European history Books

Book SynopsisIn this elegantly written biography, Lucia McMahon reconstructs the places and social constellations that enabled Elizabeth Smith’s learning and adventures in England, Wales, and Ireland, and traces her transatlantic fame and literary afterlife across Britain and the United States.

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Book SynopsisOffers a close look at the legacy of a few Jewish families from Sussen-a village in southern GermanyTrade Review"A decade of archival research, the collection of oral testimonies, and various personal encounters in Germany and beyond eventually provide the stage for this study which merges local, public, and personal history. All of this work allows Schmidt to paint a detailed picture of rural Jewish life in Sussen before, during, and after Nazism." -- Martin Kalb, Northern Arizona University -German Studies Review "Offers a close look at the legacy of a few Jewish families from this region, their long family histories, their engagements in commerce, industry and civic life before 1933, their fate under the Nazis, and their scattered stories after the Holocaust. In this sense this book offers a kind of micro-history of Jews in Germany before, during and after the Holocaust. It is a kind of Yiskor or Memory book for the Jewish communities of this region and especially Sussen. With new and little known material, this book brings new insight into the life of rural Jews in Germany, both through original historical scholarship, interviews, and an engagement with sources only available in German." -- -Laura Levitt Temple University "Sussen is Now Free of Jews features an enormous amount of original research and illustrates the inherent importance of talking about Landjudentum (village Jewry) to an English reading audience. Schmidt's ability to combine archival material, memoir literature, interviews and personal recollections is both impressive and moving." -- -Alan T. Levenson University of Oklahoma

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Book SynopsisA prince in one of Russia''s most exalted noble families, Grigorii N. Trubetskoi was a unique and contradictory figure during World War I. A lifelong civil servant and publicist, he began his diplomatic career in Constantinople, where he served as first secretary of the embassy there for several years. He became one of the leaders of an important political orientation among the liberals that began to express opposition to the tsar, not only on questions of political freedom and domestic political reform, but also by criticizing the tsar''s foreign policy on nationalistic grounds. Trubetskoi possessed significant influence over Russian foreign policy and was instrumental in pushing the regime toward an aggressive annexationist stand in the Balkans. When the Russian ambassador to Serbia died suddenly in June of 1914, Trubetskoi was appointed as his replacementsituating him at the center of Russian diplomacy during the decisive period of Russia''s entry into the war. His account of thiTrade ReviewA very important memoir. Very few others had the intimate view of Russian foreign policy and its leadership that Trubetskoi had. -- Ronald P. Bobroff, Oglethorpe University

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Book SynopsisThe first transnational history of cinema's role in decolonization.Using popular cinema from the United States, Britain, and France, Empire Films and the Crisis of Colonialism, 19461959, examines postwar Western attitudes toward colonialism and race relations. Historians have written much about the high politics of decolonization but little about what ordinary citizens thought about losing their empires. Popular cinema provided the main source of images of the colonies, and, according to Jon Cowans in this far-reaching book, films depicting the excesses of empire helped Westerners come to terms with decolonization and even promoted the dismantling of colonialism around the globe.Examining more than one hundred British, French, and American films from the postWorld War II era, Cowans concentrates on movies that depict interactions between white colonizers and nonwhite colonial subjects, including sexual and romantic relations. Although certain conseTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I The Persistence of Empire1. The White Woman's Burden2. Heroes of Empire3. WesternsPart II Coming to Terms4. The British Empire and Decolonization5. The French Empire and Decolonization6. American in Postwar AsiaPart III Dangerous Liaisons7. Miscegnation in Westerns8. Romance across the Pacific9. Black-White Couples and Internal DecolonizationConclusionAppendix AAppendix BNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisHow a journey through Italy casts light on secrets, stereotypes, and the manipulation of information in eighteenth-century science. In 1749, the celebrated French physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet set out on a journey through Italy to solve an international controversy over the medical uses of electricity. At the end of his nine-month tour, he published a highly influential account of his philosophical battle with his Italian counterparts, discrediting them as misguided devotees of the marvelous. Paola Bertucci's In the Land of Marvels brilliantly reveals the mysteries of Nollet's journey, uncovering a subterranean world of secretive and ambitious intelligence gathering masked as scientific inquiry. The advent of electricity was a pivotal phenomenon not only in the history of physical experimentation, but also in the cultivation of popular scientific interest. Nollet's journey was supposedly inspired by the need to investigate, and subsequently report on, claims of the use of electrifiTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1. Silk and SecretsChapter 2. Electricity, Enlightenment, and DeceptionChapter 3. Fabricated ControversyChapter 4. Natural Marvels, Instruments, and Stereotypes ConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisHow the Irish Revolution was shaped by international actors and events The Irish War of Independence is often understood as the culmination of centuries of political unrest between Ireland and the English. However, the conflict also has a vitally important yet vastly understudied international dimension. The Irish Revolution: A Global History reassesses the conflict as an inherently transnational event, examining how circumstances and individuals abroad shaped the course Ireland's struggle for independence.Bringing together leading international scholars of modern Ireland, its diaspora, and the British Empire, this volume discusses the Irish revolution in a truly global sense. The text situates the conflict in the wider context of the international flourishing of anti-colonial movements following World War I. Despite the differences between these movements, their proponents communicated extensively with each other, learning from and engaging with other revoTrade ReviewFeaturing impressive new scholarship on the global dimensions of the Irish Revolution, Mannion and McGarry provide much needed coherence to this emergent but still diffuse and underdeveloped aspect of the historiography, resulting in a cutting-edge reader on a critical theme that currently lacks a single dedicated volume. Most impressively, The Irish Revolution features many neglected or virtually unknown international influences and comparative case studies, including Algerian, Egyptian, Korean, Panamanian, and African-American contexts, making it a novel contribution to our understanding of the international dimensions of anti-colonial (and colonial) discourses, networks, and responses to Irish events. -- Gavin Foster, author of The Irish Civil War and Society: Politics, Class and ConflictA truly groundbreaking volume whose international contributions force a great reimagining of the Irish Revolution. A must-read for anyone interested in Irish history. -- Timothy McMahon, Marquette UniversityA brilliant collection of essays, written by some of the leading authorities on the subject. The book takes us from Dublin to Delhi, from Algeria to Australia, and many other places in-between, and greatly enriches our understanding of the global repercussions and entanglements of what happened in Ireland between 1916 and 1922. Essential reading for anyone who is interested in the global interconnectedness of revolutionary struggle during this period. -- Robert Gerwarth, Professor of Modern History at University College Dublin

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Book SynopsisDuring the Second World War, Mennonites in the Netherlands, Germany, occupied Poland, and Ukraine lived in communities with Jews and close to various Nazi camps and killing sites. As a result of this proximity, Mennonites were neighbours to and witnessed the destruction of European Jews. In some cases they were beneficiaries or even enablers of the Holocaust. Much of this history was forgotten after the war, as Mennonites sought to rebuild or find new homes as refugees. The result was a myth of Mennonite innocence and ignorance that connected their own suffering during the 1930s and 1940s with earlier centuries of persecution and marginalization. European Mennonites and the Holocaust identifies a significant number of Mennonite perpetrators, along with a smaller number of Mennonites who helped Jews survive, examining the context in which they acted. In some cases, theology led them to accept or reject Nazi ideals. In others, Mennonites chose a closer embrace of GermaTrade Review"In addition to standing as an important historical study, European Mennonites and the Holocaust should prompt Anabaptists in North America — particularly white Anabaptists — to reflect on their own legacies of anti-Jewish prejudice and discern how to stand against antisemitism as part of their antiracist commitments." -- Alain Epp Weaver * Anabaptist World *"The value of this book reaches well be­yond telling tales of depraved Mennonites. Several chap­ters reflect on the thinking and rationalizations which emboldened Mennonites to reject historic Anabaptism." -- David Giesbrecht * Roots and Branches *"European Mennonites and the Holocaust adds telling details to the picture of Mennonites during the Nazi era … The contributors do not shrink from addressing the gray eras, especially the question of who can be regarded as a ‘Mennonite’ and where boundaries are to be drawn." -- Astrid von Schlachta * The Mennonite Quarterly Review *"For readers who may feel overwhelmed by the volume of books and articles that have appeared in recent years, European Mennonites and the Holocaust offers an excellent summary of the current state of scholarship. Anyone looking for an entry point into the rapidly growing literature on this sober, if controversial, topic would do well to start with this collection." -- John D. Roth, Goshen College * Directions *"This collection will be a precious source for further archival research about these connections for future generations of Mennonite historians." -- Sergei I. Zhuk, Ball State University * Journal of Mennonite Studies *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction – Neighbours, Killers, Enablers, Witnesses: The Many Roles of Mennonites in the Holocaust Doris L. Bergen, Mark Jantzen, and John D. Thiesen Introduction to Chapter 1 – Mennonites and Nazi Crimes: Gerhard Rempel's Call for Historical Reckoning Doris L. Bergen 1. Mennonites, War Crimes, and the Holocaust Gerhard Rempel, edited by Doris L. Bergen with John D. Thiesen 2. Enjoying the Entitlements of German Freedom: German Mennonites and Nazi Church-State Policy James Irvin Lichti 3. Antisemitism and the Concept of Volk: The Mennonite Youth Circular Community at the Beginning of the Nazi Dictatorship Imanuel Baumann 4. German Mennonite Theology in the Era of National Socialism Arnold Neufeld-Fast 5. Dutch Mennonite Theologians and Nazism Pieter Post 6. Mennonite Collaboration with Nazism: A Case Study of the Responses of Mennonites in Deutsch Wymyschle, Poland, to the Plight of Local Jews during the Early Nazi Occupation Period (1939–1942) Colin Neufeldt 7. Mennonites in Ukraine before, during, and Immediately after the Second World War Dmytro Myeshkov 8. A Portrait of Khortytsya/Zaporizhzhia under Occupation Aileen Friesen 9. Dutch Mennonites and Yad Vashem Recognition Alle G. Hoekema 10. Identity and Complicity: The Post-Second World War Emigration of Chortitza Mennonites Erika Weidemann 11. A Usable Past: Soviet Mennonite Memories of the Holocaust Hans Werner 12. Selective Memory: Danziger Mennonite Reflections on the Nazi Era, 1945–1950 Steve Schroeder List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisFolklore in the Baltic History: Resistance and Resurgence is about the role of folklore, folklore archives, and folklore studies in the contemporary history of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania--together called the Baltic countries. They were occupied by Russia, by Germany, and lastly by the USSR at the end of the Second World War. They regained freedom in 1991.The period under the rule of the USSR brought several changes to their societies and cultures. Individuals and institutions dealing with folklore--archives, university departments, and folklorists--came under special control, attack, and surveillance. Some of the pioneer folklorists escaped to other countries, but many others witnessed their institutions and the meaning of folklore studies transformed. The USSR did not stop folklore studies but led the field to new methods. In spite of all the pressure, folklore continued to be a matter of identity, and folksongs became the marching songs of crowds resisting Soviet contro

