European history Books
Reaktion Books Lenin
Book SynopsisLenin (1870-1924) was the leader of the communist Bolshevik party and founder of the Soviet Union. He was a key revolutionary thinker and a man who, at one time, lived in exile for his political views and survived several assassination attempts. The standard view of Lenin portrays him as a pessimist with a dismissive view of the revolutionary potential of the workers. In Lenin, Lars T. Lih presents a striking new interpretation, revealing that underneath the sharp polemics, Lenin was more a romantic enthusiast than a sour pragmatist, who imposed meaning on the whirlwind of events going on around him: the Russian proletariat were inspired by the prospect of socialism and went on to lead the Russian narod (the peasants in particular) to revolutionary victory. This concise biography of Lenin's life and outlook is based on wide-ranging new research that puts Lenin into the context both of Russian society and of the international socialist movement of the early twentieth century. It also sets the development of Lenin's political outlook firmly within the framework of his family background and private life. Using contemporary photographs, posters and drawings, Lih illustrates the emotional and physical features of Lenin's world. A non-partisan and vivid portrait of a pivotal figure in modern history, Lenin will appeal to scholars and general readers alike.Trade Review'Lars T Lih's short biography is hardly "Why Lenin was right", although it is no less dramatic for that. Lih advances some seldom-heard historical and political arguments in an unassuming, informative way ... This excellent book advises us not to congratulate ourselves on our hindsight.' - Owen Hatherley, The Guardian 'The book is aimed at a general audience. It is well written, accessible, and probably the snappiest book on Lenin in the English language.' - The NEP Era: Soviet Russia 1921-1928 'Any book that rejects the received wisdom that Lenin was intolerant, cruel and tyrannical, thus laying the basis for the inevitable rise of Stalinism, is to be welcomed. As such, Lars T Lih's concise biography of Lenin is a useful addition.' - Socialist Review 'This is an important contribution to our understanding of Lenin ... This slim volume is a welcome contribution to the battle to combat the lies and myths of both the Stalinist tradition and the right wing opponents of Bolshevism. The scholarly research which informs it makes it a valuable addition to anyone's library.' - Socialist Alternative 'Lih's biography is both an excellent introduction to Lenin and a provocative interpretation that will challenge those familiar with his life and work.' - New Socialist, Canada 'Lars T Lih's excellent short biography of Lenin is a welcome addition to the serious socialist literature on classical Marxist history. Although it contains some nuggets from the archives and some references to interesting but lesser known contemporary sources, the book's chief merits are its strongly contextual interpretation of Lenin's life and its readable style.' - Worker's Liberty 'A carefully drawn, subtle yet compelling portrait of a revolutionary. This is probably the best and most reliable treatment we have had on Lenin in many decades, and it will fill a fair gap for scholars, students and the general public.' - Professor Ronald Suny, University of Michigan, author of The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR and the Successor States 'A scholarly, highly accessible book. It uniquely links Lenin to a political project for human liberation ... the best treatment of Lenin and his ideas I have seen in recent years.' - Immanuel Ness, Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College, City University of New York
£15.79
The Dovecote Press Regency, Riot and Reform
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£7.29
Helion & Company Prussian Campaign of 1866
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£999.99
Helion & Company British & Commonwealth Armies 1939-45: Supplement
Book SynopsisTwo supplement volumes round off the British and Commonwealth Armies series. Supplement Volume 1 contains five chapters providing data covering formations in North Africa, the Mediterranean, North-West Europe, Burma / India and Special Forces. The units covered range from 7th Armoured Division in North Africa to Fiji?s military forces.Careful presentation combined with a host of hard-to-find information ensure this will be the standard source for order-of-battle data about the British and Commonwealth armies. All organizations are analyzed down to platoon level, and listings include specific types of equipment and weaponry used, along with explanatory notes.
£999.99
Historic Environment Scotland The Arnol Blackhouse: Isle of Lewis
Book SynopsisFor hundreds of years it was the custom in Lewis for man and beast to be housed together under one roof. The blackhouse at no. 42 Arnol is a unique and precious relic – the residence of a Hebridean crofting family, and their animals, preserved almost as the family left it when they moved out in 1966. When no. 42 Arnol was no longer occupied, the property was entrusted into State care. At that time there were a good number of Hebridean blackhouses still in use as homes; today there are none. When the last blackhouse was vacated, a way of life reaching far back into the past came to an end. The Arnol Blackhouse is now the last tangible link with that tradition. In this guide, Professor Alexander Fenton, an ethnologist who greatly expanded knowledge of Scotland’s rural heritage, evokes a form of living and working on Lewis that now lies beyond the memory of individuals.
£999.99
Whittles Publishing The Enigmatic Sailor
Book SynopsisThe part played by code-cracking in World War II has been revealed in popular film and has also inspired several accounts by code-crackers. Much less well-known is how code-cracking was used in operational situations. In this account the "Silent Service" speaks through the voice of a young and inexperienced naval officer whose rites of passage to manhood required him to act as a seagoing eavesdropper, a role calling not only for quick intelligence but also for facing up to excitement and danger. Sir Alan Peacock's story is interlaced with graphic accounts of life on the lower deck, being torpedoed in a Channel action, and how to contribute to intelligence information that was required to foil enemy attacks on Russian convoys whilst facing atrocious weather conditions. The influence this intense experience exerted on Peacock's subsequent career in economics is also discussed.
