European history Books

Book SynopsisEdward Stourton is the author of six books. He is writer and presenter of several high-profile current-affairs programmes and documentaries for radio and television, and regularly presents BBC Radio Four programmes such as The World at One, The World This Weekend, Sunday and Analysis. He is a frequent contributor to the Today programme, where for ten years he was one of the main presenters.Trade ReviewThis is a very shocking book. It recaptures the adventure and the horror as it brilliantly conjures up the voices of the past. -- Jason Goodwin * Country Life *Charming but astute, Stourton captures not only the extraordinary courage of the escapers and the passeurs, or guides, who helped them, but the sense of danger and excitement as they evaded their pursuers. -- Adrian Brewer * The Tablet *A moving retelling of some of the war's most heroic episodes -- Nigel Jones * Sunday Telegraph *Stourton's richly rewarding research into the wartime journeys across the Pyrenees reminds us of so many dramatic stories of courage, tragedy, endurance and survival. -- Iain Finlayson * Saga Magazine *Stourton writes evocatively and with sensitivity... an engaging collection of tales. -- Viv Watts * Daily Express *

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Book SynopsisThis is a magisterial narrative of the most turbulent decade in Anglo-Irish history: a decade of unleashed passions that came close to destroying the parliamentary system and to causing civil war in the United Kingdom. It was also the decade of the cataclysmic Great War, of an officers'' mutiny in an elite cavalry regiment of the British Army and of Irish armed rebellion. It was a time, argues Ronan Fanning, when violence and the threat of violence trumped democratic politics. This is a contentious view. Historians have wished to see the events of that decade as an aberration, as an eruption of irrational bloodletting. And they have have been reluctant to write about the triumph of physical force. Fanning argues that in fact violence worked, however much this offends our contemporary moral instincts. Without resistance from the Ulster Unionists and its very real threat of violence the state of Northern Ireland would never have come into being. The Home Rule part

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Book SynopsisVienna is unique amongst world capitals in its consistent international importance over the centuries. From the ascent of the Habsburgs as Europe's leading dynasty to the Congress of Vienna, which reordered Europe after Napoleon, to bridge- building summits during the Cold War, it is the Austrian capital that has been the scene of key moments in European and world affairs. History has been shaped by scores of figures influenced by their time in Vienna, including: Empress Maria Theresa, Count Metternich, Bertha von Suttner, Theodore Herzl, Gustav Mahler, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, John F. Kennedy and many others. In a city of great composers and thinkers it is here that both the most positive and destructive ideas of recent history have developed. From its time as the capital of an imperial superpower, through war, dissolution, dictatorship to democracy Vienna has reinvented itself and its relevance to the rest of the world. Trade Review'From the Congress of Vienna to the Austria World Summit the city of Vienna has hosted key meetings on peace to climate action. This is a first-class book about Vienna as the crossroads of civilization and as the international capital' -- Arnold Schwarzenegger'Your book is not just a declaration of love for Vienna, it is a pleasure to read and a journey of discovery even for those who know this city well' -- Alexander Van der Bellen, President of Austria'Angus Robertson with his intimate knowledge of the city has brilliantly chronicled Vienna's history through the centuries and illustrated it with innumerable vignettes from contemporary observers. He has succeeded in painting a thoroughly enjoyable portrait of a great international capital' -- Hella Pick, Author and Foreign Correspondent'"At the heart of Europe" is how the Viennese describe their city geographically. Thanks to Angus Robertson they now have a rollicking historical tribute to Vienna’s pivotal role through the ages as an international city - from Roman times to the modern day, via the Habsburgs and Hitler. Clearly smitten with his adopted city, Robertson carefully selects colourful contemporary accounts to bring the past to life, while importantly not shying away from Vienna’s darker moments' -- Katya Adler, BBC Europe Editor'What an enjoyable cosmopolitan and exuberant celebration of Vienna by a someone who really knows and loves that great city' -- Simon Sebag Montefiore'It offers a fresh perspective on the city in which Robertson worked as a journalist for nearly a decade and involved extensive original research' * Glasgow Herald *'An astonishingly comprehensive survey of the history of Vienna' -- Yorkshire Post * Joyce MacMillan *'Tells the story of Vienna’s diplomatic and historical significance in a new, complete history of the city' * Edinburgh Life *'Hopefully you will all read the book by Angus Robertson…this is a really serious book about Vienna' -- Ambassador Emil Brix, Director of Vienna Diplomatic Academy'Vienna: The International Capital - To my knowledge it’s the first and only book on that topic. Angus Robertson did fantastic research ... I think there is no peer for this book' -- Michael Zimmerman, Austrian Ambassador to UK'Tremendously good book, with tremendous narrative energy which powers the story forward on every page. It’s beautifully written. I thought I knew about this region of Europe having worked there for many, many years. I learnt something on every page. I think it is a very, very serious achievement and congratulations, I cannot praise it too highly' -- Allan Little, Director Edinburgh Book Festival and former BBC Special Correspondent'Robertson’s enthusiasm for his subject carries across in the breadth of accounts and the fine detail throughout. An impressive work of research, the book is a comprehensive history that in its best moments, manages to find fresh nuance in an already storied city' -- Sam Jackson * Metropole *'[Robertson] has an eye for the telling detail and illustrative anecdote… [with] well-chosen vignettes by contemporary observers through the ages' -- Lord Tugendhat * House Magazine *'A useful historical introduction to Vienna, with a focus on high politics' -- Stefan Wagstyl * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisThis book will be of interest to anyone-in any discipline-who takes the past as a serious object of study.Trade Review. . . seminal . . .—Dublin Review of BooksTable of ContentsForeword, "All You've Got Is History," by Michael S. RothPreface to the Fortieth-Anniversary EditionPrefaceIntroduction. The Poetics of HistoryPart One: The Received Tradition1. The Historical Imagination between Metaphor and Irony2. HegelPart Two: Four Kinds of "Realism" in Nineteenth-Century Historical Writing3. Michelet4. Ranke5. Tocqueville6. BurckhardtPart Three: The Repudiation of "Realism" in Late Nineteenth-Century Philosophy of History7. Historical Consciousness and the Rebirth of Philosophy of History8. Marx9. Nietzsche10. CroceConclusionBibliographyIndex

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Book Synopsis'Historical fiction at its most sumptuous' Rory Clements'S. J. Parris fans will be pleased' Publishers WeeklyFrom the bestselling, CWA Historical Dagger Award-nominated author of The Angel's Mark comes a gripping and atmospheric new mystery . . . ______________The Elizabethan world is in flux. Radical new ideas are challenging the old. But the quest for knowledge can lead down dangerous paths...London, 1594. The Queen's physician has been executed for treason, and conspiracy theories flood the streets. When Nicholas Shelby, unorthodox physician and unwilling associate of spymaster Robert Cecil, is accused of being part of the plot, he and his new wife Bianca must flee for their lives. With agents of the Crown on their tail, they make for Padua, following the ancient pilgrimage route, the Via Francigena. But the pursuing English aren't the only threat Nicholas and Bianca face. Hella, a strange and fervently religious young woman, has joined them on their journey. When the trio finally reach relative safety, they become embroiled in a radical and dangerous scheme to shatter the old world's limits of knowledge. But Hella's dire predictions of an impending apocalypse, and the brutal murder of a friend of Bianca's forces them to wonder: who is this troublingly pious woman? And what does she want?More praise for S. W. Perry's Jackdaw Mysteries: 'Engaging' Sunday Times'Beautiful writing' Giles Kristian'Brilliantly evokes the colours, sights and sounds of the Elizabethan era' Goodreads review'Gripping, packed with twists and turns!' Goodreads review'Spellbinding . . . I fell in love with every character' Goodreads reviewTrade ReviewA real page-turner. Hell, threat and madness abound in this desperate flight from the dangerous, dark streets of Elizabeth's Protestant London to the vivid heart of Galileo's menacing Catholic Italy. * Minette Walters *The Heretic's Mark really is the most thrilling, stimulating and fabulously readable tale. * Liz Robinson, LoveReading, Picks of the month *Vivid characters and spot-on period details complement the intricate whodunit plot... S.J. Parris fans will be pleased. * Publishers Weekly, starred reviews *The writing is of such a quality, the characters so engaging and the setting so persuasive that S.W. Perry's ingeniously plotted novels have become my favourite historical crime series. * S. G. MacLean on The Serpent's Mark *The third in Perry's series is as dramatic and colourful as the previous two. * Sunday Times, praise for The Saracen's Mark *An absolute belter of a read and another fabulous addition to the Jackdaw Mysteries series... I just gobbled up the pages as the story fairly roars along battling spies and pirates on route... S. W. Perry ensures the sights, smells and sounds of London and Morocco entered my very being. I love this series. * Liz Robinson, LoveReading, Picks of the month, praise for The Saracen's Mark *No-one is better than S. W. Perry at leading us through the squalid streets of London in the sixteenth century. * Andrew Swanston on The Serpent's Mark *The Serpent's Mark is an excellent evocation of Elizabethan England, with espionage, intricate conspiracies, strange medical practises and a gripping story. A rattling good read. * William Ryan on The Serpent's Mark *A gorgeous book - rich, intelligent and dark in equal measure. It immerses you in the late 16th century and leaves you wrung out with terror. This is historical fiction at its most sumptuous. * Rory Clements on The Angel's Mark *Wonderful! Beautiful writing, and Perry's Elizabethan London is so skilfully evoked, so real that one can almost smell it. * Giles Kristian on The Angel's Mark *The book is both educational, and entertaining. There is both a detailed description of times, practices and people that seem strange to our modern sensibilities, but also a very well-drawn plot that follows seamlessly from the other three books. * NB Magazine *

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Book Synopsis‘Engaging and highly entertaining’ Sunday Times The dramatic confrontation between the two 'mighty opposites' of the Victorian age, brilliantly recreated by a talented young historian. Gladstone and Disraeli were the fiercest political rivals of the modern age. Their intense hatred was ideological and deeply personal. Victorian Britain ruled the oceans and vast territories 'on which the sun never set'. The vitriolic duel between Gladstone and Disraeli was nothing less than a battle to lead the richest and most powerful nation on earth. To Disraeli, his antagonist was an 'unprincipled maniac' characterised by an 'extraordinary mixture of envy, vindictiveness, hypocrisy and superstition'. For Gladstone, his rival was 'The Grand Corrupter' whose destruction he plotted 'day and night, week by week, month by month'. Victorians were electrified by the confrontation. No wonder that when Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass appeared in 1871, so many readers recognised the great adversaries as the warring lion and unicorn 'fighting for the crown'. Richard Aldous gives us the first modern telling of this dramatic story of an intense and momentous rivalry. His vivid narrative style - at turns powerful, witty, stirring and theatrical - breathes new life into a familiar, half-remembered tale that is pivotal in Britain's island history. The Lion and the Unicorn is a brilliant rethinking of the Gladstone and Disraeli story for a new generation.Richard Aldous confirms a perennial truth: in politics, everything is personal.Trade ReviewA first-class historical drama, expertly told. * Literary Review *Engaging and highly entertaining. * Sunday Times *A hugely enjoyable joint biography. * Independent *Aldous does a splendid job of gleaning the ears of corn from earlier studies. * Daily Telegraph *A romp... a startling reworking of traditional views... Aldous has written an entertaining and thought-provoking book that reads like a novel. * Spectator *

