European history: medieval period, middle ages Books

Book SynopsisDuring the First World War, the British Army''s most consistent German opponent was Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. Commanding more than a million men as a General, and then Field Marshal, in the Imperial German Army, he held off the attacks of the British Expeditionary Force under Sir John French and then Sir Douglas Haig for four long years. But Rupprecht was to lose not only the war, but his son and his throne.Haig''s Enemy by Jonathan Boff explores the tragic tale of Rupprecht''s war--the story of a man caught under the wheels of modern industrial warfare. Providing a fresh viewpoint on the history of the Western Front, Boff draws on extensive research in the German archives to offer a history of the First World War from the other side of the barbed wire. He revises conventional explanations of why the Germans lost with an in-depth analysis of the nature of command, and of the institutional development of the British, French, and German armies as modern warfare was born. Using RTrade ReviewBoff has provided a very informative, readable book for a wide audience combining military operational history with a vivid description of moving and even tragic elements of Rupprecht's life. * Christian Stachelbeck, Bundeswehr Centre of Military History and Social Sciences, Potsdam, Germany, First World War Studies *Beautifully written ... a firstclass guide to the way the war was fought from the German perspective. * Jack Sheldon, Western Front Association *Haig's Enemy helps us to understand how the German army developed and changed during the war, as well as how it came to lose. Boff charts an unedifying picture of lessons being learnt and forgotten, top-down interference from the higher command, as well as the growing intensity and lethality of the fighting ... [Haig's Enemy] illustrates the pressures and strains on one man at war, and how he did his best to mitigate them. * Nick Lloyd, The Times Literary Supplement *Using extensive German sources, Boffs scholarly military biography provides a fascinating insight not only into Rupprechts thinking, but also in the First World War from the German side. It is a fresh and unusual take on the war. * Taylor Downing, Military History Monthly *Compelling... both scholarly and very readable... I absolutely recommend it... * David Ian Hall, English Historical Review *Boff has produced a welcome study, which will interest many students of military history. He has introduced a leading German ?gure of the First World War to an anglo-phone audience, and he has offered a persuasive historical analysis of critical issues of staff and command. * Roger Chickering, Journal of Modern History *Boff has produced a welcome study, which will interest many students of military history. He has introduced a leading German figure of the First World War to an anglophone audience, and he has offered a persuasive historical analysis of critical issues of staff and command. * Journal of Modern History *The literature on the First World War has grown enormously over the past three decades, given a further recent boost by the centenary of the war. It thus comes as a surprise to realize that, apart from Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, no senior German commander has yet been the subject of a full English-language biography, though several memoirs appeared in English soon after the war. Historian Jonathan Boff (Univ. of Birmingham) has thus begun to fill a serious gap in the scholarship on World War I. Haig's Enemy centers specifically on Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria, who, for much of the war, commanded the main German forces opposing the British on the Western Front. * Michigan War Studies Review *Of all diaries and memoirs written by the senior German officers of the First World War, that of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria has long been regarded as the most revealing. Yet Rupprecht himself has remained elusive, his contribution eclipsed by his more voluble and histrionic contemporaries. Jonathan Boff has not only brought him to life (and to an English audience), but done so in a book that ranges far more widely than a conventional biography. Readers will gain fresh perspectives on the British and French as much as they learn about Rupprecht's Bavarians. * Sir Hew Strachan, University of St Andrews and Editor of the Great Battles series. *Crown Prince Rupprecht was one of the most significant German commanders to face the British Army across No Man's Land, but until now we have lacked a biography in English ... A triumph. * Gary Sheffield, Professor of War Studies, University of Wolverhampton. *This scholarly but lucid and beautifully written account of the German High Command is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand how the fighting on the Western Front developed during the First World War. * Professor Sir Michael Howard *Table of ContentsIntroduction PART I. TO WAR 1914 1: Rupprecht's Road to War 2: The Battle of the Frontiers 3: The End of the Campaign in Lorraine 4: The First Battle of the Somme 5: To Ypres PART II. THE ANVIL 1915-16 6: A Difficult Winter 7: A Successful Spring 8: Further Victories 9: Verdun and the Road to the Somme 10: Early Days on the Somme 11: Rupprecht the General PART III. HOLDING THE LINE 1916-17 12: Rupprecht Takes Command 13: Autumn on the Somme 14: Scorched Earth 15: The Battle of Arras 16: The Battle for Flanders: Summer 1917 17: The Battle for Flanders: To Passchendaele 18: Cambrai PART IV. YEAR OF DEFEATS 1918 19: Planning the Spring Offensives 20: Operation MICHAEL 21: Operation GEORGETTE and Summer 1918 22: The Hundred Days 23: Rupprecht on the Run PART V. CONCLUSIONS 24: Rupprecht the Field Marshal 25: Rupprecht and Politics 26: Last Words Appendix: Note on Military Terminology

