European history: medieval period, middle ages Books

Book Synopsis''A tale of irresponsibility and inexperience'' THE TIMES''Graphically written with a sense of dramatic construction'' SCOTSMANOn December 28th 1879, the night of the Great Storm, the Tay Bridge collapsed, along with the train that was crossing, and everyone on board...This is the true story of that disastrous night, told from multiple viewpoints:The station master waiting for the train to arrive - who sees the approaching lights simply vanish.The bored young boys watching from their bedroom window who witness the disaster.The dreamer who designed the bridge which eventually destroyed him.The old highlanders who professed the bridge doomed from the outset.The young woman on the ill-fated train, carrying a love letter from the man she hoped to marry...THE HIGH GIRDERS is a vivid, dramatic reconstruction of the ill-omened man-made catastrophe of the Tay Bridge disaster - and its grim aftermath.Trade ReviewGraphically written with a sense of dramatic construction * SCOTSMAN *A tale of irresponsibility and inexperience * THE TIMES *One of our leading historians, whose works ... are as scholarly as they are readable * OBSERVER *

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Book SynopsisIn parks, on downlands and heaths, by motorways, overlooking firths: the racecourses of Britain and Ireland are as various as the people you meet there. Some - Newmarket, Epsom, the Curragh - are rich in history, and among the most celebrated sporting venues in the world; others - Fakenham, Bangor-on-Dee, Perth - offer more modest but no less enjoyable spectacles.Journeying round these courses, Nicholas Clee meets the people who bring them to life: from those in the spotlight, including a Grand National-winning jockey, Derby-winning owner and top TV commentator; to many others with key roles in the sport - bookmakers, form experts, racecourse managers and more. From them, he learns about the bravery, dedication, skill and expertise that make racing one of our most popular spectator sports.Whether basking in sunshine or sheltering from a hurricane, sampling a variety of pies or recoiling from the world''s worst curry, losing his money with the bookies or at the Tote wTrade ReviewDelightful digressions into the histories of the tracks and into every aspect of racing . . . The racecourse visits are spiced with anecdotes and gentle wit . . . fun, quirky and informative * Literary Review *Gripping stories of famous horses, jockeys and trainers, along with a history of racing itself . . . This is a book for racing enthusiasts, whether course-goers or chairbound -- Anne de Courcy * The Spectator *A picture of the modern horse-racing industry . . . evocative . . . he describes the racetrack experience perfectly . . . Already acclaimed for his book on Eclipse, Mr Clee has produced another winner * Country Life *Authoritative . . . admirably detailed and comprehensive . . . in its discursive way it is very much a guide to racing - thoroughbreeding, training and ownership, gambling, the lot . . . very interesting * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR BEST SPORTS WRITING AT THE 2024 SPORTS BOOK AWARDSIn parks, on downlands and heaths, by motorways, overlooking firths: the racecourses of Britain and Ireland are as various as the people you meet there. Some - Newmarket, Epsom, the Curragh - are rich in history, and among the most celebrated sporting venues in the world; others - Fakenham, Bangor-on-Dee, Perth - offer more modest but no less enjoyable spectacles.Journeying round these courses, Nicholas Clee meets the people who bring them to life: from those in the spotlight, including a Grand National-winning jockey, Derby-winning owner and top TV commentator; to many others with key roles in the sport - bookmakers, form experts, racecourse managers and more. From them, he learns about the bravery, dedication, skill and expertise that make racing one of our most popular spectator sports.Whether basking in sunshine or sheltering from a hurricane, sampling a variety of pies or recoiling

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Book SynopsisSarajevo, 28 June 1914: The story of the assassination that changed the world.''Outstanding'' SPECTATOR''A fine piece of political and literary detective work, which held this reader enthralled'' TRIBUNEYoung Gavrilo Princip arrived at the Vlajnic pastry shop in Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina on the morning of 28 June 1914. He was greeted by his fellow conspirators in the plot to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The Archduke, next in line to succeed as Emperor of Austria, was beginning a state visit to Sarajevo later that morning. Ferdinand was not a very popular character - widely thought of as bad-tempered and arrogant and perhaps even deranged. To the young students he embodied everything they loathed about imperial oppression. They planned to kill him at about 11 o''clock as he paraded down Appel Quay to the town hall in his open top car.What happened in those few hours - leading as it did to the First and Second World Wars - iTrade ReviewDavid James Smith's achievement is to contextualise the conspiracy ... an informed and nuanced account * SUNDAY TIMES *This outstanding new account of events and characters ... is the most comprehensive study of the assassination yet published in English * SPECTATOR *He is to be congratulated on a fine piece of political and literary detective work, which held this reader enthralled * TRIBUNE *

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Book SynopsisMargot Asquith was perhaps the most daring and unconventional Prime Minister''s wife in British history. Known for her wit, style and habit of speaking her mind, she transformed 10 Downing Street into a glittering social and intellectual salon. Yet her last four years at Number 10 were a period of intense emotional and political turmoil in her private and public life. In 1912 rumblings of discontent and cries for social reform were encroaching on all sides - from suffragettes, striking workers and Irish nationalists. Against this background of a government beset with troubles, the Prime Minister fell desperately in love with his daughter''s best friend, Venetia Stanley; to complicate matters, so did his Private Secretary. Margot''s relationship with her husband was already bedevilled by her stepdaughter''s jealous adoration of her father. The outbreak of the First World War only heightened these swirling tensions within Downing Street. Drawing on unpublished material from personal papeTrade ReviewThis is a plot that Downton Abbey would die for! ... Anne de Courcy keeps this steaming, erotic merry-go-round whirling with admirable skill. * DAILY MAIL *Margot Asquith's sharp humour, modern style, intelligence and wealth fascinated men... Anne de Courcy has a firm grasp of politics, an acute eye for social detail and a keen perception of Margot's pains and pleasures. Her narrative is concise and compelling. -- Iain Finlayson * THE TIMES *De Courcy, author of the celebrated The Fishing Fleet: Husband Hunting in the Raj, indulges us with generous quotes from contemporary correspondence and detailed observation, describing life at a time of turbulent change through engaging anecdotes and descriptions -- Elizabeth Freemantle * SUNDAY EXPRESS *A proper sex in high places scandal... Though Margot Asquith, nee Tennant, is its main character, her husband's scandalous obsession with young Venetia Stanley is inevitably centre stage -- Andy McSmith * THE INDEPENDENT 'Books of the Year' *A superb evocation of an extraordinary time * CHOICE Book of the Month *Fascinating ... Anne de Courcy is sympathetic to her subject. She's a journalist with a keen eye for detail and no-nonsense directness -- Melanie McDonagh * THE TABLET *Covers everything from Asquith's infidelity to politics and parties * CATHOLIC HERALD *It conveys Margot's milieu with a nice touch and takes time away from this enclosed self-regarding world to give us vivid sharp vignettes of the harder times being experienced by other classes. De Courcy records very well Margot's tortured jealousy, not only of her husband's dalliance with Venetia Stanley but of his daughter Violet's almost incestuous passion for her father -- Ferdinand Mount * LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS *A love triangle that nearly brought down the British government is at the heart of Margot at War by Anne de Courcy. Margot Asquith, whose husband was Prime Minister from 1908 to 1916, is the star of this riveting biography about war, love, marriage and secret goings-on at 10 Downing Street * GOOD HOUSEKEEPING *Margot scandalised society. She refused chaperonage and said what she thought. Plain, with a broken nose from hunting, she dressed beautifully, and was immensely rich when she married Herbert Henry Asquith, subsidising his love of luxury... The research is impressive and the eventful historical context covered with a light touch. Enlightening, especially on Asquith's intractable opposition to the suffragettes. -- Jackie Wilkin * WI LIFE *There are many instances in this engaging book, where, as well us giving us an informed account of events, the writer includes observations that are both logical and empathetic. This is a useful, entertaining and impressive publication * HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY *Margot was a rare bird indeed: stylish, idiosyncratic and never less than controvserial ... Superbly blending the private and public, domestic dramas with international crises, Anne de Courcy proves that Mrs Asquith, flamboyant and opinionated, but also isolated and vulnerable, was peculiarly well suited to a period when her celebrity, if not her influence, had never been greater -- Martin Williams * COUNTRY LIFE *A riveting, brilliantly researched picture of Downing Street during the crucial years in which the world changed irrevocably * GOOD BOOK GUIDE *The story of this fascinating character and London socialite is told with both a storyteller's flourish and a historian's clear head for the facts by Anne de Courcy in Margot at War. The torrid personal life of the flamboyant prime minister's wife is pieced apart by de Courcy, revealing a saga of glamour, affairs and relationship dysfunction, all unravelling alongside the first attacks of the Suffragette movement, the swelling unrest over Irish Home Rule and of course the lead up to the outbreak of the Great War. File under the "couldn't make it up" category -- Hilary A White * IRISH SUNDAY INDEPENDENT *

