Even if we weren’t still in the thick of a pandemic that keeps us at home, I live in the middle of Canada. And we are approaching the dead of winter. While I don’t love going out when the air hurts my face, there are pluses. Namely, I have even more reason to stay inside and read. There are many 2021 releases that I’m looking forward to reading. However, these are the 2021 history book releases that I’m watching for in the first half of the year, both fiction and non-fiction! (I will do the second half of the year closer to July.)
Madame CJ Walker: The Making of an American Icon, Erica L. Ball (15 January 2021)
Madam C. J. Walker–reputed to be America’s first self-made woman millionaire–has long been celebrated for her rags-to-riches story. Born to former slaves in the Louisiana Delta in the aftermath of the Civil War, married at fourteen, and widowed at twenty, Walker spent the first decades of her life as a laundress, laboring in conditions that paralleled the lives of countless poor and working-class African American women. By the time of her death in 1919, however, Walker had refashioned herself into one of the most famous African American figures in the nation: the owner and president of a hair-care empire and a philanthropist wealthy enough to own a country estate near the Rockefellers in the prestigious New York town of Irvington-on-Hudson. In this biography, Erica Ball places this remarkable and largely forgotten life story in the context of Walker’s times. Ball analyzes Walker’s remarkable acts of self-fashioning, and explores the ways that Walker (and the Walker brand) enabled a new generation of African Americans to bridge the gap between a nineteenth-century agrarian past and a twentieth-century future as urban-dwelling consumers.
Why I Want To Read This…
If 2020 has taught us nothing else, it is that our implicit and explicit biases leave us with a very narrow view of history. Although fashion history is very white-centred, that isn’t the reality of the past. Everyone, white or otherwise, had clothing and cosmetics, and in many cases, were created/designed separately. While I don’t know a lot about the history of cosmetics, this looks like it will be fascinating! (I’m familiar with Walker in the realm of philanthropy- she looms large- but I’m happy to learn more of her story.)
The Crown in Crisis: Countdown to the Abdication, Alexander Larman (19 January 2021)
On December 10, 1936, King Edward VIII brought a great international drama to a close when he abdicated, renouncing the throne of the United Kingdom for himself and his heirs. The reason he gave when addressing his subjects was that he could not fulfill his duties without the woman he loved–the notorious American divorcee Wallis Simpson–by his side. His actions scandalized the establishment, who were desperate to avoid an international embarrassment at a time when war seemed imminent. That the King was rumored to have Nazi sympathies only strengthened their determination that he should be forced off the throne, by any means necessary.
Alexander Larman’s The Crown in Crisis will treat readers to a new, thrilling view of this legendary story. Informed by revelatory archival material never-before-seen, as well as by interviews with many of Edward’s and Wallis’s close friends, Larman creates an hour-by-hour, day-by-day suspenseful narrative that brings readers up to the point where the microphone is turned on and the king speaks to his subjects. As well as focusing on King Edward and Mrs. Simpson, Larman looks closely at the roles played by those that stood against him: Prime minister Stanley Baldwin, his private secretary Alec Hardinge, and the Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Lang. Larman also takes the full measure of those who supported him: the great politician Winston Churchill, Machiavellian newspaper owner Lord Beaverbrook, and the brilliant lawyer Walter Monckton.
Why I Want To Read This…
In terms of 2021 history book releases, I had to include at least one royal history book. Unfairly, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been compared to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. It isn’t the same situation in any way, and I’m hoping that a new book on the actual Windsor situation will clarify this. And for myself, I’ve not studied the abdication in great length, so I’m looking forward to a full breakdown. As we approach 75 years since the abdication, I do wonder if views on the Windsors and the abdication are changing or softening at all. (I will definitely be posting a review after I read this one!)