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Book SynopsisThe Great Famine is possibly the most pivotal event/experience in modern Irish history. Its global reach and implications cannot be underestimated. In terms of mortality, it is now widely accepted that over a million people perished between the years 1845-1852 and at least one million and a quarter fled the country, the great majority to North America, some to Australia and a significant minority ((0.3 million) to British cities. Ireland had been afflicted by famine before the events of the 1840s; however the Great Famine is marked by both its absolute scale and its longevity. It is also better remembered because it was the most recent and best documented famine. This atlas comprising over fifty individual chapters and case studies will provide readers with a broad range of perspectives and relevant insights into this tragic event. The atlas begins by acknowledging the impossibility of adequately representing the Great Famine or any major world famine. Yet by exploring a number of themes from a reconstruction of pre-Famine Ireland onwards to an exploration of present-day modes of remembering; by the use of over 150 highly original computer generated parish maps of population decline, social transformation and other key themes between the census years 1841 and 1851: and through the use of poetry, contemporary paintings and accounts, illustrations and modern photography, what this atlas seeks to a achieve is a greater understanding of the event and its impact and legacy. This atlas seeks to try and bear witness to the thousands and thousands of people who died and are buried in mass Famine pits or in fields and ditches, with little or nothing to remind us of their going. The centrality of the Famine workhouse as a place of destitution is also examined in depth. Likewise the atlas seeks to represent and understand the conditions and experiences of the many thousands who emigrated from Ireland in those desperate years. Included are case studies of famine emigrants in cities such as Liverpool, Glasgow, New York and Toronto. A central concern of the atlas is to seek to understand why a famine of this scale should occur in a nineteenth-century European country, albeit a country which was subject to imperial rule. In addition, it seeks to reveal in detail the working-out and varying consequences of the Famine across the island. To this end, apart from presenting an overall island-wide picture, Famine experiences and patterns will be presented separately for the four provinces. These provincial explorations will be accompanied by intimate case studies of conditions in particular localities across the provinces. The atlas also seeks to situate the Great Irish Famine in the context of a number of world famines. To achieve these goals and understandings, the atlas includes contributions from a wide range of scholars who are experts in their fields - from the arts, folklore, geography, history, archaeology, Irish and English languages and literatures.Trade ReviewCork University Press has established an enviably high reputation in producing atlases. The latest - of the Great Irish Famine - maintains and enhances this record. Not only are the maps themselves innovative and attractive to look at, but they communicate clearly an abundance of information, often unfamiliar. The cartography is accompanied by a wealth of other images, sometimes strikingly beautiful, and also hauntingly distressful. In addition, a starry cast of experts provides incisive and illuminating commentary on all aspects of the disaster. All in all, this is likely to prove one of the most original and enduring studies of the grievous famine. Toby Barnard, History, Oxford University This monumental work is far more than an Atlas, it is the definitive summary of all aspects of the Great Irish Famine. The many maps are accompanied by accessible yet scientifically sound texts. The demographics and geography are surveyed with unequaled detail and care, yet the historical background, the politics, and the economics of the Famine are discussed at an equally high scholarly level. Lavishly illustrated and scholarly immaculate, written by the best scholars in the field, this volume belongs in the library of everyone interested in the greatest natural disaster of the modern age - Joel Mokyr, Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences, Department of Economics, Northwestern University, USA This Atlas offers a powerful, unflinching and coherent understanding of the Irish Famine as the defining event in Irish history. It balances sweeping survey with minute details, while always attending to the surprising diversity of this small island in the mid nineteenth century. Its unparalleled assemblage of new maps, old images and extensive documentation offers a brilliant teaching aid for the history of Ireland and of the Irish diaspora. Firmly rooted in recent research, saturated in meticulous scholarship, and interdisciplinary in the best sense, it is unafraid to draw the necessary trenchant conclusions. Its broad synthesis offers the best overview we have ever had of this traumatic and defining episode-Professor Kevin Whelan, Keough Naughton Notre Dame Centre, Dublin.Table of ContentsAtlas of the Great Irish Famine 1845-52 Editors: John Crowley, William J. Smyth, Mike Murphy Preface President Mary McAleese* Poem by Eavan Boland Introduction: John Crowley ,William J. Smyth, Mike Murphy Section 1 Ireland before and after the Great Famine (Double page spread) Chapter 1The tragedy of the Great Famine (W. J. Smyth) * Chapter 2 Mapping the people: the growth and distribution of the population (W. J. Smyth)* Case study: 1741 Famine (David Dickson)* Chapter 3 The failure of the potato and the Famine (John Feehan)* Case study: The Failure of the potato: Baunreagh, Co. Laois (John Feehan)* Case study - Pre-Famine diet (Regina Sexton)* Section II The Great Hunger Chapter 4 The longue duree - imperial Britain and colonial Ireland (W. J. Smyth)* Chapter 5 The colonial dimensions of the Great Irish Famine (David Nally)* Chapter 6 British relief measures (Peter Gray)* Box: Sir Charles Trevelyan (Peter Gray)* Chapter 7 The Operation of the Poor Law during the Famine (Christine Kinealy)* Case study: Queen Victoria and the Famine (Christine Kinealy)* Box: Burying and resurrecting the Past (John Crowley)* Chapter 8: 'The largest amount of good': Quaker relief efforts (Helen Hatton)* Chapter 9 'Born astride a grave': the geography of the dead (W. J. Smyth)* Section III The Workhouse Chapter 10 The creation of the workhouse system (W. J. Smyth) Chapter 11 Classify, Confine, Discipline and Punish - the Roscrea Union: A Microgeography of the Workhouse System during the Famine (W. J. Smyth)* Case Study: Famine and workhouse clothing (Hilary O'Kelly)* Case study: The Cork workhouse (Michelle O'Mahony)* Chapter : 12 Ulster workhouses-ideological geometry and conflict (Liz Thomas)* Case study: Lurgan/Portadown workhouse during the Famine (Gerard Mac Atasney)* Section IV Population Decline and Social Transformation Chapter 13 Mortality (Cormac O Grada)* Chapter 14 'Variations in vulnerability': understanding where and why people died (W. J. Smyth)* Chapter 15 Medical relief and the Great Famine (Laurence Geary)* Case study: Report upon the recent epidemic fever in Ireland': the evidence from Co. Cork (Laurence Geary)* Chapter 16 Emigration in the Era of the Great Famine, 1845-1855(Kerby Miller)* Chapter 17 The cities and towns of Ireland 1841-1851 (Kevin Hourihan)* Chapter 18 The roles of cities and towns before and during the Great Famine (William J. Smyth) Chapter 19 Women and the Great Irish Famine (Dympna McLoughlin)* Chapter 20 Their 'Undoubted and Most Sacred Right': The behaviour of the landed classes during the Great Irish Famine (David Butler)* Box: 'Turned out...thrown down': Evictions in the townlands of Bunkilla and Monavanshare, Donoughmore, Co. Cork (John O'Connell)* Connacht Introduction Case study: Clifden Union, Connemara, Co. Galway (Kathleen Villiers-Tuthill)* Case study: In the shadow of Sliabh an Iarann, Co. Leitrim (Gerard Mac Atasney)* Case study: The Famine in Co. Roscommon (Mary Kelly)* Case study: Ballykilcline, Co. Roscommon (Charles Orser)* Leinster Introduction Case study: Co. Meath during the Famine (Peter Connell)* Case study: Burying the Famine dead: Kilkenny Workhouse (Jonny Geber)* Case study: Co. Offaly during the Famine (Ciaran Reilly) Munster Introduction Case study: The Mizen Peninsula (Patrick Hickey)* Case study: The Famine in the County Tipperary parish of Shanrahan (William J. Smyth)* Case study: The Dingle Peninsula (Kieran Foley)* Case study: Cobh/Queenstown (Marita Foster)* Box: Visit of Queen Victoria to Cove, August 1849 (Marita Foster)* Ulster Introduction Case study The Great Famine and Religious Demography in mid-nineteenth century Ulster (Kerby A. Miller, Brian Gurrin and Liam Kennedy)* Case study: Belfast's hidden famine (Christine Kinealy* and Gerard Mac Tasney*) Case study: Mapping the Famine in Monaghan (Paddy Duffy)* Case study: The management of Famine in Donegal in the hungry forties (Jim MacLaughlin)* Section V Witnessing the Famine Chapter 21 The Famine in Gaelic manuscripts (Neil Buttimer)* Case study: James Mahony (c.1816-c.1859) (Julian Campbell)* Chapter 22 Asenath Nicholson's Famine narrative (Lorraine Chadwick)* Chapter 23 Carlyle's journey through Famine Ireland (John Crowley)* Case study: French response to the Great Famine (Grace Neville)* Section VI The Scattering Chapter 24 Exodus from Ireland - patterns of emigration (William J. Smyth) Chapter 25 Black 47' in Liverpool (Patrick Nugent and Carmen Tunney)* Box: The Fidelia (Patrick Nugent and Carmen Tunney)* Chapter 26: Glasgow, the Famine and the emergence of Glasgow Celtic (John Reid)* Case study: London's Famine burial site (Natasha Powers)* Chapter 27 Toronto and the Irish Famine Migration (Mark McGowan)* Box: Gross Ile (Mark McGowan)* Chapter 28 The Famine and New York (Anelise H. Shrout)* Box: New York's Famine memorial (Joe Lee)* Chapter 29 The Famine and Australia (Thomas Keneally)* Chapter 30 'Week after week, the eviction and the Exodus: Ireland and Moreton Bay, 1848-51 (Jennifer Harrison)* Section VII Legacy Chapter 31 The Irish Diaspora (Piaras MacEinri)* Chapter 32 Post-Famine Ireland (Willie Nolan)* Chapter 33 The Irish language (Mairead Nic Craith) Section VIII Remembering the Famine Chapter: 34 Folklore and memory (Cathal Poirteir)* Box: Na Pratai Dubha Case study: Tadhg O Murchu (1842-1928) (Cathal Poirteir)* Chapter: 35 New Sites of memory (J Crowley)* Box: Memory and Music (M. Ingoldsby)* Chapter 36 'Strokestown Park House and the National Famine Museum as a site of memory'(Terence Dooley)* Box: A Great Famine Discovery of Viking Gold: Vesnoy, Strokestown, Co. Roscommon (John Sheehan)* Chapter 37 Art and the Famine (Catherine Marshall)* Box: Remembering (Anet Hennessey)* Chapter 38 Literature and the Famine (Chris Morash)* Section IX Hunger and Famine Today Chapter 39 The Great Famine and today's Famines (Cormac O Grada)* Chapter 40 Famine, food security or food sovereignty? (Colin Sage)* Case study: Imaging Famine: Whose Hunger? (Luke Dodd)* Chapter 41 Fighting Hunger: Ireland's role (Connell Foley, Policy Director, Concern)* ENDNOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Book SynopsisBorn January 1, 1993, after the split with Slovakia, the Czech Republic is one of the youngest members of the European Union. Despite its youth, this new state and the areas just outside its modern borders boast an ancient and intricate past. With A History of the Czech Lands, editors Jaroslav Panek and Oldrich Tuma-along with several scholars from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Charles University - provide one of the most complete historical accounts of this region to date. Panek and Tuma's history begins in the Neolithic Era and follows the development of the state as it transformed into the Kingdom of Bohemia during the ninth century, into a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, into Czechoslovakia after World War I, and finally into the Czech Republic. Such a tumultuous political past arises in part from a fascinating native people, and A History of the Czech Lands profiles the Czechs in great detail, delving into past and present traditions and explaining how generation after generation adapted to a perpetually changing government and economy. In addition, contributors examine the many minorities that now call these lands home - Jews, Slovaks, Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and others - and how each group's migration to the region has contributed to life in the Czech Republic today. With sixty new illustrations and an additional chapter examining the transformation of the Czech Republic from a post-communist country into a member of the European Union, this new edition of A History of the Czech Lands will be essential for scholars of Slavic, Central, and East European studies and a must-read for those who trace their ancestry to these lands.Trade Review"This is unquestionably the best single-volume English-language history now available, and it is enhanced by multi-language bibliographies and a set of beautiful color maps. Essential." (Choice)"

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Book SynopsisA SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERWaterstone's Book of the Month, 2018Nominated for the 2017 Pen Hessell-TiltmanMail on Sunday's the Best Paperback, 2018A sweeping history of the city of Rome, seen through the eyes of its most significant sackings, from the Gauls to the Nazis and everything in between.No city on earth has preserved its past as Rome has. Visitors can cross bridges that were crossed by Julius Caesar and explore temples visited by Roman emperors. These architectural survivals are all the more remarkable considering the city has been repeatedly ravaged by roving armies.From the Gauls to the Nazis, Matthew Kneale tells the stories behind the seven most important of these attacks and reveals, with fascinating insight, how they transformed the city - and not always for the worse. A meticulously researched, magical blend of travelogue, social and cultural history, Rome: A History in Seven Sackings is a celebration of the fierce courage, panache and vitality of the Roman people. Most of all, it is a passionate love letter to this incomparable city.Trade ReviewGripping and ingenious... Kneale's account is a masterpiece of pacing and suspense. Characters from the city's history spring to life in his hands. * Sunday Times *A stirring portrait of a city at war... brings Rome's fractious past to life. * Observer *Utterly compelling, brilliant... Wonderfully moving and inspiring * Literary Review *Fascinating... A delight * The Times ‘Book of the Week’ *Ingenious and wholly enjoyable history of the city. * Daily Telegraph *Each of Matthew Kneale's seven chapters lovingly recreates the city... There is lots here that is fascinating. -- Catherine Nixey * The Times *A sumptuously produced volume * Shots Magazine *Remarkable... This is a history written by someone who understands and admires Rome, but also acknowledges its flaws and idiosyncrasies. * BBC History *

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Book SynopsisA Companion to the Roman Empire provides readers with a guide both to Roman imperial history and to the field of Roman studies, taking account of the most recent discoveries. Provides a guide both to Roman imperial history and to the field of Roman studies. Takes account of recent discoveries.Trade Review"Another admirable edition to Blackwell's large expanding series of Companions, it is of comparable length, but with just 30 contributors and 30 chapters … it gives each other more depth and breadth." (Ancient East and West, 2008) "For those with reservations about the 'companion' phenomenon, [this volume] is an excellent advertisement for the benefits of such an exercise.... This volume is almost uniformly good as a guide to central topics in Roman history from the first to the forth century, with a number of outstanding discussions," (The Classical Review, 2008) "A very impressive collection indeed, summarising and building on the latest scholarship, especially the view that there is more to history than politics and the powerful." (Journal of Classics Teaching) "Scholar, student, and interested layperson will all find much to ponder here, and the editor, publisher, and contributors are to be commended for the success of their undertaking. This Companion, at least, constitutes a welcome addition to the field, offers a clear statement of the current state of the discipline, and provides inspiration for future directions" (New England Classical Journal) "This Companion to the Roman Empire provides a fascinating and scholarly insight into our ancient past. It is an ideal reference tool for students and scholars alike, presenting new methods and modes of study that should provoke thought among the readership. It also brings together many disciplines of study that allow scholars to study an Empire as vast and influential as that created by the Romans." (Reference Reviews) "The thirty chapters in this latest title in Blackwell's excellent "Companions to the Ancient World" series are written by such experts in their fields as Maud Gleason, Judith Evans Grubbs, Amy Richlin and Ann Hanson ... No comparable handbook exists ... Essential. All levels/libraries." (Choice—A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2007) "This elegantly and carefully edited book is a resounding success." (Scholia Reviews) "David Potter has assembled an impressive array of scholars whose essays in this volume provide overviews and summarize the current state of scholarship on a variety of topics. A Companion to the Roman Empire succeeds in meeting the needs of its diverse audience and also offers a few surprises." (Bryn Mawr Classical Review)Table of ContentsList of Illustrations x List of Tables xiii Notes on Contributors xiv Acknowledgments xvi Reference works: Abbreviations xvii Ancient authors: Abbreviations and Glossary xx The Emperors of Rome from Augustus to Constantine xxix Introduction: The Shape of Roman History: The Fate of the Governing Class 1David S. Potter PART I THE SOURCES 21 1 Constructing a Narrative 23Cynthia Damon 2 Roman Imperial Numismatics 35William E. Metcalf 3 Documents 45Traianos Gagos and David S. Potter 4 Art, Architecture, and Archaeology in the Roman Empire 75Lea Stirling 5 Interdisciplinary Approaches 98James B. Rives PART II NARRATIVE 113 6 The Emergence of Monarchy: 44 BCE–96 CE 115Greg Rowe 7 Rome the Superpower: 96–235 CE 126Michael Peachin 8 The Transformation of the Empire: 235–337 CE 153David S. Potter PART III ADMINISTRATION 175 9 The Administration of the Provinces 177Clifford Ando 10 The Transformation of Government under Diocletian and Constantine 193Hugh Elton 11 The Roman Army 206Nigel Pollard 12 Greek Cities Under Roman Rule 228Maud W. Gleason 13 Cities and Urban Life in the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire 30 BCE–250 CE 250Jonathan Edmondson PART IV SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC LIFE 281 14 The Imperial Economy 283David Mattingly 15 Landlords and Tenants 298Dennis P. Kehoe 16 The Family 312Judith Evans Grubbs 17 Sexuality in the Roman Empire 327Amy Richlin 18 On Food and the Body 354Veronika E. Grimm 19 Leisure 369Garrett G. Fagan 20 Spectacle 385David S. Potter PART V INTELLECTUAL LIFE 409 21 The Construction of the Past in the Roman Empire 411Rowland Smith 22 Imperial Poetry 439K. Sara Myers 23 Greek Fiction 453Joseph L. Rife 24 Roman Law and Roman History 477John Matthews 25 Roman Medicine 492Ann Hanson 26 Philosophy in the Roman Empire 524Sara Ahbel-Rappe PART VI RELIGION 541 27 Traditional Cult 543David Frankfurter 28 Jews and Judaism 70–429 CE 565Yaron Z. Eliav 29 Christians in the Roman Empire in the First Three Centuries CE 587Paula Fredriksen 30 Christian Thought 607Mark Edwards Bibliography 620 Index 681

