European history Books

Book SynopsisNew B-format paperback - A fresh look at Anne of Clevesâ life as a German noblewoman, and the Continental politics that affected her marriage. Did the doomed union really cause the fall and execution of Thomas Cromwell?

Read more less

Book SynopsisBritain and the Ocean Road uses new firsthand research and unconventional interpretations to take a fresh look at British maritime history in the age of sail.The human stories of eight shipwrecks serve as waypoints on the voyage, as the book explores how and why Britain became a global sea power. Each chapter has people at its heart sailors, seafaring families, passengers, merchants, pirates, explorers, and many others. The narrative encompasses an extraordinary range of people, ships and events, such as a bloody maritime civil war in the 13th century, a 17th-century American teenager who stepped from one ship to another - and into a life of piracy, a British warship that fought at Trafalgar (on the French side), and the floating hell of a Liverpool slave-ship, sunk in the year before the slave trade was abolished.The book is full of surprising details and scenes, including England's rudest and crudest streetname, what it was like to be a passenger in a medieval ship (take a guess), h

Read more less

Book SynopsisA book that reclaims the life stories of King Edward I's grandchildren.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe first book ever to tackle the dual careers of Bolan and Bowie as a single story.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA unique look at the Tudors via one of their greatest enemies.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe first book to offer an introduction to re-enacting civilian and military aspects of Britain in the 1940s.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe first of a series of volumes on the Hospitaller Knights of Saint John, this volume covers the period 13061522.The Hospitaller Knights had developed during the Crusades from a monastic order providing hostels for Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. The need to provide armed escorts to these pilgrims brought about their evolution into a Military Order. An elite component of Crusader armies, Hospitallers were involved in most large-scale Christian-Saracen engagements following the First Crusade. Taking to the sea, the Hospitallers became a major naval power in the Mediterranean.The author draws on the work of the Order's official historians, Giacomo Bosio and his successor Bartolomeo dal Pozzo. He transcribes their writings for the modern reader, while also presenting new information revealed in the 400 years of scholarship since Bosio's death in 1627. This volume opens with Hospitaller relocation from Cyprus to Rhodes during the years 1306 to 1309 while introducing other entit

Read more less

Book SynopsisLatest in the Authors acclaimed German Army series.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA colourful new account of the life and legacy of Anne Boleyn, as told through pictures and illustrations.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book explores who King James was as an individual by looking at key events and relationships that shaped him.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA startling portrayal of society in Britain during the Napoleonic

Read more less

Book SynopsisHighly illustrated account of the major naval battles fought in the Atlantic and Mediterranean during the Second World War.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe second volume of a new and comprehensive biography about one of the history''s most charismatic leaders''a very fine book, which explains Napoleon's extraordinary rise to power and equally meteoric fall, with great erudition, skill and verve'' Spectator''Exemplary scholarship ... A book of meticulous research and beautifully detailed descriptions of Napoleon's military adventures, brings home the full horrific cost of the march on Russia'' New Statesman''Napoleon''s legend is so persistent that it confounds the historical reality in the popular imagination. He himself contributed much towards the construction of his own myth, from his youth even until after he fell from power, when, while in exile, he dictated his memoirs to a group of disciples who took down his every word in the hope that his version of history would prevail. Such were Napoleon''s skills as a chronicler that much of the legend is still unquestioningly accepted..Trade ReviewFive books about wars impressed me this year: Roger Knight’s immaculately researched Britain against Napoleon: the Organisation of Victory 1793-1815; Philip Dwyer’s Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power 1799-1815 which gives, in depth, the other side of that coin * Simon Heffer, New Statesman Books of the Year *The main purpose of the concluding volume of Dwyer’s life of Napoleon is not to explain why he became such a revered general, but rather to unpick his complex character and asses his political and military achievements. He succeeds brilliantly and we are left with a nuanced portrait of a ruthless and far from infallible leader who concealed his defeats, exaggerated his victories and blamed other for his failings ... Philip Dwyer has produced a fitting sequel to his early life of Napoleon Bonaparte that will be hard to emulate. What it lacks in battlefield colour it more than makes up for by its subtle and judicious assessment of Napoleon the man and Napoleon the politician * Literary Review *He is very good on the tensions and rows ripping through the Bonaparte family, which was such an important element in the whole enterprise. Here, as everywhere, he produces nice detail and the telling anecdote ... a very fine book, which explains Napoleon’s extraordinary rise to power and equally meteoric fall, with great erudition, skill and verve * Adam Zamoyski, Spectator *Exemplary scholarship ... A book of meticulous research and beautifully detailed descriptions of Napoleon’s military adventures, brings home the full horrific cost of the march on Russia * New Statesman *When he came to power in 1799, Napoleon famously announced that he was “completing” the French revolution and, in so doing, “ending” it. This tension between the radical aims of the revolution and society’s yearning for stability runs through Dwyer’s splendid second volume of his biography * The Times *

