European history Books

4551 products


  • A History of Britain - Volume 1: At the Edge of

    Vintage Publishing A History of Britain - Volume 1: At the Edge of

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisChange - sometimes gentle and subtle, sometimes shocking and violent - is the dynamic of Simon Schama's unapologetically personal and grippingly written history of Britain, especially the changes that wash over custom and habit, transforming our loyalties. What makes or breaks a nation? To whom do we give our allegiance and why? And where do the boundaries of our community lie - in our hearth and home, our village or city, tribe or faith? What is Britain - one country or many? Has British history unfolded 'at the edge of the world' or right at the heart of it?Schama delivers these themes in a form that is at once traditional and excitingly fresh. The great and the wicked are here - Becket and Thomas Cromwell, Robert the Bruce and Anne Boleyn - but so are countless more ordinary lives: an Irish monk waiting for the plague to kill him in his cell at Kilkenny; a small boy running through the streets of London to catch a glimpse of Elizabeth I. The first in a series, this volume paints a rich and vivid portrait of the life of the British people and their nation.Trade ReviewAn exciting, intensely seductive presentation of history. * Independent *He remains a master storyteller, admirably and sceptically well read in current revisionist histories, and a wonderful guide to a new history of Britain. * The Times *A History of Britain, its text supplemented by wonderful illustrations, affords the rare joy of witnessing a scholar at the peak of his powers convincing the reader that he has a cracking good tale to tell and that he is loving every minute of the telling. * Literary Review *Simon Schama's A History of Britain is far more than the book of the TV series... The book is far richer and fuller, covering a huge span so economically that there is room for plenty of arresting detail... It is the sort of vivid history that keeps you awake. * Daily Mail *Remarkably vivid pictures... A decade on, Schama's study remains a terrific read. -- Paul Lay * History Today *

    3 in stock

    £25.50

  • The Face Of Battle: A Study of Agincourt,

    Vintage Publishing The Face Of Battle: A Study of Agincourt,

    4 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Face of Battle is military history from the battlefield: an imperishable account of the direct experience of individuals at 'the point of maximum danger'. It examines the physical conditions of fighting, the particular emotions and behaviour generated by battle, as well as the motives that impel soldiers to stand and fight rather than run away. In this stunningly vivid reassessment of three battles, John Keegan conveys their reality for the participants, whether facing the arrow cloud of Agincourt, the levelled muskets of Waterloo or the steel rain of the Somme.Trade ReviewThe book which changed how military history is written. Keegan set out to discover what it must have been like to be present at Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme - and he succeeded brilliantly. -- Bernard Cornwell (Chosen as number one of his six best books) * Daily Express *This without any doubt is one of the half-dozen best books on warfare to appear in the English language since the end of the Second World War. -- Michael Howard * Sunday Times *In this book, which is so creative, so original, one learns as much about the nature of man as of battle. -- J. H. Plumb * New York Times Book Review *

    4 in stock

    £15.29

  • The Roman Republic A Very Short Introduction Very

    Oxford University Press The Roman Republic A Very Short Introduction Very

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisHere, David Gwynn reflects on the remarkable legacy of the Roman Republic. The rise and fall of the Republic holds a special place in the history of Western civilization; it has been presented as a model, a source of inspiration, but also a warning. Placing the events in their wider context, he provides a fascinating history of culture and society.Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION; CHRONOLOGY; THE ROMAN CONSTITUTION; FURTHER READING; INDEX

    7 in stock

    £9.49

  • Romes Italian Wars

    Oxford University Press Romes Italian Wars

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisIn Books 6 to 10 of his monumental history of Rome, Livy deals with the period in which Rome recovered from its Gallic disaster to impose mastery over almost the entire Italian peninsula in a series of ever greater wars. Vivid portrayals of personalities, politics, warfare, and religion bring 4th-century Italy vividly alive in this new translation.

    Out of stock

    £12.34

  • An Imperial Possession

    Penguin Books Ltd An Imperial Possession

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisPart of the Penguin History of Britain series, An Imperial Possession is the first major narrative history of Roman Britain for a generation. David Mattingly draws on a wealth of new findings and knowledge to cut through the myths and misunderstandings that so commonly surround our beliefs about this period. From the rebellious chiefs and druids who led native British resistance, to the experiences of the Roman military leaders in this remote, dangerous outpost of Europe, this book explores the reality of life in occupied Britain within the context of the shifting fortunes of the Roman Empire.

    2 in stock

    £17.09

  • The Roman History The Reign of Augustus Penguin

    Penguin Books Ltd The Roman History The Reign of Augustus Penguin

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisFollowing Rome's long road to peace after decades of civil war, Cassius Dio provides the fullest account of the reign of the first emperor in Books 50 through 60 of his Roman History.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.Table of ContentsRoman History: The Reign of AugustusIntroduction by John CarterBibliographical NoteAcknowledgmentsA Note on the TextThe Roman HistoryNotesChronological TableList of ConsulsKey to Place-NamesMaps1. Italy2. North-West Europe3. Germany4. South-East and Western Anatolia5. The Middle East6. North-Western Africa7. Egypt8. The Balkans9. South Russia10. Plan of Rome11. SpainIndex

    2 in stock

    £11.69

  • What Soldiers Do

    The University of Chicago Press What Soldiers Do

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisPresents a devastating new perspective on the Greatest Generation and the liberation of France, one in which the US military use the lure of easy, sexually available French women to sell soldiers on the invasion, thus unleashing a tsunami of male lust among the war-weary GIs.Trade Review"Roberts has amassed an enormous amount of detailed information and her... book provides a refreshing view of the price of liberation." (Literary Review) "In this vivid account of GIs in wartime France, Roberts documents how the Greatest Generation was sometimes as badly behaved beyond the battlefield as it was brave in combat. What Soldiers Do is not a conventional history. It deeply-and often colorfully-textures our understanding of the experiences of men at war, the contours of mid-twentieth-century sexual (and racial) mores, and the frequently ignorant and even lurid attitudes toward other peoples that attended America's ascent to global hegemony." (David M. Kennedy, author of Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War) "This clear-eyed examination of what randy American soldiers got up to in France from D-Day through 1946 strips away the sentimentality from the overworked, cliched portrayal of the Greatest Generation." (Publishers Weekly)"

    15 in stock

    £19.00

  • Stalin

    Pan Macmillan Stalin

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisRobert Service is the author of Lenin: A Biography, and Russia: Experiment with a People and is the author of numerous other books on Russian history, including his History of Twentieth Century Russia

    15 in stock

    £15.29

  • When Churchill Slaughtered Sheep and Stalin

    Picador When Churchill Slaughtered Sheep and Stalin

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisMore addictive and mind-blowing true tales from history, told by Giles Milton-one of today's most entertaining and accessible yet always intelligent and illuminating historiansIn When Churchill Slaughtered Sheep and Stalin Robbed a Bank, the second installment in his outrageously entertaining series, History's Unknown Chapters, Giles Milton shows his customary historical flair as he delves into the little-known stories from history, like when Stalin was actually assassinated with poison by one of his inner circle; the Russian scientist, dubbed the Red Frankenstein, who attempted to produce a human-ape hybrid through ethically dubious means; the family who survived thirty-eight days at sea with almost no water or supplies after their ship was destroyed by a killer whale; or the plot that served as a template for 9/11 in which four Algerian terrorists attempted to hijack a plane and fly it into the Eiffel Tower.

    3 in stock

    £14.40

  • A Train in Winter

    Vintage Publishing A Train in Winter

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA moving and extraordinary book about courage and survival, friendship and endurance a portrait of ordinary women who faced the horror of the holocaust together.On an icy morning in Paris in January 1943, a group of 230 French women resisters were rounded up from the Gestapo detention camps and sent on a train to Auschwitz the only train, in the four years of German occupation, to take women of the resistance to a death camp. Of the group, only 49 survivors would return to France. Here is the story of these women told for the first time. A Train in Winter is a portrait of ordinary people, of their bravery and endurance, and of the friendships that kept so many of them alive. A story of stunning courage, generosity and hope' Mail on SundaySerious and heartfelt...profound' Sunday TimesTrade ReviewThis serious and heartfelt book does deliver on its promise of a tale of how female friendship "can make the difference between living and dying"... Profound -- Brian Schofield * Sunday Times *A harrowing but also uplifting shared story of friendship, courage and endurance * Independent *A story of stunning courage, generosity and hope. They risked their lives to defeat Fascism, by printing subversive literature, hiding Jewish friends or, in the case of one girl, simply insulting a French youth because he had decided to co-operate with the Nazis. The price they paid for their bravery was terrible. A Train in Winter could have been a sad, almost morbid book. In Moorehead's expert hands it is a triumphant one -- Kathryn Hughes * Mail on Sunday *Compassionate, meticulous and compulsively enthralling... This book is essential reading. The litany of names at the end, with their brief biographies (Yolande, Cecile, Poupette, Mitzy, Lucie...) reminds us weeping is not enough. It bears witness - and warns -- Bel Mooney * Daily Mail *Moorehead tells her appalling story in measured prose that sets off perfectly the reader's growing sense of wonder that such heroism is possible * Guardian *

    1 in stock

    £10.44

  • The Cairngorms: A Secret History

    Birlinn General The Cairngorms: A Secret History

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisCairngorms: A Secret History is a series of journeys exploring barely known human and natural stories of the Cairngorm Mountains. It looks at a unique British landscape, its last great wilderness, with new eyes. History combines with travelogue in a vivid account of this elemental scenery. There have been rare human incursions into the Cairngorm plateau, and Patrick Baker tracks them down. He traces elusive wildlife and relives ghostly sightings on the summit of Ben Macdui. From the search for a long-forgotten climbing shelter and the locating of ancient gem mines, to the discovery of skeletal aircraft remains and the hunt for a mysterious nineteenth-century aristocratic settlement, he seeks out the unlikeliest and most interesting of features in places far off the beaten track. The cultural and human impact of this stunning landscape and reflections on the history of mountaineering are the threads which bind this compelling narrative together.Trade Review'Describing a series of walks, Baker illuminates the bleak landscape, revealing the many stories linked to its ruined bothies, ancient gem mines and even haunted summits' * FT Weekend *'Packed with great stories and vivid descriptions' * Scotland Outdoor *'Exploring the Cairngorms has been a lifetime fascination for Patrick Baker and in this book he generously shares the results' * Scotland Magazine *

    15 in stock

    £10.44

  • The British on the Somme 1916 Images of War Rare

    Pen & Sword Books Ltd The British on the Somme 1916 Images of War Rare

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisPrimary source engravings, drawings and paintings with 100 images from the Great War period.

