‘An exploration of issues relevant to anyone interested in the practice of history’
George Bodie Lecturer in History at Goldsmiths, University of London
I’d go for three books which, in very different ways, have made huge contributions to the discipline. The first is Ned Richardson-Little’s The German Democratic Republic: The Rise and Fall of a Cold War State (Bloomsbury). At a time of increasingly fractious debate around the legacy of the GDR, Richardson-Little provides a concise and authoritative account of its history, rising above the culture wars that have engulfed the topic.
If Richardson-Little’s book demonstrates the historian’s ability to intervene calmly in divisive debates, my next choice does quite the opposite.
The German Democratic Republic: The Rise and Fall of a Cold War State made the History Today Books of the Year 2025 list! www.historytoday.com/archive/revi...