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Book SynopsisAn extraordinary account - from firsthand sources - of upper class women and the active part they took in the WarPre-war debutantes were members of the most protected, not to say isolated, stratum of 20th-century society: the young (17-20) unmarried daughters of the British upper classes. For most of them, the war changed all that for ever. It meant independence and the shock of the new, and daily exposure to customs and attitudes that must have seemed completely alien to them. For many, the almost military regime of an upper class childhood meant they were well suited for the no-nonsense approach needed in wartime. This book records the extraordinary diversity of challenges, shocks and responsibilities they faced - as chauffeurs, couriers, ambulance-drivers, nurses, pilots, spies, decoders, factory workers, farmers, land girls, as well as in the Women''s Services. How much did class barriers really come down? Did they stick with their own sort? And what aboutTrade ReviewA wonderful slice of social history, and Anne de Courcy is a skilled interviewer with a sure eye for the telling quotation or the stand-out detail * MAIL ON SUNDAY *Produces some memorable cameos. Among the most memorable are those of a young girl delivering local post from her grandmother's Scottish estate with a 4.10 rifle slung over her shoulder, ready to fire at German planes, oddest of all, perhaps, is an account from one of Lord Rothermere's daughters, of tea being served on the terrace by a butler in white gloves while a dogfight raged overhead -- Miranda SeymourDespite their odd upbringing and closeted lives, the young gels of upper-class England rose to the challenge of the Second World War with grit and gumption * DAILY TELEGRAPH *This book records the extraordinary diversity of challenges, shocks and responsibilities they faced - as chauffeurs, couriers, ambulance-drivers, nurses, pilots, spies, decoders, factory workers, farmers, land girls, as well as in the Women's Services. * EVENING STANDARD *She captures within one book a vivid impression of those years, a short history of the women's services, a closely focused view of an exotic corner of social history, and a lot of human interest. It all makes riveting reading * LITERARY REVIEW *A tale of derring-do, make do and make-up... De Courcy reveals the innocence and bravery of these young women. * EXPRESS *DEBS AT WAR covers a quirky and original subject and tells some cracking human interest stories. * HAM & HIGH *an irresistible account of high spirits, derring-do and real old-fashioned bravery * EVENING STANDARD *

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Book SynopsisKristen Ghodsee recuperates the lost history of feminist activism from the so-called Second World, showing how women from state socialist Bulgaria and socialist-leaning Zambia created networks and alliances that challenged American women's leadership of the global women's movement.Trade Review"An engaging narrative of feminist movements during the Cold War. . . . [Ghodsee's] work is vital in documenting a neglected component of feminist history while illuminating a new resource for feminist theorists and activists interested in thinking about the political project of gender justice outside the confines of dominant, Western, liberal feminism. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers." -- C. E. Rasmussen * Choice *"Second World, Second Sex is a must read for anyone hoping to understand the complexities of a global women’s rights movement that goes beyond the boundaries of Western, liberal feminism." -- Tony Pecinovsky * People's World *"A powerful reminder that ultimately structural conditions are of prime importance if women’s emancipation is to succeed. . . . Ghodsee’s book ultimately reminds as, through the often moving testimonies of former activists she has collected, that women’s activism, also when attached to or even dominated the state, can be effective and progressive." -- Tanja R. Müller * Twentieth-Century Communism *"Interrogating why the activities of women in countries with strong states promoting gender equality should be deemed inauthentic vis-à-vis those in democracies that perpetuate patriarchal norms, alongside rendering the Cold War as a battle between not just capitalism and communism but also competing visions of feminism, Second World, Second Sex is essential reading for anyone in any field interested in women’s activism in the twentieth century." -- Christine Varga-Harris * Slavic Review *“Besides offering a masterful reconstruction of Cold War women’s activism and East-South alliances, Second World, Second Sex provides its readers with extensive and previously uncovered historical documentation, together with important methodological reflections on feminist knowledge production. The book will be of great interest for historians of gender, transnationalism, and the Cold War, and will undoubtedly expand the scope of scholarly research on transnational women’s and feminist history.” -- Chiara Bonfiglioli * American Historical Review *“The Cold War’s end has seen the vision and achievements of the socialist women’s activists marginalized, devalued, and almost forgotten, the neoliberal consensus quickly undoing in the East and South many of the rights which had been so dearly won. Ghodsee articulates a concern that powerful forces in the West still conspire to suppress or delegitimize histories that take state socialist women’s activism seriously…. Ghodsee’s persistence and peerless scholarship have ensured that it will not be allowed to disappear from the mainstream narratives of feminism.” -- Dominic Martin * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *"Second World, Second Sex has to be strongly recommended not only to scholars in Slavic studies, feminist, gender and postcolonial studies, as well as international relations, but to all those who have high expectations of the current trend of re/connecting the feminist and the climate change movements, as well as the new global actions combating inequality, racism and violence against women and girls, as necessary actions to restore the political relevance to transnational women’s organizing efforts, as was the case in the 1970s and 1980s.” -- Renata Jambrešic Kirin * Wagadu *“Ghodsee beautifully describes the relationships that she established with women’s activists throughout the course of her research.... This is why her book is so important: it challenges hegemonic accounts of both Cold War politics and the international Decade for Women.” -- Jennifer Erickson * American Ethnologist *“Ghodsee makes her argument skillfully and with clarity. . . . This is an impressively ambitious book with an undeniably original topic and a bold argument.” -- Alexandra Ghit * International Review of Social History *Table of ContentsAbbreviations and Acronyms viii Note on Translation and Transliteration xiii Acknowledgments xv Introduction. Erasing the Past 1 Part I. Organizing Women under Socialism and Capitalism 1. State Feminism and the Woman Question 31 2. A Brief History of Women's Activism in Domestic Political Context: Case 1: Bulgaria 53 3. Emancipated Women and Anticommunism in the American Political Imagination 76 4. A Brief History of Women's Activism in Domestic Political Context: Case 2: Zambia 97 5. Sandwiched between Superpowers 121 Part II. The Women's Cold War 6. The Lead-Up to International Women's Year 135 7. Historic Gatherings in Mexico and the German Democratic Republic 146 8. Preparing for the Mid-Decade Conference 160 9. The Third Week in July 174 10. School of Solidarity 186 11. Strategizing for Nairobi 198 12. Showdown in Kenya 207 Conclusion. Phantom Herstories 221 Appendix. A Few Reflections on the Challenges of Socialist Feminist Historiography 244 Notes 249 Selected Bibliography 283 Index 301

