European history: medieval period, middle ages Books

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewPálffy offers a complex representation of the two centuries by not only depicting the military and political struggle for the liberation and the restoration of the unity of the Kingdom of Hungary. The result is a differentiated description of the developing institutions, infrastructure, economy, social structure and demographic development. -- Marta Fata * Sehepunkte *Written in an elegant and seductive way, well-balanced, with assessments that are not only unique, but also solidly argued, with an exceptional iconographic support (maps, illustrations etc.) wonderfully distributed throughout the book, professor Gèza Pálffy's book will surely impose itself as an original synthesis with a substantial echo among the readers who are both historians and history enthusiasts. -- Ionut Costea * Philobiblon *This important volume introduces English readers to one of the most critical periods of Central European history when "Hungary became the periphery and battleground of two empires, the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy." . . . Pálffy has written a masterpiece that goes well beyond introductory accounts so common in English-language academic publishing. The author provides both a window on the fascinating complexities of early modern Hungarian history as well as a refreshing reevaluation of traditional Hungarian historiography. In a more general sense, anyone interested in Central and Eastern Europe will appreciate how Pálffy illustrates the richness of Hungarian political, demographic, economic, and cultural developments. The book will benefit specialists, students, and general readers interested in the history of Hungary, its relationships with the Habsburg and Ottoman empires, and Hungary's place in early modern Europe. Students and scholars alike are well advised to put Pálffy's volume on their reading lists. -- Georg B. Michels * Hungarian Studies Review *Filling a glaring lacuna in the English-language literature on late medieval and early modern Hungary, Pálffy's study critically challenges modern scholarship in ways that feel both timely and relevant given the troubling political climate in modern Hungary and much of the West. -- Christopher M. Van Demark * Hungarian Cultural Studies *Pálffy has written a masterpiece that goes well beyond introductory ac- counts so common in English-language academic publishing. The author provides both a window on the fascinating complexities of early mod- ern Hungarian history as well as a refreshing reevaluation of traditional Hungarian historiography. In a more general sense, anyone interested in Central and Eastern Europe will appreciate how Pálffy illustrates the rich- ness of Hungarian political, demographic, economic, and cultural devel- opments. -- Georg B Michels - University of California * Hungarian Studies Review *Table of ContentsList of FiguresList of MapsList of TablesAcknowledgmentsNote on Terms and NamesList of AbbreviationsPolitical and Military Chronology, 1526–1711IntroductionPart I: Hungary after Mohács: A Century of Direction Seeking, 1526–16061. On the Frontier of Two Empires2. Roads from Istanbul to Vienna: The Ottomans in Hungary3. The Bumpy Road to Vienna: The Habsburgs and the Hungarians4. The Road to Istanbul: The State of King John Szapolyai and His Son5. On a Narrow Path: The Principality of Transylvania6. Society Finds Its Way7. The Economy and Its Roads to Europe8. The Search for a New Home: Ethnic and Demographic Changes9. Finding Faith: Hungary's New Religion10. Seeking a Language: A Cultural Golden Age11. Looking in Vain for a Way Out: The Long Turkish War, 1591–1606 Part II: Decay and Rejuvenation: The Janus-Faced Seventeenth Century, 1606–17111. Peace or Civil War on the Border of the Two Empires?2. New Ottoman Campaigns to Achieve an Old Goal3. The Rise of the Hungarian Estates and the Break with Vienna4. Transylvania Flourishes, Then Decays5. Militarization and Self-Administration: Changes in Society6. Economic Decline and Reorganization7. Hungarian Populations Fall—Other Ethnic Groups Rise8. The Revival of Catholicism—a Prolonged War of Religion9. Half a Century of Cultural Progress—Half a Century of Military Crisis10. A Country Liberated but Ravaged: The Long Turkish War, 1683–169911. Independence Movement and Civil War: The Rákóczi Uprising, 1703–1711GlossaryList of Rulers and Highest DignitariesSelect Bibliography (Monographs and Collected Studies)Name IndexPlace Index

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE TEMPLER MEDAL BOOK PRIZE 2020A SPECTATOR, FINANCIAL TIMES AND DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020''A stunning achievement'' Max Hastings, Sunday TimesPart Two of Daniel Todman''s epic history of the Second World War opens with one of the greatest disasters in British military history - the fall of Singapore in February 1942. Unlike the aftermath of Dunkirk, there was no redeeming narrative available here - Britain had been defeated by a far smaller Japanese force in her grandly proclaimed, invincible Asian ''fortress''.The unique skill of Daniel Todman''s history lies in its never losing sight of the inter-connectedness of the British experience. The agony of Singapore, for example, is seen through the eyes of its inhabitants, of its defenders, of Churchill''s Cabinet and of ordinary people at home. Each stage of the war, from the nadir of early 1942 to the great serTrade ReviewA stunning achievement, offering a new generation of readers and students an authoritative and original version of the greatest event in human history. -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *The best one-stop shop for those wanting to understand our country during its last existential crisis ... epic, compendious, written with confidence and verve. -- David Aaronovitch * The Times *Magisterial. Virtually no aspect of British life is left untouched ... I cannot recommend this history highly enough. -- Keith Lowe * Literary Review *The book is a superb work of research and synthesis, and with its predecessor it completes an account of the British war that will prove hard to surpass... Todman takes us to the threshold of the world in which we live in. One of the prime ordinances of history is that it should help those who read it understand why we are where we are, who we are and how we are. Todman achieves that goal magnificently. -- Simon Heffer * Daily Telegraph *This second volume is as skilful as the first ... Todman brings youth, energy, industry and, above all, rare historical talent to his formidable task. -- Peter Clarke * The Guardian *Deserves to become a classic ... Todman is superb at human detail; but he is equally at home discussing grand strategy, war economics, campaigning, socio-cultural aspects and the political-military interface... a magnificent book. -- Allan Mallinson * The Spectator *Exceptional ... Todman's angle of vision does not follow the conventional Anglo-American narrative of the last three years of war. He rightly sees the imperial dimension as a critical factor in the formation of British strategy. -- Richard Overy * Times Literary Supplement *A staggering look at this country and the second world war... Todman is as good on the social aspects of the war as he is on the political and military. Both volumes come highly recommended. -- Paul Donnelley * Daily Express *Meticulously researched and densely detailed, shrewdly observed... excellent. -- Alan Allport * Wall Street Journal *Dan Todman has written a truly global history of Britain's Second World War. His second volume opens in December 1941. Even then, Britons knew that victory would come; not when, not at what cost, but they knew victory would be theirs one day. How they got there is at the core of this book. His account is particularly striking on the tides of war in the Middle East and in Asia; on the Labour party electoral victory of 1945, and on the origins of the Cold War. Fast-paced, accessible, comprehensive; in short, a triumph. -- Jay Winter, Charles J. Stille Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University