    3 in stock

    £11.24

  • The Essential Homer

    Hackett Publishing Co, Inc The Essential Homer

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisSelections from both the Iliad and the Odyssey, made with an eye for those episodes that figure most prominently in the study of mythology.Trade Review"A good idea—its utility far outweighs qualms purists have about students not reading every last item in the catalogue of ships. The translation is vigorous and readable." —Andrew Ford, Princeton University"Not only does one get an excellent translation of both Homer's Iliad and Odyssey under one cover, but the selections included are infinitely better and longer than what one normally gets in anthologies of Greek literature. For courses in which entire texts cannot be used, this is by far the best choice available today." —Kostas Myrsiades, Westchester University"The Essential Homer fills a long-felt need for an edition that offers a sizable selection of the books and passages most likely to be used in undergraduate courses. It's a wonderful help." —Richard P. Martin, Stanford University"This is a wonderful translation—readable, lively, preserves the essential spirit. Students get caught up in it. The abridgment is a good text for general classes." —Nicolle Hirschfeld, California State University, Long Beach"A fine poetic translation that today's students can understand. The selections are very well chosen for a course in which time limitations prevent reading the whole of either epic." —Lillian Doherty, University of Maryland

    5 in stock

    £17.99

  • Prisons And Prisoners: Some Personal Experiences

    Broadview Press Ltd Prisons And Prisoners: Some Personal Experiences

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisPrisons and Prisoners is the autobiography of aristocratic suffragette Constance Lytton. In it, she details her militant actions in the struggle to gain the vote for women, including her masquerade and imprisonment as the working-class “Jane Warton.” As a member of a well-known political family (and grand-daughter of the famous novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton), Lytton's arrests garnered much attention at the time, but she was treated differently than other suffragettes because of her class—when other suffragettes were forcibly fed while on hunger strikes, she was released. “Jane Warton,” however, was forcibly fed, an act that permanently damaged Lytton’s health, but that also became a singular moment in the history of women’s and prisoner’s rights.This Broadview edition includes news articles, reviews, and illustrations on women’s suffrage from the periodicals of the time.Trade Review“Women’s enfranchisement and prison reform combine powerfully in Prisons and Prisoners, Constance Lytton’s 1914 memoir of brutal incarcerations for her participation in the militant Suffragette movement. The ‘pent-up feelings of indignation and revolt’ in this book first published on the eve of the First World War resonate no less provocatively nearly a century later, as questions of detention, hunger strikes, forcible feeding, and torture underwrite local and everyday challenges to global advocates for human rights and social justice. As Lytton concludes her account, ‘I hear the cry go up from all parts of the country, How long? How long?’” — Barbara Harlow, University of Texas at Austin“Jason Haslam’s edition of Prisons and Prisoners provides an excellent context for Lytton’s work. The introduction is comprehensive in its discussion of Lytton’s biography, the women's suffrage movement, and the state of penology at the time. Particularly significant is its consideration that Lytton’s goal of giving voice to female inmates raises complex issues of class and privilege. The front matter and appendices are extremely relevant and helpful. The context offered by the readings in the appendices makes the edition very appropriate for both classroom study and serious research. The bibliographies are very thoughtfully planned, offering a wealth of complementary material linking to Prisons and Prisoners from a variety of perspectives.” — Judith Scheffler, West Chester UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionConstance Lytton: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the TextPrisons and Prisoners: Some Personal ExperiencesAppendix A: Glossary of NamesAppendix B: Other Suffragette Writing by Constance Lytton “Woman Suffrage,” The Times (14 July 1909) From “The Prison Experiences of Lady Constance Lytton,” Votes for Women (28 January 1910) From “A Speech by Lady Constance Lytton. Delivered at the Queen’s Hall, January 31, 1910,” Votes for Women (4 February 1910) Appendix C: Suffrage Material Concerning Lytton From “The Outlook,” Votes for Women (28 January 1910) Emmeline Pethick Lawrence, “Lady Constance Lytton,” Votes for Women (28 January 1910) From “The ‘Liverpool Courier’ on ‘Jane Warton’s’ Imprisonment”; “Some Press Comments,” Votes for Women (4 February 1910) From Victor Lytton, “The House of Lords and Women’s Suffrage: Speech by The Earl of Lytton in the Debate in the House of Lords,—May 6th, 1914” (1914) Appendix D: Reviews of Prisons and Prisoners “‘Prisons and Prisoners’: Some Reviews of LadyConstance Lytton’s Book,” The Suffragette (27 March 1914) From Christabel Pankhurst, “A Prisoner’s Book,” The Suffragette (13 and 20 March 1914) “Views and Comments,” The Egoist: An Individualist Review (15 May 1914) Appendix E: Material Concerning Suffragettes and Prison “Suffragist Women Prisoners,” Home Office Papers and Memoranda 1889–1910 (1910) From Kate Lilley, Prisoners and Prison Life (1912) Appendix F: Photographs and Suffragette Cartoons and Sketches Portrait of Constance Lytton (1914) Portrait of Jane Warton (1914) “Forcible Feeding in Prison” (28 January 1910) “Suffragettes at Home” (14 April 1909) “The Suffragette that Knew Jiu-Jitsu: The Arrest” (6 July 1910) Select Bibliography

    Out of stock

    £24.26

  • MI6

    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC MI6

    15 in stock

    Book Synopsis''Reads like the script for a Bond film'' Mail on SundayA groundbreaking book, this unprecedented study is the authoritative account of the best-known intelligence organisation in the world. Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of espionage, the two world wars, modern British government and the conduct of international relations in the first half of the twentieth century, MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949 is a uniquely important examination of the role and significance of intelligence in the modern world.Trade Review‘Extraordinarily useful, endlessly interesting ... Jeffery captured the adventurous, John Buchan side of SIS with as much zest as he revealed the successes and failures of its analysis of events' * John Simpson *'A magisterial account of the two wars in particular, viewed via the prism of secret intelligence. Winningly, it also entertains' * Independent on Sunday *‘Fascinating ... The book is full of examples of the ingenuity and courage shown by all ranks' * Douglas Hurd, Guardian *'Full of episode and personality, without ever succumbing to the swash and buckle that can dazzle those who get close to SIS' * Daily Telegraph *

    15 in stock

    £18.00

  • The Wooden Horse: The Classic World War II Story

    Skyhorse Publishing The Wooden Horse: The Classic World War II Story

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisEric Williams, Royal Air Force bomber captain, was shot down over Germany in 1942 and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III, the infamous German POW camp. Digging an underground tunnel hidden beneath a wooden vaulting horse, he managed to escape after ten months and, accompanied by a fellow officer, made his way back to England. In this thinly fictionalized retelling, Williams relates his story in three distinct phases: the construction of a tunnel (its entrance camouflaged by the wooden vaulting horse in the exercise yard) and hiding the large quantities of sand he dug; the escape; and the journey on foot and by train to the port of Stettin, where Williams and his fellow escapee stowed away aboard a Danish ship, the Norensen. From painstakingly digging the tunnel to secretly depositing the dirt and gravel around the camp to dodging searchlights and search dogs and climbing barbed wire fences, this is an escape story hard to beat. For sheer heroism, courage and perserverance, this classic is arguably the most ingenious POW escape of WWII. The Wooden Horse became a legend among servicemen long before its publication in 1949 and remained one ever since.

    15 in stock

    £11.99

  • The Essential Odyssey

    Hackett Publishing Co, Inc The Essential Odyssey

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisAn abridgement of Stanley Lombardo's translation of the "Odyssey". It offers more than half of the epic, including all of its best-known episodes and finest poetry, while providing concise summaries for omitted books and passages.

    15 in stock

    £11.39

  • Four Tragedies Electra Philoctetes Ajax The Women

    Hackett Publishing Co, Inc Four Tragedies Electra Philoctetes Ajax The Women

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade ReviewIn these new translations Meineck and Woodruff have struck a near-ideal balance between accuracy and readability, formality and colloquialism. Their versions are simply a pleasure to read, conveying with remarkable vividness the powerful characterizations and poetic variety of the originals. The addition of succinct but illuminating notes makes this an exemplary volume for anyone interested in Sophocles' dramatic art. --Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, Department of Classics, Wesleyan University[T]his sequel to the same pair's well-received translation of the Theban plays hits an appropriate mean . . . a text that I could happily adopt for teaching. --Malcolm Heath in Greece and RomeTable of ContentsIntroduction; Notes on the Translations; Map: Sophoclean geography; House of Pelops Family Tree; Ajax; Women of Trachis; Electra; Philoctetes; Endnotes.

    7 in stock

    £13.29

  • Anatomy of a Genocide

    Simon & Schuster Anatomy of a Genocide

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review"Mr. Bartov’s anatomy of genocidal destruction is a monument of a different sort. It is an act of filial piety recollecting the blood-soaked homeland of his parents; it is a substantive contribution to the history of ethnic strife and extreme violence; it is a harrowing reminder that brutality and intimacy can combine to destroy individual lives and reshape the destiny of a region and its peoples: history as recollection and as warning." —Wall Street Journal"Fascinating...This resonant and cautionary history demonstrates how the peace was incrementally disrupted, as rage accumulated and neighbors and friends felt pitted against one another." — Los Angeles Times"If you imagined there might be no more to learn, along comes this work of forensic, gripping, original, appalling brilliance." — Philippe Sands, author of East West Street: On the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity""Combines a long historical perspective with an intimate reconstruction of who the perpetrators and victims of the Holocaust had been. A local history opening our understanding of the phenomenon at large. A brilliant book by a master historian." — Jan T. Gross, author of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland"This is a gripping, challenging, and masterfully written book...Understanding the destruction of the Jews as part of genocidal perils that have not passed even today, the horrific case of Buczacz thus comes as a powerful warning against bigotry everywhere at any time." — Tom Segev, author of The Seventh Mllion: The Israelis and the Holocaust and Simon Wiesenthal:The Life and Legends"Omer Bartov's masterful study of Buczacz — marked by comprehensive scholarship and a compelling narrative — exemplifies the very best in current Holocaust history writing." — Christopher R. Browning, author of Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland"A long-awaited and essential contribution to the history of the Holocaust. This thoroughly researched and beautifully written study of the deep roots and immediate circumstances of genocide in an East Galician multiethnic town...is an exemplary microhistory of the Holocaust, a model for future research." — Saul Friedlander, author of Nazi Germany and the Jews"The result is breathtaking, painful and astonishing…" — The Spectator"Bartov’s book is a significant contribution to the holocaust literature. However, the book’s contribution is even more significant in understanding the complexity of interethnic conflicts...Anatomy of a Genocide furnishes well-lit imagination, though shaded with sadness, beneficial for the communities trapped into mutual impairment in various parts of the world, including Chechnya, Palestine, Kashmir, Burundi, and Rwanda." — New York Journal of Books"Fascinating...This resonant and cautionary history demonstrates how the peace was incrementally disrupted, as rage accumulated and neighbors and friends felt pitted against one another." —National Book Review"At once a scholarly and a personal book." —Jerusalem Post"Remarkable." —The New Yorker