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Book SynopsisFor all its history of intersecting empires, the Balkans has been rarely framed as a global site of race and coloniality. This, as Piro Rexhepi argues inWhite Enclosuresis not surprising, given the perception of the Balkans as colorblind and raceless, a project that spans post-Ottoman racial formations, transverses Socialist modernity and is negotiated anew in the process of postsocialist Euro-Atlantic integration. Connecting severed colonial histories from the vantage point of body politic,Rexhepiturns to the borderland zones of the Balkans to trace past and present geopolitical attempts of walling whiteness. From efforts to straighten the sexualities of post-Ottoman Muslim subjects, to Yugoslav nonaligned solidarities between Muslims of the second and third world, to Roma displacement and contemporary emergence of refugee carceral technologies along the Balkan Route, Rexhepi points not only to the epistemic erasures that maintain the fantasy of whiteness but also to the disrupTrade Review"This book not only challenges Bosnian and Albanian dominant political discourses, which for decades have refused to acknowledge the unequal power dynamics between the Balkan periphery and the European centre. It also is a long overdue book. For it takes these Muslim-majority populations, despite their closeness to whiteness, as a starting point for imagining a different world in which internationalist solidarity among the oppressed is possible." -- Adem Ferizaj * Left East *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Nonaligned Muslims in the Margins of Socialism: The Islamic Revolution in Yugoslavia 43 2. Historicizing Enclosure: Refashioned Colonial Continuities as European Cultural Legacy 70 3. Enclosure Sovereignties: Saving Missions and Supervised Self-Determination 90 4. (Dis)Embodying Enclosure: Of Straightened Muslim Men and Secular Masculinities 107 5. Enclosure Demographics: Reproductive Racism, Displacement, and Resistance 128 Afterword 151 Notes 157 References 161 Index 181

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Book SynopsisBe prepared for exam day with Barron’s. Trusted content from AP experts! Barron’s AP European History Premium, Fourteenth Edition includes in‑depth content review and online practice. It’s the only book you’ll need to be prepared for exam day.Written by Experienced Educators Learn from Barron’s‑‑all content is written and reviewed by AP experts Build your understanding with comprehensive review tailored to the most recent exam Get a leg up with tips, strategies, and study advice for exam day‑‑it’s like having a trusted tutor by your side Be Confident on Exam Day Sharpen your test‑taking skills with 5 full‑length practice tests–2 in the book and 3 more online–plus detailed answer explanations, sample responses, and scoring guidelines for all questions Strengthen your knowledge with in‑depth review covering all Units on the AP European History Exam Reinforce your learning with long essay, short-answer, and multiple-choice practice questions at the end of each chapter Robust Online Practice Determine which topics you know well and which you need to brush up on with comprehensive practice assessments for each major time period in European History Continue your practice with 3 full‑length practice tests on Barron’s Online Learning Hub Simulate the exam experience with a timed test option Deepen your understanding with detailed answer explanations and expert advice Gain confidence with scoring to check your learning progress Publisher's Note: Products purchased from 3rd party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entities included with the product.  

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Book Synopsis'Alive with human detail and acute political judgement, this book marks the arrival of a formidably gifted historian.' – Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets and The TemplarsIt was around half-past eight in the morning, with summer rainclouds weighing heavy in the sky, that Simon de Montfort decided to die. It was 4 August 1265 and he was about to face the royal army in the final battle of a quarrel that had raged between them for years. Outnumbered, outmanoeuvred and certain to lose, Simon chose to fight, knowing that he could not possibly win the day. The Song of Simon de Montfort is the story of this extraordinary man: heir to a great warrior, devoted husband and father, fearless crusader knight and charismatic leader. It is the story of a man whose passion for good governance was so fierce that, in 1258, frustrated by the King’s refusal to take the advice of his nobles and the increasing injustice meted out to his subjects, he marched on Henry III’s hall at Westminster and seized the reins of power. Montfort established a council to rule in the King’s name, overturning the social order in a way that would not be seen again until the rule of Oliver Cromwell in the seventeenth century. Having defeated the King at the Battle of Lewes in 1264, Montfort and his revolutionary council ruled England for some fifteen months, until the enmity between the two sides exploded on that August day in 1265. When the fighting was over, Montfort and a host of his followers had been cut down on the battlefield, in an outpouring of noble blood that marked the end of chivalry in England as it had existed since the Norman Conquest. Drawing on an abundance of sources that allow us to trace Montfort’s actions and personality in a depth not possible for earlier periods in medieval history, Sophie Thérèse Ambler tells his story with a clarity that reveals all of the excitement, chaos and human tragedy of England’s first revolution.Trade ReviewOne of the finest medieval biographies of recent years. -- Gareth Russell * The Times *This is an astonishingly assured debut by an extremely talented young historian. Exhaustively researched and beautifully written, it traces the remarkable life of a military and political giant of the medieval period who has never been more convincingly portrayed -- Saul David * Daily Telegraph *It’s hard to get into the heads of people who lived 800 years ago. This book goes further than you might think possible, by a clever use of letters, legal documents and chronicles; at times, we really can hear this man speak . . . This is a remarkable book: beautifully presented (with good maps and illustrations), finely written and based on a deep, scholarly knowledge of the sources. It’s rare to find a story and a storyteller so well matched. -- Noel Malcolm * Sunday Telegraph *Sophie Therese Ambler’s engaging new biography will enthral and horrify in equal measure … The Song of Simon de Montfort is a well-researched, elegantly written and lively portrait of a problematic figure. Sunday Times * Sunday Times *Amid the valley of dry bones, Ambler breathes life into sources that might otherwise seem arid or dull. Her narrative is expertly paced. Whenever the story threatens to sag or falter, she skips over the drier deserts of fact, moving us from the routine to the remarkable . . . From Evesham to the killing fields of the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of the Roses, Simon de Montfort's chief legacy was slaughter and woe. This is, therefore, a song more of lament than of triumph. It is a song that Sophie Therese Ambler sings supremely well. -- Nicholas Vincent * Literary Review *Riveting . . . a vivid psychological portrait of the charismatic knight through small but enlightening details of character . . . The Song of Simon de Montfort is an engaging foray from a talented historian into one of the most important but least understood eras in English history. -- Emma J. Wells * TLS *A dramatic story, told here with clarity and insight * History Revealed *Sophie Thérèse Ambler is a dazzlingly talented historian and in her debut biography offers a bold and brilliantly written reassessment of one of (British) history’s most misunderstood figures – the reformer, rebel and scourge of the Plantagenets, Simon de Montfort. Alive with human detail and acute political judgement, this book marks the arrival of a formidably gifted historian. -- Dan JonesGripping, detailed, and ingenious, The Song of Simon de Montfort is a compelling and thrilling story of England's very first revolution. With her beautiful prose, Sophie Ambler successfully crosses the gap between narrative and academic history and brings Simon de Montfort vividly to life -- Dr Estelle Paranque, author of Elizabeth I of England Through Valois EyesFor such a pivotal figure in English history, Simon de Montfort’s remarkable story is one that has been sadly neglected by mainstream history books. Ambler’s riveting volume redresses the balance brilliantly, recounting the electrifying build-up to the nation’s first revolutionary movement and the emergence of a nascent Parliament with page-turning skill. -- Dan Jones * Waterstones Top History Books of 2019 *Table of ContentsSection - i: List of Illustrations Section - ii: Maps Section - iii: Epigraph Section - iv: Prologue Introduction - v: Introduction Section - vi: A Note on Money Chapter - 1: A Way of Living, and a Way of Dying Chapter - 2: A New Kingdom Chapter - 3: Love Chapter - 4: Holy War Chapter - 5: An Exemplar of Defeat Chapter - 6: Ruler of Gascony Chapter - 7: A New Enemy Chapter - 8: The Seizure of Power Chapter - 9: The Reform of the Kingdom Chapter - 10: Rule by Conscience Chapter - 11: Betrayal Chapter - 12: Revolution Chapter - 13: Triumph Chapter - 14: Disaster Chapter - 15: Evesham Section - vii: Epilogue Section - viii: Notes Index - ix: Index