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Book SynopsisCarmina Burana, the largest surviving collection of secular Medieval Latin verse, features poems on subjects ranging from sex and gambling to crusades and corruption. This new, two-volume presentation of the medieval classic makes the anthology accessible in its entirety to Latin lovers and English readers alike.Trade Review[Traill] brings to this ambitious project deep knowledge of medieval Latin poetry and the Carmina Burana manuscript…These are, indeed, translations worth having…The DOML Carmina Burana is a wonderful resource. -- Thomas C. Moser, Jr. * Speculum *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewEngrossing and magnificently researched… Corton’s book combines meticulous social history with a wealth of eccentric detail. Thus we learn that London’s ubiquitous plane trees were chosen for their shiny, fog-resistant foliage. And since Jack the Ripper actually went out to stalk his victims on fog-free nights, filmmakers had to fake the sort of dank, smoke-wreathed London scenes audiences craved. It’s discoveries like these that make reading London Fog such an unusual, enthralling and enlightening experience. -- Miranda Seymour * New York Times Book Review *Corton’s eye for social history is superb. We are led with wit and intelligence through a London in which clerks in counting-houses are forbidden to leave their books lying open lest the sooty fogs blacken the pages… Corton is excellent on the extent to which, in the twentieth century and since, the close association between Victorian London and Gothic fog has clouded perceptions of Victorian life and art. -- Richard Smyth * Times Literary Supplement *Christine Corton takes a subject that is now scarcely more than a heritage item—like gaslight and hansom cabs—and puts it where it belongs among the great public-health movements of the 19th and 20th centuries… Of course, fog was not solely a public-health problem. With the help of wonderful contemporary illustrations, Corton vividly describes the chaos it brought—pedestrians groping, traffic crawling, accidents, crime and drunkenness soaring. The melting, blurring, looming transformations of fog seemed to symbolize the dissolution of society itself. Writers saw the possibilities, and Corton pursues their metaphorical fogs through every kind of moral, psychological and social disintegration. Charles Dickens, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Robert Louis Stevenson, all are here—plus a mass of fascinating and forgotten popular literature—their cultural meanings perceptively analyzed… This is a rich and multifaceted book. * The Economist *In Christine L. Corton’s beautifully illustrated London Fog: The Biography, the mysterious mist takes center stage in all its noxious, stygian, primeval delicacy…Drawing on novels and poems, paintings and films, Corton’s [book] is crammed with thought-provoking elucidations. It sounds hokey to say it, but she has shed a bright light on the fog. -- Alexandra Mullen * Wall Street Journal *Corton’s wonderfully detailed and original exploration of foggy London ranges from the earliest mists to the last great pea-souper of 1962… Her account is rich in memorable anecdotes and descriptions, gleaned from popular culture, literature, journals and contemporary letters as well as cartoons and art history: the book is also splendidly illustrated. -- P. D. Smith * The Guardian *Christine L. Corton, clad in an overcoat, with a linklighter before her, takes us into the gloomier, long 19th century, where she revels in its Gothic grasp. Beautifully illustrated, London Fog delves fascinatingly into that swirling miasma. -- Philip Hoare * New Statesman *Brilliant… Corton has a deft historical, literary and visual eye. While tracing the birth, maturity and death of fog, she pays careful attention to the ways it affected everyday lives and locations… But her real interest is in the way fog played in the imagination. For centuries, she shows, novelists, essayists, cartoonists and painters used fog as a metaphor for human relationships and the moral order… Corton’s book is an unsentimental and elegant reflection on a world that has passed. -- Joanna Bourke * Daily Telegraph *In London Fog, Christine L. Corton guides us through the history of the ‘pea-souper’ (the phrase first used in print in 1849 by Herman Melville); from Victorian women, fearful of attack in the impenetrable murk, to the poets, artists and film-makers who thrived on its metaphorical potential; from the political rows over domestic coal fires to the dreadful 1952 Great Smog which claimed thousands of lives and was so thick that, even indoors, office workers could not see to the end of the corridor. -- Sinclair McKay * Daily Telegraph *London’s ‘pea-soupers’—opaque, yellowish smogs—were an environmental catastrophe, a cloak for nefarious activities and an artistic inspiration. An odiferous wig of soot from coal fires, sulfur dioxide and mist settled regularly over the city from the 1840s to the 1960s. In this richly nuanced history, scholar Christine Corton takes us from polymath Robert Hooke spotting a pall of smoke over London in 1676 through the killer fogs that felled zoo animals, spurred crime and caused traffic accidents, and that ultimately galvanized scientists and the government to craft the 1956 Clean Air Act. -- Barbara Kiser * Nature *[Corton’s] fascinating history traces London’s unique brand of photochemical smog from its surprisingly early birth in the 13th century, when complaints about the burning of ‘sea coal’ in London hearths began, through its malign maturity in the 19th, to its death throes in the second half of the 20th… The many well-chosen images in London Fog include works by minor painters of London scenes and by various illustrators, photojournalists and cartoonists playing on the terror, confusion and comedy caused by fog. These add greatly to the interest of Corton’s book. -- Catherine Peters * Literary Review *Christine Corton’s excellent book explores three questions: how people accounted for London fog, what they did about it, and how it became such an enormous, apparently inexhaustible cultural resource and metaphor… Corton has assembled an astonishing display of fog fiction… Corton has written a thoughtful, vivid, very memorable book. -- Neal Ascherson * London Review of Books *As Christine Corton emphasizes in her well-informed, original, and stimulating survey, the history of London fog is humorous and cozy but has aspects of the awesome and apocalyptic too. -- Fiona MacCarthy * New York Review of Books *It’s a definite must-read for anyone concerned with air quality and environmental history. -- Ashley Macey * Brit + Co. *Ambitious… The book is substantial, well illustrated and beautifully written, with approachable scholarship… [An] illuminating book. -- Philippa Stockley * Country Life *Christine L. Corton’s London Fog is an illuminating expedition through the literal and metaphorical meanings of pollution in the company of such artists as Dickens, Conrad, Monet and Hitchcock. -- Mark Sanderson * Evening Standard *[A] thorough and enjoyable book, not only for its historical account of what London fog was and when it began but for the rich seam of literature, spleen and death that they caused. -- Philippa Stockley * Evening Standard *What makes Christine Corton’s London Fog: The Biography special is that it demystifies the sulphurous yellow mass that once plagued the city. In this nicely written and beautifully illustrated book, fog gets its proper due as the coal-laden, murderous monstrosity it really was, beloved of novelists from Dickens to Stevenson. -- Philippa Stockley * Evening Standard *The sheer scale of the pollution described by Corton is hard to grasp… Corton leads the way, like a linklighter of old, through the poisonous clouds of times gone by, and arrives, eventually, at present day Oxford Street, where nitrogen dioxide concentrations are ‘worse than they are anywhere on earth.’ -- Charlie Gilmour * The Independent on Sunday *Excellent, if dark. * The Lady *This is an unexpectedly riveting book, scholarly, thorough yet eminently readable. * Londonist *No one, not even the most frenzied fog obsessive, could find fault with Christine Corton’s thoroughness. Wherever there’s a reference to fog in nature or art, she seems to have tracked it down. But her book is far more than just a glorified laundry list of foggy facts. Rather it’s a genuine biography in which she very cleverly treats fog less as an atmospheric phenomenon and more as though it’s a real character—sinister, beautiful and elusive, but no less fascinating for that. -- John Preston * The Mail on Sunday *Christine Corton’s absorbing and handsomely produced book directs a steady beam at both the phenomenon and the place that made [fog] famous: London. -- Anthony Quinn * The Observer *Endlessly entertaining… Corton has done a prodigious amount of research into the phenomenon of the ‘pea-soup’ fogs that enveloped London at regular intervals throughout the Industrial Age… Corton’s book is merrily chock-full of illustrations… But the real star attraction in these pages is Corton’s exuberant omniscience about her subject. She seems to have read every tenth-rate serialized novel in the whole of the Victorian and Edwardian literary shrubbery, hunting out every mention and dramatization of the great fogs and in the process giving some truly wretched writers what will surely be the most intelligent reading they’re ever likely to get. And she’s got an equally good ear for reportage, finding piercing quotes from every era of the fog’s domination… London Fog has enjoyed a nicely wide critical reception since its appearance, and it deserves every accolade it gets. This is tight-focus popular history at its finest. -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Monthly *If you want to know every last thing to know about London fog—the toxic, impenetrable moist soot that used to blanket the city in the winter—this is the book for you. Even to an outsider, it is fascinating, even astonishing, that the English put up for so long with a condition that killed people and often caused commerce to grind to a halt. -- Donald D. Breed * Providence Journal *A thoroughly researched and generally enjoyable account of the social, natural and cultural history of the peasoupers, from their first appearance in the early 1800s to the final fog of 1962. -- David B. Williams * Seattle Times *As Christine L. Corton shows in her lively and engaging cultural history, for more than 100 years London fog did not only creep into people’s homes and bodies. It saturated their way of thinking. If fog was an inescapable part of city life—in Dickens’s famous opening to Bleak House, the word is repeated so often it sounds more like a curse—it was an equally omnipresent element in the cultural imagination. -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst * The Spectator *This detailed, well-researched study is copiously illustrated with prints, cartoons, paintings and photos of the metropolitan health hazard. It is the photos which convince us that it was not a myth… London fog became inextricably linked with the image of the Victorian capital. Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper and Soames Forsyte all loom out at us from the past, under gaslight, wreathed in fog… The best place to read this engrossing but goose-bump-making book is under a sunshade on a Mediterranean beach in mid August. -- Robert Carver * The Tablet *[An] engrossing book… This book could almost make one nostalgic for the days of the pea souper were it not for the fact that it was clearly a terrible threat to health. -- Daisy Goodwin * The Times *The idea of a biography of fog in London might initially appear a doubtful enterprise, but in Christine Corton’s capable hands it works brilliantly. The liveliness of metropolitan fog is beautifully charted here in a long chronology from the Stuart era to the Clean Air Acts of the 1950s to 1990s… [A] most extraordinarily rich collection of material from scientific, journalistic, literary, humorous, artistic and medical sources… She has created a history of fog’s material and immaterial culture… The text is interspersed with some astonishing visual material, appropriately placed, making the book a visual feast especially of little-known artworks, caricatures and photographs of great beauty. Corton’s use of the perceptions of foreign visitors, especially those from China and Japan, is revelatory… London Fog is not just a literary exercise; it also charts the long trajectory of a deeply serious public health matter that we have yet to confront, as we should, once again… This fine book has real substance, generously shared, and is very timely indeed. -- Ruth Richardson * Times Higher Education *London Fog: The Biography successfully captures the enormous impact this atmospheric had on a major city’s everyday life. Ironically, the result is a portrait that is both well-defined and sharply delineated. -- Amy Henderson * Weekly Standard *An intriguing biography of the weather effect that defined a national character… An eye-opening and highly readable picture of London’s reactions to the killer fog that has characterized it for centuries. * Kirkus Reviews *Corton undertakes a definitive study of London’s ‘pea-souper’ fogs, deftly tracing the history of a weather condition that became a defining feature of the city in the world’s imagination. As Corton shows, the fog, which first appeared early in the 19th century, proved a ready metaphor for an array of Victorian anxieties, from Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror to a perceived decline in public morals. She perceptively examines the literary manifestations of these fears in chapters covering a number of famous authors, including Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, and T.S. Eliot. Readers may be surprised that the history of London fog requires a detour through the politics of the day as much as through literature; however, Corton proves a sensible guide through the labyrinthine parliamentary measures arising from public outrage over the ‘great killer fog’ and bureaucratic inaction in service of the manufacturers that were largely responsible for the pollution. Though the ‘London particular’ was finally legislated out of existence in the 1960s, Corton asserts convincingly that the fog will remain enshrined in cultural memory, a romantic if no longer accurate symbol of a great city. * Publishers Weekly *In the history of London, the Fog is a character in its own right. Now along comes a biography to do justice to this mysterious entity. Christine Corton’s London Fog is a valuable addition to the London canon. -- Catharine Arnold, author of Bedlam: London and Its MadThis anatomy of the impenetrable London pea-souper—from Dickens to modern times—is a delight. It is beautifully written, its historical learning is lightly worn, and its literary insights are intelligent, entertaining, and apt. -- Andrew LycettAn admirable and enjoyable book, full of exemplary research. The writing is always clear and accessible, even breezy. -- Jerry White, University of LondonOne of the most characteristic and important features of London was its ‘pea-souper’ fogs, or smogs, which determined so many aspects of Londoners’ lives until the 1950s—crime, romance, commerce, and of course, health. A comprehensive work on the impact and influence of fog upon the denizens of London is overdue. -- Anthony Wohl, Vassar College