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Book SynopsisOn 18 April 1947, British forces set off the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. The target was a small island in the North Sea, fifty miles off the German coast, which for generations had stood as a symbol of Anglo-German conflict: Heligoland. A long tradition of rivalry was to come to an end here, in the ruins of Hitler''s island fortress. Pressed as to why it was not prepared to give Heligoland back, the British government declared that the island represented everything that was wrong with the Germans: ''If any tradition was worth breaking, and if any sentiment was worth changing, then the German sentiment about Heligoland was such a one''. Drawing on a wide range of archival material, Jan Rüger explores how Britain and Germany have collided and collaborated in this North Sea enclave. For much of the nineteenth century, this was Britain''s smallest colony, an inconvenient and notoriously discontented outpost at the edge of Europe. Situated at the fault line between imperial and national histories, the island became a metaphor for Anglo-German rivalry once Germany had acquired it in 1890. Turned into a naval stronghold under the Kaiser and again under Hitler, it was fought over in both world wars. Heavy bombardment by the Allies reduced it to ruins, until the Royal Navy re-took it in May 1945. Returned to West Germany in 1952, it became a showpiece of reconciliation, but one that continues to wear the scars of the twentieth century. Tracing this rich history of contact and conflict from the Napoleonic Wars to the Cold War, Heligoland brings to life a fascinating microcosm of the Anglo-German relationship. For generations this cliff-bound island expressed a German will to bully and battle Britain; and it mirrored a British determination to prevent Germany from establishing hegemony on the Continent. Caught in between were the Heligolanders and those involved with them: spies and smugglers, poets and painters, sailors and soldiers. Far more than just the history of a small island in the North Sea, this is the compelling story of a relationship which has defined modern Europe.Trade ReviewJan Rüger [...] has achieved the notable feat of telling a story almost none of us knows. His account of Heligoland's Napoleonic-era experience is a high spot, but the whole work is studded with unexpected gems about extraordinary people. * Max Hastings, The Sunday Times, Paperback of the week (26th May, 2019) *Fascinating. * Neal Ascherson, London Review of Books *Pacey and erudite... succeeds admirably. * European History Quarterly *A Rüger's work on this small island is historiography at its best. * Dieter Langewiesche, German Historical Institute London Bulletin *Rüger's book moves seamlessly between the views and demands of the inhabitants of Heligoland... and the considerations and policies impacting the island in the halls of government in Great Britain and Germany. Well-researched from multiple archives... the book also provides a useful and important reminder to historians of the need to consider a "long view". * Alan M. Anderson, Naval Historical Foundation *Masterful... fascinating... this is microhistory at its best. * W. Mark Hamilton, Mariner's Mirror *A thought-provoking treatise of how nations coexist -- or dont. * Joseph Callo, H Net *This brilliant, quirky book tells the almost unknown story of the tiny North Sea German island that became an unlikely corner of the British Empire. * Sunday Times, Best Books for the Summer 2017 *The reader of Rüger's volume will be fascinated, surprised, horrified and moved. * John R. Davis, Reviews in History *A fascinating book which uses a scrap of land in the North Sea to illustrate the tumultuous relationship between Britain and Germany. * History Hit Podcast with Dan Snow *Rüger's book brilliantly spins a far bigger history out of one small, half-forgotten place. For so long the fault line between two powers, Heligoland deserves to be rescued from oblivion; it has found an admirable historian. * Ben Wilson, The Sunday Telegraph *The whole book is studded with unexpected gems about extraordinary people ... a fine tale. * Max Hastings, The Sunday Times *Resonant... a prism through which to view the entire span of Anglo-German rivalry, conflict and, eventually, reconciliation. * Martin Kettle, Guardian *Utterly fascinating ... impeccable, original, scholarly and superbly written * Simon Heffer, Literary Review *Mr Ruger makes his case that Heligoland's fortunes are a useful bellwether of wider relations and he relates his story in an engaging style ... More people should know Heligoland's story for the echoes it has today. * The Economist *Fascinating * Ian Brunskill, Wall Street Journal Europe *A gem of a study ... concise, scholarly, and readable. On one level it is simply an authoritative narrative history of an island and ist people, but on another it represents so much more: a case study of the twists and turns of Britain's relationship with Germany, Europe, and the wider world over two tumultuous centuries. * Nick Hewitt, Military History Monthly *Visitors today may be quite unaware of Heligoland's curious history or of the weight of symbolism it once bore. Day trippers come now to enjoy the bird watching, the 1950s architecture, the duty-free cigarettes. Before setting out, they should read Mr. Ruger's fascinating book. * The Wall Street Journal *For those devourers of "forgotten" history, this book is a must ... riveting * Ian Hernon, Tribune *distinguished German historian Jan Rüger ... has written a micro-history that captures the complexity of Anglo-German relations * Nigel Winser, Geographical *A brilliant and subtle history of Anglo-German relations, told through the evocative study of a contested island. This fascinating book is a triumphant demonstration of the power of microhistory. * Christopher Clark, author of The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 *This is a brilliant demonstration of how the very small can have a significance over time on the very large. Drawing on literature, cartography, art, music and film, as well as a wide spread of archives, Jan Rüger shows how and why Heligoland became caught up in a succession of epic and destructive wars, conflicting but also overlapping national identities, the rise and fall of Anglo-German antagonism, and the competition for empire. * Linda Colley, Princeton University *Jan Rüger's new book takes the North Sea island of Heligoland as a lens through which to examine Anglo-German relations over the past two centuries. The result is an entertaining and illuminating study full of colourful detail, that traces the phases of co-operation and hostility between the two powers over the decades from the Kaiser to Hitler and beyond. * Richard J. Evans, author of The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914 *Ruger's Heligoland: Britain, Germany, and the Struggle for the North Sea succeeds brilliantly in exposing how Britons and Germans moved from admiration to antagonism, from cooperation to conflict, intermingling elements of both during the long nineteenth century, between the world wars, and after the Second World War. Focusing on the specific, it illustrates the shifting dynamics of the general relationship. The micro-study references higher level diplomacy and the military dimensions of the Anglo-German relationship but focuses on how art, poetry, music, and the everyday interactions of islanders, visitors, and representatives of the state made Heligoland into something more than two small islands buffeted by the waves of the North Sea. * Douglas Peifer, H-War *Table of ContentsPrologue: Between Worlds 1: Edge of Europe 2: Nation and Empire 3: A Matter of Sentiment 4: Making Germans 5: Island Fortress 6: To Heligoland and Back 7: Disarming Germany 8: Hitler's Island 9: Out of Ruins Epilogue: No More Heligolands List of Abbreviations Notes Sources Acknowledgements Picture Credits Index

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Book SynopsisFrom Shakespeare to The Beatles, the battle of Agincourt has dominated the cultural landscape as one of the most famous battles in British history. Anne Curry seeks to find out how and why the legacy of Agincourt has captured the popular imagination.Agincourt (1415) is an exceptionally famous battle, one that has generated a huge and enduring cultural legacy in the six hundred years since it was fought. Everybody thinks they know what the battle was about. Even John Lennon, aged 12, wrote a poem and drew a picture headed ''Agincourt''. But why and how has Agincourt come to mean so much, to so many? Why do so many people claim their ancestors served at the battle? Is the Agincourt of popular image the real Agincourt, or is our idea of the battle simply taken from Shakespeare''s famous depiction of it? Written by the world''s leading expert on the battle, this book shows just why it has occupied such a key place in English identity and history in the six centuries since it was fought, exTrade ReviewReview from previous edition Anne Curry analyses the evidence with the authority of the doyenne of Agincourt historians ... [an] excellent narrative of the fighting. * Lawrence James, The Times *Nobody knows more about Agincourt than Anne Curry... Her new work addresses the reasons for Agincourt's enduring fame. Clearly, much of it was down to Shakespeare, who was at his roaring best when he dramatized Henry Vs day of triumph in the late 1590s, a time when the English public was especially hungry for cod-medieval jingo. What is less well known, but illustrated beautifully by Curry's book, is the fact that the immortalisation of Agincourt started long before Shakespeare. * Dan Jones, The Sunday Times *Interesting, commendably accessible, and admirably well researched. * Susan Elkin, Independent on Sunday *Curry compiles an exhaustive list of Agincourt's resonance throughout French and British letters and art, and she is especially incisive on the 600th anniversary of the battles about its evolving and often ambiguous message to the sometimes allied, sometimes warring French and British. * Victor Davis Hanson, Times Literary Supplement *Gives a good account of Agincourt's after-life in Shakespeare's Henry V, and in myth, legend, literature and propaganda ... * Malcolm Vale, London Review of Books *Wonderfully accessible ... By exploring English history from a truly intriguing angle, Curry's insightful book shows us how the myth of Agincourt, harnessed by jingoism, has been used to convince the country on repeated occasions of its own invincibility. Fascinating stuff. * Tim Williamson, History of War *Entertaining and readable. * Francesca Trowse, Military History *If one accepts that fact can be separated from fiction, Curry's Agincourt can hardly be bettered. * Oxford Journals: French History *What can one learn from a 600-year-old battle? Quite a bit, as it turns out. Anne Curry's telling of the Battle of Agincourt, and her analysis of English King Henry V's leadership in that battle against the French, yields new insights not just about the battle itself, but about how the memories and myths that surround it have influenced both personal and national identities. * Survival: Global Politics and Strategy *does an admirable job of showing how national identity, myth-making, and popular culture can influence the historical narrative ... * New York Journal of Books *This is as much a book for the non-specialist as for the historian or enthusiast. Professor Curry writes in a style that is eminently readable. Highly recommended. * Geoffrey Carter, The Battlefield Trust Magazine *There are many books about Agincourt, but few authors can claim to have contributed as much to the subject as the industrious Anne Curry. * Society of Antiquaries of London Online Newsletter (SALON) *Forget Laurence Olivier or Kenneth Branagh, or even Shakespeare, and instead feast on this historical extravaganza which tells how the battle was fought, how the protagonists lined up and what was actually achieved by the great victory. * Northern Echo, Steve Craggs *Curry is fascinating both on how Shakespeare adapted his source material for Henry V and on how the battle, our perceptions often governed by Shakespeare, has been used, often for propaganda, right through to the present day. * The Stage, Susan Elkin *Anne Curry's brilliant historiographical discussion traces how the myth of Agincourt and the image of a small but doughty force prevailing against incredible odds have become in no small part because of Shakespeare embedded in our national consciousness. Having written on Agincourt before, Curry knows the scholarly debate well... [A] fascinating account of the battle and its mythology. * Literary Review, Mary Wellesley *splendid * Chris Green, Suffolk and Norfolk Life *Table of Contents1: Agincourt and Medieval Warfare 2: The Battle 3: 'The Glorious Commencement' or 'The Accursed Day' 4: Alarms and Excursions. The Enduring Influence of Shakespeare's Agincourt 5: The Bowmen and the Bow: National Identity and Cultural Memory 6: 'Historians Refight Agincourt' Further Reading Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThis work shows how women between the 12th and 16th centuries were able to carve out areas of influence by exploiting the institutional church and by manipulating religious precepts. Contributors argue that women's participation in religious life offered them access to power in all its forms.Table of ContentsForeword by Catharine R. Stimpson Preface 1: Women and Religion in Late Medieval Italy: History and Historiography Daniel Bornstein 2: A Community of Female Penitents in Thirteenth-Century Padua Antonio Rigon 3: Clare, Agnes, and Their Earliest Followers: From the Poor Ladies of San Damiano to the Poor Clares Clara Gennaro 4: Anchoresses and Penitents in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century Umbria Mario Sensi 5: Mendicant Friars and Female Pinzochere in Tuscany: From Social Marginality to Models of Sanctity Anna Benvenuti Papi 6: The Apostolic Canonization Proceedings of Clare of Montefalco, 1318-1319 Enrico Menesto 7: Female, Mystics, Visions, and Iconography Chiara Frugoni 8: Imitable Sanctity: The Legend of Maria of Venice Fernanda Sorelli 9: St. Bernardino of Siena, the Wife, and Possessions Roberto Rusconi 10: St. Francesca and the Female Religious Communities of Fifteenth-Century Rome Anna Esposito 11: Living Saints: A Typology of Female Sanctity in the Early Sixteenth Century Gabriella Zarri Afterword: Women Religious in Late Medieval Italy: New Sources and Directions Roberto Rusconi Index

