus 2025 verschijnt bij Johns Hopkins University Press van Randall M. Packerd, Emeritus Professor of the History of Medicine aan de Johns Hopkins University, over de geschiedenis van de Dengue, ook wel bekend als knokkelkoorts, epidemieën. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar.

Randall M. Packard Fevered Cities review en recensie

  • “This lucid, well-researched book on the history of dengue fever integrates epidemiological, scientific, and phenomenological narratives. Ranging from the late eighteenth century to the present, Packard illuminates the damningly complex nature of the disease and how local conditions in different urban settings shaped the dynamics of dengue outbreaks. Fevered Cities makes a seminal contribution to global health history.” (James L. A. Webb, Jr., auteur van The Guts of the Matter)
  • “Randall Packard provides a thorough historical analysis of the epidemiological, scientific, and phenomenological dimensions of a major global disease, alongside the evolution of public health responses to epidemics. This remarkable book illuminates the natural, social, and economic factors shaping epidemic outbreaks and how these events have been understood and experienced across different contexts.” (Marcos Cueto, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro)

Randall M. Packard Fevered Cities

Fevered Cities

A History of Dengue Epidemics

  • Auteur: Randall M. Packard (Verenigde Staten)
  • Soort boek: geschiedenisboek over Dengue
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Johns Hopkins University Press
  • Verschijnt: 12 augustus 2025
  • Omvang: 368 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 39,95
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek over de geschiedenis van de ziekte Dengue

A global history of dengue fever and humanity’s ongoing struggle against this persistent disease.

In Fevered Cities, Randall M. Packard explores the complex and evolving history of dengue fever, the world’s most widespread mosquito-borne viral disease. From its early manifestations in the eighteenth century to its current prevalence across more than one hundred countries, this book traces how dengue emerged as a global health challenge shaped by ecological, social, and economic conditions.

Packard examines the disease’s spread through urban landscapes, focusing on specific cities like Philadelphia, Manila, Havana, and Rio de Janeiro to illustrate how local contexts have defined outbreaks and responses. He highlights the transformation of dengue from a poorly understood physiological ailment to a vector-borne disease tied to the Aedes aegypti mosquito, and later to more severe conditions like dengue hemorrhagic fever. As climate change expands the geographical range of mosquito habitats and global trade accelerates the movement of people and goods, this book explores the social inequities, unplanned urbanization, and environmental degradation that have made dengue increasingly difficult to control.

From vector control campaigns to cutting-edge biotechnologies like genetically modified mosquitoes and vaccines, Packard charts humanity’s attempts to combat this tenacious disease. Fevered Cities is an essential history for public health experts, historians, and anyone concerned with the intersection of disease, society, and the built environment.

Randall M. Packard is Emeritus Professor of the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of White Plague, Black Labor: Tuberculosis and the Political Economy of Health and Disease in South Africa, The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria, A History of Global Health: Interventions into the Lives of Other Peoples and coeditor of Emerging Illnesses and Society: Negotiating the Public Health Agenda.

Bijpassende boeken

Engelse historicus, Geschiedenisboeken

John Blair – Killing the Dead

John Blair Killing the Dead review, recensie en informatie boek over vampierepidemieën van Mesopotamië tot de Nieuwe Wereld. Op 11 november 2025 verschijnt bij Princeton University Press het nieuwe boek van John Blair, de Britse historicus en mediëvist. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar.

John Blair Killing the Dead review en recensie

  • “We all think we know about vampires, but John Blair brings his expertise as archaeologist and historian to reveal the disconcertingly wide range of stories and evidence about the undead across an astonishing variety of human cultures, from the ancient world to the present day. With Blair’s sure guidance, we may understand better how other cultures have sought to make sense of the terrors of the world around them.” (Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity)
  • “This is the first historical survey of beliefs in dangerous dead humans to take in all time and the whole of the world. It is therefore also the first to identify the way in which such beliefs wax and wane, and travel. As a result, it moves knowledge of the subject up into a whole new register.” (Ronald Hutton, author of The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present)