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Book SynopsisThis is a masterful study of the ways in which sex and law were inextricably intertwined in the elaboration of French rule in Algeria. Its great virtue is to demonstrate in careful detail, with an impressive range of material (from court records to novels), exactly how the conquest of Algeria repeatedly challenged the very ideals of the secular universalism in whose name colonization was carried out.â Joan Wallach Scott, author of Sex and SecularismDuring more than a century of colonial rule over Algeria, the French state shaped and reshaped the meaning and practice of Muslim law by regulating it and circumscribing it to the domain of family law, while applying the French Civil Code to appropriate the property of Algerians. In Sex, Law, and Sovereignty in French Algeria, 1830–1930, Judith Surkis traces how colonial authorities constructed Muslim legal difference and used it to deny Algerian Muslims full citizenship. In disconnecting Muslim law from property rights, French officials increasingly attached it to the bodies, beliefs, and personhood.Surkis argues that powerful affective attachments to the intimate life of the family and fantasies about Algerian women and the sexual prerogatives of Muslim men, supposedly codified in the practices of polygamy and child marriage, shaped French theories and regulatory practices of Muslim law in fundamental and lasting ways. Women''s legal status in particular came to represent the dense relationship between sex and sovereignty in the colony. This book also highlights the ways in which Algerians interacted with and responded to colonial law. Ultimately, this sweeping legal genealogy of French Algeria elucidates how "the Muslim question" in France became—and remains—a question of sex.Trade ReviewSurkis combines her careful combing of case files with an equally painstaking review of legal texts, press reports and novels... This approach not only makes the work immensely readable, but also ensures its significant contribution across a number of fields, including histories of gender, law, empire, and emotions. * The Journal of North African Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Bodies of French Algerian Law 2. Polygamy, Public Order, and Property 3. Making the "Muslim Family" 4. Civilization, the Civil Code, and "Child Marriage" 5. Special Mœurs and Military Exceptions 6. Conversion, Mixed Marriage, and the Corporealization of Law 7. The Sexual Politics of Legal Reform 8. Colonial Literature and Customary Law Epilogue: Sex and the Centenary Bibliography

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewHofmann has produced a readable and exceptionally sensible volume on the global production of fascist ideology, which will be of tremendous value for scholars who teach comparative history... Hofmann’s book opens the door to a debate truly worth having in Japanese history circles. * Journal of Japanese Studies *This book is an important addition to the growing body of literature that examines fascism in a transnational context. The author provides an insightful and highly original exploration of the dialogue between Italian Fascism and Japanese political and sociocultural debates of the period. Throughout the work, Reco Hofmann does especially well in highlighting the ambiguities and contradictions in the debate over fascism's applicability to Japan, in particular the tensions between its nationalist and internationalist impulses. * The Historian *Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Mediator of Fascism: Shimoi Harukichi, 1915–19282. The Mussolini Boom, 1928–19313. The Clash of Fascisms, 1931–19374. Imperial Convergence: The Italo- Ethiopian War and Japa nese World- Order Thinking, 1935–19365. Fascism in World History, 1937–1943Epilogue: Fascism after the New World Order, 1943–1952Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFor Putin and for Sharia examines what it means to support sharia in twenty-first-century Dagestan, where calls for an Islamic state coexist with nostalgia for the days of Stalin''s rule and Mecca calendars hang alongside portraits of Putin. Confronting existing narratives about sharia, terrorism, and anti-terrorism through ethnographic fieldwork, Iwona Kaliszewska looks at the beliefs and practices of Dagestani Muslims, revealing that the pursuit of sharia can assume a range of forms from sweeping visions of an Islamic state imposed through violence, to minor acts of everyday resistance against injustice, to attempts to restore the security and stability once afforded by the Soviet state. In For Putin and for Sharia, Kaliszewska challenges the official dichotomy of Muslims as supporting either the political underground or state authorities and deconstructs the Salafi/Sufi division between the so-called reformists and traditional Islam.Trade ReviewFor Putin and for Sharia is a fine ethnographic description of a part of the Caucasus that has received little attention from Western scholars. Throughout the book Kaliszewska takes the perspective of her interlocutors toward the state and its actions against citizens. This is not only brave, as she is confronted with violence and the state security apparatus for doing so, her approach also uncovers the controversial world of Salafi-oriented Muslims. * The Russian Review *Table of ContentsPrologue: Pizza with Shakhidkas Introduction: Sipping Coffee to the Sound of Gunfire 1. Political and Social Instability in Dagestan 2. Torture, Exorcisms, and Checkpoints: Experiencing the "Fight against Terrorism" 3. The Resurgent Importance of Islam in the Everyday Life of Dagestanis 4. Wahhabis, Tariqatists, and "New Muslims" 5. Sharia: Thinking beyond the (Secular) State? Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThe Stuff of Soldiers uses everyday objects to tell the story of the Great Patriotic War as never before. Brandon M. Schechter attends to a diverse array of thingsfrom spoons to tanksto show how a wide array of citizens became soldiers, and how the provisioning of material goods separated soldiers from civilians.Through a fascinating examination of leaflets, proclamations, newspapers, manuals, letters to and from the front, diaries, and interviews, The Stuff of Soldiers reveals how the use of everyday items made it possible to wage war. The dazzling range of documents showcases ethnic diversity, women''s particular problems at the front, and vivid descriptions of violence and looting.Each chapter features a series of related objects: weapons, uniforms, rations, and even the knick-knacks in a soldier''s rucksack. These objects narrate the experience of people at war, illuminating the changes taking place in Soviet society over the course of tTrade ReviewWith this original approach—in itself an amazing achievement given the immense literature in this historical field—Brandon Schechteruses the material culture of the Red Army to trace the makeover of Soviet life and politics brought about by the war. * Foreign Affairs *The Stuff of Soldiers is a well-written, wide-ranging, novel approach for understanding the social and military history of the Soviet Army. [It] is an excellent addition to the historiography of the Great Patriotic War and to the general study of how material culture can reflect how soldiers and their societies have experienced war throughout time. * Journal of Military History *The Stuff of Soldiers has much to offer those with an affinity for cultural history studied through objects and for others who want a basic introduction to the quotidian of the Red Army during the Second World War... it takes the reader into the daily life of the Soviet soldier during the war in a way that no other work in the field does. * The Russian Review *Few, if any, thinkers have sought to view [the materiality of the human being] through the prism of an army, its weaponry, the environment it shaped and the objects its soldiers used, cherished or robbed. Brandon M. Schechter is the first to embark upon this intellectual adventure. * The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies *This book will be of interest not only to students and scholars of Soviet history and World War II but also to everyone interested in the experience of life during wartime. * Canadian Slavonic Papers *Schechter's ability to analyze the everyday minutiae of soldiers' lives to tell both personal stories of what it meant to be a member of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War with careful attention placed on differing perspectives based on class, gender, and nationality, and a broader narrative of state-directed (if not always followed) social transformation is inspiring. * Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia *Given the author's lively and accessible style this is surely a work that will reach an audience outside of academia, while the deeply-researched and insightful content equally makes it an invaluable addition to scholars of both the Soviet Union and those interested more broadly in the history and legacies of the Second World War. * British Journal for Military History *A beautifully written, sweeping and nuanced history of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War through the lens of objects and material culture. The Stuff of Soldiers is not only a major contribution to the history of the war; it is also a stimulating attempt to overcome disciplinary boundaries and long-lasting debates about the Soviet project through an ethnographic focus on objects and practices of everyday life. * Cahiers du monde russe *Schechter elegantly intertwines individual stories, context, and analysis taking the reader to the most intimate parts of soldiers' everyday lives. The interested audience of this work will be very large, spanning individuals interested in military history broadly defined, in the history of the Soviet Union, and in material culture. * Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society (JSPPS) *Brandon Schechter has written a tour-de-force volume that presents an innovative approach to the history of the Second World War in the Soviet Union. [O]ne of the main contributions of this work is Schechter's success in offering a new and fresh analysis of these sources from the perspective of material culture. * English Historical Review *Table of ContentsPrelude: Outgunned and Outmanned Acknowledgments List of Archival Sources and Their Abbreviations Terms and Abbreviations Explanatory Notes Introduction: Government Issue 1. The Soldier's Body: A Little Cog in a Giant War Machine 2. A Personal Banner: Life in Red Army Uniform 3. The State's Pot and the Soldier's Spoon: Rations in the Red Army 4. Cities of Earth, Cities of Rubble: The Spade and Red Army Landscaping 5. "A Weapon Is Your Honor and Conscience": Killing in the Red Army 6. The Thing-Bag: A Public-Private Place 7. Trophies of War: Red Army Soldiers Confront an Alien World of Goods Conclusion: Subjects and Objects Notes Index