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Book SynopsisCombining ethnography, history, and social theory, this book exposes how the shifting fortunes and social perceptions of German intellectuals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries influenced German's conceptions of modernity and national culture.Trade Review"Spirit and System is a brilliant book. It is nothing short of an ethnographic examination both of German post-reunification society and anthropological theory. This is not only a methodological tour de force, it is also ethnographically sensitive and an original and experientially grounded introduction to one of the central problems of German and, indeed, European ethnology." - Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University"

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Book SynopsisFirst published in Venice in 1547, this work casts a woman rather than a man as the main disputant on the ethics of love. Tullia d'Aragona argued that the only moral form of love between a woman and a man is one that recognizes both the sensual and the spiritual needs of humankind.

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Book SynopsisDrawing on the work of Charles Tilly, Immanuel Wallerstein, and, of course, Bourdieu, Derluguian's explanation of the recent ethnic wars and terrorist acts in Russia succeeds in illuminating the role of human agency in shaping history.Trade Review"Derluguian is endowed with a special ability to show how the grinding wheels of world history affect actual human lives." - William H. McNeill, author of Plagues and Peoples and Pursuit of Power"

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Book SynopsisThis study explores music's place in the cultural, artistic and literary life of medieval Italian courts, paying particular attention to the influence of French culture on Italian artistic and musical traditions in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.

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Book SynopsisThe German Democratic Republic has become the subject of novels, memoirs and films, and the backdrop for general debates over the power of intellectuals in contemporary media and society. This collection considers the demise of the GDR and its impact on the place of intellectuals.

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Book SynopsisIn 1630s, the Netherlands was gripped by tulipmania: a speculative fever unprecedented in scale and, as history would have it, folly. The author lays waste to the legends, revealing that while the 1630s did see a speculative bubble in tulip prices, neither the height of bubble nor its bursting were anywhere near as dramatic as we tend to think.Trade Review"Goldgar tells us at the start of her excellent debunking book: 'Most of what we have heard of [tulipmania] is not true.'... She tells a new story." - Simon Kuper, Financial Times"

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Book SynopsisIn the years that followed World War II, both the United States and the newly formed West German republic had an opportunity to remake their economies. This book takes a comparative look at the development of postwar mass consumption in West Germany and the United States and the emergence of discrete consumer modernities.Trade Review"Jan L. Logemann provides an outstanding contribution to the history of consumption that will be an important read for scholars of European and American history. Trams or Tailfins? is an excellent model for how consumer history can be embedded within the history of public policy." (Katherine Pence, Baruch College, City University of New York)"

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Book SynopsisThe X Club was a group of Victorian scientists who banded together to promote disinterested science and education; they included many of the most prominent scientists of the period, and they controlled the Royal Society for a couple of decades.

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Book SynopsisMerchants' shouts, jostling strangers, aromas of fresh fish and flowers, plodding horses, and friendly chatter long filled the narrow, crowded streets of the European city. As they developed over many centuries, these spaces of commerce, communion, and commuting framed daily life. At its heyday in the 1800s, the European street was the place where social worlds connected and collided. Brian Ladd recounts a rich social and cultural history of the European city street, tracing its transformation from a lively scene of trade and crowds into a thoroughfare for high-speed transportation. Looking closely at four major cities--London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna--Ladd uncovers both the joys and the struggles of a past world. The story takes us up to the twentieth century, when the life of the street was transformed as wealthier citizens withdrew from the crowds to seek refuge in suburbs and automobiles. As demographics and technologies changed, so did the structure of cities and the design oTrade Review"The Streets of Europe is brimming with information that will cause many readers to think anew about key aspects of urban life and how this has shaped the appearance and functionality of cities of the modern era. Through the frequent use of literary texts, Ladd provides a lively commentary on such gendered acts as leaping on a bus, on city sewage, and on the dangers of getting stuck in traffic (who knew that Franz Ferdinand and King Henry IV were both murdered as a secondary consequence of being held up in traffic!). Ladd is to be commended for his insights that are both place-specific and portable to other sites."--Fabrizio Nevola, Professor of Art History and Visual Culture, University of Exeter "Deeply researched, beautifully-written, and appealingly illustrated, The Streets of Europe makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the European city in the 19th century. This is a sensory history and a sensual story told from street level. Ladd's thinking about the transformations of commerce through the eyes, ears, skin, and nose of the person on the street sheds new light on these spaces. Through its moves across the sources and narrative of strategies of urban and social history, The Streets of Europe offers a clear and powerful account of the transformation of street life in Europe."--Leora Auslander, author of Cultural Revolutions: Everyday Life and Politics in Britain, North America, and FranceTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Form and Use of City Streets 1 Streets in History 2 Wheeling and Dealing: The Street Economy 3 Strolling, Mingling, and Lingering: Social Life on the Street 4 Out of the Muck: The Sanitary City 5 Transportation: The Acceleration of the Street 6 Public Order and Public Space: Control and Design Conclusion: Looking Down on the Street Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThis work traces the scientific, administrative, and political strategies that enabled the foundation of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. It argues that agriculture and animal breeding rank alongside classification and collections in explaining why natural history was important for French rulers.