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Book SynopsisThis book examines one of the most fundamental issues in twelfth-century English politics: justice. It demonstrates that during the foundational period for the common law, the question of judgement and judicial ethics was a topic of heated debate – a common problem with multiple different answers. How to be a judge, and how to judge well, was a concern shared by humble and high, keeping both kings and parish priests awake at night. Using theological texts, sermons, legal treatises and letter collections, the book explores how moralists attempted to provide guidance for uncertain judges. It argues that mercy was always the most difficult challenge for a judge, fitting uncomfortably within the law and of disputed value. Shining a new light on English legal history, Justice and mercy reveals the moral dilemmas created by the establishment of the common law.Trade Review‘Justice and Mercy is a remarkable book…the book resounds with the historiographic traditions and conflicts among the different schools of legal history and of intellectual history, both in Britain and on the continent. While the author is obviously well aware of them, she manages to avoid the pitfalls of adding to these ongoing conflicts.’Esther Cohen, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Medieval Review'I dearly wish this excellent book had been available twenty years ago when I was writing one of my own on the changing ways that the human urge to vengeance were expressed c. 1000–1300. Philippa Byrne, a first-time author, has assembled an amazing amount of difficult theological material, much direct from manuscript, to make a persuasive and novel case that judges had to include in their sentencing policy what she calls “reciprocal mercy,” a kind of subset of “deliberative” justice, generated in the schools by “a sophisticated and long-running debate about judicial ethics”. [...] This is an enviably able, solid, fresh, and exciting first book that will give all kinds of readers much to think about.'Paul R. Hyams, Speculum -- .Table of ContentsPrologue: the vanishing adulteress1 Introduction2 The problem with mercy: the schools3 The problem with mercy: the courts4 Twelfth-century models of justice and mercy5 Who should be merciful?6 Judgement in practice: the Church7 Histories of justice: the crown, persuasion and lordship8 Love your enemies? Popular mercy in a vengeance culture9 ConclusionBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThis source book offers a comprehensive treatment of solitary religious lives in England in the late Middle Ages. It covers both enclosed recluses (anchorites) and free-wandering hermits, and explores the relationship between them. Although there has been a recent surge of interest in the solitary vocations, especially anchorites, this has focused almost exclusively on a small number of examples. The field is in need of reinvigoration, and this book provides it. Featuring translated extracts from a wide range of Latin, Middle English and Old French sources, as well as a scholarly introduction and commentary from one of the foremost experts in the field, Hermits and anchorites in England is an invaluable resource for students and lecturers alike.Trade Review'Hermits and Anchorites in England, 1200-1550, the latest addition to the Manchester Medieval Sources series, serves as a complement to this literary and spiritual emphasis (11), presenting an extraordinarily rich range of extracts translated from Latin, French and Middle English primary sources, which collectively illuminate the more external and material aspects of the solitary vocation. […] . This unparalleled command of the field makes him the ideal expositor of these complex, often obscure sources, allowing him to shape them into a series of coherent narratives. The international community of anchoritic scholars will be indebted to this work and the insights it enables for many decades to come.'TMR - Christiania Whitehead -- .Table of ContentsIntroductionI Becoming an anchoriteII A cell of one's ownIII A day in the anchoritic lifeIV For the whole term of this lifeV Scenes of eremitical lifeVI Rules and regulationsVII Renegades, charismatics and charlatansVIII DissolutionIndex

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Book SynopsisThis invigorating study places medieval romance narrative in dialogue with theories and practices of gift and exchange, opening new approaches to questions of storytelling, agency, gender and materiality in some of the most engaging literature from the Middle Ages. It argues that the dynamics of the gift are powerfully at work in romances: through exchanges of objects and people; repeated patterns of love, loyalty and revenge; promises made or broken; and the complex effects that time works on such objects, exchanges and promises. Ranging from the twelfth century to the fifteenth, and including close discussions of poetry by Chaucer, the Gawain-Poet and romances in the Auchinleck Manuscript, this book will prompt new ideas and debate amongst students and scholars of medieval literature, as well as anyone curious about the pleasures that romance narratives bring.Trade Review'The depth of Perkins’s engagements with anthropological thought in particular should make the book of some interest to scholars who do not specialize in later Middle English, especially those curious to learn more about the intersection of anthropology and literature more broadly ... Perkins juggles an impressive number of very different disciplinary and otherwise theoretical apparatuses alongside his own consistent dedication to closely parsing the texts of medieval poems and their manuscript contexts, and his book will give all readers much matter to ponder in its own vibrant life in circulation. Its polish and wide ambit show it to be the product of long reflection, and I am sure it will prove newly productive and generative in the hands of readers.'The Medieval Review 'Perkins has written an engaging and well-informed study of the relationship between gift giving and reciprocity within Middle English romances. What sets this book apart from other scholarly endeavors on theories of the gift in medieval literature is its focus on genre and the ways in which the form of the text and the text's audience are inherently interconnected. Perkins's readings of the works that constitute the Horn legend are exemplary and add much to that tradition. Scholars of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and The Franklin's Tale, Lydgate's Troy Book, and the Gawain-poet will find this volume to be indispensable.' CHOICEReprinted with permission from Choice Reviews. All rights reserved. Copyright by the American Library Association 'Nicholas Perkins’s book is itself a gift, in which the elusive phenomenon of the gifted object has found its ideal, answering intelligence: lucidly scrupulous; attuned as much to the book as gift as to the gift in books; and ready to draw as much on anthropology as on the material history of the book. Like all gifts, it’s radiant.'James Simpson, Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English, Harvard University‘In this incisive study of the intricate patterns of narrative, selfhood, gifts, objects and bodies in medieval English romance, Nicholas Perkins develops the concept and practice of speculative anthropology, balancing theoretical insight with wonderful textual analysis. Perkins moves with grace and confidence between different layers of literary and social meaning, between text and manuscript context and between the constitution of objects and subjects through narrative exchange in romance texts. The gift of narrative is a wonderful exploration of the ways medieval romances circulate gifts, people, bodies and obligations that are both emotional and social.’Stephanie Trigg, Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor of English, University of Melbourne'In this remarkable study, the gift figures as nothing less than the founding gesture of romance and the impulse that drives these stories forward, in the process drawing readers themselves into the cycle of generosity and giving rise to responses in the form of new texts. Perkins’ writing is frequently delightful. It’s a daring project whose aim (in an image that recurs throughout the book) is to pry open the closed circle of self-interested exchange so a chink of refracted light can shine through, as if through a door that’s been opened just a crack, illuminating new possibilities for both reading and living. Even the most cynical readers of medieval romance will want to give their time to this book, a brilliant response to Derrida’s injunction that we try to ‘think the gift,’ and one that opens new avenues for appreciating all sorts of stories.'Arthuriana -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction1 The gift of narrative in the romances of Horn2 ‘Kepe þou þat on & y þat oþer’: giving and keeping in Middle English romances3 The traffic in people: Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale and Troilus and Criseyde4 Exchanging words and deeds: The Franklin’s Tale and The Manciple’s Tale5 Things fall apart: the narratives of gift in Lydgate’s Troy BookConclusionIndex

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Book SynopsisThe Carolingian period (c. 750-900) has traditionally been described as one of ‘reform’ or ‘renaissance’, where cultural and intellectual changes were imposed from above in a programme of correctio. This view leans heavily on prescriptive texts issued by kings and their entourages, foregrounding royal initiative and the cultural products of a small intellectual elite. However, attention to understudied texts and manuscripts of the period reveals a vibrant striving for moral improvement and positive change at all levels of society. This expressed itself in a variety of ways for different individuals and communities, whose personal relationships could be just as influential as top-down prescription. The often anonymous creators and copyists in a huge range of centres emerge as active participants in shaping and re-shaping the ideals of their world.Table of ContentsIntroduction: rethinking the Carolingian reforms – Carine van Rhijn1 Gender and horizontal networks in Carolingian monasticisms (up to c. 840) – Ingrid Rembold2 Analysing Attigny: contextualising Chrodegang of Metz’s influence on the life of canons – Stephen Ling3 A Carolingian ‘reform of education’? The reception of Alcuin’s pedagogy – Cinzia Grifoni and Giorgia Vocino 4 Correcting the liturgy and sacred language – Els Rose and Arthur Westwell5 Error assessment: how to distinguish between true and false? – Irene van Renswoude6 Reformatio and correctio in Carolingian theology and orthodoxy: reformation or aggiornamento? – Kristina MitalaitéIndex