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Book SynopsisChristmas in Tudor times was a period of feasting, revelry and merrymaking ‘to drive the cold winter away’. A carnival atmosphere presided at court, with a twelve-day-long festival of entertainments, pageants, theatre productions and ‘disguisings’, when even the king and queen dressed up in costume to fool their courtiers. Throughout the festive season, all ranks of subjects were freed for a short time from everyday cares to indulge in eating, drinking, dancing and game-playing.We might assume that our modern Christmas owes much to the Victorians. In fact, as Alison Weir and Siobhan Clarke reveal in this fascinating book, many of our favourite Christmas traditions date back much further. Carol-singing, present-giving, mulled wine and mince pies were all just as popular in Tudor times, and even Father Christmas and roast turkey dinners have their origins in this period. The festival was so beloved by English people that Christmas traditions survived remarkably unchanged in this age of tumultuous religious upheaval.Beautifully illustrated with original line drawings throughout, this enchanting compendium will fascinate anyone with an interest in Tudor life – and anyone who loves Christmas.Trade Review[A] jewel of a book. -- Tracy Borman * BBC History Magazine, **Books of the Year** *My favourite fireside read on the run-up to Yule… From food and festivities to religion and the origins of customs, this book has it all * Northern Soul, *Christmas Gift Guide 2023* *

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Book SynopsisA thrilling history of MI9—the WWII organization that engineered the escape of Allied forces from behind enemy linesTrade Review“Fry has undertaken prodigious research…The book is a fitting tribute to the hundreds of men and women who risked their lives in assisting Allied escapees, and a welcome salute to those who broke out of their PoW camps that they might be returned to the battlefront.”—Giles Milton, The Sunday Times“A finely researched appraisal of MI9, one of the least known agencies of the Second World War, whose principal role was to help British prisoners of war escape from enemy-occupied territory.”—The Sunday Times ‘Best Paperbacks of 2021’ “Helen Fry’s engrossing tale M19…details the exploits of the secret organisation that rescued allied troops from behind Nazi lines.”—Martin Chilton, The Independent“Several recent books have shone light on the heroic part women played in the story of intelligence, and Fry illuminates their role even more...[A] noble, moving and inspiring book”—Allan Mallinson, Spectator“Once started, this is an impossible book to put down.”—David Webb-Carter, Aspects of History“In a brilliantly researched, absorbing and at times gripping text, Helen Fry takes the reader on an awe-inspiring and riveting journey as she details the work of M19, the secret service for escape and evasion in World War Two.”—John T. Morris, Love Wrexham Magazine“Fry is fortunate to have enjoyed access to previously classified files and documents, which allows for a more in-depth study of the department than ever before. The combination of this material, eyewitness testimony and some truly breathtaking tales of heroism and survival make this a must-read for anyone with an interest in the history of the intelligence services of World War II.”—All About History“Supplemented by vivid and captivating personal accounts of espionage, along with daring and heroic escape and evasion reports of POWs, Fry further underscores the critical role of “ordinary” individuals of occupied Europe who risked their lives and the well-being of their families.”—Kevin T. Hall, Global Military Studies Review“A well-written book…[Fry] never loses sight of her research interest.”—Winfried Heinemann, International Journal of Military History and Historiography“There is so much content in this book, so many stories of remarkable bravery and endeavour, that the main feeling is simply to be thankful that Fry has moved them closer to a wider audience, and her enthusiasm for her subjects shines through.”—Karl Hornsey, On: YorkshireMagazine“Fry, through the diligent use of declassified material from the MI9 files at the Kew National Archives, published and unpublished memoirs from personnel within the organisation, and papers in family possessions shows how MI9ʹs escapers made an important contribution to intelligence during the war.”—Bailey Schwab, Intelligence and National SecurityShortlisted for the 2020 Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History“A thoroughly comprehensive study of a much-neglected secret wartime organisation.”-Nigel West, author of MI6"A masterful page turner you won't be able to put down. The story of MI9 is one of the most inspiring and exciting of all WWII narratives.”—Alex Kershaw, author of Avenue of Spies 'Behind every Allied great escape in WWII there stood the brave and resourceful men and women of MI9, an intelligence organisation today almost completely forgotten … A masterful retelling with a fascinating cast of characters straight out of a John le Carré thriller.' Mark Felton, author of Castle of the Eagles“Important, informative and engaging. Fry draws an engrossing picture of the commitment and courage of tens of thousands of agents who helped "escapers" and "evaders" in the European Theatre of Operations.’—Michael Jago, author of The Man Who Was George Smiley

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Book Synopsis'Strikingly original, utterly absorbing' Julia Boyd, author of Travellers in the Third Reich A Financial Times 'Book to Read in 2023' 1930s Europe - as the Roaring Twenties wind down and the world rumbles towards war, the great minds of the time have other concerns. Jean-Paul Sartre waits anxiously in a Parisian café for his first date with no-show Simone de Beauvoir. Marlene Dietrich slips from her loveless marriage into the dive bars of Berlin. Father and son Thomas and Klaus Mann clash over each other's homosexuality. And Vladimir Nabokov lovingly places a fresh-caught butterfly at the end of Verá's bed. Little do they all know, the book burning will soon begin. Love in a Time of Hate skilfully interweaves some of the greatest love stories of the 1930s with the darkening backdrop of fascism in Europe, in an irresistible journey into the past that brings history and its actors to vivid life.Trade ReviewA brilliantly conceived and uniquely different cultural history of the 1930s, written with confident, alluring poise. Fascinating and revelatory -- William Boyd, author * Trio *An enthralling and insightful cultural history - one that shows how, over the course of one pivotal decade, love, freedom and the freedom to love gave way to fear, madness and despair * Washington Post *Florian Illies's whirling cultural history, Love in a Time of Hate, captures an era of unmatched hedonism ... there's the thrill of discovery on every page -- Jasper Rees * Daily Telegraph *The experimental sex lives of the artists and thinkers of the roaring 20s are set against the burgeoning threat of fascism in this wickedly amusing and timely book -- Peter Conrad * The Observer *Partly as a result of the book's organising conceit, and Illies's often arch prose style, Love in a Time of Hate achieves something that is really rather impressive - turning the great moral dramas of the 20th century into breathless melodrama. -- John Maier * The Times *A brilliantly readable and evocative social history ... beginning with the build up to the Great Depression and ending with the outbreak of war, Florian Illies's superb new book explores the complicated personal and creative lives of everyone from Marlene Dietrich and the Mann family to Salvador Dalí, and F Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald * Irish Times *It takes a skilful hand to arrange these vignettes into a dramatic image of the world slipping into catastrophe ... This erudite history covers much ground -- Anna Aslanyan * Spectator *In a revealing, offbeat slice of cultural history, Florian Illies traces the tangled affairs of Europe's intelligentsia against the backdrop of the rise of fascism ... Illies, a German writer, brings a light touch and conversational style to his mosaic view of a pivotal period ... he astutely weaves these diverse stories into a fluent, widescreen narrative * Business Post *Engaging ... Illies immerses us in a stream of gossip and political rumour, in love affairs past and present, somehow carried on amid great personal achievements and terrible folly. There is a Freudian element and no little writerly brilliance in the way Illies asks: what did these people mean by love? ... This, then, was Europe in love * TLS *Highly novelistic ... wisecracking ... skilfully composed * History Today *A cultural history of some of the 1930s greatest love stories, interwoven with the darkening backdrop of fascism in Europe * Bookseller *Love in a Time of Hate invites us to consider that history is as much an accretion of small gestures as it is a catalogue of battles and speeches. At once intimate and epic, this dazzling book illuminates the human desire to seek connection and coherence as the world descends into chaos. A brilliant and imaginative tour de force -- Rebecca Donner, author * All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler *Set against the relentless rise of Nazi terror, this ingenious narrative evokes the 1930s through the loves, foibles and tragedies of the cultural elite. Strikingly original, utterly absorbing. -- Julia Boyd, author * Travellers in the Third Reich *Please do read this book - it is gorgeous. I learned so many new things about love, art and the horror of history -- Ferdinand von Schirach, author * The Collini Case *This is candid, unsparing and gripping social history viewed through the prism of two- and three-person relationships - simultaneously disenchanting and endearing. A bravura performance -- Harald Jähner, author * Aftermath *Praise for Florian Illies: 'Illies is as astute a researcher as he is an observer of the zeitgeist * Guardian *A vivid, richly textured book that chronicles a world crackling with talent, energy and foreboding * Financial Times *An absolute gem of a book * Observer *Thorough and fascinating * Time Out *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of New Statesman's Books of the Year 2020""A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year 2021""[A] compelling biography."---Oliver Moody, The Times"[L]ively and accessible. . . . [Edmond’s] research has also uncovered important new biographical information, including about [the Vienna Circle’s] lesser-known female members."---Adam Kirsch, New Yorker"As pacy as a thriller."---Joe Humphreys, Irish Times"[An] exemplary [piece] of intellectual history, doing meticulous justice to the ideas and engrossing about the personalities involved."---Alan Ryan, New Statesman"A clear accessible introduction to the complexities of logical positivism . . . [Edmonds] brilliantly illuminates why and how the philosophy burned so brightly."---Clare Clark, Standpoint"A readable popular history of the Circle that deftly integrates the ideas and lives of its members with the story of the Viennese milieu in which it emerged and its destruction. . . . [Edmonds’] historical narrative is clear, reliable and thoroughly readable – gripping, even, in places."---Tom Stern, Literary Review"A stimulating, scintillating new book on the Vienna Circle."---Daniel Johnson, The Critic"[An] engrossing and eminently readable history of the circle."---David Conway, Jewish Chronicle"[Edmonds manages to] combine the biographical and historical with the philosophical, without getting too technical. . . . It’s quite a poignant book."---Nigel Warburton, FiveBooks"A cracking read."---Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist"I very much enjoyed this book, and found its direct style refreshing, and I hope it will serve as a model for others. [Edmonds] actually tells you what you want to know!"---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution"Absorbing. . . . so fascinating and relevant now."---Thomas Filbin, The Arts Fuse"An accessible introduction to the group of philosophers and scientists who formed the influential Vienna Circle in the 20th century. . . . Edmonds tells its story thoughtfully in this fascinating mix of philosophy, biography and cultural history."---David Herman, Jewish Renaissance"Edmonds has written a compelling, captivating, and easily approachable book on the history of the Vienna Circle. He is witty, engaging, knows where to put emphasis, and how to draw lively pictures of those philosophers that are still too often conceived as technically minded abstract logicians. . . .Edmonds’ book will make you understand why the Vienna Circle was so important back in the 1920s, and still important in the 2020s."---Adam Tamas Tuboly, Review of History of Philosophy of Science Books"[A] lively new book. . . .Edmonds draws unexpected connections within the sprawling web of thinkers and artists in interwar Vienna. . . bringing to life the artistic and political flavour of those coffee-house debates"---Jonathan Egid, Times Literary Supplement"An always-readable obituary for the philosophers who sought a common basis for western thought while communism and Nazism were on the bloody rise."---Frederic Raphael, Times Literary Supplement ​​​​​​​"An informative and pleasurable read. . . .The Murder of Professor Schlick is a must read for anyone interested in the Vienna Circle."---Ambika Natarajan, Austrian History Yearbook

