The Rest is History

Make room Herodotus, stand down Bede, pipe down Pepys – there’s a new history book in town.

From the chart-topping podcast The Rest is History, a whistle-stop tour through the past – from Alexander the Great to Tolkien, the Wars of the Roses to Watergate. The nation’s favourite historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook take on the most curious moments in history, answering the questions we didn’t even think to ask:

 

- Did the Trojan War actually happen?

- What was the most disastrous party in history?

- Was Richard Nixon more like Caligula or Claudius?

- How did a hair appointment almost blow Churchill’s cover?

- Why did the Nazis believe they were descended from Atlantis?

 

Whether it is sending historical figures to Casa Amor in a series of Love Island, ranking history’s most famous eunuchs and pigeons (including Winkie, the unsung hero of the Second World War), or debating the meaning of greatness, there is nothing too big or too small for Tom and Dominic to unpick.

 

So run your Egyptian milk bath, strap up your best Spartan sandals, and prepare for a journey down the highways and byways of the human past. . .

Review

A fun and easy read . . . the authors' sense of humour, combined with what feels like bottomless knowledge of their subject, really does make history seem interesting, enjoyable and even fun . . . it's quite different from other history books. Holland and Sandbrook's approach to asking curious questions, and then answering them, takes the reader on an idiosyncratic ride through history . . . The Rest is History is most certainly a readable book. It's educational without being didactic, and thought-provoking without being too taxing ― Independent

This compilation of the historically odd and downright wacky is the book version of their popular podcast . . . Clever, light-hearted history from serious historians ― Sydney Morning Herald

Reasonable people might well have been turned off revisionist history by Ridley Scott's dull, flat, thin cinematic version of Napoleon's life. An antidote lies close to hand, in the form of a book-length write-up of the popular podcast, The Rest is History ― Interpreter

I recently gave my dad a copy of The Rest Is History, the printed spinoff to the podcast hosted by Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland. The man absolutely wolfed it down. He'd never heard the podcast before, but the book's tone - bitty, authoritative pop history - was like a cruise missile aimed directly at his brain stem -- Stuart Heritage ― Guardian

A book to gift every history buff ― Readings

As a way to learn big chunks of history in a fast and entertaining way, this written version is arguably even more effective than its popular audio parent ― Business Post

About the Author

Tom Holland is the author of a range of books on ancient and early medieval history. He has translated Herodotus and Suetonius, presented TV documentaries on subjects ranging from dinosaurs to the Islamic State, and been described by The Times as 'a leading English cricketer'.

Dominic Sandbrook was educated at Oxford, St Andrews and Cambridge, and was an academic at Sheffield before becoming a writer. He is best known for his histories of Britain since the 1950s, most recently Who Dares Wins, as well as a series of history books for younger readers, Adventures in Time. He has presented many documentaries on BBC Two and Radio 4, and is a columnist for The Times and book critic for the Sunday Times.