All Made Up by Rae Nudson

A fascinating journey through history and culture, examining how makeup affects self-empowerment, how people have used it to define (and defy) their roles in society, and why we all need to care.

There is a history and a cultural significance that comes with wearing cat-eye-inspired liner or a bold red lip, one that many women feel to this day, even if we don’t realize exactly why. Increasingly, people of all genders are wrestling with what it means to be a woman living in a patriarchy, and part of that is how looking like a woman—whatever that means—affects people’s real lives.

Through the stories of famous women like Cleopatra, Empress Wu, Madam C. J. Walker, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marsha P. Johnson, Rae Nudson unpacks makeup’s cultural impact—including how it can be used to shape a personal or cultural narrative, how often beauty standards align with whiteness, how and when it can be used for safety, and its function in the workplace, to name a few examples.

Every woman has had to make a very personal choice about her relationship with makeup, and consciously or unconsciously, every woman knows that the choice is never entirely hers to make. This book also holds space for complicating factors, especially the ways that beauty standards differ across race, class, and culture. Engaging and informative, All Made Up will expand the discussion around what it means to participate in creating your own self-image.

The Suda - The Byzantine Encyclopedia Written in the Year 1100

The Suda, the massive tome written by a Byzantine scholar around the year 1100, was one of the world’s first encyclopedias and lexicons.

Created as both a syllabary of the Greek language and an overview of events in the known world up until that time, it is a benchmark in scholarship of the Medieval period.

The Suda, or Souda (Σοῦδα,) was formerly attributed to an author called Soudas or Souidas.

It is an encyclopedic lexicon, written in Greek, with a staggering 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often derived from medieval Christian compilers. The derivation of the word “Suda” is from the Byzantine Greek word souda, meaning “fortress” or “stronghold,” with the alternate name, Suidas, stemming from an error made by Eustathius, who mistook the title for the author’s name.

read more here @ the Greek Reporter

New Additions to the Yorkshire Historical Dictionary

Thousands of lost Yorkshire words dating as far back as medieval times and unearthed by a local historian have been published in a new volume of an ancient dictionary.

While everyone may be familiar with slang phrases such as "ey up", "'ow do" and "chuffed", pages of words not used in the region for centuries have remained lost in historical archives – until now.

Academics at the University of York's Borthwick Institute this Yorkshire Day have released a new volume of the the Yorkshire Historical Dictionary, which revives hundreds of words and idioms used in the region as far back as 1100 AD.

The new volume published more than 4,000 terms, dating from between 1100 and 1750, thanks to the life's work of local historian, Dr George Redmonds who died in 2018.

The new volume of the Yorkshire Historical Dictionary is released today, as August 1 marks Yorkshire Day when towns and cities across the region fly the white rose flag.

read more @ the Yorkshire Post

Going to Church in Medieval England by Nicholas Orme

An engaging, richly illustrated account of parish churches and churchgoers in England, from the Anglo-Saxons to the mid-sixteenth century.

Parish churches were at the heart of English religious and social life in the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century. In this comprehensive study, Nicholas Orme shows how they came into existence, who staffed them, and how their buildings were used. He explains who went to church, who did not attend, how people behaved there, and how they—not merely the clergy—affected how worship was staged.

The book provides an accessible account of what happened in the daily and weekly services, and how churches marked the seasons of Christmas, Lent, Easter, and summer. It describes how they celebrated the great events of life: birth, coming of age, and marriage, and gave comfort in sickness and death. A final chapter covers the English Reformation in the sixteenth century and shows how, alongside its changes, much that went on in parish churches remained as before.

read more in this article by Monica Greep @ Mail Online

W H Allen lands Ramirez's 'vivid and evocative' look at medieval women

From The Bookseller:

W H Allen has landed the "remarkable" Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages by Oxford University lecturer and BBC historian Janina Ramirez.

Out in March 2022 and based on 10 years of research, Femina will bring "remarkable medieval women to the fore and offer the first comprehensive look at why they were written out of history". Ramirez will create a "vivid and evocative" picture of the lives of the women who influenced medieval society, including Aethelflaed, Margery Kempe and King Jadwiga, as well as individuals discovered more recently, like the Loftus Princess and the Cathar spies. It promises to ultimately reveal "how and why these remarkable people were removed from our collective memories, and highlight the misconceptions that have underpinned our historical narratives".

Lucy Oates, commissioning editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Rosemary Scoular at United Agents. She said: "The Middle Ages are seen as a bloodthirsty time of Vikings, saints and kings: a patriarchal society that oppressed and excluded women. But by digging a little deeper into the truth, drawing on evidence from all disciplines, we can see that the ‘dark’ ages were anything but. Janina has such an enthusiasm for her subject, and as a visual historian brings the past to life with creativity and passion. I’m absolutely delighted to be publishing her at W H Allen."

