Autobiography: historical, political and military Books
The New York Review of Books, Inc The Story of a Life
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£21.21
Texas Tech Press,U.S. Girls Don't: A Woman's War in Vietnam
Book SynopsisThe year is 1970; the war in Vietnam is five years from over. The women's movement is newly resurgent, and feminists are summarily reviled as "libbers." Inette Miller is one year out of college—a reporter for a small-town newspaper. Her boyfriend gets drafted and is issued orders to Vietnam. Within their few remaining days together, Inette marries her US Army private, determined to accompany him to war. There are obstacles. All wives of US military are prohibited in country. With the aid of her newspaper's editor, Miller finagles a one-month work visa and becomes a war reporter. Her newspaper cannot afford life insurance beyond that. After thirty days, she is on her own. As one of the rare woman war correspondents in Vietnam and the only one also married to an Army soldier, Miller's experience was pathbreaking. Girls Don't shines a light on the conflicting motives that drive an ambitious woman of that era and illustrates the schizophrenic struggle between the forces of powerful feminist ideology and the contrarian forces of the world as it was. Girls Don't is the story of what happens when a twenty-three-year-old feminist makes her way into the land of machismo. This is a war story, a love story, and an open-hearted confessional within the burgeoning women's movement, chronicling its demands and its rewards.
£28.01
Nimbus Publishing (CN) Mayann Francis: An Honourable Life
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£26.96
Guernica Editions,Canada A Voluntary Crucifixion
Book SynopsisA Voluntary Crucifixion traces the story of 20th century Canada through the MacKinnon clan and David J MacKinnon?s life. Disillusioned with the slow death of the soul promised by life at a major Montreal law firm, MacKinnon ripped himself untimely from the profession, making a personal vow to discover society "from the bottom up". A Voluntary Crucifixion recounts the tale of MacKinnon?s adventures and misadventures from post-Tiananmen Hong Kong to various ports of call in the Indian Ocean, offering MacKinnon?s views on everything from censorship to indigenous issues, all of which reflect his life ethos that the key to life is to refuse to adapt, and to fight tooth-and-nail for every square inch of your freedom before others wrench it from you.
£19.76
Colourpoint Creative Ltd Captured by a Vision: A Memoir
Book Synopsis"...we are more than capable of transforming our own country." These are the words of an Irish Presbyterian minister who participated in some of the most important events in the recent history of Northern Ireland. Ken Newell was born in North Belfast in 1942, just after the Blitz. He graduated in Classics and Philosophy at Queen's University before studying Theology at Presbyterian College. After further training at Cambridge and in Holland, he was ordained in 1968. He served in Bangor, Co Down, before being called to teach at a seminary on the island of Timor in Indonesia. He returned to Belfast in 1976, at the height of the 'Troubles', to work in Fitzroy Presbyterian Church, where he remained minister for the next 32 years. His work of religious bridge-building and a special friendship with Fr Gerry Reynolds triggered many ground-breaking initiatives within the turbulent life of Belfast through the creative and persistent influence of the Clonard-Fitzroy Fellowship. This pioneering relationship between his congregation and Clonard Monastery in the west of the city provided the context for their work in political reconciliation. With considerable courage, Ken became involved in secret discussions with Republican and Loyalist paramilitary groups, contributing to the IRA and Loyalist ceasefires of 1994. For this work he and Fr Reynolds were awarded the Pax Christi International Peace Prize for a 'grassroots reconciliation initiative'. In 2004 he became Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and received an OBE for 'his contribution towards peace'. This is his memoir.Trade ReviewGladys Ganiel, writing for Slugger O'Toole - "An Enthralling human story. ... With frankness and at times, with humour, Newell provides insight into how someone from a self-described conservative evangelical background ended up crossing so many religious and political boundaries."