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Book SynopsisPiechocki calls for an examination of the idea of Europe as a geographical concept, tracing its development in the 15th and 16th centuries.Trade Review"Piechocki is conceptually rigorous, she reads many languages and her research is impeccable. She is a careful critic but also a deeply imaginative historian. This is a contribution to the 'darker side' of cartography and the Renaissance, emphasizing the relationship between writing and scholarship and the exercise of power and exploitation, but its analysis never departs from the measured and reflective." * Times Higher Education *"This is an ambitious book which convincingly achieves its goals. It makes great claims for Humanism, the Renaissance and especially for cartography in establishing a new idea of Europe, and presents detailed evidence for those claims in closely argued and highly detailed case studies." -- Michael Wintle * European History Quarterly *"[A] timely book...well worth a read." * Journal of Historical Geography *“Through a close reading of literary texts, Cartographic Humanism traces a shift in understanding of the shapes, meanings, relationships, and constituent parts of the globe. Piechocki’s linguistic range is astounding, and her fluid translations convey the poetry of the original passages. She has assembled a rich array of texts and images, and the imaginative ways in which she reads them add up to something new and compelling. She draws out their cartographic ideas and makes a convincing case for their centrality in defining both Europe and its swaggering presence across the globe. Her readings are fresh and energetic. The book will be a major contribution to literary and cultural studies and their intersection with the history of cartography.” -- Valerie A. Kivelson, author of Cartographies of Tsardom: The Land and Its Meanings in Seventeenth-Century Russia"Katharina Piechocki’s Cartographic Humanism is an indispensable book for scholars in many disciplines who think or write about cartography, Europeanness, or [the] Renaissance." * The Polish Review *"Cartographic Humanism is the wonderful achievement of a major critic, scholar, literary historian and multicultural thinker. With wide-ranging scholarship, philological acuteness, sensitivity to textual and poetic nuance, and enviable linguistic ease in Latin, German, Polish, French, Italian, Spanish, English and Portuguese, Katharina Piechocki offers a new understanding of the sixteenth-century cartographic invention of Europe from a pot-pourri of real and imagined borderlands. In taut analyses of writers little studied outside specialist contexts or well-known but not as mappers of a new Europe—Conrad Celtis, Maciej Miechowita, Geoffroy Tory, Girolamo Fracastoro and Luís Vaz de Camões—Piechocki tracks a cartopoietic story that 'starts' with efforts to delimit central (Germanic), eastern (Polish or 'Sarmatic') and a core (French) 'Europe' from and against indeterminate or non-existent Asian, Mediterranean and African borders, passes through attempts to establish this 'place' against an also indeterminate other—'America' or 'not-Europe,' all intimately bound, in Fracastoro, to disease and/or its cure and to the fictive imagination, and 'ends' with Camões’ nomad poetic imposition of a colonizing Mediterranean map on an age-old Indian Ocean one, a European cartography on and of the world. In the effervescent Renaissance scholarship of history as cartography Piechocki’s is a splendidly compelling new voice, one, too, that lets us see hitherto silent or 'peripheral' actors as key to modern Europe’s invention." -- Timothy Reiss, author of Mirages of the Selfe: Patterns of Personhood in Ancient and Early Modern Europe"Cartographic Humanism is a tour de force. Impeccably researched and beautifully written, this major intervention into the histories of cartography and literature asks what we mean when we say ‘Europe.’ Piechocki addresses this question—so urgent today—by exploring how early modern poets and mapmakers imagined interstitial geographies and, thus, Europe’s ever-changing borders and contact zones. Drawing from a rich multilingual archive of humanists from Germany, Poland, France, Italy, and Portugal, Cartographic Humanism shows that Europe is not a monolith and never was. A must-read not only for scholars of early modernity, but for anyone who has ever said the word ‘Europe.’” -- Phillip John Usher, author of The Exterranean: Extraction in the Humanist Anthropocene“Cartographic Humanism is a deeply ambitious, exhaustively researched, and carefully argued book that covers a number of literary and historical issues in Renaissance European culture. Piechocki successfully brings together the unwieldy materials of language, local identification, a multidisciplinary approach, and temporal breadth, providing valuable insight into Latin humanist texts that undergird more familiar vernacular cartographic texts.” -- William J. Kennedy, author of Petrarchism at Work: Contextual Economies in the Age of Shakespeare"Katharina N. Piechocki’s elegant and incisive new work on how an assemblage of sixteenth-century humanists took the classical designation of 'Europa' and transformed it from a loosely defined appendage to Asia’s landmass into a more sharply delineated territory with political and metaphysical overtones." * Isis *"How did Europe emerge through pictorial maps, and what did early Renaissance maps and cartopoetics have to do with that emergence? Cartographic Humanism is an intertextual study of the history of cartography that looks at transnational spaces of fantasy and exploration, knowledge and emotion, and symbolic places and claimed discovery. . . .In this effervescent book of literary criticism and the map, there is much creative ground to be gained." * Austrian History Yearbook *"Piechocki's study is a complex contribution to the study of the understanding of Europe in the Renaissance... Although this is never explicitly mentioned by the author herself, this book can also be understood as a serious examination of the reception of Ptolemaic geography in the 15th and 16th centuries... Piechocki's impressive contribution remeasures the broad field of early modern European research." * H-Soz-Kult (translated from German) *Table of ContentsList of Figures A Note on Translations Introduction 1. Gridding Europe’s Navel: Conrad Celtis’s Quatuor Libri Amorum secundum Quatuor Latera Germanie (1502) 2. A Border Studies Manifesto: Maciej Miechowita’s Tractatus de Duabus Sarmatiis (1517) 3. The Alpha and the Alif: Continental Ambivalence in Geoffroy Tory’s Champ fleury (1529) 4. Syphilitic Borders and Continents in Flux: Girolamo Fracastoro’s Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus (1530) 5. Cartographic Curses: Europe and the Ptolemaic Poetics of Os Lusíadas (1572) Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“I can’t speak enthusiastically enough for Minois’s excellent book. The Atheists’s Bible is more scholarly than Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve and less playful than the philological detective work that Robert K. Merton displayed in On the Shoulders of Giants, but it offers comparable intellectual pleasure. Lys Ann Weiss’s translation, moreover, reads beautifully.” -- Michael Dirda * Bookforum *“Just as in Umberto Eco’s novel The Prague Cemetery, if you create false evidence in order to discredit your enemies—be they Jews or Jesuits, Carbonari or Bolsheviks, Masons or the Vatican—you will soon find people eager not only to believe you but also to serve the cause you have been trying to undermine. The text that is the object of Georges Minois’ study, the Treatise of the Three Impostors, provides a perfect illustration of this peculiar dynamics of deceit, credulity and paranoia." * Times Higher Education *“Georges Minois’s timely and elegant study The Atheist’s Bible is a landmark addition to both the history of ideas and the history of the book. The Treatise of the Three Impostors set a record for advance publicity—before it was finally published, intellectuals accused one another of writing it for nearly half a millennium. Its real author was not any single thinker but the cumulative, nervous imagination of the entire European intelligentsia. Like a Freudian id, it exposed the repressed, traumatic thought that all religion was a hoax: centuries before avowed atheism became possible, accusations that someone else had written the Treatise of the Three Impostors explored the particulars and possibilities of irreligion. Readers who are intrigued or scandalized by the diatribes of Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens will discover in The Atheist’s Bible that, as that other Bible says, there is nothing new under the sun.” -- Walter Stephens, author of Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Beli“The Treatise of the Three Impostors is a book that enjoyed centuries of notorious nonexistence until (as Voltaire would say) it became necessary to invent it. Georges Minois writes with empathy, erudition, and a novelist’s sense of buildup and timing, weaving in the parallel story of Europe’s courageous freethinkers. In the face of today’s social and even legal pressures against criticizing religion, it is good to see an honorable French tradition asserting itself.”—Joscelyn Godwin, author of The Pagan Dream of the Renaissance -- Joscelyn Godwin, author of The Pagan Dream of the RenaissanceTable of ContentsTranslator’s NotePreface to the English-Language Edition (2011)Preface (2009)1. The Origin of a Mythical Theme: The Prehistory of the Three Impostors (Up to the Thirteenth Century) The First to Be Accused: Frederick II and Pierre des Vignes (1239) The Precursors of Imposture: Zalmoxis and Numa Pompilius Celsus: Moses the Impostor Celsus and the Talmud: Jesus the Impostor Mahomet the Impostor in Christian Literature (Ninth to Twelfth Century) Politico-Religious Imposture in the Middle Ages The Arabic Origins of the Theme of the Three Impostors (Tenth Century) The First Mention in Christianity (Twelfth Century)2. The Hunt for the Author of a Mythical Treatise (Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century) A Culture of Imposture The Rumors of the Late Middle Ages The Renaissance: A Receptive Context for the Idea of Imposture Moses the Machiavellian Appeals to the Holy Union of Religions Italy and the Specter of the Three Impostors The Obsession Spreads Geneva, Birthplace of the Three Impostors? Three Impostors or Three Prophets? (Guillaume Postel) Who Actually Saw the Treatise?3. The European Elites and Religious Imposture (Seventeenth Century) On the Trail of De tribus around the Baltic Sea Holland and England: Heterodox Contexts The French Trail: Learned Libertines and Religious Imposture4. Debates on the Origin of Religions (Second Half of the Seventeenth Century) Hobbes and Spinoza Holland and the Birth of the Radical Enlightenment Rumors of the De tribus in England5. From the De tribus to the Trois imposteurs: Discovery or Invention of the Treatise? (1680–1721) Sources of the De tribus: Kiel, 1688 The Intervention of Leibniz and of Baron von Hohendorf The De tribus: A German Affair Preliminary Polemic: Does the Trois imposteurs Exist? (1715–1716) The Reference Edition: The Hague, 1719 The Birth of L’Esprit de Spinoza and of the Trois imposteurs (1700–1721) A Franco-Dutch Commercial Imposture? Erroneous Attributions: Henri de Boulainvillier (1658–1722) and John Toland (1670–1722)6. The Treatise of the Three Impostors: The Contents of a Blasphemy The De tribus: A Slapdash Work? The Atheism of the Traité The End of Religions The Soul and Demons: Subtle Chimeras Moses the Impostor: Magic and Persecution Jesus the Impostor: A Merchant of Absurd Dreams Mahomet the Impostor: The Senses and the SwordEpilogue: The Three Impostors in the Antireligious Literature of the Eighteenth CenturyAppendixesNotes GlossaryIndex of Names