£12.79
Quercus Publishing Parallel Lines: A Journey from Childhood to Belsen
"I have read few autobiographies more extraordinary . . . Astonishing" OBSERVER"A classic. I preferred it to Primo Levi's If This is a Man" EDWARD WILSON"A child's clear-eyed journey to hell" ANNE SEBBAThis is a story of a young boy's journey from a sleepy provincial town in Hungary during the Second World War to the concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen. After a winter in Bergen-Belsen where his father died, he and his mother were liberated by the Americans outside a small German village, and handed over to the Red Army. They escaped from the Russians, and travelled, hiding on a goods train, through Prague to Budapest. Unlike other books dealing with this period, this is not a Holocaust story, but a child's recollection of a journey full of surprise, excitement, bereavement and terror. Yet this remains a testimony of survival, overcoming obstacles which to adults may seem insurmountable but to a child were just part of an adventure and, ultimately, recovery. After having established a career in the West, the author decided to revisit the stages on his earlier journeys, reliving the past through the perspective of the present. Along the way, ghosts from the past are finally laid to rest by the kindness of new friends.With an introduction by Lisa Appignanesi
£9.49
Old Street Publishing 2066 and All That: Memorable Modern History
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£6.99
Helion & Company The Franco-Prussian War 1870-71 Volume 1: The
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£41.07
Helion & Company Barbarossa Derailed: the Battle for Smolensk 10
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£44.96
Helion & Company Barbarossa Derailed: the Battle for Smolensk 10
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£44.96
Helion & Company Fall of the Red Baron: World War I Aerial Tactics
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£28.00
University of Chester Press The Prime Minister's Son: Stephen Gladstone,
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£14.99
University of Chester Press Bright Star in the Present Prospect: The University of Chester 1839-2015: 2015
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£10.68
Luath Press Ltd Leith
Book SynopsisThe Leith area possesses a highly distinct cultural and social identity, with a contentious history to its relationship with Edinburgh.Tom Wright opens the door to Leith’s past by exploring its rich heritage through a comprehensive collection of black and white photographs taken over time. Accompanied by quirky and insightful text which brings the era to life.From the bustling community atmosphere of the Foot of Leith Walk, to the rich naval history of the Shore, it is easy to understand why the people of Leith are so proud of their town and its distinct character.The perfect gift for someone who lives or has lived in the area.
£8.99
Open Book Publishers On History
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£31.30
CB Editions Finish Off with Finland: A Miscellany
Book SynopsisFourth and final volume in a series documenting Anglo-Finnish relations and acclaimed by the TLS as 'a fascinating prism through which to view modern Finland'.
£10.80
Signal Books Ltd The Fortune Hunter: A German Prince in Regency
Book SynopsisThe two decades after Waterloo marked the great age of foreign fortune hunters in England. Each year brought a new influx of impecunious Continental noblemen to the world's richest country, and the more brides they carried off, the more alarmed society became. The most colourful of these men was Prince Hermann von Puckler-Muskau (1785-1871), remembered today as Germany's finest landscape gardener. In the mid-1820s, however, his efforts to turn his estate into a magnificent park came close to bankrupting him. To save his legacy his wife Lucie devised an unusual plan: they would divorce so that Puckler could marry an heiress who would finance further landscaping and, after a decent interval, be cajoled into accepting Lucie's continued residence. In September 1826, his marriage dissolved, Puckler set off for London. Drawing on the daily letters sent from England to his ex-wife and other manuscript sources in the Puckler Archive in Brandenburg, Peter James Bowman gives blow-by-blow accounts of Puckler's courtships with the daughters of a physician, an admiral, a Scottish baronet, an East India Company stockholder and a retail jeweller. The story is enriched with details of his social life among the resident diplomats, his gambling and money troubles, his love affairs with a French seamstress and a German opera singer, and the hours he spent with the capital's prostitutes. Puckler is the most intelligent of the overseas visitors who noted their impressions of Regency England. His matrimonial quest brings him into contact with such luminaries as Walter Scott, George Canning, Princess Lieven, Nathan Mayer Rothschild, Beau Brummell and John Nash. The object of many rumours and caricatures, the prince sticks doggedly to his task for nearly two years. And just when it seems that he has failed, England fills his coffers in the most unexpected way, and in doing so launches him on a new career. In telling the story of Puckler's adventures in the context of the trend for Anglo-European marriages based on the exchange of a title for money, The Fortune Hunter writes a new chapter in the history of England's relationship with its Continental neighbours.Trade Review"An entertaining story intelligently and fluently retold." - TLS "[A] sprightly and engaging book of more than anecdotal interest." - Spectator "Bowman has trawled deep in the archives to brush the dust off Prince Pueckler's portrait and restore him to us as a man of singular charm, culture and good humour... Bowman, a scrupulous historian with an eye for lively detail, performs a splendid job." - Literary Review "Bowman's treatment of his elusive subject is masterly, not to say brilliant, and his research has been admirably thorough. But what is more remarkable is his ability to turn that heavy-duty labour into eminently readable prose." - Journal of European Studies "An account both thorough and elegant." - Sachsische Zeitung "Bowman's prose is entertaining and assured. He clearly holds his incorrigible subject in great affection and ensures that his reader does too, in spite of Pueckler's foibles. " - The Tablet "Valuable and very enjoyable." - Jane Austen Society Newsletter "A scholarly and entertaining account of an extraordinary character." - Hampstead & Highgate Express
£999.99
Signal Books Ltd Nobody's Kingdom: A History of Northern Albania
Book SynopsisThe Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, foreign invasion, communism and tribal conflict: these have been the realities of life in Northern Albania for centuries. In this rich and comprehensive history, Tom Winnifrith examines the many different elements that have shaped this independent and little-known region of the Balkans. He explores the fundamental division between the South of Albania and its mysterious, romantic North - more feudal, more tribal, more Catholic and more prone to Austrian and Italian influence. It is also a region less affected by Greece, both ancient and modern, and by medieval Byzantium or the Orthodox faith. Northern Albania, with a terrain and climate much harsher than the south of the country, has traditionally had little respect for law and authority while its inhabitants remain in thrall to an ancient honour code -- the kanun -- demanding blood feuds and terrible revenge. Nobody's Kingdom traces the history of this ruggedly beautiful region, frequently disturbed by both invaders and internal strife yet retaining a distinct national identity and character. From its origins in the ancient kingdom of Illyria and the Roman province of Illyricum, through Byzantine and Ottoman rule, the granting of Albanian independence in 1912, the rise and fall of communism to its current fragile democracy, Northern Albania can be seen as a cultural crossroads - especially remarkable given its mountainous and difficult landscape. This book, both scholarly and readable, is the first modern comprehensive history of Northern Albania and is a timely and accessible introduction to a remote and inaccessible region.
