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Find out moreMargaret MacMillan is the author of Women of the Raj and international bestsellers Nixon in China and Peacemakers which won the 2002 Samuel Johnson Prize. Her most recent book Uses and Abuses of History (9781846682100) was published by Profile. She is now the Warden of St. Antony's College at Oxford University.
It may be that Gavrilo Princep’s gun triggered the descent into war but this examination of the world on the brink weaves together the many other factors that led to the Great War. A meticulous examination of the politics of the era with Margaret MacMillan presenting this many layered history in a seamless narrative. Like for Like Reading 1913: The World before the Great War, Charles Emmerson The Sleepers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, Christopher Clark
What difference do individuals make to history? Are we all swept up in the great forces like industrialisation or globalisation, or is the world we inhabit shaped just as much by real people - leaders for example - and the decisions that they make? For better or for worse, the personalities of the powerful can affect millions of people and the future of countries: it matters who is in the driving seat, and who is making plans. Equally important: how is history itself made by those who keep the records? In History's People Margaret Macmillan explores the lives of the great and lesser-known figures of the past: men, women, explorers, rulers, dreamers, politicians, observers, campaigners. She looks at the concept of leadership, from Bismarck to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but also at the role of observers such as Babur, first Mughal emperor of India, and asks how explorers and visionaries such as Fanny Parkes and Elizabeth Simcoe managed to defy or ignore the constraints of their own societies. And, in doing so, she uncovers the important and complex relationship between biography and history, and between individuals and their times. Like all the best history, this book will change the way you see the past, as well as your own times - and perhaps introduce you to some people you didn't know.
It may be that Gavrilo Princep’s gun triggered the descent into war but this examination of the world on the brink weaves together the many other factors that led to the Great War. A meticulous examination of the politics of the era with Margaret MacMillan presenting this many layered history in a seamless narrative. Like for Like Reading 1913: The World before the Great War, Charles Emmerson The Sleepers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, Christopher Clark
The past is capricious enough to support every stance - no matter how questionable. In 2002, the Bush administration decided that dealing with Saddam Hussein was like appeasing Hitler or Mussolini, and promptly invaded Iraq. Were they wrong to look to history for guidance? No; their mistake was to exaggerate one of its lessons while suppressing others of equal importance. History is often hijacked through suppression, manipulation, and, sometimes, even outright deception. MacMillan's book is packed full of examples of the abuses of history. In response, she urges us to treat the past with care and respect.
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