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Book SynopsisThe first modern biography of medieval French scholar and bishop William of Auvergne. Today, William of Auvergne (1180?1249) is remembered for his scholarship about the afterlife as well as the so-called Trial of the Talmud. But the medieval bishop of Paris also left behind nearly 600 sermons delivered to all manner of peoplefrom the royal court to the poorest in his care. In Fragments of a World, Lesley Smith uses these sermons to paint a vivid picture of this extraordinary cleric, his parishioners, and their bustling world. The first modern biography of the influential teacher, bishop, and theologian, Fragments of a World casts a new image of William of Auvergne for our timesdeeply attuned to both the spiritual and material needs of an ever-changing populace in the medieval city.Trade Review"Smith’s insightful discussion of these colorful sermons provides us not only with a valuable insight into a fascinating medieval mind, worthy of comparison with the better-known Robert Grosseteste, but also an engaging portrait of Paris and its inhabitants at a pivotal time in the city’s history." * Times Literary Supplement *"In this extraordinary book, Smith presents a biographical sketch, analysis, and description of the life and philosophical theology of William of Auvergne, 13th-century Bishop of Paris, canon of Notre Dame Cathedral, and academician at the University of Paris. Smith takes up the rather prolific and sometimes difficult themes primarily, but by no means exclusively, from William's sermons (some 600) and fits them within some 16 brief chapters, some examples of which include "Teachers and Teaching," "The Landed and Married," "Animals," "Food and Drink," "Death and Beyond," "Jews," "Home and Family," "Women," and "Poverty." The interested reader will come away with a treasure of philosophical theology and a whole new picture of the 13th-century medieval world. Smith produces outstanding scholarship tucked into an engaging literary style. Includes 37 pages of endnotes and an excellent bibliography. Essential." * Choice *“In this thoughtful and accessible study, the thirteenth-century theologian and bishop of Paris William of Auvergne comes alive through an especially close reading of his sermons. Smith has a light touch that complements her thorough mastery of the details of William’s worldview and the context within which he taught and provided pastoral care. Fragments of a World is a stunning achievement, one of the finest biographies of a medieval figure that I know and a sheer pleasure to read.” -- William Chester Jordan, Princeton University“This book is a vivid portrait of an attractive and original mind in the intellectual, cultural, and social landscape of early thirteenth-century Paris, based on hundreds of sermons to the laity and clergy as well as academic writings that have a much more individual tone and color than most of the works by the famous scholastic synthesizers. Fragments of a World is a distinguished addition to the genre of Southern’s study of Grosseteste or Clanchy’s of Peter Abelard. It will be enlightening for specialists and students but also deserves to reach a wider public: no prior knowledge is assumed and everything is explained in an most engaging and readable style.” -- David d’Avray, University College London“Fragments of a World draws renewed and deserved attention to William of Auvergne, who played a key role in medieval French history, but it does more than that. While Smith plumbs new evidence to reveal William’s perspective on the biggest moral and social questions of his time, she also presents a three-dimensional portrait of thirteenth-century Paris in a book that will be as interesting to those who never knew about William as it will be useful to specialists.” -- Lucy Pick, University of ChicagoTable of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments Maps One Seeing in a Smoky Mirror Two Home and Family Three Teachers and Teaching Four Paris Five Bishop Six Language Seven Knowing Eight Jews Nine Women Ten The Weak Eleven Poverty Twelve The Landed and the Monied Thirteen Animals Fourteen Food and Drink Fifteen Death and Beyond Sixteen Face to Face List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA history of the unsustainable modern dietheavy in meat, wheat, and sugarthat requires more land and resources than the planet is able to support. We are facing a world food crisis of unparalleled proportions. Our reliance on unsustainable dietary choices and agricultural systems is causing problems both for human health and the health of our planet. Solutions from lab-grown food to vegan diets to strictly local food consumption are often discussed, but a central question remains: how did we get to this point? In Diet for a Large Planet, Chris Otter goes back to the late eighteenth century in Britain, where the diet heavy in meat, wheat, and sugar was developing. As Britain underwent steady growth, urbanization, industrialization, and economic expansion, the nation altered its food choices, shifting away from locally produced plant-based nutrition. This new diet, rich in animal proteins and refined carbohydrates, made people taller and stronger, but it led to new types of health proTrade Review"The emergence of urban industrial capitalism is one way in which the history of Britain and the history of climate change are linked, but, as the environmental historian Chris Otter shows in his remarkable new book, Diet for a Large Planet, there is another version of this story. Instead of looking at factories, cities, and coal, Otter’s book is a history of farming, food, and animals. In the century before the First World War, Britain remade the planet in order to feed its own people, and in doing so transformed the environment forever." * Tribune Magazine *"He has written a really excellent book, and it deserves a wide readership." * London Review of Books *"In Diet for a Large Planet: Industrial Britain, Food Systems, and World Ecology, an impressive feat of scholarly work, Chris Otter goes back to the roots of the current environmental and health problems that have accompanied dietary changes in the West, focusing on the transformations in British diets in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Apart from the extensive array of sources, the greatest asset of his book lies in Otter’s thorough survey of the breadth of techno-logical, metabolic, and environmental transformations that produced the “large planet” diet,while never losing sight of its social and political consequences. By paying close attention to the way evolutions in British diets reshaped technological and ecological landscapes throughout the globe, and to the impact it had on British and colonial bodies, Otter offers what might be considered one of the most accomplished examples of food history. He goes beyond the merely quantitative or cultural dimensions of eating to analyze the political and material dimensions of the widespread reconfigurations of food systems that developed from the beginning of the nineteenth century. . . . this extremely ambitious work is a rewarding read and is bound to become a reference in the field." * Journal of British Studies *"Otter posits that the elements of 'large planet thinking' have shaped world ecology to suit capitalism and have led to inequities between classes and countries at the peril of the planet. Are we creating Malthus’s worst nightmare—a planet that requires more land than it possesses?" * CHoW Line (Culinary Historians of Washington, D.C.) *"Diet for a Large Planet: Industrial Britain, Food Systems, and World Ecology synthesizes a tremendous range of scholarship into a genuinely interdisciplinary narrative that draws from ecology, economics, history, science and technology studies, nutritional science, and evolutionary biology. Especially for the Victorian era, Otter’s primary source base is remarkably deep, most notably including medical journals, industry textbooks, a range of parliamentary papers, newspapers, farming treatises, surveys, cookbooks, and first-person accounts." * Victorian Studies *"Diet for a Large Planet is a marvelous accomplishment. Otter assembles a prodigious range of sources to show how British interventions remaking global foodways in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, linking contemporary planetary crisis to these intellectual, ecological, and agro-industrial transitions." * Environmental History *"In this persuasively argued critique, Otter traces the origins of the modern diet to Britain's eating habits and the way different types of food were perceived in the nineteenth century. Focusing on Britain's desire for meat, sugar and wheat, Diet for a Large Planet shows how the country's almost insatiable historic desire for these commodities has transformed global land use and, in turn, increased carbon emissions and facilitated extinctions. The outsourcing of the country's nutritional needs and the foodways which emerged paved the way for a global agri-food system that consumes more resources than the planet is able to sustain. Otter's perceptive analysis shows how prevailing diets of choice, consisting of red meat, wheat bread and sugar are linked to luxury, wealth and power, and contribute to environmental degradation and climate change." * Agricultural History Review *“Diet for a Large Planet is a brilliant, bold book that forces us to rethink the short- and long-term global implications of changes in what British people ate and how they thought about food in the nineteenth century. Otter masterfully weaves together scientific, technological, political, cultural, and economic histories into a magnificent study of the making of the modern, global food system. This book is a satisfying if filling meal that will appeal to the tastes of anyone interested in the history of food, environment, industry, consumption and global capitalism.” -- Erika Rappaport, author of A Thirst for Empire: How Tea Shaped the Modern World“The British diet, like British dentistry, is a familiar punchline. But Otter shows that it is much more than this. He argues that Britain’s dietary transformation remade bodies and geographies, and the outsourcing of its nutritional needs paved the way for the global food system. Fast, filling, simultaneously nutritious and unhealthy, Britain’s appetite for meat, wheat, sugar, and dairy presaged the era of ‘Big Food’ as well as cheap food. If looking back is the key to looking forward with any optimism, Otter’s brilliant and pioneering account is an urgent as well as timely intervention.” -- Philip Howell, co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Animal-Human History“Diet for a Large Planet arranges an impressive array of evidence from diverse sources into a powerful analysis of how Britain forged the modern world of food systems and their consequent effects upon human and environmental well-being. Few, if any, books link human and environmental health together in such a sustained and creative way. Otter is clearly a scholar of immense ambition, erudition, and passion.” -- Matthew Klingle, author of Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle"Diet for a Large Planet is an impressive book... A major contribution to the history of diets and the way in which one of them has gained global prominence..." * Food and History *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Meat 2. Wheat 3. Sugar 4. Risk 5. Violence 6. Metabolism 7. Bodies 8. Earth 9. Acceleration Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“The complex relationship between tradition and modernization is the pulsing heart of this engaging book. Beside a valuable historical analysis, Reactionary Mathematics offers an interesting and useful synthesis vision to help us understand, in these times of rapid and convulsive transformation, the mathematics of the present and, most importantly, the reasons for the mathematics that will come.” * Nature *“Reactionary Mathematics is an ambitious book that is more than just a history of mathematics but an episode in the history of reason, furnished with a delightful display of different kinds of evidence, from archival documents to political satires to theological treatises to paintings to mathematics textbooks. . . . [It] is a deftly written and timely book brimming with empirical, conceptual and historiographical insights.” * British Journal for the History of Science *"For anyone interested in the "politics of mathematical modernity," this book shows how allegiances to particular types or styles of mathematics may indeed be related to Neapolitan academicians' personal responses to the urgent political pressures of their day." * Choice *“One notable strength of Mazzotti’s book is its ability to transition seamlessly between different levels of analysis. It connects an in-depth historical exploration of a specific local context, such as Naples, with the social and political constraints unique to that site. Simultaneously, it addresses major upheavals and broad conceptual changes such as the evolution of purity, rigor, and abstraction and the very definition of 'modernity' in mathematics. In doing so, the book tackles a critical methodological challenge in the social history of mathematics, bridging the gap between the claim of universality associated with mathematical knowledge and the intricate study of the local contexts and social practices that underpin the production of such knowledge. Mazzotti’s thought-provoking narrative not only demonstrates . . . that mathematics is intimately connected to its cultural, social and political context, but it also prompts readers to consider new avenues of research.” * Historia Mathematica *“Mazzotti offers us a superbly crafted historical study of the interweaving of mathematics, politics, religion, social order, and even olive oil presses in the Kingdom of Naples around 1800. This gives him a distinctive, striking platform from which to address big questions: the relationship between science and politics, the connections between mathematics and modernity, and how we should understand mathematics’ past.” -- Donald MacKenzie, University of Edinburgh“Mazzotti has written a fascinating case study of ‘mathematical resistance’ in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Naples. On the most fundamental level, the book’s exploration of ‘mathematics as politics’ observes the reciprocal interactions between the mathematical imagination of historical actors and their sociopolitical circumstances. Mazzotti’s keen attention to the political actors themselves tells a very human story of mathematics, and of the events and changes that led to the development of this seemingly quixotic Neapolitan resistance to mathematical modernity.” -- Sean Cocco, Trinity College“A landmark account of Neapolitan reactionary mathematics in context that contributes insightfully to the histories of Naples, reaction, and mathematics in their separate and interacting respects.” -- Michael Barany, University of EdinburghTable of ContentsIntroduction: Mathematics as Social Order 1 Adventures of the Analytic Reason 2 Mathematics at the Barricades 3 Empire of Analysis 4 The Shape of the Kingdom Intermezzo: Algorithm or Intuition? 5 The Geometry of Reaction 6 A Scientific Counterrevolution 7 A Reactionary Reason 8 Mathematical Purity as Return to Order Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn eloquent microhistory that argues for the centrality of the doctrine of original sin to the Enlightenment. What was the Enlightenment? This question has been endlessly debated. In The Enlightenment and Original Sin, historian Matthew Kadane advances the bold claim that the Enlightenment is best defined through what it set out to accomplish, which was nothing short of rethinking the meaning of human nature. Kadane argues that this project centered around the doctrine of original sin and, ultimately, its rejection, signaling the radical notion that an inherently flawed nature can be overcome by human means. Kadane explores this and other wide-ranging themes through the story of a previously unknown figure, Pentecost Barker, an eighteenth-century purser and wine merchant. By examining Barker's personal diary and extensive correspondence with a Unitarian minister, Kadane tracks the transformation of Barker's consciousness from a Puritan to an Enlightenment outlook, revealing thr