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Book SynopsisIn Singing Like Germans, Kira Thurman tells the sweeping story of Black musicians in German-speaking Europe over more than a century. Thurman brings to life the incredible musical interactions and transnational collaborations among people of African descent and white Germans and Austrians. Through this compelling history, she explores how people reinforced or challenged racial identities in the concert hall. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, audiences assumed the categories of Blackness and Germanness were mutually exclusive. Yet on attending a performance of German music by a Black musician, many listeners were surprised to discover that German identity is not a biological marker but something that could be learned, performed, and mastered. While Germans and Austrians located their national identity in music, championing composers such as Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms as national heroes, the performance of their works by Black musicTrade ReviewSinging Like Germans is a superb piece of historical research enlivened by its author's deep fascination with her subject matter. This book will be fascinating to a wide body of readers who are interested in classical music, German history, and African American history. * New York Journal of Books *Thurman's exacting research, synthesizing a kaleidoscope of source material, paints a rich portrait of Black classical music-making in Europe spanning well over a century. Filled with compelling accounts of the contradictions inherent in classical music's universalist claims, Singing Like Germans demonstrates that the lives of Black classical musicians cannot be reduced to a narrative of struggle. * Boston Review *Sometimes, a book comes along that completely breaks new ground—a total eye-opener. And that's the book called Singing Like Germans. It's meticulously researched, but the writing style goes down like water. Most importantly, it uncovers a story of people and a performance practice and rebuilds an unknown period in music history. * NPR *In Singing Like Germans, the historian Kira Thurman adds a new dimension to the story by focusing on African American classical musicians who studied, performed, or settled in German-speaking Europe, offering valuable insights into how Germans viewed these Black artists. * New York Review of Books *We love history like this that explores how people reinforced or challenged racial identities in specific circumstances. * East Bay Booksellers, Oakland, CA *Thurman's study of Black musicians is an indispensable and foundational achievment. Thurman's work represents a monumental and necessary step towards rewritng the history of German music. * Monatshefte *With Singing Like Germans, Thurman joins Naomi Adele André, author of Black Opera, at the vanguard of cultural histories reexamining musical production and consumption through the lens of critical race theory. * Los Angeles Review of Books *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: 1870–1914 1. How Beethoven Came to Black America: German Musical Universalism and Black Education after the Civil War 2. African American Intellectual and Musical Migration to the Kaiserreich 3. The Sonic Color Line Belts the World: Constructing Race and Music in Central Europe Part II: 1918–1945 4. Blackness and Classical Musicin the Age of the Black Horror on the Rhine Campaign 5. Singing Lieder, Hearing Race: Debating Blackness, Whiteness, and German Music in Interwar Central Europe 6. "A Negro Who Sings German Music Jeopardizes German Culture": Black Musicians under the Shadow of Nazism Part III: 1945–1961 7. "And I thought they were a decadent race": Denazification, the Cold War, and (African) American Involvement in Postwar West German Musical Life 8. Breaking with the Past: Race, Gender, and Opera after 1945 9. Singing in the Promised Land: Black Musicians in the German Democratic Republic Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThe Starving Empire traces the history of famine in the modern French Empire, showing that hunger is intensely local and sweepingly global, shaped by regional contexts and the transnational interplay of ideas and policies all at once. By integrating food crises in Algeria, West and Equatorial Africa, and Vietnam into a broader story of imperial and transnational care, Yan Slobodkin reveals how the French colonial state and an emerging international community took increasing responsibility for subsistence, but ultimately failed to fulfill this responsibility. Europeans once dismissed colonial famines as acts of god, misfortunes of nature, and the inevitable consequences of backward races living in harsh environments. But as Slobodkin recounts, drawing on archival research from four continents, the twentieth century saw transformations in nutrition, scientific racism, and international humanitarianism that profoundly altered ideas of what colonialism could

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Book SynopsisFounded as an ecclesiastical center, trading hub, and intended capital of a feudal state, Riga was Old Livonia''s greatest city and its indispensable port. Because the city was situated in what was initially remote and inhospitable territory, surrounded by pagans and coveted by regional powers like Poland, Sweden, and Muscovy, it was also a fortress encased by a wall.The House of Hemp and Butter begins in the twelfth century with the arrival to the eastern Baltic of German priests, traders, and knights, who conquered and converted the indigenous tribes and assumed mastery over their lands. It ends in 1710 with an account of the greatest war Livonia had ever seen, one that was accompanied by mass starvation, a terrible epidemic, and a flood of nearly biblical proportions that devastated the city and left its survivors in misery.Readers will learn about Riga''s peoplemerchants and clerics, craftsmen and builders, porters and day laborersabout its structuresTrade ReviewO'Connor's book is a portrait of a city that is no more, a city whose citizens and guests redefined themselves many times, but not along the lines that today's Rigans would recognize. While the author reminds us that the past is a foreign country, he all the same encourages the reader to see societies as ever-changing entities, exposing the claims to Europe's historical homogeneity as myths built on faulty foundations. * The Russian Review *... careful research is combined with a lively and colourful style.... This vivid and readable account is an excellent concise exposition of the early history of a great city. * Journal of European Studies *The House of Hemp and Butter is an impeccably-researched and very engagingly written account of Riga's fascinating social, economic, and political history. * New Books Network *

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Book SynopsisMost accounts of the Holocaust focus on trainloads of prisoners speeding toward Auschwitz, with its chimneys belching smoke and flames, in the summer of 1944. This book provides a hitherto untold chapter of the Holocaust by exploring a prequel to the gas chambers: the face-to-face mass murder of Jews in Galicia by bullets. The summer of 1941 ushered in a chain of events that had no precedent in the rapidly unfolding history of World War II and the Holocaust. In six weeks, more than twenty thousand Hungarian Jews were forcefully deported to Galicia and summarily executed. In exploring the fate of these Hungarian Jews and their local coreligionists, A Summer of Mass Murder transcends conventional history by introducing a multitude of layers of politics, culture, and, above all, psychology—for both the victims and the executioners. The narrative presents an uncharted territory in Holocaust scholarship with extensive archival research, interviews, and corresponding literature across countries and languages, incorporating many previously unexplored documents and testimonies. Eisen reflects upon the voices of the victims, the images of the perpetrators, whose motivation for murder remains inexplicable. In addition, the author incorporates the long-forgotten testimonies of bystander contemporaries, who unwittingly became part of the unfolding nightmare and recorded the horror in simple words. This book also serves as a personal journey of discovery. Among the twenty thousand people killed was the tale of two brothers, the author's uncles. In retracing their final fate and how they were swept up in the looming genocide, A Summer of Mass Murder also gives voice to their story.Table of Contents List of Illustrations The Main Characters: Survivors, Witnesses, Rescuers, Perpetrators Author's Note Preface 1. Prologue: A Primer to the Holocaust 2. The Ostjuden: The Galicianer in the Hungarian Imagination 3. Galicia: An Exile into the Unknown 4. Kamenets-Podolsk: The Anatomy of a Massacre 5. Galicia 1941 – 1942: The Delirium of Murder 6. Weapon of War: Rape and Sexual Violence 7. Return from the Abyss: Rescue and Survival 8. Opening Old Wounds: Responsibility and Consequences 9. Requiem for a Deportation: Unanswered Questions Epilogue: Looking for Closure Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSpymaster’s Prism is a prescient study of our unending struggle with Russia and its intelligence agencies’ relentless effort to undermine our national security. Replete with the most salient spy stories, covert actions, and counterintelligence investigations from the beginning of the Cold War up until the eve of Putin’s misguided march on Kiev, legendary spymaster Jack Devine builds a vivid and complex mosaic that illustrates how Russia has employed intelligence activities to undermine our democracy throughout modern history and lay the groundwork for this invasion. Devine tells this story through the gimlet-eyed perspective of a seasoned CIA professional who served his country for more than three decades, sometimes at the highest levels of the agency, offering objective and candid analysis that will bring new insight into Russia’s invasion. Devine offers key lessons from our intelligence successes and failures over the past seventy-five years that illuminate how best to address our current strategic shortfalls, emerge ahead in the war, and be prepared for what’s to come from any adversary. This cogent study illuminates why intelligence has been such a key driver in the war and how it will be a critical lever in order to prevail. Trade Review"An important perspective on US intelligence as well as its Russian adversary. A very worthwhile contribution."—Hayden Peake, Studies in Intelligence“Devine applies the lessons of the Cold War to today’s great power struggles as only an insider, spymaster practitioner could do. Policymakers should act on Devine’s message: The threat is clear, the challenge unrelenting, and the resolve to counter it is paramount.”—Jami Miscik, vice chairman of Kissinger Associates“Just in time, a splendid intelligence perspective on thug Putin’s determination to get even with us for the Russian loss of the Cold War. . . . The spy history included here is necessary to illustrate that Russian leadership still employs nasty means, from murder to manipulation, to undermine democracy. Only the naïve and inept will fail to heed this message.”—Tom Twetten, former CIA deputy director of operations and chief of the Near East division“Spymaster’s Prism is a must-read, and the title says it all. The Cold War is not over. The actors may have changed, but the goal remains the same. Jack Devine is a real spymaster, beginning his career as a young CIA operations officer who rose to the highest ranks of the CIA. This book belongs on everyone’s shelf.”—Sandra Grimes, CIA Russian operations specialist and coauthor of Circle of Treason: CIA Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed“Jack Devine’s comprehensive history of Russian intelligence efforts against the United States and the West could not be more timely. As amply noted in the book, election meddling, disinformation, and assassination attempts are all modern descendants of a long Russian tradition of espionage and subversion that has been renewed with a vengeance today. Devine’s highly readable style and insider experience in intelligence make this must-read study a persuasive warning to implement the measures he suggests to thwart this threat to our national security.”—Michael Sulick, former director of the U.S. National Clandestine Service“Told with the immediacy of an eyewitness, Devine is a keen observer of the events and personalities that have shaped U.S. intelligence—from the treachery of spies such as Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen to the CIA’s Cold War covert operations in Afghanistan. It is a remarkable volume, told by one of America’s great spymasters, that will appeal to both the intelligence professional and the armchair operative alike.”—Rollie Burans, president of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and former CIA senior executive official“Devine’s extraordinary career rising to master spy gives the reader multiple glimpses across geographic boundaries into intelligence operations from the optic of a practitioner. From the armchair student of foreign policy to the professional spy wannabe, Devine’s narrative of Russia’s obsession with the West and the United States should be mandatory reading.”—David R. Shedd, thirty-three-year CIA career case officer and former acting director of the Defense Intelligence AgencyTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Preamble Introduction List of Abbreviations 1. Our Strategic Intelligence Shortfall—Then and Now 2. Shaping and Reshaping the CIA 3. A Study in Russian Spycraft 4. A Spymaster President 5. Spies among Us 6. A Spymaster’s Rules in Counterintelligence 7. Limits of Counterintelligence 8. Agents-in-Place 9. Policy Spies 10. An American Covert Action Playbook 11. Best Practice 12. A Cautionary Tale 13. Onward Appendix: Russia’s Known Elicitation Attempts in Trump’s Inner Circle Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisDrawn from the perspectives of both regions, the history of Norwegian settlement in Texas provide new insights into European immigration. Readers interested in Texas, Norwegian, and trans-Atlantic history, as well as nineteenth-century immigration, will find new horizons in Norsemen Deep in the Heart of Texas.