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Book SynopsisAt dawn on March 18, 1871, Parisian women stepped between cannons and French soldiers, using their bodies to block the army from taking the artillery from their working-class neighborhood. When ordered to fire, the troops refused and instead turned and arrested their leaders. Thus began the Paris Commune, France’s revolutionary civil war that rocked the nineteenth century and shaped the twentieth. Considered a golden moment of hope and potential by the left, and a black hour of terrifying power inversions by the right, the Commune occupies a critical position in understanding modern history and politics. A 72-day conflict that ended with the ferocious slaughter of Parisians, the Commune represents for some the final insurgent burst of the French Revolution’s long wake, for others the first “successful” socialist uprising, and for yet others an archetype for egalitarian socio-economic, feminist, and political change. Militants have referenced and incorporated its ideas into insurrections across the globe, throughout the twentieth and into the twenty-first centuries, keeping alive the revolution’s now-iconic goals and images. Innumerable scholars in countless languages have examined aspects of the 1871 uprising, taking perspectives ranging from glorifying to damning this world-shaking event. The Commune stands as a critical and pivotal moment in nineteenth-century history, as the linchpin between revolutionary pasts and futures, and as the crucible allowing glimpses of alternate possibilities. Upending hierarchies of class, religion, and gender, the Commune emerged as a touchstone for the subsequent century-and-a-half of revolutionary and radical social movements. Trade Review"This compelling account of the Paris Commune makes a complicated event understandable and vivid. Eichner’s rich portraits bring to life the freedom and empowerment the Communards experienced, juxtaposed with the bloody repression of its final days."— Sarah Fishman, author of From Vichy to the Sexual Revolution: Gender and Family Life in Postwar France Like the Commune itself, Eichner’s history is brief, complex, and full of drama. A fresh and compelling account for scholars and students of 1871 and its legacies.— Roxanne Panchasi, author of Future Tense: The Culture of Anticipation in France between the Wars New Books Network: New Books in French Studies: An interview with Carolyn J. Eichner— New Books Network: New Books in French Studies New Books Network: New Books in French Studies: An interview with Carolyn J. Eichner— New Books Network: New Books in French Studies Like the Commune itself, Eichner’s history is brief, complex, and full of drama. A fresh and compelling account for scholars and students of 1871 and its legacies.— Roxanne Panchasi, author of Future Tense: The Culture of Anticipation in France between the Wars "This compelling account of the Paris Commune makes a complicated event understandable and vivid. Eichner’s rich portraits bring to life the freedom and empowerment the Communards experienced, juxtaposed with the bloody repression of its final days."— Sarah Fishman, author of From Vichy to the Sexual Revolution: Gender and Family Life in Postwar France "Eichner’s narrative weaves together many aspects–religious secularism, economic policies, cooperative economics and property rights, education, culture, and the arts–precisely because the Commune affected all of it. The Paris Commune is an enjoyable, brilliant, scholarly, and readable adventure."— Capital & Class "[An] informative and moving new history."— David A. Bell, The NationTable of Contents1. Illumination 2. Fluorescence 3. Explosion Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"In Conchophilia seven scholars dissect why Renaissance-era collectors braved maritime hazards to beachcomb. Finding the pearliest treasures at shorelines called for avoiding crocodiles, spiny urchins and ‘burning sea slime’. . . . Painters depicted shells, with names as wonderful as ‘precious wentletrap’ and ‘speckled episcopal miter,’ arrayed on banquet tables or in the hands of exulting deities. Metalsmiths set nautiluses on gold pedestals sculpted with mermaid and sea foam motifs. Collectors had favorite shells cemented onto grotto walls, sometimes in the bristly shapes of pine cones and artichokes."---Eve M. Kahn, New York Times"This richly illustrated collection of essays conceptualises the shell and how it was used in material and visual culture, philosophy, and aesthetics as a ‘vessel’ to comprehend early modern society, primarily in a Dutch and German context. . . . [A] well-produced and beautiful book, even its softly glowing endpapers reminiscent of polished shells and nacre. Of interest to art historians, historians of science, and historians of visual and material culture, the essays are also clearly written and approachable, offering many pearls of wisdom. I highly recommend it."---Anna Marie Roos, Early Modern Low Countries"The exquisitely illustrated, thought-provoking book examines the complicated provenances, varied uses, and key role of shells in shaping this period’s visual and aesthetic culture."---Lauren Moya Ford, Hyperallergic"[Conchophilia does] an excellent job in surveying both art history and the history of science to discuss the uses of shells in art. . . . The lavish illustrations alone are worth the price of purchase. . . . Truly a feast for the eyes."---Alan R. Kabat, American Conchologist"Conchophilia is well-designed and beautifully illustrated, a book that deploys wonderful narratives about the love of shells in early modern Europe. . . . A captivating combination of the material and the social, of shells and people."---Marlise Rijks, Early Science and Medicine"A very handsome book replete with full-color photographs, Conchophilia is a joy to read, as appealing and stimulating as the curiosities it considers."---James Clifton, Historians of Netherlandish Art Reviews"All the studies in this beautiful book command respect: they are distinctly original and relevant and unfold with keen intelligence. With a novel, methodical approach, and by means of very subtle and magnificently illustrated analyses, they illuminate European collections of the first modern era."---Myriam Marrache-Gouraud, Renaissance and Reformation"A thought-provoking and beautifully produced book. . . . [A]s all authors convincingly show in their chapters, a case can be made for the particular poignant love of shells from the early sixteenth century onward. Both as literal and metaphorical vessels, it is argued, shells prompted reflection, contemplation, and discussion, as material manifestations of exoticness, (natural and divine) craftmanship, and aesthetics."---Marika Keblusek, Renaissance Quarterly"A fascinating book."---Christopher Stocks, Country Life

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Book SynopsisNever be lost for words again...with this book of lost words. Have you ever wanted to wield the silver tongue of Loki, or to hammer home your point like a Thundergod? Old Norse is the language of legends and the stuff of sagas, the inspiration for Tolkien and Marvel, for award-winning manga and epic videogames. It is the language of cleverly crafted kennings, blood-curdling curses, and pithy retorts to RagnarÖk. Old Norse for Modern Times gives you the perfect phrase for every contemporary situation—from memorable movie quotes ("We’re going to need a bigger boat." Þurfa munu vÉr skip stÆrra) to battle-cries to yell on Discord ("Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" SÝnisk ÞÉr ek vera Í skapi til leika?), from mead hall musings ("This drink, I like it! ANOTHER!" LÍkar mÉr drykkr Þessi! ANNAN!) to tried-and-tested pickup lines ("Nice tattoo!" Fagrt er hÚÐflÚriÐ"). With over 500 phrases inside (plus the chance to add your own!) it is the perfect guide for Vikings fans, whether they are re-enactors, role-players, or simply in love with Ragnar.

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Book Synopsis'A compelling and wry narrative of one of the most intellectually thrilling eras of British history' Guardian. ***************** SHORTLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2020 England, 1651. Oliver Cromwell has defeated his royalist opponents in two civil wars, executed the Stuart king Charles I, laid waste to Ireland, and crushed the late king's son and his Scottish allies. He is master of Britain and Ireland. But Parliament, divided between moderates, republicans and Puritans of uncompromisingly millenarian hue, is faction-ridden and disputatious. By the end of 1653, Cromwell has become 'Lord Protector'. Seeking dragons for an elect Protestant nation to slay, he launches an ambitious 'Western Design' against Spain's empire in the New World. When an amphibious assault on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in 1655 proves a disaster, a shaken Cromwell is convinced that God is punishing England for its sinfulness. But the imposition of the rule of the Major-Generals – bureaucrats with a penchant for closing alehouses – backfires spectacularly. Sectarianism and fundamentalism run riot. Radicals and royalists join together in conspiracy. The only way out seems to be a return to a Parliament presided over by a king. But will Cromwell accept the crown? Paul Lay narrates in entertaining but always rigorous fashion the story of England's first and only experiment with republican government: he brings the febrile world of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate to life, providing vivid portraits of the extraordinary individuals who inhabited it and capturing its dissonant cacophony of political and religious voices. ***************** Reviews: 'Briskly paced and elegantly written, Providence Lost provides us with a first-class ticket to this Cromwellian world of achievement, paradox and contradiction. Few guides take us so directly, or so sympathetically, into the imaginative worlds of that tumultuous decade' John Adamson, The Times. 'Providence Lost is a learned, lucid, wry and compelling narrative of the 1650s as well as a sensitive portrayal of a man unravelled by providence' Jessie Childs, Guardian. Trade ReviewBriskly paced and elegantly written, Providence Lost provides us with a first-class ticket to this Cromwellian world of achievement, paradox and contradiction. Few guides take us so directly, or so sympathetically, into the imaginative worlds of that tumultuous decade -- John Adamson, Sunday TimesProvidence Lost is a learned, lucid, wry and compelling narrative of the 1650s as well as a sensitive portrayal of a man unravelled by providence -- Jessie Childs, GuardianIn telling us what Cromwell believed, Lay helps us to understand the man, but his witty and incisive book is also a reminder why the English, in particular, hate the bossy pieties of the puritanical elite, and distrust radicalism * The Times *Lay offers a vivid, clear and highly engrossing narrative of these fast moving and complicated events * Financial Times *An enlightening study of the often overlooked rule of Oliver Cromwell * Sunday Telegraph *A book for the general reader, based on a thorough knowledge of the sources, and written with perceptiveness as well as narrative zest – a lively, attention-holding account of what is surely the strangest decade in British history * Sunday Telegraph *A superb summary of the ebbs and flows of the Interregnum, a strangely 'lost' decade * Herald *[An] absorbing and beautifully written book * BBC History Magazine *A readable and witty guide to England's republican interregnum * The Times. *A highly readable book, full of wit, sober thought and scholarly rigour * Observer. *A spirited and vivid survey of the brief period in which Cromwell held the dangerously ill-defined role of "lord protector" * New Statesman *A history of Cromwell's republic that contends this was actually a period of intense creativity * Sunday Times *Fascinating new history of the English interregnum * Sunday Times *A compelling and exciting account of a critical period in early modern British history * New Books Network *A brilliant aid to understanding modern Britain and, indirectly, the United States; the lessons of the Protectorate were not lost on the founding fathers * Catholic Herald *Told in gripping fashion; each chapter is filled with enough intrigue to fuel a TV soap opera. The various warring factions are explained with vigour and clarity, while lesser-known events, such as a failed attempt to assassinate Cromwell, are packed with detail * Discover Britain *Paul Lay is bracing and undeceived in his judgments... Lay shows us what a distinctive period it was, full of frenetic excursions and alarms but for most people not unendurable, shallow-rooted in the good sense... Lay treats each volcanic caprice of the Protector's with the amused scepticism it deserves, not struggling overmuch to discern some consistent purpose behind it' * London Review of Books *What Lay gives us is a warts-and-all picture of a man with the weaknesses of any other, and who struggled heroically to stabilise, and to attempt to unite, a country shattered by a decade of civil wars * The Critic Magazine *Cromwell's republic was more energetic than we thought, reveals this brisk study * Sunday Times *Fascinating * The Times *Interesting material on the rule of Cromwell's major generals and on the debate on the succession to Cromwell and the falling out with John Lambert, who had been seen as Cromwell's deputy * Chartist *

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Book SynopsisFor 270 years, the House of Braganza provided the kings and queens of Portugal. During a period of momentous change, from 1640 to 1910, this influential family helped to establish Portuguese independence from their powerful Spanish neighbours. They ruled the vast empire of Brazil from 1822 to 1889, successfully creating a unified nation and preventing the country from splitting into small warring states, and they saved the monarchy and government from total destruction by the marauding armies of Napoleon. In his fascinating reappraisal of the Braganza dynasty, Malyn Newitt traces the rise and fall of one of the world’s most important royal families. He introduces us to a colourful cast of innovators, revolutionaries, villains, heroes and charlatans, from the absolutist Dom Miguel to the `Soldier King’ Dom Pedro I, and recounts in vivid detail the major social, economic and political events that defined their rule. Featuring an extensive selection of artworks and photographs, Newitt offers a timely look at Britain’s `oldest ally’ and the role of monarchy in the early modern European world.

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Book SynopsisAs a young civil servant, Caroline Slocock became the first ever female private secretary to any British Prime Minister, and was at Margaret Thatcher's side for the final eighteen months of her premiership. A left-wing feminist, Slocock was no natural ally - and yet she became fascinated by the woman behind the `Iron Lady' facade and by how she dealt with a world dominated by men. As events inexorably led to Margaret Thatcher's downfall, Slocock observed the vulnerabilities and contradictions of the woman considered by many to be the ultimate anti-feminist. When Thatcher eventually resigned, brought down by her closest political allies, Slocock was the only woman present to witness the astonishing scenes in the Cabinet Room. Had Thatcher been a man, it would have ended very differently, Slocock feels. Now, in this vivid first-hand account, based on her diaries from the time and interviews with other key Downing Street personnel, Slocock paints a nuanced portrait of a woman who to this day is routinely demonised in sexist ways. Reflecting on the challenges women still face in public life, Slocock concludes it's time to rewrite how we portray powerful women and for women to set aside politics and accept that Margaret Thatcher was `one of us'. A remarkable political and personal memoir, People Like Us charts life inside Thatcher's No. 10 during its dying days and reflects on women and power then and now.

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Book SynopsisMithridates the Great was one of the dominant figures of the first century BC and the Romans' most persistent enemy, going to war with them three times.

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Book SynopsisAs the only child of the Prince Regent and Caroline of Brunswick, Princess Charlotte of Wales (1796-1817) was the heiress presumptive to the throne. Her parents' marriage had already broken up by the time she was born. She had a difficult childhood and a turbulent adolescence, but she was popular with the public, who looked to her to restore the good name of the monarchy. When she broke off her engagement to a Dutch prince, her father put her under virtual imprisonment and she endured a period of profound unhappiness. But she held out for the freedom to choose her husband, and when she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg she finally achieved contentment. Her happiness was cruelly cut short when she died in childbirth at the age of twenty-one only eighteen months later. A shocked nation went into mourning for its people's princess', the queen who never was.

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Book SynopsisFree Fall tells the brutal engrossing story of the Second Chechen War, through the eyes of a young Russian Soldier. Nicolai Lilin was trained as a sniper in an unorthodox Russian Special Forces regiment called the Saboteurs. This hardened and close-knit band of brothers, operating beyond the control of military code, faced mercenary fighters, anti-personnel mines and torture of the most extreme kind.Free Fall offers a sniper's-eye view of one of the most controversial wars in living memory. It is unflinching, unforgiving and unputdownable.Trade ReviewExtraordinary...Lilin serves up brilliantly harrowing set-pieces, but also illuminates the soul of the warrior. * * Scotland on Sunday * *A pitiless account . . . pierced with firm feelings for his 'family' of fellow saboteurs - as well as an existential sorrow over a war that made so little sense that peace, when it finally came, felt incomprehensible. * * Metro * *A young Russian soldier's brutal memoir. * * Times * *Force yourself to forget about categories of good and evil, you have to just be there and read . . . produces a thrill of pleasure that is hard to forget. -- Roberto Saviano, author of GOMORRAH * * [on SIBERIAN EDUCATION] * *Lilin's astonishing account of his life takes you into some very strange worlds; frightening, violent and yet with spirited moments of redemption which both offer hope and keep you reading . . . a breath-taking memoir. -- Misha Glenny * * Mail on Sunday [on SIBERIAN EDUCATION] * *A marvellous and illuminating book . . .This story makes most of what we call true crime writing seem insipid and effete. -- Irvine Welsh * * [on SIBERIAN EDUCATION] * *

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Book SynopsisA best-selling history of the Third Crusade, when the Catholic Church waged war against heretics in its own ranksIn 1208 Pope Innocent III called for a Crusade against a country of fellow-Christians. The new enemy was Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, one of the greatest princes in Western Christendom, premier baron of all the territories in southern France where the langue d'oc was spoken. So began the Albigensian Crusade (named after the French town of Albi), which was to culminate in 1244 with the massacre of Cathars at the mountain fortress of Montségur.This Crusade was the Catholic Church's response to the rapid growth of a rival Christian religion in the very heart of Christendom - the religion of the Cathars (or 'pure ones'). These heretics drew their strength from the consciousness of belonging to a faith that had never seen eye to eye with Catholicism and was more ancient than the Church itself. From the beginning this religious war was to show all the characteristics of a national resistance movement, so that in the end it was not just the survival of the Cathar faith that was at stake but also that of the Languedoc itself as an autonomous and independent region of France.