Read more less

Book SynopsisStunning previously unpublished photographs documenting the end of steam railways in the East Anglia area.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn 1945, Eddy Sackville-West, Desmond Shawe-Taylor and Eardley Knollys - writers for the New Statesman and a National Trust administrator - purchased Long Crichel House, an old rectory with no electricity and an inadequate water supply. In this improbable place, the last English literary salon began. Quieter and less formal than the famed London literary salons, Long Crichel became an idiosyncratic experiment in communal living. Sackville-West, Shawe-Taylor and Knollys - later joined by the literary critic Raymond Mortimer - became members of one another''s surrogate families and their companionship became a stimulus for writing, for them and their guests. Long Crichel''s visitors'' book reveals a Who''s Who of the arts in post-war Britain - Nancy Mitford, Benjamin Britten, Laurie Lee, Cyril Connolly, Somerset Maugham, E.M. Forster, Cecil Beaton, Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson - who were attracted by the good food, generous quantities of drink and exceTrade ReviewFascinating -- Laura Freeman * The Times *Very entertaining . . . the preservation of old houses, a cause with which many of the leading characters were involved one way or another, is skilfully used as a running theme in a book that, with a fine balance between nostalgia and clear-sightedness, commemorates a privileged world long since vanished. -- Peter Parker * Spectator *Highly evocative . . . a portrait of an enchanted world -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Daily Mail *The Crichel boys . . . left behind merely a memory of charm, kindness and generosity, to which Fenwick pays a tender tribute * Financial Times *A rich, luscious account of a postwar Britain that often gets lost * Mail on Sunday *Fenwick, it must be said, is very much at home in this somewhat rarefied milieu, writes perceptively about the quartet'sachievements and is sensitive to some of the problems caused by having four neurotic personalities intermittently at large under a single roof -- D. J. Taylor * Literary Review *Absorbing new history -- Alexander Larman * Observer *Fenwick gives us some fascinating vignettes of the often downplayed cultural life of post-war Britain * The Lady *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs the final month of fighting in Europe in 1945 dawned, the Allies embarked upon a series of mopping-up operations, destroying the last centers of German resistance as the essentially defeated Wehrmacht fought on in increasingly desperate conditions, driven by the explicit no-surrender order issued by Hitler.Yet at the same time, the Allies were already on shaky ground--as German resistance was crushed, the Allies began to eye one another nervously across a battle-torn Europe. These politically driven military decisions would have a huge impact on the future of the continent. This book traces the final operations of the war, from the liberation of Denmark, the Allied drive toward the Baltic straits, incursions in Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and engagements in Eastern and Western Germany, while also analyzing how the Allied strategies in the final days of the war were a hint of the future difficulties that would drive the Cold War.Table of ContentsIntroduction/Chronology/Opposing commanders/Opposing armies/Opposing plans/The campaign/Aftermath/The battlefield today/Further reading/Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 is one of the most important battles in English history. King Henry IV faced his erstwhile ally Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland in a bloody contest on a field outside the Shropshire town of Shrewsbury where two English armies, well-matched, and fighting with similar equipment and tactics, struggled in an archery duel in which the arrows fell like leaves in Autumn', before the battle was ultimately decided in close quarter hand-to-hand combat. With his victory, Henry IV secured the Lancastrian hold on the kingdom and demonstrated the right of his bloodline to the throne. Using full colour artwork and specially commissioned battlefield maps and illustrations, this is the fascinating story of the battle without which the reign of Henry V, his wars and glorious victories against the French, and the later disastrous reign of Henry VI and subsequent Wars of the Roses could not have happened.Table of ContentsOrigins of the campaign /Chronology /Opposing commanders /Opposing armies /Orders of battle /Opposing plans /The campaign /Aftermath /The battlefields today /Further reading /Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAfter the Fall of France in 1940, a new puppet state was set up in the south. Officially known as the French State, it is better known as Vichy France. This collaborationist Vichy regime''s armed forces were more active and usually more numerous than German troops in the task of hunting down and crushing the maquis--the French Resistance guerrilla forces .This book covers the organization and operations of Vichy French Security Forces, including: the new Vichy Police Nationale, particularly their Groupes Mobiles de Reserve, the Service d''Ordre Légionnaire, and the Milice Francaise, a ruthless anti-Resistance militia armed partly with British weapons captured from SOE airdrops. Fully illustrated throughout with contemporary photographs and commissioned artwork, it tells the story of Occupied France from the perspective of those who sought to keep it in German hands.Table of ContentsThe fall of France, 1940, and the emergence of the collaborationist Vichy regime / The Vichy National Police and its Mobile Reserve Groups / Joseph Darnand and the Service d'Ordre Légionnaire, January 1942 – transformation into Milice Francaise, January 1943 / Civil war against the Resistance, 1943-44 / The end, 1944-45 / Milice organization – weapons – uniforms / Select Bibliography / Plate Commentaries

