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Why Nations Fail
by Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson

Frank Trentmann has high praise for an ambitious attempt to explain the vast discrepancies of global wealth

Masters of the Post: The Authorized History of the Royal Mail
by Duncan Campbell-Smith

Jeremy Black delights in a thoughtful chronicle of the Royal Mail

The Zong: A Massacre, the Law and the End of Slavery
by James Walvin

Madge Dresser applauds an insightful study of a slave ship atrocity and its aftermath

Britain, Ireland, and Continental Europe in the Eighteenth Century
by Stephen Conway

Jeremy Black on how Georgian Britons interacted with their European neighbours

Pashas: Traders and Travellers in the Islamic World
by James Mather

Jerry Brotton on a vivid tale of British traders in the orient

Magpies, Squirrels  and Thieves: How the Victorians Collected the World
by Jacqueline Yallop

Felix Driver on a sympathetic portrayal of a group of Victorian collectors

The Sugar Barons: Family, Corruption, Empire and War
by Matthew Parker

James Walvin reviews an engaging exploration of the slave-based sugar islands in the West Indies

The Slave Trade
by James Walvin

David Musgrove on an excellent summary of human bondage

Cry Havoc: The Arms Race and the Second World War 1931–1941
by Joe Maiolo

Roger Moorhouse on the race for military supremacy before the Second World War

The Birth of Modern Britain
by Francis Pryor

Marilyn Palmer enjoys an archaeologist’s explorations of unfamiliar grounds