Ramirez added: "This book is not simply about introducing you to women from history who are inspiring. It's about seeing the past and our relationship with it differently. It's about understanding how our access to history has been curated and manipulated, and how our perceptions can change going forward.

read more here from The Bookseller

  

Review: Oath Bound by Richard Cullen

Synopsis: First in an action-packed historical series featuring Danish warrior Styrkar, and his journey through the Battle of Hastings and the violence of the Norman Conquest.

The champion of a dead king has nothing left to lose... And nothing more to fear.

England, 1066: Styrkar the Dane stumbles wounded and delirious from the corpse-strewn battlefield of Senlac Hill, the Battle of Hastings still fresh in his mind. He has watched his king butchered at the hands of foreign knights, seen his countrymen defeated in battle, and he will not stop until there is a reckoning.

Styrkar embarks on a bloody quest to avenge his dead master, becoming an outlaw in the wilds and earning a fearsome reputation. When a Breton knight seeks to track down this fugitive and make his own name, he can little envisage the task he has set himself. For Styrkar, the Red Wolf, last surviving housecarl to King Harold Godwinson, will carve the story of his vengeance in Frankish flesh... or die in the attempt.

Young Styrkar, the victim of Norse raiders, finds himself a slave not once but twice over, his final master being Harold Godwinsson - or King Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England. Following the defeat of Harold at Senlac, Styrkar vows to avenge the death of Harold on the Normans, becoming a figure of myth and terror - a boogeyman,preying on the unsuspecting and inspiring fear and dread in all. But there is one on his trail, one who seeks to capture, in the name of personal glory.

Styrkar's story is broken into four manageable parts: his life up to the sighting of the Normans; the invasion, battle and defeat of Harold; his vengeance against the Normans, and the cat and mouse battle with his nemesis.

We begin to get a feel for the character of Styrkar as the novel progresses, with the themes of loyalty and revenge ably explored. The author provides an atmospheric realism that will draw the reader into events that left their mark on the English landscape.

For those with an interest in the 11th century, this will make a nice detour and is only the beginning of a new series. Fans of Harrfy, Cornwell, and Hosker.

Looking forward to seeing how the series progresses.

The Chancellor by Kati Marton

This one popped into my newsfeed courtesy of Simon & Schuster:

About The Book:

The definitive biography of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, detailing the remarkable rise and political brilliance of the most powerful—and elusive—woman in the world.

The Chancellor is at once a riveting political biography and an intimate human story of a complete outsider—a research chemist and pastor’s daughter raised in Soviet-controlled East Germany—who rose to become the unofficial leader of the West.

Acclaimed biographer Kati Marton set out to pierce the mystery of how Angela Merkel achieved all this. And she found the answer in Merkel’s political genius: in her willingness to talk with adversaries rather than over them, her skill at negotiating without ever compromising on what’s most important to her, her canniness in appointing political rivals to her cabinet and exacting their policies so they have no platform to run against her, the humility to allow others to take credit for things done in tandem, the wisdom to stay out of the papers and off Twitter, and the vision to take advantage of crises to enact bold change.

Famously private, the Angela Merkel who emerges in The Chancellor is a role model for anyone interested in gaining and keeping power while holding onto one’s moral convictions—and for anyone looking to understand how to successfully bridge huge divisions within society. No modern leader has so ably confronted Russian aggression, provided homes to over a million refugees, and calmly unified Europe at a time when other countries are becoming more divided. But Marton also describes Merkel’s many challenges, such as her complicated relationship with President Obama, who she at one point refused to speak to.

This captivating portrait shows a woman who has survived extraordinary challenges to transform her own country and return it to the global stage. Timely and revelatory, this great morality tale shows the difference an exceptional leader can make for the greater good of a country and the world.

Review: Crusaders and Revolutionaries: De Montfort by Darren Baker

Synopsis: One of the families that dominated the thirteenth century were the de Montforts. They arose in France, in a hamlet close to Paris, and grew to prominence under the crusading fervour of that time, taking them from leadership in the Albigensian wars to lordships around the Mediterranean. They marry into the English aristocracy, join the crusade to the Holy Land, then another crusade in the south of France against the Cathars.The controversial stewardship of Simon de Montfort (V) in that conflict is explored in depth. It is his son Simon de Montfort (VI) who is perhaps best known. His rebellion against Henry III of England ultimately establishes the first parliamentary state in Europe.

