Richard Evans Popular Books
Richard Evans Biography & Facts
Sir Richard John Evans (born September 29, 1947) is a British historian of 19th- and 20th-century Europe with a focus on Germany. He is the author of eighteen books, including his three-volume The Third Reich Trilogy (2003–2008). Evans was Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge from 2008 until his retirement in 2014, and President of Cambridge's Wolfson College from 2010 to 2017. He has been Provost of Gresham College in London since 2014. Evans was appointed Knight Bachelor for services to scholarship in the 2012 Birthday Honours. Early life and education Richard Evans was born at Woodford, Essex, to Ieuan Trefor Evans and Evelyn (Jones) Evans, who both came from Wales. He was educated at Forest School, Jesus College, Oxford (MA), and St Antony's College, Oxford (DPhil). In a 2004 interview, he stated that frequent visits to Wales during his childhood inspired both an interest in history and a sense of "otherness". He said one reason that he was drawn to the study of modern German history in the late 1960s was his identification of parallels between the Vietnam War and German imperialism. He admired the work of Fritz Fischer, whom he credits with inspiring him to study modern German history. Historian of Germany Evans first established his academic reputation with his publications on the German Empire. In the early 1970s, Evans travelled to Germany to research his dissertation, a study of the feminist movement in Germany in the first half of the 20th century. It was later published as The Feminist Movement in Germany, 1894–1933 in 1976. Evans followed his study of German feminism by another book, The Feminists (1977), which traced the history of the feminist movement in North America, Australasia and Europe from 1840 to 1920. A theme of both books was the weakness of German middle-class culture and its susceptibility to the appeal of nationalism. Evans argued that both liberalism and feminism failed in Germany for those reasons despite flourishing elsewhere in the Western world. Evans' main interest is social history, and he is much influenced by the Annales school. He largely agrees with Fischer that 19th-century German social development paved the way for the rise of the Third Reich, but Evans takes pains to point out that many other possibilities could have happened. For Evans, the values of the 19th-century German middle class contained the already germinating seeds of National Socialism. Evans studied under Fischer in Hamburg in 1970 and 1971 but came to disagree with the "Bielefeld School" of historians, who argued for the Sonderweg thesis that saw the roots of Germany's political development in the first half of the 20th century in a "failed bourgeois revolution" in 1848. Following a contemporary trend that opposed the previous "great man" theory of history, Evans was a member of a group of young British historians who in the 1970s sought to examine German history during the German Empire "from below". These scholars highlighted "the importance of the grass-roots of politics and the everyday life and experience of ordinary people". "History is about people, and their relationships. It's about the perennial question of 'how much free will do people have in building their own lives, and making a future", Evans has said. He says he supported the creation of a "new school of people's history", which was a result of a trend that "has taken place across a whole range of historical subjects, political opinions, and methodological approaches and has been expressed in many different ways". In 1978, as editor of a collection of essays by young British historians entitled Society And Politics in Wilhelmine Germany, he launched a critique of the 'top-down' approach of the Bielefeld School associated with Hans-Ulrich Wehler and Jürgen Kocka regarding Wilhelmine Germany. With the historians Geoff Eley and David Blackbourn, Evans instead emphasized the "self-mobilization from below" of key sociopolitical groups, as well as the modernity of National Socialism. In the 1980s, Evans organized ten international workshops on modern German social history at the University of East Anglia that did a good deal to refine these ideas, to pioneer research in this new historical field and, in six collections of papers, present it to an Anglophone readership. Among Evans' major research works are Death in Hamburg (1987), a study of class conflict and liberal government in 19th-century Germany using the example of Hamburg’s cholera epidemics and applying statistical methods to the exploration of social inequality in an industrializing society, and Rituals of Retribution (1996), a study of capital punishment in German history applying structural anthropological concepts to the rituals of public execution up to the mid-19th century and exploring the politics of the death penalty until its abolition by East Germany in 1987. In Death in Hamburg, Evans studied the cholera outbreak in Hamburg in 1892, which he concluded was caused by a failure in the medical system to safeguard against such an event. Another study in German social history was Tales from the German Underworld (1998), where Evans traced the life stories of four German criminals in the late 19th century, namely a homeless woman, a forger, a prostitute and a conman. In Rituals of Retribution, Evans traced the history of capital punishment in Germany, and using the ideas of Michel Foucault, Philippe Ariès and Norbert Elias as his guide argued that opposition to the death penalty was strongest when liberalism was in the ascendancy, and support for capital punishment coincided when the right was in the ascendancy. Thus, in Evans' view, capital punishment in Germany was never a mere matter of law being disinterestedly applied but was rather a form of state power being exercised. In addition, Evans examined such subjects as belief in witchcraft, torture, the last words of the executed, the psychology of mobs, varying forms of execution from the Thirty Years War to the 1980s, profiles of executioners, cruelty, and changing views towards the death penalty. In the 1980s, Evans was a conspicuous figure in the Historikerstreit, a controversy surrounding the historical work and theories of German historians Ernst Nolte, Joachim Fest, Andreas Hillgruber, Michael Stürmer, Hagen Schulze, Imanuel Geiss and Klaus Hildebrand, all of whom Evans considered German apologists attempting to white-wash the German past. Evans' views on the Historikerstreit were set forth in his 1989 book, In Hitler's Shadow. In that book, Evans took issue with Nolte's acceptance of the Commissar Order as a legitimate military order; with Nolte's argument that the Einsatzgruppen massacres of Ukrainian Jews were a justifiable "preventive security" response to Soviet partisan attacks; his description (citing Viktor Suvorov) of Operation Barbarossa as a "preventative war" forced on Hitler by an impending Soviet attack; and his complaints that much s.... Discover the Richard Evans popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Richard Evans books.