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn June 1941, Finnish troops invaded the Soviet Union alongside the forces of Nazi Germany, sparking a bitter three-year conflict. This absorbing study examines the composition, tactics, and training of both sides. In a bid to recapture territory conceded following the Winter War of 1939--40, Finnish forces cooperated with Nazi Germany and other Axis powers during the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Rapid Finnish progress in reoccupying lost ground in Karelia during the first few months of the invasion gave way to a more static form of warfare from October 1941. The Finns resisted German pressure to participate fully in the Axis attack on the beleaguered Soviet-held city of Leningrad, and the Continuation War came to be characterized by trench warfare and unconventional operations conducted by both sides behind the front lines. In June 1944 the stalemate was abruptly ended by a massive Soviet offensive that pushed the Finns back; the two sides clashed in a Table of ContentsIntroduction The Opposing Sides Sortavala Kuuterselkä Tali–Ihantala Analysis Aftermath Unit Organizations Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis title explores and illustrates the armies of France, and six countries allied against Louis XIV, in a wide-ranging Continental conflict that ushered in more than a century of European warfare.Formed in 1689, the ''Grand Alliance'' or League of Augsburg was a military coalition of the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic, Britain, Spain and the Duchy of Savoy, to resist Louis XIV''s rich, powerful and expansionist France. The first stage of the nine year conflict that followed also coincided with the so-called ''Glorious Revolution'' in Britain (168891), when the throne passed to the Dutch Protestant leader, William of Orange, the head of a multi-national Dutch, Danish and English army, which finally expelled James II''s Jacobite and French forces from Ireland. The long war on the continent was notable for the first widespread use of regimental uniforms and flintlock muskets with bayonets, plus the sophisticated use of siege warfare under the great French engineer, VTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION French expansionism, 1667–88 The ‘Glorious Revolution’: Britain, 1688–91 Chronology of the ‘Glorious Revolution’ CHRONOLOGY OF THE EUROPEAN WAR ARMIES IN BRITAIN The English army, 1685 Expansion, 1686–88 The Scots army, 1685–88 The Irish army, 1685–88 William of Orange’s invasion army, 1688–90: Dutch & Anglo-Scots units Danish auxiliary corps Exile units William III’s British armies, 1689–98 The Jacobite army, 1688–91 French expeditionary corps THE FRENCH ARMY THE SPANISH ARMY THE IMPERIAL ARMY THE DUTCH ARMY THE SAVOYARD ARMY SELECT BIBLIOGRAPY PLATE COMMENTARIES INDEX

Read more less

Book SynopsisA BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Nuanced, human and engaging' Nikesh Shukla, Observer 'Full of life, characters, gossip and all the richness of the local community' Sir David Jason 'A delightful story of growing up 'above the shop'' Nigel Slater, Observer 'Cleverly links her own memories of shop-bound life with the last 50 years of British history' Spectator 'I come from a hidden world: I am the daughter of shopkeepers. I've seen you on a Sunday morning, nipping out to get a pint of milk or to grab a newspaper. I came to know a lot about you; whether your politics leaned to the right or left, whether you were gay or straight, and whether you were plagued by cash-flow problems or had enough disposable income to indulge your penchant for Cadbury's Creme Eggs.' Babita Sharma was raised in a corner shop in Reading, and over the counter watched a changing world, from the clientele to the products Trade ReviewPart memoir, part social history, The Corner Shop is a gentle, charming and at times poignant look at our nation of shopkeepers . . . human, accessible and informative; a nuanced exploration of part of British Asian life that has long been stereotyped - and therein lies this book's strength. * Observer *A delightful story of growing up "above the shop" * Nigel Slater, Observer *An evocative real-life account of her own British Asian family running (and living above) a Reading shop * BBC Culture *One of the best books I've read of the immigrant experience in this country . . . it's the detail that makes it . . . a subtle, enjoyable book. * Daily Mail *A story of assimilation and triumph. * Radio Times *Sharma cleverly links her own memories of shop-bound life with the last 50 years of British history . . . How much we found out about you, says Sharma teasingly, as you dashed in for that last-minute bottle of wine. * Spectator *Full of life, characters, gossip and all the richness of the local community -- Sir David JasonA compelling, full selection box of a story -- Sanjeev KohliI loved it cover to cover. * Angela Clutton, author of THE VINEGAR CUPBOARD *

Read more less

Book SynopsisGranted extensive official access to the RAF and their archives, the author has been able to create a comprehensive, consolidated history of the Royal Air Force during the 1950s, a dynamic decade of expansion and technological development. This is the first release in a major new series.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis is a long overdue study of all aspects of Lucullus life but with heavy emphasis on his military career, strategy and tactics

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe debate on Athenian democratic ideology has long been polarised around two extremes. A Marxist tradition views ideology as a cover-up for Athens' internal divisions. Another tradition, sometimes referred to as culturalist, interprets it neutrally as the fixed set of ideas shared by the members of the Athenian community.