John Blair Killing the Dead

Killing the Dead

Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World

  • Auteur: John Blair (Engeland)
  • Soort boek: geschiedenis van de vampier
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Princeton University Press
  • Verschijnt: 11 november 2025
  • Omvang: 536 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
  • Prijs: $ 35,00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek van John Blair over de geschiedenis van vampiers

Killing the Dead provides the first in-depth, global account of one of the world’s most widespread yet misunderstood forms of mass hysteria—the vampire epidemic. In a spellbinding narrative, John Blair takes readers from ancient Mesopotamia to present-day Haiti to explore a macabre frontier of life and death where corpses are believed to wander or do harm from the grave, and where the vampire is a physical expression of society’s inexplicable terrors and anxieties.

In 1732, the British public opened their morning papers to read of lurid happenings in eastern Europe. Serbian villagers had dug up several corpses and had found them to be undecayed and bloated with blood. Recognizing the marks of vampirism, they mutilated and burned them. Centuries earlier, the English themselves engaged in the same behavior. In fact, vampire epidemics have flared up throughout history—in ancient Assyria, China, and Rome, medieval and early modern Europe, and the Americas. Blair blends the latest findings in archaeology, anthropology, and psychology with vampire lore from literature and popular culture to show how these episodes occur at traumatic moments in societies that upend all sense of security, and how the European vampire is just one species in a larger family of predatory supernatural entities that includes the female flying demons of Southeast Asia and the lustful yoginīs of India.

Richly illustrated, Killing the Dead provocatively argues that corpse-killing, far from being pathological or unhealthy, served as a therapeutic and largely harmless outlet for fear, hatred, and paranoia that would otherwise result in violence against marginalized groups and individuals.

John Blair is an Emeritus Fellow of The Queen’s College, Oxford, and Emeritus Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology at the University of Oxford. His many books include Building Anglo-Saxon England, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society, and The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Short Introduction.

Bijpassende boeken

Spaanse geschiedenis, Geschiedenisboeken, Spanje

Otto Holman – Het Spaanse mirakel

Otto Holman Het Spaanse mirakel recensie en informatie boek over de democratisering, modernisering en europeanisering van Spanje 1975-2025. Op 5 september 2025 verschijnt bij Uitgeverij Walburg Pers het boek van Otto Holman, de Nederlandse politicoloog, over de recente geschiedenis van Spanje. Hier lees je informatie over de inhoud van het boek, de auteur en over de uitgave.

Otto Holman Het Spaanse mirakel recensie

Als er in de media een boekbespreking, review of recensie verschijnt van Het Spaanse mirakel, democratisering, modernisering en europeanisering 1975-2025, geschreven door Otto Holman, dan besteden we er op deze pagina aandacht aan.

Otto Holman Het Spaanse mirakel

Het Spaanse mirakel

Democratisering, modernisering en europeanisering 1975-2025

  • Auteur: Otto Holman (Nederland)
  • Soort boek: Spaanse geschiedenis
  • Uitgever: Walburg Pers
  • Verschijnt: 5 september 2025
  • Omvang: 220 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback
  • Prijs: € 24,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Bol / Libris

Flaptekst boek van Otto Holman over de recente geschiedenis van Spanje

Vijftig jaar geleden, op 20 november 1975, stierf dictator Francisco Franco in het Hospital de la Paz te Madrid. Sindsdien heeft Spanje een opmerkelijke transitie ondergaan: in slechts vijftig jaar tijd is de overgang van autoritair regime naar parlementaire democratie succesvol afgerond, is de Spaanse economie in rap tempo verder gemoderniseerd en is Spanje een van de meest loyale lidstaten van de Europese Unie (EU) geworden. Spanje is uitgegroeid tot een volwaardig West-Europees land, inclusief alle verworvenheden en uitdagingen die het huidige tijdsgewricht kenmerken.

In Het Spaanse mirakel beschrijft politicoloog Otto Holman deze geslaagde, en toch wel miraculeuze terugkeer van Spanje naar de kern van Europa aan de hand van de politieke gebeurtenissen en sociaaleconomische ontwikkelingen in de laatste halve eeuw.