£17.53
Fonthill Media LLc A Short Thousand Years: A Childhood in the Third
Book SynopsisIn 1933 Germany became a dictatorship under the Great War veteran Adolf Hitler. He pulled the country out of depression and set it to work, reducing unemployment by undertaking extensive public works and building the first autoroutes in the world. He then resumed conscription and rearmament. All opposition had been eliminated and all power centred in that one man, whose boasted promise was a German Empire that would last 'a Thousand Years'. The author was born in 1935. Ten years later millions had died, much of the continent lay in ruins, his country was shamed and the 'thousand years' came to a fiery end. Others experienced worse, but for a ten-year-old with explosions all about him and with the world seeming to be burning the war made a vivid impression. His Westphalian village consisted largely of traditional farms and homesteads built of wattle and daub--often still shared by livestock. Most of the male population had been called up to fight Hitler's wars and foreigners made up much of the workforce. General Patton's Third Army lit up the village with phosphor grenades from several mountains away. The world seemed to be coming to an end.Table of ContentsForeword: Start of a Journey; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1 Remblinghausen: A Village in Wartime;2 Tales from the Tailors' Parlour; 3 Even Angels Make Mistakes; 4 A Tea-Cosy Saint Nicholas; 5 The Magic of Christmas; 6 Survival Lessons; 7 A Plague of Cousins; 8 Healing and Wheeling; 9 Early School Days; 10 The Prolific Chicken; 11 The Green Arbour; 12 The Rye Harvest; 13 The Hambummel; 14 Prisoners on the Land; 15 The Wild Man of the Woods; 16 Visitors and Bombs; 17 The Snow Princess; 18 The Old School by the Churchyard; 19 The Brazen Trout; 20 Uncle Engelbert and the Allies; 21 Messages from the Front; 22 Grandmother's Death; 23 My Window on the World; 24 Casualties of Our War; 25 The Ruhr Pocket and the Wider View in Hindsight; 26 An Early End to a Reich Supposed to Last `A Thousand Years'; 27 The Grown-Up's View; 28 The Handcart Funeral; 29 Dangerous Games; 30 The Poles' Dilemma in Victory; 31 Crutches of Hope; 32 A New Beginning; 33 Swapping to Survive; 34 The Gift of an Apple; 35 Church Matters; 36 Father's Return; 37 A New House; 38 No Fun in Wartime: Schutzenfest Restarted in 1948; 39 Belated Facts of Life; 40 Wirtschaftswunder; 41 In the Steps of Gutenberg; 42 Travels with My Father; Bibliography.
£23.75
Cornerstone James Connolly: My Search for the Man, the Myth
Book SynopsisFROM THE FORMER IRA MEMBER AND AUTHOR OF THE INFORMER, SEAN O'CALLAGHAN'Very interesting on how fanaticism can develop within a community, and especially relevant today.' Bob GeldofThe story of revolutionary James Connolly, his role in the 1916 Easter Rising, and his subsequent influence both on O'Callaghan himself, and on 20th century Irish politics.Easter Monday, 24th April, 1916: James Connolly, a 48-year-old Edinburgh-born Marxist and former British soldier, stands at the top of the steps of Liberty Hall, Dublin. 'We are going out to be slaughtered,' Connolly told his comrades, and with this he set in train the Easter Rising of 1916.Two weeks later, in a scene that has haunted Nationalist Ireland ever since, he was carried to his place of execution having been badly wounded. Placed on a chair, he was shot dead by soldiers of the army he had once served in.This is not a traditional biography; it is a book about Sean O'Callaghan's relationship with a man who was to deeply influence his formative years; it is about the politics of violent extremism that O'Callaghan subsequently became caught up in; and it's about the kind of individuals who are willing to sacrifice everything, including their lives, for a holy cause.Never has a book been more timely.Trade Reviewextraordinary and insightful new biography of James Connolly – a magnificent reconsideration of the myths surrounding the Republican ‘hero’ and his warped place in the Republican mindset. * The Spectator *Two fine new books, Sean O’Callaghan’s James Connolly: My Search for the Man, the Myth and His Legacy…rightly emphasise the vicious hatred, fanaticism and lust for revenge of the rebellion’s ringleaders * Andrew Roberts, The Sunday Times, News Review *a republican insider’s disabused account of the fanatical mind, akin to Eric Hofer’s Seventies classic True Believers * Michael Burleigh, Books of the Year, Evening Standard *a brave, hostile account of the life of Pearse’s socialist co-conspirator and martyr, James Connolly * Daily Telegraph *Extraordinary and insightful * Spectator blog *
£15.19
Archaeopress Winifred Lamb: Aegean Prehistorian and Museum
