New in 2011: 'This Week's Album'. At approximately weekly intervals an album from the History Unlimited web site will be posted on this Blog in MP3 format, allowing track sampling and downloads. If you are interested in purchasing the CD version, follow the link to the relevant History Unlimited page. Past choices are archived towards the foot of the right hand panel.
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“The true University of these days is a collection of books.”
Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881.
This Blog is an extension of the History Unlimited web site, which offers a classic selection of books, films, blues and jazz. History Unlimited is a participant in the Amazon Europe S.à.r.l. Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.co.uk/Javari.co.uk. At the core of the site is the Bookshop, which features titles by classical, classic and modern historians – a reflection of the personal tastes (and prejudices) of our contributors. Our preferences tend towards the narrative style of historical writing that now seems to be returning into fashion and the listings include many milestones of historiography. The web site is organised for easy and logical navigation, either by historical period or on geographical lines. All listings are accompanied by reviews, in greater or lesser detail; and there are occasional glosses on the subject matter featured on individual pages.
The publishers of History Unlimited believe strongly that the teaching of history, especially up to undergraduate level, leaves much to be desired. It is often (and as ever was) underwritten by national or religious bias, which leaves students lacking a wider context and with ill-informed prejudices that can last a lifetime. Many regional conflicts, down to modern times, have been the result of a distorted historical world-view, often fostered and sustained by ambitious politicos and demagogues. A more recent, and equally worrying, development has been the sidelining of in-depth study in favour of comparatively superficial sources, most notably those that can be accessed via the World Wide Web. Our view is that there can be no substitute for the works of reputable authors. Further, it should be recognised that all important historical writing is revisionist and subjective (however much historians think otherwise), and that all writers, whatever their period, will choose their own points of focus. (This does, of course, include the author of this Blog.) The wider the reading, the more the reader will be exposed to differing perspectives and opinions, and the better will readers be able to form their own view of whatever passes for historical reality. In many instances the History Unlimited Bookshop gives readers the opportunity to begin from a wide context and narrow down to specific (and sometimes conflicting) accounts of historical events.
The individual posts on this Blog began, in August and September 2010, with some personal contributions to the History section of Yahoo Answers. Yahoo Answers content, in terms of both questions asked and questions answered, is illuminating, often amusing and sometimes very scary. But my occasional forays into this disturbing world generated a number of short sharp pieces intended to point the serious enquirer towards further reading, by suggesting specific titles and/or more general sections of the History Unlimited Bookshop. The purpose of these early posts was to gain familiarity with the mechanics of blogging, and to some extent to set the scene for what might follow. As example, see our first 'History of History' Blog of 27 August 2010 and the following two August postings.
It had been my intention when setting up the History Unlimited web site to publish occasional articles that would flesh out and add texture to some of the Bookshop categories. This ambition was frustrated by time constraints, not least because the re-organisation of the site to accommodate new material is a lengthy and tedious process. The Bookshop Blog is a solution to this problem (although time is obviously a factor in researching and writing material) and provides an uncomplicated route to publication. From the end of 2010 new content will be added, often in the form of serialised development of specific strands and themes.
Book titles featured on this Blog can be purchased direct from Amazon by clicking the title; and a similar purchasing mechanism operates on the History Unlimited web site. Please note that all transactions are between the purchaser and Amazon: the publishers of History Unlimited and the History Unlimited Blog will not have access to your personal or financial details.