Otto Holman is geboren in 1956. Hij is als politicoloog, gespecialiseerd in Internationale Betrekkingen en Europese Politiek, verbonden aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. In 2019 verscheen zijn boek Europa als wereldspeler over de externe betrekkingen van de Europese Unie.

Bijpassende boeken

Afghanistan, Geschiedenisboeken

Warwick Ball – Ancient Civilizations of Afghanistan

Warwick Ball Ancient Civilizations of Afghanistan recensie, review en informatie geschiedenis boek van de vroegste tijden tot de Mongoolse verovering. Op 1 augustus 2025 verschijnt bij Reaktion Books het boek van Warwick Ball over de geschiedenis van Afghanistan. Hier lees je informatie over de inhoud van het boek, de auteur en over de uitgave. Een Nederlandse vertaling van het boek is niet verkrijgbaar.

Warwick Ball Ancient Civilizations of Afghanistan recensie en review

Als er in de media een boekbespreking, review of recensie verschijnt van Ancient Civilizations of Afghanistan, geschreven door de Britse archeoloog en schrijver Warwick Ball, dan besteden we er op deze pagina aandacht.

Warwick Ball Ancient Civilizations of Afghanistan

Ancient Civilizations of Afghanistan

From the Earliest Times to the Mongol Conquest

  • Auteur: Warwick Ball (Engeland)
  • Soort boek: geschiedenis van Afghanistan
  • Taal: Engels
  • Uitgever: Reaktion Books
  • Verschijnt: 1 augustus 2025
  • Omvang: 304 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: gebonden boek
  • Prijs: £ 29,00
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek over oude beschavingen van Afghanistan

A beautifully illustrated exploration of Afghanistan’s ancient cities, temples and monuments.

Afghanistan, at the meeting place of the Indian subcontinent, Middle East and Central Asia, holds a key place in the spread of ancient civilizations. Its remarkable cultural heritage includes the Bronze Age Helmand civilization, the Greek kingdom of Bactria, the Kushan Empire and the Ghaznavid Empire – yet much of its history remains unknown to a general audience. This beautifully illustrated book unveils Afghanistan’s ancient cities, temples, stupas, monasteries and other monuments set against breathtaking landscapes, presenting them to a wider audience. Incorporating the latest research and discoveries, it is a captivating journey through Afghanistan’s rich antiquities, brought to life with the author’s vivid, full-colour photographs.

Warwick Ball is an archaeologist and author who spent over twenty years carrying out excavations, architectural studies and monumental restoration throughout the Middle East. He is the author of many books on the history and archaeology of the region including The Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan (revised edn, 2019).

Bijpassende boeken

Japan, Biografie, Geschiedenisboeken, Japanse geschiedenis

Frederik Cryns – In the Service of the Shogun

Frederik Cryns In the Service of the Shogun review, recensie en informatie boek en biografie met ware verhaal van William Adams. Op 1 augustus 2025 verschijnt bij Reaktion Books het boek van de Vlaamse historicus, Japankenner hoogleraar Japanse geschiedenis aan het International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar van het boek.

Frederik Cryns In the Service of the Shogun review en recensie

  • “In the Service of the Shogun . . . is an exhaustively researched work based on a wide collection of primary sources, including letters written by Adams, as well as official journals, diaries and documents – among them Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. Students of Japanese history and culture owe Mr. Cryns a debt of gratitude for this impressive achievement.” (Wall Street Journal)
  • “In the Service of the Shogun, a biography by Frederik Cryns subtitled as The Real Story of William Adams. Most readers know Adams as the inspiration for James Clavell’s novel Shogun. Adams’s experiences are such that one wonders why Clavell even bothered fictionalizing them: Five ships set off from Holland in 1598, but after 19 months at sea, only one ship remained and only nine men survived to set foot on Japanese soil. Arrested as pirates and sentenced to death, Adams somehow rose to be a trusted advisor of military leader Tokugawa Ieyasu.” (Japan Times)

Frederik Cryns In the Service of the Shogun

In the Service of the Shogun

The Real Story of William Adams

  • Auteur: Frederik Cryns (België)
  • Soort boek: Japanse geschiedenis
  • Taal: Engesl
  • Uitgever: Reaktion Books
  • Verschijnt: 1 augustus 2025
  • Omvang: 232 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback / ebook
  • Prijs: £ 10,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris

Flaptekst van het boek over William Adams, een Engelsman in dienst van de Shogun

The extraordinary story of William Adams, the real-life inspiration for the TV series Shōgun.