The Paris Dressmaker, Kristy Cambron (16 February 2021)
Paris, 1939. Maison Chanel has closed, thrusting haute couture dressmaker Lila de Laurent out of the world of high fashion as Nazi soldiers invade the streets and the City of Lights slips into darkness. Lila’s life is now a series of rations, brutal restrictions, and carefully controlled propaganda while Paris is cut off from the rest of the world. Yet in hidden corners of the city, the faithful pledge to resist. Lila is drawn to La Resistance and is soon using her skills as a dressmaker to infiltrate the Nazi elite. She takes their measurements and designs masterpieces, all while collecting secrets in the glamorous Hôtel Ritz—the heart of the Nazis’ Parisian headquarters. But when dashing René Touliard suddenly reenters her world, Lila finds her heart tangled between determination to help save his Jewish family and bolstering the fight for liberation.
Paris, 1943. Sandrine Paquet’s job is to catalog the priceless works of art bound for the Führer’s Berlin, masterpieces stolen from prominent Jewish families. But behind closed doors, she secretly forages for information from the underground resistance. Beneath her compliant façade lies a woman bent on uncovering the fate of her missing husband . . . but at what cost? As Hitler’s regime crumbles, Sandrine is drawn in deeper when she uncrates an exquisite blush Chanel gown concealing a cryptic message that may reveal the fate of a dressmaker who vanished from within the fashion elite.
Why I Want To Read This…
Ah, I do love historical fiction. Given that my lists of my favourite historical fiction and 5 more favourites are permanently popular, I think that you dear readers love it, too. I normally don’t read a ton of WWII fiction (or nonfiction, quite frankly), but it has caught my eye in the last year. I’m particularly interested in this book because fashion played several crucial roles in both world wars, and I’m curious to see it explored in fiction.
To Love and To Loathe, Martha Waters (6 April 2021)
The widowed Diana, Lady Templeton and Jeremy, Marquess of Willingham are infamous among English high society as much for their sharp-tongued bickering as their flirtation. One evening, an argument at a ball turns into a serious wager: Jeremy will marry within the year or Diana will forfeit one hundred pounds. So shortly after, just before a fortnight-long house party at Elderwild, Jeremy’s country estate, Diana is shocked when Jeremy appears at her home with a very different kind of proposition.
After his latest mistress unfavorably criticized his skills in the bedroom, Jeremy is looking for reassurance, so he has gone to the only woman he trusts to be totally truthful. He suggests that they embark on a brief affair while at the house party—Jeremy can receive an honest critique of his bedroom skills and widowed Diana can use the gossip to signal to other gentlemen that she is interested in taking a lover.
Diana thinks taking him up on his counter-proposal can only help her win her wager. With her in the bedroom and Jeremy’s marriage-minded grandmother, the formidable Dowager Marchioness of Willingham, helping to find suitable matches among the eligible ladies at Elderwild, Diana is confident her victory is assured. But while they’re focused on winning wagers, they stand to lose their own hearts.
Why I Want To Read This…
I don’t care if people are tired of hearing it, To Have and To Hoax (Martha Water’s debut novel) was my favourite book of the year. (I’m going to say it, it’s in my top 5 of all time. The banter, the romance, the Regency society setting, the humour, it’s all perfect. And two of the supporting characters from To Have are back in To Love and To Loathe! I’m currently waiting to see if I will be approved on NetGalley, but I’ve already got this pre-ordered for my Kobo in any case. (Also, if you aren’t already following Martha on Instagram, you must- she does the best Friday Five recommendations!)
Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way, Caseen Gaines (25 May 2021)
These pioneering performer and the creators (composer Eubie Blake and lyricist Noble Sissle) sowed the seeds of the Harlem jazz scene and paved the way for people of color on stage and screen with West Side Story, Black Panther, and of course, Hamilton. Importantly, this book illuminates the ways in which black people in America have attained success amidst a culture actively whitewashing, controlling, or completely preventing their stories from being told.
Why I Want To Read This…
As someone who actively seeks out and enjoys culture, it is quite obvious that a lot of entertainment is fairly white-washed. The artists and creators behind music, television, dance, and theatre are not all white, though, and their stories haven’t been told. Hamilton has certainly highlighted the issue of race in musical theatre/theatre, but we still have a long way to go. I’m looking forward to learning more of their role in popular culture today, and how much they have contributed.
What 2021 history book releases are you excited for?
Cheers,
The Historian
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