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Book SynopsisJonathan Fennell captures for the first time the true wartime experience of the ordinary soldiers from across the empire who made up the British and Commonwealth armies. He analyses why the great battles were won and lost and how the men that fought went on to change the world.Trade Review'[A] weighty, admirably uncomfortable account [by] an impressively diligent and thoughtful young historian … This is a fascinating and important book, which brings together a mass of information … never before assembled under one roof.' Max Hastings, The Sunday Times'Incredibly well-researched, brilliantly written and quite frankly, an outstanding book.' History of War'A richly documented, provocative and convincing study.' David French, The Times Literary Supplement'Fennell draws on a wide literature and deep archival research to explore how the Commonwealth armies fought key battles and campaigns, but he never loses sight of the role of citizen soldiers and how they exerted agency in calamitous defeats and gritty victories. Fighting the People's War offers new interpretations in the global fight against Fascism, and will be required reading for scholars and the historically-minded public.' Tim Cook, author of The Necessary War and Fight to the Finish'This is an outstanding book, based on immersion in archives across the globe. Rich in insights, it demands that we rethink the way we view the armies of the British Empire in the Second World War.' Gary Sheffield, author of A Short History of the First World War'Indispensable for understanding both World War II and the modern British experience. Fennell's major contribution integrates three themes usually compartmentalized. Its base is the analysis of Britain's development of an army able to fight and win a global war. That costly achievement both fostered and depended on growing cohesion within the participating societies. Wartime cohesion and comradeship in turn brought classes together in the postwar 'quiet revolution' that ended the Empire and redefined the Commonwealth.' Dennis Showalter, author of Hitler's Panzers: The Lightning Attacks that Revolutionized Warfare'Comprehensive, detailed and authoritative, Fennell breaks out of the national straitjackets that restrict our understanding of how the Commonwealth fought WWII - a triumph of multi-national research.' Peter Stanley, author of 'Terriers' in India'This is a hugely impressive, sweepingly ambitious book which brings together the military histories of all the British Commonwealth nations for the first time. It asks vital questions about the relationship between wartime experience, society, and politics in a unique transnational way. A remarkable and valuable achievement.' Alan Allport, author of Browned Off and Bloody-Minded: The British Soldier Goes to War 1939–1945'An absolutely fascinating and fresh account of the Commonwealth armies at war … very well written and totally accessible. It contains a wealth of information that is fresh and new, and Fennell's insights on subjects that many might imagine are familiar will be of real interest … Highly recommended.' Taylor Downing, Military History Matters'Jonathan Fennell's astonishing book is full of compelling arguments that complete the puzzle of British, Commonwealth and Imperial victory in WW2. It's quite fantastic and revealing … an incredible story. Absolutely recommend it.' Al Murray, Comedian and TV Personality'The size, scale, and significance of this book is nothing but staggering.' Munitions of the Mind (www.blogs.kent.ac.uk/munitions-of-the-mind)'Jonathan Fennell has produced a compelling and magisterial history of the British and Commonwealth armies between 1939 and 1945 … Fighting the People's War establishes Fennell as among the leaders of the next generation of Second World War scholars.' Jonathan Boff, History Today'This is a major contribution to the literature of the war, and a useful read for anyone interested in understanding how perceptions of war change over time.' New York Military Affairs Symposium Review'Fighting the People's War will serve for years to come as the standard work on the British and Commonwealth forces in the Second World War. It deserves the widest possible audience.' Mark Klobas, Michigan War Studies ReviewTable of ContentsList of illustrations; List of figures; List of maps; List of tables; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Overview of maps; Introduction; Part I. The Military and Political Context; 1. Interwar: 1.1 Materiel and manpower; 1.2 Doctrine; 1.3 Training and organisation; 1.4 Politics and public morale; 1.5 Structure and contingency; 2. Mobilisation: 2.1 The political context; 2.2 Mobilisation; 2.3 Equality of sacrifice?; 2.4 The social contract; 2.5 Rhetoric and reality; Part II. The Great Crisis of Empire; 3. Defeat in the West: 3.1 The 'Phoney War'; 3.2 The Norwegian campaign; 3.3 The Battle of France; 3.4 Assessments and recriminations; 3.5 Preparing for invasion; 4. The Middle East: 4.1 Operation 'Compass'; 4.2 From East Africa to the Balkans; 4.3 The Battle for Crete; 4.4 Strategic overstretch; 4.5 Operation 'Crusader'; 4.6 Spring 1942; 4.7 Gazala; 4.8 The July battles; 5. The Far East: 5.1 The strategic context; 5.2 Preparations; 5.3 The Malaya campaign; 5.4 The invasion of Burma; 5.5 The fall of Singapore; 5.6 Retreat to India; 5.7 The cost of failure; 6. The great imperial morale crisis: 6.1 The anatomy of defeat; 6.2 Morale crisis; 6.3 The ideological deficit; 6.4 The soldier and the state; Part III. Transformation; 7. Victory in North Africa: 7.1 No retreat; 7.2 Alam Halfa; 7.3 Colossal cracks; 7.4 War Office initiatives; 7.5 El Alamein; 7.6 The Tunisian campaign; 8. New Guinea and Burma: 8.1 The 'Battle for Australia'; 8.2 Kokoda; 8.3 Wau; 8.4 Quit India; 8.5 The Arakan; Part IV. The Limits of Attrition; 9. The Mediterranean: 9.1 Strategy and preparation; 9.2 The Sicilian campaign; 9.3 Opportunity lost; 9.4 The invasion of Italy; 9.5 Advance to the 'Gustav Line'; 9.6 Winter in Italy; 10. Remobilisation?: 10.1 The British Army and the Beveridge Report; 10.2 The New Zealand Furlough mutiny; 10.3 The UDF and the 'Blue Oath'; 10.4 Procedural justice; 11. Cassino: 11.1 Anzio and the First Battle of Cassino; 11.2 The Second Battle of Cassino; 11.3 The Third Battle of Cassino; 11.4 The Fourth Battle of Cassino (Operation 'Diadem'); 12. Transformation in the jungle: 12.1 Training and doctrine; 12.2 Institutional reform; 12.3 The South-West Pacific area; 12.4 Operation 'Postern'; 12.5 Burma; 12.6 Second Arakan; 12.7 Imphal and Kohima; 12.8 Turn around; Part V. Redemption; 13. D-Day: 13.1 Training and doctrine; 13.2 Selection and morale; 13.3 The assault; 13.4 Controversy; 14. Normandy: 14.1 The battle for Caen; 14.2 Operation 'Goodwood'; 14.3 Breakout; 14.4 Encirclement; 14.5 The trap; 15. The victory campaigns: 15.1 Operation 'Market Garden'; 15.2 Operation 'Olive'; 15.3 Manpower crisis; 15.4 The Scheldt and the 'Siegfried Line'; 15.5 Operational and tactical transformations; 15.6 Victory in Italy; 15.7 The surrender of Germany; 15.8 The South-West Pacific area; 15.9 Burma; 15.10 Operations 'Capital' and 'Extended Capital'; Part VI. The Post-War World; 16. Soldiers and social change: 16.1 From combat cohesion to social cohesion; 16.2 The forces vote and the 1945 British General Election; 16.3 The forces vote and New Zealand's great experiment in social citizenship; 16.4 The forces vote and the formalisation of apartheid in South Africa; 16.5 Soldiers, veterans and the partition of India; 16.6 Soldiers, veterans and social change; Conclusion: C.1 A deficit of political legitimacy; C.2 Military performance; C.3 Consequences; C.4 Fighting the people's war; Appendix 1. The censorship summaries; Appendix 2. The morale reports; Appendix 3. Quantitative indicators of morale; Appendix 4. Defining morale; Notes; Select bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisAn unseen selection of rare photographs and primary sources from the campaign. This is the essential travelling companion to walking the Gallipoli battlefields.

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Book Synopsis‘An essential part of the library for anyone interested in the great political and military upheavals in the 15th century.’ – Graeme Rimer, Retired Former Academic Director of the Royal Armouries‘A creditable effort to examine a neglected aspect of medieval warfare.’ – Jim Bradbury, Cambridge University Press ‘Everything you need to know about being a soldier in the Wars of the Roses.’ – The Mail BookshopWhat was it like to fight in a Wars of the Roses battle? What kind of men fought at St Albans, Northampton, Wakefield, Towton, Tewkesbury and Bosworth? How was the medieval soldier recruited, paid, equipped, fed and billeted? And how was a battle contested once both sides resorted to all-out conflict?First published in 1998, this classic study of the medieval soldier in the Wars of the Roses examines these and other questions using various documentary sources and recent evidence. Eyewitness accounts, contemporary chronicles, personal letters, civic records, archaeology and surviving military equipment are used to paint a fascinating picture of the medieval soldier. Evidence gleaned from the mass war grave found close to the battlefield of Towton in North Yorkshire sheds new light on those that lived and died in the civil wars. But what do we know about the psychology of those involved? And how did soldiers feel about killing their fellow Englishmen?Andrew Boardman explores the grim reality of medieval soldiering on land and sea during this crucial period of aristocratic violence and dynastic upheaval. He makes us question the current historical record, such as it is, and our perceptions of chivalry and warfare in Lancastrian and Yorkist England. The text is supported by many contemporary illustrations, diagrams and maps, making this updated work an indispensable guide to medieval soldiering in the late fifteenth century.

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Book SynopsisThis book focuses on why the diffusion of the political theology of royal wisdom created âœSolomonicâ princes with intellectual interests all around the medieval West and how these learned rulers changed the face of Western Europe through their policies and the cultural power of medieval monarchy.Princely wisdom narratives have been seen simply as a tool of royal propaganda in the Middle Ages but these narratives were much more than propaganda, being rather a coherent ideology which transformed princely courts, shaped mentalities, and influenced key political decisions.This cultural power of medieval monarchy was channelled mainly through princely patronage of learning and the arts, but the rise of administrative monarchy and its bureaucracy are equally related to these policies. This can only be understood through a cultural approach to the history of medieval politics, that is, a history of the relationship between knowledge and power in the Middle Ages, a topic much analyzed regarding the medieval church but sometimes neglected in the princely sphere. This volume is a study that supplies an important comparative study of the reception in princely courts of a key aspect of European medieval civilization: The ideal of Christian sapiential rulership and its corollary, rationality in government.This volume is essential reading for students and scholars interested in understanding the medieval roots of the cultural process which gave rise to the modern state.

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Book SynopsisNordic Fascism is the first comprehensive history in English of fascism in the Nordic countries.Transnational cooperation between radical nationalists has especially been the case in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland, where fascism has not only developed through interdependent processes but also through interactions between and beyond national boundaries, and where âœracial relationshipâ has been a core argument. With chapters ranging from the inception of fascism in the interwar years up to the present day, this book offers the first fragments of an entangled history of Nordic fascism. It illuminates how The North occupies a special place in the fascist imagination, articulating ideas about the Nordic people resisting the supposed cultural degeneration, replacement, or annihilation of the white race. The authors map ideological exchange between fascist organisations in the Nordic countries and outline past and present attempts at pan-Nordic state building.