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Book SynopsisStudy of one of the most influential aristocratic families of medieval England. The Bigods were one of the most powerful and important families in thirteenth-century England. They are chiefly remembered for their dramatic interventions in high politics. Roger III Bigod (c. 1209-70) famously led the march on Westminster Hall in 1258 against Henry III, while Roger IV Bigod (1245-1306) confronted Edward I in 1297 in similar fashion. This book is the first full-scale study of these two earls, and explores in depth the reasons thatled each of them to take the extreme step of confronting his king. It is only in part, however, a political study. In seeking to understand the motives that lay behind their public actions, the book scrutinizes the earls' privateaffairs. It establishes for the first time the precise extent of their landed estate, the size of their incomes, and the membership and quality of their affinities. It also examines their relationships with friends and relatives,their building works, and even their personalities. Extensive use is made throughout of unpublished manuscript sources: in particular, the hundreds of ministers' accounts that have survived from the administration of Roger IV Bigod, and the charters given by both earls, which are calendared and translated in an appendix.Trade ReviewMorris tells the stories of the Bigods' changing fortunes through detailed study of documents [and] the two earls really come to life when he quotes contemporary chroniclers. * EASTERN DAILY PRESS *Engaging and tremendously informative. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *Admirably thorough and full of new things... a most useful addition to studies of the thirteenth-century English aristocracy. * EHR *(A) careful and well-crafted treatment of the meteoric rise and fall of one of England's great baronial families of the thirteenth century. * SPECULUM *This book is...without doubt important to our understanding of the thirteenth century on a number of levels. (It is) the product of extremely thorough and painstaking research and makes an illuminating and very important contribution to our understanding of thirteenth-century politics and government. * REVIEWS IN HISTORY *Marc Morris has mastered the huge amount of documentary evidence...to produce an eminently readable narrative. * SUFFOLK INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY & HISTORY NEWSLETTER *As always from Boydell, an excellent reference work for the scholar and interested reader alike. * HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW *