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Book SynopsisThe story of Culloden, one of the most important battles in Scottish history - how it was fought, how it has been remembered, and what it has come to mean.Trade ReviewUnlike too much writing on places of memory, this is fresh, concise, free from jargon and well informed about realities. * Jeremy Black, Books of the Year 2016, History Today *deep and thoughtful study * Michael Russell, MSP, Minister for UK Negotiations on Scotland's Place in Europe, Books of the Year 2016, Herald *an admirably balanced volume on Culloden which should be required reading for non-Scottish MPs * Keith Simpson, Iain Dale's blog *a fascinating read * Battlefield Trust *Table of Contents1: Introduction 2: Conflicts and Armies: The Rising of 1745 3: Culloden Moor 4: Aftermath and Occupation 5: The Battle that Made Britain ? Historiography and Evidence in the case of Culloden 6: Culloden in British Memory: Objects, Artifacts and Representations of the Conflict

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Book Synopsis'A masterful work of social history and cultural commentary, told with much wit. It almost makes you feel as if you were there' ROGER LEWIS, Mail on Sunday The 1970s. They were the best of times and the worst of times. Wealth inequality was at a record low, yet industrial strife was at a record high. These were the glory years of Doctor Who and glam rock, but the darkest days of the Northern Ireland conflict. Beset by strikes, inflation, power cuts and the rise of the far right, the cosy Britain of the post-war consensus was unravelling - in spectacularly lurid style. Fusing high politics and low culture, Crisis? What Crisis? presents a world in which Enoch Powell, Ted Heath and Tony Benn jostle for space with David Bowie, Hilda Ogden and Margo Leadbetter, and reveals why a country exhausted by decline eventually turned to Margaret Thatcher for salvation.Trade Review'Turner's narrative is quite compelling... This is about as far away from sober, stuffy history as you can get and deserves a wide readership' Publishing News 'Turner combines a fan's sense of populism (weaving in references to a rapidly expanding popular culture) with a keen grasp of the political landscape, which gives his survey of an often overlooked decade its cutting edge' Metro 'An ambitious, entertaining alternative history of the 1970s which judges the decade not just by its political turbulence but by the leg-up it gave popular culture' Time Out 'Turner has certainly hit upon a rich and fascinating subject, and his intertwining of political and cultural history is brilliantly done... This is a masterful work of social history and cultural commentary, told with much wit. It almost makes you feel as if you were there' -- Roger Lewis Mail on Sunday 'Vivid, brilliantly researched... Turner may be an anorak, but he is an acutely intelligent anorak' -- Francis Wheen New Statesman 'This well-researched and witty text recounts how the media reflected politics in an era of glamour, bad fashion and inflation... displays wit, colour and detail' -- Brian Groom Financial Times 'An adventurous and enjoyable reassessment of a much-maligned decade' -- Nick Rennison BBC History Magazine 'A real lesson in social history but without the stuffiness... A good fun reminder of the "decade that taste forgot"' Manchester Evening News 'Excellent ... this trilogy is about the most authoritative account of the late 20th century as you are likely to get' Choice Magazine

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Book Synopsis'Mak is the history teacher everyone should have had' Financial TimesFrom the author of the internationally acclaimed In Europe, a stunning history of our present, examining the first two decades of this most fragile and fraught new millennium.How did the great European dream turn sour? And where do we go from here?In this illuminating book, Geert Mak - one of Europe's best-loved commentators - charts the seismic events that have shaped people's lives over the past twenty years. He moves through the rocky expansion of the EU, the aftermath of 9/11 and terrorist attacks across Europe, the 2008 financial crash and the euro crisis, and on to the rise of right-wing populism and Brexit.Like no other, Mak blends history, politics and culture with the stories and experiences of the many Europeans he meets on his travels. He brings this continent to life, and asks: what role does Europe now play, and how might we face our fresh challenges together?'A powerful, humane and serious mind' Guardian'Mak is a truly cosmopolitan chronicler' IndependentTrade ReviewInstinctively cosmopolitan, Mak sweeps over his home continent in a colourful, convivial sprawl well captured in Liz Waters' pacy translation. * Financial Times *Compelling... Anecdotal nuggets sparkle on every page. * Economist *Absorbing... an illuminating odyssey... Mak is an astute observer. -- Piers Brendon * Literary Review *

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Book SynopsisWhy did killing a fox mean liberty? What did parish revels have to do with the Peterloo Massacre? What did animal cruelty have to do with the English constitution? What did the Factory Acts mean for modern football?In This Sporting Life, Robert Colls explains sport as one of England''s great civil cultures. The lived experiences of people from all walks of life are reclaimed to tell England''s history through its great sporting cultures, from the horseback pursuits of the wealthy and politically connected, to the street games in working-class neighbourhoods which needed nothing but a ball. It observes people at play, describes how they felt and thought, carries the reader along to a match or a hunt or a fight, draws out the sounds and smells of humans and animals, showing that sport has been as important in defining British culture as gender, politics, education, class, and religion.Trade Reviewa highly original, personal yet deeply accomplished, history of sporting pastimes * Mike Huggins, Cultural and Social History *This is an idiosyncratic work that is full of erudition and wit, being highly informative and often very entertaining ... a valuable addition to libraries specializing in modern British history or the history of sport. * M. Klobas, CHOICE *A compelling, evocative and unique explication of what sport has meant to the English. * Aberdare Literary Prize *Simultaneously insightful, beguiling and accomplished...it's not about the slow development of sporting rules and governing bodies. None of that matters. It is a tour de force account of how the love affair with liberty had a profound influence on the English and their sports. * Mike Huggins, Cultural and Social History *Eccentric, erudite and often very funny... [a] dazzling history of sport in England... Every page is a delight. * Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times, Best History Books of the Year 2020 *Robert Colls has taken on 200 years of English history through the prism of its culturally neglected sports - common, exclusive, innovative, brutal. He's written a definitive work not only of our sporting life, but also of our social texture. * Melvyn Bragg, New Statesman, Books of the Year 2020 *Robert Colls's exploration of sport in England between 1760 and 1960 is like no sporting history I have ever read... Eccentric, dazzlingly learned and often very funny... Colls is a historian of matchless insight and admirably democratic range. * Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times *This Sporting Life displays exhausting quantities of erudition... The prose is lively even in the footnotes... there are jewels on every page... There is more life in these pages than can be explained, or needs to be. * Simon Kuper, Financial Times *Superb... This is much more than a history of sport; it is really an alternative history of England itself... This book is full of moments that pull you up short and make you think. * Alex Massie, The Spectator *Colls has combined painstaking research with elegant prose to produce a thoroughly readable history of British sports and pastimes over two hundred years. In doing so he has breathed new life into an often-neglected corner of British history. * Emma Griffin, Literary Review *[A] quirky and strikingly original social history of England through its sports, games and pastimes... beautifully and inventively expressed, witty and bawdy in places... perhaps the most impressive element of This Sporting Life is its light touch, the way it never quite loses sight of the fact that at its heart, sport is fun. * Jonathan Liew, New Statesman *A remarkably and admirably human history, full of empathy for people of all classes and condescension towards none... Crackling on the page, Colls's prose elucidates and amuses in equal measure and with equal sharpness. * Stephanie Barczewski, Times Literary Supplement *strongly recommended contribution to the history of the emotions * Daniele Serapiglia, Passato e Presente *thought-provoking...readable...valuable...novel..intuitive.. excellent example of how a topic can be revitalised by thinking creatively... * Dave Day, idrottsforum *A monograph of monumental importance...placing sport at the forefront of civil culture in Britain. A work of national and international importance that should provide a platform for similar studies in other countries. * Keith Laybourn, Labour History Review *I'd like to say something about style. Colls is a master. He can be--in turn--witty, slapstick comic, ironic, satirical, sarcastic, lyrical, sombre, or elegiac. Sometimes he's Robert Surtees and sometimes he's John Milton. Mostly, I think, he's Pierce Egan. Whatever the tone, he's a marvel at the epigram. * Allen Guttmann, author of From Ritual to Record. The Nature of Modern Sports *At heart this book is the best kind of social history: vivid, revelatory and penned by an author who seems to know the byways of every county in England... a joyous book of dazzling scholarship. * Dan Jackson, History Today *This is both a vivid and thought-provoking read... I would recommend the book to anyone skeptical of the historical significance of sport. * Lincoln Allison, The Critic *[This Sporting Life] is absorbing, original, and entertaining... Colls is a formidable historian of England and English identity * Simon Heffer, New Criterion *An exemplary work and one that illuminates with stories rather than numbing with statistics... Colls' previous work, in particular 'Identity of England' (2002) and 'George Orwell: English Rebel' (2013), established his credentials as a historian on a mission to restore the experiences of the working-classes to the national record - the Jack Tars, pitmen and pugilists - but to do so through hard evidence not special pleading... Nowhere is this better realised than in his final chapter on football. * John Mitchinson, Byline Times *It is when Colls rises to the challenge of his subtitle - 'Sport and Liberty' - that the book really soars. * John Mitchinson, Byline Times *A great read for anyone who loves sport... free of jargon and and full of what people actually did... The writing is full of memorable phrases, wry comments and thoughtful insights into human behaviour... a message that could have been penned by George Orwell himself. * Philip Cottam, The Arbuturian *This fascinating and engagingly written book is about much more than sport: customs, tradition, place, identity, national myths as well as national stories all have their place. Colls has written the best book I have read on George Orwell, and this book too is definitive. * Jason Cowley, Editor of The New Statesman *The two most successful and positive exports from this country are the English language and organized sport. The profound influence of sport has been grievously unacknowledged. In his new book, Robert Colls puts this right by bringing its history to life and linking it quite brilliantly with common notions of liberty, patriotism, and belonging. He also shows the part modern sport played in replacing the many textures of our traditional patterns of social life. It's vivid, passionate, and goes to the heart of a subject which in so many ways is now the dominating conversation in peoples' lives. * Melvyn Bragg, Broadcaster *A brilliant book by one of my favourite British historians...giving the real thrill of first hand research and covering every corner of our national life. Even if you don't like sport you will like this book. * John Mitchinson, Backlisted Podcast *This is a wonderful book. It is engrossing,beautifully written, overflowing with insight into England and English ideas of liberty as manifest through sport.It is a history of sport unlike any other and is nothing short of exhilarating. * Paul Rouse, School of History, University College Dublin *Sparkling and scholarly, Robert Colls' new history of sport is expertly set within the wider context of English society and culture. Abounding with fresh insights, sport is celebrated and explained from Regency prize-fights to Wembley Cup Finals; vibrantly written, full of dramatic incidents and exceptional individuals. * Richard Holt, author of Sport and the British: A Modern History *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Land of Liberty 2: 'Bottom' 3: Custom 4: Belonging 5: New Moral Worlds 6: Moderns Conclusion: Sport and the English Hero

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Book SynopsisSex under the Swastika is a journey through the dark secretive corridors of the Third Reich's powerbase and it's near-pathological sexual obsession with young women, sex, Satanism and the occult. Based on interviews, eye-witness accounts and using newly revealed material from the sons and daughters of former SS officers who were part of Adolf Hitler and Reinhard Heydrich's personal staff, we learn about the sexual conduct, affairs, scandals and fetishes of some of Hitler's most trusted advocates, who used their positions of trust to execute their warped fantasies. It reveals how many leading Nazi's were actively involved in occult rituals and sexual practices, and how the abuse suffered by many young men and women was only permissible through the filtering down from the highest echelons of the regime, which was prepared to turn a blind eye. Learn about the exotic sex and drug-fuelled private cocktail parties of the Nazi political elite that spread far and wide into the society over which it presided. An unapologetically provocative volume, Sex Under the Swastika is an exploration of the Third Reich's darkest secrets, which left blood on the crisp white sheets of a nation and caused many to remain silent for decades after the death of National Socialist Germany. This unique work leaves the reader to make up his or her own mind as to the perverse, warped nature and the guilt and complicity of one of history's most sexually exploitive and evil empires.

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Book SynopsisLviv, Lwów, Lvov, Lemberg. Known by a variety of names, the City of Lions is now in western Ukraine. Situated in different countries during its history, it is a city located along the fault-lines of Europe's history. City of Lions presents two essays, written more than half a century apart - but united by one city. Józef Wittlin's sensual and lyrical paean to his Lwów, written in exile, is a deep cry of love and pain for his city, where most people he knew have fled or been killed. Philippe Sands' finely honed exploration of what has been lost and what remains interweaves a lawyer's love of evidence with the emotional heft of a descendant of Lviv. With an illuminating preface by Eva Hoffman and stunning new photographs by Diana Matar, City of Lions is a powerful and melancholy evocation of central Europe in the twentieth century, with a special resonance for today's troubled continent.Trade Review"[Wittlin's essay My Lwów is] for many Poles the definitive evocation of one of their great lost cities. . . a loving, sensuous, but also gently ironic reconstruction. . . Sands’s perspective is closer to that of the contemporary reader, who struggles with the juxtaposition between beauty, faded grandeur, and whimsical visions of a cosmopolitan past on the one hand, and savage mass murder on the other." —Los Angeles Review of Books"Congratulations to Pushkin Press for bringing lovely, haunted Lviv to a new audience." — Times Literary Supplement"A walk down memory lane, a meditation on time, politics and remembrance." — Dublin Review of Books "Wittlin takes us on a detailed tour of the city... well-illustrated." — East-West Review"Beautiful and disturbing songs in prose." - Kazimierz Wierzyński

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Book SynopsisA sequel to the same author's Highland Battles which covered warfare in Scotland's northern and western Highlands in the early Middle Ages. A revealing portrait of Highland conflict and society 600 years ago.