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Book SynopsisThis volume offers an interdisciplinary and geographically wide-ranging approach to understanding the emergence of towns and commerce in Viking-age Scandinavia and their eventual demise by the end of the period. It tracks the diverging characteristics of urban communities against the background of traditional social structures in the Viking world.Trade Review'In world archaeology, the Baltic Sea in the Viking Age is blessed by 150 years of exceptional excavations and study. This compelling book maps the rise and importance of towns and trade, drawing on this research. It uniquely describes how special economic zones serviced the Viking homelands, intersecting with the sea kings in the West and the Caliphate in the East. More, Kalmring skilfully shows this was part of a larger European history, in which archaeological evidence brings to life the essential background to Viking piracy and colonisation. It is a tour de force worthy of the rich archaeology of the Baltic.' Richard Hodges, OBE, FSE, author of Dark Age Economics: A New Audit (2012)Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. The Viking-age town: Context and academic debate; 3. The Viking world; 4. Cult, jurisdiction and markets: Things and regional fairs at traditional centres of power; 5. Local society and Viking-age towns; 6. An urbanisation based on harbours; 7. Jurisdiction and taxes; 8. Free trade within narrow boundaries; 9. Special economic zones of their time; 10. Development after the inception phase; 11. Discussion: Hedeby's abandonment and the foundation of Slesvig; 12. Summary and conclusions.

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Book SynopsisBritain has historically been seen as an upholder of international norms, at least in its relations with western powers. This has often been contrasted with the violence perpetrated in colonial contexts on other continents. What is often missed, however, is the extent to which the state with its capital in Londonfirst England, then Great Britaininflicted extreme violence on its European neighbours, even when still using the rhetoric of neighbourliness and friendship.This book comprises eleven case-studies of Anglo- British strategic violence, from the siege of Harfleur in 1415 to the fire-bombing of Hamburg in 1943. Chapters examine actions that were top-down and directed, and perpetrated for specific geopolitical reasonsmany of them at, or well beyond, the bounds of what was sanctioned by prevailing international norms at the time. The contributors look at how these actions were conceived, executed and perceived by the English/British public, by the international legal c

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Book SynopsisThe Crusader States and their Neighbours (Winner, The Verbruggen Prize, The Society for Medieval Military History) explores the military history of the Medieval Near East, piecing together the fault-lines of conflict which entangled this much-contested region. This was an area where ethnic, religious, dynastic, and commercial interests collided and the causes of war could be numerous. Conflicts persisted for decades and were fought out between many groups including Kurds, Turks, Armenians, Arabs, and the crusaders themselves. Nicholas Morton recreates this world, exploring how each faction sought to advance its own interests by any means possible, adapting its warcraft to better respond to the threats posed by their rivals. Strategies and tactics employed by the pastoral societies of the Central Asian Steppe were pitted against the armies of the agricultural societies of Western Christendom, Byzantium, and the Islamic World, galvanising commanders to adapt their practices in response to their foes. Today, we are generally encouraged to think of this era as a time of religious conflict, and yet this vastly over-simplifies a complex region where violence could take place for many reasons and peoples of different faiths could easily find themselves fighting side-by-side.Trade Review'For general readers, perhaps the most important conclusion of Morton's book is that because such a complex and evolving political, cultural, and religious climate characterized the Near East, both alliances and wars were not driven by religious ideology alone ... This volume therefore breaks new ground in military history and should become required reading for those interested in the history of the crusades, conflicts in the Near East, and the Mediterranean.' * Jessalynn Bird, Sehepunkte *'Morton ambitiously sets out to offer a comprehensive analysis of all the military activity of the region in the twelfth century, with as many military episodes considered as possible, from the smallest to the largest. In this, he has succeeded impressively. The results of his extensive research have led to not only an invaluable book on warfare in the Middle East in the twelfth century, but one which also contributes notably to our understanding of medieval warfare in general. It is a thoroughly engrossing read.' * Sean McGlynn, Global Military Studies Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Frankish Expansion 2: Friends and Foes (1099-1129) 3: Aleppo and Damascus (1117-1129): The challenge of the Big Cities 4: The evolving balance of power (1130s-1148) 5: The rise of Nur al-Din 1149-1174 6: Saladin and the battle Hattin 7: Innovation and cross-cultural exchange in the evolution of Near Eastern warfare Why did the Crusader States lose the contest for the Near East?

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Book SynopsisSince the seventeenth century, the café, or coffee house, in Europe has been the key gathering place of innovators and mavericks the writers, artists, philosophers and political figures who formed influential affiliations and gave birth to revolutionary movements that still affect our lives today. It was the type of establishment ideally suited for this role. Unlike the tavern, pub or bar, where one's senses grow ever duller from alcohol, one can sit for hours in a café with like-minded companions, consuming the coffee that sharpens wits and conversations. No wonder so many new ideas were generated in the legendary cafés of Paris and Vienna, Rome and Venice, Prague, Budapest and other major European cities. In her latest book, Monica Porter leads the reader on an entertaining waltz through six centuries, nine European countries (plus America) and a wealth of historic episodes featuring some of the most intriguing and noteworthy people who ever lived. As she reveals, playing its vita

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Book SynopsisPaganism Persisting is a history of revivals of pagan religion in Europe from late antiquity to the 20th century. It explores the motives, beliefs and circumstances behind a series of attempted revivals in antiquity, the Byzantine empire, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Victorian era, and the twentieth century.

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Book SynopsisThe Frontline collects essays in a companion volume to Plokhy’s The Gates of Europe and Chernobyl. The essays present further analysis of key events in Ukrainian history, including Ukraine’s relations with Russia and the West, the Holodomor and World War II, the impact of Chernobyl, and Ukraine’s contribution to the collapse of the Soviet Union.Trade ReviewExceptionally illuminating for the current moment…What emerges from some of these essays…is a powerful sense that Putin’s wantonly destructive delusions and machinations have had the unintended effect of helping to consolidate Ukraine as the unified and distinctive nation whose existence he flatly denies. -- Larry Wolff * Times Literary Supplement *This collection is an excellent overview of some of the historical undercurrents which diffused the Ukrainian narrative—from west to east—across Ukraine’s Russified central and southeast oblasts over the past twenty years. Most importantly, these essays shed light on why the overwhelming majority of Ukraine’s citizens adopted this narrative and why they still defiantly resist returning to Russia’s colonial orbit. -- George O. Liber * Russian Review *

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Book SynopsisAn award-winning historian’s revisionary account of the early modern world, showing how apocalyptic ideas stimulated political, religious, and intellectual transformationsTrade Review“Martin’s case that the apocalypse is the midwife of modernity seems self-evidently right to me. My main frustration is that we need a second volume, on how the apocalypse has fared since 1800.”—Alec Ryrie, Financial Times“[A] beautifully produced book. . . . Martin’s book ends beautifully as it begins, its apocalypse in the eternal now.”—Jonathan Locke Hart, Renaissance and Reformation“What does it mean to live near the end of time and await the world’s rebirth, as generations of Jews, Christians and Muslims did? A Beautiful Ending is a masterful synthesis of the prognostications of faith, knowledge, and politics on a global stage. Martin’s book illuminates one of the enduring themes that shaped the medieval and early modern world.”—Paula E. Findlen, Stanford University“In his elegantly braided analysis of the apocalyptic imagination among Christian, Muslim, and Jewish thinkers, John Jeffries Martin recasts the world-making events of the late medieval and early modern periods. A Beautiful Ending is a beautiful book.”—Alan Mikhail, author of God’s Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World“Martin’s masterful and wide-ranging study places ideas about the end of the world in their historical context, demonstrating how the apocalyptic imagination allowed historical actors to confront difficult and often frightening circumstances. Their experiences inform our own contemporary historical moment.”—Elizabeth Horodowich, New Mexico State University“A sweeping history of early modern apocalyptic and millenarian thought among Christians, Muslims, and Jews, when the end of history brought expectations of a golden age of peace. Martin provides a powerful history of the hopes and horrors produced by these apocalyptic fantasies with an eye to their continuity into our own times. Few books make early modern history more relevant to the present.”—Stuart Schwartz, Yale University“In his richly detailed new book, John Jeffries Martin advances the striking hypothesis that apocalyptic thinking not only did not go away with the advent of modernity; it was one of the key forces that gave us our modern world. If he’s right, much of what we thought we knew bears rethinking.”—Benjamin M. Friedman, author of Religion and the Rise of Capitalism “Engaging and profoundly original, A Beautiful Ending treats Christian, Jewish, and Muslim thought about End Times as a source of modernity. Martin’s deft argument convinces that the proverbial rise of modern secularism is a myth.”—Edward Muir, Northwestern University

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Book SynopsisIn the hundredth year of the British Broadcasting Corporation, historian Simon J. Potter looks back over the hundred year history, asking if the BBC is really the ''voice of Britain'', and what comes next for British public broadcasting.2022 marks the centenary year of the British Broadcasting Corporation. As Britain''s most famous and influential broadcaster, the BBC faces a range of significant challenges to the way it operates, and perhaps to its existence, from the government but also from a rapidly changing media environment. Historian Simon J. Potter explores the hundred year history of this corporation, drawing out the roots of these challenges and understanding how similar threats - hostile politicians and prime ministers, the advent of television - were met and overcome in the past.Potter poses the question ''Is the BBC the voice of Britain?'', exploring its role in changing wider culture and society, promoting particular versions of British national identity, both at home and overseas. The BBC has long claimed to speak for the British people, to the British people, and with a British accent, and Potter explores how far these claims have been justified with this exciting new study which covers the establishment of the BBC Empire Service and the World Service, and focuses on people, programmes, and politics to understand the Corporation''s engagement with changing ideas about culture and society in Britain, including issues of class, gender, and race.Trade ReviewIn just over 300 pages the author gives a comprehensive history of the BBC and also provides much in the way of analysis of the relationship between the broadcaster and state. * David Harris, Radio Listeners Guide 2023 *A sharp-eyed survey of the BBC's increasingly fraught relations with other people, notably politicians and listeners. * Dominic Green *In my view, this book is a masterpiece because it blends perceptive political analysis and thorough historical perspective with an informed evaluation of future challenges. * David Harris, Radio User *Like a good physician, [Potter] is not squeamish about sticking in the scalpel to reveal some grisly realities * Oscar Jelley, Oxford Review of Books *... lucid book provides a useful account of the key staging posts in the life of this national institution... leads readers on a pleasant canter, starting from the BBC's small beginnings... this book offers value for money as a general introduction to the BBC and a good read overall. * Chandrika Kaul, BBC History Magazine *... academic and astringent... [earns its] place on the ever lengthening shelf of Beebology. * Stefan Collini *Potter's book This is the BBC can best be seen as a summarising study of the abundant BBC literature, with a special focus on broadcasting's international function. * Huub Wijfjes, TMG journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction - A Century of the BBC 1: Public Utility, 1922-1939 2: Propaganda, 1939-1945 3: Losing Control, 1945-1959 4: Transformation and Stagnation, 1960-1979 5: On the Market, 1980-1999 6: Going Digital, 2000-2022 Prospect - The BBC after Broadcasting