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Book SynopsisThe first authoritative survey of the history of common land in Great Britain from the medieval period to present day. More than a million hectares of Britain has the status of common land, most of it consisting of semi-natural environments of mountain, moorland, wetland or heath. Formerly much more extensive, common land was, and in many places remains, an integral part of the pastoral economy. Even where it is no longer used by farmers, it plays an increasingly important role in modern life, as recreational space and for its value for nature conservation. This book provides for the first time an authoritative survey of the history of common land across all three nations of Great Britain from medieval times to the present day. It charts how commons have been viewed and valued across the centuries, how they have been used, and how their vegetation has changed, highlighting parallels and differences between the histories of common land in England, Scotland and Wales. It traces the distinctive legal status of common land and the management regimes which regulated the exercise of common rights; considers the role of commons as spaces for communal gatherings and as a resource for the poor; charts the loss of common land (but also its persistence) during the era of enclosure in the century 1760-1860; and explores the changing conceptions of the value and right use of commons since the nineteenth century, and the impact this has had on their ecological character. Eight case studies of individual commons illustrate the richness of common landscapes and their history at local level. They include crofters' common grazings in Sutherland, mountain commons in the Lake District and Snowdonia, lowland commons in Co. Durham, Herefordshire and the New Forest, turbary allotments in Lincolnshire, and the urban commons of Wimbledon and Putney Heath.Trade ReviewGood maps and figures accompany each [case study], and Winchester's background as an historical geographer is evident throughout the book in the well-thought-out illustrative material. Also to be commended are the excellent footnotes, which together with the Select Bibliography flag myriad place-specific studies. A marvellous study. -- Paul Stamper, University of Leicester * Landscapes *Winchester captures what we know of the origins of this much misunderstood but cherished category of land and then proceeds to chart people's interaction with it over several centuries. Winchester draws on his own expertise and the work of others to document a rich history. The book is beautifully illustrated with maps, photographs, and archival sources. Winchester reminds us that common land has always and will continue to mean different things to different people. -- Frances Kerner * Open Space *The author deserves much credit, however, for his skilful navigation of a subject which aroused passions and provoked controversy in the past and still does. This is an important book. * THE LOCAL HISTORIAN *It stands alone as a singularly ambitious and impressive study, more detailed and comprehensive and wider ranging than anything that has come before. By combining an unrivalled range of material from the middle ages to the present and by offering a close, generous reading of existing work on British commons [...].Winchester's book will be the go-to reference for all those interested in every facet of common land. * AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Part I. Common Threads 1. Commons in the British Landscape 2. Custom and Law: The Genesis of Common Land 3. Managing Communal Resources 4. Commons as Communal Spaces 5. Living on the Edge: Commons and the Poor 6. The Age of 'Improvement': Privatisation and the Reconfiguration of Common Land 7. The Commons Reinvented 8. The Changing Face of Common Land since 1860 Part II. A Kaleidoscope of Common Landscapes: Eight Case Studies9. North Assynt Common Grazings, Sutherland 10. Nether Wasdale Common, Cumberland 11. Cockfield Fell, Co. Durham 12. Isle of Axholme Turbary Allotments, Lincolnshire 13. Llanllechid Mountain and Aber Mountain, Caernarvonshire 14. Bringsty Common and Bromyard Downs, Herefordshire 15. Ibsley Common and Rockford Common, New Forest, Hampshire 16. Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath, Surrey Conclusion: Common Ground Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe first collection of essays in the English language dedicated to the cultural achievements and politics of one of the most important ruling houses of late medieval Europe. The house of Luxembourg between 1308 and 1437 is best known today for its principal royal and imperial representatives, Henry VII, John the Blind, Charles IV, and Charles's two sons, Wenceslas and Sigismund - a group of rulers who, for better or worse, shaped the political destiny of much of Europe during the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. While some of the Luxembourg cultural legacy can still be experienced directly today in and around Prague and southern Germany, and through the literary and musical works of Machaut, Froissart, and Wolkenstein, it reached much further across Europe: from England to present-day Romania, and from the Baltic Sea to the Italian peninsula, alongside the dynasty's homelands in what is now Luxembourg, Belgium and France. However, this culture has not always attracted the scholarly attention it deserves. This volume explores the pan-European impact and influence of the Luxembourgs in a variety of fields: art and architectural history, material culture, Czech, French, German and Latin text production, gender and intellectual history, and music. Embracing the subject matter from multi-disciplinary and transnational perspectives, the essays here offer new insights into the late medieval cultures of the Luxembourg court. Particular subjects treated include the making of the "Wenceslas Bible"; Machaut at the court of John of Luxembourg; and Charles IV's patronage of multilingual literature. On publication this book is available as an Open Access eBook under the Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND.Table of ContentsIntroduction: The 'Long Luxembourg Century' (1308-1437): Courtly Networks, Cultural Politics, Dynastic Legacy Karl Kügle, Ingrid Ciulisová, Václav Žůrek PART I: John the Blind and his Progeny in France 1. The 'Luxembourgness' of Things: Machaut C, Glazier 52, and Dynastic Presence in Early Fourteenth-century France - Uri Smilansky 2. Guillaume de Machaut at the court of John of Luxembourg: Defining a Social Milieu - Jana Fantysová Matějková 3. The Vyšší Brod Cycle and its Anonymous Painter: French and Bohemian Court Circles in the 1340s - Lenka Panušková PART II: Marvelous Objects and Culture at the Court of Charles IV 4. Charles of Luxembourg and his Reliquary Cross: the Significance of Precious Stones - Ingrid Ciulisová 5. Charles IV and the Patronage of Multilingual Literature at his Court and Beyond - Václav Žůrek 6. Miraculous Objects and Foundational Sins: Verbal and Material Reality in the Dalimil Chronicle, the Chronicle of Přibík Pulkava of Radenín, and Charles IV's Autobiography - Matouš Jaluška PART III: Wenceslas and Sigismund: Art, Politics, and Diplomacy 7. The Making of the Wenceslas Bible, with Special Consideration of the Theological Concept of its Genesis Initial - Maria Theisen 8. The Naked King: Representing Wenceslas in his Illuminated Bible - Gia Toussaint 9. Dealing with the Luxembourg Court: Ellwangen Abbey and their Imperial Overlord - Mark Whelan 10. Assessing the Luxembourgs: The Image of Wenceslas and Sigismund in the Correspondence of Italian Ambassadors - Ondřej Schmidt PART IV: Studying the Luxembourgs: What has been Neglected 11. Heiresses, Regents, and Patrons: Female Rulers in the Age of the Luxembourgs - Julia Burkhardt 12. Image-making, image-breaking, and the Luxembourg Monarchy - Len Scales 13. The Absent Present: Luxembourg Courts, their Cultures, and Music Histor(iograph)y - Karl Kügle Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book closely analyses the rise and fall of Louis XIV's marine insurance institutions in Paris, which were central to the French monarchy's efforts to stimulate commerce, colonial enterprise and economic growth. These institutions were the projects of two leading ministers, Jean-Baptiste Colbert and his son, the Marquis de Seignelay. While both men recognised that marine insurance was crucial for protecting commercial investment in French maritime endeavours, Colbert looked to private enterprise to lure capital away from passive investments in state debt towards the marine insurance industry. Seignelay, by contrast, leveraged the tools of privilege on which the French economy was built by creating the first chartered company in the history of marine insurance. In exploring the global insurance portfolios of the men and women who joined these institutions - and the conflicts that arose when maritime incidents came into dispute - the book identifies the absolute monarchy itself as the source of the institutions' struggles. While the markets of Amsterdam and London thrived in the long run, Parisian insurers were made to bear the burden of maritime and colonial losses during Louis XIV's costly wars to make up for the state's inadequate protection of French shipping, the French Atlantic empire and the Parisian market. This encapsulates, the book argues, the overarching system of risk management that lay at the heart of absolutism itself. The ebook edition of this book is openly available under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND.Table of ContentsIntroduction Part 1: Insurance, Privilege and Commercial Policy 1 The Royal Insurance Chamber and Colbertian Commercial Policy, 1664-1683 2 The Royal Insurance Company and Privilege in Post-Colbertian Commercial Policy, 1683-c. 1700 3 'Over thirty leagues from the sea': Paris, Information Asymmetries and State Intervention Part 2: War, Maritime Commerce and Empire 4 Underwriting in War and Peace: Fortune and Failure in the Royal Insurance Chamber, 1668-1672 5 In the Absence of the State: The Royal Insurance Company, the Atlantic Empire and Neutral Shipping, 1686-1698 Part 3: Law, Conflict Resolution and the Absolute Monarchy 6 'In the time of the Ordonnance': Insurance, Law and Maritime Jurisdiction 7 'Impavidum ferient': Reputation, Conflict Resolution and State Propaganda in the Royal Insurance Chamber, 1668-1686 8 'Nec hostes nec mare terrent': Reputation, Conflict Resolution and Privilege in the Royal Insurance Company, 1686-1701 Conclusion: Privilege at a Premium Appendix I (online) Appendix II (online) Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn investigation into farming practices throughout a period of seismic change. WINNER of the British Agricultural History Society's 2022 Thirsk Prize WINNER of the 2022 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award "This meticulously researched book gives a detailed and authoritative history of agricultural change in the second half of the twentieth century. The book skilfully weaves together the hitherto underexplored individual returns of the Farm Management Survey with oral histories of the farmers who enacted change on the ground to offer an incisive account of the complex technological, political and cultural developments which gave rise to some of the greatest changes in English farming history. It will stand as the key reference point for those with an interest in the history of agricultural change in Britain." Professor Mark Riley, University of Liverpool At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 British agriculture was largely powered by the muscles of men, women, and horses, and used mostly nineteenth-century technology to produce less than half of the country's temperate food. By 1985, less land and far fewer people were involved in farming, the power sources and technologies had been completely transformed, and the output of the country's agriculture had more than doubled. This is the story of the national farm, reflecting the efforts and experiences of 200,000 or so farmers and their families, together with the people they employed. But it is not the story of any individual one of them. We know too little about change at the individual farm level, although what happened varied considerably between farms and between different technologies. Based on an improbably-surviving archive of Farm Management Survey accounts, supported by oral histories from some of the farmers involved, this book explores the links between the production of new technologies, their transmission through knowledge networks, and their reception on individual farms. It contests the idea that rapid adoption of technology was inevitable, and reveals the unevenness, variability and complexity that lay beneath the smooth surface of the official statistics.Trade Review[An] excellent and coherent volume. [...] Highly recommended. -- CHOICEThis book does a wonderful job of combining historical statistics with personal recollections to create a clear and compelling case for the character of technological changes in English agriculture. [...] The authors have given us an excellent rebuttal to technological determinism, and raised a number of very important questions for other scholars to consider in their assessments of modernization. -- HISTORIA AGRARIAThe book is fascinating...for the illustration and illuminating details, both of national conditions and trends and more so from individual stories and responses. * JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS *This study sets the individual stories against the national statistics, and in doing so provides a framework for future work -- Nicola Verdon * Family & Community History *Table of Contents1 Introduction: Exploring Agricultural Change 2 The Organisation of Agricultural Science, 1935-85 3 Knowledge Networks in UK farming 1935-85 4 Agricultural Policy 1939-85 5 Dairy Farming 6 Land and Capital 7 Labour and Machinery 8 Specialisation and Expansion 9 The Declining Enterprises: Pigs and Poultry 10 Conclusions Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA reconstruction of the ‘Strand palaces’, where England’s early‑modern and post‑Reformation elites jostled to build and furnish new, secular cathedrals This book reconstructs the so-called "Strand palaces"—eleven great houses that once stood along the Strand in London. Between 1550 and 1650, this was the capital’s "Golden Mile": home to a unique concentration of patrons and artists, and where England’s early-modern and post-Reformation elites jostled to establish themselves by building and furnishing new, secular cathedrals. Their inventive, eclectic, and yet carefully-crafted mix of vernacular and continental features not only shaped some of the greatest country houses of the day, but also the image of English power on the world stage. It also gave rise to a distinctly English style, which was to become the symbol of a unique architectural period. The product of almost two decades of research, and benefitting from close archival investigation, this book brings together an incredible array of unpublished sources that sheds new light on one of the most important chapters in London’s architectural history, and on English architecture more broadly.Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British ArtTrade Review“This book presents discrete 11 studies of these outstanding buildings...Part of its fascination lies in the rich body of historical illustrations it assembles.”—John Goodall, Country Life“A beautifully produced book by Yale University Press. They always produce rather sumptuous books. It’s also a piece of detective work, about the great buildings that were created on the Strand between roughly the 1550s through to the 1650s.”—Paul Lay, Five Books ‘Best History Books of 2021’“How historic a gateway it was is the focus of Manolo Guerci’s sumptuously illustrated new book.”—Jack Watkins, Country Life“Manolo Guerci has pieced together clues from visual sources such as early maps and views of London, and knitted that information together with details gleaned from documentary sources...He has done an excellent job of conjuring up a lost urban landscape.”—Elizabeth Goldring, Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisThis volume of Medieval European Coinage is the first comprehensive survey of the coinage of north Italy c.9501500, bringing the latest research to an international audience. It provides an authoritative and up-to-date account of the coinages of Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy and the greater Veneto, which have never been studied together in such detail on a broad regional basis. The volume reveals for the first time the wider trends that shaped the coinages of the region and offers new syntheses of the monetary history of the individual cities. It includes detailed appendices, such as a list of coin hoards, indices and a glossary, as well as a fully illustrated catalogue of the north Italian coins, including those of Genoa, Milan and Venice, in the unrivalled collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum, largely formed by Professor Philip Grierson (19102006).Trade Review'… MEC 12 is certainly a major resource on northern Italian coinage that will be useful to scholars for decades to come.' Lucia Travaini, SpeculumTable of Contents1. General introduction; 2. Royal and imperial coinages; 3. Piedmont; 4. Liguria; 5. Lombardy; 6. Veneto (including Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige/Sudtirol); Appendices; Bibliography; Sales catalogues; Catalogue; Concordances; Indexes.