£999.99
NMSE - Publishing Ltd Miss Cranston: Patron of Charles Rennie
Book SynopsisMiss Kate Cranston opened four Glasgow Tea Rooms at the end of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th, including the famous Willow Tea Rooms. Ahead of her time, Miss Cranston ensured that her Rea Rooms were designed and furnished by talented young artists like Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Miss Cranston: Patron of Charles Rennie Mackintosh was first published in 1999 and is long out of print. It is being reissued to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This new edition has some rewriting and updating; it is in a larger format; it now has around 60 colour+black&white photographs and illustrations.Trade Review' … Perilla Kinchen reveals Miss Cranston's 'successful formula' and eccentric characteristics in an engaging style which entices readers to continue.' Scottish Field (online)Table of ContentsForeword Introduction 1. Growing up in George Square: the family hotels 2. 'A cup of Kaisow 2d, bread and cakes extra': the first tea rooms 3. Making a name: Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms 4. New art 'weirdry': Miss Cranston, Walton and Mackintosh 5. A new century: the Willow Tea Room 6. 'A real patron and friend'" more jobs for Mackintosh 7. 'Everyone knows Miss Cranston': a Glasgow personality 8. Back in George Square: the last years and the legacy Epilogue: Recovery and restoration Select Bibliography and sources Index
£14.24
New Haven Publishing Ltd Pennine Dragon: The Real King Arthur of the North
Book SynopsisPennine Dragon tells the true story of the legendary King Arthur. On the 1500th anniversary of Arthur's greatest battle at Badon, his whole life, family history and exploits are finally identified with those of a real historic ruler. Arthur Pendragon was actually a ruler recorded in history as Arthwys of the Pennines. He and his father ruled from the old Roman garrisons of Hadrian's Wall and the City of York and his base was Camulod (Camelot) in the heart of what is now Yorkshire. Arthwys had his Merlin, his Mordred, his Lancelot and his beautiful Irish Queen. His battles were fought across what is now the north of England and lowlands of Scotland. Without the prejudice of placing Arthur in Wales or Cornwall, Pennine Dragon reveals that Arthur was always identified as a man of the north in the earliest historical references. Legendary Arthurian places like Badon, Camlann, Camelot, the Lady of the Lake, Asolat, Joyous Garde, Avalon and the Round Table are all identified in the north. The author, Simon Keegan has identified no fewer than 50 Arthurian characters in real historical figures.We meet Morgan, Gawain, Bedevere, Culhwch, Uther and Igraine - and each character fits in perfectly within the family tree and inner circle of the historic king. We find that Arthwys was at precisely the right time and place and is the only possible man who could have been the King Arthur of legend. This is the definitive work on the true King Arthur published exactly 1500 years after the historic king's final victory over the Saxons.