Read more less

Book Synopsis The modern-day suburb began, and began booming, in 19th-century Britain. As suburbia spread, the New Woman arose and fin-de-siecle concerns grew, suburban men felt more besieged. Anxieties about hygiene, pollution, purity, the home, class, gender roles, patrilineal power and the state of the Empire rippled through British fiction. The new man of the house was trying, often desperately, to hold onto the old order, changing even more rapidly as the 20th century and modernist fiction arrived. This study traces suburban masculinities in popular genres--speculative fiction, comic fiction and detective fiction--and in literary works from the late-Victorian era to the start of the First World War.Table of Contents Acknowledgments viii Preface Introduction: The Victorian Suburbs' (Un)making of Masculinity Chapter 1. As Pure as the Driven Fog: William Delisle Hay's The Doom of the Great City (1880) and Grant Allen's The British Barbarians (1895) Chapter 2. Pootering Him Back in His Rightful Place: George and Weedon Grossmith's The Diary of a Nobody (1892) Chapter 3. Unsurelocked Homes: Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Yellow Face" (1893) and "The Adventure of the ­Bruce-Partington Plans" (1908) Coda: The Remaking of Suburban Masculinities in Early ­Twentieth-Century British Fiction List of Works Locations of Works in Suburban London Chapter Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book SynopsisBetween 1750 and 1840, the home took on unprecedented social and emotional significance. Focusing on the design, decoration, and reception of a range of elite and middling class homes from this period, Domestic Space in Britain, 1750-1840 demonstrates that the material culture of domestic life was central to how this function of the home was experienced, expressed, and understood at this time. Examining craft production and collection, gift exchange and written description, inheritance and loss, it carefully unpacks the material processes that made the home a focus for contemporaries' social and emotional lives.The first book on its subject, Domestic Space in Britain, 1750-1840 employs methodologies from both art history and material culture studies to examine previously unpublished interiors, spaces, texts, images, and objects. Utilising extensive archival research; visual, material, and textual analysis; and histories of emotion, sociability, and materiality, it sheds lTrade ReviewGowrley’s intention to view the four houses and their owners, through an historical and contextual lens, is meticulously achieved in this richly fascinating study; the multi-layered, emotional sub-texts invested in material objects are sensitively extracted and interpreted, to display meaningful domestic spaces, three of which outlived their owners. * Women's Studies Group 1558 – 1837 *Table of ContentsList of Plates List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: Representation 1. ‘My anecdotes of this social neighbourhood’: The thick description of Caroline Lybbe Powys 2. Publishing John Wilkes’s ‘Villakin’: Reception and Reputation at Sandham Cottage Part II: Movement 3. Material Translations, Biographical Objects: Craft(ing) Narratives at A la Ronde 4. ‘A little temple, consecrate to Friendship and the Muses’: Romantic friendship and gift-exchange at Plas Newydd, Llangollen Part III: Ownership 5. ‘I love her as my own child’: Inheritance, Extra-Illustration, and Queer Familial Intimacies at Strawberry Hill Conclusion: Materialising Loss Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn The Cold War from the Margins, Theodora K. Dragostinova reappraises the global 1970s from the perspective of a small socialist stateBulgariaand its cultural engagements with the Balkans, the West, and the Third World. During this anxious decade, Bulgaria''s communist leadership invested heavily in cultural diplomacy to bolster its legitimacy at home and promote its agendas abroad. Bulgarians traveled the world to open museum exhibitions, show films, perform music, and showcase the cultural heritage and future aspirations of their ancient yet modern country. As Dragostinova shows, these encounters transcended the Cold War''s bloc mentality: Bulgaria''s relations with Greece and Austria warmed, émigrés once considered enemies were embraced, and new cultural ties were forged with India, Mexico, and Nigeria. Pursuing contact with the West and solidarity with the Global South boosted Bulgaria''s authoritarian regime by securing new allies and unifyinTrade ReviewIt is not possible to do justice to such a rich book in a review of this length. Theodosia K. Dragostinova has written an excellent book, full of concrete examples and pertinent comments, which is a valuable contribution to the comparative history of the Cultural Cold War. It is sophisticated, theoretically aware, and scholarly. * Eurasian Geography and Economics *There are major contributions that this study brings to the history of the Cold War, Eastern Europe, and even world history. * H-Net Reviews *In six detailed chapters, the author presents a wealth of information meant to reveal the ability of that small Balkan state to chart an active international agenda at a time when small states dominated discussions of the new world order. * Choice *In a remarkable new book, Theodora Dragostinova offers a thought-provoking account of the efforts of a small state to attain global cultural stature during the final decades of the Cold War.This provocative argument forces us to rethink our standard conceptualizations of power hierarchies during the Cold War. * The Middle Ground Journal *Theodora K. Dragostinova account indicates that Bulgaria's case is critical for understanding simultaneously the actorness and the historical experience of small states on the margins in playing on the world stage. * Ab Imperio *Dragostinova's vibrant account of Bulgarian cultural initiatives in the long 1970s is driven by a method-as-argument she calls a "pericentric approach." * Ab Imperio *This fine book meets all its stated goals and offers more. At its simplest, it narrates the story of national branding through culture (aptly defined as cultural extravaganza), when tiny Bulgaria organized 38,854 cultural events across the world between 1977 and 1981 to highlight its history and achievements, coinciding with the 1,300th anniversary of the state's creation. * Austrian History Yearbook *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Bulgaria on the Global Cultural Scene of the 1970s 1. The Contradictions of Developed Socialism 2. Goodwill between Neighbors 3. Culture as a Way of Life 4. Forging a Diaspora 5. Like a Grand World Civilization 6. Culture under Special Conditions Epilogue: The Socialist Past Today

Read more less

Book SynopsisOn 13 November 2015, Paris suffered the second wave of brutal terrorist attacks in a year, leaving 130 dead and many more seriously injured. How are we to make sense of these violent acts and what do they tell us about the forces shaping our world today?In this short book the influential philosopher Alain Badiou argues that while these violent events are commonly portrayed as acts of Islamic terrorism, in fact they attest to a much deeper malaise that is connected to the triumph of global capitalism and to new forms of imperialism that involve the weakening of states, such that whole regions of the world have been turned into ungovernable zones run by armed gangs in which ordinary people are forced to live the most precarious lives. These zones have become the breeding ground for a new kind of nihilism that seeks revenge for the domination of the West. And it is this new nihilism, on to which Islam has been grafted, that exerts a particular appeal to the young men and women on the margins who carried out the atrocities in Paris. The tragedy of 13 November might appear at first sight to be rooted in immigration and Islam but our wound is not so recent: it is rooted in a deeper set of transformations that have reshaped our world, creating small islands of privilege amidst large masses of the destitute and depriving us of a politics that would offer a serious alternative to the present.Trade Review"Badiou�s short book on the roots of recent terrorist attacks can be compared to a single long cinematographic take, which begins with a close-up of an object and then gradually withdraws, so that we see its historical context. This wider context is the dynamics of global capitalism and it is only from such a perspective that we can locate the causes of the attacks. The book reads like a theoretical detective fiction - it is simply unputdownable." Slavoj Zizek

