Obviously I am a reader. Like most historians, I find myself lost in primary or secondary readings pretty much daily. I’m giving myself a bit of a break this summer with 6 weeks of mini-posts on the blog (check my summer schedule here), which gives me a lot more time to read. Some are favourite authors and subjects, but some are new-to-me and different. These are my top picks for my summer 2020 history books, both non-fiction and fiction!
Non-Fiction
I have several different non-fiction books on my reading list this summer- I usually am reading 1-2 non-fiction books at any given time. However, these are the two that I’m most looking forward to reading this summer.
Black and British: A Forgotten History, David Olusoga
In Black and British, award-winning historian and broadcaster David Olusoga offers readers a rich and revealing exploration of the extraordinarily long relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa. Drawing on new genetic and genealogical research, original records, expert testimony and contemporary interviews, Black and British reaches back to Roman Britain, the medieval imagination and Shakespeare’s Othello.
It reveals that behind the South Sea Bubble was Britain’s global slave-trading empire and that much of the great industrial boom of the nineteenth century was built on American slavery. It shows that Black Britons fought at Trafalgar and in the trenches of the First World War. Black British history can be read in stately homes, street names, statues and memorials across Britain and is woven into the cultural and economic histories of the nation.
Unflinching, confronting taboos and revealing hitherto unknown scandals, Olusoga describes how black and white Britons have been intimately entwined for centuries.
I am currently 25% into Black and British and it is a fascinating book. Because I have a lot of experience in British history, I think I’m able to do a lot more reflection. I’ve been reading 1-2 chapters a week, and allowing myself time to actually think on what I’m reading. I sadly have to admit that a lot of it is new to me- I’ve learned about the main abolitionist campaigns and figures, but not anything in depth. I’m looking forward to progressing through it, and having a better understanding of Britain’s whole past.
A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf, Emily Midorikawa and Emily Claire Sweeney (foreword by Margaret Atwood)
Male literary friendships are the stuff of legend; think Byron and Shelley, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. But the world’s best-loved female authors are usually mythologized as solitary eccentrics or isolated geniuses. Coauthors and real-life friends Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney prove this wrong, thanks to their discovery of a wealth of surprising collaborations: the friendship between Jane Austen and one of the family servants, playwright Anne Sharp; the daring feminist author Mary Taylor, who shaped the work of Charlotte Brontë; the transatlantic friendship of the seemingly aloof George Eliot and Harriet Beecher Stowe; and Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield, most often portrayed as bitter foes, but who, in fact, enjoyed a complex friendship fired by an underlying erotic charge.
Through letters and diaries that have never been published before, A Secret Sisterhood resurrects these forgotten stories of female friendships. They were sometimes scandalous and volatile, sometimes supportive and inspiring, but always—until now—tantalizingly consigned to the shadows.
I’m sure that everyone who has visited An Historian About Town more than once knows that Jane Austen is one of my favourite authors. However, I don’t tend to branch out that much, in terms of classic authors (female or male, really). I have this audiobook on Kobo, and I’m thrilled to delve into more classic female authors in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They weren’t all writing in vacuums- they were aware of other female authors, and were a small group. There are mixed reviews on Goodreads for this book, but I think it will still be a worthwhile read for me, as I should at least be getting an introduction to more authors! I’m looking forward to listening to this on my bike rides.
Fiction
Although I don’t recommend that historical fiction be used as an actual source, I think it can be very useful for historians. It can spur you to think of periods, events, and people in completely different ways. It can also be a great way to introduce someone to a new period!
The Confessions of Frannie Langton, Sara Collins
All of London is abuzz with the scandalous case of Frannie Langton, accused of the brutal double murder of her employers, renowned scientist George Benham and his eccentric French wife, Marguerite. Crowds pack the courtroom, eagerly following every twist, while the newspapers print lurid theories about the killings and the mysterious woman being held in the Old Bailey.
The testimonies against Frannie are damning. She is a seductress, a witch, a master manipulator, a whore.
But Frannie claims she cannot recall what happened that fateful evening, even if remembering could save her life. She doesn’t know how she came to be covered in the victims’ blood. But she does have a tale to tell: a story of her childhood on a Jamaican plantation, her apprenticeship under a debauched scientist who stretched all bounds of ethics, and the events that brought her into the Benhams’ London home—and into a passionate and forbidden relationship.
Though her testimony may seal her conviction, the truth will unmask the perpetrators of crimes far beyond murder and indict the whole of English society itself.
The Confessions of Frannie Langton is a breathtaking debut: a murder mystery that travels across the Atlantic and through the darkest channels of history. A brilliant, searing depiction of race, class, and oppression that penetrates the skin and sears the soul, it is the story of a woman of her own making in a world that would see her unmade.
This book was included in Hisdoryan’s book club, but I wasn’t able to read it at the time. I’ve been interested in this book since it was published. It appears to be in the same vein as Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, one of my favourite novels- immigrant servants accused of murdering their master/mistress. Although it is a darker topic and theme than I typically read, I am hoping that if I read it after I finish reading Black and British, I will be able to better understand Frannie’s life and story. Given that I normally read royal-ish historical fiction, I’m looking forward to a different genre.
The Stockholm Octavo, Karen Engelmann
Life is close to perfect for Emil Larsson, a self-satisfied bureaucrat in the Office of Customs and Excise in 1791 Stockholm. He is a true man of the Town–a drinker, card player, and contented bachelor–until one evening when Mrs. Sofia Sparrow, a fortune-teller and proprietor of an exclusive gaming parlor, shares with him a vision she has had: a golden path that will lead him to love and connection. She lays an Octavo for him, a spread of eight cards that augur the eight individuals who can help him realize this vision–if he can find them.
Not shockingly, nearly all of the historical fiction I’ve read is set in the United Kingdom or Ireland. I’ve read a few books set in Russia and North America, but not many elsewhere. I’ve had The Stockholm Octavo on my Kobo for quite a while now, so it’s time to head to Sweden on the pages. In my undergrad, I published a paper looking at astrology in the Hapsburg courts in the sixteenth century, so I have somewhat of an understanding of astrology/the occult. However, I’ve not read any fiction on the theme, so this will be an interesting read for me!
What are your summer 2020 history books?
Cheers,
The Historian
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