Can anyone recommend a good nonfiction book on the pre-WWI era?

[melissel]

I know that's a pretty narrow request! I recently finished reading The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt (loved it, BTW), and now I'm hungering for more on the history of the period. I found The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman, but so far I'm not loving it. Can anyone else recommend anything interesting on the late Victorian/Edwardian era in England?

 

TIA!

[Belacqua]

You might look at The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century (Robert Roberts). It certainly isn't cheerful, but it is a pretty fascinating examination of the conditions of the working class at that time.

[Kareni]

Perhaps The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester?

 

From Amazon: "The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane."

 

By the same author but in an earlier time period is this book: The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology

 

From Amazon: "In 1793, a canal digger named William Smith made a startling discovery. He found that by tracing the placement of fossils, which he uncovered in his excavations, one could follow layers of rocks as they dipped and rose and fell—clear across England and, indeed, clear across the world—making it possible, for the first time ever, to draw a chart of the hidden underside of the earth. Smith spent twenty-two years piecing together the fragments of this unseen universe to create an epochal and remarkably beautiful hand-painted map. But instead of receiving accolades and honors, he ended up in debtors' prison, the victim of plagiarism, and virtually homeless for ten years more.

 

The Map That Changed the World is a very human tale of endurance and achievement, of one man's dedication in the face of ruin. With a keen eye and thoughtful detail, Simon Winchester unfolds the poignant sacrifice behind this world-changing discovery."

 

I have the first book on my shelf of to-read books. The second book I just bought today as a holiday gift for a friend.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[pqr]

Europe's Last Summer

The Last Lion: Visions of Glory (A Churchill bio that does go to 1932 but starts with his birth in 1874 so has a fair amount on the pre-war period)

Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War

[SailorMom]

The Guns of August is wonderful.....