Read more less

Book SynopsisExam board: OCRLevel: A-levelSubject: HistoryFirst teaching: September 2015First exams: Summer 2016Target success in OCR AS/A-level History with this proven formula for effective, structured revision; key content coverage is combined with exam preparation activities and exam-style questions to create a revision guide that students can rely on to review, strengthen and test their knowledge.- Enables students to plan and manage a successful revision programme using the topic-by-topic planner- Consolidates knowledge with clear and focused content coverage, organised into easy-to-revise chunks- Encourages active revision by closely combining historical content with related activities- Helps students build, practise and enhance their exam skills as they progress through activities set at three different levels- Improves exam technique through exam-style questions with sample answers and commentary from expert authors and teachers- Boosts historical knowledge with a useful glossary and timeline

Read more less

Book SynopsisExam board: WJECLevel: AS/A-levelSubject: HistoryFirst teaching: September 2015First exams: Summer 2016 (AS); Summer 2017 (A-level)Build, reinforce and revise the historical knowledge and exam skills required for WJEC AS/A-level History.Matched to the 2016 specification for Wales, this study guide contains clear content summaries and annotated sample answers to exam questions.- Concisely covers the key issues and content in the specification, breaking the Unit down into manageable chunks- Consolidates understanding with regular knowledge-check questions, plus useful tips- Builds the analytical and evaluative skills that students need to succeed in AS/A-level History- Improves students' exam technique, providing sample student answers to past paper questions, with commentary to explain the number of marks awarded- Helps students to learn the content throughout the course, study independently and revise for their exams