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Book SynopsisThis timely volume ventures into the subject of sadomasochism in varied aspects of medieval life. Saint’s Lives and mystical treatises provide evidence of failed sadism and empowering masochism. Literary culture in the form of epics and courtly tales preserve stories of eroticised power. These exciting chapters join together to form a picture of medieval culture that is kinky in its practice and deeply psychological at its core.Table of ContentsIntroduction: the jouissance of medieval kink - Christopher VaccaroPart I: Spiritual and penitential (con)texts1 Humiliation as penance in some early penitentials - Erin Abraham2 Land of saints and sadists: the S&M scene(s) in medieval Ireland - Phillip A. Bernhardt-House3 Failed sadism and masochistic martyrdom in Christine de Pizan’s Livre de la Cité des Dames - Tina-Marie Ranalli4 The monastic pleasures of frustrated knowledge - Karmen MacKendrick5 The pains of being pure at heart: sadomasochism in Richard of St. Victor’s On the four degrees of violent love - Christopher Michael Roman6 Negotiating power and pleasure in the Book of Margery Kempe - Nicole SlippPart II: Courtly and secular (con)texts7 I am not having what she’s having: female sexual (un)pleasure medieval and modern - Juliana Dresvina8 Queer consolation: BDSM in Chaucer’s The Clerk’s tale, sadistic epistemology and the ends of suffering - Masha Raskolnikov9 Ideological sadism or cultural enhancement: thirteenth-century Mongols in Kievan Rus and Baghdad - Vicky Panossian10 Fetishizing the past: Troilus and Criseyde, sadomasochism, and the historophilia of modern BDSM - Kersti Francis11 ‘My warlike grip broke his beating heart’: masochism and the deadly embrace in Beowulf ll. 2501-2508a - Christopher Vaccaro12 Death drive and the maiden: the queerness of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim - Philip Liston-KraftIndex

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Book SynopsisThis collection brings together academics and practitioners to consider the increasingly central role that memory and recalling the past plays in determining contemporary politics and the future direction of Northern Irish society. Using theoretical, comparative and case-study approaches, it considers not only how narratives of the past are constructed, reconstructed, understood and commemorated, but also the ways in which the key themes that emerge are harnessed and mobilised to political and social effect in the present. The book draws deeply on a wide range of expert opinion and viewpoints to add significantly to existing knowledge surrounding the debates over memory and the ways it is used in Northern Irish society.Table of ContentsIntroduction: through a single lens? Understanding the Troubles of the past, present and future – James W. McAuley, Máire Braniff and Graham Spencer1 Agonistic remembering and Northern Ireland’s 1968 @ 50 – Chris Reynolds2 Pogroms, presence, myth and memory: August 1969 and the outbreak of the Northern Ireland conflict – Shaun McDaid3 ‘Touching the third rail?’ The problems of dealing with the past in Northern Ireland – Eamonn O’Kane4 On notions of dealing with the past in Northern Ireland and the place of historians – Stuart Aveyard5 Collective memory, ethno-national forgetting and the limits of history in misremembering the past – Aaron Edwards6 Irish republicanisms and radical nostalgia – Stephen Hopkins7 Irish republican commemoration and narratives of legitimacy – Kris Brown8 Ulster loyalism, memory and commemoration – James W. McAuley and Neil Ferguson9 Remember the women: memory-making within loyalism – Lisa Faulkner-Byrne, John Bell and Philip McCready10 Visual memory at sites of troubles past: participatory and collective memories in Croatia and Argentina – Máire Braniff11 The tears of the mothers: conflict and memory in comparison – Catherine McGlynn12 The problem of legacy and remembering the past in Northern Ireland – Graham SpencerIndex

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Book SynopsisThis book reexamines slave trading in the early Middle Ages from a comparative perspective, situating it at the core of economic and political development in northern and eastern Europe. -- .

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Book SynopsisThis book offers a novel interpretation of conservative and right-wing responses to the Edwardian crisis in Britain (1901-1914). It stresses how the upsurge of right-wing extremism within and outside the Conservative party materialized into the formation of a myriad of bellicose and semi-militaristic organisations which conceived violence as a legitimate instrument of politics. -- .

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Book SynopsisA new analysis of the difficulties in normalising opposition in the Irish Free State, this book analyses the collision between nineteenth-century monolithic nationalist movements with the norms and expectations of multiparty parliamentary democracy. The Irish revolutionaries’ attempts to create a Gaelic, postcolonial state involved resolving tension between these two ideas. Smaller economically-driven parties such as the Labour and Farmers’ parties attempted to move on from the revolution’s unnatural focus on nationalist political issues while the larger revolutionary parties descended from Sinn Féin attempt to recreate or restore notions of revolutionary unity. This conflict made democracy and opposition hard to establish in the Irish Free State. Table of Contents1 Democracy, historians and the civil war 2 Opposition and revolution 3 Decolonising the state 4 Making politics normal 5 Vote government 6 Cults of little personality Coda: multiparty democracy in the Irish Free StateIndex

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a detailed analysis of women’s involvement in litigation and other legal actions within their local communities in late-medieval England. It draws upon the rich records of three English towns – Nottingham, Chester and Winchester – and their courts to bring to life the experiences of hundreds of women within the systems of local justice. Through comparison of the records of three towns, and of women’s roles in different types of legal action, the book reveals the complex ways in which individual women’s legal status could vary according to their marital status, different types of plea and the town that they lived in. At this lowest level of medieval law, women’s status was malleable, making each woman’s experience of justice unique.Trade Review'Medieval town life has been heralded for offering women increased opportunities for economic activity and social advancement. However, the study of women in urban judicial courts complicates this picture by reporting occasions in which women violated principles of peace and equity or were themselves victims of violation. Phipps (Swansea Univ., UK) samples the legal records of the medium-sized English towns Nottingham, Chester, and Winchester, showing them to be rich sources of social history for better understanding urban justice. The cases indicate that women’s legal action was not defined primarily or solely by gender, as they were perpetrators or victims of the same kinds of misbehavior as men. Although marriage technically transferred a woman’s legal responsibility to her husband—the concept of coverture—town courts held flexible ideas about how to apply this at least until the mid-15th century, not hesitating to find a woman fully responsible for some crimes. The study of debt litigation, regulation of work and trade, public disorder, and verbal disturbances sheds light on women’s roles in urban settings, where justice and peacekeeping were seriously pursued for the profit and well-being of all within their walls.'--L. C. Attreed, College of the Holy CrossSumming Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.'Dr Phipps’ book is undoubtedly a valuable contribution to the scholarship in this field and will appeal to a wide readership.'Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Dr Shaun D. McGuinness'In this meticulously researched book, Teresa Phipps surfaces the working lives of women in three medieval English towns—Nottingham, Chester, and Winchester—through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of their appearances in legal records, often in the context of commercial disputes.'Speculum -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Women, town courts and customary law in context2 Commerce, credit and coverture: women and debt litigation 3 Law and the regulation of women’s work4 Violence, property and ‘bad speech’: women and trespass litigation5 Public disorder, policing and misbehaving womenConclusionBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisBranded the Devil's Highway, nineteenth century Ratcliffe Highway was associated with crime and vice. In contrast, this book argues that sailortown was a distinctive and functional community. This community fostered an urban-maritime culture that shaped a sense of themselves and the conventions that governed subaltern behaviour in the district. -- .

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Book SynopsisMurky waters explores the ambivalent representations of spas in eighteenth-century medicine and literature. It gives a wide cultural perspective of the numerous spas, springs and wells of Britain, well beyond Bath, and focuses on specific political and cultural tensions while reasserting the centrality of health in spa towns. -- .