£999.99
E-International Relations Migration and the Ukraine Crisis: A Two-Country
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£17.09
University College Dublin Press Women Writing War: Ireland 1880-1922
Book SynopsisWomen's literary expressions of war have long been neglected and at times forgotten in Irish scholarship. In Women Writing War: Ireland 1880-1922 many of these forgotten women are revealed through their writings as culturally active and deeply invested in the political and military struggles of their turbulent times. From the Land Wars to the Boer Wars, from the First World War to the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War, the fascinating women considered in this volume-grapple with the experiential representation of conflicts. The diverse range of topics explored include: women's eye- witness accounts of 1916, Winifred Letts's First World War poetry, the political rhetoric and experiences of Anna Parnell and Anne Blunt during the Land War, Peggie Kelly's fiction and Cumann na mBan activism, the cultural nationalism of northern. Protestant "New Women" of the Glens of Antrim, Una Ni Fhaircheallaigh's Irish language activism in and beyond the Gaelic League, Emily Lawless's Boer War diary as well as the dramatic collaboration of sisters Eva Gore-Booth and Countess Markievicz.The book also includes a preface by historian Margaret Ward and an extract from Lia Mills's award-winning historical novel Fallen, set in Dublin during the Easter Rising (selected as the 2016 'One City One Book' choice for both Dublin and Belfast). Engaging with recent Scholarly debates on sexuality, war writing, and the politics of Irish warfare, the authors of Women Writing War explore the ways in which conflict narratives have been read - and interpreted - as deeply gendered. Radicals, revolutionaries and queer activists, as well as women who remained attached to the domestic sphere, are all represented in this original and provocative volume on the relationship between women and conflict.Trade Review'This book comprises essays by female writers about war, from the Land War to the Civil War, from Anna Parnell's Ladies Land League to the early years of the Irish Free State and subsequent disillusionment. Heidi Hansson's essay is a delight, showing how unionist Emily Lawless's gardening diary mixed concern about the progress of the Boer War with concern about her budding shoots, often in the same sentence. Jody Allen Randolph is particularly interesting on Peggie Kelly, who wrote under the pen name of Garrett O'Driscoll.' Irish Times, 10 June 2017 'Lucy Collins examines the war poetry of Winifred Letts and in a splendid piece of literary criticism shows how she sheds new light on the moral ambiguities of violent conflict.' The Irish Catholic, June 2017 'Some thought-provoking books about 1916 and all that have been published this year, both fiction and non-fiction. Women Writing War edited by Tina O'Toole, Gillian McIntosh and Muireann O'Cinneide (University College Dublin Press) is one of my favourites.' Martina Devlin, Irish Independent, 25 December 2016Table of ContentsMargaret Ward: Preface; Contributors; Introduction; Diane Urquhart: 'The Ladies" Land, League have [sic] a crust to share with you": The Rhetoric of the Ladies' Land League's British Campaign, 1881-2; Muireann O'cinneide: Anne Blunt, Arabi Pasha and the Irish Land Wars; Heidi Hansson: Battles in the Garden: Emily Lawless's A Garden Diary 1899-1900 and the Boer War; Lucy Collins: Winifred Letts and the Great War: A Poetics of Witness; Tina O'toole: The New Women of the Glens: Writers and Revolutionaries; Maureen O'connor: Eva Gore-Booth's Art of War; Riona Nic Congail: 'An Cros-Bhethar': Agnes O'Farrelly's Political Poetry (1918-27); Lucy Mcdiarmid: Uncomfortable Bodies in Women's Accounts of 1916; Jody Allen Randolph: 'If No one Wanted to Remember': Margaret Kelly and the Lost Battalion; Writing the Rising: Lia Mills on Fallen (2014).
£23.75
Rydon Publishing Ireland
Book SynopsisAmazing and Extraordinary Facts: Ireland takes you on an absorbing journey around Ireland to unearth the adventures, inventions, legends, firsts and birthplaces that have shaped the unique history of Ireland. From Baltimore to Barbary, Titanic to Shergar, and even the myth of the Aran jumper, this intriguing compendium of facts and stories will give you a captivating insight into The Emerald Isle, and the ideas and events that have shaped the individual identity of this remarkable country. Brief, accessible and entertaining pieces on a wide variety of subjects makes it the perfect book to dip in to. The amazing and extraordinary facts series presents interesting, surprising and little-known facts and stories about a wide range of topics which are guaranteed to inform, absorb and entertain in equal measure.Table of Contents1 The Emerald Isle 12 2 Giant steps and baby steps 13 3 Older than the Pyramids! 15 4 Veni, vidi, vici! Or maybe not... 17 5 Natural preservatives 19 6 Land of the little people 20 7 Here, boy! 21 8 May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you 24 9 A medieval treasure 26 10 A long time ago, on an island far, far away... 28 11 Battle of the boozers 29 12 Urbs Intacta: the Untaken City 31 13 From Castle to Kingdom 33 14 The gift of the gab 36 15 Who run the world? Girls! 38 16 Ireland's most famous head-case 39 17 Soldiers in petticoats 41 18 From Baltimore to Barbary 44 19 Parklife 46 20 A pint of the black stuff 48 21 Bliain ai air: the year of the slaughter 50 22 To the White House 53 23 Probably the most famous glass in the world 56 24 Stand up and be counted 58 25 Monster meetings! 58 26 Ireland's national necropolis 61 27 The Unsung Hero 64 28 Keogh's Last Stand 67 29 Green, white and orange 68 30 'Til death do us part... 70 31 'We are Alcock and Brown. Yesterday we were in America.' 72 32 Watch the tram car please 74 33 Boycott! 77 34 Stranger than fiction 80 35 Death of a language 82 36 There's no such thing as fairies 84 37 Knit one, purl one 86 38 Leave your jewels and gold wands in the bank and buy a revolver 89 39 But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you... 91 40 SOS Titanic calling Harland & Wolff and The RMS Titanic 93 41 We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland... 97 42 Down with this sort of thing! 100 43 The men of Ireland were hurling when the Gods of Greece were young 102 44 If you built it, they will come 104 45 The Field 106 46 Those magnificent men in their flying machines 108 47 She was lovely and fair like the rose of the summer 110 48 The case for humanity 111 49 The Taking of Christ 113 50 'Ladies and Gentlemen, to whom it concerns, it's The Late Late Show...' 115 51 Who stole the horse? 117 52 I did it the Wild Atlantic Way 119 53 Yes Equality! 122 54 Like a bridge over Liffey waters 125 55 From feen to Ford 129 56 We all stand together! 130 57 Between the jigs and the reels 131
£8.99
Carnegie Publishing Ltd A Yorkshire Year: Folklore, history, traditions
Book SynopsisWhat is a tradition? How does folklore develop? Who do we thank for collecting this stuff ? And what about ‘fake-lore’? This riveting book takes a deep dive into the world of Yorkshire folklore and traditions, and discovers the stories and people behind them. Covering the whole of the great county, and every day of the year, this is a history-based approach that goes beyond simply listing what happened in the past. Catherine traces origins, examines beliefs, and in doing so, has created a book that is as entertaining as it is revealing. This is popular community culture at its very best. Leeds-born Catherine Warr is a young historian with a huge personality and online presence. As someone who grew up on a council estate, she is passionate about making history available to people of all backgrounds and walks of life.