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book examines the impact that nostalgia has had on the Labour Party’s political development since 1951. In contrast to existing studies that have emphasised the role played by modernity, it argues that nostalgia has defined Labour’s identity and determined the party’s trajectory over time. Jobson outlines how Labour, at both an elite and a grassroots level, has been and remains heavily influenced by a nostalgic commitment to an era of heroic male industrial working-class struggle.This commitment has hindered policy discussion, determined the form that the modernisation process has taken and shaped internal conflict and cohesion. More broadly, Labour’s emotional attachment to the past has made it difficult for the party to adjust to the socioeconomic changes that have taken place in Britain. In short, nostalgia has frequently left the party out of touch with the modern world. In this way, this study offers an assessment of Labour’s failures to adapt to the changing nature and demands of post-war Britain and will be of interest to both students and academics working in the field of British political history and to those with a more general interest in Labour’s history and politics.Trade Review‘The struggle to try and get the Labour Party “face the future”, as our 1945 manifesto was titled, has — irony of ironies — its own rich history. Richard Jobson's fascinating study, Nostalgia and the post-war Labour Party, documents this thoroughly.’Bridget Phillipson MP, New Statesman‘A serious contribution to the understanding of struggles within the Labour Party [which] raises significant questions about how parties engage with their own past to their advantage and disadvantage and how the past informs and sometimes perhaps restricts current politics. Most importantly, it shows that nostalgia is not simply an issue for the right, for Brexit and Trump voters, but is a charge that the left too has to deal with.’Tobias Becker, History Workshop Journal -- .Table of Contents1 Introduction - Labour, nostalgia and 'nostalgia-identity'2 Revisionism and the battle over clause IV - 1951-633 White heat and the Labour party 1963-704 Labour's alternative economic strategy 1970-835 Reinventing the Labour party 1983-926 The New Labour era 1992-20107 Back to the past? 2010 to the present8 ConclusionBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis is the first major attempt to view the break-up of Britain as a global phenomenon, incorporating peoples and cultures of all races and creeds that became embroiled in the liquidation of the British Empire in the decades after the Second World War. A team of leading historians are assembled here to view a familiar problem through an unfamiliar lens, ranging from India, to China, Southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the Falklands, Gibraltar and the United Kingdom itself. At a time when trace-elements of Greater Britain have resurfaced in British politics, animating the febrile polemics of Brexit, these essays offer a sober historical perspective. More than perhaps at any other time since the empire’s precipitate demise, it is imperative to gain a fresh purchase on the global challenges to British identities in the twentieth century.Table of ContentsIntroduction: The anatomy of break-up – Stuart Ward1 Maintaining racial boundaries: Greater Britain in the Second World War and beyond – Wendy Webster2 Cut loose: the British in China and the aftermath of empire – Robert Bickers3 Entangled citizens: the afterlives of empire in the Indian Citizenship Act, 1947–1955 – Kalathmika Natarajan4 ‘How come England did not know me?’: the ‘rude awakenings’ of the Windrush era – Stuart Ward5 Indians of Durban, South Africa and the break-up of Greater Britain – Hilary Sapire6 The birth of 'white' republics and the demise of Greater Britain: the republican referendums in South Africa and Rhodesia – Christian D. Pedersen7 ‘King’s men’, ‘Queen’s rebels’ and ‘last outposts’: Ulster and Rhodesia in an age of imperial retreat – Donal Lowry8 The tale of two Commonwealths? The (British) Commonwealth of Nations, decolonisation and the break-up of Greater Britain – Andrew Dilley9 Greater Britain and its decline: the view from Lambeth – Sarah Stockwell10 From Pax Britannica to Pax Americana? The end of empire and the collapse of Australia’s Cold War policy – James Curran11 Boundaries of belonging: differential fees for overseas students in Britain, c. 1967 – Jodi Burkett12 Persistence and privilege: mass migration from Britain to the Commonwealth, 1945–2000 – Jean P. Smith13 ‘The mouse that roared’: the Falklands and Gibraltar in Thatcher’s (Greater) Britain – Ezequiel Mercau14 Falling Rhodes, building bridges, finding paths: decoloniality from Cape Town to Oxford, and back – Stephen Howe Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book offers an original interpretation of Britain’s relationship with Europe over a 25 year period: 1959-84 and advances the argument that the current problems over EU membership resulted from much earlier political machinations. This evidence based account of the seminal period analyses the applications for EEC membership, the 1975 referendum, and the role of the press. Was the British public misled over the true aims of the European project? How significant was the role of the press in changing public opinion from anti, to pro Common Market membership? Why, after over 40 years since Britain became a member of the European community, does the issue continue to deeply divide not only the political elite, but also the British public? These, and other pertinent questions are answered in this timely book on a subject that remains topical and highly controversial.Table of ContentsIntroduction1 Political elites2 Sovereignty3 The first application4 The second application5 Taken in by Heath6 The 1975 Referendum on EEC membership7 Post referendum8 Positions taken on Europe, 1959-1984Conclusion Appendix 1: Labour Parliamentary Private Secretaries sacked by Wilson – May 1967Appendix 2: The 33 Labour rebels – May 1967Appendix 3: The full termsAppendix 4: The 69 Labour rebels – October 1971Appendix 5: House of Commons three-day debate – April 1975Appendix 6: Conservative and Labour trajectoriesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisOver recent years, the issues of Brexit, COVID and the ‘migrant crisis’ put Kent in the headlines like never before. Images of asylum seekers on Kent beaches, lorries queued on motorways and the crumbling white cliffs of Dover all spoke to national anxieties, and were used to support ideas that severing ties with the EU was the best – or worst – thing the UK has ever done. In this coastal driftwork, Phil Hubbard – an exiled man of Kent – considers the past, present and future of this corner of England, alighting on a number of key sites which symbolise the changing relationship between the UK and its continental neighbours. Moving from the geopolitics of the Channel Tunnel to the cultivation of oysters at Whitstable, from Derek Jarman’s feted cottage at Dungeness to the art-fuelled gentrification of Margate, Borderland bridges geography, history, and archaeology, to pose important questions about the way that national identities emerge from contested local landscapes.Trade Review'Borderland deftly combines thorough research and objective analysis with the author’s intimate first-hand knowledge of place, as he revisits sites on foot in an extended field trip. Hubbard’s unflinchingly questioning approach to the contested spaces he encounters is written with the ease of an armchair traveller’s guide. The result is a peregrination peppered with gems of descriptive detail and astute personal reflections. Ultimately, Borderland isn’t just about Kent. It’s a book that scrutinises how – wherever we live – we perceive, shape, reimagine and reinvent place to suit our own uses and desires.' Sonia Overall, author of Heavy Time 'It's been called the "frayed edge" of England, but our coastline is by no means just wearing out. As emerges from this highly revealing excursion around the coast of Kent, it is also being restitched and fortified as the frontline of an "exclusionary nationalism" thanks to which even insects and oysters are being asked to prove they're not aliens. Although horrifying in places, as the times demand, Borderland is full of contrary energy too.' Patrick Wright, author of The Sea View Has Me Again: Uwe Johnson in Sheerness 'A timely interrogation of the connection between place and identity in the post-Brexit era. Hubbard's Kentish borderland is an ever-shifting space, rife with contradictions, culture clashes, and eco-anxiety.' Gareth E. Rees, author of Car Park Life 'With an impressive mix of erudition and accessibility, Phil Hubbard’s Borderland shines the light on an English South East that is rarely apprehended – let alone comprehended – by Middle England and the London establishment. Venturing into a Kentish coastal terrain transformed into a new debatable land by Brexit and recurrent migrant crises, Hubbard manages to combine sympathy for the plight of refugees