    10 in stock

    £16.99

  • The Jewish Enemy

    Harvard University Press The Jewish Enemy

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis is the first extensive study of how anti-Semitism pervaded and shaped Nazi propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust, and how it pulled together diverse elements of a delusionary Nazi worldview. In an era when both anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories continue to influence world politics, Herf offers a timely reminder of their dangers.Trade ReviewHere, practically for the first time, we can see how Germans before and during World War II were at all times in their daily lives confronted with a carefully designed view of the world in which a mythical Jewish enemy was portrayed as threatening Germans and hence had to be killed. No prior study has shown as clearly as this one how central this theme was to German wartime propaganda in all its forms. -- Gerhard L. Weinberg, University of North CarolinaJeffrey Herf has written a brilliant book that reorients our understanding of the Holocaust. Arguing that racial antisemitism, however vicious, was an insufficient basis for genocide, Herf demonstrates that a major shift occurred in Nazi propaganda during the war: Jews were now presented as a political threat to the German nation, and as the instigators, through their puppets, America, England, and the Soviet Union, of a deadly world war against Germany. -- Susannah Heschel, author of Abraham Geiger and the Jewish JesusA commendable and compelling elucidation of the Nazi propaganda which accompanied the Holocaust, indispensable for both students of the Third Reich and general readers. -- Jay W. Baird, author of The Mythical World of Nazi Propaganda, 1939-1945In this impressive book, Jeffrey Herf shows that the omnipresent image of the 'international Jew' as the source of Germany's victimhood was central to the propaganda and political imagination of the Nazi leadership, which made no secret of its intention to destroy European Jewry. -- Anson Rabinbach, Princeton UniversityWith the market so saturated with books that have "Nazi" in their titles, when a path-breaking new work does appear, one that explains the "why"--not just another documentation of the "how"--there is a chance it will slip under many readers' radar. One can only hope that such a fate will not befall Jeffrey Herf's incredibly important The Jewish Enemy, one of those rare works of Holocaust history that poses the most essential question: "Why did European, especially German, antisemitism, which had never led to an effort to murder all of Europe's Jews before, do so between 1941 and 1945 in the midst of World War II? What changed to make anti-Semitism a rationale for mass murder rather than for a continuation of centuries old patterns of persecution?"...[Herf is] the legitimate intellectual heir to [George] Mosse. -- Noah Strote * Forward *Jeffrey Herf's latest book, The Jewish Enemy--dealing with Nazi propaganda during the Holocaust--sheds new light on what happened then in Europe and is a trenchant refutation of those who try to make us believe that antisemitic hate speech is merely a cynical tool employed by politicians...At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the demented discourse of radical antisemitism has resurfaced in different idioms and cultural contexts. It would be complacent to assume that variants on the narrative explored in Jeffrey Herf's brilliant work will not play a part in the future as well...This is a book that should be read widely. -- Karl Pfeifer * Searchlight *What may be the most important book on the Holocaust in a generation...In The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda During World War II and the Holocaust, [Herf] concedes that hatred and racism were important, but he argues that they don't explain Germany's unique efforts to destroy the Jews...The real answer isn't hate, but fear. Poring through miles of speeches, private comments, journal entries, party memoranda and all 24,000 pages of Goebbel's diaries, Herf concludes that the Nazis really believed that the Jews ran the world and wanted to destroy Germany. They believed that Jews controlled not only the Bolsheviks to the east but the capitalists to the west. -- Jonah Goldberg * Los Angeles Times *Many historians who have tackled Hitler and the Third Reich have found it impossible to take the Führer's rhetoric or Nazi ideology seriously. A. J. P. Taylor was infamous for treating Hitler as an ordinary statesman in the German mould. A succession of historians, including Rainer Zitelmann, Detlev Peukert and Götz Aly, continues to insist that Nazism was a rational modernizing force. It is hard to see how this approach will withstand Jeffrey Herf's patient, incisive and ultimately devasting analysis of the Nazi world-view in The Jewish Enemy. -- David Cesarani * Times Literary Supplement *Which of the major findings of this excellent study is more disturbing: that human beings are capable of inventing and believing the kind of vicious nonsense the Nazis believed about Jews, or that such profoundly irrational beliefs can become the basis of a meticulously devised and implemented program of industrial mass murder? It is indeed the case, to say the least, that 'an examination of modern political culture draws attention to the causal significance of many irrational and illusory ideological perspectives'...The Jewish Enemy is both a revealing, carefully documented historical study and a reminder of the timeless and astonishing human capacity for demented belief, bottomless hatred, and a correspondingly stunning readiness to act upon bizarre convictions and fantasies...This study is also highly informative about the methods and character of Nazi propaganda. The author makes use of sources not widely used before, such as the ubiquitous wall newspapers (also favored in communist states), posters, and archival materials (including directives to the press about the tasks and methods of propaganda), and the diaries of Goebbels, among others. Some striking visual images of 'the Jewish enemy' used in the press and posters are reproduced (remarkably similar to both Soviet anti-capitalist, anti-American propaganda and the images purveyed in Arab anti-Israeli propaganda). -- Paul Hollander * New Criterion *Through a chronological structure that moves seamlessly from an introductory section on pre-1939 Nazi propaganda themes and structures to the shifting narratives of the wartime period, Herf shows convincingly that the attacks on the regime's wartime "enemies" (Britain; after 1941 the Soviet Union and the United States) were underpinned by the same Überbegriff of an alleged "international Jewish conspiracy."...Herf's book adds much-needed intellectual ammunition to the argument that propaganda should be taken very seriously. -- Aristotle A. Kallis * H-Net *Undoubtedly, this is a much-needed study that convincingly demonstrates the centrality of radical anti-Semitic language in the Nazi leadership's thinking and the regime's wartime propaganda. Herf has succeeded in showing how in the minds of the regime's leaders and propagandists the Second World War and the Nazi genocide of the Jews were directly and inherently connected. -- Thomas Pegelow Kaplan * Canadian Journal of History *Herf is meticulous in his scholarship, and the book's vivid detail can certainly hold up to historians' scrutiny...This is a must-read. -- Dave Roy * Curled Up with a Good Book *Herf has made excellent use of many overlooked sources...Most shockingly, he shows the remarkable extent to which the German people were informed by Hitler and his colleagues that the Third Reich was engaged in annihilating Europe's Jews. The overall effect is one of a regime in thrall to its own paranoid fantasies, with devastating consequences that are all too familiar. -- Dan Stone * Journal of Genocide Research *Jeffrey Herf, one of the most prolific and challenging historians of twentieth-century Germany, has written an important book, the first comprehensive work detailing the structure of the Third Reich’s effort to inculcate antisemitism in the German population. This was a propaganda effort, and much of Herf’s book focuses on Joseph Goebbels; but Herf also carefully delineates changes in the antisemitic content of Hitler’s speeches and gives a great deal of attention to Otto Dietrich, the Reich press chief. The result for readers is a nuanced sense of the volume and flow of antisemitic propaganda—and The Jewish Enemy leaves no doubt that antisemitism, indeed murderous antisemitism, was an ideology propagated up front and in public. For some readers, this may seem an obvious point, but a great deal of older research underscored how the Nazis placed antisemitism in the background, emphasizing instead the material gains that ordinary citizens could expect from Nazi rule. Herf shows that nothing could be further from the truth...it is Herf’s significant achievement to gather the antisemitic propaganda of the Third Reich and demonstrate its patterns. For the first time, we have a nuanced account of how state-produced antisemitism changed during the war and how this antisemitism connected to the Holocaust. -- Helmut Walser Smith * Journal of Modern History *Table of ContentsPreface 1. The Jews, the War, and the Holocaust 2. Building the Anti-Semitic Consensus 3. "International Jewry" and the Origins of World War II 4. At War against the Alliance of Bolshevism and Plutocracy 5. Propaganda in the Shadow of the Death Camps 6. "The Jews Are Guilty of Everything" 7. "Victory or Extermination" Conclusion Appendix: The Anti-Semitic Campaigns of the Nazi Regime, as Reflected in Lead Front-Page Stories in Der V&omul;lkische Beobachter List of Abbreviations Notes Acknowledgments Bibliography Bibliographical Essay Index

    7 in stock

    £23.36

  • Designs of Destruction

    The University of Chicago Press Designs of Destruction

    Book SynopsisTrade ReviewLucia Allais has written an extraordinary book, an account of monuments in modernity as they are laboriously assembled and then bombed into smithereens. Targeted and preserved, conceptualized, revered, disdained--Allais shows just how polymorphic these perverse stones can be. Interested in collective memory, recent architecture, international culture or public art? Read this.--Peter Galison, Harvard University