£16.99
John Donald Publishers Ltd James VI and I: Collected Essays by Jenny Wormald
Book SynopsisThe renowned historian Jenny Wormald was a ground-breaking expert on early modern Scottish history, especially Stewart kingship, noble power and wider society. She was most controversial in her book-length critique of Mary, Queen of Scots. Unfortunately, Jenny never got round to producing a similar monograph on a monarch she was infinitely more fond of, King James VI and I, before her untimely death in 2015. In the absence of such a book, this volume brings together all the major essays by Jenny on James. She wrote on almost every aspect and every major event of James' reign, from the famous Gunpowder Plot, the Plantation of Ulster, the Gowrie Conspiracy, to the witchcraft panics, as well as James' extensive writings. She wrote extensively on James' Scottish rule, but she was also keenly interested in James as the first king of all of Britain, and many of her essays unpick the issues surrounding the Union of the Crowns and James' rule over all three of his kingdoms. This book is an invaluable resource for any scholar on this crucial time in the history of the British Isles.Trade Review'Connects an impressive selection of Wormald’s life’s work through which past historiographical developments can be clearly traced, whilst also providing readers a space to reassess their own understanding of James VI & I' -- Amy Saunders * Royal Studies Journal *
£95.00
Quercus Publishing The Germans and Europe: A Personal Frontline
Book SynopsisBased on a lifetime living in and reporting on Germany and Central Europe, award-winning journalist and author Peter Millar tackles the fascinating and complex story of the people at the heart of our continent. Focussing on nine cities (only six of which are in the Germany of today) he takes us on a zigzag ride back through time via the fall of the Berlin Wall through the horrors of two world wars, the patchwork states of the Middle Ages, to the splendour of Charlemagne and the fall of Rome, with side swipes at everything on the way, from Henry VIII to the Spanish Empire. Included are mini portraits of aspects of German culture from sex and money to food and drink. Not just a book about Germany but about Europe as a whole and how we got where we are today, and where we might be tomorrow.
£11.39
Helion & Company The Army of James II, 1685-1688: The Birth of the
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£22.50
Mortons Media Group Brunel's Big Railway
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£13.49
Mortons Media Group Hms Bristol
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£15.29
Helion & Company The Last Ironsides: The English Expedition to
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£999.99
Haus Publishing Versailles 1919: A Centennial Perspective
Book SynopsisThe Versailles Settlement does not enjoy a good reputation: despite its lofty aim to settle the world's affairs at a stroke, it is widely considered to have set the world on the path to a second major conflict within a generation. Woodrow Wilson's controversial principle of self-determination amplified political complexities in the Balkans, and the war and its settlement bear significant responsibility for boundaries and related conflicts in the Middle East. Furthermore, other objectives of the peacemakers, such as global disarmament and minority protection, are yet to be realised. A century on, the settlement still casts a long shadow. This book, fully revised and updated with new material for the centenary of the Paris Paris Conferences at Versailles in 1919 sets the consequences - for good or ill - of the Peace Treaties into their longer term context and argues that the responsibility for Europe's continuing interwar instability cannot be wholly attributed to the peacemakers of 1919-23.
£17.00
University of Hertfordshire Press Histories of People and Landscape: Essays on the
Book SynopsisDavid Hey (1938–2016) was one of the leading local and regional historians of our age and the author of a number of highly regarded books on the practice of local history. His work on surnames was pioneering and he was amongst the first to identify the potential of DNA in historical studies. In this collection of essays in David’s memory, friends and colleagues celebrate his commitment to the landscape, economy and society of south Yorkshire – especially Sheffield – and Derbyshire, which together make up ‘Hey country’, the area in which he grew up and to which he returned to work. This lively volume will be of interest to anyone who shares David Hey’s curiosity for the people, economies and landscapes of the part of England he made his focus. At the same time the essays will prove to be of interest to all those concerned with the workings of English local society and economy. Covering a wide range of subjects and periods, they include accounts of the early English steel industry, Sheffield cutlers, Lord William Cavendish’s canny use of his stepson’s wardship, the lost woodlands of the Peak District, First World War food production in Derbyshire, south Yorkshire deer parks and a brief history of Little Londons. Fresh research into family and placename history contributes fascinating detail to the mix. The contributors are some of the key researchers in academic local history, including Alan Crosby, Nicola Verdon, John Broad, John Beckett, Ian D. Rotherham, Melvyn Jones, Dorian Gerhold and Peter Edwards. A tribute to David Hey by Charles Phythian-Adams opens the volume.Table of ContentsDavid Hey, 1938–2016: a tribute Charles Phythian-Adams 1 Deer parks in South Yorkshire: the documentary and landscape evidence Melvyn Jones 2 The Sheffield cutlers and the earls of Shrewsbury: a new interpretation Richard Hoyle 3 Lord William Cavendish of Hardwick Hall (Derbyshire) and the wardship of Sir Francis Wortley of Wortley Hall (West Riding), 1604–1612 Peter Edwards 4 The steel industry in England, 1614–1740 Dorian Gerhold 5 Out of the shadows: searching for lost Domesday landscapes Ian D. Rotherham 6 Opposition to parliamentary enclosure in Nottinghamshire John Beckett 7 The rise and fall of a Peak District yeoman family: the Bagshaws of Hazlebadge, 1600–1942 Alan Crosby 8 The food production campaign in the First World War: the Derbyshire War Agricultural Committees, 1915–1919 Nicola Verdon 9 Boundary settlements and overlapping jurisdictions: marginal communities and Little Londons John Broad 10 Personal names and settlement in the south Yorkshire Pennines George Redmonds
