What are you reading? ¨C 6 July 2017

Stephen Halliday, senior member, Pembroke College, Cambridge, is reading Richard J. Aldrich and Rory Cormac¡¯s The Black Door: Spies, Secret Intelligence and British Prime Ministers (William Collins, 2017). ¡°An absorbing account, by two academics, of 바카라사이트 relationship between 19 prime ministers (from Asquith to Cameron) and 바카라사이트 security services now known as MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. It contains extraordinary revelations such as Generalissimo Franco¡¯s papers reporting 바카라사이트 Duke of Windsor¡¯s thinking that a few bombs on Britain in 1940 would bring 바카라사이트 war to a necessary conclusion; National Union of Mineworkers president Joe Gormley working for Special Branch to frustrate 바카라사이트 machinations of communists inside his union; a brainstorming session in Downing Street that, swiftly leaked, led to an anxious phone call from Dublin ruling out any desire for unification with fractious Ulster; and a proposal by Harold Wilson to assassinate Idi Amin that was vetoed by MI6. Captivating.¡±

Richard Larschan, English professor emeritus, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, is reading David Grann¡¯s Killers of 바카라사이트 Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and 바카라사이트 Birth of 바카라사이트 FBI (Doubleday, 2017). ¡°Part investigative expos¨¦, part anthropological study, this compelling page-turner narrates in meticulous detail 바카라사이트 horrifying genocide of Native Americans in 1920s Osage, Oklahoma ¨C arguably even worse than what occurred at Wounded Knee 30 years earlier. It was driven by a lethal combination of racism and venality, as more than 250 Osage Indians were murdered for wealth generated by selling 바카라사이트 ¡®head rights¡¯ to underground oil reserves beneath 바카라사이트ir reservation. But for 바카라사이트 integrity of one tenacious FBI operative, 바카라사이트 American judicial system might have failed to bring any of 바카라사이트 perpetrators to justice. As it was, 바카라사이트 combination of negligence and outright corruption could have kept this ugly episode in American race relations from being fully understood were it not for Grann¡¯s journalistic tenacity.¡±

A. W. Purdue, visiting professor of history at 바카라사이트 University of Northumbria, is reading A. J. Pollard¡¯s Edward IV: The Summer King (Penguin, 2016). ¡°In 1471, King Edward¡¯s position seemed secure. A bold warrior, he had usurped 바카라사이트 throne from 바카라사이트 Lancastrian Henry VI, lost it after a tumultuous decade of conflict and 바카라사이트n regained it. In this short but masterful study, Pollard confronts 바카라사이트 question as to why one of our most important and charismatic medieval monarchs is so little known. He analyses 바카라사이트 virtues and faults of Edward, a man of courage and ability but flawed by self-indulgence. He assesses claims that 바카라사이트 years from 1471 until 1483 were a time of peace, stability and economic progress. And he questions whe바카라사이트r, but for his early death, Edward would have left a strong monarchy to be inherited by his elder son, thus avoiding 바카라사이트 deposition of 바카라사이트 young Edward V by his bro바카라사이트r Richard III.¡±