    £35.10

  • The Arcades Project

    Harvard University Press The Arcades Project

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisConceived in Paris in 1927 and still in progress when Benjamin fled the Occupation in 1940, The Arcades Project is Benjamin's effort to represent and to critique the bourgeois experience of nineteenth-century history, and, in so doing, to liberate the suppressed "true history" that underlay the ideological mask.Trade ReviewBenjamin's crowning achievement...The Harvard University Press edition of Benjamin now in monumental progress is an admirably generous undertaking. -- George Steiner * Times Literary Supplement *Arcades is an assemblage of quotations, notes and theses that wrestle with themselves to extraordinary effect. In his lifetime, Benjamin saw published only the fragmentary collection One-Way Street, and he initially conceived The Arcades Project as a continuation of that book…It is a privilege, through this collection, to gain access to the workings of such a distinctive mind. -- Guy Mannes Abbott * New Statesman *Some of us don't read fiction. We live on history, biography, criticism, reporting and what used to be called belles-lettres. We will be feasting on Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project for years to come. Just published in its first full English edition, The Arcades Project should also win readers with broader tastes. By any standard, the appearance of this long-awaited work is a towering literary event. A sprawling, fragmented meditation on the ethos of 19th-century Paris, The Arcades Project was left incomplete on Benjamin's death in 1940. In recent decades, as portions of the book have appeared in English, the unfinished opus has acquired legendary status. The Arcades Project surpasses its legend. It captures the relationship between a writer and a city in a form as richly developed as those presented in the great cosmopolitan novels of Proust, Joyce, Musil and Isherwood. Those who fall under Benjamin's spell may find themselves less willing to suspend their disbelief in fiction. The city will offer sufficient fantasy to meet most needs. -- Herbert Muschamp * New York Times *At last, we can glimpse Benjamin's avowed masterpiece, The Arcades Project, and pay homage to this strange, vulnerable man, for whom letters and thought and books were everything. It was thirteen years in the making, and scribbled beneath the 'painted sky of summer'--the huge ceiling mural of Paris' Bibliothèque Nationale...Benjamin claimed The Arcades Project was 'the theater of all my struggles and all my ideas.' This struggle, and those ideas, aimed to chronicle the whole history of the nineteenth century, over which Paris, majestically, presided, whose arcades symbolized the city's heart laid bare...Harvard's Belknap [Press] is brave to publish such an esoteric and pricey specimen. Along with its two recent volumes of Benjamin's Selected Writings, and with a concluding collection in its way soon, we are now much better able to assess the man--foibles and all--and his legacy as a creative whole. -- Andy Merrifield * The Nation *The Arcades Project was a legend before it became a book...This large volume reproduces every relevant scrap in the Benjamin archives, reprinting, verbatim, every entry in the more than 30 notebooks that Benjamin had meticulously maintained to organize his observations and pertinent passages from books pertaining to a variety of different topics and themes, from 'Fashion' and 'Boredom' to 'Barricade Fighting' and 'the Seine.' -- James Miller * New York Times Book Review *Benjamin is important because of his insight into the cultural consequences of capitalism, an insight that gives us a style of thinking about the now inescapable culture of consumerism. We can read Benjamin's enormous fragment on the Paris arcades not so much to gather information about nineteenth-century Paris, of which it is an abundant and pleasurable resource, as to inform our own experience of everyday life. With Benjamin as a guide, one can begin to glimpse a way of reflecting on capitalism that promises to stave off the despair threatening to overwhelm those who choose not to celebrate this age of trademarked emotions, patented identities, and ready-made souls in plastic bags. And if today one is fortunate enough to walk the streets of Paris with his massive book in hand, as I recently was, Benjamin's vision of that city's past begins to haunt the contemporary Parisian streetscape, with phantoms of long-dead dandies and flaneurs, prostitutes and decadents, the ghosts of Baudelaire and Mallarmé appearing and disappearing amid the neon signs and garish billboards advertising American hamburgers and Finnish digital telephones. -- Mark Kingwell * Harper's Magazine *[Benjamin's] style of writing has a narcotic effect that soon envelops the reader in Parisian ambiance. Picking up The Arcades Project is like visiting a ghostly city. One becomes familiar with its thematic streets and alleys, its peculiar cultural constructs, its architecture, and its literatures...The Arcades Project is indeed a sort of magic encyclopedia, freeing its subject from traditional historical and literary interpretations and re-inventing it as a living, breathing picture. It is a maze of small revelations, its pages as seductive and confused as the streets, dreams, and arcades of Paris. -- Jason Cons * Boston Book Review *A painstaking act of literary reconstruction has fleshed out Walter Benjamin's lost masterpiece...We may consider here Benjamin's wonderful remark that 'knowledge comes only in lightning flashes. The text is the long roll of thunder that follows.' The Arcades Project is the reverberation of that thunder in a thousand different directions...This posthumous volume suggests that, in its incomplete and fissiparous state, his reflections are themselves an unflawed mirror for the world which he was attempting to explore. He seems to have retrieved everything, and anticipated everything. -- Peter Ackroyd * The Times *[Benjamin's] magnum opus, The Arcades Project, has finally been translated into English...If the low price for such a large academic volume is anything to go by, the publishers expect this to be a major event. -- Julian Roberts * The Guardian *Benjamin was a vital member of what cultural and art historian Robert Hughes has called the 'modernist laboratory' of the early part of the 20th century, and, like Virginia Woolf or Paul Cezanne or any other modernist worth her salt, his masterwork presents its own form as worthy of as much interest as its content...Fragment or not, The Arcades Project is a vast creative work that is one part realist novel, one part cultural anthropology, and one part social history and critique. -- Matt Weiland * National and Financial Post *Walter's Benjamin's The Arcades Project, a doorstopper of a book by one of the leading intellectuals of the 20th century, starts with the specifics of the technologically innovative Parisian shopping arcade, then spins off into a vast and complex universe of ideas about art, architecture, politics and consumer culture. Not unlike the novels of Umberto Eco and Thomas Pynchon, The Arcades Project uses the template of the past to demystify the present. -- Joe Uris * Portland Oregonian *Because his ideas never cohered into a doctrine, The Arcades remained a treatise about everything that never amounted to anything. But, like the vanished bohemia it documented in such obsessive detail, this ruin of a book has its own sublime grandeur. -- Daniel Johnson * Daily Telegraph *This is a treasure: a translation of Benjamin's great unfinished--and unfinishable--work, a study of the imagination in nineteenth-century Paris, the capital of the nineteenth century, and hence an archaeology of our own strange and wondrous 'consumer society.' * ChristianityToday.com *The Arcades Project is truly a kaleidoscopic montage of a dream of the meanings of society, a dream deferred by the advance of Nazis into Paris. In 1940, when Benjamin fled, he left behind the sprawling, incomplete masterpiece he had begun in 1927. But by then, it had already become, he wrote, 'the theater of all my struggles and all my ideas.' -- Forrest Gander * Providence Journal-Bulletin *Finally available in English, Walter Benjamin's study of nineteenth-century Paris is brilliant...Benjamin wrote many marvelous essays in the 1930s, but his main energy went into a giant enterprise that he called 'the Arcades project.' The forerunners of modern-day department stores, the arcades of nineteenth-century Paris were arched passageways with shops on each side. Benjamin was confident that the book would be his masterpiece. Not only would it grasp the structure of life and thought and art in Paris circa 1848, it would explain all modern art, politics, and life...Harvard University Press has given [The Arcades Project] to us in English in a sumptuous volume. -- Marshall Berman * Metropolis *If The Arcades Project is still worth reading today, it is not only for the quixotic pleasures of its dead ends, but for the traces of hope it finds within 'the guilty context of the living' (as Benjamin wrote elsewhere). Through an analysis of the 'collective dream' of the 19th century, Benjamin hopes to liberate the 20th. -- Diana George * The Stranger *[Readers can] enjoy the book's open-endedness and follow personal itineraries...As Harvard gradually publishes his collected works, Benjamin's strengths become evident. -- Andrew Mead * Architects Journal *Because of its standing as Benjamin's final, and unfinished, work, this tome will prove a curious blessing for those wearing the right equipment...This kaleidoscopic work is arranged in 36 categories with such loosely descriptive headings as 'Prostitution,' 'Boredom,' 'Catacombs,' 'Dream City,' and 'Theory of Progress.' It makes sense why Benjamin would refer to this work as 'the theater of all of my struggles and ideas.' Everything seems to be in there, making it at once awe-inspiring and inscrutable in its present form. Had the war not kept him from its final flower, this theater might have been one of the greatest intellectual works of the century. As it stands, it is merely brilliant. * Kirkus Reviews *Now, at last, American readers too have access to [Benjamin's] final, great unfinished work in an edition that is both well translated and helpfully annotated by the editor of the German edition, Rolf Tiedemann. In 1927, Benjamin began taking notes for a book that would critique the cultural, politic, artistic and commercial life of Paris, a city Benjamin thought of as the 'capital of the nineteenth century'...This edition is comprised of the fastidious notes he made from this never-completed study...His perspective is largely Marxist, but not in any conventional or dogmatic sense. Benjamin's chief virtue is an uncanny originality of vision and insight that transcends the constraints of ideology. * Publishers Weekly *The Arcades Project, which Benjamin worked on for 13 years before his death, was an attempt to capture the reality that he believed underlay the political, economic, and technological world of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the phenomenon of the Paris arcades, Benjamin saw a turning away from a communal society based on mutual concern to one based on material well-being and economic gain. To fortify his argument, Benjamin used quotations from a variety of published literary, philosophical, and artistic sources and added his own reflections and commentary. Because of Benjamin's untimely and tragic death, this is not a finished work, but, nonetheless, the architectonic of the whole is impressive in its breadth and as an attempt at historical comprehension. Also included is a poignant, beautifully written eyewitness account of Benjamin's last days and hours. -- Leon H. Brody * Library Journal *Presenting some wonderful social history, The Arcades Project is an incomparable work that only Benjamin could have written. It permits readers who would otherwise never have the luxury of comprehension to examine the workings of one of the most remarkable thinkers of 20th-century Europe. -- S. Gittleman * Choice *It is a rare event when a book as long touted or as eagerly awaited actually lives up to these publishing clichés. But this is undeniably true in the case of this translation of Walter Benjamin's Das Passagen-Werk [The Arcades Project], originally issued in 1982...Anglophone readers can finally begin to take true measure of Benjamin's place in 20th-century thought and literature. -- Peter Philbrook * bn.com *Quite simply, the Passagen-Werk is one of the twentieth century's great efforts at historical comprehension--some would say the greatest. -- T. J. ClarkBenjamin's work is the most advanced, most complex, and most comprehensive study of the dominant motifs and unresolved tendencies of the nineteenth century that continue to be of critical importance for us today. No other study has measured up to its methodological inventiveness, or so exemplarily met its demand that history writing be reinvented for every topic and on every occasion. -- Werner HamacherKnowledge of The Arcades Project is essential for a full comprehension of Benjamin's intentions and achievement in the 1930s--especially his highly original and influential attempt to define the idea of the modern. -- Michael W. Jennings[This] edition does a fine job with this wild, often intractable material. Its apparatus is helpful, and properly spare…By and large, the edition is a heroic achievement. -- T.J. Clark * London Review of Books *The force of [Walter Benjamin's] ideas in The Arcades Project is cumulative. You are pulled in and overwhelmed. True, it's a work of cultural history, but it can also be thought of as the greatest epic poem written in the 20th century: fragmented, contradictory, and profoundly suggestive. -- André Alexis * Globe and Mail *Walter Benjamin's effort to unlock the mystery of industrial culture became his central mission, which he pursued by combing the streets of the Paris he loved--or, more exactly, by combing old books about these streets. The materials he culled from these books and his commentary on them constitute The Arcades Project, his masterpiece, which he worked on for 13 years...For students of urban life and industrial culture, The Arcades Project is a gold mine of insights and apercus. * Los Angeles Times Book Review *[The Arcades Project] suggests a new way of writing about a civilization using its rubbish as materials rather than its artworks: history from below rather than above. And [Benjamin's] call elsewhere for a history centered on the sufferings of the vanquished, rather than on the achievements of the victors, is prophetic of the way in which history writing has begun to think of itself in our lifetime..."What does The Arcades Project have to offer? The briefest of lists would include: a treasure hoard of curious information about Paris, a multitude of thought-provoking questions, the harvest of an acute and idiosyncratic mind's trawl through thousands of books, succinct observations, polished to a high aphoristic sheen, on a range of subjects...and glimpses of Benjamin toying with a new way of seeing himself: as a compiler of a 'magic encyclopedia'...[A] magnificent opus. -- J. M. Coetzee * The Guardian *Whether the theme is fashion, collecting, gambling--or any other key to the period--Benjamin lays out a gripping commentary on each. The result is a city-in-miniature. But it is the method underpinning the work that is perhaps the most interesting. In the methodological convolute 'N' Benjamin refers to it as a form of 'literary montage'--Benjamin's shorthand way of saying that each convolute is composed of numerous quotations which are lifted from various sources and then spliced together on the same page. The method enables Benjamin to blast away at received notions of art and cultural history...Besides a useful introduction, this first English edition also contains a number of early drafts and the as yet untranslated second exposé from 1939. Together, these pieces give an insight into Benjamin's anarchic working method, whereby he constantly reshuffles his material. -- Alex Coles * Parachute *In addition to presenting a considerable intellectual challenge simply by virtue of its ambitious contents, Benjamin's project raises serious and varied questions of form…producing an effect that one finds difficult to label definitively analytic or aesthetic; the montage as Benjamin uses it is both at once: it produces knowledge, yet it does so through a mode of presentation that seems intrinsic to the knowledge produced. The Arcades Project is a work that one not only reads or studies, one "experiences" it as well. -- Tim Dayton * Cultural Studies *It is those who parody our world who help to unmask its craziness, and to offer pointers as to how what is might be otherwise…Benjamin indulges in this customary "brushing against the grain of history"…My aim in stressing this side of the book is simply to suggest how kaleidoscopic an object it is, offering the reader challenge of construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction, not once, but over and over again. -- Michael Hollington * Southern Review *The Arcades Project must be among the most influential works of modern literature. Expansive and visionary, it reinvented pretty much every academic discipline by rejecting the autocratic storytelling of history in favor of elegant notes and vignettes which gather into a picture which seems to be endlessly modifying. -- Peter Burnett * The Scotsman *[This book is] the sort of work that will make a considerable dent in the academic landscape or at the very least lead to a new line of thematic inquiry and stream of responsive academic publications...[This edition] provides us with a wealth of material...It stands to be worked and reworked endlessly by its readers and this is why Eiland and McLaughlin's phenomenal work of labour should be recognized as a major contribution to the field of critical and cultural theory today. -- Martin McQuillan * Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory *A tragic, fractured masterpiece...It is a truly interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work, appealing across the broadest range of arts, humanities and social science disciplines imaginable. Benjamin's collage of sourced texts, informed commentary and ingenious speculation leads us through architecture to artistic movements; technology to economics; fact to fantasy. To read this book is to witness a fragmented phantasmagoria: we experience utterance and aphorism; snippets and snapshots; public declamation and private letters; historical minutiae and spectacular scenes. It is a global work, its explorations ranging far beyond 19th-century Paris to illustrate and unravel the universal essence of urban experience. Benjamin was an authentically democratic thinker, inasmuch as he diligently explored, analysed and understood the widest range of cultural forms, no matter how elitist or populist: in The Arcades Project, the reader will encounter political proclamations or philosophical pronouncements in one place and jokes or pornography in another. Is The Arcades Project we read now the one that Benjamin envisioned? Absolutely not. But this eclectic work, a coruscating palimpsest, is a modernist, perhaps even a proto-postmodernist, masterpiece. It is a form of textual flanerie where the journey of exploration is infinite and adaptable: it is ever-open, ever-fresh and, uncannily, when one dips into it, it seems to be ever-changing. Like other formidable creations by writers taken too soon--Lord Byron's Don Juan, Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier Svejk, Thomas Mann's Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man, Franz Kafka's The Castle--Benjamin's The Arcades Project lives, breathes and goes on for ever. -- Richard J. Hand * Times Higher Education *Table of ContentsTranslators' Foreword Exposes "Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century" (1935) "Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century" (1939) Convolutes Overview First Sketches Early Drafts "Arcades" "The Arcades of Paris" "The Ring of Saturn" Addenda Expose of 1935, Early Version Materials for the Expose of 1935 Materials for "Arcades" "Dialectics at a Standstill," by Rolf Tiedemann "The Story of Old Benjamin," by Lisa Fittko Translators' Notes Guide to Names and Terms Index

    15 in stock

    £30.56

  • Fragments of the Histories. Letters to Caesar

    Harvard University Press Fragments of the Histories. Letters to Caesar

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Histories of Sallust (86–35 BCE), while fragmentary, provide invaluable information about a crucial period of history from 78 to around 67 BCE. In this volume, John T. Ramsey has freshly edited the Histories and the two pseudo-Sallustian Letters to Caesar, completing the Loeb Classical Library edition of his works.