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Book SynopsisA definitive account of the great revolt of Jews against Rome and the destruction of the Jerusalem TempleTrade Review“Through his close analysis of the war, making extensive critical use of Josephus’s works, [Rogers] raises and resolves important questions about the nature of a revolt whose ripples can still be felt in our own time.”—David Abulafia, Catholic Herald“In his excellent new book . . . Guy MacLean Rogers tries to figure out precisely what compelled the Jews of the first century to rebel against the Roman Empire.”—Simeon Cohen, Times of Israel“A beautifully produced and thought-provoking book. . . . Fascinating questions [are] debated within these pages.”—Sara Jo Ben Zvi, Segula: The Jewish History MagazineCHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2022“A remarkable achievement. Guy Rogers provides a powerful, moving reconstruction of the scale, scope, and consequences of the great Jewish war against Rome. Thoughtful, careful, and thorough, this is a major contribution to scholarship. Rogers’ lively and engaging style makes it eminently accessible to a broad audience.”—Erich S. Gruen, University of California at Berkeley“Guy Rogers brings a profound grasp of the Roman world, historical flair, and fine judgment to this new, in-depth political and military study of the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome. This is an important and exciting book about an event that changed the course of history and that has a perennial hold on our emotions and imagination.”—Tessa Rajak, University of Oxford“Written with passion and wit, this patient and remarkably detailed reconstruction offers fresh interpretations of matters large and small, leading persuasively to the view of the war as a profound crisis with far-reaching and lasting consequences, whose meaning has been urgently debated to this very day.”—Jonathan Price, Tel Aviv University“Rogers provides a sweeping and detailed overview. This important work, written by a leading authority, will immediately become the standard reference on the First Jewish Revolt against Rome.”—Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill“Guy Rogers provides a lucid yet terrifying account of the ‘Jewish War’—the uprising of the Jews in 66 CE, and the Roman empire’s savage response, in a story that stretches from Rome to Jerusalem. It is characterized by inter- and intra-communal violence, desperate acts of resistance and bravery, and imperial repression, culminating in the destruction of the Temple, the execution of the brilliant Jewish military commander Simon bar Giora, and the capture of Masada. But Rogers is also a great historian: his narrative is a clinical, forensic examination of context, background, political culture, causality, contingency, and sources—especially the extraordinarily intimate view of events provided by the figure of the Jewish aristocrat, leader and turncoat Josephus.”—John Ma, Columbia University “Guy Rogers has retold the story of the Jewish revolt of AD 66–73/4, a turning point in Jewish history, taking full account of modern scholarship, in a style aimed at a wide audience, vividly painting the heroism and tragedy of the clash between civilizations, whose impact survived to this very day in the ethos of modern Israel.”—Hannah Cotton, Hebrew University in Jerusalem

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Book SynopsisHeretic and impostor or reformer and statesman? The contradictory Western visions of MuhammadIn European culture, Muhammad has been vilified as a heretic, an impostor, and a pagan idol. But these aren't the only images of the Prophet of Islam that emerge from Western history. Commentators have also portrayed Muhammad as a visionary reformer and an inspirational leader, statesman, and lawgiver. In Faces of Muhammad, John Tolan provides a comprehensive history of these changing, complex, and contradictory visions. Starting from the earliest calls to the faithful to join the Crusades against the Saracens, he traces the evolution of Western conceptions of Muhammad through the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and up to the present day.Faces of Muhammad reveals a lengthy tradition of positive portrayals of Muhammad that many will find surprising. To Reformation polemicists, the spread of Islam attested to the

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Book SynopsisA pioneering overview of Scottish intellectual life during the long 19th century, focusing in particular on the legacy of the Scottish Enlightenment.

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Book SynopsisThis book offers new historical, legal and literary explorations of a status held by uncountable formerly enslaved persons in the Roman Empire: Junian Latinity. It is the first book in any language to provide comprehensive multi-disciplinary study of this status. Divided in two parts, the book sets the scene with six chapters that discuss the legal innovations that created Junian Latinity, as well as the historical contexts in which the status was conceived and in which it developed from the late republican period to the early medieval world. Four chapters in the second book part offer then new research on key Latin literary texts to provide fresh insights into the role of Junian Latinity in Roman imperial society. The book makes a strong case for the centrality of Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire and the importance of its modern study.

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Book SynopsisThe Merovingian Kingdoms (c. 450?751) dominated much of what is now France, Belgium, and Germany, and were the most powerful and long-lived of the states that transformed the inheritance of Rome after the Crisis of the Fifth Century. Yet they often remain representative of an imagined ''Dark Age'', in which civility was eroded by migration, violence, illiteracy, superstition, and a retreat from globality. Through a deep exploration of manuscripts, charters, and burials, Merovingian Worlds offers a fresh account of the period, outlining its complexities, diversity and creativity. This was a world built on dynamic political, socio-economic, cultural, and religious interactions, and shaped by its wide-ranging connections from Britain and Ireland to Byzantium and beyond. The book provides a critical introduction to the rich source material and the modern debates that shaped our perception of Western Europe after the Fall of Rome.

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Book SynopsisThis book is the result of a personal quest to understand more about Nick? s family background in eastern Europe. It leads him to dig deeply into many of the big questions about modern Jewish history in Lithuania.Why were lots of Jewish people living in Lithuania in the late nineteenth century? Were their lives becoming difficult at that time and, if so, why was this? Why did some Jews emigrate? How did these people choose where to go and how did they make the move? What happened to their family and friends left behind, both during the First World War and in the inter-war period? Why and how were Lithuania? s Jews murdered in the Holocaust and how has Lithuanian society tried to come to terms with this in the post-war world?Much modern Jewish history in Lithuania is terrible. About 96 per cent of the pre-war Jewish population was murdered in the Holocaust. But this book also reflects on some positive aspects of the Jewish experience in Lithuania: for many years Lithuania was a good place for Jews to live and that those who emigrated carried with them Jewish traditions and approaches to life and learning acquired while living in Lithuania. These stood them in good stead in the countries they moved to. It meant that many Lithuanian Jewish emigrants settled into their new homes and flourished remarkably quickly.

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Book SynopsisThe medieval earldoms of Orkney and Caithness were positioned between two worlds, the Norwegian and the Scottish. They were a maritime lordship divided, or united, by the turbulent waters of the Pentland Firth. This unlikely combination of island and mainland territory survived as a single lordship for 600 years, against the odds. Growing out of the Viking maelstrom of the early Middle Ages, it became an established and wealthy principality which dominated northern waters, with a renowned dynasty of earls. Despite their peripheral location these earls were fully in touch with the kingdoms of Norway and Scotland and increasingly subject to the rulers of these kingdoms. How they maintained their independence and how they survived the clash of loyalties are themes explored in this book from the early Viking age to the late medieval era when the powerful feudal Sinclair earls ruled the islands and regained possession of Caithness. This is a story of the time when the Northern Isles of Scotland were part of a different national entity which explains the background to the non-Gaelic culture of this locality, when links across the North Sea were as important as links with the kingdom of Scotland to the south.Trade Review'One of the finest monographs available for any Scottish region in the medieval period' -- Neill McGuigan * Scottish Archaeological Journal *