with great sensitivity in exploring wider questions of twenty-first century citizenship, national identity, and political representation. This is a book which asks all the right questions with immense eloquence and remarkable understanding of a people and a place.' Alex Niven, author of New Model Island'A brilliant book. Superficially, a story of part of the Kent coast. However, under its surface Borderland, is a search for England’s soul – and soullessness.' Danny Dorling, author of Rule Britannia: Brexit and the End of Empire 'A powerful, poignant and beautifully written journey through the frontier lands of Brexit Britain. This is travel writing with a purpose, charting an anxious and often hostile landscape with care and passion.' Alastair Bonnett, author of The Age of Islands: In Search of New and Disappearing Islands'Borderland is a hugely engaging read and offers some profound insights into the past and present of Kent’s coastline and, by extension, of England as a whole. Hubbard examines the myths we summon up to explain our national past together with the malleability of memory and how some will seek to exploit that. This is neither an academic textbook nor a straightforward travel guide. Instead, in a short but cogent review of what he terms the ‘new nature writing’, he clearly seems to wish to ally himself with this approach.'Bobby Seal, Psychogeographic Review 'Overall, Phil Hubbard’s latest book is certainly one of the most inspiring and cogent contributions to critical border studies published in the past years.' Dimitri Almeida, Ethnic and Racial Studies -- .Table of Contents1 The new edge of Europe?2 Natives3 Albion on sea4 Defending the nation5 The white horse6 Boat people7 The strange coastAfterword: The Kent variantList of figuresAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhy has the ‘people’s war’ been such a durable and attractive myth? Creating the people’s war examines how civil defence personnel engaged with this narrative during the war and in the following decades to answer this question. Civil defence was the most significant voluntary organisation of the Second World War, involving millions of men and women of every class, generation and locality in Britain. This book shows how local communities of civil defence personnel co-developed narratives about the value of their work which challenged hierarchies of war service. In their social groups volunteers wrote themselves into the ‘people’s war’ and invested it with meaning, creating national identity from the bottom up. Community was both central to these representations and vital for their production.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Community 2 The people’s war 3 Veterans 4 Housewives 5 Adolescents 6 Lovers 7 Conscientious objectors ConclusionBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe National Health Service has provided Britain’s healthcare since 1948. This institution has been the subject of tense political debate since its inception and has undergone a number of complex reforms and restructures. But the meanings of the NHS are not only – or even primarily – lived out in politics. Nearly every Briton comes into contact with the NHS – from cradle to grave – and this system of healthcare shapes society, culture and everyday life. This book charts these multiple meanings, looking at the NHS as a site of work, activism and consumerism, as a space and in cultural representations. Looking in these ways, the book shows how and why the NHS has become a symbol of Britishness and an object of fierce protectiveness, even love, today.Trade Review'This is the first book to address the NHS using a cultural studies framework. It produces rich and complex evidence of change over time across popular attachments and social meanings and attitudes, while demonstrating the value of new approaches to visual and material sources.'Stephanie Snow, Professor of Health, History and Policy, University of Manchester -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction – Jennifer Crane and Jane HandPart I: Work1 The making of ‘NHS staff’ as a worker identity, 1948–85 – Jack Saunders2 Sick notes are a waste of time: doctors’ labour and medical certification at the birth of the NHS – Gareth MillwardPart II: Activism3 ‘Loving’ the NHS: social surveys and activist feelings – Jennifer Crane4 The everyday work of hospital campaigns: public knowledge and activism in the UK’s National Health Services – Ellen Stewart, Kathy Dodworth and Angelo ErciaPart III: Consumerism5 Consuming health? Health education and the British public in the 1980s – Alex Mold6 Customers who don’t buy anything!: the introduction of free dispensing at Boots the Chemists – Katey LoganPart IV: Space7 The cultural significance of space and place in the NHS – Angela Whitecross8 ‘Bright-while-you-wait’? Waiting rooms and the National Health Service, c. 1948–58 – Martin D. MoorePart V: Representation9 Representation of the NHS in the arts and popular culture – Mathew Thomson10 ‘If it hadn’t been for the doctor, I think I would have killed myself’: ensuring adolescent knowledge and access to healthcare in the age of Gillick – Hannah ElizabethPart VI: International11 ‘A spawning of the nether pit’? Welfare, warfare and American visions of Britain’s National Health Service, 1948–58 – Roberta BivinsEpilogue: ‘I’m afraid [,] there’s no NHS’ – Sally SheardIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisWomen are among the hardest individuals to trace through the historical record and this is especially true of female offenders who had a vested interest in not wanting to be found. That is why this thought-provoking and accessible handbook by Lucy Williams and Barry Godfrey is of such value. It looks beyond the crimes and the newspaper reports of women criminals in the Victorian era in order to reveal the reality of their personal and penal journeys, and it provides a guide for researchers who are keen to explore this intriguing and neglected subject. The book is split into three sections. There is an introduction outlining the historical context for the study of female crime and punishment, then a series of real-life case studies which show in a vivid way the complexity of female offenders' lives and follows them through the penal system. The third section is a detailed guide to archival and online sources that readers can consult in order to explore the life-histories of criminal women. The result is a rare combination of academic guide and how-to-do-it manual. It introduces readers to the latest research in the field and it gives them all the information they need to carry out their own research.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe reader will perhaps be surprised to learn that the tiny Isle of Man, midway between the coasts of Lancashire and Northern Ireland, is one of the richest historic landscapes in Europe. Packed into its 225 square miles are dramatic stories of Bronze Age conflict, Viking warriors, Medieval kings, smugglers, maritime and railway history, wartime airfields and even a pirate radio station. Add to that the Island's unique motorsport heritage (on two, three and four wheels), and you have a combination unrivalled anywhere in the British Isles. Whatever your passion, or whichever historical period appeals to you, the Isle of Man will have something fascinating to offer. Packed with illustrations, and using first-hand accounts to enhance the narrative, this book takes the reader on a chronological journey through the island's history, before offering a series of guided tours which pick up the highlights of each district. From Bronze Age hill forts, to Medieval castles. From heritage railways, to historic quaysides. From award-winning museums, to country mansions, the Isle of Man has it all. Let this book be your guide to historic Britain's best-kept secret, as you explore a place untouched by the hectic pace of 21st century life, where heritage is, quite literally, to be found around every corner.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Russian Revolution is remembered as the catalyst for the bloody conflict between the Reds and the Whites as each side tried to gain control of the country. But it was far from being so simple. The conflict did not only involve the Russians. The author contemplates whether the Russians could have capitulated to Germany and whether in fact Russia was ever in any condition to carry on the fight even before the revolution began, examining whether a collapse of the war in the east would lead to Allied defeat in the west. The effect of the revolution and the civil war went far beyond the borders of the enormous Russian Empire and far beyond the end of the Great War and the civil war, not least of all whom the millions of subject peoples and races supported: the Reds, the Whites, the Germans, or none. The conflict in Russia between 1917 and 1922 is a fascinating and complex period of history but the brutally colourful cast of characters-Tsar Nicholas II, Brusilov, Kerensky, Lenin, Trotsy, Stalin and Churchill-would make a violent impact on the world stage for a century to come.