    2 in stock

    £23.70

  • A Life under Russian Serfdom: The Memoirs of

    Central European University Press A Life under Russian Serfdom: The Memoirs of

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisThis is a translation of one of very few Russian serfs' memoirs. Savva Purlevskii recollects his life in Russian serfdom and life of his grandparents, parents, and fellow villagers. He describes family and communal life and the serfs' daily interaction with landlords and authorities. Purlevskii came from an initially prosperous family that later became impoverished. Early in his childhood, he lost his father. Purlevskii did not have a chance to gain a formal education. He lived under serfdom until 1831 when at the age of 30 he escaped his servitude.Gorshkov's introduction provides some basic knowledge about Russian serfdom and draws upon the most recent scholarship. Notes provide references and general information about events, places and people mentioned in the memoirs.Trade Review"A fascinating autobiography of a self-made serf-entrepreneur, originally published in 1877... The book - elegantly printed by the Central European University Press and illuminated with nineteenth-century miniatures of peasant life - will surely provide an attractive teaching material for the courses on pre-Reform Russian history, as well as a good read for all those interested in social history of Russia" * Russian Review *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations; Notes on the Translation; Preface; Introduction; Our Village, Its Inhabitants and Owners; My Grandfather; Myself, My Childhood, and My Family; And My Adult Life Began.; My Marriage, My Landlord, My Trade, and Other Things; Life outside the Village Observed; The Bitterness of Serfdom Realized; My Activities in Estate Life; My Future Fate Resolved; Epilogue

    Out of stock

    £36.43

  • Ancient Rome

    Anness Publishing Ancient Rome

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisAn authoritative account of Ancient Rome, its political and military history, art, architecture and culture, sumptously illustrated throughout with 1000 photographs and reproductions, chronicling the story of the most important and influential civilisation the world has ever known.Table of ContentsIntroduction 6 Part One The Rise and Fall of Rome 8 The Archetypal Empire 10 Timeline 14 Rome: The World’s First Superpower 18 Chapter I: An Empire of Force and Law 20 Legendary Beginnings 22 The Conquest of Italy 24 The Growth of Empire 26 Victory Abroad, Discord at Home 28 The End of the Republic 30 Peace Restored: The First Emperors 32 The Flavians and “The Five Good Emperors” 34 Crisis and Catastrophe 36 Reconstruction and Revival 38 The Fall of the West 40 Chapter II: Great Romans 42 Great Roman Generals 44 Julius Caesar 48 Pompey 50 Mark Antony 51 The Historians’ View 52 Roman Philosophers 54 Rome’s Enemies 56 Cicero: The Peaceful Roman 60 Chapter III: The Emperors 62 Emperors of Rome 64 Augustus: The First Roman Emperor 66 Organizers of Empire 68 Best of Emperors 70 Evil Emperors 72 Saviours of the Empire 76 Constantine the Great 80 Women Behind the Throne 82 Chapter IV: Governing the Empire 84 A Self-governing Confederacy 86 The Oligarchical Republic 88 Rome’s Ruling Classes 90 The Secret Workings of Roman Politics 94 The Principate: A Monarchy in Disguise 96 Republican Extortion, Imperial Probity 98 Taxation 100 Chapter V: Rome and the Law 102 Law in the Early Republic 104 How the Laws Worked in Times of Crisis 106 The Great Imperial Codifications 108 Police and Secret Police 110 Punishment 112 Chapter VI: Foreign Policy 114 Early Beginnings: The Conquest of Italy 116 Ruler by Default 118 Defensible Frontiers: The Rhine and the Danube 120 Defensible Frontiers: Asia 122 Client and Buffer States 124 Reliance on the Germans 126 At the Empire’s Extremities: Egypt 128 At the Empire’s Extremities: Britain 130 the power of rome 132 Chapter VII: The Roman Army 134 The People’s Army 136 Battle Hardening 138 The Fall of the Republic 140 Legions and Principate 142 Army of the Later Empire 144 Chapter VIII: Inside the Army 146 Organizing the Legion 148 Centurions and Officers 150 Training and Discipline 152 Pay and Conditions 154 Auxiliary Troops 156 Pitching Camp 158 Roads, Canals and Bridges 160 Fleets and Ships 162 Chapter IX: Arms and the Men 164 Armour 166 Arms 168 Artillery 170 Siege Warfare 172 Triumphs and Ovations 174 Permanent Fortifications 176 Great Forts of the Later Empire 178 City Walls 180 Chapter X: The Great Wars 182 Marching and Fighting 184 The Punic Wars 186 Conquering the Greeks 188 Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul 190 The Last Civil Wars 192 Along the Elbe 194 Conquest of Lowland Britain 196 Agricola’s Northern Campaigns 198 Trajan’s Campaigns 200 Chapter XI: Defending the Empire 204 The Dilemmas of Defence 206 Natural Frontiers 208 Colonies and Settlements 214 The Jewish Revolt 216 Siege of Masada 218 Chapter XII: Decline and Fall 220 The 3rd-century Crisis 222 The Eastern Problem 224 Foreign Invasions 226 Loss and Recapture of the East 228 The Splintering Empire 230 The First Recovery 232 The Tetrarchs’ Achievements 234 Constantine 236 Constantine’s Heirs 238 Britain Regained and Abandoned 240 The Gothic Problem 242 The Fatal Winter 244 The Sack of Rome 246 The Fall of Rome 248 Why Rome Fell 250 Part Two The Roman World 254 Rome’s Enduring Legacy 256 Timeline 260 Rome: the first world city 264 Chapter XIII: Building the City of Rome 266 Building Early Rome 268 The Later Republic 270 Augustus and his Heirs 272 Nero and the Flavians 274 Trajan and Hadrian 276 Rome in the Later Empire 278 Rome – The Christian City 280 Chapter XIV: Building Techniques and Styles 282 Building Materials 284 Vaults, Arches, Domes 286 Building Practices and Techniques 288 Architectural Styles and Language 290 Chapter XV: Public Buildings 292 The Forum Romanum 294 The Imperial Forum 296 Rome’s Basilicas and the Senate House 298 Temples: The Republic and the Early Principate 300 Temples: The Pantheon and After 302 Building the Theatres 304 Amphitheatres and the Colosseum 306 Aqueducts and Sewers 310 Imperial Baths 312 Circuses 316 Triumphal Arches 318 Triumphal Columns 320 Churches 322 Chapter XVI: Imperial Palaces 324 The Palaces of Augustus and his Heirs 326 Nero’s Golden Palace 328 The Palatine: Palace of the Emperors 330 Chapter XVII: Housing for Rich and Poor 334 The Domus: Houses of the Rich 336 Insulae: The First Apartments 338 Tiberius’ Villa at Capri 340 Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli 342 Villas of the Rich in Italy 346 Piazza Armerina 348 Diocletian’s Palace at Split 350 Villas of the Empire: British Villas 352 Chapter XVIII: Cities of the Empire 354 Pompeii and Herculaneum 356 Ostia and Portus 360 Contrasting Cities: Carthage and Timgad 362 Lepcis Magna: An Emperor’s Birthplace 364 Athens: A Glorious Past 366 Trier: The Rome of the North 368 Ephesus: Wonder of the World 370 Vanished Cities of the East 372 Nîmes and Arles: Cities of Gaul 374 Romano-British Cities 376 Roman arts and society 378 Chapter XIX: Literature 380 The First Roman Writers 382 Augustus’ Poets Laureate 384 Catullus and the Elegiac Poets 386 Ovid and Later Silver Age Poets 388 Great Prose Writers 390 Novelists and Satirists 392 Late Roman Writers 394 Literature and Literacy 396 Chapter XX: The Arts 398 The Etruscans and the Early Republic 400 Art in the Later Republic 402 Augustus and the Classical Revival 404 The Roman Zenith 406 Hadrian and the Greek Revival 408 Art of the Later Empire 410 Furniture 412 Chapter XXI: Religion and Mythology 414 The Capitoline Gods 416 Venus, Vulcan and Other Gods 420 Emperor Worship and the Goddess Roma 422 Bacchus and Cybele 424 New Gods from the East 426 Cult of the Sun 428 Christianity: Tribulation to Triumph 430 Chapter XXII: Sport and Games 432 Gladiatorial Combats 434 The Great Games 436 Wild Beast Games 438 At the Circus: Chariot Races 440 At the Theatre: Farce, Mime and Pantomime 442 Games and Exercises 444 Chapter XXIII: Science, Technology & the Economy 446 Strabo and Graeco-Roman Geography 448 Astronomy 450 Water Mills 452 Steam Engines 454 Medical Principles and Practice 456 Perils of Urban Life: Plagues, Flood and Fire 458 Trade, Ships and Navigation 460 Passages to India 462 Farming 464 Chapter XXIV: People of Rome 466 Marriage, Divorce and the Power of the Father 468 Roman Women 470 Children: Education and Upbringing 472 Slaves and Freedmen 474 Aspects of Slavery 476 Business and Commerce 478 Leisure and Holidays 480 Dinner Parties 482 Food for Rich and Poor 484 Wine and Vineyards 486 Rome the Great Consumer 488 Tunics and Togas 490 Hairstyles and Cosmetics 492 Erotic Love 494 Funerals and the Afterlife 496 Index 500 Acknowledgements 510

    7 in stock

    £18.00

  • The Later Roman Empire

    Penguin Books Ltd The Later Roman Empire

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisAmmianus Marcellinus was the last great Roman historian, and his writings rank alongside those of Livy and Tacitus. The Later Roman Empire chronicles a period of twenty-five years during Marcellinus'' own lifetime, covering the reigns of Constantius, Julian, Jovian, Valentinian I, and Valens, and providing eyewitness accounts of significant military events including the Battle of Strasbourg and the Goth''s Revolt. Portraying a time of rapid and dramatic change, Marcellinus describes an Empire exhausted by excessive taxation, corruption, the financial ruin of the middle classes and the progressive decline in the morale of the army. In this magisterial depiction of the closing decades of the Roman Empire, we can see the seeds of events that were to lead to the fall of the city, just twenty years after Marcellinus'' death.Table of ContentsThe Later Roman EmpirePrefaceIntroductionFurther ReadingFamily Tree of Constantine the GreatIntroductory NoteThe Later Roman EmpireBook 14Book 15Book 16Book 17Book 18Book 19Book 20Book 21Book 22Book 23Book 24Book 25Book 26Book 27Book 28Book 29Book 30Book 31Notes on the TextNote on Officials and their TitlesNotes on PersonsDates of EmperorsGeographical keyMapsGeneral MapMonuments of RomeMap A: Gaul, Germany, and the RhineMap B: The Danube, Italy and ThraceMap C: The East and PersiaMap D: Asia Minor