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Book SynopsisThe prequel to The Crown: the first truly candid portrait of George V and Mary, the Queen''s grandparents and creators of the modern monarchyShortlisted for the Elizabeth Longford Historical Biography prize and the History Reclaimed Book of the Year prizeThe lasting reputation of George V is for dullness. However throughout his reign, the monarch navigated a constitutional crisis, the First World War, the fall of thirteen European monarchies and the rise of Bolshevism. The suffragette Emily Davison threw herself under his horse at the Derby, he refused asylum to his cousin the Tsar Nicholas II and he facilitated the first Labour government.How this supposedly limited man steered the Crown through so many perils is a gripping tale. With unprecedented access to the Royal archives, Jane Ridley has been able to reassess the many myths associated with this dramatic period for the first time.''Wonderful... Never a dull paragraph'' Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Times''Magnificent... An evocative and touching portrait of a surprisingly impressive man'' Philip Hensher, Spectator''A big, beautiful beast of a book. Fair, thorough and unexpectedly funny'' Lucy WorsleyTrade ReviewMost biographers would shy away from the notoriously dull George V. Not so Ridley, whose biography of the stamp-collecting, bird-shooting king is top-notch -- Robbie Millen * The Times, *Books of the Year* *Superb -- Iona McLaren * Daily Telegraph, *Books of the Year* *Jane Ridley's George V is so sparklingly incisive about both the king and Queen Mary that it almost counts as a double biography. The pheasant-shooting, stamp-collecting, moderating monarch and his bejewelled, shopaholic consort are beautifully portrayed in all their complexities -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Spectator, *Books of the Year* *Superb . . . a perfectly candid portrait of our present Queen's grandfather: demythologised, certainly, and with spades called spades, but not trivialised, and not denied full credit for the massive amount he achieved . . . Ridley's convincing thesis [is] that George V was the true begetter of modern constitutional monarchy . . . this book makes it clear we were lucky to have him -- Simon Heffer * Daily Telegraph *There have been few monarchs quite as discreet and inscrutable as George V . . . There's much to enjoy here about George's nerdy, hypochondriacal and rather humourless character. Yet, as Ridley portrays with great fairness, he somehow managed to be a king loved and revered by the people . . . Ridley has a wonderful ability to push the story along, luring us with salient details . . . riveting . . . Never a dull paragraph -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * The Times *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"In Conchophilia seven scholars dissect why Renaissance-era collectors braved maritime hazards to beachcomb. Finding the pearliest treasures at shorelines called for avoiding crocodiles, spiny urchins and ‘burning sea slime’. . . . Painters depicted shells, with names as wonderful as ‘precious wentletrap’ and ‘speckled episcopal miter,’ arrayed on banquet tables or in the hands of exulting deities. Metalsmiths set nautiluses on gold pedestals sculpted with mermaid and sea foam motifs. Collectors had favorite shells cemented onto grotto walls, sometimes in the bristly shapes of pine cones and artichokes."---Eve M. Kahn, New York Times"This richly illustrated collection of essays conceptualises the shell and how it was used in material and visual culture, philosophy, and aesthetics as a ‘vessel’ to comprehend early modern society, primarily in a Dutch and German context. . . . [A] well-produced and beautiful book, even its softly glowing endpapers reminiscent of polished shells and nacre. Of interest to art historians, historians of science, and historians of visual and material culture, the essays are also clearly written and approachable, offering many pearls of wisdom. I highly recommend it."---Anna Marie Roos, Early Modern Low Countries"The exquisitely illustrated, thought-provoking book examines the complicated provenances, varied uses, and key role of shells in shaping this period’s visual and aesthetic culture."---Lauren Moya Ford, Hyperallergic"[Conchophilia does] an excellent job in surveying both art history and the history of science to discuss the uses of shells in art. . . . The lavish illustrations alone are worth the price of purchase. . . . Truly a feast for the eyes."---Alan R. Kabat, American Conchologist"Conchophilia is well-designed and beautifully illustrated, a book that deploys wonderful narratives about the love of shells in early modern Europe. . . . A captivating combination of the material and the social, of shells and people."---Marlise Rijks, Early Science and Medicine"A very handsome book replete with full-color photographs, Conchophilia is a joy to read, as appealing and stimulating as the curiosities it considers."---James Clifton, Historians of Netherlandish Art Reviews"All the studies in this beautiful book command respect: they are distinctly original and relevant and unfold with keen intelligence. With a novel, methodical approach, and by means of very subtle and magnificently illustrated analyses, they illuminate European collections of the first modern era."---Myriam Marrache-Gouraud, Renaissance and Reformation"A thought-provoking and beautifully produced book. . . . [A]s all authors convincingly show in their chapters, a case can be made for the particular poignant love of shells from the early sixteenth century onward. Both as literal and metaphorical vessels, it is argued, shells prompted reflection, contemplation, and discussion, as material manifestations of exoticness, (natural and divine) craftmanship, and aesthetics."---Marika Keblusek, Renaissance Quarterly"A fascinating book."---Christopher Stocks, Country Life

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Book SynopsisWe know that there were dogs in Victorian Britain, but who were the ‘Doggy People’ who kept them, bred them, showed them, worked with them and cared for them?Chapter by chapter, this book reveals the varied and often eccentric lives of the Victorians who helped define dogs as we know them today. The cast runs from the very pinnacle of society, Queen Victoria, to near the bottom with Jemmy Shaw, a publican, boxer, promoter of dog-fights and rat-killing. The others include an artist, aristocrats, authors, a clergyman, doctors, a dog-dealer, a feminist, journalists, landowners, millionaires, philanthropists, politicians, scientists, a stockbroker, veterinarians, and a showman – none other their Charles Cruft.Looking at the invention and meaning of new breeds such as poodles, collies, Jack Russells, and borzois amongst others, we see how the Victorians thought about pets, sports, dog shows and animal rights.Trade Review'Doggy People offers an entertaining, indispensable, and insightful guide to the cast of Victorian characters who created the dogs that live amongst us today'Chris Pearson, Author of Dogopolis: How dogs and Humans made modern New York, London, and Paris'Well researched, concise and accessible, Worboys traces the fascinating history of how and why Victorian society realigned the canine / human relationship - an engaging addition to this absorbing area of enquiry.'Hilda Kean, author of Animal Rights; The Great Cat & Dog Massacre; The Routledge Companion to Animal-Human History'Worboys succeeds in taking an arch, humorous view of each subject without descending into caricature. Anecdotes are interwoven with a curriculum vitae of canine-related exploits. The breadth and depth of the research are worn lightly, but nonetheless invest the book – which might easily have descended into a treasury of trivia – with an underlying rigour and an eye for social history.'TLS, James Cahill, June 2023 -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction High society, low society1. Queen Victoria | Family pets2. Bill George | King of the Canine Castle3. Jemmy Shaw | The Fancy4. Duchess of Newcastle | Borzois and Fox TerriersCelebrities and millionaires5. Jack Russell | Terriers6. Edwin Landseer | Canine characters7. Harry Panmure Gordon and J. P. Morgan| Collies 8. Alice Stennard Robinson | Ladies Kennel AssociationSportsmen and showmen9. John Henry Walsh (‘Stonehenge’) | Breed and breeds10. Richard Lloyd Price | Sheepdog trials11. John Henry Salter | Field trials12. Charles Cruft | Dog showsDoctors and scientists13. Delabere Blaine and William Youatt | Dog doctors14. Charles Darwin | Evolution and emotions15. Gordon Stables | Canine care and dog tales16. Everett Millais | Basset Hounds and breedingCampaigners and politicians17. Mary Tealby | Dogs’ homes 18. Frances Power Cobbe | Sentient creatures19. John Cumming Macdona | St Bernards20. Sewallis Shirley | The Kennel ClubAfterword – Pedigree chums Index

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Book SynopsisIn 2017, the Government’s attempt to trigger Article 50 and so leave the European Union resulted in a judgement by the Supreme Court, which stated that the Government was unentitled to do so without the consent of Parliament, directly citing the Bill of Rights in its judgement. Ironically, the Bill of Rights, enacted in 1689 to address abuses by the Crown, was successfully invoked in the twenty-first century to curb a perceived abuse by Government, acting in the name of the Crown. Passed shortly after the Glorious Revolution, the Bill sets out the balance of power between Parliament and the Crown, prohibiting the sovereign from levying taxes, recruiting troops or suspending laws without Parliamentary consent. Establishing Parliament as the ultimate source of power in the land and enshrining basic civil rights first set out in Magna Carta but subsequently abridged, the Bill document can justly claim to serve as the origin of Britain’s democracy. Published here with an introduction by Jonathan Sumption providing the historical context of the document and its influence over the centuries – particularly on the United States Bill of Rights – this edition shows how a number of the original clauses find renewed relevance in contemporary events.

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Book SynopsisA critical history of the roots of Nazi occultism and its continuing influence• Explores the occult influences on various Nazi figures, including Adolf Hitler, Albert Speer, Rudolf Hess, Alfred Rosenberg, and Heinrich Himmler• Examines the foundations of the movement laid in the 19th century and continuing in the early 20th century• Explains the rites and runology of National Socialism, the occult dimensions of Nazi science, and how many of the sensationalist descriptions of Nazi “Satanic” practices were initiated by Church propaganda after the warIn this comprehensive examination of Nazi occultism, Stephen E. Flowers, Ph.D., offers a critical history and analysis of the occult and esoteric streams of thought active in the Third Reich and the growth of occult Nazism at work in movements today. Sharing the culmination of five decades of research into primary and secondary sources, many in the original German, Flowers looks at the symbolic, occult, scientific, and magical traditions that became the foundations from which the Nazi movement would grow. He details the influences of Theosophy, Volkism, and the work of the Brothers Grimm as well as the impact of scientific culture of the time. Looking at the early 20th century, he describes the impact of Guido von List, Lanz von Liebenfels, Rudolf von Sebottendorf, Friedrich Hielscher, and others. Examining the period after the Nazi Party was established in 1919, and more especially after it took power in 1933, Flowers explores the occult influences on key Nazi figures, including Adolf Hitler, Albert Speer, Rudolf Hess, and Heinrich Himmler. He analyzes Hitler’s usually missed references to magical techniques in Mein Kampf, revealing his adoption of occult methods for creating a large body of supporters and shaping the thoughts of the masses. Flowers also explains the rites and runology of National Socialism, the occult dimensions of Nazi science, and the blossoming of Nazi Christianity. Concluding with a look at the modern mythology of Nazi occultism, Flowers critiques postwar Nazi-related literature and unveils the presence of esoteric Nazi myths in modern occult and political circles.Trade Review“Much ink has been spilled on the topic of occult Nazism, but this book goes wider and deeper than most previous literature on this subject. It aims, as the author writes, ‘to bring the question of Nazi occultism into sharper focus with a more refined lens of understanding.’ One of the great merits of the book is that Flowers examines not only the question of the actual nature and extent of occult elements in the Nazi movement and its antecedents but also the huge amount of myth and hype that has grown up around the subject since the end of the Second World War. A central theme of the book is the power of myths, including those that ‘lead to misery and destruction,’ as in the case of the Third Reich. This searching book sheds new light on a troubled subject.” * Christopher McIntosh, author of Occult Russia: Pagan, Esoteric, and Mystical Traditions *“Going way beyond the typical sensationalistic tabloid press approach toward the occult undercurrents of National Socialism, as adopted invariably by most authors on the subject for far too many decades, this book is equally a highly welcome counterweight to Nicholas Goodricke-Clarke’s pioneering scholarly study. Himself a well-acknowledged and established occult practitioner as well as an academic scholar, Stephen Flowers deploys the entire arsenal of his critical tradecraft, both emic and etic (in-depth research, shrewd analysis, informed interpretation, historical contextualization, etc.), to present us with a sweeping detailed overview of the contemporary occult and political scene and its eventual culmination in the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust: a sober--and sobering-- depiction that is certain to set new standards for coming research well into the foreseeable future.” * Frater U?D?, author of Practical Sigil Magic, High Magic, and Living Magic *“Although nothing is ‘easy’ about this book--not its argument, subtleties, or beneath-the-floorboards history--Stephen E. Flowers’s study of Nazism and the occult resounds with vitality and depth; this work must be encountered and reckoned with by anyone who hopes to make a serious consideration of its subject.” * Mitch Horowitz PEN Award–winning author of Occult America and Uncertain Places *“In The Occult in National Socialism, Stephen Flowers approaches this murky and phantasmal historical grotto with a bright lantern of illumination, an undistorted analytical lens, and a keen, unflinching eye. His exploration dispels propaganda from all sides, including that of the Nazis themselves as well as from the Catholic and Protestant churches; overturns cartloads of dubious claims; and punctures a host of untethered hot-air balloons fueled by vaporous theorizing. But this is more than just a debunker’s manual. Flowers is equally adept at cataloging and elucidating the hidden (or even ‘occult’) influences, shadowy organizations, and mysterious personalities that did exist in the pre-Nazi period and the Third Reich. Likewise groundbreaking is the final part of the book: a methodical survey of the postwar era of mythologizing, in which the smoldering ashes of a defeated criminal aggressor-state became a quaggy garden for the cultivation of bizarre tales and pseudo-history. Overall, this volume is a complex study of competing spiritual and ideological forces in a period when the obscured truth often turns out to be more unsettling than the overblown fictions that replaced it.” * Michael Moynihan, Ph.D., coauthor of Lords of Chaos *“Stephen Flowers rises to the unenviable task of sorting fact from fiction in one of the most notorious questions of the 20th century: To what extent was the Third Reich influenced by and reliant on occult ideas in its quest for world domination? The further we are removed in time from these earth-shattering events, the more the facts about the Nazis’ supposed occult interests will be lost in neo-mythology; we need someone like Flowers to put this history in its proper context and to give a sober assessment of what actually lay behind the few genuine occult interests at work within the Third Reich. Flowers skillfully examines the influences on the intellectual and spiritual life of Germany in the early 20th century, while avoiding the typical sensationalist narrative that takes every insinuation of sinister influence at face value. The bar is now considerably higher with the publication of this long-awaited expert analysis.” * Toby Chappell, author of Infernal Geometry and the Left Hand Path *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTIONEssential Questions That Must Be Answered PART I Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1800-1900) Introduction to Part I1 Foundations of Volkism The Deep Background of What Became National Socialism 2 Foundations of the Scientific CultureScience and Pseudoscience of the Nineteenth Century at the Root of National Socialism 3 Foundations of German OccultismThe Deep Occult Background of the Age PART II Before Hitler Came(1900-1919/1933)Introduction to Part II 4 Symbolic Volkism The World of Symbols and Signs into which the Third Reich Entered 5 Preludes in Science and Pseudoscience Science as Symbol and Weapon6 Occult Culture in Greater GermanyThe Fantastic Occulture of the Age PART III Myth of the Twentieth Century (1919-1945) Introduction to Part III 7 Symbolic Elements in the NSDAP How Signs, Symbols, and Ceremonies Were Wielded to Gain and Maintain Power and Control 8 Rituals of National Socialism Magic and Manipulation 9 Religious Revolution in the Third ReichThe Rise of New Religions 10 Occult Dimensions of Nazi SciencesThe Weaponization of the Occult 11 Occultism and the Third Reich The Anti-occult Reich as a Step toward Political SpellcastingPART IV The Mythology of Nazi Occultism Introduction to Part IV 12 The Roots of the Myth of Nazi Occultism in Wartime Propaganda Imaginative Propaganda Lays the Foundation of Postwar Tabloid Scholarship 13 Aftermath: Esoteric Nazism Since 1945 The Generation of a New-Age Mythology A Summary and Final Assessments APPENDIX A A Simplified Version of the Organizational Structure of the Ahnenerbe APPENDIX B The Word NaziA Chronological Annotated BibliographyReferences Index