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Book SynopsisThis book is of interest to all those who value and seek to understand the humanities. Beginning in the Italian Renaissance and ending in the European Enlightenment, this book touches on how people in the past changed their reading habits, and how technology changed their perception of truth.Trade Review'An engrossing story about how modernity was born when it learned to read and write the word. The parallels between the Italian Renaissance and our contemporary present are stunning. As before, so now: information glut and a rapidly evolving mediascape are challenges that only a new investment in critical sense-making – 'philology,' broadly understood – can meet. Celenza's call for a reinvigorated culture of the humanities today is both historically rich and prescient. His book is sure to bring a new dimension to the debates about the uses and reach of culture today.' James I. Porter, University of California, Berkeley'A powerful history, cutting through the artificial line too-often drawn between Renaissance and Enlightenment to present one continuity, the quiet revolution underlying all the others: the slow, painstaking advance of the conviction that knowledge-seeking can and should be unending, unlimited, and open to everyone.' Ada Palmer, University of Chicago'Christopher Celenza brilliantly threads the needle to produce a portrait of Italian Renaissance humanism for our time. Deeply attentive to personal experiences and personal ties, he injects agency and emotion into the celebrated practice of classical and biblical philology, astutely examining figures who include Valla, Poliziano, Decembrio, and even Descartes. Celenza's enduring claim is that philology was and remains inextricably connected with philosophy.' Kristine Haugen, California Institute of Technology Table of Contents1. Philology, the Italian renaissance, and authorship; 2. Lorenzo Valla, philology, emotion; 3. Losing your identity: Angelo Decembrio; 4. Trust and authenticity; 5. Pursuing a love of knowledge; 6. Shaping knowledge; 7. Forgetting philology: Rene Descartes; 8. Certainty. Skepticism; 9. Echoes.

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Book SynopsisExplores the later years of Elizabeth I's reign through the lives of her key favourites', who she surrounded herself with at court and elsewhere in a refined game of courtly love.

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Book SynopsisTanks were the beasts of the Second World War, machines designed to destroy anything and anyone in their path. Throughout the summer of 1944, the Allied forces readily employed tanks and armored vehicles to gain ground in the bloody campaign of Normandy. Heavily armed, they provided a kind of support which no number of infantrymen could offer, battling their way through enemy lines with their guns blazing. From the US 2nd Armored Division named ‘Hell on Wheels’ to the British ‘Achilles’ tank, the encounters they had in battle were explosive.This volume of the Casemate Illustrated series explores the Normandy invasion from the perspective of the Allied Armored divisions, looking at how armored vehicles played a central role in the many battles that took place. It includes over 40 profiles of tanks and armored vehicles, from the American Sherman and Stuart tanks to the bulldozers and amphibious vehicles designed for the beach.With detailed diagrams and many photos illustrating the composition of the Allied armored divisions and tank regiments present at Normandy, this volume explains the crucial part played by tanks in gaining a foothold in Normandy after the D-Day landings, as well as the significance of many other types of armored vehicles.Trade ReviewIdeal source material for general interest, wargamers and modeller alike. Some excellent colour plates, Order of Battle diagrams and a sound historical narrative in support. * Despatches *… I would recommend to get it for your collection […] handy if you like to build allied armor. * DetailScaleView *The book is clear and concise […] the huge amount of information, diagrams, profiles is an excellent starting point to understanding the use of the allied armoured formations in the Normandy Campaign. * Old Barbed Wire *...if you want to learn more about the subject or want to gain a broad understanding of the use of armored units in Normandy, this is a good introduction. * Recollections of World War II *

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Book SynopsisPeter Meineck and Paul Woodruff's collaboration on this new translation combines the strengths that have recently distinguished both as translators of Greek tragedy: expert knowledge of the Greek and of the needs of the teaching classicist, intimate knowledge of theatre, and an excellent ear for the spoken word. Their Oedipus Tyrannus features foot-of-the-page notes, an Introduction, stage directions and a translation characterized by its clarity, accuracy, and power.Trade ReviewA clear, vigorous, spare, actable translation, and with it, excellent apparatus (Intro., notes, bibliography); all in a slim and affordable volume. I will use when I next teach Oedipus. Hackett is an invaluable resource!--Rachel Hadas, Rutgers UniversityI have enjoyed all of the recent Hackett editions of translations of Greek literature and "Oedipus Tyrannus” is certainly no exception. Meineck and Woodruff got things just right, from employing "Tyrannus” instead of "Rex” in the title (as has become traditional, though it lends an erroneous sense to the play from the outset) to Woodruff’s very fine and accessible Introduction to the suspenseful, poetic and powerful rendering of the play itself. Meineck’s theatrical sensibility and knowledge are evident, yet the text never becomes too "stagey” nor wanders far from the Greek. I will definitely use this text along with other terrific Hackett editions in my courses.--Lisa Rengs George, Arizona State UniversityAn excellent translation. . . . Paul Woodruff’s Introduction, written for a general audience, is clear and well-informed.--Herman Van Looy, L'Antiquité Classique

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Book SynopsisWolfram Siemann tells a new story of Clemens von Metternich, the Austrian at the center of nineteenth-century European diplomacy. Known as a conservative and an uncompromising practitioner of realpolitik, in fact Metternich accommodated new ideas of liberalism and nationalism insofar as they served the goal of peace. And he promoted reform at home.Trade ReviewA superb biographical portrait and work of historical analysis…Basing his account on a wealth of new documentation from the family archive, Siemann locates the man firmly within the intertwined history of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy…The most comprehensive, absorbing and authoritative biography of the man we have, defying the stereotypes that usually adhere to him. Let us hope that it will serve if not as a manual then at least as an inspiration—good statesmanship is needed more than ever. -- Brendan Simms * Wall Street Journal *This impressive biography is welcome. It covers every aspect of Metternich’s life with a wealth of detail, and dishes up some delightful gems… The real strength of the book lies in its coverage of the internal politics of the Habsburg Empire, Metternich’s attempts to reorganize it, and the power struggles at its heart after the death of Emperor Francis I in 1835. -- Adam Zamoyski * The Times *[An] evocative and deeply researched biography…Siemann brilliantly refreshes our understanding of Metternich and his era…Metternich was an intellectual in politics of a kind now rare in the modern world…And Siemann is as good on his subject’s emotional life as on his intellectual life. -- Christopher Clark * London Review of Books *A very extensive and well-researched chronicle of the subject’s monumental career…Metternich deserves, and here thoroughly receives, re-examination. It’s a biography for anyone who seriously wants to learn about its remarkable subject. * The Spectator *The culmination and encapsulation of a life’s work…it is a running joy, full of winking sidelights and delightful detours. * Times Literary Supplement *Vast in scope and profound in learning, Wolfram Siemann’s masterpiece, deftly translated by Daniel Steuer, refreshes every theme it touches and situates its protagonist in a landscape charged with texture and new meaning. At its center is a compelling and humane portrait of one of the most gifted and interesting statesmen of modern times. But this is more than a biography—it is a window into the heart of Europe’s nineteenth century. -- Christopher Clark, author of Iron Kingdom and The SleepwalkersMagisterial…As well as providing a first-rate intellectual biography and a spirited defense of his policies, Siemann reveals Metternich to us as a man of flesh and blood…If great biography, like great literature, permits us to peer into another person’s soul, then Siemann has succeeded admirably. The portrait of Metternich that emerges is one of a cosmopolitan rationalist and problem solver with empathetic qualities, rather than the die-hard reactionary of legend…As new tensions between the forces of nationalism and globalization emerge in our own day, Metternich’s efforts appear more relevant than ever. -- Mark Jarrett * Literary Review *Succeed[s] in forcing readers to wonder whether Metternich’s efforts to defend an essentially conservative order against populists and terrorists are so different from the struggles that liberal democracies face today. -- Andrew Moravcsik * Foreign Affairs *The first independent treatment of Metternich in the modern era. This was long overdue, and the scale of Siemann’s accomplishment would be hard to overstate…Siemann’s greatest achievement, however, lies in bringing new evidence to bear that changes our view of Metternich the statesman…Magnificent and fun to read…Metternich’s wait for a historian to properly judge his place in history took longer than he probably expected. But in Wolfram Siemann, he got his man. -- A. Wess Mitchell * Standpoint *[An] engaging and comprehensive biography…Excellent…Siemann has greatly advanced our knowledge of and admiration for [Metternich]. -- Andrew Roberts * New Criterion *One of the best biographies to appear on the American market in 2019…[An] enormously interesting life of the great diplomat. * Open Letters Review *In an era when supposedly benevolent interventions in other people’s countries have once again become fashionable, the case for leaving things alone needs to be made…This is why [Metternich] remains important…Fascinating. -- Peter Hitchens * First Things *So rich is this wonderful book in insight and information, so brilliantly does it illuminate Metternich’s exciting times, that no review can hope to do justice to its author’s achievement. Every general history of the period between the outbreak of the French Revolution and the revolutions of 1848 will need to be rewritten. It is a long book, but consistently stimulating, entertaining, even enthralling. -- Tim Blanning * GHIL Bulletin *[An] excellent biography…An exhaustive work of scholarship intended to set the historical record straight…History has credited him with crafting much of the European peace that lasted between 1815 and 1914; he deserves much more, and Siemann has given it to him. * Washington Examiner *A great reassessment of one of the most dazzling and controversial statesmen of the nineteenth century. * Lesart *A masterpiece. * Neue Zürcher Zeitung *This outstanding German historian offers the definitive biography of the Austrian statesman and completely collapses our negative image of him—a brilliant book that leaves nothing to be desired. * NRC Handelsblad *A work of unusual clarity and depth. * Choice *Should long serve as the standard biography. -- James Baresel * University Bookman *Very few historical figures have played so integral a role in so many events of world-historic importance…A profoundly engaging work of such depth and breadth that it is often possible to see Metternich more as a framing device for a sprawling history of the German region in a period of profound change…What Wolfram Siemann achieves in this magisterial work is to present Metternich as a man of his time. -- Bodie A. Ashton * German History *Siemann is the first biographer to mine Metternich’s family archive in Prague…Compels us to rethink virtually every aspect of Metternich’s career…Likely to be the standard life of Metternich for a very long time. -- Jack Cunningham * International Journal *