Best Seller Richard Evans Books of 2024
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Michael Vey 5
Richard Paul EvansMichael, Taylor, Ostin, and the rest of the Electroclan go on their most dangerous mission yet as the thrilling action continues in this electrifying fifth installment of the New Y...
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The Pembrokeshire Murders
Steve Wilkins & Jonathan HillThe dramatic, compelling bestselling true story of how a serial killer was finally unmasked after evading justice for more than twenty yearsNow a major TV series starring Luke Evan...
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The Christmas Light
Donna VanLiereIn the small town of Grandon, five very different people discover the true meaning of Christmas. Jennifer and Ryan are both single parents, struggling with their own losses and hea...
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The Last Promise
Richard EvansFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Noel Street comes a rich and alltoohuman novel about the tragedy and triumph of love...Years ago, a sweet girl from Utah was swept off...
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The Hidden People
Alison LittlewoodA chilling Gothic mystery from the bestselling author of Richard & Judy Book Club hit The Cold Season, perfect for fans of Susan Hill, The Coffin Path and The Silent Companions...
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The Mistletoe Promise
Richard Paul EvansA love story for Christmasnow a Hallmark Channel original moviefrom the #1 bestselling author of The Christmas Box and The Walk.Elise Dutton dreads the arrival of another holiday s...
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The Lost Amazon
Wade DavisExplore the uncharted Amazon with acclaimed botanist and pioneering Amazonian explorer, Richard Evans Schultes, guided by an intimate narrative that supplements his photography of ...
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The Gift
Richard Paul EvansA heartwarming and inspirational Christmas novel in the tradition of The Christmas Box and Finding Noel from New York Times bestselling author Richard Paul Evans. Sure to be a clas...
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Spirited
Julie Cohen'I stayed up late, gripped. An unusual, moving read. I LOVED it!' Marian Keyes'Haunting, tender and true this story cast a spell on me' Kirsty Logan'This haunting story about the ...
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The Lost Storyteller
Amanda Block'A powerful novel about the bond between fathers and daughters, and how stories connect us all. I loved it' Jenny Colgan THE LOST STORYTELLER is the heartwarming and evocative debu...
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The Third Reich at War
Richard J. EvansAn absorbing, revelatory, and definitive account of one of the greatest tragedies in human history, by the author of The Coming of the Third Reich and The Third Reich in Power. ...
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A Step of Faith
Richard Paul EvansFollowing the New York Times bestseller The Road to Grace, Richard Paul Evans’s hero Alan Christoffersen faces a lifechanging crisis on his journey to grace.After the death of his ...
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Thirty Days in Paris
Veronica HenryTHE STUNNING AND ROMANTIC NEW NOVEL FROM SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR VERONICA HENRY PREORDER NOW!'Magical, romantic, fantastique' MILLY JOHNSON'A perfect Parisian fantasy ever...
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Spells for Lost Things
Jenna Evans WelchFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Love & Gelato comes a poignant and “beguiling” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) novel about two teens trying to find their plac...
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How to Build a Car
Adrian Newey'Adrian has a unique gift for understanding drivers and racing cars. He is ultra competitive but never forgets to have fun. An immensely likeable man.' Damon HillThe world’s foremo...
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Finding Noel
Richard Paul EvansA heartwarming and inspirational Christmas novel in the tradition of The Christmas Box, Grace, The Gift, and The Christmas List. The New York Times bestselling author of The Christ...
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The Never-Ending Summer
Emma Kennedy'Emma Kennedy's books are as funny, warm and lifeinspiring as she is' Jenny Colgan'An excellent read. I loved all the characters' Claudia Winkleman'A warm, funny and truly lifeaffi...
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La llegada del Tercer Reich
Richard J. EvansEn 1900, Alemania era considerada una de las naciones más progresistas, dinámicas y admirables del mundo. De una incesante creatividad, encarnaba el motor de las grandes reformas s...
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The Gettysburg Address
Abraham LincolnThe Address was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, during the American Civ...
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The Heights
Louise Candlish“Impossible to resist, impossible to predict, impossible to put down…this is an author at the top of her game.” Erin Kelly, author of Watch Her FallThe author of the “masterfully p...