£18.04
University of Hertfordshire Press Saving the People’s Forest: Open spaces,
Book SynopsisThe growth of nineteenth-century London was unprecedented, swallowing up once remote villages, commons and open fields around the metropolitan fringe in largely uncontrolled housing development. In the mid-Victorian period widespread opposition to this unbridled growth coalesced into a movement that campaigned to preserve the London commons. The history of this campaign is usually presented as having been fought by members of the metropolitan upper middle class, who appointed themselves as spokespeople for all Londoners and played out their battles mainly in parliament and the law courts. In this fascinating book Mark Gorman tells a different story – of the key role played by popular protest in the campaigns to preserve Epping Forest and other open spaces in and near London. He shows how throughout the nineteenth century such places were venues for both radical politics and popular leisure, helping to create a sense of public right of access, even ‘ownership’. At the same time, London’s suburban growth was partly a response to the rising aspirations of an artisan and lower middle class who increasingly wanted direct access to open space. This not only created the conditions for the mid-Victorian commons preservation movement, but also gave impetus to distinctive popular protest by proletarian Londoners. In comparing the campaign for Epping Forest with other struggles for London’s commons, the book highlights influences which ranged from the role of charismatic leaders to widely held beliefs regarding the land, in which the rights of freeborn Englishmen had been plundered by the aristocracy since the Norman conquest. Mark Gorman reveals a largely hidden history, since ordinary Londoners left few records behind, but his new research clearly reveals how their protests influenced the actions of the more visible elite groups who appeared in parliament or in court.Table of Contents1) Introduction 2) ‘The Arcadia of the artisan of the East-end': Epping Forest and the growth of Victorian London 3) ‘The right of wandering through the green fields’: Open space and radical politics in London 1840-68 4) ‘Now or never, to stop these cruel spoliations!’: The struggle for metropolitan open spaces 1850-68 5) ‘Save the Forest!’: Parliament, the law and public campaigns 1869-78 6) ‘The builders are walking up Wandsworth Hill’: open spaces and localism 7) 'Only the genteel themselves may strike the blow': public opinion, popular action and commons preservation 8) Conclusion: popular protest and the campaigns for the commons
£16.14
University of Hertfordshire Press St Albans: A history
Book SynopsisMark Freeman’s classic history of St Albans, first published in 2008, has been substantially rewritten by the author and brought fully up to date, making it an invaluable guide to more than two thousand years of St Albans’s history. From the late Iron Age, when the new oppidum of Verlamion emerged at the site of modern St Albans, to plans to develop the city’s unique ‘brand’ in the 2010s, this is a scholarly yet highly readable account of St Albans from pre-Roman times to the present day. The Roman settlement of Verulamium grew out of Verlamion soon after the Roman invasion; in 60 CE it was attacked during Boudica’s great uprising against Roman rule, along with Colchester and London. Becoming one of the most important towns in Roman Britain and the site of Britain’s first Christian martyrdom, Verulamium later took the martyr’s name as its own, the abbey dedicated to the saint among the most significant religious houses of medieval England. For many in St Albans, the long period of conflict between the abbey and the civic authorities would have cast a shadow over their lives, but the history of St Albans is also the story of political upheavals that beset all England through the centuries, as experienced by the citizens of a rapidly evolving town. Like many other places, it was touched by the Norman conquest, the Wars of the Roses and the civil wars. The emergence of urban self-government in early modern St Albans provides a case study of a process that happened throughout the country. The same is true for the account of St Albans’s suburbanisation and the emergence of a commuter population fostered by the railways in the nineteenth century, the growth and decline of the local manufacturing economy, and its participation in the growth of mass education, consumerism and democratic politics. At every point in St Albans’s history, two key themes play out: the proximity of London, and an awareness of the significance of its own history. The past is a powerful resource, helping a community to understand the events that have made it what it is. That process is exemplified in this masterful volume.Table of ContentsPreface and acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Before St Albans: Verlamion and Verulamium In focus (1): The martyrdom of St Alban Chapter 2: Waeclingceaster, Kingsbury and St Albans: the Anglo-Saxon abbey and town In focus (2): Stories from the Anglo-Saxon abbey Chapter 3: Conquest and conflict, 1066-1349 In focus (3): ‘A marvellous record of the past’: the intellectual life of the monks of St Albans Chapter 4: From the Black Death to the dissolution of the abbey, 1349-1539 In focus (4): ‘Stuft full with the Bodies of the Slain’: the two battles of St Albans Chapter 5: Chartered borough and ‘thoroughfare town’ 1539-1700 In focus (5): St Albans and the Civil War Chapter 6: ‘A Divided Town’: economy, society and government, 1700-1835 In focus (6): ‘Wrong and unjust’: St Albans and parliamentary politics, c. 1700-1832 Chapter 7: ‘A fourth or fifth rate market town’: Victorian and Edwardian St Albans, 1835-1910 In focus (7): ‘A small corrupt borough’: St Albans and parliamentary politics, 1832-1914 Chapter 8: An expanding manufacturing centre, 1910-1945 In focus (8): St Albans and the Second World War Chapter 9: ‘A terribly smug place’: St Albans, 1945-2000 In focus (9): ‘A very musical town’: St Albans and popular music Chapter 10: ‘An intricate inheritance’: St Albans in the early twenty-first century