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Book SynopsisAs read on BBC Radio 4's 'Book of the Week', a timely, moving and profound exploration of how writers, composers and artists have searched for solace while facing loss, tragedy and crisis, from the historian and Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist Michael Ignatieff.'This erudite and heartfelt survey reminds us that the need for consolation is timeless, as are the inspiring words and examples of those who walked this path before us.' Toronto StarWhen we lose someone we love, when we suffer loss or defeat, when catastrophe strikes – war, famine, pandemic – we go in search of consolation. Once the province of priests and philosophers, the language of consolation has largely vanished from our modern vocabulary, and the places where it was offered, houses of religion, are often empty. Rejecting the solace of ancient religious texts, humanity since the sixteenth century has increasingly placed its faith in science, ideology, and the therapeutic.How do we console each other and ourselves in an age of unbelief? In a series of portraits of writers, artists, and musicians searching for consolation – from the books of Job and Psalms to Albert Camus, Anna Akhmatova, and Primo Levi – writer and historian Michael Ignatieff shows how men and women in extremity have looked to each other across time to recover hope and resilience. Recreating the moments when great figures found the courage to confront their fate and the determination to continue unafraid, On Consolation takes those stories into the present, movingly contending that we can revive these traditions of consolation to meet the anguish and uncertainties of the twenty-first century.Trade ReviewIlluminating and moving, these wide-ranging portraits of men and women seeking answers in dark times . . . appeal to us all, as a universal quest and an intimate personal testament. -- Jenny Uglow, author of Mr. Lear: A Life of Art and NonsenseAn extraordinary meditation on loss and mortality - drawing on all of Michael Ignatieff’s powers as a philosopher, a historian, a politician and a man. -- Rory Stewart, author of The Places in BetweenReading this book is like taking a walk along a winding path with a dear friend and sharing life’s travails . . . At the end, you feel enlivened, fortified, and somehow just a little wiser. This is a bold, brilliant, and yes, moving book. -- Lisa Appignanesi, author of Everyday Madness: On Grief, Anger, Loss and LoveIn an age when we are so much in need of solace, Michael Ignatieff went looking for it in textsand times whose assumptions are profoundly different from our own . . . elegant, humane and intensely rewarding. -- Kwame Anthony Appiah, author of The Lies that Bind: Rethinking IdentityIt is at once illuminating, moving and consoling, to follow Michael Ignatieff as he searches formoments of consolation across the centuries. With resolute honesty Ignatieff follows the searchinto his own inner life, grappling, as we all must do, with failure, loss, and death. -- Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became ModernThis is an extraordinarily moving book. The idea of solidarity in time is itelf consoling, amidst so much loss: in Ignatieff’s words, “we are not alone, and we never have been”. -- Emma Rothschild, author of The Inner Life of EmpiresA wonderful balance of literary survey and personal reflection, this book is wide-ranging, moving, and stylishly written. It makes the perfect introduction to a genre that never goes out of fashion. -- Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live and At the Existentialist CaféOn Consolation is splendidly immune to the panics of our age. Written with eloquence in anaffecting spirit of humility by a man of uncommon intelligence, for many of its readers thisbook will be—is there any higher praise for a study of this subject?—useful. -- Leon Wieseltier, author of KaddishA passionate, thought-provoking, unpredictable book. -- Carlo Ginzburg, author of Threads and TracesReading [Ignatieff's] memorable portraits of historical figures who needed, sought, lost, or found consolation leaves the reader with a deeper appreciation of the profound challenges and possibilities that life lays before every one of us. -- Mark Lilla, author of The Reckless MindAn inspiration for those in need of words to carry on with life. * Kirkus *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Fortune Best Book of the Year""The Last Embassy is rare in the field of academic history, in that it works just as well as a story as it does as a work of significant historical investigation. The story of the Dutch embassy to Beijing—the last to the Imperial Chinese court—has everything: competing protagonists, trials and tribulations, and imperial pomp and circumstance. Andrade’s work is a wonderfully written work about a neglected event in diplomatic history."---Nicholas Gordon, Fortune"One of the best academic studies in terms of both scholarship and writing-style I have read in ten years or more. . . . [A]n accessible, exciting, and illuminating book, written with consummate verve and enthusiasm."---John Butler, Asian Review of Books"An animated account."---Peter Neville-Hadley, South China Morning Post Magazine"Its lively writing, quick chapters, and the descriptions of the various parts of the empire that the embassy travels through, give readers a panoramic view of the empire at its height."---Reid Wyatt, World History Connected"An excellent entry point for readers seeking a nuanced under­standing of China’s global presence in the eighteenth century, and a useful cor­rective to those specialists who still tend to regard Qing relations with Britain as the totality of Qing relations with the ‘West.’"---Pamela Kyle Crossley, Journal of Early Modern History

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Book SynopsisDuring a Biblical seven years in the middle of the nineteenth century, fully a quarter of Ireland''s citizens either perished from starvation or emigrated in what came to be known as Gorta Mor, the Great Hunger. Waves of hungry peasants fled across the Atlantic to the United States, with so many dying en route that it was said, you could walk dry shod to America on their bodies. In this sweeping history Ireland''s best-known historian, Tim Pat Coogan, tackles the dark history of the Irish Famine and argues that it constituted one of the first acts of genocide. In what The Boston Globe calls his greatest achievement, Coogan shows how the British government hid behind the smoke screen of laissez faire economics, the invocation of Divine Providence and a carefully orchestrated publicity campaign, allowing more than a million people to die agonizing deaths and driving a further million into emigration. Unflinching in depicting the evidence, Coogan presents a vivid and horrifying pic

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Book Synopsis* The first, full account of Etruscan politics, culture and society, placing Etruscans in their Mediterranean context. * Incorporate up--to--date finding from landscape archaeology. * Includes unique practical guide to more than 60 Etruscan sites.Trade Review"Written with scholarly precision but without condescension The Etruscans deserves to be on the shelves of all those who want an up-to-date overview of the subject." History Today, Volume 48, Sept 98. "As well as offering new approaches and interpretations the book presents the reader with concise summaries of, often highly contentious, recent debates." Vedia Izzet, Christ's College, Cambridge. "In an impressively comprehensive book, they weave together material from a wealth of sources, classical literature, land surveys and excavation - their text providing a lesson in itself in how to recreate ancient history." History Today.Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. The Landscape. 2. Origins. 3. Sources and Society. 4. Cultural Transformations. 5. Settlement and Territory. 6. Subsistence and Economy. 7. Life, Cult, and Afterlife. 8. Romanization. Appendix: Etruscan Places - A Rough Guide. Bibliography. Index.

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Book SynopsisTo coincide with the 2015 bicentennial of the Battle of Waterloo, Osprey publishes Waterloo 1815, a definitive three volume history of the historic battle. Based on new research drawn from unpublished first-hand accounts and illustrations, Waterloo 1815 provides a detailed resource for all aspects of the famous battle.This first volume of the trilogy, Quatre Bras, focuses on the lead-up to Waterloo itself. Two days before the main battle, an initial 8,000 Allied troops faced the 48,000 men of the French Armée du Nord under Marshal Ney at the strategically vital crossroads of Quatre Bras. Having been tricked by Napolean who was trying to drive a wedge between the Prussians and the Anglo-allied army, Wellington concentrated his troops at Quatre Bras, hoping to link up with the Prussians. There Wellington just managed to hold off Ney''s attacks. The battle ended in a tactical stalemate but, because he was unable to join with Blücher''s Prussians, Wellington retreated back alongTable of ContentsIntroduction / Chronology / Opposing commanders / Opposing forces / Orders of battle / Opposing plans / The campaign opens / Aftermath / The battlefield today / Further reading / Index

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Book SynopsisThe Sunday Times Number 1 BestsellerA fabulous story, superbly told cannot be bettered' Max HastingsSome battles change nothing. Waterloo changed almost everything.'On the 18th June 1815 the armies of France, Britain and Prussia descended upon a quiet valley south of Brussels. In the previous three days the French army had beaten the British at Quatre-Bras and the Prussians at Ligny. The Allies were in retreat.The blood-soaked battle of Waterloo would become a landmark in European history, to be examined over and again, not least because until the evening of the 18th, the French army was close to prevailing on the battlefield.Now, brought to life by the celebrated novelist Bernard Cornwell, this is the chronicle of the four days leading up to the actual battle and a thrilling hour-by-hour account of that fateful day.In his first work of non-fiction, Cornwell combines his storytelling skills with a meticulously researched history to give a riveting account of every dramatic moment, froTrade ReviewPraise for Waterloo: ‘[…] An account that is both vivid and scholarly. Readers new to the Waterloo campaign could hope for no better introduction, and veterans will find fresh insights.’ Independent ‘Cornwell is excellent on the minutiae of tactics […] he offers narrative clarity, and a sure grip on personalities and period.’ Max Hastings, The Sunday Times ‘An excellent first foray into non-fiction, and proof that good narrative history is no different from fiction – it’s all about the story.’ Evening Standard ‘A gripping “fife and drum” account […] beautifully produced.’ Country Life Praise for Bernard Cornwell’s previous titles: ‘The best battle scenes of any writer I’ve ever read, past or present. Cornwell really makes history come alive.’ George R.R. Martin ‘Cornwell's narration is quite masterly and supremely well-researched.’ Observer