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Before I Go
Brian CharlesIn the spirit of The Notebook, Brian Charles’ Before I Go is at once a tender love story and a powerful, provocative exploration of life after loss, and the numinous links that tie...
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Michael Vey 4
Richard Paul EvansMichael and his friends must rescue a child prodigy as the thrilling action continues in this electrifying fourth installment of the New York Times bestselling series!Michael, Tayl...
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The White Christmas Inn
Colleen WrightIn this heartwarming, feelgood novel, a snowstorm brings a cast of very different characters together at a sleepy New England inn, just in time for Christmasand maybe even in time ...
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Making History
Richard CohenA “supremely entertaining” (The New Yorker) exploration of who gets to record the world’s historyfrom Julius Caesar to William Shakespeare to Ken Burnsand how their biases influenc...
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A Perfect Day
Richard Paul EvansThe #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Broken Road series presents an inspiring story about a man who has to rediscover his priorities after finding money and fa...
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The Road to Grace
Richard Paul EvansThe third novel in the New York Times bestselling series about an advertising executive who loses everything and embarks on a walk across America: “definitely a journey worth takin...
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The Noel Letters
Richard Paul Evans#1 New York Times bestselling author Richard Paul Evans returns this holiday season with a tale of love, belonging, and family, following a trail of letters that leads to a Christm...
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Together
Julie CohenRICHARD AND JUDY SUMMER BOOK CLUB PICK 2018'This big, clever, tender and twisty love story reminded me of One Day & The Time Traveler's Wife' Erin Kelly, author of He Said, She...
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At First Light
Vanessa LafayeMeet Alicia Cortez: survivor, healer...murderer?1993, Key West, Florida. When a Ku Klux Klan official is shot in broad daylight, all eyes turn to the person holding the gun: a 96ye...
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The Third Reich
Thomas Childers“Riveting…An elegantly composed study, important and even timely” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) history of the Third Reichhow Adolf Hitler and a core group of Nazis rose from ob...
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Michael Vey
Richard Paul EvansThe start of an actionpacked teen series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Richard Paul Evans.To everyone at Meridian High School, fourteenyearold Michael Vey is nothing sp...
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Michael Vey 3
Richard Paul EvansThe hairraising action continues for Michael Vey in this charged third installment of the #1 New York Times bestselling series.Michael, Taylor, Ostin and the rest of the Electrocla...
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Michael Vey 6
Richard Paul EvansMichael and his friends try to recruit Hatch’s Electric Youth to their side as the thrilling action continues in this electrifying sixth installment of the New York Times bestselli...
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The Boathouse by Stepping Stone Bay
Helen Rolfe'Comforting and uplifting, this book is a joy to read' MY WEEKLY, on The Farmhouse of Second ChancesSun, sand and secrets at the bay!As a kid, Nina O'Brien spent all her summers a...
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The Christmas Sweater
Glenn Beck#1 New York Times bestselling author and renowned radio and television host Glenn Beck delivers an instant holiday classic about boyhood memories, wrenching life lessons, and the t...
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Michael Vey 7
Richard Paul EvansMichael Vey is missing and it’s up to the Electroclan to find him in this shocking seventh installment of the New York Times bestselling series!The Electroclan is facing a devastat...
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Michael Vey 2
Richard Paul EvansMichael must save his motherand protect his powersin the electric sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling Michael Vey, from Richard Paul Evans.I rolled over to my back, struggl...
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The Feast
Margaret KennedyThis summer holiday vintage crime classic exploring the mystery of a buried Cornish hotel invites us to solve the puzzle as detectives: perfect for fans of Celia Fremlin's Uncle Pa...
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Hitler and the Nazi Cult of Film and Fame
Michael MunnIn Nazi Germany, the cult of celebrity was the embodiment of Hitler’s style of cultural governance. Hitler’s rise to power owed much to the creation of his own celebrity, and the c...
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The Crow Garden
Alison LittlewoodSusan Hill meets Wilkie Collins in Alison Littlewood's latest chiller. Maddoctor Nathaniel is obsessed with the beautiful Mrs Harleston but is she truly delusional? Or is she hidi...
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The Four Doors
Richard Paul EvansDiscover joy and meaning in your life with this inspirational wisdom from #1 New York Times bestselling author Richard Paul Evans.The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Wa...
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The Noel Stranger
Richard Paul EvansFrom “The King of Christmas,” Richard Paul Evans, comes the next exciting holiday novel perfect for “fans of Debbie Macomber” (Booklist) in his New York Times bestselling Noel Coll...
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El Tercer Reich en guerra
Richard J. EvansTercero y último volumen de la serie de Richard J. Evans sobre el régimen nazi, El Tercer Reich en guerra relata el desarrollo del nacionalsocialismo político y militar desde el es...
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The Noel Diary
Richard Paul EvansNow a Netflix film starring Justin Hartley! In this holidaythemed novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Mistletoe Promise and The Walk, a man receives the best...