    2 in stock

    £11.69

  • Ring of Steel

    Penguin Books Ltd Ring of Steel

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisSunday Times History Book of the Year 2014Winner of the 2014 Wolfson History Prize, the 2014 Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History, the Society for Military History''s 2015 Distinguished Book Award and the 2015 British Army Military Book of the YearFor the empires of Germany and Austria-Hungary the Great War - which had begun with such high hopes for a fast, dramatic outcome - rapidly degenerated as invasions of both France and Serbia ended in catastrophe. For four years the fighting now turned into a siege on a quite monstrous scale. Europe became the focus of fighting of a kind previously unimagined. Despite local successes - and an apparent triumph in Russia - Germany and Austria-Hungary were never able to break out of the the Allies'' ring of steel.In Alexander Watson''s compelling new history of the Great War, all the major events of the war are seen from the perspective of Berlin and Vienna. It is fundamentally a history of oTrade ReviewIn a year dominated by memories of the First World War, this supremely accomplished book stands out. Not only does it look at the conflict from the perspective of the losing Central Powers, imperial Germany and Austria-Hungary, but it brings together political, military, economic and cultural history in an enormously impressive narrative. Although Watson's book is based on archival research in Germany, Austria and Poland, his scholarship is never suffocating. His accounts of the terrible struggle on the vast Eastern Front are brisk and well-judged, while he is particularly good at bringing alive the mood on the German and Austrian home fronts, from soldiers' letters to children's nursery rhymes. Above all, his book could not be a more powerful reminder that, as bad as the war was for Britain, it was far, far worse for the losers -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times, History Book of the Year 2014 *Will be revelatory to most British readers -- Simon Heffer * New Statesman BOOKS OF THE YEAR *British historians have tended to view the Great War predominantly from the side of the Allies. Watson has done our understanding an inestimable service by examining these familiar events from the perspective of the Central Powers ... Watson's shift of perspective offers illuminating sidelights ... Watson's balance is at its most strikingly effective in a superlative chapter on Germany's catastrophic decision to launch its U-boat campaign. But it is the lost hordes of East European refugees who create the most haunting images in the immense canvas of this outstanding book -- Miranda Seymour * Telegraph *A truly indispensable contribution . . . It is a mark of talent in a historian to take familiar narratives and open them to new interpretation. Mr. Watson's book is a brilliant demonstration of this skill . . . Ring of Steel is a history as much of the emotions that hardship and war produced as of politics or diplomacy . . . Watson manages to mesh his dense bottom-up description with the grand narrative of the war's key moments of decision -- Adam Tooze * Wall Street Journal *An immensely authoritative new history of Germany and Austria-Hungary between 1914 and 1918. Watson writes fluently and compellingly, and his remarkable command of the sources offers new insight and information on almost every page. Soundly judged on the many controversial aspects of his topic, Watson is particularly ground-breaking in evoking the popular experience of the conflict and when investigating the atrocities that all too frequently were its accompaniment -- David Stevenson (author of 1914-1918)In Ring of Steel Alexander Watson shows us what it was like to be pierced by the sharp end of the Allied juggernaut. He takes us on an illuminating tour of the German and Austrian trenches, their querulous headquarters, their cold, starving towns, and their increasingly desperate government ministries. This is a fascinating account of the Great War from 'the other side of the hill,' but also an explanation for the chaos that followed: communism, fascism, depression, and Europe's plunge into a Second World War -- Geoffrey Wawro (author of A Mad Catastrophe)The Central Powers' Great War was not waged from the top down. Instead, as Alexander Watson's comprehensively researched and clearly presented analysis demonstrates, in both Germany and Austria-Hungary popular support was vital to mobilizing and sustaining an increasingly-futile conflict -- Dennis Showalter (author of Tannenberg: Clash of Empires 1914)An immensely authoritative new history of Germany and Austria-Hungary between 1914 and 1918. Watson writes fluently and compellingly, and his remarkable command of the sources offers new insight and information on almost every page. Soundly judged on the many controversial aspects of his topic, Watson is particularly ground-breaking in evoking the popular experience of the conflict and when investigating the atrocities that all too frequently were its accompaniment -- David Stevenson (author of 1914-1918)This book offers Anglo-Saxon students of the First World War a usefully original perspective -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *Alexander Watson's remarkable history of the first world war makes clear as never before how this unparalleled conflict impacted on and changed the societies of central Europe, particularly Germany and Austria-Hungary -- PD Smith * the Guardian *

    7 in stock

    £17.09

  • The New Spaniards

    Penguin Books Ltd The New Spaniards

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisA fully revised, expanded and updated edition of this masterly portrayal of contemporary Spain.The restoration of democracy in 1977 heralded a period of intense change that continues today. Spain has become a land of extraordinary paradoxes in which traditional attitudes and contemporary preoccupations exist side by side. Focussing on issues which affect ordinary Spaniards, from housing to gambling, from changing sexual mores to rising crime rates. John Hooper''s fascinating study brings to life the new Spain of the twenty-first century.Trade ReviewUnputdownable . . . A must for anyone . . . who wants to know what Spain is really like. (New Statesman, London)Hooper . . . not only knows where Spain has been in recent decades and centuries, but he also has an impressively authoritative view of where exactly it is today and where it is headed. (The Washington Post)

    5 in stock

    £10.44

  • The I.R.A.

    HarperCollins Publishers The I.R.A.

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisAn updated edition of this unique, bestselling history of the IRA, now including behind-the-scenes information on the recent advances made in the peace process.Tim Pat Coogan's classic The IRA provides the only fair-minded, comprehensive history of the organization that has transformed the Irish nationalist movement this century. With clarity and detachment, Coogan examines the IRA's origins, its foreign links, the bombing campaigns, hunger strikes and sectarian violence, and now their role in the latest attempt to bring peace to Northern Ireland.Meticulously researched, and backed up by interviews with past and present members of the organization, Tim Pat Coogan's book is an authoritative and compelling account of modern Irish history from the point of view of one of its most controversial major participants.Trade Review‘No student of Irish history can afford to ignore this book. No scholar is likely to improve upon it… A fascinating book, of the greatest possible value to us all’TLS ‘A very sensible and fair-minded assessment of a uniquely controversial organization’The Times ‘Remarkably comprehensive’Economist

    1 in stock

    £17.99

  • Patriots and Liberators

    HarperCollins Publishers Patriots and Liberators

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA reissue of Simon Schama's landmark study of the Netherlands from 17801813, this is a tale of a once-powerful nation's desparate struggle to survive the treacheries and brutality of European war and politics.Between 1780 and 1813 the Dutch Republic a country once rich enough to be called the cash till of Europe and powerful enough to make war with England was stripped of its colonies, invaded by its enemies, driven to the edge of bankruptcy, and, finally, reduced to becoming an appendage of the French empire an appendage not even the French seemed to value overmuch. Out of these events Simon Schama has constructed a gripping chronicle of revolution and privateering, constitutions and coups, in a tiny nation desperately struggling to stay afloat in a sea of geopolitics.Like his classics The Embarrassment of Riches' and Citizens', Patriots and Liberators' combines a mastery of historical sources with an unabashed delight in narrative. The result confirms Schama as a historian in the Trade Review‘An outstanding work of historical scholarship…Simon Schama writes brilliantly. He can bring a character alive in a sentence…This powerful book reads with the ease of a novel. Every page glitters with intelligence and perception. In every way “Patriots and Liberators” is an extraordinary achievement.’ J.H. Plumb ‘This remarkable book is more than a revision, it is a revelation.’ A.J.P. Taylor, Observer ‘A dramatic story, full of pathos and true comedy. If any book may be said to inhale without sententiousness the clear, calm and steadying air of a European ideal, this is it.’ Michael Ratcliffe, The Times ‘Schama’s book is written in the grand manner, its sweep is as impressive as its erudition and the constant brilliance of its style. He gives the Dutch revolution back to the people to whom it belonged – the Dutch.’ Economist

    1 in stock

    £17.09

  • The Inheritance of Rome

    Penguin Books Ltd The Inheritance of Rome

    5 in stock

    Book Synopsis''The Penguin History of Europe series ... is one of contemporary publishing''s great projects'' New StatesmanThe world known as the ''Dark Ages'', often seen as a time of barbarism, was in fact the crucible in which modern Europe would be created.Chris Wickham''s acclaimed history shows how this period, encompassing peoples such as Goths, Franks, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, was central to the development of our history and culture. From the collapse of the Roman Empire to the establishment of new European states, and from Ireland to Constantinople, the Baltic to the Mediterranean, this landmark work makes sense of a time of invasion and turbulence, but also of continuity, creativity and achievement.Trade ReviewA work of tremendous authority and breadth. With this book, as with Charlemagne's empire, one feels that an extraordinary range of things have been brought together -- Noel Malcolm * Sunday Telegraph *Intensely rewarding -- Jonathan Sumption * Spectator *Almost every page is full of arresting details and insights ... and a sharp eye for a revealing anecdote, illuminating even the murkiest corners of the so-called Dark Ages -- Dominic Sandbrook * Daily Telegraph *The Penguin History of Europe series ... is one of contemporary publishing's great projects * New Statesman *With five volumes now out, the Penguin History of Europe series ... is shaping up to be the best general account available, superseding all previous ones * Economist *

    5 in stock

    £14.24

  • The Eastern Front 19141917

    Penguin Books Ltd The Eastern Front 19141917

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisA groundbreaking historical study, Norman Stone''s The Eastern Front 1914-1917 was the very first authoritative account of the Russian Front in the First World War to be published in the West. In this now-classic history he dispels the myths surrounding a still relatively little-known aspect of the war, showing how inefficiency rather than economic shortage led to Russia''s desperate privations and eventual retreat. He also interprets the connection between the war and the chaos that followed, arguing that although fighting had almost ceased by the end of 1916, Russia was still in turmoil - undergoing a period of change that would inexorably lead towards revolution. ''A landmark in its field ... it is still the best book on the eastern front''  Orlando Figes ''A classic account ... that even after thirty years remains essential reading''  Sunday Times ''Without question one of the classics of poTable of ContentsThe army and the state in Tsarist Russia; the military imperative, July 1914; the opening round - East Prussia; the opening round -Galicia; the first war-winter, 1914-1915; the Austro-Hungarian emergency; the shell-shortage, 1915; the retreat, 1915; the political war-economy, 1916-1917; the second war-winter, 1915-1916; summer 1916; the Romanian campaign, 1916-1917; war and revolution, 1917.

    2 in stock

    £11.69

  • Margaret Thatcher

    Penguin Books Ltd Margaret Thatcher

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisNot For Turning is the first volume of Charles Moore''s authorized biography of Margaret Thatcher, the longest serving Prime Minister of the twentieth century and one of the most influential political figures of the postwar era. Charles Moore''s biography of Margaret Thatcher, published after her death on 8 April 2013, immediately supersedes all earlier books written about her. At the moment when she becomes a historical figure, this book also makes her into a three dimensional one for the first time. It gives unparalleled insight into her early life and formation, especially through her extensive correspondence with her sister, which Moore is the first author to draw on. It recreates brilliantly the atmosphere of British politics as she was making her way, and takes her up to what was arguably the zenith of her power, victory in the Falklands. (This volume ends with the Falklands Dinner in Downing Street in November 1982.) Moore is clearly an admirer of his suTrade ReviewMoore has produced a biography so masterly ... that it comes as close as biography can come to being a work of art -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *Moore's great gift is his ability to make Thatcher's story fresh again, and above all to remind us of how odd she was ... the access to her family and friends enabled Moore to produce a multifaceted picture of a compelling life ... [this] will now become the definitive account -- Anne Applebaum * Daily Telegraph *Intricate, elegant and laced with dry humour -- Andrew Rawnsley * Observer *Outstandingly good -- A.N. Wilson * Evening Standard *

    3 in stock

    £17.09

  • The Making of Europe

    Penguin Books Ltd The Making of Europe

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisA wave of internal conquest, settlement and economic growth took place in Europe during the High Middle Ages, which transformed it from a world of small separate communities into a network of powerful kingdoms with distinctive cultures. In this vivid and provocative book Robert Bartlett vividly shows how Europe was itself a product of colonization, as much as it was later a colonizer, and what this did to shape the continent and the world today.

    3 in stock

    £11.69

  • Martin Luther

    Yale University Press Martin Luther

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review"[A] richly detailed portrait."—D.G. Hart, Wall Street Journal"Hendrix has written a scholarly but vivid portrait of a man who, in a spiritual crisis, peered deep into St. Paul’s words about the righteous living by faith, and thought he had found there a new purpose for himself, his friends, his country and all true Christians."—Michael Duggan, Catholic Herald"There is a plenty of detail in this well-researched study with its extensive cast of characters, and attention to matters as diverse as Luther’s ability to play the lute and his vulnerability to bouts of depression. . . . Luther’s very real humanity emerges in these accounts."—Martin Wellings, Methodist Recorder"Hendrix covers Luther’s life, outlines his thought and assesses his theology. Crucially though, theology is not allowed to dominate and we see Luther’s ideas against the background of his life and his personal relationships."—Paul Richardson, Church of England Newspaper"[Hendrix] has given us a Luther who is not only an extraordinary theologian, but also a firm friend, a demanding colleague, an energetic administrator, a mediocre politician, and a loving, if sometimes heavy-handed, husband and father . . . What keeps it together is Hendrix’s sharp insights, his easy style and his unfailing eye for telling facts or quotations."—Dr. Alec Ryrie, Church Times"Scott Hendrix is a veteran insider historian from the American Protestant tradition, with the worthy aim of tackling some of the complacent myths all families build up about their founding fathers… an efficient performance."—Diarmaid Mac Culloch, London Review of Books"Hendrix here offers not only a biography of Luther, but a history of the early Lutheran Reformation. This is indeed a good Luther biography. As 2017 approaches, it will be by no means the last, but the breadth and depth of insight of Hendrix’s biography will make it very difficult to match."—Charlotte Methuen, Theology“[Hendrix’s] intention in writing this volume, he says, was to provide a readable, up-to-date, comprehensive but not too long account of Luther’s life. . . he has certainly achieved this. . . A comprehensive account, and one which is likely to become a standard reference.” —Kenneth Austin, Huguenot Society Journal "One of the best things about this humane and sensitive biography is that it sets Luther in context. Rather than the tormented hero of romantic myth, we have a busy scholar, teacher, preacher and writer surrounded by colleagues, friends and family, responding to the myriad unforeseen challenges that his epoch-changing insights had brought down on him. Enlivening circumstantial details ensure that Scott Hendrix’s Luther truly inhabits his cultural, political and spiritual world."—Euan Cameron, author of The European Reformation"I did not expect to learn much from reading yet another Luther biography. But I was wrong. Scott Hendrix’s Luther is in many respects a primus inter pares—establishing a point of view that is not, in my opinion, the least of Hendrix’s achievements in this important biography."—David Steinmetz, author of Luther in Context

