Yale University Press Archives - Aspects of History

The Country House at War – Judith S. Lewis Interviewed

The author discusses her book with Elizabeth Buchan and tells of a serendipitous discovery, wartime requisition, eviction, and the stories she uncovered in researching the experiences of the British upper classes during the Second World War.

Judith S. Lewis

Welcome to Aspects of History, Judith. You say that your book took shape from a serendipitous tourist moment. What was that? I visited Audley End in Essex. Beautiful house, palatial in size. Capability Brown gardens. There was an exhibit about the war years, when the...

The Country House at War: A Story of Loss, Reinvention and the Birth of a New Britain, by Judith S. Lewis

A fascinatingly detailed history depicts how wartime hardship, requisitioning and profound social change transformed Britain’s great houses and irrevocably altered the world that sustained them.

Elizabeth Buchan

G.M. Trevelyan spotted it in September 1939. He feared, he wrote, that the England ‘of an old song’ was coming to an end. By that, as Judith S. Lewis explains in her account The Country House at War, he meant ‘a green and pleasant land presided over by intelligent and...

When the Country House Went to War

Wartime requisitioning of Britain’s country houses transformed the lives of owners, servants and occupiers and the consequences were far-reaching.

Judith S. Lewis

What was it like to have your house requisitioned during the war? To share your home with occupiers, whether Land Girls, POWs, soldiers, or spies? What compensation did families receive for the loss of their homes? And how did it all work? These were the questions I...

Harold: Warrior King, by Tom Licence

An engaging reassessment, which combines meticulous analysis of the primary sources with fresh interpretations to reveal the complex, ambitious and human character of England’s last Anglo-Saxon king.

Paul Bernardi

A few weeks ago I heard Tom Licence speaking on a podcast (part of the promotion of this new work, no doubt) about how King Harold’s famed feat of generalship (marching from London to Stamford Bridge and back again in under two weeks), may not have been a march after...

How Protestantism Became a Global Religion – An Interview with Alec Ryrie

Protestantism’s early movements across the globe reveal a tangled world of rivalry with Catholicism, complicity with empire and slavery, and failures that exposed the limits of Europe’s religious imagination – all discussed between the author and the Editor.

Alec Ryrie

That word, mission, might make you think of Robert De Niro or Jeremy Irons, perhaps a young Liam Neeson, in Jesuit robes clambering up the Iguazu Falls in deepest South America, but, forgotten and less-documented as their efforts may be, there was a Protestant...

Harold: Warrior King – Tom Licence Interviewed

The medieval historian discusses fronting up to long-held myths surrounding the last Anglo-Saxon king with Paul Bernardi, explains his approaches to the primary sources that recount 1066, and considers the man behind the defeat at Hastings.

Tom Licence

Welcome to Aspects of History, Tom. I feel I should begin by thanking you for Harold: Warrior King. I enjoyed every moment of reading it. (I appreciate that’s not a question, but I just wanted to get that out of the way!) Thank you, Paul – I’m glad you enjoyed it. One...

Women of SOE: A History of their Secret Missions in Wartime Europe, by Kate Vigurs

A long-overdue history that broadens the stories of female agents who served across the occupied continent during the Second World War, highlighting extraordinary courage and sacrifice.

Helen Fry

Women of SOE from the historical research and pen of Kate Vigurs’ is a meticulous history of the women who served with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) across occupied Europe during the Second World War. Building on the success of her earlier book, Mission...

Iran’s Unfinished Story

A sweepthrough of modern Iran across several decades tracks its turbulent trajectory from the Anglo-Soviet invasion in 1941 through the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and up to the attack by the US and Israel in early 2026.

Homa Katouzian

In August 1941, British and Russian forces invaded Iran and Reza Shah’s abdication was followed by his son Mohammad Reza’s succession. In the 37 years that separate the Allied invasion from the revolution of 1979, three distinct phases may be distinguished. 1941 to...

The Fifth Crusade: A History of the Epic Campaign to Conquer Egypt, by Thomas Smith

A compelling reassessment of a neglected campaign reveals how coalition politics, environmental miscalculation and strategic overreach combined to turn early success in Egypt into a cautionary tale.

Trevor James

For those who say that lessons cannot be learned from historical experience, my advice would be to study in some considerable detail Thomas Smith’s The Fifth Crusade. For some of us who studied medieval Europe many decades ago, and are familiar with the activities of...

Empress Matilda: Queen of the Romans, Ruler of the English, by Elisabeth van Houts

A new biography that challenges narratives and restores one of medieval England’s most influential women to centre stage.

Adam Staten

Empress Matilda: Queen of the Romans, Ruler of the English is a new biography by the University of Cambridge historian Elisabeth van Houts. The subject of the book, Empress Matilda, is one of the most fascinating and, arguably, one of the most overlooked characters in...