Read more less

Book SynopsisHans Schaufler fought as the commander of a Jagdpanther tank destroyer in rearguard actions against the Red Army in East Prussia in 1945\. Then, as an infantryman, he took part in the doomed defence of Danzig and made a daring escape across the Baltic in a small boat. This is his story, and it is the story of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians who were caught up in the chaos and tragedy of the German retreat. His eyewitness account is one of the most revealing records we have of the experience of the collapse of the Third Reich in the east. As well as giving a vivid insight into the German army's tactics as they fell back before the Soviet advance, he describes the appalling conditions and the fear and panic that gripped the city. Acute shortages of men, equipment, ammunition and fuel crippled the defence, but extraordinary resilience, heroism and ingenuity still motivated the soldiers who were fighting for a lost cause and facing certain defeat.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe book examines the impact which the Great War had on the Public Schools and the sacrificial contribution made to the victory which came in 1918. The war consumed about a fifth of all the public schoolboys who fought, while the survivors were scarred by the loss of so many friends. Based largely on source material from school archives and histories, it moves from the naive excitement of the summer of 1914 to the many moving stories that emerge from the carnage of the Western Front. It looks at school life in those war years, boys with their futures on hold and the prospect of death always very close, Headmasters and staff devastated by the loss of so many young lives. About one distinguished Headmaster, who died in January 1919, it was said that the War killed him as straightly and surely as if he had fallen at the front". The book ranges across many topics including the selflessness and pride of Public Schools across the British Empire and in Ireland; the role of the Officers Training Corps in militarising a generation; the letters written from the Front to teachers; the pride taken by schools in the Victoria Crosses etc won by Old Boys; the statistical terms in which the Public Schools contribution can be measured; the ways in which schools commemorated the war, and still do so today. Finally the legacy of the war is examined, both the effect on the schools themselves but also the contribution made by writers and artists to the disillusionment of the inter-war years.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPrime Minister and novelist, Benjamin Disraeli, said there are Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. The rich and the poor.' Today we ARE aware of the habits, thoughts and feelings of the rich, because historians write about them endlessly. The poor are largely ignored and, as a result, their contributions to our modern world are forgotten. Look at popular surveys asking Who is history's greatest hero?' Churchill, Nelson and Elizabeth I have all topped the polls. But the truth is the real heroes are the people who have done the work, and still do. They were born into poverty and spent a life of foul food, terrible toilets, danger, disease and death - the last was usually premature. And the greatest insult is they are forgotten; buried with no gravestone to mark their passing and no history book to celebrate their efforts. Until now. _The Peasants' Revolting Lives_ looks at the oppressed and disempowered and explores the most astonishing fact of all: they endured. They suffered and survived hardships and deprivations that would have killed most of us today. They persevered when the odds were stacked against them and made sure their families survived too. Look at the lives of the dwellers in the neglected zone and ask ourselves again, who the real heroes are. The answer just might be: Mr and Mrs Peasant.

Read more less

Book SynopsisDuring the Second World War, French wine was hardly a trivial product. Indeed, following the Fall of France, it proved to be one of the most valuable French commodities in the eyes of the Nazi leaders. In 1940, 'Weinf hrer' (official delegates and wine experts appointed by Berlin), were sent to all the wine regions of France to coordinate the most intense looting that the country had ever seen. Alongside the very ambiguous relationship of the Vichy Regime and the collaboration of many French professionals with the occupiers, this immense programme of wine collection was a drama that many would prefer to forget. Now, more than seventy years after the end of the conflict, the time has come to tell the story of what really happened. Following a meticulous investigation and relying exclusively on previously unpublished sources, Christophe Lucand reveals the history of the world of French wine that was subjected to the tests of war, occupation and of all the compromises this entails.

Read more less

Book SynopsisGeneral Hans von Seekt (1866-1936) was the military counterpart of the Weimar Republic, both attempted to restore Germany's international acceptance and security following defeat in World War I and the Treaty of Versailles of 1919. And the failure of both led eventually to the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany. Hans von Seekt was from the traditional German officer caste, served with distinction on the war and became Chief of the Army Command at the Reichewehr Ministry of the Weimar Republic and Germany's 'supreme soldier'and major military strategist. His role was to re-build the shattered German army in face of the punitive terms of post-war settlement imposed by the victorious Entente Powers which drastically reduced its strength and imposed crippling financial conditions. He aimed to build a modern and efficient military - a new German army - with a main strategy of peaceful defence purposes, and to re-introduce Germany into the community of nations. This original and far-sighted policy was opposed by the movement seeking revenge for defeat - a 'stab in the back' - led principally by his rival, General Erich Ludendorff, whose aim was re-build the once-mighty German imperial army as a major international force. The failure of von Seekt's experiment was mirrored by the fall of the Weimar Republic, and the rise of rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Read more less