Max Egremont Knihy

The authorized biography of a literary legend, written with unique access to all of Sassoon's previously unseen papers. 'Unmistakably the best thing anybody has ever written about Sassoon' D. J. Taylor, Independent

Following his highly successful life of Sassoon, Max Egremont turns his attention to a world that has vanished into history.

Following his acclaimed exploration of the vanished East Prussia, Forgotten Land, Max Egremont turns his attention to the Baltic, another part of the world where the ghosts of history still make their presence felt.

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) developed a mastery of graphic art which quickly established her reputation in Germany, then further afield as her influence spread internationally after the First World War. Establishing herself in an art world dominated by men, Kollwitz developed a vision centred on women and the working class. 'Portrait of the Artist' looks at her work through the exploration of self-portraits and portraits of working women, her two great series concerned with social injustice: Ein Weberaufstand (A Weavers' Revolt, 1897) and Bauernkrieg (Peasants' War, 1908), the ever-present imagery of death, especially a mother's grief, and finally the theme of war and remembrance after her younger son, Peter, had been killed at the beginning of the First World War. The exhibition is drawn from the collection of the British Museum and is complemented by a small number of loans from a private owner and The Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham.

Ever since the collapse of the Third Reich, historians have grappled with a fundamental how was such a brutal, genocidal dictatorship possible in a modern, cultured nation in the middle of the 20th century There are essentially two competing one, that Hitler was an all-powerful dictator fully in control of his government; the other, that Nazi decision-making was much more confused, driven by intense power rivalries and a cumulative radicalism . Where does the truth lie Caroline Sharples draws on a whole range of different views to offer her own compelling account of how Hitler used the democratic process to seize power in Germany and create a violent and racist regime responsible for the Holocaust and for the most destructive war in history.

For many, before 1914, a huge European war had seemed impossible. Conflicts in the Balkans flared up yet stayed contained. The Belgian historian Henri Pirenne wrote to a friend in December 1905: “Do you really believe in the possibility of a war? For me it is impossible to have the least fear in that regard.” In March 1912, the British peer Lord Esher – an authority on defence matters – told an audience of Britain’s senior Generals that war “becomes every day more difficult and improbable”. After all, what could be gained by war? In 1909, the British writer Norman Angell claimed that with the increasing interdependence of nations war could not benefit the victor. All participating countries would be impoverished; the idea of victory was a “great illusion”. In this short guide Max Egremont looks at controversies which have raged over the years. What caused the war? Who should be blamed for its outbreak? Should Britain have joined in and, after it did, were its soldiers really, as has been claimed, “lions led by donkeys”? What was America’s role? And was the final peace settlement as fair and sensible as possible in the circumstances or, by humiliating Germany, did the Allies pave the way to a Second World War, a truly global conflict which turned out to be even bloodier and more destructive than the First?