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Book SynopsisKing Cnut ruled England from 1017 to 1035 and left behind him a legacy of peace, law and order. However, the beginnings of his kingship were less auspicious. He was a cruel and vicious warrior, who invaded England with his father Swegen Forkbeard, perhaps at a tender age. After Swegen''s death in 1014 Cnut went home to Denmark to gather his forces. He returned the following year and conquered much of England in his bid for the Crown, but even on the death of Aethelred II the English refused to proclaim him king. However, his victory over the alternative candidate, Aethelred''s son King Edmund Ironside, at the battle of Ashingdon, forced a division of the country between the two. Shortly afterwards, Edmund died and Cnut became undisputed ruler.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA timely reminder of the intellectual tradition deployed by Republican politicians in the U.S. when they join the loose coalition of conspiracy theorists across the Atlantic gleefully demonizing George Soros. It is both salutary and depressing to be reminded of how enduring the trope of an exploitative global Jewish conspiracy against pure, humble and selfless nationalists really is…A century after the end of the first world war, we have, it seems, learned very little. -- Mark Mazower * Financial Times *One of the great merits of Paul Hanebrink’s A Specter Haunting Europe is its demonstration of how Europe’s most pervasive and powerful twentieth-century manifestation of anti-Semitic thought—the myth of Judeo-Bolshevism—emerged before the rise of National Socialism and has continued to have a curious life long after the Holocaust and the defeat of Nazi Germany. -- Christopher R. Browning * New York Review of Books *Magisterial…Hanebrink’s book covers this dark history with insight and skill. He has the linguistic ability to bring Eastern Europe fully into the narrative, and the vision to include American and Western European debates, too. The end result is a major intervention into our understanding of 20th-century Europe and the lessons we ought to take away from its history. -- James Chappel * The Nation *Outstanding…Makes clear that Judeo-Bolshevism was far from an afterthought; it was a—perhaps the—central catalyst in driving forward the Nazi genocidal project…The most exhaustive account to date of the Nazi obsession with Judeo-Bolshevism, but also of the other sites and eras in Europe in which the myth of Judeo-Bolshevism flourished. -- David N. Myers * Los Angeles Review of Books *This masterful interpretation of the origins and trajectory of the Judeo-Bolshevik myth is far more than a new classic in the canon of the writing of twentieth-century history. With the politics of exclusion and Islamophobia now sweeping Europe, alongside the election of Donald Trump in the United States, Paul Hanebrink’s reconstruction of the conspiratorial imagination that led shadowy others to be blamed—and worse—is an indispensable warning for our own time. -- Samuel Moyn, author of Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal WorldHanebrink follows the myth’s twisted course from its European origins in the immediate aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution, through the jaundiced politics of the interwar period, to its devastating culmination in Nazi Germany…He argues that it survives today in the resurgent right-wing nationalism cropping up in many Western countries. From the start, the fantasy held that an alien element—the Jews—aimed to subvert the cultural values and national identities of Western societies. As Hanebrink points out, this theme is echoed in modern anti-Muslim conspiracy theories. The writers, politicians, and shills whose poisonous ideas he exhumes have many contemporary admirers. -- Robert Legvold * Foreign Affairs *Thoughtful and informative…In addition to examining the origins and influence of the Judeo-Bolshevik myth in the period from 1917 to 1945, Hanebrink attempts to show that it is still an important element in anti-Semitism, both in Europe and beyond…While Judeo-Bolshevism may have lost its resonance, Paul Hanebrink is right to insist that its history still matters, both as a key to understanding the tragic fate of Europe’s Jews in the first half of the twentieth century and as a reminder of how myths can open the way to political and moral catastrophe. -- James J. Sheehan * Commonweal *A masterful attempt to dissect the origins and the development of the idea of Judeo-Bolshevism in different cultural and political settings across twentieth-century Europe, and to explain why and how this canard came to shape the intentions of the leaders of so many parties and organizations, and dominate the minds of intellectuals as well as of average players in the Age of Extremes… Hanebrink’s close study of the way in which Nazism refashioned Judeo-Bolshevism is magisterial in the detailed assessment of how different European countries and organizations responded to Germany’s acclaimed mission to lead Europe against the common enemy… [A] tour de force… [A] definitive history of Judeo-Bolshevism. -- Elissa Bemporad * Marginalia *As Paul Hanebrink demonstrates in this masterly account, the myth of Judaeo-Bolshevism rose on a tide of hysteria whipped up by the chaos in central Europe that marked the end of the Great War…This in turn fed easily into a vicious racist rhetoric that characterized much of the discourse of the political right in Europe between the two world wars and which was of course a cornerstone of the Nazi enterprise. -- Geoffrey Alderman * Times Higher Education *An edifying new book that serves as a valuable addition to the corpus of scholarship on the long history of antisemitism. -- Tibor Krausz * Jerusalem Post *Remarkably lucid and disturbingly relevant…An explicit response to the continued use of Judeo-Bolshevism among far-right movements…The scope of Hanebrink’s achievement here should not be underestimated. -- Sean Martin * Russian Review *During World War II the phantom idea of Judeo-Bolshevism fueled genocides that killed millions of Jews and East Europeans, but, as Paul Hanebrink tells us, we hear its echoes anytime politicians stir fears about outsiders threatening civilization—whether they call it European, Western, or Christian. Hanebrink’s tour de force is rare in its brilliance and originality, but also urgent in its message for our time. -- John Connelly, author of From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews, 1933–1965Hanebrink has written a remarkable study…[He] successfully blends the political history of twentieth-century Eastern Europe—with Germany figuring prominently in his narrative—with an originally conceived intellectual history of the Judeo-Bolshevik myth and various echoes that it spawned in public discourse…His book is too good and too rich to be summarized. It should be read. -- Jan T. Gross * American Historical Review *Tremendous…Could not be more timely…These are dangerous times and we need to know as much about the history and politics of the far-right as we can. Hanebrink’s book is a challenging and important contribution helping to develop that understanding. -- John Newsinger * Socialist Review *Superb…Argues cogently that the Judeo-Bolshevism peril was constructed from ‘the raw materials of anti-Judaism, recycled and rearranged to meet new requirements.’ -- Sheldon Kirshner * Times of Israel *A tour de force…This is a first-rate, innovative study not only of a crucial chapter in European history, but also of vicious forces still at play in the present. -- Michael Stanislawski * Journal of Modern History *[An] absorbing work. -- Diane Cypkin * Martyrdom & Resistance *[A] historical tour de force…A Specter Haunting Europe is a masterful work and essential reading for both scholars and students of modern European history, antisemitism, and Jewish Studies. -- Jonathan Zisook * Religious Studies Review *

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Book SynopsisThe story of an epochal event in German history, this is also the story of the most important revolution that you might never have heard of.Trade ReviewGerwarth argues in his polished narrative drawing on the eyewitness testimony of famous writers and thinkers that Weimar was not "the doomed republic" of legend, a hopeless 14-year interval between a warmongering Kaiser and Hitlers Nazi dictatorship, but a success in its own right... 'November 1918' is a perceptive study of an orderly people who proved that a revolution need not lead to extremes of left and right. * Martin Ivens, The Times *Gerwarth's November 1918 [is one] of the most stimulating histories of the interwar period to have been published in recent years. * Tony Barber, The Financial Times *Gerwarth's scholarship cannot be faulted... a superlative piece of research into a sequence of events that are of immense importance. * Simon Heffer, The Daily Telegraph *Readable and informative. * Jonathan Sperber, Times Literary Supplement *Authoritative new account... Gerwarth has... done us [a] service by rescuing the Weimar Republic from what EP Thompson, in another context, called 'the enormous condescension of posterity'. * Brendan Simms, The Irish Times *[Gerwarth's] account is written in clear prose and richly documented with eyewitness accounts from the most vivid diaries and correspondence of the period. As an audacious bid to restore the German Revolution to its rightful place in history, November 1918 could hardly have been more skillfully executed. * Daniel Johnson, Claremont Review of Books *...stands out as one of the most successful... * Alexander Gallus, German Historical Institute London Bulletin *Splendidly researched, and with a striking new thesis... a fascinating study, whose insights will stop you dead even if you thought, as I did, that you already knew this stuff. * James Hawse, The Spectator *Thought-provoking and readable ... Gerwarth's invaluable book shows that, compared to their counterparts in other central European states facing similar turmoil, the moderate German revolutionaries had spectacular success in securing their democracy. By 1929, only cataclysmic economic crisis could overturn what was Europes most open and representative liberal state. Hitler, it seems, got lucky. * Alexander Watson, Literary Review *its salutary to have a fresh account of the birthing pains of that vaunted republic rather than another autopsy of its demise Where Gerwarth most excels is deftly weaving together the impressions of contemporary commentators, of whom he has assembled a rich banquet: Victor Serge, Thomas Mann, Kaethe Kollwitz, Alfred Doeblin, Harry Graf Kessler, and Joseph Roth, among others. * Thomas Meaney, The Washington Examiner *A fascinating narrative of the events that transpired during the time in which Germans called for a more democratic government and more political and social freedom. Throughout the book, the author balances small biographies of important political leaders with the extensive use of newspapers, memoirs, and letterseffectively giving those who lived through the revolution a voice Gerwarths book is a wonderful addition to the history of the Weimar Republic. * Louis Grün, Origins *November 1918 provides a first-rate survey of events and personalities surrounding the revolution in Germany ... Robert Gerwarth has written a detailed account of a fascinating topic. The writing is clear and avoids jargon and theory. The research is thorough, as is made evident by the notes and the comprehensive bibliography. His book has academic credibility but can also be recommended for the general reader. * Jim Burns, Northern Review of Books *Meticulously researched, judiciously argued, and written with enviable panache, November 1918 is an engaging history with much original insight that should become the standard work on the subject. * Professor Anthony McElligott, University of Limerick *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction:

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Book SynopsisOperation Fortitude was the ingenious web of deception spun by the Allies to mislead the Nazis as to how and where the D-Day landings were to be mounted.''One of the most creative intelligence operations of all time'' Kim PhilbyThe story of how this web was woven is one of intrigue, personal drama, ground-breaking techniques, internal resistance, and good fortune. It is a tale of double agents, black radio broadcasts, phantom armies, ''Ultra'' decrypts, and dummy parachute drops. These diverse tactics were intended to come together to create a single narrative so compelling that it would convince Adolf Hitler of its authenticity.Operation Fortitude was intended to create the false impression that the Normandy landings were merely a feint to disguise a massive forthcoming invasion by this American force in the Pas de Calais. In other words, the success of D-Day the beginning of the end of the Second World War was made possible by the efforts of men and women who were not present on tTrade ReviewReviews for previous titles… ‘A vivid, moving story of the men who fought the Great War in the Air. Quite superb.’Max Arthur ‘Those magnificent men in their flying machines recount in their own words just how mad and magnificent it was to be an air-ace in World War One. Joshua Levine's compilation is enthralling and breathtaking’.Chris Powling, Classic FM Guestlist ‘This is a superior example of the genre from a writer at the top of his game.’ Air Marshal Stuart Peach

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Book SynopsisThe Sunday Times bestsellerTHE STORY OF BRITAIN during the long reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Find out how Britain changed in this entrancing, lively portrait of Britain's Elizabethan Age by bestselling writer and broadcaster Andrew MarrBritain changed fundamentally during the Queen's long, distinguished reign. So who made modern Britain the country it is today? How do we sum up the kind of people we are? What did it mean to be the new Elizabethans?In this wonderfully told history, spanning back to when Queen Elizabeth became queen in 1953, Andrew Marr traces the people who have made Britain the country it is today. From the activists to the artists, the sports heroes to the innovators, these people pushed us forward, changed the conversation, encouraged us to eat better, to sing, think and to protest. They got things done. How will our generation be remembered in a hundred years' time? And when you look back at Britain's toughest moments in the past seventy years, what do you learn aboTrade Review ‘Like The Crown in book form: a stream of intriguing stories producing a mosaic that the reader, with expert steers from Marr, can glue together’ Guardian Praise for Andrew Marr’s previous books ‘It is the clarity of his judgements, the arresting insights and the irrepressible wit that keep us hanging on to his words. Among his other qualities, Marr is the ideal history teacher that most people never had at school . . . A damned good read . . . This book will be read with pleasure, for Marr's ironic tone and ever-present pleasant presence.’Bernard Crick, Edinburgh Review ‘A fine example of popular history . . . engaging and intelligent.’Financial Times ‘He has the rare gift of being able to explain complex issues in a few crisp sentences.’Sunday Telegraph