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Book SynopsisThrough a comparative analysis of medical texts produced in England and France, Lori Jones reveals changing perceptions across four centuries. Using plague tracts to explore how medical and wider social understandings of the plague evolved, this innovative study considers the array of factors that influence how people think about epidemic disease.Trade Review“Patterns of Plague is an innovative, well-crafted and important study in intellectual, cultural, and medical history. Jones's writing is sophisticated and her interpretations original and well-substantiated.” Mary Lindemann, University of Miami

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Book SynopsisThis comprehensive study examines Polish demonology in relation to witchcraft trials in Wielkopolska, revealing the witch as a force for both good and evil. It explores the use of witchcraft, the nature of accusations and the role of gender.Trade Review“Wyporska has made a substantial contribution to the rapidly growing number of excellent studies of Central and Eastern European witchcraft, and offers her readers a rich and engrossing survey of Polish witchcraft that provides ample encouragement for future research.” (Hans Peter Broedel, Magic Ritual and Witchcraft, Vol. 12 (1), 2017)Table of ContentsPrologue 1. Witchcraft in Context: Histories and Historiographies 2. The World of the Witches: Confessions and Conflicts 3. Witchcraft and Gender: Intimate Servants and Excluded Masculinities 4. Framing the Witch: Legal Theories and Realities 5. us Deus, Sine Diabolo: The Ecclesiastical Witch 6. Beyond demonology: Blame the Witches 7. Sceptical Voices: Ending the Era 8. Epilogue: Comparisons and Conclusions Bibliography Index

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book Synopsis2016 is the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme''There was hardly a household in the land'', writes Lyn Macdonald, ''there was no trade, occupation, profession or community, which was not represented in the thousands of innocent enthusiasts who made up the ranks of Kitchener''s Army before the Battle of the Somme...''The year 1916 was one of the great turning-points in British history: as the youthful hopes of a generation were crushed in a desperate struggle to survive, and traditional attitudes to authority were destroyed for ever. On paper, few battles have ever been so meticulously planned. Yet while there were good political reasons to launch a joint offensive with a French Army demoralized by huge casualties at Verdun, the raw troops on the ground knew nothing of that. A hundred and fifty thousand were killed in the punishing shellfire, the endless ordeal of attack and counter-attack; twice that number were left maimed or wounded. Here, aTrade ReviewSomme expresses the full range of meaning of the word 'grim'...I doubt if there are any better than this -- John Terraine * Daily Telegraph *A worthy addition to the literature of the Great War * Daily Mail *