In 1600 English helmsman William Adams washed ashore in Japan and was interrogated by Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan’s most powerful warlord and soon-to-be shogun. Far from executing Adams as a pirate, Ieyasu made him one of his most trusted advisers. This biography traces Adams’s rise from humble pilot to a position of immense influence in Japan’s foreign relations. It unravels the subsequent diplomatic manoeuvres of the Western powers in the shogun’s empire, and Adams’s eventual downfall.

This is the first full biography of Adams based on original Dutch, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese sources, and includes much previously unknown information. Frederik Cryns tells the authentic story of Adams’s chequered life in its historical context, taking us on a compelling journey into Adams’s complex inner feelings and cosmopolitan heart.

Frederik Cryns was born in Antwerp, Belgium. He is Professor of Japanese History at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, Japan. He is the author of several bestselling books in Japanese on the early interaction of the Western world with Japan. In addition to his academic work, Frederik appears regularly on Japanese television history programmes and supervised the historical aspects of the television series Shōgun (2024).

Bijpassende boeken

Politieke Boeken, Geschiedenisboeken, True Crime Boeken, True-Crime

Mark Galeotti – Homo criminalis

Mark Galeotti Homo criminalis recensie en informatie true crime boek over hoe de georganiseerde misdaad de wereld dicteert. Op 30 juli 2025 verschijnt bij Uitgeverij Prometheus de Nederlandse vertaling van het nieuwe boek van de Britse historicus en politicoloog Mark Galeotti. Hier lees je informatie over de inhoud van het boek, de auteur en over de uitgave.

Mark Galeotti Homo criminalis recensie

  • “Een van de scherpste politieke commentatoren over Poetin en het moderne Rusland.” (Financial Times)

Mark Galeotti Homo criminalis

Homo criminalis

Hoe de georganiseerde misdaad de wereld dicteert

  • Auteur: Mark Galeotti (Engeland)
  • Soort boek: journalistiek boek, true crime
  • Origineel: Homo Criminalis (2025)
  • Uitgever: Prometheus
  • Verschijnt: 30 juli 2025
  • Omvang: 344 pagina’s
  • Uitgave: paperback
  • Prijs: € 25,99
  • Boek bestellen bij: Bol / Libris

Flaptekst boek over hoe de georganiseerde misdaad de wereld dicteert

Hoe is de georganiseerde misdaad verbonden met moderne staten? En staat de georganiseerde misdaad aan de basis van alle zogenaamde legitieme macht?

In zijn nieuwste boek laat historicus en Ruslandexpert Mark Galeotti zien hoe de hele bovenwereld functioneert dankzij haar banden met de onderwereld. Homo criminalis beschrijft hoe criminele onderwerelden vormgaven aan kapitalisme, globalisering en de moderne staat. Het boek maakt een even fascinerende als gruwelijke reis door de geschiedenis, langs Chinese bendes, achttiende-eeuwse Engelse theesmokkel, hedendaagse onderzeeërs gevuld met cocaïne en hightechmisdaad. Hoe we ook proberen de onderwereld met wetten, beleid en justitie te onderdrukken: de onderwereld is zozeer verknocht met de bovenwereld dat dat in wezen onmogelijk is.

Door de georganiseerde misdaad centraal te stellen biedt Homo criminaliseen nieuw, beangstigend perspectief op de grote vooruitgangsverhalen die we onszelf graag vertellen.

Mark Galeotti is geboren in 1965 in Londen. Hij is werkzaam aan het Institute of International Relations in Praag en verbonden aan het Nederlandse platform Raam op Rusland. Hij is de auteur van onder meer het veelgeprezen De Vory. De Russische supermaffia en We moeten het even over Poetin hebben.

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