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Book SynopsisA TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEARA diligent historian and a superb writer'THE TIMESA gripping new history of the making of England as a nation.In December 1642, during the Civil War, Parliamentarian troops stormed Winchester Cathedral and smashed ten beautifully decorated wooden chests to the ground, using the bones inside as missiles to shatter the cathedral's stained glass windows. Afterwards, the clergy scrambled to collect the scattered remains: the bones of ancient kings, bishops and one formidable queen.Bestselling historian Cat Jarman builds on the ground-breaking work of forensic archaeologists to lead us through more than a millennium of history. Alongside the cutting-edge investigation to unlock the bones'' secrets, this is a thrilling and sometimes tragic tale. It tells the story of both the seekers and the sought, of those who protected the bones and those who spurned them.Trade Review A TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘Beguiling . . . I adored [River Kings] so felt like a young boy on Christmas morning when I first opened The Bone Chests . . . Jarman’s investigation has something of a Dan Brown quest to it . . . she’s a diligent historian and a superb writer’ Times, Book of the Week 'This is the best kind of popular history, retelling the story of early medieval England with an equally good grasp of textual sources, archaeology and forensic analysis, and a love of Winchester’ Ronald Hutton ‘Through their story, we can recapture the spirit of the Anglo-Saxon age and, as Jarman writes, learn about the ‘past lives of people who were a little bit like us, who lived, loved, and left an imprint on the generations that came after them’, and who in their vexing anonymity encourage us to find out more’ Literary Review ‘An engaging account of England’s pre-Conquest monarchs, from famous figured such as Alfred the Great to long-forgotten kings Cynegils and Centwine’ i News PRAISE FOR RIVER KINGS: A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER (September 2021) Waterstones Book of the Month (October 2021) ‘A masterly history … River Kings is a mystery and an adventure, the tale of a quest that took Jarman from Repton to Scandinavia, across the Baltic Sea, over to Baghdad and finally to India. I was held captive … In addition to being a wonderful writer, Jarman is a skilled bioarchaeologist … River Kings is like a classical symphony, perfectly composed and exquisitely performed. Tiny trills of detail give way to pounding drums of drama’ Gerard deGroot, Times ‘Cat Jarman will transform the way you think about the Vikings’ Dan Snow

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Book SynopsisOf all the accounts written about the Second World War, none are more compelling than the personal diaries of those who lived through it. We Are At War is the story of five everyday folk, who, living on the brink of chaos, recorded privately on paper their most intimate hopes and fears.Pam Ashford, a woman who keeps her head when all around are losing theirs, writes with comic genius about life in her Glasgow shipping office. Christopher Tomlin, a writing-paper salesman for whom business is booming, longs to be called up like his brother. Eileen Potter organises evacuations for flea-ridden children, while mother-of-three Tilly Rice is frustrated to be sent to Cornwall. And Maggie Joy Blunt tries day-by-day to keep a semblance of her ordinary life.Entering their world as they lived it, each diary entry is poignantly engrossing. Amid the tumultuous start to the war, these ordinary British people are by turns apprehensive and despairing, spirited and cheerful - aTrade ReviewWonderful stuff * Sunday Times *Fascinating, delightful, illuminating. The diarists soon become like old friends ... and make our wartime past seem no more distant than yesterday * Mail on Sunday *It's always easy to imagine people in this period becalmed in a sepia-toned limbo. This book tells the messy, but far more interesting, truth * Time Out *Few books have so successfully stepped inside the minds of the British people during wartime * Metro *A fascinating account of everyday life in Britain * Good Housekeeping *

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Book SynopsisBright Young People/ Making the most of our youth/ They talk in the Press of our social success/ But quite the reverse is the truth. [Noel Coward]The Bright Young People were one of the most extraordinary youth cults in British history. A pleasure-seeking band of bohemian party-givers and blue-blooded socialites, they romped through the 1920s gossip columns. Evelyn Waugh dramatised their antics in Vile Bodies and many of them, such as Anthony Powell, Nancy Mitford,Cecil Beaton and John Betjeman, later became household names. Their dealings with the media foreshadowed our modern celebrity culture and even today,we can detect their influence in our cultural life.But the quest for pleasure came at a price. Beneath the parties and practical jokes was a tormented generation, brought up in the shadow of war, whose relationships - with their parents and with each other - were prone to fracture. For many, their progress through the ''serious'' Thirties, wheTrade ReviewTaylor writes with such skill and aplomb that it's impossible not to be swept along by the intelligence and observations * Guardian *Shrewd and absorbing in his analysis of the way Waugh and Nancy Mitford promoted the world they would soon skewer in fiction * Sunday Times *Moving and always entertaining -- Jane Stevenson * Daily Telegraph *The depth and integrity of Taylor's research can only inspire awe and admiration. * Sunday Express *D J Taylor's enthusiasm, delivered with the zeal of a recent convert, proves there is fascination even in empty living and that the Bright Young Brigade of the 1920s are just as worthy of a book or two as Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Tamara Beckwith, Calum Best and all the flapping 'It-people' of our own generation -- Alexander Waugh * Literary Review *

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Book SynopsisAn eye-opening book, an intricate and fascinating story' Hilary Mantel1527. Henry, desperate to marry Anne Boleyn and ensure the Tudor line asks Pope Clement VII to grant him a divorce. Enter Gregorio Casali, an Italian diplomat hired to represent Henry's interests in the Vatican. Through six years of persuasion, threats and bribery Casali lives by his wits, playing off one powerful patron against another, negotiating with ambassadors from Spain, France and beyond, each crowding the Vatican to press their interests in the Tudor break up. Before it is done, Henry will decide to divorce not just Catherine, but the Church itself. Set against the backdrop of war-torn Renaissance Italy, The Divorce of Henry VIII combines a gripping family saga with a highly charged political battle between the Tudors and the Vatican to reveal the extraordinary true story behind history's most infamous divorce. (Originally published with the title Our Man in Rome)Trade ReviewAn eye-opening book, an intricate and fascinating story of an elusive man with an impossible job. A brilliant and impressive feat of original research, and necessary reading for anyone fascinated by the story of Henry’s divorce... Catherine Fletcher has allowed the story to tell itself, except that she’s been so clever in the telling of it, cutting through to what matters without over-simplifying * Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall *A glittering debut...drawing on the unexplored riches of Italian Renaissance archives, enlarges the well known story, and to magnificent effect -- Miranda Seymour * Sunday Times *A marvel of close-up detective work -- Duncan Fallowell * Daily Express *Fletcher does her subject great credit. She makes no attempt to either embellish or simplify. She simply tells a cracking story well, in plenty of detail with clarity and insight. Above all she resists the temptation to overlay past events with modern cultural and emotional responses. Her protagonists are never anything but true to their selves and Fletcher richly deserves the title of historian. Jonathan Rhys Meyers need not apply. -- Sarah Vine * The Times *The greatest joy of this splendid book is that it dwells on context. You'll emerge with a keener sense of why the dynastic priorities of Henry VIII ("a mid-ranking northern monarch, a player on the European stage but far from the star of the show") managed to cause such a fuss -- Jonathan Wright * The Herald *

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Book Synopsis''Endlessly fascinating. . . White is such a brilliant historian'' Mail on SundayLasting for six long years, the Blitz transformed life in the capital beyond recognition, marking a time of almost constant anxiety, disruption, deprivation and sacrifice for Londoners. With the capital the nation''s frontline during the Second World War, by its end, 30,000 inhabitants had lost their lives.While much has been written about ''the Myth of the Blitz'', its riveting social history has often been overlooked. Unearthing what it was actually like for those living through those tempestuous years, Jerry White paints a fascinating portrait of the daily lives of ordinary Londoners, telling the story through their own voices.''As a history of the capital in wartime, it is probably unsurpassable'' Sunday Telegraph''An impressive history of the capital at war. . . White, an accomplished chronicler of London''s history, tells it with brio and a cTrade ReviewJerry White is one of London's best historians...and in this enveloping book he tries to scrape away the myths that have obscured our view of the Second World War and reintroduce us to what life in the city between 1939 and 1945 was actually like -- Andrew Holgate * Sunday Times *The Battle of London 1939-45... benefits hugely from a vast and well-chosen range of quotes and anecdotes, conjuring the atmosphere of a city under siege with vivid force. What's most striking in this raw and comprehensive portrait of a city on fire is just how enchanting and appealing it is: you actually start wishing you had been alive to witness it -- Sebastian Milbank * Tablet *[An] impressive history of the capital at war... White, an accomplished chronicler of London's history, tells it with brio and a confident mastery of the sources. He has a good nose for a piquant anecdote and clear-eyed awareness of the failings as well as the fearlessness of Londoners -- Alan Allport * Literary Review *Jerry White has a unique relation to London and Londoners. More than a historian, he is the city's witness, champion and town-crier... White does not rehearse the cliché of the Blitz spirit. Instead, by giving narrative commentary to the bit players in the drama...he presents a more complex, bleak and confused tale -- Frances Wilson * Oldie *As a history of the capital in wartime, it is probably unsurpassable... From the Myra Hess lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery, to the extraordinary resilience and bravery of Londoners... all can be found in this book -- Anne de Courcy * Sunday Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisPlutarch?s vivid and engaging portraits of the Spartans and their customs are a major source of our knowledge about the rise and fall of their remarkable Greek city-state between the sixth and third centuries BC. Through his Lives of Sparta?s leaders and his recording of memorable Spartan Sayings, he depicts a people who lived frugally and mastered their emotions in all aspects of life, who disposed of unhealthy babies in a deep chasm, introduced a gruelling regimen of military training for boys, and treated their serfs brutally. Rich in anecdote and detail, Plutarch?s writing brings to life the personalities and achievements of Sparta with unparalleled flair and humanity.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-datetranslations by award-winning translators.

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Book SynopsisThis is a revised edition of The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History.

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Book SynopsisDonald Rayfield is Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary College, University of London. He is the author of a number of books including The Literature of Georgia: A History and Anton Chekhov: A Life.