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Book SynopsisWhen William the Conqueror died in 1087 he left the throne of England to William Rufus his second son. The result was an immediate war as Rufus's elder brother Robert fought to gain the crown he saw as rightfully his; this conflict marked the start of 400 years of bloody disputes as the English monarchy's line of hereditary succession was bent, twisted and finally broken when the last Plantagenet king, Richard III, fell at Bosworth in 1485. The Anglo-Norman and Plantagenet dynasties were renowned for their internecine strife, and in Lost Heirs we will unearth the hidden stories of fratricidal brothers, usurping cousins and murderous uncles; the many kings - and the occasional queen - who should have been but never were. History is written by the winners, but every game of thrones has its losers too, and their fascinating stories bring richness and depth to what is a colourful period of history. King John would not have gained the crown had he not murdered his young nephew, who was in line to become England's first King Arthur; Henry V would never have been at Agincourt had his father not seized the throne by usurping and killing his cousin; and as the rival houses of York and Lancaster fought bloodily over the crown during the Wars of the Roses, life suddenly became very dangerous indeed for a young boy named Edmund.

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Book SynopsisThe wars fought in Scotland's northern and western highlands between the ninth and fourteenth centuries were a key stage in the military history of the region, yet they have rarely been studied in-depth before. Out of this confused and turbulent period came the more settled and familiar history of the region. The Highlands and islands were controlled by the kings of Norway or by Norse or Norse-Celtic warlords, who not only resisted Scottish royal authority but on occasion seemed likely to overthrow it. That is why Chris Peers's ambitious study is of such value for he provides a coherent and vivid account of the series of campaigns and battles that shaped Scotland. The narrative is structured around a number of battles - Skitten Moor, Torfness, Tankerness, Renfrew, Mam Garvia, Clairdon and Dalrigh - which illustrate phases of the conflict and reveal the strategies and tactics of the rival chieftains. Chris Peers explores the international background to many of these conflicts which had consequences for Scotland's relations with England, Ireland and continental Europe. At the same time he considers to what extent the fighting methods of the time survived into the post-medieval period.

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Book SynopsisThe names of few medieval monarchs and their queens are better known than Eleanor of Aquitaine, uniquely queen of France and queen of England, and her second husband Henry II. Although academically labelled medieval', their era was the violent transition from the Dark Ages, when countries' borders were defined with fire and sword. Henry grabbed the English throne thanks largely to Eleanor's dowry because she owned one third of France. Their daughters also lived extraordinary lives. If princes fought for their succession to crowns, the princesses were traded - usually by their mothers - to strangers for political power without the bloodshed. Years before what would today be marriageable age, royal girls were despatched to countries whose speech was unknown to them and there became the property of unknown men; their duty the bearing of sons to continue a dynasty and daughters who would be traded in their turn. Some became literal prisoners of their spouses; others outwitted would-be rapists and the Church to seize the reins of power when their husbands died. Eleanor's daughters Marie and Alix were abandoned in Paris when she divorced Louis VII of France. By Henry II, she bore Matilda, Alienor and Joanna. Between them, these extraordinary women and their daughters knew the extremes of power and pain. Joanna was imprisoned by William II of Sicily and worse treated by her brutal second husband in Toulouse. If Eleanor was libelled as a whore, Alienor's descendants include two saints, Louis of France and Fernando of Spain. And then there were the illegitimate daughters, whose lives read like novels

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Book SynopsisA queen on the edge.Anne Boleyn has mesmerised the English public for centuries. Her tragic execution, orchestrated by her own husband, never ceases to intrigue. How did this courtier''s daughter become the queen of England, and what was it that really tore apart this illustrious marriage, making her the whore of England, an abandoned woman executed on the scaffold? While many stories of Anne Boleyn''s downfall have been told, few have truly traced the origins of her tragic fate.In Thorns, Lust and Glory, Estelle Paranque takes us back to where it all started: to France, where Anne learned the lessons that would set her on the path to becoming one of England''s most infamous queens. At the court of the French king as a resourceful teenage girl, Anne''s journey to infamy began, and this landmark biography explores the world that shaped her, and how these loyalties would leave her vulnerable, leading to her ruin at the court of Henry VIII.A fascin

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Book Synopsis'The most sheerly enjoyable history of science of recent years' The Spectator'This is one of the best science books I have read in a decade' Paul DaviesLife is Simple tells the remarkable story of how a thirteenth century monk's search for simplicity led to the emergence of the modern world.We begin in the turbulent times of the medieval friar, William of Occam, who first articulated the principle that the best answer to any problem is the simplest. This theory, known as Occam's razor, cut through the thickets of medieval metaphysics to clear a path for modern science. We follow the razor in the hands of the giants of science, from Copernicus, to Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Rubin and Higgs. Its success suggests that we live in the simplest possible habitable universe and supports the revolutionary theory that our cosmos has evolved.By highlighting the very human passion, curiosity, mistakes and struggles of those who were inspired by Occam's razor to create the modern world, Johnjoe McFadden provides new insight into what science is really about. And that the principle of simplicity is as relevant today as ever.Trade ReviewLIFE IS SIMPLE tells, in an entertaining and engaging way, the remarkable story of a simple idea that begins its epic journey 800 years ago with a medieval Franciscan friar and yet somehow still influences some of the most profound ideas in science today. -- Jim al-KhaliliOccam's razor, like Hobson's choice and Schrödinger's cat, is a phrase that's entered the language. We know more or less what it means without necessarily knowing anything about its inventor or realising the immense power it has as a philosophical and scientific principle. LIFE IS SIMPLE describes brilliantly the context in which William of Occam lived and worked, and the transforming effect that his simple-seeming doctrine has had on the development of our understanding of nature and the universe. -- Philip PullmanThe most sheerly enjoyable history of science of recent years -- Simon Ings, The SpectatorI read LIFE IS SIMPLE and found myself captured by the central premise: that science, though perceived as complicated, is actually the pursuit of simplicity. Johnjoe has created a fascinating book that weaves history, science and humanity together to illuminate what science really is - a topic that could not be more timely. The world is currently waking up to the complexities of science and its role in our world, and this book is an enlightening aid to that new understanding. -- Michael Brooks, physicist and science writerIn LIFE IS SIMPLE, geneticist Johnjoe McFadden offers a breezy but well-researched look at how the razor has inspired some of science's biggest ideas...his examples illustrate with persuasive power how 'simplicity continues to present us with the most profound, enigmatic and sometimes unsettling insights' into how the universe works -- Scientific AmericanLIFE IS SIMPLE is a history that takes you through many centuries of understanding the changing language and philosophy of science. I highly recommend you buy it -- Robin Ince, broadcaster and author of The Importance of Being Interested: Adventures in Scientific CuriosityWith flair and accessibility, McFadden walks readers through Occam's many intellectually revolutionary ideas...A dense, provocative, and satisfying foray into the history of science -- Kirkus ReviewsA compelling assessment of an idea many of us know but few deeply understand -- John Keogh, BooklistI learned a great deal from reading this book and I thought that the concept of simplicity as the main plot of the story worked well -- Bernard Lightman, Distinguished Research Professor, University of York, Canada. President History of Science Society and editor of Isis, the preeminent international History of Science journal.McFadden's love for William is hard to resist. If you are at all interested in the history of ideas, this is a fabulous read. Even after you've taken a few detours through other material to become better oriented in the controversy over what exactly he's good for, William plausibly still stands as a daring, original figure who deserves a place in the Pantheon, and McFadden has done a great service in bringing the whole William and his influence to wider attention. In short, Life is Simple is enthralling. -- Prospect MagazineCenturies ago, the principle of Ockham's razor changed our world by showing simpler answers to be preferable and more often true. In Life Is Simple, scientist Johnjoe McFadden traces centuries of discoveries, taking us from a geocentric cosmos to quantum mechanics and DNA, arguing that simplicity has revealed profound answers to the greatest mysteries . . . Recasting both the history of science and our universe's origins, McFadden transforms our understanding of ourselves and our world -- Irish Tech NewsA tour through two millennia of scientific discovery . . . interesting and illuminating -- Wall Street JournalFor all its technical triumphs, science does not take place in a cultural vacuum. McFadden's wonderful and thoroughly-researched account of the history of ideas reveals how simplicity as an overarching principle weaves through all the sciences, telling us something profound about the nature of reality. His vivid descriptions and clear exposition make the subject come alive, and resonate with significance. This is one of the best science books I have read in a decade. -- Paul Davies, Regents’ Professor of Physics at Arizona State University and author of What’s Eating the Universe?Like a talented stylist or editor, courageous scientists have identified what is redundant . . . and promptly scratched it out. McFadden's book brings this observation to life using two millennia of scientific advancement, never castigating those who were wrong, but instead highlighting how they helped to shape the correct answers that came later -- Caroline Delbert, Popular MechanicsMcFadden includes much interesting material drawn from Ockham and other historical sources. His evident enthusiasm is particularly welcome as this book is directed not only at fellow scientists but also at a wider readership -- Geoffrey Cantor, Times HigherJohnjoe McFadden's delightfully lucid book is itself a model of deceptive simplicity. The words glide off the page in this trenchant analysis of nature's complexities that brings fresh life to centuries of scientific discovery and also points the way towards a clearer future -- Patricia Fara, Emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge and award-winning author of Science: A Four Thousand Year HistoryThoroughly fascinating . . . Far from being a narrow specialist, [McFadden] has a firm grasp of the complexities of many branches of science . . . Breath-taking in its comprehensiveness and clarity -- Irish Times