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Book SynopsisJames Hankins challenges the view that the Renaissance was the seedbed of modern republicanism, with Machiavelli as exemplary thinker. What most concerned Renaissance political theorists, Hankins contends, was not reforming laws but shaping citizens. To secure the social good, they fostered virtue through a new program of education: the humanities.Trade ReviewMagisterial…Humanist scholars in the Italian Renaissance were concerned with many of the same puzzles that obsess us today…Hankins shows that the humanists’ obsession with character explains their surprising indifference to particular forms of government. If rulers lacked authentic virtue, they believed, it did not matter what institutions framed their power. * Wall Street Journal *Puts the politics back into humanism in an extraordinarily deep and far-reaching way…This is certainly a landmark publication…For generations to come, all who write about the political thought of Italian humanism will have to refer to it; its influence will be—like that of virtue itself in the theories of the authors it studies—nothing less than transformative. -- Noel Malcolm * American Affairs *Perhaps the greatest study ever written of Renaissance political thought. The breadth of James Hankins’s book surpasses that of the reigning incumbents, Hans Baron’s Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance and the first volume of Quentin Skinner’s classic Foundations of Modern Political Thought. It is also a book of bold argument and relevance. Hankins concentrates on the classic Italian Renaissance—Petrarch to Machiavelli…However, he escapes the conventional fixation on Florence and its chancellors. Leonardo Bruni and Machiavelli are here, but so too are the Roman jurist Mario Salamonio, the Greek translator George of Trebizond, the travelling ‘merchant scholar’ Cyriac of Ancona. Nor does Hankins limit himself to the familiar canon, but mines a deep vein of histories, biographies, letters, orations and treatises, both printed and scribally published. His mastery of the archive is astonishing. -- Jeffrey Collins * Times Literary Supplement *Extraordinary…The central theme…is that Renaissance humanism was neither a superficial aesthetic movement nor a purely political one. At its core, it was a movement of moral reform…Hankins’s grasp of the Italian Renaissance is deeply learned and insightful…Virtue Politics demonstrates why Hankins has earned his place as one of the world’s best intellectual historians of that period. -- Khalil M. Habib * New Criterion *A magisterial work by one of the world’s leading experts on the intellectual history of the Renaissance…One of the many strengths of Hankins’ volume is the great erudition with which he persuasively presents a different paradigm for understanding the Italian Renaissance. -- Carl O’Brien * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *A work to celebrate…A major book which not only synthesizes much of his previous work, but develops it further in ways both pathbreaking and panoramic…As Hankins shows, the central project of humanism was political, to instill virtue in rulers; there was broad agreement on this one point, but fascinating disagreement on many others. Deeply scholarly but marvelously lucid and reader-friendly, this book will be the indispensable study of this whole topic. -- Noel Malcolm * Times Literary Supplement *So timely…A book that is not only the fruit of a long and accomplished career but that also offers a rich and deep perspective on two time periods simultaneously: the Italian Renaissance and our own. Which is another way of saying that Virtue Politics gives readers a clear-eyed account of how the most creative minds of the Italian Renaissance addressed the permanent problems of human nature, virtue, tyranny, and political decay. * Washington Examiner *Magisterial… Hankins has piled up evidence more than sufficient to make his case. He has, moreover, opened up a new field of study…Whatever the course of future scholarship, it will have been Virtue Politics that opened up the field and set the agenda for those who came after. -- Paul A. Rahe * Claremont Review of Books *[A] magnum opus…A history of the political thought of the Italian Renaissance: from Petrarch in the middle of the 14th century to Machiavelli in the early 16th…Hankins is a stylish and sensitive guide to these men and their works, acutely aware that the political questions with which they grappled—what made a tyrant? Could a good man serve him?—were, for them, far from purely theoretical…Readers of Virtue Politics will close the book not only with a richer understanding of the Renaissance, but with a sense of how very differently we might think about politics today. * Standpoint *A bold new argument about the nature and significance of Renaissance political thought and a sweeping new vision of humanism itself…An exceptional scholarly accomplishment—a tour-de-force defense of the aspiration to improve character, a survey of Italian humanism with a uniquely wide recognition of the range of issues it encompassed, and a provocative reinterpretation of Machiavelli’s thought that makes modernity’s dark prophet appear positively naive in comparison with Petrarch, all accompanied by lucid forays into contemporary political theory and philosophy. For students of early modern political thought and philosophy, Hankins’s book will be an essential point of departure for some time. -- Mark Jurdjevic * Journal of Modern History *[A] masterpiece…It shows—with erudition, diligent scholarship, and great intelligence—how the Renaissance humanists, beginning with Petrarch, became convinced that the viciousness and lawless violence of fourteenth-century Italy was not, as previous thinkers had suggested, a problem that could be solved through drafting better laws. Instead, they argued that the eight centuries of peace, stability, and unity under the Romans were a reflection not of that state’s laws but of the moral qualities of its rulers. -- Rory Stewart * Times Literary Supplement *Wide-ranging and magisterial…If a greater focus on character education based on classical virtue does come about in our own time, it’s reasonable to think that this shift will take its bearings and example from the past. Hankins’s history of the Renaissance humanists offers a useful starting place for discovering what that kind of cultural rejuvenation might look like. -- Ian Lindquist * Education Next *An accomplished study of the Renaissance humanists’ political thought…We are unlikely to see soon another book that combines such extensive and precise learning with such a mature and subtle grasp of important matters. We are fortunate to have it. -- Mark Blitz * Law & Liberty *Investigates how [Renaissance humanists] explored a whole range of political issues. These included questions of wealth and economic injustice, the legitimacy of imperial rule, whether states should freely accept migrants and how to deal with debilitating partisanship… This work should prompt us to ask profound questions about the current culture of politics…A landmark piece of scholarship that will influence the study of political thought in the Renaissance for years to come. -- Bijan Omrani * Literary Review *Virtue Politics gives an impressive and thorough tour of Renaissance humanism from Petrarch to Leonardo Bruni to Machiavelli…[It] puts on display the detailed investigation of sources that can only come with decades of thought and research. -- Amanda Madden * Renaissance and Reformation *James Hankins is one of the most important scholars at work today in Renaissance intellectual history, so a new monograph from him demands attention…Virtue Politics will reset the discussion of Renaissance political thought for the next generation. -- Craig Kallendorf * Neo-Latin News *An enormous, sprawling work, providing rich and detailed but nonetheless succinct encapsulation of much of classical and medieval as well as, of course, Renaissance political theory…[A] rich and deeply erudite discussion of the Italian Renaissance. -- Jesse Russell * VoegelinView *Virtue Politics…is both intellectual history and an intervention into contemporary education and political culture…[Hankins’s] sensitive and erudite readings of an impressively broad array of humanist texts make important contributions to our knowledge and understanding of humanism during Italy’s long fifteenth century. -- Charles F. Briggs * Intellectual History Review *Gives Renaissance political thought the place it deserves within the history of Western political thought. -- Tommaso De Robertis * Bibliotheca Dantesca *A magnificent and major reinterpretation of Italian Renaissance political thought, and of the Italian Renaissance itself…It is a pleasure to spend time with this text…Anyone teaching the Renaissance or the history of political thought should have this volume readily at hand. -- Stephen Varvis * Fides et Historia *Virtue Politics is suffused with eloquence, and truly innovative. James Hankins argues that Renaissance humanists worked for political regimes of vastly different types. What was important to them was that leaders put the interests of the state—its stability, peace, and flourishing—before their own more immediate enrichment, or desire for power, or other selfish imperatives. In short, they believed that you could and should judge the moral character of a state and of the people who ran it. The concept of ‘virtue politics’ offers a helpful corrective to prior attempts to situate Renaissance thinkers into teleologically conceived narratives of the history of political theory. Not only is this one of the most important books written on humanist political thought, it is in many ways the first, given the unique way Hankins frames his project. It will change the way scholars conceive of the history of political thought. -- Christopher Celenza, author of MachiavelliJames Hankins’s masterwork takes us from Petrarch’s struggles against a decadent academic clerisy to Machiavelli and Confucius. But the central narrative thread never loosens: that character and virtue are the anchors of all healthy political systems, whether democratic or not. The lessons for today are clear and profound. -- Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Revenge of GeographyA tour-de-force revisionist account of Italian humanism, and a courageous effort to revive the humanist practice of moral education for political leaders in our own day. Machiavelli thought that he lived in an age of historically unprecedented corruption among political leaders. If he were to survey the behavior of so-called leaders in our contemporary world…he might very well concede that at least a measure of Hankins’s moral virtue must accompany his own realist virtue if good government were to have any chance of being achieved today. -- John P. McCormick, University of ChicagoJames Hankins is one of the world’s most distinguished authorities on the political thought of the Italian Renaissance, and Virtue Politics is a truly monumental work of scholarship, destined to leave its imprint for decades to come. It is—to a quite remarkable degree—a history of newly discovered things: new writers, new texts, new ideas, new connections. -- Peter Stacey, University of California, Los Angeles[The] magnum opus of a consummate intellectual historian. James Hankins is the living authority on Italian fifteenth-century neo-Latin literature…Hankins understands that by breathing new life into a beleaguered Renaissance movement, one can also come to the rescue of the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian heritages, now under fire, on which the Renaissance drew, in order to understand the currently debated legacy of Western modernity. Inviting readers into the midst of an ongoing fray, Virtue Politics reminds us that we all have high stakes in this game. -- Rocco Rubini * European Legacy *Magisterial…Humanist scholars in the Italian Renaissance were concerned with many of the same puzzles that obsess us today…Hankins shows that the humanists’ obsession with character explains their surprising indifference to particular forms of government. If rulers lacked authentic virtue, they believed, it did not matter what institutions framed their power. * Wall Street Journal *Puts the politics back into humanism in an extraordinarily deep and far-reaching way…This is certainly a landmark publication…For generations to come, all who write about the political thought of Italian humanism will have to refer to it; its influence will be—like that of virtue itself in the theories of the authors it studies—nothing less than transformative. -- Noel Malcolm * American Affairs *Perhaps the greatest study ever written of Renaissance political thought. The breadth of James Hankins’s book surpasses that of the reigning incumbents, Hans Baron’s Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance and the first volume of Quentin Skinner’s classic Foundations of Modern Political Thought. It is also a book of bold argument and relevance. Hankins concentrates on the classic Italian Renaissance—Petrarch to Machiavelli…However, he escapes the conventional fixation on Florence and its chancellors. Leonardo Bruni and Machiavelli are here, but so too are the Roman jurist Mario Salamonio, the Greek translator George of Trebizond, the travelling ‘merchant scholar’ Cyriac of Ancona. Nor does Hankins limit himself to the familiar canon, but mines a deep vein of histories, biographies, letters, orations and treatises, both printed and scribally published. His mastery of the archive is astonishing. -- Jeffrey Collins * Times Literary Supplement *Extraordinary…The central theme…is that Renaissance humanism was neither a superficial aesthetic movement nor a purely political one. At its core, it was a movement of moral reform…Hankins’s grasp of the Italian Renaissance is deeply learned and insightful…Virtue Politics demonstrates why Hankins has earned his place as one of the world’s best intellectual historians of that period. -- Khalil M. Habib * New Criterion *A magisterial work by one of the world’s leading experts on the intellectual history of the Renaissance…One of the many strengths of Hankins’ volume is the great erudition with which he persuasively presents a different paradigm for understanding the Italian Renaissance. -- Carl O’Brien * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *A work to celebrate…A major book which not only synthesizes much of his previous work, but develops it further in ways both pathbreaking and panoramic…As Hankins shows, the central project of humanism was political, to instill virtue in rulers; there was broad agreement on this one point, but fascinating disagreement on many others. Deeply scholarly but marvelously lucid and reader-friendly, this book will be the indispensable study of this whole topic. -- Noel Malcolm * Times Literary Supplement *So timely…A book that is not only the fruit of a long and accomplished career but that also offers a rich and deep perspective on two time periods simultaneously: the Italian Renaissance and our own. Which is another way of saying that Virtue Politics gives readers a clear-eyed account of how the most creative minds of the Italian Renaissance addressed the permanent problems of human nature, virtue, tyranny, and political decay. * Washington Examiner *Magisterial… Hankins has piled up evidence more than sufficient to make his case. He has, moreover, opened up a new field of study…Whatever the course of future scholarship, it will have been Virtue Politics that opened up the field and set the agenda for those who came after. -- Paul A. Rahe * Claremont Review of Books *[A] magnum opus…A history of the political thought of the Italian Renaissance: from Petrarch in the middle of the 14th century to Machiavelli in the early 16th…Hankins is a stylish and sensitive guide to these men and their works, acutely aware that the political questions with which they grappled—what made a tyrant? Could a good man serve him?—were, for them, far from purely theoretical…Readers of Virtue Politics will close the book not only with a richer understanding of the Renaissance, but with a sense of how very differently we might think about politics today. * Standpoint *A bold new argument about the nature and significance of Renaissance political thought and a sweeping new vision of humanism itself…An exceptional scholarly accomplishment—a tour-de-force defense of the aspiration to improve character, a survey of Italian humanism with a uniquely wide recognition of the range of issues it encompassed, and a provocative reinterpretation of Machiavelli’s thought that makes modernity’s dark prophet appear positively naive in comparison with Petrarch, all accompanied by lucid forays into contemporary political theory and philosophy. For students of early modern political thought and philosophy, Hankins’s book will be an essential point of departure for some time. -- Mark Jurdjevic * Journal of Modern History *[A] masterpiece…It shows—with erudition, diligent scholarship, and great intelligence—how the Renaissance humanists, beginning with Petrarch, became convinced that the viciousness and lawless violence of fourteenth-century Italy was not, as previous thinkers had suggested, a problem that could be solved through drafting better laws. Instead, they argued that the eight centuries of peace, stability, and unity under the Romans were a reflection not of that state’s laws but of the moral qualities of its rulers. -- Rory Stewart * Times Literary Supplement *Wide-ranging and magisterial…If a greater focus on character education based on classical virtue does come about in our own time, it’s reasonable to think that this shift will take its bearings and example from the past. Hankins’s history of the Renaissance humanists offers a useful starting place for discovering what that kind of cultural rejuvenation might look like. -- Ian Lindquist * Education Next *An accomplished study of the Renaissance humanists’ political thought…We are unlikely to see soon another book that combines such extensive and precise learning with such a mature and subtle grasp of important matters. We are fortunate to have it. -- Mark Blitz * Law & Liberty *Investigates how [Renaissance humanists] explored a whole range of political issues. These included questions of wealth and economic injustice, the legitimacy of imperial rule, whether states should freely accept migrants and how to deal with debilitating partisanship… This work should prompt us to ask profound questions about the current culture of politics…A landmark piece of scholarship that will influence the study of political thought in the Renaissance for years to come. -- Bijan Omrani * Literary Review *Virtue Politics gives an impressive and thorough tour of Renaissance humanism from Petrarch to Leonardo Bruni to Machiavelli…[It] puts on display the detailed investigation of sources that can only come with decades of thought and research. -- Amanda Madden * Renaissance and Reformation *James Hankins is one of the most important scholars at work today in Renaissance intellectual history, so a new monograph from him demands attention…Virtue Politics will reset the discussion of Renaissance political thought for the next generation. -- Craig Kallendorf * Neo-Latin News *An enormous, sprawling work, providing rich and detailed but nonetheless succinct encapsulation of much of classical and medieval as well as, of course, Renaissance political theory…[A] rich and deeply erudite discussion of the Italian Renaissance. -- Jesse Russell * VoegelinView *Virtue Politics…is both intellectual history and an intervention into contemporary education and political culture…[Hankins’s] sensitive and erudite readings of an impressively broad array of humanist texts make important contributions to our knowledge and understanding of humanism during Italy’s long fifteenth century. -- Charles F. Briggs * Intellectual History Review *Gives Renaissance political thought the place it deserves within the history of Western political thought. -- Tommaso De Robertis * Bibliotheca Dantesca *A magnificent and major reinterpretation of Italian Renaissance political thought, and of the Italian Renaissance itself…It is a pleasure to spend time with this text…Anyone teaching the Renaissance or the history of political thought should have this volume readily at hand. -- Stephen Varvis * Fides et Historia *Virtue Politics is suffused with eloquence, and truly innovative. James Hankins argues that Renaissance humanists worked for political regimes of vastly different types. What was important to them was that leaders put the interests of the state—its stability, peace, and flourishing—before their own more immediate enrichment, or desire for power, or other selfish imperatives. In short, they believed that you could and should judge the moral character of a state and of the people who ran it. The concept of ‘virtue politics’ offers a helpful corrective to prior attempts to situate Renaissance thinkers into teleologically conceived narratives of the history of political theory. Not only is this one of the most important books written on humanist political thought, it is in many ways the first, given the unique way Hankins frames his project. It will change the way scholars conceive of the history of political thought. -- Christopher Celenza, author of MachiavelliJames Hankins’s masterwork takes us from Petrarch’s struggles against a decadent academic clerisy to Machiavelli and Confucius. But the central narrative thread never loosens: that character and virtue are the anchors of all healthy political systems, whether democratic or not. The lessons for today are clear and profound. -- Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Revenge of GeographyA tour-de-force revisionist account of Italian humanism, and a courageous effort to revive the humanist practice of moral education for political leaders in our own day. Machiavelli thought that he lived in an age of historically unprecedented corruption among political leaders. If he were to survey the behavior of so-called leaders in our contemporary world…he might very well concede that at least a measure of Hankins’s moral virtue must accompany his own realist virtue if good government were to have any chance of being achieved today. -- John P. McCormick, University of ChicagoJames Hankins is one of the world’s most distinguished authorities on the political thought of the Italian Renaissance, and Virtue Politics is a truly monumental work of scholarship, destined to leave its imprint for decades to come. It is—to a quite remarkable degree—a history of newly discovered things: new writers, new texts, new ideas, new connections. -- Peter Stacey, University of California, Los Angeles[The] magnum opus of a consummate intellectual historian. James Hankins is the living authority on Italian fifteenth-century neo-Latin literature…Hankins understands that by breathing new life into a beleaguered Renaissance movement, one can also come to the rescue of the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian heritages, now under fire, on which the Renaissance drew, in order to understand the currently debated legacy of Western modernity. Inviting readers into the midst of an ongoing fray, Virtue Politics reminds us that we all have high stakes in this game. -- Rocco Rubini * European Legacy *