    15 in stock

    £16.14

  • Imprudent King

    Yale University Press Imprudent King

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review"Parker’s highly detailed but also immensely readable book has come far closer to that than any previous account of the most enigmatic of Spanish kings."—Anthony Pagden, New York Times Book Review on The Grand Strategy of Philip II"He is at pains to know Philip through the testimony of his friends, foes, courtiers and his own words and this authoritative, intelligently revisionist biography must stand now as the primary reference."—Iain Finlayson, Times"Parker has managed to navigate the archival whirlpools with remarkable flair. His admiration for his subject is evident on almost every page, yet the book is no whitewash. We are constantly made aware of the possibility that Philip might be deceiving us."—Fernando Cervantes, TLS"[T]he world’s outstanding historian of Philip II, his court, his problems and tragedies . . . Imprudent King is readable and broad-minded, as well as being scholarly . . . Parker has given us a really magnificent biography, whose documentation is impeccable while never heavy."—Hugh Thomas, The Spectator"There is no Anglophone historian who knows more about Philip II than Geoffrey Parker. In this soaring biography, which draws on a cache of recently discovered documents as well as the enormous back catalogue of archival deposits, he paints a compelling, even-handed portrait of the most powerful man in 16th-century Europe. Parker informs us that Philip’s handwriting is hard to read. It is no easier to decipher his legacy. It seems that he didn’t kill his son Don Carlos (whatever the Verdi opera tries to tell you) but he was not averse to removing other obstacles. He continues to fascinate –- if you are in the market for a nuanced study bolstered by a lifetime of study, Parker is your man and this is, for me, the historical biography of the year."—Jonathan Wright, The Herald (Scotland)"Geoffrey Parker’s biography of Philip II of Spain is superb."—Jonathan Wright, The Tablet"Highly recommended . . . has plenty of sound content while being highly readable."—Brian Buxton, Journal of the Tyndale SocietySelected as an Outstanding Academic Title 2015 by Choice"The first global empire, a master historian, and a wealth of new archival documents provide the essential elements for this terrific biography of Philip II as both statesman and man. Parker has brought Philip to life and, with him, the challenges of ruling an early modern empire."—Stuart Schwartz, author of All Can Be Saved: Religious Tolerance and Salvation in the Iberian Atlantic World"Geoffrey Parker, one of the world’s leading early modern scholars and, most certainly, the greatest authority on Philip II, has written a remarkable, erudite, thoroughly researched, and thoughtful book. Imprudent King benefits from the exhaustive research undertaken for his monumental, ‘definitive’ study of Philip II published in Spanish, but Parker’s deployment of close to 3,000 new documents permits a very different understanding of Philip II’s successes and failures. This, together with Parker’s unique gift as a historian, makes Imprudent King a profound, original and engaging new interpretation of the king’s life and of the manner in which he wrestled with the almost hopeless task of managing the first truly world empire."—Teofilo F. Ruiz, author of Spanish Society, 1400-1600

    15 in stock

    £18.04

  • Stalin

    Yale University Press Stalin

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review"[A] beautifully constructed, lucid, and brief new life of the dictator. . . . Written with fluent sobriety and humour the book is a constant pleasure to read. No book of history is ever definitive: new facts trickle out, new writers bring new perspectives to bear. This is the charm of the genre. But some history books can become classics for later generations. Khlevniuk’s Stalin is likely to be one of them."—Rodric Braithwaite, Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies"Authoritative, fluently written. . . . The pinnacle of current scholarship on its subject."—Charlotte Hobson, Spectator"This brilliant, authoritative, opinionated biography ranks as the best on Stalin in any language. Khlevniuk’s research is prodigious and covers a plethora of primary and secondary sources."—Martin McCauley, East-West Review"A historiographical and literary masterpiece, which undoubtedly will remain the standard biography of Stalin for decades to come."—Mark Edele, Australian Book ReviewWon the 2016 PROSE Award in Biography & Autobiography. The Prose Awards recognize the very best in professional and scholarly publishing. Presented by the Professional Schoarly Publishing (PSP) Dision of the Associaton of American Publishers (AAP)Awarded second prize for the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize for the Best Russian book in translation"Oleg Khlevniuk is incontestably the best Russian student of Soviet history. In this biography, he uses his experience and talents to give us an innovative and convincing portrait of the Soviet 'micromanaging' despot. The chapters dealing with the Terror, war, victory and the tragic postwar years break new ground. Stalin’s political and private life, his relationships with his immediate circle, his family and the 'Soviet people,' his intellectual capacities and his way of leading the country, as well as his cruelty and the system of power he built, come vividly to life, and one leaves the book with a much more profound understanding of some of Europe’s darkest decades."—Andrea Graziosi, author of the Histoire de l'URSS"Oleg Khlevniuk, master of the Russian archives, provides a fresh and acute analysis of Stalin the destroyer to confound revisionists who portray him as a state builder and modernizer."—Alfred J. Rieber, author of Stalin and the Struggle for Eurasia"Khlevniuk is one of the most knowledgeable historians of Stalin and his era. This excellent biography of Stalin represents the current state of scholarship, and should be read widely."—Hiroaki Kuromiya, author of Stalin: Profiles in Power"A superb account by the eminent scholar who pioneered the opening of the Soviet archives. Oleg Khlevniuk summarizes a lifetime of research, eschewing unsubstantiated anecdotes and tales and sticking to the documentary record, to produce an authoritative narrative of Stalin’s life and times."—Paul Gregory, Hoover Institution"No one in the world knows the inner workings of Soviet power in Stalin’s time better than Oleg Khlevniuk. Beautifully and artfully composed, deeply moral, and supremely readable, Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator will become the benchmark against which all future biographies of Stalin will be measured. A masterpiece."—Jan Plamper, author of The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power

    Out of stock

    £23.84

  • The Spartan Regime

    Yale University Press The Spartan Regime

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisAn authoritative and refreshingly original consideration of the government and culture of ancient Sparta and her place in Greek historyTrade Review"Persuasive."—Thomas E. Ricks, New York Times Book Review"A superb account."—Dominic Green, Minerva"Paul Rahe continues his monumental history of ancient Sparta, by explaining why and how Sparta’s early strategic role in the Greek world was inseparable from the uniqueness of its origins and values. An insightful and sympathetic view of Sparta, one that could only be written by a masterful historian and classicist with Rahe’s singular knowledge of political philosophy, ancient and modern."—Victor Davis Hanson, The Hoover Institution, author of The Other Greeks"Paul Rahe toils boldly at the intersection of political and diplomatic history, military history, and political theory. He has always been one of a kind, and this highly original book will cement his reputation as such. Who else has treated Spartan policy with the seriousness that he shows that it deserves? Nobody."—Clifford Orwin, Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto, and Senior Fellow, Berlin Thucydides Center

    15 in stock

    £26.12

  • Leon Trotsky

    Yale University Press Leon Trotsky

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisBorn Lev Davidovich Bronstein in southern Ukraine, Trotsky was an effective military strategist and an adept diplomat, who staked the fate of the Bolshevik revolution on the meagre foundation of a Europe-wide Communist upheaval. In this book, Trotsky emerges as a brilliant yet flawed man.Trade Review"An accessible scholarly account of a man whose life spanned continents, whose charisma was legendary and whose ideas sparked a revolution and its backlash."—Kirkus Reviews * Kirkus Reviews *"This trim book . . . pulls together all the essentials of the life of Leon Trotsky and the revolution he so significantly shaped into a seamless, intelligent, and wonderfully accessible synopsis."—Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs -- Robert Legvold * Foreign Affairs * “. . . this is both a good read and a balanced, plausible interpretation of the man in his times. Rubenstein sees things to admire and deplore, and achieves the mix of empathy and critical distance a good biographer needs.”—Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Guardian -- Sheila Fitzpatrick * The Guardian *"In this new, concise biography, Rubenstein offers a more balanced view of Trotsky. . . . There are many reasons to commend this work — among them, Rubenstein’s depoliticization of its subject and the book’s succinctness and readability."—Peter Ephross, The Forward -- Peter Ephross * The Forward *

    10 in stock

    £12.34

  • The Five Giants

    HarperCollins Publishers The Five Giants

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisAn accessible and entertaining narrative history of the establishment, development and unravelling of the British Welfare State now fully revised to cover Blair's first term. Lively writing in the style of Peter Hennessy.Giant Want. Giant Disease. Giant Ignorance. Giant Squalor. And the insidious Giant Idleness, which destroys wealth and corrupts men. These were evils to be vanquished by the postwar reconstruction of Britain. Timmins' book recaptures brilliantly the high hopes of the period in which the Welfare State began to be created, and conveys the cranky zeal of its inventor, William Beveridge. The onslaught on the five Giants was the work of five gargantuan programmes that made up the core of Beveridge's Welfare State. These were social security, health, education, housing and a policy of full employment. It is notoriously difficult to write about such subjects and keep the reader reading, but Timmins performs wonders of narrative clarity, anecdote and human detail in a book thTrade Review‘A splendid book – knowledgeable, readable and fair.’ Sunday Telegraph ‘A tour de force – thoroughly researched and vividly written…a masterpiece.’ Sunday Times ‘Extraordinarily comprehensive without ever being incomprehensible.’ Roy Hattersley, Independent

    1 in stock

    £14.39

  • The Spanish Holocaust

    HarperCollins Publishers The Spanish Holocaust

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisSelected as the Sunday Times History Book of the Year for 2012, this is a meticulous work of scholarship from the foremost historian of 20th-century Spain.The culmination of more than a decade of research, The Spanish Holocaust' seeks to reflect the intense horrors visited upon Spain during its ferocious civil war, the consequences of which still reverberate bitterly today.The brutal, murderous persecution of Spaniards between 1936 and 1945 is a truth that should have been told long ago. Paul Preston here offers the first comprehensive picture of what he terms the Spanish Holocaust: mass extra-judicial murder of some 200,000 victims, cursory military trials, torture, the systematic abuse of women and children, sweeping imprisonment, the horrors of exile. Those culpable for crimes committed on both sides of the Civil War are named; their victims identified.The Spanish Holocaust' illuminates one of the darkest, least-known eras of modern European history.Trade Review‘A book of extraordinary moral and emotional power, a classic of historical scholarship and a deeply affecting record of man’s inhumanity to man.’ Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times 'A harrowing and moving account of the immense terror and enormous atrocities, especially perpetrated by General Franco's followers, during and after the Spanish Civil War, meticulously researched and superbly written by an outstanding historian.' Ian Kershaw ‘Essential reading for anyone wishing to understand Spain and its recent history…. Preston’s excellent, spine-chilling narrative explains just how deep Franco’s early investment in terror was….this is an invaluable book that does not shrink from even the harshest of truths’ Guardian ‘Preston’s staggeringly detailed powerful and affecting chronicle of the savagery unleashed during the Spanish civil war….is a history of rare moral and emotional power, which alters forever our view of one of the most symbolic conflicts of the last century’ Sunday Times, History Book of the Year