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Book SynopsisA joy to read Times Literary Supplement[A] stirring and accessible history of the mighty Rhine Irish TimesIt''s easy to be swept away by Deen''s delightful prose New StatesmanA beautiful book, by turns poetic, witty and full of learning . . . This unique biography of a river marks a new kind of writing about people and place, both in and out of time PATRICK McGUINNESSThe Boundless River takes the reader into a unique world ? the twilight zone between fact and fiction, science and imagination ? and on a journey which moves effortlessly from a time in prehistory, long before the existence of a European continent, to the present day. Along the way Deen encounters paleontologists, geologists, museum curators, taxidermists, fishermen and skippers who work the boats, who still see the Rhine as a living entity.From the mighty hippos that swam in its waters millions of years ago, to the we

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Book SynopsisA joy to read Times Literary Supplement[A] stirring and accessible history of the mighty Rhine Irish TimesIt''s easy to be swept away by Deen''s delightful prose New StatesmanA beautiful book, by turns poetic, witty and full of learning PATRICK McGUINNESSThe Boundless River takes the reader into a unique world ? the twilight zone between fact and fiction, science and imagination ? and on a journey which moves effortlessly from a time in prehistory, long before the existence of a European continent, to the present day. Along the way Deen encounters paleontologists, geologists, museum curators, taxidermists, fishermen and skippers who work the boats, who still see the Rhine as a living entity.From the mighty hippos that swam in its waters millions of years ago, to the weary salmon that saw their habitat slowly change and the aurochs that grazed its shores; from the primordial Steinheim Woman to the Roman general Corbulo who commanded settlements along its delta, to a young Goethe: in all of their stories the Rhine is ever present, sometimes as the main character, sometimes as an extra, as a theatre of war, a border between nations, a bathing spot, a killer, a vital transport route.Beautifully fluid, rich and captivating, The Boundless River shows how the Rhine connects and divides, terrifies, comforts, carries and swallows, and has done since the beginning of time.Translated from the Dutch by Jane Hedley-Prôle and Jonathan Reeder

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Book SynopsisA deeply thoughtful, gripping and scrupulous book told in Sayarer''s trademark style from the saddle and the roadside CAROLINE EDENBy a winner of the Stanford Dolman Award for Travel WritingThe best travelogues should make you question your preconceptions of a place and force you to engage with what the author is saying. Türkiye succeeds on both fronts Cycle MagazineWe need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example HORATIO CLAREOn the eve of its centenary year and elections that will shape the coming generations, Julian Emre Sayarer sets out to cycle across Türkiye, from the Aegean coast to the Armenian border.Meeting Turkish farmers and workers, Syrian refugees and Russians avoiding conscription, the journey brings to life a living, breathing, cultural tapestry of the place where Asia, Africa and Europe converge. The result is a love letter to a country and its neighbours - one that offers a clear-eyed view of Türkiye and its place in a changing world. Yet the route is also marked by tragedy, as Sayarer cycles along a major fault line just months before one of the most devastating earthquakes in the region''s modern history.Always engaged with the big historical and political questions that inform so much of his writing, Sayarer uses his bicycle and the roadside encounters it allows to bring everything back to the human level. At the end of his journey we are left with a deeper understanding of the country, as well as the essential and universal nature of political power, both in Türkiye and closer to home.A persuasive corrective to western views of a place he loves Guardian

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Book SynopsisIn the tradition of Why Nations Fail, this book solves one of the great puzzles of history: Why did the West become the most powerful civilization in the world?Western exceptionalism-the idea that European civilizations are freer, wealthier, and less violent-is a widespread and powerful political idea. It has been a source of peace and prosperity in some societies, and of ethnic cleansing and havoc in others.Yet in The Invention of Power, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita draws on his expertise in political maneuvering, deal-making, and game theory to present a revolutionary new theory of Western exceptionalism: that a single, rarely discussed event in the twelfth century changed the course of European and world history. By creating a compromise between churches and nation-states that, in effect, traded money for power and power for money, the 1122 Concordat of Worms incentivized economic growth, facilitated secularization, and improved the lot of the citizenry, all of which set European countries on a course for prosperity. In the centuries since, countries that have had a similar dynamic of competition between church and state have been consistently better off than those that have not.The Invention of Power upends conventional thinking about European culture, religion, and race and presents a persuasive new vision of world history.

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Book SynopsisThe feast of Corpus Christi, celebrated annually on Thursday after Trinity Sunday, was devoted to the Eucharist, and the normal practice was to have solemn processions through the city with the Host, the consecrated wafer that was believed to have been transformed into the true body and blood of Jesus. In this way the "cultus Dei" thus celebrated allowed the people to venerate the Eucharistic bread in order that they might be stimulated to devotion and brought symbolically, even mystically into a relationship with the central moments of salvation history. Perhaps it is logical, therefore, that pageants and plays were introduced in order to access yet another way of visualizing and participating in those events. Thus the "invisible things" of the divine order "from the creation of the world" might be displayed. The York Corpus Christi Plays, contained in London, British Library, MS. Add. 35290 and comprising more than thirteen thousand lines of verse, actually represent a unique survival of medieval theater. They form the only complete play cycle verifiably associated with the feast of Corpus Christi that is extant and was performed at a specific location in England.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction The York Corpus Christi Plays 1. The Creation of the Angels and the Fall of Lucifer 2. The Creation through the Fifth Day 3. The Creation of Adam and Eve 4. The Prohibition of the Tree of Knowledge 5. The Fall 6. The Expulsion from the Garden 7. Sacrificium Cayme et Abell 8. The Building of Noah's Ark 9. The Flood 10. Abraham and Isaac 11. Pharaoh and Moses 12. The Annunciation to Mary and the Visitation 13. Joseph's Troubles about Mary 14. The Nativity 15. The Offering of the Shepherds 16. Herod Questioning the Three Kings and the Offering of the Magi 17. The Purification of the Virgin 18. The Flight to Egypt 19. The Massacre of the Innocents 20. Christ and the Doctors 21. The Baptism of Christ 22. The Temptation in the Wilderness 22A. The Marriage in Cana 23. The Transfiguration 23A. The Feast in Simon's House 24. The Woman Taken in Adultery and the Raising of Lazarus 25. The Entry into Jerusalem 26. The Conspiracy 27. The Last Supper 28. The Agony and Betrayal 29. The Trial before Cayphas and Anna 30. The First Trial before Pilate 31. The Trial before Herod 32. The Remorse of Judas 33. The Second Trial before Pilate 34. The Road to Calvary 35. Crucifixio Christi 36. Mortificacio Christi 37. The Harrowing of Hell 38. The Resurrection 39. The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalen 40. The Travelers to Emmaus 41. Doubting Thomas 42. The Ascension 43. Pentecost 44. The Death of Mary 44A. The Funeral of the Virgin ("Fergus") 45. The Assumption of the Virgin (Thomas Apostolus) 46. The Coronation of the Virgin 47. Doomsday Explanatory Notes Textual Notes Appendix: Notes on the Dialect of the York Corpus Christi Plays by Paul A. Johnston, Jr. Bibliography Glossary