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Book Synopsis''Should be required reading for everyone - including unionists - who are interested in and concerned about the fate of this island'' Dublin Review of Books''Compelling'' Financial TimesWill Ireland really reunite?A century ago the resolution to Ireland's long struggle for independence was a settlement that saw six of its northern counties remain in the United Kingdom while the other twenty-six formed the new Republic of Ireland. Since partition the unification of the two parts of the island has seemed impossible, particularly because of the bloody legacy of past conflict.However, by 2030, if not sooner, demographic and electoral advantages of Ulster unionists, who wish to remain part of the UK, will be over. And in the light of Brexit, the rising popularity of the Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin, political developments both sides of the border, and within Great Britain, Irish unification referendums will become increasingly likely. Yet even those who want these to happen are not prepared.Making Sense of a United Ireland is a landmark exploration of this most contentious of issues. Distinguished political scientist Brendan O''Leary - a global expert on divided places, who has been profoundly engaged with the Irish question for nearly four decades - argues that the time to consider the future of the island of Ireland is now.''The first comprehensive manual of Irish unification'' Irish TimesSeveral books have been written about this subject . . . for sheer intellectual firepower O'Leary wins first prize' Business Post ''A tour de force'' Globe and Mail''A must-read for anyone who lives in Northern Ireland and thinks seriously about its future. [O''Leary has] thought through the implications of possible unity so deeply it would be foolish for anyone who seeks it or opposes it to ignore his book'' Cathal Mac Coille''Impressively researched and well-argued detailed and readable'' Irish Independent''Brilliant'' Brian Feeney, Irish News____''Highly readable, stylishly written, and essential'' Irish Central

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Book SynopsisThe complete history of the Operation Reinhard death camps.Trade ReviewWith meticulous scholarship and precise exposition Tel Aviv historian and Yad Vashem director Arad recounts all facets of Operation Reinhard, the destruction of 1.5 million Jews in occupied Poland from 1941 to 1943. . . . This comprehensive, judicious, and moving history is a remarkable contribution to Holocaust studies and is strongly recommended * Library Journal *Drawing on a wealth of evidence . . . Arad lets the terrible record speak for itself... Mr. Arad reports as a controlled and effective witness for the prosecution . . . Mr. Arad's book, with its abundance of horrifying detail, reminds us of how far we have to go. * New York Times Book Review *This is the authentic, exhaustive, definitive account of the least known death camps of the Nazi era. -- Raul HilbergTable of ContentsPART ONE THE EXTERMINATION MACHINE1. The Final Solution: From Shooting to Gas2. Operation Reinhard: Organization and Manpower3. Belzec: Construction and Experiments4. Construction of Sobibor5. Construction of Treblinka6. Preparing for the Deportations7. Expulsion from the Ghettos8. The Trains of Death9. Belzec: March 17 to June, 194210. Sobibor: May to July, 194211. Treblinka: July 23 to August 28, 194212. Reorganization in Treblinka13. The Mission of Gerstein and Pfannenstiel14. Jewish Working Prisoners15. Women Prisoners16. Improved Extermination Techniques and Installations17. The Annihilation of the Jews in the General Government18. Deportations from Bialystok General District and Ostland19. Transports from Other European Countries20. The Extermination of Gypsies21. The Economic Plunder22. Himmler's Visit to SObibor and Treblinka23. The Erasure of the CrimesPART TWO LIFE IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH24 Portraits of the Perpetrators25 The Prisoners' of Daily Life26 The Prisoners and the Deportees27 Faith and Religion28 Diseases, Epidemics, and Suicide29 Social LifePART THREE ESCAPE AND RESISTANCE30 The Cognizance and Reaction of the Victims in Occupied Poland31 Escapes from the Trains and Spontaneous Acts of Resistance32 Escapes from the Camps33 The Underground in Teblinka34 The Plan for the Uprising in Treblinka35 August 2, 1943: The Uprising in Treblinka36 Pursuit and Escape from Treblinka37 Ideas and Organization for Resistance in Sobibor38 The Underground in Sobibor39 The Plan for Uprising in Sobibor40 October 14, 1943: The Uprising in Sobibor41 Pursuit and Escape from Sobibor42 Survival amoung the Local Population43 Reports about the Death Camps in Polish Wartime Publications44 An Evaluation of the Uprisings and Their Results45 Operation Erntefest46 The Liquidation of the Camps and the Termination of Operation ReinhardEpilogueAPPENDIX A The Deportation of the Jews from the General Government, Bialystok General District, and OstlandAPPENDIX B The Fate of the Perpetrators of Operation ReinhardBibliographic Key to the NotesNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisThe three books presented in this volume, Integral Humanism, Freedom in the Modern World, and A Letter on Independence, were all written in the early 1930s, a time of dire trouble for France. France was then surrounded by enemies preparing for war and was itself so violently split between parties of Left and Right that it seemed on the verge of civil war. In this collection, Jacques Maritain accepts the responsibility of a Christian philosopher to actively address the agonizing practical problems of the time.Maritain discusses major political issues such as the relation of freedom and religion, the opposition of democracy to any form of totalitarianism, the relation of the spiritual and the temporal, the need for an integral and Christian humanism, and the prospects for a new Christian civilization, all in opposition to the materialism of both communism and capitalism.Against the fierce antagonism of the parties of the political Left and Right, Mar

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[M]asterful and uplifting study... Highly recommended for indigenous scholarsand activists, as well as students of modern social media." * Choice *"Cocq and DuBois offer an artist-centered account of Sámi agency within Sámi media products—countering implicitly the many stereotypes of the newness of Indigenous media use and activist traditions. The work is of value for both crafting a Sámi activist counter-history that “talks back” to the empire through its own media platforms, and in its close readings of numerous multimedia art works of prominent Sámi artists." * Journal of American Folklore *"[M]arks the arrival of Sámi -specific studies in new media and communication." * Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice *

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Book SynopsisPresenting a synthesis and interpretation of the work undertaken at the Copenhagen Seminars for Social Progress in Denmark, this book makes a contribution to the international dialogue on social progress. It is useful to economists, planners, aid agencies, and all students of international studies.Trade Review"No public body or group, I speak seriously, has undertaken a more important and germane effort in our time." - John Kenneth Galbraith

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Book SynopsisA study of the life and reign of Henry VII. S.B. Chrimes explores the circumstances surrounding Henry's acquisition of the throne, examines the personnel and machinery of government, and surveys the king's social, political and economic policies, law enforcement and foreign strategy.Trade Review"This book is beyond question the best and fullest account of the reign written so far: Professor Chrimes has done a sober, sensible, well-structured, and magisterial job."—G. R. Elton"The best general account of Henry VII that we have . . . admirable, lucid, reliable."—A. L. Rowse

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Book SynopsisTrade Review‘This blow-by-blow account of the rise and fall of 1871 Paris Commune is, at times, almost too painful to read.’ - Gordon Parsons, Morning Star -- Gordon Parsons * Morning Star *

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Book SynopsisA major new history of the Royal Navy during the tumultuous age of revolutionTrade Review“Davy’s account is vital. . . . His thorough and well researched analysis breathes of fresh air through some very old yarns.”—Tom Petch, Aspects of History“Clear structure and logic-flow, enlivened by vividly depicted characters and incidents. . . . The attentive reader will benefit from fresh understanding of a period of huge importance in our history.”—M. K. Barritt, Naval Review“Opens fresh perspectives on a critical period in British history, highlighting the challenge of radical politics in the 1790’s.”—Adam Lambert, BBC History Magazine“Davey subverts the genre with a very different story about the Royal Navy, one that looks not across the Channel at the foreign foe, but rather gazes inward to emphasize the deep social and political conflicts that destabilized both nation and navy throughout the revolutionary 1790s.”—Niklas Frykman, Mariner’s Mirror“This magnificent book really lifts the lid on the sailing navy at war, for the 1790s were indeed tempestuous years. James Davey presents intricate, powerful evidence from a very wide range of sources. This book puts into context the recent contentious arguments between historians about impressment and mutiny. It will recalibrate the historical debate.”—Roger Knight, author of Convoys“This book breaks new ground. Well researched and readable, it firmly links the naval mutinies of the revolutionary 1790s to shore-based insurgency, while its international reach also allows it to take in the revolts of enslaved Africans in the West Indies.”—Margarette Lincoln, author of London and the Seventeenth Century “Erudite, balanced, innovative, and based on deep engagement with the sources, Tempest recovers sailors’ voices and listens to them carefully. In the process, it offers an impressively lucid case for the relevance of the late eighteenth-century Navy to British history—and to the present.”—Sara Caputo, author of Foreign Jack Tars