The decline of the family begins with Simon’s defeat and death at Evesham in 1265. Initially they revive their fortunes under the new king of Sicily, but they scandalise Europe with a vengeful political murder. By this time it is the twilight of the crusades era and the remaining de Montforts either perish or are expelled. Eleanor de Montfort, the last Princess of Wales, dies in childbirth and her daughter is raised as a nun.

I had been drawn to the de Montforts many years ago, long before this book was quite possibly conceived, so was immediately attracted to the fact that the focus of this was on the family themselves, particularly as pertaining to the remnants of the family post Evesham.

The de Montforts appeared on the political scene during the crusading era, and were, for all intents and purposes, enthusiastic in their support. This did not necessarily mean that they were always in agreeance with motivations of those pulling the strings, however, it may help us to understand the religious fervour of later generations.

They were a family with their collective fingers in many political pies - their ties with other notable and powerful families as well as the crowns of both England and France, I feel, had been long forgotten until now as Baker weaves all the threads together into one tome. The de Montforts' connections - socially, politically and familially - often saw them at odds with each other, despite the fact that they were an extremely tight-knit family collective - and Baker demonstrates this well.

There is ample research done of the early de Montforts but the focus will always be on father and son - Simon V and Simon VI - whose exploits have come down to us over the many years, and are explored in depth here as well. But as I mentioned earlier, for me, it was the latter de Montforts that I was particularly interested in, and was able to glean a few snippets to enhance my knowledge. And readers will be interested in the role of the de Montfort women, who were no shrinking violets.

The de Montforts ended how they began, in obscurity. But whilst in the ascendant, they were the Icarus of their generation - flying that little bit too close to the sun. This is one tome that I will definitely be adding to my own library.

Review: A State of Secrecy by Alison Lewis

Synopsis: Secret police agencies such as the East German Ministry for State Security kept enormous quantities of secrets about their own citizens, relying heavily on human modes of data collection in the form of informants. To date little is known about the complicated and conflicted lives of informers, who often lived in a perpetual state of secrecy. This is the first study of its kind to explore this secret surveillance society, its arcane rituals, and the secret lives it fostered.

Through a series of interlocking, in-depth case studies of informers in literature and the arts, A State of Secrecy seeks answers to the question of how the collusion of the East German intelligentsia with the Stasi was possible and sustainable. It draws on extensive original archive research conducted in the BStU (Stasi Records Agency), as well as eyewitness testimony, literature, and film, and uses a broad array of methods from biography, sociology, cultural studies, and literary history to political science and surveillance and intelligence studies. In teasing out the various kinds of entanglements of intellectuals with power during the Cold War, Lewis presents a microhistory of the covert activities of those writers who colluded with the secret police.

Lewis begins with a rather apt observation that no-one escapes the notice of the Stasi octopus ... informers and collaborators were the Trojan horses of the counter-revolution.

Lewis presents us with five interlaced biographical studies of writes who were Stasi informers - either by choice or by coercion. Through the medium of these cultural icons, Lewis "sets out to explore the secret surveillance society that enabled, controlled and subverted cultural life in the GDR". To this end, this is a well constructed study of the Stasi apparatus and its use of cultural diplomacy as a weapon against the subversive activities of its citizenry. However, by the 1980s, as people found the courage to refuse to collaborate, the Stasi found themselves with a distinct shortage of informers.

We find that through the stories presented that the Stasi preferred to "work" with people with intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivations - patriotism and ideology. All those featured had crossed paths at one point or another during their lifetimes - all joined for varying reasons. We find that the likes of Paul Wiens believed that the emancipation of Jews would come about through communism rather than fascism, and was one who enjoyed the "benefits" of collaboration. His daughter Maya was part of the Stasi machinery from an early period, though as a struggling novelist, became embittered with the struggle against censorship. Student Helga Navak was blackmailed into collaborating, but proved to be the least effective. Paul Gratzik was ideologically motivated, however still enjoyed the financial and materials gains to be had. And lastly Sascha Anderson, whose "employment" is still being questioned today - did he volunteer or was he recruited.  Through these five, Lewis reveals an unholy alliance between the personal and political, and the private and the secret realm.

For those wishing to expand upon and enhance their knowledge and understanding of Stasi activities and the GDR machinery, this will make a compelling read. It is a well researched tome that explores the recruitment process, the motivations and ultimately, the justifications for collaboration. It also demonstrates that the Stasi did not necessarily need to employ "good cop bad cop" thug tactics to get what it wanted - a little sweetner here, a bit of blackmail there worked just as well. As the saying goes, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar - and the Stasi demonstrate this idiom rather well.

There are a number of other books dealing with specific aspects of the Stasi's use of certain societal and cultural segments, and this will prove a valuable addition to that core study group.