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Book SynopsisA brilliant polymath and part of the 'first wave' of British Romanticism, Thomas Manning was one of the first Englishmen to study Chinese language and culture. Like famous friends including Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Charles Lamb, Manning was inspired by the French Revolution and had ambitious plans for making a better world. While his contemporaries turned to the poetic imagination and the English countryside, Manning looked further afield – to China, one of the world’s most ancient and sophisticated civilizations. His travels included the salons of Napoleonic Paris, a period as a prisoner of war, a dramatic shipwreck and, disguised as a Buddhist pilgrim, a trek through the Himalayas to Tibet, where he met the Dalai Lama. Manning’s extraordinary story sheds a new light on English Romanticism.Trade ReviewChina Books Review's best biography of 2023, as recommended by Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking.'Thomas Manning did many remarkable things and knew many remarkable people. He deserves a biography. Such a book will hold particular interest for those who care about the British Romantics, British culture in the early nineteenth century, or British “orientalism”.' Michael Ferber, author of Romanticism: A very short introduction 'I had heard of Thomas Manning, but by name only and knew little about his life and travels, therefore the work has proved to be extremely interesting and educational. What an exciting ‘boy’s own’ adventure Manning appears to have had.' Sarah Murden, All Things Georgian'Edward Weech has successfully rescued one of Britain’s earliest Sinologues from obscurity and for that he should be thanked. That he has written such a highly readable and engaging biography of the man is really the cream on the coffee that makes Chinese Dreams in Romantic England an important study of early Sinology.'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society China -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction1 Early life2 Romantic, 1798-18013 France, 18024 Delay and departure, 1803-18065 Canton, 1807-18096 On the skirts of creation, 1810-18167 Home againConclusion: Why did Thomas Manning want to learn about China?Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBrilliant horsemen and great fighters, the Scythians were nomadic horsemen who ranged wide across the grasslands of the Asian steppe from the Altai mountains in the east to the Great Hungarian Plain in the first millennium BC. Their steppe homeland bordered on a number of sedentary states to the south - the Chinese, the Persians and the Greeks - and there were, inevitably, numerous interactions between the nomads and their neighbours. The Scythians fought the Persians on a number of occasions, in one battle killing their king and on another occasion driving the invading army of Darius the Great from the steppe. Relations with the Greeks around the shores of the Black Sea were rather different - both communities benefiting from trading with each other. This led to the development of a brilliant art style, often depicting scenes from Scythian mythology and everyday life. It is from the writings of Greeks like the historian Herodotus that we learn of Scythian life: their beliefs, their burial practices, their love of fighting, and their ambivalent attitudes to gender. It is a world that is also brilliantly illuminated by the rich material culture recovered from Scythian burials, from the graves of kings on the Pontic steppe, with their elaborate gold work and vividly coloured fabrics, to the frozen tombs of the Altai mountains, where all the organic material - wooden carvings, carpets, saddles and even tattooed human bodies - is amazingly well preserved. Barry Cunliffe here marshals this vast array of evidence - both archaeological and textual - in a masterful reconstruction of the lost world of the Scythians, allowing them to emerge in all their considerable vigour and splendour for the first time in over two millennia.Trade ReviewThe volume is an excellent appetizer for people unfamiliar with the Scythians and the significance of the immense steppe world for ancient history * KOSTAS VLASSOPOULOS, Greece and Rome *A scintillating tour de force from probably the greatest scholar of European archaeology. * Simon Sebag Montefiore, BBC History Magazine, Books of the Year 2019 *Cunliffe writes in an uncluttered style and with a seemingly effortless authority about a complex people ... The book is beautifully produced with plenty of colour illustrations, including excellent maps of unfamiliar places. It will surely become the standard introduction to a remarkable lost world. * Tony Spawforth, Literary Review *Not to be missed. * Timeless Travels *The Scythians, superbly written and lavishly illustrated, is the best account of these hard-riding nomads we are likely to have for a long time to come. Especially worthy of note are the excellent maps and diagrams, expertly placed to help the reader chart the wanderings of the Scythians in some of the world's most remote locations. * Ed Voves, Art Eyewitness *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Discovering the Scythians 2: Observing the other 3: Landscape and people 4: Enter the predatory nomad 5: The rise of the European Scythians 6: Scythians in Central Asia 7: Bodies clothed in skins: economy and society 8: Bending the bow 9: Death and the gods 10: The flood continues 11: Reflections on the longue durée Further reading Index Introduction 1: Discovering the Scythians 2: Observing the other 3: Landscape and people 4: Enter the predatory nomad 5: The rise of the European Scythians 6: Scythians in Central Asia 7: Bodies clothed in skins: economy and society 8: Bending the bow 9: Death and the gods 10: The flood continues 11: Reflections on the longue durée Further reading Index

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Book SynopsisChurchill may have played the larger role in Hitlerâs defeat, but Orwellâs reckoning with the threat of authoritarian rule in 1984 and Animal Farm defined the stakes of the Cold War and continues to inspire to this day. Their lives are an eloquent testament to the power of moral conviction, and to the courage it takes to stay true to it.Trade Review'Really, very interesting' John Le Carré‘An inspiring story… highly readable’ Andrew Roberts, bestselling author of Napoleon the Great and The Storm of War‘Ricks is an excellent writer; his eye for telling detail brings to life these two remarkable and much-mythologised men’ Keith Lowe, Telegraph'A feast of a book, laden with observations and insights that enable us to see these familiar figures, and through them our own time, in a fresh and illuminating light' John Gray, New Statesman‘A page turner written with great brio... highly enjoyable’ New York Times

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Book SynopsisThroughout the 16th Century, the Spanish had an aura of invincibility. They controlled a vast colonial empire that stretched across the Americas and the Pacific, and held considerable territories in Europe, centering on the so-called Spanish Road. The Dutch War of Independence (also known as the 80 Years'' War) was a major challenge to their dominance. The Dutch army created by Maurice of Nassau used innovative new tactics and training to take the fight to Spain and in so doing created a model that would be followed by European armies for generations to come.The second in a two-part series on the Dutch armies of the 80 Years'' War, focuses on the cavalry, artillery, and engineers of the evolving armies created by Maurice of Nassau. Using specially commissioned artwork and photographs of historical artifacts, it shows how the Dutch cavalry arm, artillery, and conduct of siege warfare contributed to the long struggle against the might of the Spanish Empire.

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Book SynopsisIn this eye-opening companion to Netflix's acclaimed series The Crown, renowned biographer and the show's historical consultant, Robert Lacey takes us through the real history that inspired the drama. Covering two tumultuous decades in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, Lacey looks at the key social, political and personal moments and their effects - not only on the royal family, but also on the world around them. From the Suez Canal Crisis and the US/Russia space race to the legacy of the Duke of Windsor's collaboration with Hitler, along with the rumoured issues with the royal marriage, The Crown provides a thought-provoking insight into the historic decades that the show covers, revealing the truth behind the on-screen drama.Extensively researched and complete with beautifully reproduced photographs, this is a unique look behind the history that inspired the show and the years that would prove to be the making of the Queen.

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Book SynopsisThe Black Door explores the evolving relationship between successive British prime ministers and the intelligence agencies, from Asquith's Secret Service Bureau to Cameron's National Security Council.Intelligence can do a prime minister's dirty work. For more than a century, secret wars have been waged directly from Number 10. They have staved off conflict, defeats and British decline through fancy footwork, often deceiving friend and foe alike. Yet as the birth of the modern British secret service in 1909, prime ministers were strangers to the secret world sometimes with disastrous consequences. During the Second World War, Winston Churchill oversaw a remarkable revolution in the exploitation of intelligence, bringing it into the centre of government. Chruchill's wartime regime also formed a school of intelligence for future prime ministers, and its secret legacy has endured. Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and David Cameron all became great enthusiasts for spies and special forces. AlTrade Review‘Must read stuff. Aldrich and Cormac are inexhaustible researchers, who use a wide range of archives and include striking material from off-the-record informants. ‘The Black Door’ is a vital, authoritative book’ Richard Davenport-Hines, The Times ‘Pioneering book … a major contribution to our understanding of British prime ministers over the last century. This is one of those rare books that deserve to change the way that modern British political history is researched and written’ Christopher Andrew, Literary Review ‘A timely read’ **** Daily Express ‘This book deserves to be taken very seriously. The authors are intimately familiar with the history of the modern intelligence community’ Sunday Times ‘The first close study of relations between nineteen prime ministers and their secret service. Plenty of lively stories and characters’ The Times

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Book SynopsisDraws startling parallels with Meghan Both were 34 when they met their princes, both are adored children of strong, single mothers, both have a pared-down style and an electric presence and both are evidently worshipped by their Royal partners.' S MagazineThe intimate biography of one of the most misunderstood women in British royal history.Life has always been made difficult for those marrying into England's royal family. In 1936, just months into his reign, King Edward VIII proposed to Wallis Simpson, a divorced American woman. Gossip ran wild, and that cacophony of speculation and distrust both hid the real Wallis, and forced Edward into abdicating so that he might marry the woman he adored.In this intimate biography Anna Pasternak seeks to understand Wallis and her relationship with Edward and The Crown. Using testimony from her closest friends, she shows the warm, loyal, intelligent woman who was written off and undermined by the powerful, often manipulative men of the EstablishTrade Review‘Pasternak interviews fresh people … These people bring fresh observations … What makes the book unputdownable is Pasternak’s lively and detailed retelling of this ever-fascinating, ridiculously poignant love story.’ The Times ‘A sympathetic biography … Pasternak’s empathetic study of Wallis attempts to redress the balance and emphasises her intelligence, independence and unwillingness to ruin the life of the man she loved … With such aggressive press coverage of Meghan Markle, it is useful to be reminded that perceived royal interlopers have always been treated harshly.’ Observer ‘Puts Wallis Simpson in a new light and draws startling parallels with Meghan … Both were 34 when they met their princes, both are adored children of strong, single mothers, both have a pared-down style and an electric presence and both are evidently worshipped by their Royal partners.’ S Magazine ‘Rather like a romantic novel … Occasional bursts of Mills & Boon style … One reads the letters from her to her besotted King – as he then still was – begging him not to give up his throne; she certainly was no social mountaineer.’ Daily Telegraph ‘Explains why colourful, excitable characters have struggled to fit into the Royal family’ Daily Telegraph ‘The best book about the Windsors for decades – because it's true.’ Petronella Wyatt ‘An enchanting love story, wonderfully told’ Sir Ronald Harwood ‘Anna Pasternak does not spare an ounce of drama nor detail …. a profoundly moving meditation on love, loyalty, and, ultimately, forgiveness’ Amanda Foreman

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