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Book SynopsisA study of the internal tensions of British imperial rule told through murder and insanity trialsTrade ReviewShortlisted for the Stansky Book Prize, sponsored by the North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS)Shortlisted for the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize, sponsored by the Canadian Historical Association (CHA)“Unsound Empire reconnoitres with late-Victorian jurists and medical men struggling with prisoners too dangerous to release and too mad to hang. Catherine Evans’s micro-histories are strewn with eccentric characters and thick with tales that sparkle with stunning prose.”—Constance Backhouse, University of Ottawa“This original, bold and beautifully crafted book brings legal history, the history of medicine and imperial history into dialogue. A must-read for anyone interested in a critical history of the British Empire.”—Renaud Morieux, author of The Society of Prisoners: Anglo-French Wars and Incarceration in the Eighteenth Century

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Book SynopsisRethinking the causes and consequences of Britain’s default on its First World War debts to the United States of AmericaTrade Review“David Gill’s brilliant, deeply researched and stylish book makes important contributions to the history of both Britain and the United States, to their relations during the Second World War, and to a wider understanding of default. It is a model of what historical analysis brings to our understanding of the modern world.”—Martin Daunton, author of Just Taxes“[E]nlightening. . . . As Gill shows in his deeply researched book, far from being sorted, the war debts have hung over Anglo-American relations for decades.”—Max Harris, senior fellow, Wharton Initiative on Financial Policy and Regulation“Gill provides a fascinating window into the dynamics of bilateral official lending, with a focus on wartime debts between allies. Using a wide range of archival materials, Gill details the domestic and international considerations behind the UK’s servicing of its 1917 debt until 1934, as well as its subsequent (and continuing) suspension of payments.”—Layna Mosley, author of Global Capital and National Governments“Of debts arising from the Great War, Franklin Roosevelt said, ‘default . . . that word should never be said.’ And most often it isn’t, especially for the sum Britain has yet to repay the United States. Yet the failure to repay had a long history that affected Anglo-American cooperation in the Second World War, the Cold War, and afterward. A valuable study on the uses of mostly forgetting, if not fully forgiving, debt.”—Eric Rauchway, author of Why the New Deal Matters

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Book SynopsisThe story of a remarkable era of reform, controversy, optimism, and Cold War confrontation in the Soviet UnionTrade Review“The Soviet Sixties is a highly illuminating reflection of what we understand about the era now.”—Catriona Kelly, Times Literary Supplement“Hornsby takes us through the ups-and-downs of the Khrushchev era, with its promising reforms and unexpected reversals, until a new Kremlin leadership, directed by Leonid Brezhnev, crushed all hope for change within the Soviet bloc. The Soviet Sixties is an engaging, deeply informed, and balanced account of a pivotal period in Soviet history.”—Joshua Rubenstein, author of The Last Days of Stalin“Exceptional, expertly written and stunningly comprehensive. In the same page, the reader can learn about the manoeuvrings of Stalin’s cabinet after his death, which film was most popular in a given week, how women behind the scenes shepherded a future Nobel laureate’s work through the censors, and where riots and dissent threatened the status quo.”—Erica L. Fraser, author of Military Masculinity and Postwar Recovery in the Soviet Union“A fine compendium of diverse social and cultural currents in Soviet-Russian history. It gives a unique understanding of complexity. One sees that in Soviet Russia and other parts of the USSR repression, ideocracy, and misery co-existed with humanity, hope, defiance, and vibrant creativity.”—Vladislav Zubok, author of Collapse

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“A meticulously researched account of how British slave merchants in their interactions with African agents made very calculated economic decisions in order to maximize the profits made from the slave trade, and how these decisions impacted Atlantic African societies and contributed to dehumanizing African men, women, and children.”—Ana Lucia Araujo, Howard University“An illuminating study of the raw ambition, brutal efficiency, and networked strategies of violence that underpinned the explosion of 18th-century British Atlantic-world slave trading. Radburn makes a compelling case for why these vaguely remembered ‘merchants’ should be reclaimed from respectability.”—Maeve Ryan, author of Humanitarian Governance and the British Antislavery World System“This is a landmark study given its clear status as easily the best researched and most comprehensive book on the British slave trade to date.”—David Eltis, coauthor of Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade“This definitive analysis of the British slave trade, encompassing Europe, Africa, and the Americas, blends quantitative and qualitative research in a clear-eyed, chilling, and convincing account of a business even more ruthless than abolitionists imagined.”—Philip Morgan, Johns Hopkins University“A masterful account of one of the most brutal moments in the history of capitalist modernity. Radburn brilliantly details all aspects of the process of commodification of human beings in the Liverpool slave trade, vividly depicting the long journeys endured by Africans in Africa, across the Atlantic, and in the Americas.”—Leonardo Marques, Universidade Federal Fluminense

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“This new edition brings Belarusian history up to the present day. With changes, especially after 2014, this was increasingly needed.”—Stephen Hall, Eurasian Geography and Economics“In this version, the most comprehensive analysis of post-1991 Belarus available today, the author has added a new introduction, two additional chapters (Chapters 13 and 14), a new conclusion, eight more photographs, an updated appendix of economic indicators and an enhanced index. These recent materials investigate Lukashenka’s political machinations in the decade since 2011.”—George O. Liber, Europe-Asia Studies'Andrew Wilson's incisive and accurate judgment and the depth of his research make him a true expert. His ability to convey the complexities of the region's murky politics and tortured history is unparalleled.' - Edward Lucas, Central and Eastern Europe correspondent for The Economist'Andrew Wilson has done all students of European politics a great service by making the history of Belarus comprehensible, and by showing how the future of Belarus might be different than its present.' - Timothy Snyder, author of Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

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Book SynopsisWorld War I from the French point of view: the first ever account in EnglishAnthony Clayton is an acknowledged expert on the French military and his book is a major contribution to the study and understanding of the First World War. He reveals why and how the French army fought as it did. He profiles its senior commanders - Joffre, Petain, Nivelle and Foch - and analyses its major campaigns both on the Western Front and in the Near East and Africa. PATHS OF GLORY also considers in detail the officers, how they kept their trenches and how men from very different areas of France fought and died together. He scrutinises the make-up and performance of France''s large colonial armies and investigates the mutinies of 1917. Ultimately, he reveals how the traumatic French experience of the 1914-18 war indelibly shaped a nation.

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Book SynopsisPreface - Notes on the Contributors - Introduction: Film, The Historian and the Second World War; P.M.Taylor - British Society in the Second World War; J.Ramsden - The British Film Industry: Audiences and Producers; R.Murphy - National Identity in British Wartime Films; J.Richards - The People as Stars: Feature Films as National Expression; P.Stead - British Cinema and the Reality of War; C.Coultass - British Historical Epics in the Second World War; N.Mace - Cinematic Support for the Anglo-American Detente, 1939-43; K.R.M.Short - Creative Tensions: 'Desert Victory', the Army Film Unit and Anglo-American Rivalry, 1943-45; T.Aldgate - The Representation of Women in British Feature Films, 1939-45; S.Harper - Notes and References - IndexTable of ContentsPreface - Notes on the Contributors - Introduction: Film, The Historian and the Second World War; P.M.Taylor - British Society in the Second World War; J.Ramsden - The British Film Industry: Audiences and Producers; R.Murphy - National Identity in British Wartime Films; J.Richards - The People as Stars: Feature Films as National Expression; P.Stead - British Cinema and the Reality of War; C.Coultass - British Historical Epics in the Second World War; N.Mace - Cinematic Support for the Anglo-American Detente, 1939-43; K.R.M.Short - Creative Tensions: 'Desert Victory', the Army Film Unit and Anglo-American Rivalry, 1943-45; T.Aldgate - The Representation of Women in British Feature Films, 1939-45; S.Harper - Notes and References - Index

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