From the list on British and Irish history with a wide range of topics.
Who am I?
I have a Ph.D. in British history and have taught a variety of courses on the topic for the past 40 years. Since first visiting Scotland on a study tour in 1981, I have been to Britain and Ireland both multiple times and have spent extended periods of time there. From Shakespeare to the Beatles, from the Norman Conquest to the Second World War, from Roman Britain to Brexit, I have found each period of British and Irish history endlessly fascinating and sharing my passion with students and readers has been one of the great joys of my life.
Kenneth's book list on British and Irish history with a wide range of topics
Why did Kenneth love this book?
If you are looking for a suspenseful non-fiction book on British history that reads like a novel and you won’t want to put down, this is the book for you.
I knew the basic outlines of the story of Kim Philby, a double agent inside Britain’s MI6 secret service spying on behalf of the Soviets. It turns out there is so much more to the story, told in a fascinating way by well-regarded author Macintyre in a book that would defy belief if the author had made up the details of Philby’s story for a novel.
This book will lead you to question how well we can ever really know someone, while also teaching you much about Britain’s involvement in the Cold War and the history of the post-war world.
10 authors picked A Spy Among Friends as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Kim Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, traitor and enigma, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early years of the Cold War.
Philby's two closest friends in the intelligence world, Nicholas Elliott of MI6 and James Jesus Angleton, the CIA intelligence chief, thought they knew Philby better than anyone, and then discovered they had not known him at all. This is a story of intimate duplicity; of loyalty, trust and treachery, class and conscience; of an ideological battle waged by men with cut-glass accents and…