Christmas 2024: A first selection of beautiful books

The great battles of history

A battle is defined as “ violent confrontation between organized human groups “. Based on this definition, Paolo Cau begins his overview of the 100 battles which have marked the History of Humanity, with the battle of Kadesh, in 1285 BC. This confrontation is characterized by the confrontation massive war tanks. You will have to travel more than 30 centuries and turn 166 pages to arrive at the first aerial battle, in 1916. It pitted the German Fokker E1 against the French Nieuport 11, above the trenches of Verdun. From the First World War onwards, aerial weapons were present in most battles, often making the difference. The layout, the maps and the numerous illustrations make this book pleasant to leaf through. G.R.

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Concord. The icon of an ideal

With Pierre Sparaco's contribution (Larivière, 2003), one would have thought that everything had been written about Concorde. 15 years after the cessation of the operation of the Franco-British supersonic, the “Concorde” by Gérard Maoui and André Rouayroux (Privat, 2018) which takes the angle of the human adventure, proved that there was still a lot to say. Adrien Motel makes a dazzling demonstration of this in “ Concorde, the ideal icon » which he has just published by Place des Victoires. It takes us back to the heart of the thirty glorious years. A time that seems distant. G.R.

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Mirage 2000: history in the Air Force from 1974 to the present day

This is the third edition of Alain Pelletier's world history of airliners. And although it was published in June 2024, this reissue is dated. It did not benefit from the necessary update. Airbus has not yet decided to discontinue the A380, the A321LR and XLR are not winning and Boeing has not yet plunged into the crisis. This warning issued, the first decades of the story remain as well told by an author who mastered his subject (Alain Pelletier died in September 2024). The quality of the iconography and the technical sheets will delight readers. FL

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Tomcat

In 1994, the US Navy's first female embarked fighter pilot was killed while landing aboard an F-14. That day, she was piloting a Tomcat which was the hero, in 1981, of a famous aerial combat against Libyan SU-22 fighters. Around the story of this singular Tomcat, the entire US Navy of the Top Gun period is told, far from clichés. This tragic but true story allows Romain Hugault's drawing to shine! Tomcat is a comic album where the designer, well supported by the sequencing orchestrated by his screenwriter Anastasia Heinzl, has highlighted a device whose photogenic character and all the comic potential are known. F.M.

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Historical Sky Atlas

Since the dawn of time, humans have looked towards the sky. But today, we do not look at the immensity as at the beginning of Humanity or at the time of the Renaissance, nor even as in the middle of the 20^th century. At the very beginning, the sky viewed with the naked eye carried myths and beliefs which died out with the appearance of the telescope. The instruments available to astrophysicists associated with new quantum and relativistic physics are opening new horizons and expanding the Universe with the discovery of new galaxies. The questions of the origin and nature of time are transformed. By inviting us to look at the sky differently, Christian Grataloup and Pierre Léna show us, with 300 supporting maps and infographics, that everything still remains to be discovered. Extraordinary. G.R.

Order online: Historical Sky Atlas