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Book SynopsisAn accurate, exciting diary-like chronicle of the day-to-day machinations of the German generals as they struggle to prepare to meet the enemy in the West.In December 1943 with the rising realization that the Allies are planning to invade Fortress Europe, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is assigned the title of General Inspector for the Atlantic Wall. His mission is to assess their readiness.What he finds disgusts him. The famed Atlantikwall is nothing but a paper tiger, woefully unprepared for the forces being massed across the English Channel. His taskto turn back the Allied invasionalready seems hopeless.His superior, theater commander, crusty old Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, who had led the Reich to victory in the early years of the war, is now fed up with the whole Nazi regime. He lives comfortably in a plush villa in a quiet Paris suburb, waiting for the inevitable Allied invasion that will bring about their final defeat.General der Artillerie Erich Marcks, badly injured in Russi

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Book SynopsisThe paradoxes of nineteenth-century colonialism in the Middle East revealed through the accounts of three working class European travelers to Egypt This book tells the stories of two French women and a French African man, travelers connected to the Saint-Simonian utopian socialists, who came to work for the Egyptian government in the 1830s. They have been marginalized and excluded from the historical record, because they were women, not part of the colonial elite, or of mixed racial heritage. This history brings them alive through extensive archival research and vibrant storytelling. There is Suzanne Voilquin, a practicing midwife in Cairo who was involved in left-wing popular politics in Paris and became the editor of one of the first feminist newspapers ever published (183234). The second traveler, Thomas Ismayl Urbain, was born in French Guyana, where his mother was born a slave and his father was a French sea captain. Jehan d'Ivray is the pen name of the third traveler, a teenage woman who married an Egyptian studying medicine in France, and traveled with him to Egypt in 1879. She wrote more than twenty books, including a retrospective look at Suzanne Voilquin and women in the Saint-Simonian movement, bringing the story full circle to another generation. Their stories brilliantly illustrate the paradoxes of nineteenth century colonialism in Egypt. Suzanne Voilquin grew up in the Parisian working class and sympathized deeply with Egyptians but initially exoticized the differences between Egypt and her home country, while Urbain, a literary pioneer in black pride, nevertheless joined the French army and saw his role in the colonial occupation as a means of helping indigenous people. These characters transcend the neat binary of East and West and offer a rich, nuanced window onto the experiences of French travelers in Egypt during the nineteenth century.

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Book SynopsisCompared with Roosevelt, Stalin or Churchill Jan Smuts was a peripheral figure.He was born an Afrikaans and fought in the Boer War. Active in South African politics, made peace with the British, hebecame a general in their army, won a victory in East Africa and became a member of the British war cabinet.

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The Goths are truly a 'lost civilization'. Sweeping down from the north, ancient Gothic tribes sacked the imperial city of Rome and set in motion the decline and fall of the western Roman Empire. Ostrogothic and Visigothic kings ruled over Italy and Spain, dominating early medieval Europe. Yet the last Gothic kingdom fell more than a thousand years ago, and the Goths disappeared as an independent people. Over the centuries that followed, the vanished Goths were remembered both as barbaric destroyers and as heroic champions of liberty. This engaging history brings together the interwoven stories of the original Goths and the diverse Gothic legacy: a legacy that continues to shape our modern world. From the ancient migrations to contemporary Goth culture, through debates over democratic freedom and European nationalism and across the work of writers from Shakespeare to Bram Stoker, David M. Gwynn explores the ever-widening gulf between the Goths of history and the Goths of popular imagination. Historians, students of architecture and literature and general readers alike will learn something new from The Goths.

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Book SynopsisThe life of Robert Bruce is one of the greatest comeback stories in history. Heir and magnate, shrewd politician, briefly 'king of summer' and then a desperate fugitive who nevertheless returned from exile to recover the kingdom he claimed, Bruce became a gifted military leader and a wise statesman, a leader with vision and energy. Colm McNamee combines the most up to date scholarship on this crucial figure in the history of the British Isles with lucid explanation of the medieval context, so that readers of all backgrounds can appreciate Bruce's enormous contribution to the historical impact not just on Scotland, but on England and Ireland too. It is designed to encourage popular reassessment of Bruce as politician, warrior, monarch and saviour of Scottish identity from extinction at the hands of the Edwardian superstate. Peeling back the layers of misconception and propaganda, the author paints an accurate, sympathetic but balanced portrait of a much beloved national hero who has fallen out of fashion of late for no good reason.

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Book SynopsisThe Bruces of fourteenth-century Scotland were formidable and enthusiastic warriors. Whilst much has been written about events as they happened in Scotland during the chaotic years of the first part of the fourteenth century, England’s war with Robert the Bruce profoundly affected the whole of the British Isles. Scottish raiders struck deep into the heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire; Robert’s younger brother, Edward Bruce, was proclaimed King of Ireland and came close to subduing the country; the Isle of Man was captured and a Welsh sea-port was raided; and in the North Sea Scots allied with German and Flemish pirates to cripple England’s vital wool trade and disrupt its war effort. Packed with detail and written with a strong and involving narrative thread, this is the first book to link up the various theatres of war and discuss the effect of the wars of the Bruces outside Scotland.Trade Review'incredibly well researched and rich in historical analysis' * Scottish Field *'This is a fine book that should be of interest to a much wider audience than historians' -- Michael Prestwich, University of Durham'for well crafted history, this volume would be hard to beat' -- Danny Murphy * S.A.T.H. *

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Book SynopsisThe story of the Bamburgh Sword – one of the finest swords ever forged. In 2000, archaeologist Paul Gething rediscovered a sword. An unprepossessing length of rusty metal, it had been left in a suitcase for thirty years. But Paul had a suspicion that the sword had more to tell than appeared, so he sent it for specialist tests. When the results came back, he realised that what he had in his possession was possibly the finest, and certainly the most complex, sword ever made, which had been forged in seventh-century Northumberland by an anonymous swordsmith. This is the story of the Bamburgh Sword – of how and why it was made, who made it and what it meant to the warriors and kings who wielded it over three centuries. It is also the remarkable story of the archaeologists and swordsmiths who found, studied and attempted to recreate the weapon using only the materials and technologies available to the original smith. Trade Review'Revelatory and fascinating ... the kind of book that Wayland the Smith would have adored' -- Tom Holland, author of Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic'[a] wonderfully well-written, entertainingly discursive and absorbing account of swordcraft and archaeology' -- Jason Goodwin * Country Life *'a thought-provoking account of swords and warfare in early medieval Britain' * Medieval Archaeology *'This fascinating book should appeal to many . . . abundantly confirms that the Dark Ages were not so dark when it came to metalworking' * Model Engineer *

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Book SynopsisThis book is an enthralling journey through the year and the pageants, parades, festivals and fairs which have played a huge part in Scottish life. It introduces the customs, traditions, lore and crafts associated with them, making it the ideal companion for anyone interested in this fascinating and rich aspect of Scotland's cultural story.

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Book SynopsisExplores the tensions that led to the outbreak of hostilities, and guides the reader through the twists and turns of events, from Edgehill to Naseby (1645) and from the First Bishops' War in Scotland in 1639 to Parliament's daring amphibious assault on royalist Barbados in 1651.

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