£18.99
Helion & Company Prelude to Berlin: The Red Army's Offensive
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£31.50
Parthian Books Rocking the Boat
Book SynopsisThis insightful and revealing collection of essays focuses on seven Welsh women who, in a range of imaginative ways, resisted the status quo in Wales, England and beyond during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Written by an acclaimed biographical historian, the essays not only challenge expectations about how women's lives were lived in the last two centuries, they also explore different ways of approaching biographical writing and understanding, as well as raising issues of gender and nationality. From the pioneer doctor and champion of progressive causes, Frances Hoggan, to the irrepressible twentieth-century novelist Menna Gallie, these women spoke out for what they believed in, and sometimes they paid the price. Although proud of their Welsh identity, they articulated it in a variety of ways, and each spent most of their adult lives outside Wales. They became familiar, and often controversial voices, on the page and platform in London, Oxford, Northern Ireland and internationally. Lady Rhondda and Edith Picton-Turbervill championed women's equality at the centre of power in Westminster, whilst Myvanwy and Olwen Rhys saw education as the key to change. Women's suffrage played a prominent part in the lives of these women and was especially central to Margaret Wynne Nevinson's thinking, writing and actions. The intelligence, determination and grit of these women is revealed through their stirring stories. Taken together, the essays critically investigate the challenges, setbacks and hard-won achievements of feisty women who rocked the boat over a period of 150 years.Trade Review'A fascinating read. In bringing together these remarkable champions of equality, Angela V. John breaks new ground in biographical history.' Dr Sian Rhiannon Williams; 'Rocking the Boat makes a distinguished contribution to Angela V. John's reputation as a leading historian of Wales.' Dr Paula Bartley
£10.79
Colenso Books The Ionian Islands in the Byzantine Period: A
Book SynopsisA comprehensive bibliography covering works in several different languages, divided island by island and then into subject sub-cateogories.
£999.99
September Publishing One Fine Day: A Journey Through English Time
Book SynopsisA time-travelling, genealogical adventure, bringing pre-industrial, rural, eighteenth-century England vividly to life on the page. One day Ian Marchant, acclaimed author of books on music, railways and pubs, decided, as all men of a certain age must, to have a dig around his family history. Surprisingly quickly, a web search informed him that his seven-times-great great-grandfather, Thomas Marchant had left a detailed diary from 1714 to 1728. So far, so jolly ... Life-loving diarist Thom - who liked a drink and a game of cards - feels recognisably Marchant to Ian. With fascinating, immersive detail we learn about Thom's family farm and fishponds; about dung, horses and mud; about beer, the wife's nights out, his own job troubles and their shared worries for their children. But as Ian digs deeper beyond the Sussex diary's bucolic portrait he discovers a subtext - a family descended from immigrants, with anti-establishment politics, who are struggling with illness, political instability and cash crises - just as their country does three centuries on. 'When I was reflecting late one January evening on the differences between Thom and me, I realised the unbridgeable thing that comes between us is industrialisation. He lived right at its beginning, while I am living somewhere towards its end. Old Thom Marchant was one of the last people before industrialisation to understand how his world worked - and how to be largely self-sufficient in it. He knew where his food came from, his fuel, his water, his clothes. He knew how the welfare system worked, and was part of its administration; he knew who looked after the roads, too. He collected taxes. He was not separate from the system, but part of it.' Rich with immersive detail, One Fine Day draws a living portrait of Marchant family life in the 1720s and how their England (rainy, muddy, politically turbulent, illness-ridden) became the England of the 2020s.Trade Review'Elegiac, consistently funny, deeply moving.' - Richard Beard; 'Ian Marchant is one of England's most original writers. One Fine Day is a masterwork.' - Monique Roffey; ‘I enjoyed it hugely, and was strangely moved.' - Deborah Moggach; ‘Bloody marvellous.’ - New Statesman
£17.00
Helion & Company 'Britain Turned Germany': the Thirty Years' War
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£28.00
Mount Orleans Press The Bride: An Illustrated History of Palestine
Book SynopsisPalestine, 1850: a backwater of the Ottoman Empire, but soon to become the focus of intense jealousies. Locally Arabs and Jews became increasingly polarised, internationally the vacuum left by the demise of the Ottoman Empire was filled with the rivalries of Western nations.This book is a vivid account, told through oral history and a wealth of photographs from the time, never previously published. They add new dimensions to our understanding of the history, the geography, and the human reality of Palestine.
