The History War is a book of photographs, collages and ephemera which begins with a timeline tracing Ukraine's evolution from the 5th century and its long struggle for independence. Described by Towell as 'one person's book on Ukraine', it challenges the possibilities of a photobook and demonstrates how storytelling can be woven together by different fabrics. Taking on the format of a scrapbook, Towell combines personal notes with ephemera—postcards, found family pictures, playing cards, cigarette packets and rubbish left behind by Russian soldiers to supplement his images. The book is divided into six narratives documenting the events and people Towell encountered in his many journeys to Ukraine. He first visited at the time of the Maidan uprising in 2014, witnessing the final days of the violent clashes between protestors and police in Kyiv; his photographs show civilians behind makeshift barricades with home-made weapons, the heavily shielded police and the aftermath of the dead in a half-destroyed Maidan Square. A later chapter focuses on the wastelands of Chernobyl, site of history's worst nuclear disaster.