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Book SynopsisFrom the arrival of Henry Tudor and his army, at Milford in 1485, to the death of the great Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, this was an astonishingly eventful and contradictory age. All the strands of Tudor life are gathered in a rich tapestry - London and the country, costumes, furniture and food, travel, medicine, sports and pastimes, grand tournaments and the great flowering of English drama, juxtaposed with the stultifying narrowness of peasant life, terrible roads, a vast underclass, the harsh treatment of heretics and traitors, and the misery of the Plague.Trade Review"- 'Mr Ridley has written a meticulous, sane and lucid book.' (The Freemasons) The Economist Review Feb 2000 - 'Masterly, rich, comprehensive, and consistently fair, intelligent and readable.' (Lord Palmerston)- Michael Foot, Evening Standard, London - '...scholarly, lucid and judicious..."Definitive" is a foolish word to apply to history but it will be a long time before we read a biography of Louis Napoleon and Eugenie which better deserves the appellation.'(Napoleon III & Eugenie) - Philip Ziegler, The Times

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 'A heartbreaking, beautifully written book. A classic for sure' Claire Tomalin, Guardian Extraordinary true stories of those who lived in East Germany. Travel through the remains of East Germany with Anna Funder as she meets the people who lived in the GDR before the fall of the wall. There is Miriam, condemned as an enemy of the state at sixteen. She hears the heartbreaking story of Frau Paul, who was separated from her young baby by the Berlin Wall. And she gets drunk with the legendary 'Mik Jegger' of the East, a man once declared by the authorities - to his face - to no longer exist. Then she meets the Stasi themselves - men and women who spied on their families and friends - people who, despite everything, are still loyal to the vanished regime and who long for the return of Communism. Stasiland is a gripping portrait of the horror and the absurdities of state oppression. In a world of total surveillance, its celebration of resilience and resistance is as potent as ever. 'A brilliant and necessary book about oppression and history... Here is someone who knows how to tell the truth' Rachel Cusk 'Superb... Funder skillfully deploys fictional techniques to make the material jump off the page... Vividly conveyed [with] flashes of humour too' Independent on SundayTrade ReviewThese rigorously researched, tenderly told stories of life inside East Germany won the Samuel Johnson prize a decade ago... Funder illuminates her subjects with humanity... remarkable investigative journalism -- Arifa Akbar * Independent *Anna Funder's Stasiland demonstrates that great, original reporting is still possible. She found her subject in East Germany, went for it bravely and delivers the goods in a heartbreaking, beautifully written book. A classic for sure -- Claire Tomalin * Guardian *A brilliant and necessary book about oppression and history ... Here is someone who knows how to tell the truth -- Rachel Cusk * Evening Standard *Superb... Funder skilfully deploys fictional techniques to make the material jump off the page: crafted scenes with their own story-arcs, naturalistic dialogue, fully-realised characters with their own plotlines... Vividly conveyed [with] flashes of humour too -- Brandon Robshaw * Independent on Sunday ***** *A journey into the bizarre, scary, secret history of the former East Germany that is both relevant and riveting -- Anthony Sattin * Sunday Times *In Stasiland, her first book, [Funder] spiritedly plunges herself into "this land gone wrong" and attempts to understand a regime like the German Democratic Republic through the stories of ordinary men and women, "not just the activists or the famous writers". The result is a terrific act of life-giving to a people - 17 million of them - who have hitherto lacked not just a voice but an audience -- Nicholas Shakespeare * Telegraph *Written with rare literary flair. I can think of no better introduction to the brutal reality of East German repression * Sunday Telegraph *Funder is a superb interviewer ... she truly excels in the rendering of her sessions with former Stasi employees.This foreign perspective adds a unique dimension to Stasiland. Funder seems to be asking all the questions East and West Germans should be asking themselves. In the book's stunning opening, she describes herself being hungover in Berlin and bumping into things on the street: "Tomorrow bruises will develop on my skin, like a picture from a negative." It is a perfect description of the astonishing effect Stasiland has on the reader: a slow-motion understanding of decades of human pain and cruelty -- Elena Lappin * Sunday Times *The best account of the strange, secretive place on the other side of the wall -- William Leith * Evening Standard *These are haunting accounts of an Orwellian time through which no one lived through without paying a high personal price -- Alastair Mabbott * Herald *These encounters with survivors are harrowing and, until this book, almost forgotten -- Fiona Wilson * The Times *Funder skilfully deploys fictional techniques to make the material jump off the page: naturalistic dialogue, fully-realised characters with their own plotlines. It conveys a grim atmosphere - but there are flashes of humour too -- Brandon Robshaw * Irish Independent *Compelling... A fascinating book made all the more affecting by Funder's writing, making non-fiction read like a novel -- SJ Watson ‘My six best books’ * Daily Express *

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of the emotional and spiritual life of the ancient Romans, focusing on the sentiments of honour that shaped the Romans' sense of themselves and their society. The book draws on contemporary theories of the self and social theory to deepen the reader's understanding of ancient Rome.Trade Review"A bold book. . . . written with passion. Like her earlier Sorrows of the Ancient Romans, it is also likely to arouse passionate responses, positive and negative, among her professional colleagues. The pace is rapid, the argument built up under short vivid sub-sections." * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. A Sort of Prelude: The Tao of the Romans PART ONE: The Moment of Truth in Ancient Rome: Honor and Embodiment in a Contest Culture 3. Light and Fire 4. Stone and Ice: The Remedies of Dishonor PART TWO Confession and the Roman Soul 5. The Spirit Speaking 6. Confession and the Remedies of Defeat PART THREE: On the Wire: The Experience of Shame in Ancient Rome 7. The Poise of Shame 8. The Poison of Shame{--} and Its Antidotes 9. Conclusions: Choosing Life Philosophical Coda: The Sentiment and the Symbol Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTacitus (ca. AD 55–120) is an essential historian of the early Roman empire. Agricola narrates its subject's career in Britain. Germania is a description of German tribes as known to the Romans. Dialogus concerns the decline of oratory and education.

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Book SynopsisAn account of what Stalinism meant to the masses of ordinary people who lived it. It argues that Stalinism offered itself as an opportunity for enlightenment. It depicts a whole range of life: from the blast furnace workers who labored in the iron and steel plant, to the families who struggled with the shortage of housing and services.Trade Review"One of the most influential of the post-Soviet books . . . a study of the steel city of Magnitogorsk, the U.S.S.R.’s answer to Pittsburgh, as it was constructed in the shadow of the Ural Mountains in the early nineteen-thirties. . . . A sharp-elbowed intervention in the decades-old debate between 'totalitarian' historians, who saw in the Soviet Union an omnipotent state imposing its will on a defenseless populace, and 'revisionist' historians, who saw a more dynamic and fluid society, with some portion of the population actually supporting the regime." * New Yorker *Table of ContentsIllustrations and Tables Acknowledgments USSR Organizational Structure, 1930s Note on Translation Introduction: Understanding the Russian Revolution I. BUILDING SOCIALISM: THE GRAND STRATEGIES OF THE STATE 1. On the March for Metal 2. Peopling a Shock Construction Site 3· The Idiocy of Urban Life II. LIVING SOCIALISM: THE LITTLE TACTICS OF THE HABITAT 4· Living Space and the Stranger's Gaze 5· Speaking Bolshevik 6. Bread and a Circus 7· Dizzy with Success Afterword: Stalinism as a Civilization Note on Sources Notes Select Bibliography Photograph Credits Index

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Book SynopsisThe Will to Survive describes how a small country, for much of its existence squeezed between two empires, surrounded by hostile neighbours and subjected to invasion and occupation, survived the frequent tragedies of its eventful history to become a sovereign democratic republic within the European Union. The Mongol, Ottoman, Habsburg, Nazi and Soviet empires have all since vanished; but Hungary, a victim of all five and despite suffering the consequences of being on the losing side in every war she has fought, still occupies the territory the Magyar tribes claimed for themselves in the ninth century. The author, whose interest in Hungary stems from his service there as British Ambassador during the declining years of Kadar's Communist regime, traces Hungary's story from the arrival of the Magyars in Europe to the accession of Hungary to membership of NATO and the European Union. The eleven hundred years covered by this stirring account embrace medieval greatness, Turkish occupation, Habsburg domination, unsuccessful struggles for independence, massive deprivation of territory and population after the First World War, a disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany motivated by the hope of redress, and forty years of Soviet-imposed Communism interrupted by a gallant but brutally suppressed revolution in 1956.Trade Review'Though this is a political history, the social and economic aspects are well covered. Cartledge has ... a perceptive eye and an elegant pen. The Will to Survive is set to become the standard work on Hungary.' * International Affairs *'... a very accessible and invaluable companion, both as a narrative of Hungarian history per se and as a constant source of information to complete the various bits of knowledge gathered during expeditions to museums, libraries and monuments.' * The Budapest Times *'The most detailed and balanced narrative of Hungarian history currently available in English.' * Franz A.J. Szabo, Canadian Journal of History *'This is the best history of Hungary in the English language.' * John Lukacs *

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