£21.25
Old Street Publishing Excellent Essex: In Praise of England's Most
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£9.99
Helion & Company The Bavarian Army During the Thirty Years War,
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£18.95
Helion & Company Italy, Piedmont & the War of the Spanish
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£999.99
Haus Publishing The Men of 1924: Britain's First Labour
Book SynopsisThe new Cabinet in January 1924 consisted, as governments had for generations, of twenty white, middle-aged men. But that is where the similarities with previous governments ended, for the election of Britain's first Labour administration witnessed a radical departure from government by the ruling class. Replacing Stanley Baldwin's Conservatives were Ramsay MacDonald's Labour, the majority of whom had left school by the age of fifteen. Five of them had started work by the time they were twelve years old. Three were working down the mines before they entered their teens. Two were illegitimate, one was a foundling, three were of Irish immigrant descent. For the first time in Britain's history the Cabinet could truly be said to represent all of Britain's social classes.This unheralded revolution in representation is the subject of Peter Clark's fascinating new book, The Men of 1924. Who were these men? Clark's vivid portrayal is full of evocative portraits of a new breed of politician, the forerunners of all those who, later in the last century and in this one, overcame a system from which they had been excluded for too long.Trade Review‘An endlessly fascinating account of a truly seismic moment in British history. Peter Clark records that moment by introducing us to the first non-aristocrats to govern this country. It’s a mystery why nobody thought to tell this amazing story before but nobody could have told it better. Brilliantly conceived and beautifully expounded.’ALAN JOHNSON; ‘At the centenary of the first Labour government in 1924, Peter Clark fluently and lucidly illuminates British politics in the early decades of the 20th century, give insightful short biographies of the Labour cabinet and a sharp account of their nine months ‘in office but not in power’, and shows how the 18-year-old Labour Party was taken from the fringe of significance to being the alternative for Government.’NEIL KINNOCK; ‘The events of 1924 changed British political history forever. A good study of the government and its principal actors was long overdue. Now, on the centenary, we have it.’ ANTHONY SELDON; ‘The Men of 1924 is a compelling account of the remarkable group of politicians who shaped not only a seminal moment in Labour Party history but also influenced our national story for many years afterwards.’NICK THOMAS-SYMONDS.
£17.00
Vision Sports Publishing Ltd The Rangers Shirt: The Official History
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£24.00
FUM D'ESTAMPA PRESS The Others
Book SynopsisIn 1837, at the height of the Carlist Wars and a time of conflict between the past and future, a young Prussian man crosses the Pyrenees to fight for the ‘Order’. Finding himself trapped in the ruins of an abandoned city, his bewilderment at the war and what it means increases. Friendship, family, religion and politics: everything is distorted, transformed or destroyed. The Others oscillates masterfully between humour and tragedy and is a novel full of music, eccentric characters and extraordinary scenes.Trade ReviewAndrew Mcdougall, Bookblast. Full review here Once more, the triumph of Garrigasait’s novel is in making nineteenth century material feel so relevant. Many of the debates of the day, with words changed here and there, are not so different from the questions society still faces. John-Paul Davies, Buzz Magazine Garrigasait is a strong and supple writer to deal with such merges of time and place, research and reimagining, but each shift strengthens the story. The consistency of tone is confusing yet coherent; Tiago Miller’s translation is, I can only imagine, expert. The soldiers and locals speak in a common language that comes straight from contemporary London but is equally modern and brilliantly reinforces the constant off-setting. Weilemann and Foraster’s dreamlike musical reveries are stunningly rendered and I can’t think of any writing that has so successfully captured the minutia and wholeness of music as this book does. In Under 300 I was expecting a novel full of unrivalled bravery and stoicism, but instead, what The Others presented was a funny, witty, and intelligent portrayal of life in this environment. The character interactions explore clashing ideologies, shifting politics, and muddled outlooks that seemingly all blend as one. What the community ultimately desire is unclear, for both the reader and Wielemann. Paul Cheney, Half Man Half Book I liked this book overall, the prose is richly detailed and full of vivid descriptions. It is full of subtle nuanced humour, especially between von Wielemann and the men he is in charge of. Eleanor Updegraff, The Monthly Booking Tiago Miller’s text is graceful in tone and structure, differentiating slightly in style between the present-day and historical sections, and giving us a sharp narrative voice that wavers between humour, melancholia and, just occasionally, a hint of bitterness. Though this line refers to one of the characters in the novel, Miller as well as Garrigasait has proved himself more than capable of ‘making his words fall in with the style of a competent commander’. The result is a coolly immersive and thoughtful novel that asks some of life’s big questions, but is of itself an absolute pleasure to read. —from The Modern Novel This really is an excellent book as Garrigasait tells a very clever story, uses ribald humour to portray the military and the Catalans, mocks the Prussians and raises some serious issues, while delving into the history of his own region. Translator Tiago Miller clearly had some fun, trying to convey the Leida dialect of Catalan into colloquial English, as he tells us in the afterword. Sam Abrams, El Mundo The Others forces us to leave our comfort zone, and to steer away from indifference, banality, and conformity. A magnificent book! Toni Sala, Ara This fantastic book provides us with a reflection of our modern-day selves. The echoes with the present are so intense that it leaves you breathless after every phrase. The Others has the courage to force us to ask ourselves: ‘What skeletons lurk in our cupboards?’ Jordi Puntí, El Periódico This majestic novel contains moments or tenderness, humour and violence. Garrigasait’s writing is both precise and totally brilliant, and allows us to take a closer look at a country and mentality that is still with us almost two centuries later.
£12.34
Wordwell Faith and Fury: The evangelical campaign in
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£18.04