Book SynopsisWinifred Lamb was a pioneering archaeologist in the Aegean and Anatolia. She studied classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, and subsequently served in naval intelligence alongside J. D. Beazley during the final stages of the First World War. As war drew to a close, Sydney Cockerell, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, invited Lamb to be the honorary keeper of Greek antiquities. Over the next 40 years she created a prehistoric gallery, marking the university’s contribution to excavations in the Aegean, and developed the museum’s holdings of classical bronzes and Athenian figure-decorated pottery. Lamb formed a parallel career excavating in the Aegean. She was admitted as a student of the British School at Athens and served as assistant director on the Mycenae excavations under Alan Wace and Carl Blegen. After further work at Sparta and on prehistoric mounds in Macedonia, Lamb identified and excavated a major Bronze Age site at Thermi on Lesbos. She conducted a brief excavation on Chios before directing a major project at Kusura in Turkey. She was recruited for the Turkish language section of the BBC during the Second World War, and after the cessation of hostilities took an active part in the creation of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara.Trade Review'Gill has produced a solid biography about one of the most important women in the history of British archaeology in Greece and Turkey during the first half of the 20th century. [The book is] destined to become a reference work for anyone studying the development of Classical studies at one of England’s premier universities or the history of British archaeology in the eastern Mediterranean.' - Natalia Vogeikoff Brogan (2019): Bryn Mawr Classical Review 'Gill’s well-researched biography is an important contribution highlighting the important role played by individuals of influence, such as Winifred Lamb, and of the British institutions that they were connected to in the development of the disciplines of classical studies and archaeology (in this case, The Fitzwilliam Museum and Cambridge University). [The book highlights] the accomplishments of one of archaeology’s great, but rather obscure protagonists, while at the same time reminding us of how far our discipline has progressed within the last two centuries, and how we, in the present, are paving the way for more changes to come.' - Lita Tzortzopoulou-Gregory (2022): Journal of Greek ArchaeologyTable of ContentsIntroduction ; Chapter 1: The Lamb Family and Early Years ; Chapter 2: Cambridge and Classics ; Chapter 3: The Hope Vases and Naval Intelligence ; Chapter 4: The First Year in Athens (1920–21) ; Chapter 5: Prehistory and the Fitzwilliam Museum ; Chapter 6: Mycenae, Sparta and Macedonia ; Chapter 7: The Fitzwilliam Museum: Developing the Classical Collections ; Chapter 8: The Eastern Aegean: Lesbos and Chios ; Chapter 9: Anatolia and Kusura ; Chapter 10: The War Years ; Chapter 11: The British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara ; Bibliography ; Index
£50.18
Christian Focus Publications Ltd A Housewife’s Adventure With God
Book SynopsisJessie McFarlane wanted to have a deeper, more real Christian life – “teach me to pray” she begged God continually. She had been inspired by hearing Donald Coggan (1909–2000) say at his enthronement as Archbishop of Canterbury, that “whether you’re a housewife baking a cake or being crowned as archbishop, it is all for the glory of God”. Her relationship with God grew stronger and she began meeting with her sister and a friend as a prayer triplet. There was plenty to pray about in 1981 and soon she was organising a 24 hour round the clock prayer meeting for a Luis Palau mission in Glasgow. Afterwards the three women continued to pray together; it was the time of the Yorkshire Ripper murders, Belfast was erupting in violence after the death of Bobby Sands, coal miners were striking, unemployment reached 2.5 million in the UK.When they learned that Evelyn Christenson was coming to England they organised a meeting for Evelyn to speak to women interested in prayer. 650 women came and of them 450 agreed to become part of a new a movement, a prayer chain for the nation. This has now developed into an international movement called “Prayer Chain Ministries.”After the inaugural National Prayer Breakfast in 1984 the ministry has taken on an extra direction as the organisation has gained access to people in government and business. You cannot fail to be inspired and encouraged by this story of dedicated prayer, or to be challenged to make a difference for God in your surroundings and experience and to do all for the glory of God.Trade ReviewIf you are an ordinary person desiring to know what an extraordinary God can do with your life, then you need to read this book. -- Sammy Tippit (International Itinerant Evangelist)thought–provoking and easy to read. -- Evangelicals NowIt is a privilege to recommend a book written by a virtuous woman. I, too, look forward to immersing myself in this account of a ‘valiant woman of God’ and learning from her example. -- Kay Arthur (Co-CEO of Precept Ministries International)
£13.07
Fons Vitae,US The Journey to the Unknown
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£18.95
Vallentine Mitchell & Co Ltd Let Him Go
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£22.08
Monash University Publishing Winning for Women: A Personal Story
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£28.48
Casemate Publishers Nam Sense: Surviving Vietnam with 101st Airborne
