New this month is Assassination: A History of Political Murder, by Lindsay Porter. Fully illustrated with paintings, drawings, photographs and archival documents, Assassination shows how the violent deaths of leaders and statesmen have played out in the popular and artistic imagination from earliest times to the present, illuminating both contemporary responses to assassinations and their lasting impact on our world. From Caesar and Thomas Becket to Archduke Franz Ferdinand and beyond, this visually striking and intriguing book focuses on the most (in)famous examples of assassination through history, and uses them to explore its various meanings, myths and cults."Like kissing babies on the election trail, assassination is a political tactic that does not go out of fashion, as Lindsay Porter’s intriguing book makes clear. It surveys political murder from antiquity to the present, and seeks to understand assassination as not only a political but also a cultural act. . . Porter has amassed a wealth of material, including paintings, etchings, sculptures and photos, coins commemorating Huguenot massacres, Marat’s bloodstained newspaper and other artefacts, and through them she weaves a compelling narrative." - Telegraph (UK)
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