Need some distractions for the new year? Here are some of the most noteworthy recommended reads of the week from the Imperial & Global Forum.

*The Times Higher Education has an excellent review of David Sim’s (@DrDSim) new book A Union Forever: The Irish Question and U.S. Foreign Relations in the Victorian Age. “Sim shows that Irish crises brought these two fundamentally Protestant countries closer together. During the 1870s and 1880s, the emergent visions of a shared Anglo-Saxon superiority, allied to greater liberalism in Britain’s Irish and Atlantic policies, ensured a unity of purpose that relegated Irish-America further still.”

*Tom Nichols (@TheWarRoom_Tom) at the War Room offers some caveats and alternatives to watching the rebroadcast of CNN’s Cold War series: “It’s beautiful, engaging television, with amazing images, transfixing footage, and the gorgeous voice of Kenneth Branagh. Unfortunately, it’s also a horrendous exercise in moral equivalence.”

*Free Books! UC Press has made available to the public nearly 200 e-books, including a variety of imperial histories. Did we mention free books?

*Introducing The Leading Edge: David Silbey over at the Chronicle of Higher Education will be giving “historians a chance to submit a piece about their current project – dissertation, book, etc. – and have that piece run in front of a wider audience. They can use the slot to talk about what they’re working on, why they think it’s important and interesting, and how it fits into the larger historiography.” This looks like a great outlet for early career imperial/global historians to advertise their research.