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE DUFF COOPER PRIZE 2018 ''This is stupendous. The British nineteenth century, in all its complexity, all its horror, all its energy, all its hopes is laid bare. This is the definitive history, and will remain so for generations'' A.N. WilsonTo live in nineteenth-century Britain was to experience an astonishing series of changes, of a kind for which there was simply no precedent in the human experience. There were revolutions in transport, communication, work; cities grew vast; scientific ideas made the intellectual landscape unrecognizable. This was an exhilarating time, but also a horrifying one.In his dazzling new book David Cannadine has created a bold, fascinating new interpretation of the British nineteenth century in all its energy and dynamism, darkness and vice. This was a country which saw itself at the summit of the world. And yet it was a society also convulsed by doubt, fear and introspection. Victorious Century rTrade ReviewA book such as this is a work of heroic summary. -- David Aaronovitch * The Times *Magnificent... a thumping great book, and it is probably destined to become a classic. Cannadine succeeds triumphantly. -- Jane Ridley * Spectator *A sparkling history, immensely readable * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisFINANCIAL TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR and DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOKS OF THE YEARShortlisted for the 2012 DUKE OF WESTMINSTER MEDAL FOR MILITARY LITERATUREAt the end of 1917 Britain and France faced a strategic nightmare. Their great offensives against Germany had been calamitous, leaving hundreds of thousands of young men dead and wounded for negligible territorial gains. Despite America''s entry into the war the US army remained tiny, the Italian army had been routed, and Russia had dropped out of the conflict. The Central Powers now dominated Central and Eastern Europe, and Germany could move over forty divisions to the Western Front. Yet only one year later, on 11 November 1918, the fighting ended in a decisive Allied victory. Stevenson''s rich and compelling book retells the story of 1918, and with penetrating original research goes to the very roots of this instrumental turning point in modern history.Trade ReviewIt is impossible ... to exaggerate how impressive this book is -- David Crane * The Spectator *Brilliant and comprehensive ... a major contribution -- A. W. Purdue * The Times Higher Education Supplement *This is, as one would expect from a historian of Stevenson's great learning and analytical power, a masterly study * The Sunday Telegraph *An immensely useful study, emphasising the crucial importance of morale, political stability and trust -- Max Egremont * Literary Review *Stevenson brings to his study a formidable authority and mastery of the sources, and judgments that seem admirably measured and nuanced -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *A fascinating military narrative ... masterly -- William Anthony Hay * Wall Street Journal *A magnificent and exhaustive account of the war's final year ... Stevenson has a deserved reputation as one of the world's leading authorities on the war -- Tony Barber * Financial Times *A magisterial single volume synthesis of all the themes to deliver a punchy, incisive reboot of WW1 history that is never a dull read * Warships International Fleet Review *An outstanding contribution -- Frank Ellis * Quarterly Review *A monumental study deserving of a wide readership by scholars and generalists alike * Library Journal *Stevenson's grand scope, his international perspective, and his reliable judgements, combined with crystal-clear writing, have produced an exemplary book, a formidable contribution to our understanding of the Great War and the twentieth century * English Historical Review *The strength of the book lies in his ability to weave together astute analysis of the antagonists' abilities and weaknesses ... Told with verve and analytical vigour, Stevenson's book is a compelling and authoritative study of one of the most significant turning points in 20th-century military history -- Robert Gerwath * The Irish Times *Stevenson's detailed, lucid description of the development and maturation of that ability reflects encyclopedic mastery of published and archival sources while synergizing military, economic, political, and social-cultural factors. It is a professor's page-turner. It is also a door-opener to any reader seeking to understand the Great War's last stage * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisThe Penguin Dictionary of British Surnames is a useful and fascinating guide to the surnames that offer a unique insight into the place of origin, the occupations - and even the personality traits - of our ancestors. Detailed and informative, this dictionary covers the widest range of British surnames and is essential reading for anyone intrigued by the story of their name and by the history of their family. This edition replaces our out of date (and out of print) 1967 edition.

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Book SynopsisIreland in its own words: a dazzling compendiumOver the past hundred years, Ireland has undergone profound political, social and cultural changes. But one thing that has not changed is the Irish genius for observation and storytelling, invective and self-scrutiny. Ireland: The Autobiography draws upon this genius to create a portrait of a century of Irish life through the words of the people who lived it.Broadcaster and historian John Bowman has mined archives, diaries and memoirs to create a remarkably varied and delightfully readable mosaic of voices and perspectives. Ireland: The Autobiography is a brilliantly selected, wide-ranging and engrossing take on the last century of Irish life. It gives us a portrait of Ireland unlike anything we''ve read before.''Absorbing and illuminating ... John Bowman has selected a range of accounts of Irish life that do justice to what happened, what it felt like, and the personal and societal experiences alongside the official version.'' Diarmaid Ferriter, Irish Times''A treasure'' Irish Examiner''A whistle-stop tour of the seismic, seminal and explosive events which shaped the nation as we know it'' Irish Independent''Entertaining and informative'' Sunday Business Post''A remarkably varied and delightfully readable mosaic of voices and perspectives'' Women''s Way''A thoughtful and eclectic collection'' Irish Mail on SundayTrade ReviewAbsorbing and illuminating ... John Bowman has selected a range of accounts of Irish life that do justice to what happened, what it felt like, and the personal and societal experiences alongside the "official" version. -- Diarmaid Ferriter * Irish Times *Entertaining and informative * Sunday Business Post *A thoughtful and eclectic collection * Irish Mail on Sunday *A remarkably varied and delightfully readable mosaic of voices and perspectives * Woman's Way *A treasure * Irish Examiner *A whistle-stop tour of the seismic, seminal and explosive events that shaped the nation * Irish Independent *

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Book SynopsisOliver Bullough was born in 1977 and grew up on a sheep farm in mid-Wales. He studied modern history at Oxford University and moved to Russia in 1999. He lived in St Petersburg, Bishkek and Moscow over the next seven years, working as a journalist first for local magazines and newspapers, and then for Reuters news agency. He reported from all over Russia and the former Soviet Union, but liked nothing more than to work among the peoples and mountains of the North Caucasus.He moved back to Britain in 2006, and has spent the following years travelling for and writing this book.He now lives in east London. He likes to travel, to take photographs, to watch Welsh rugby, to cook and to read.Trade ReviewThis wonderful, moving book flashes backwards and forwards over a terrain almost impossible to survey, and manages the feat * Norman Stone *Lively and impassioned ... a tragically neglected corner of our world * Orlando Figes *Oliver Bullough's book is a painstaking, sensitively reported effort to knit together their [the people of the Caucasus] lost history -- Wendell Steavenson * Sunday Times *A book that effortlessly mixes on-the-spot reportage and a wide-ranging history . . . Let its fame be great * The Scotsman *Bullough brings us exciting news, presented as short, gripping stories that ... The history of their resistance and resilience has been largely unknown for two centuries. Now their stories are sung by a champion and will resound beyond their boundaries -- Ian Finlayson * The Times *An impressive debut ... heartfelt and compelling ... With this impassioned volume he has struck a blow for the glory of the Caucasus and helped to give voice to the voiceless -- Justin Marozzi * Financial Times *Bullough should be congratulated on his brave and tireless investigations into an under-reported region of the world -- George Walden * New Statesman *Let Our Fame Be Great is a treat ... Finely bound, with excellent maps, Bullough draws you irresistibly into his narrative, fusing reportage, history and travelogue in colourful, absorbing prose ... The book is a pleasure, and most importantly, it is critical to understanding modern Russia with its worrying collective amnesia -- Daniel Metcalfe * Spectator *Fascinating and ground-breaking ... Bullough has got plenty of dust, snow and mud on his boots from his travels recording the forgotten tragedies of the North Caucasus ... In the process he [has] unearthed many priceless nuggets of historic truth -- Thomas de Waal * OpenDemocracy *

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize''Part detective story, part Dickensian saga, part labour history. A thrilling and unnerving read'' Observer ''Mesmeric and deeply moving'' Daily Telegraph ''Remarkable, haunting, full of wisdom'' The TimesFamily history is a massive phenomenon of our times but what are we after when we go in search of our ancestors? Beginning with her grandparents, Alison Light moves between the present and the past, in an extraordinary series of journeys over two centuries, across Britain and beyond.Epic in scope and deep in feeling, Common People is a family history but also a new kind of public history, following the lives of the migrants who travelled the country looking for work. Original and eloquent, it is a timely rethinking of who the English were - but ultimately it reflects on history itself, and on our constant need to know who went before us anTrade ReviewIn illuminating her own, Light serves up the most powerful family history I have ever read. -- Penelope Lively * New York Times *Light writes beautifully. With such colour and with perception and lyricism she clads the past....Common People is part memoir, part thrilling social history of the England of the Industrial Revolution, but above all a work of quiet poetry and insight into human behaviour. It is full of wisdom. -- Melanie Reid * The Times Book of the Week *This book is a substantial achievement: its combination of scholarship and intelligence is, you may well think, the best monument you could have to all those she has rescued from time's oblivion. * Financial Times *Evocatively written...a thrilling and unnerving read * The Observer *Exquisite...Barely a page goes by without something fascinating on it, betraying Light's skill in winkling out the most relevant or moving aspects of her antecedents' lives, which echo through the generations. * the Independent on Sunday *[A] short and beautifully written meditation on family and mobility. * the Independent *Intellectually sound and relevant...a refreshingly modern way of thinking about our past. * New Statesman *Light [is skilled] in probing dark corners of her ancestry and exposing their historical meaning...packed with humanity. * Sunday Times *Beautifully written and exhaustively researched, Alison Light makes her family speak for England. * Jerry White, author of London in the Eighteenth Century *A remarkable achievement...should become a classic. * Margaret Drabble *

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Book SynopsisThe French Writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944), was born in Lyon. His first two books, SOUTHERN MAIL and NIGHT FLIGHT, are distinguished by a poetic evocation of the romance and discipline of flying. Later works, including WIND, SAND AND STARS and FLIGHT TO ARRAS, stress his humanistic philosophy. Saint-Exupéry's popular children's book THE LITTLE PRINCE is also read by adults for its allegorical meaning. Saint-Exupéry's plane disappeared during a mission in World War II.

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David Edgerton is Hans Rausing Professor at Imperial College London, where he was the founding director of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. He is the author of a sequence of groundbreaking books on 20th century Britain: Science, Technology and the British Industrial 'Decline', 1870-1970; Warfare State: Britain, 1920-1970; and Britain's War Machine, published by Penguin. He is also the author of the iconoclastic and brilliant The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900.

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