Book SynopsisNam Sense is the memoir of a combat squad leader in the 101st Airborne Division. Arthur Wiknik was drafted by the army in 1969 at the age of nineteen, promoted to sergeant ‘without ever setting foot in a combat zone’, and sent to Vietnam. He was flown north to Camp Evans, a mixed-unit outpost near Phong Dien, only a few miles from Laos. Wiknik was then thrown straight into the action: he was the first man in his unit to reach the top of Hamburger Hill during one of the last offensives launched by US forces, and later discovered a weapons cache that prevented a sneak attack on his advance fire support base. Between the sporadic episodes of combat he mingled with the locals and defrauded an unwitting US supplier to provide his platoon with a year of good food. This book offers a perfect blend of candour and humour – and it spares nothing and no one in its attempt to convey what really happened during this unpopular war. Nam Sense is not about heroism, mental breakdowns and haunting flashbacks: the GIs Wiknik lived and fought with during his year-long tour were there to do their duty, support their comrades and get home alive. ‘The soldiers I knew’, explains the author, ‘demonstrated courage, principle, kindness, and friendship – all the elements found in other wars Americans have proudly fought in.’ About the AuthorARTHUR WIKNIK was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1968, selected to be trained as an Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) and went to war in Vietnam.Trade ReviewThis memoir has it all. Its powerful prose sears into the reader the pathos of war-the loneliness, hopelessness, fear, anger, loathing of oneself and ones' enemy-while generating laughs, a better understanding of the Vietnam veteran, and a sense of pride in our armed forces. * AdvanceBookReviews.com *Nam Sense is written in an accessible and ironic style, whether describing whores or horrors, it provides an unflinching look at a year in the life of a Grunt in Vietnam. * Military History of the West *
£17.92
Little Creek Press Still Burning: Half a Century of Chicago, from the Streets to the Corridors of Power: A Memoir
£20.66
Bohlau Verlag Schreiben für die Weiße Sache: General Aleksej
Book SynopsisEin russischer General 50 Jahre Tagebuch. Aleksej von Lampe hat am Schreibtisch und nicht auf dem Schlachtfeld für die Weiße Bewegung gekämpft und ein umfassendes Archiv hinterlassen. Er verfolgte zwei Ziele: die Schaffung eines Gegennarrativ zu dem der Bolschewiki und die Deutungshoheit über den Kampf der Weißen und die Geschichte des russischen Exils nach 1917. Sein Tagebuch bietet nicht nur Einblicke in das Innenleben eines zarischen Offiziers in der Emigration, sondern ein faszinierendes Panorama der russischen Lebenswelt im Berlin der 1920er und 1930er Jahre sowie der Pariser Nachkriegszeit. Diese biographische Mikrostudie untersucht die autobiographische Praxis eines zentralen Akteurs des Russischen Berlins, das Selbstverständnis eines Emigranten sowie seine Strategien und Handlungsspielräume in Zeiten radikaler politischer Umbrüche.
£84.43
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co KG Lady Charlotte Blennerhassett (1843--1917):
Book SynopsisWhen Lady Charlotte Blennerhassett died in the middle of the First World War in 1917, she was mourned by contemporaries on both sides of the front as the "last European". In fact, her life was shaped by the great religious-cultural and political-social lines of conflict between the founding of the Reich and World War II - and this from a genuinely European transnational perspective: the Bavarian noblewoman and Anglo-Irish woman by marriage led a life between Munich, Paris and London, that should make her an "enemy alien" in her own hometown during the World War. Her constant struggle for self-assertion as an author and scientist was not only intellectually motivated, but also an economic imperative given the family's economic and social decline. Last but not least, the student of the controversial church historian Ignaz von Döllinger was committed for life as a combative liberal Catholic for freedom of science and conscience.
£102.10
Lexxion The Survival of an Incorrigible Optimist: From
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£25.66
Peeters Publishers A Curious and Convivial Traveller: Edward Roger
Book SynopsisIn 2001 the British Museum acquired the first of two ancient Egyptian stelae from the collection of the traveller Edward Roger Pratt (1789-1863) of Ryston Hall, Norfolk, and discovered his 1832-34 unpublished journals for Greece and Egypt and the 136-page album with his own drawings, watercolours, and paper impressions of bas-reliefs from a solo Nile voyage to the Second Cataract. Pratt recorded ancient monuments and sites, many later damaged or destroyed. In Greece Pratt travelled widely and adventurously with scholarly architects and artists studying ancient Greek sites, while in Egypt his guides were the works of the French Egyptologists Jean-François Champollion and Dominique Vivant Denon. A gregarious and enthusiastic traveller, Pratt was supported by extensive consular networks, expatriate communities and other travellers. In this volume his life and travels are reconstructed from his many journals, the travel journals for Greece and Egypt are transcribed and annotated, his maps and plans reproduced, his dispersed antiquities collection reconstructed, and the album drawings are identified and published in colour.
£140.06