    Out of stock

    £17.09

  • The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman

    Penguin Books Ltd The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisEdward Gibbon's six-volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88) is among the most magnificent and ambitious narratives in European literature. Its subject is the fate of one of the world's greatest civilizations over thirteen centuries - its rulers, wars and society, and the events that led to its disastrous collapse. Here, in volumes three and four, Gibbon vividly recounts the waves of barbarian invaders under commanders such as Alaric and Attila, who overran and eventually destroyed the West. He then turns his gaze to events in the East, where even the achievements of the Byzantine emperor Justinian and the campaigns of the brilliant military leader Belisarius could not conceal the fundamental weaknesses of their empire.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.Table of ContentsThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume IIChapter XXVIIDeath of Gratian—Ruin of Arianism.—St. Ambrose.—First civil War againt Maximus.—Character, Administration and Pennance of Theodosius.—Death of Valentinian II.—Second civil War, againt Eugenius.—Death of Theodosius.A.D.379-383. Character and Conduct of the Emperor Gratian. His Defects383 Discontent of the Roman Troops. Revolt of Maximus in Britain. Flight and Death of Gratian383-387. Treaty of Peace between Maximus and Theodosius380 Baptism and orthodox Edicts of Theodosius340-380. Arianism of Constantinople378 Gregory Nazianzen accepts the mission of Constantinople380 Ruin of Arianism at Constantinople381 In the East. The Council of Constantinople. Retreat of Gregory Nazianzen380-394. Edicts of Theodosius against the Heretics385 Execution of Priscillian and his Associates375-397. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan385 His successful Opposition to the Empress Justina387 Maximus invades Italy. Flight of Valentinian. Theodosius takes Arms in the Cause of Valentinian388 Defeat and Death of Maximus. Virtues of Theodosius. Faults of Theodosius387 The Sedition of Antioch. Clemency of Theodosius390 Sedition and Massacre of Thessalonica388 Influence and Conduct of Ambrose390 Pennance of Theodosius388-391. Generosity of Theodosius391 Character of Valentinian392 His Death392-394. Usurpation of Eugenius. Theodosius prepares for War394 His Victory over Eugenius395 Death of Theodosius. Corruption of the Times. The Infantry lay aside their ArmourChapter XXVIIFinal Destruction of Paganism.—Introduction of the Worship of Saints, and Relics, among the Christians.A.D.378-395. The Destruction of the Pagan Religion. State of Paganism at Rome.384 Petition of the Senate for the Altar of Victory388 Conversion of Rome381 Destruction of the Temples in the Provinces. The Temple of Serapis at Alexandria389 Its final Destruction390 The Pagan Religion is prohibited. Oppressed390-420. Finally extinguished. The Worship of the Christian Martyrs. General ReflectionsI. Fabulous Martyrs and RelicsII. MiraclesIII. Revival of PolytheismIV. Introduction of Pagan CeremoniesChapter XXIXFinal Division of the Roman Empire between the Sons of Theodosius—Reign of Arcadius and Honorius—Administration of Rufinus and Stilicho.—Revolt and Defeat of Gildo in Africa.A.D.395 Division of the Empire between Arcadius and Honorius386-395. Character and Administration of Rufinus395 He oppresses the East. He is disappointed, by the Marriage of Arcadius. Character of Stilicho, the Minister, and General of the Western Empire385-408. His Military Command395 The Fall and Death of Rufinus396 Discord of the two Empires386-398. Revolt of Gildo in Africa397 He is condemned by the Roman Senate398 The African War398 Defeat and Death of Gildo398 Marriage, and Character of HonoriusChapter XXXRevolt of the Goths.—They plunder Greece. Two great Invasions of Italy by Alaric and Radagaisus.—They are repulsed by Stilicho.—The Germans over-run Gaul.—Usurpation of Constantine in the West.—Disgrace and Death of Stilicho.A.D.395 Revolt of the Goths396 Alaric marches into Greece397 He is attacked by Stilicho. Escapes to Epirus398 Alaric is declared Master-general of the eastern Illyricum. Is proclaimed King of the Visigoths400-403. He invades Italy403 Honorius flies from Milan. He is pursued and besieged by the Goths. Battle of Pollentia. Boldness and Retreat of Alaric404 The Triumph of Honorius at Rome. The Gladiators abolished. Honorius fixes his Residence at Ravenna400 The Revolutions of Scythia405 Emigration of the northern Germans406 Radagaisus invades Italy. Besieges Florence. Threatens Rome. Defeat and Destruction of his Army by Stilicho. The Remainder of the Germans invade Gaul407 Desolation of Gaul. Revolt of the British Army. Constantine is acknowledged in Britain and Gaul408 He reduces Spain404-408. Negociation of Alaric and Stilicho408 Debates of the Roman Senate. Intrigues of the Palace. Disgrace and Death of Stilicho. His Memory persecuted. The Poet Claudian among the Train of Stilicho's DependentsChapter XXXIInvasion of Italy by Alaric.—Manners of the Roman Senate and People.—Rome is thrice besieged, and at length pillaged by the Goths.—Death of Alaric.—The Goths evacuate Italy.—Fall of Constantine.—Gaul and Spain are occupied by the Barbarians.—Independence of Britain.A.D.408 Weakness of the Court of Ravenna. Alaric marches to Rome. Hannibal at the Gates of Rome. Genealogy of the Senators. The Anician Family. Wealth of the Roman Nobles. Their Manners. Character of the Roman Nobles, by Ammianus Marcellinus. State and Character of the People of Rome. Public Distribution of Bread, Bacon, Oil, Wine, &c. Use of the public Baths. Games and Spectacles. Populousness of Rome. First Siege of Rome by the Goths. Famine. Plague. Superstition409 Alaric accepts a Ransom, and raises the Siege. Fruitless Negociations for Peace. Change and Succession of Ministers. Second Siege of Rome by the Goths. Attalus is created Emperor by the Goths and Romans410 He is degraded by Alaric. Third Siege and Sack of Rome by the Goths. Respect of the Goths for the Christian Religion. Pillage and Fire of Rome. Captives and Fugitives. Sack of Rome by the Troops of Charles V. Alaric evacuates Rome and ravages Italy408-412. Possession of Italy by the Goths410 Death of Alaric412 Adolphus, King of the Goths, concludes a Peace with the Empire, and marches into Gaul414 His Marriage with Placidia. The Gothic Treasures410-417. Laws for the Relief of Italy and Rome413 Revolt and Defeat of Heraclian, Count of Africa409-413. Revolutions of Gaul and Spain. Character and Victories of the General Constantius411 Death of the Usurper Constantine411-416. Fall of the Usurpers, Jovinus, Sebastian, and Attalus409 Invasion of Spain by the Suevi, Vandals, Alani, &c.414 Adolphus, King of Goths, marches into Spain415 His Death415-418. The Goths conquer and restore Spain419 Their Establishment in Aquitain. The Burgundians420, &c. State of the Barbarians in Gaul409 Revolt of Britain and Armorica409-449. State of Britain418 Assembly of the Seven Provinces of GaulChapter XXXIIArcadius Emperor of the East.—Administration and Disgrace of Eutropius.—Revolt of Gainas.—Persecution of St. John Chrysostom.—Theodosius II. Emperor of the East.—His Sister Pulcheria.—His Wife Eudocia.—The Persian War, and Division of Armenia.A.D.395-1453. The Empire of the East395-408. Reign of Arcadius395-399. Administration and Character of Eutropius. His Venality and Injustice. Ruin of Abundantius. Destruction of Timasius397 A cruel and unjust Law of Treason399 Rebellion of Tribigild. Fall of Eutropius400 Conspiracy and Fall of Gainas398 Election and Merit of St. John Chrysostom398-403. His Administration and Defects403 Chrysostom is persecuted by the Empress Eudocia. Popular Tumults at Constantinople404 Exile of Chrysostom407 His Death438 His Relics transported to Constantinople408 Death of Arcadius. His supposed Testament408-415. Administration of Anthemius414-453. Character and Administration of Pulcheria. Education and Character of Theodosius the Younger421-460. Character and Adventures of the Empress Eudocia422 The Persian War431-440. Armenia divided between the Persians and the RomansChapter XXXIIIDeath of Honorius.—Valentinian III. Emperor of the West.—Administration of his Mother Placidia.—Ætius and Boniface.—Conquest of Africa by the Vandals.A.D.423 Last Years and Death of Honorius423-425. Elevation and Fall of the Usurper John425-455. Valentinian III. Emperor of the West425-450. Administration of his Mother Placidia. Her two Generals, #&198;tius and Boniface427 Error and Revolt of Boniface in Africa428 He invites the Vandals. Genseric king of the Vandals429 He lands in Africa. Reviews his Army. The Moors. The Donatists430 Tardy Repentance of Boniface. Desolation of Africa. Siege of Hippo. Death of St. Augustin431 Defeat and Retreat of Boniface432 His Death431-439. Progress of the Vandals in Africa439 They surprise Carthage. African Exiles and Captives. Fable of the Seven SleepersChapter XXXIVThe Character, Conquests, and Court of Attila, King of the Huns.—Death of Theodosius the Younger.—Elevation of Marcian to the Empire of the East.A.D.376-433. The Huns. Their Establishment in modern Hungary433-453. Reign of Attila. His Figure and Character. He discovers the Sword of Mars. Acquires the Empire of Scythia and Germany430-440. The Huns invade Persia441, &c. They attack the Eastern Empire. Ravage Europe, as far as Constantinople. The Scythian, or Tartar Wars. State of the Captives446 Treaty of Peace between Attila, and the Eastern Empire. Spirit of the Azimuntines. Embassies from Attila to Constantinople448 The Embassy of Maximin to Attila. The royal Village and Palace. The Behaviour of Attila to the Roman Ambassadors. The royal Feasts. Conspiracy of the Romans against the Life of Attila. He reprimands, and forgives the Emperor450 Theodosius the Younger dies. Is succeeded by MarcianChapter XXXVInvasion of Gaul by Attila.—He is repulsed by Ætius and the Visigoths.—Attila invades and evacuates Italy.—The Deaths of Attila, Ætius, and Valentinian the ThirdA.D.450 Attila threatens both Empires, and prepares to invade Gaul433-454. Character and Administration of Ætius. His Connection with the Huns and Alani419-451. The Visigoths in Gaul under the Reign of Theodoric435-439. The Goths besiege Narbonne, &c.420-451. The Franks in Gaul under the Merovingian Kings. The Adventures of the Princess Honoria451 Attila invades Gaul and besieges Orleans. Alliance of the Romans and Visigoths. Attila retires to the Plains of Champagne. Battle of Châlons. Retreat of Attila452 Invasion of Italy by Attila. Foundation of the Republic of Venice. Attila gives Peace to the Romans453 The Death of Attila. Destruction of his Empire454 Valentinian murders the Patrician Ætius. ravishes the Wife of Maximus455 Death of Valentinian. Symptoms of the Decay and Ruin of the Roman GovernmentChapter XXXVISack of Rome by Genseric, King of the Vandals.—His naval Depredations.—Succession of the last Emperors of the West, Maximus, Avitus, Majorian, Severus, Anthemius, Olybrius, Glycerius, Nepos, Augustulus.—Total Extinction of the Western Empire.—Reign of Odoacer, the first Barbarian King of Italy.A.D.439-445. Naval Power of the Vandals455 The Character and Reign of the Emperor Maximus. His Death. Sack of Rome by the Vandals. The Emperor Avitus453-466. Character of Theodoric, King of the Visigoths456 His Expedition into Spain. Avitus is deposed457 Character and Elevation of Majorian457-461. His Salutary Laws. The Edifices of Rome457 Majorian prepares to invade Africa. The Loss of his Fleet461 His Death461-467. Ricimer reigns under the Name of Severus. Revolt of Marcellinus in Dalmatia. of Ætius, in Gaul361-467. Naval War of the Vandals462, &C. Negocations with the Eastern Empire457-474. Leo, Emperor of the East467-472. Anthemius, Emperor of the West. The Festival of the Lupercalia468 Preparations against the Vandals of Africa. Failure of the Expedition462-472. Conquests of the Visigoths in Spain and Gaul468 Trial of Arvandus471 Discord of Anthemius and Ricimer472 Olybrius, Emperor of the West. Sack of Rome, and Death of Anthemius. Death of Ricimer. of Olybrius472-475. Julius Nepos and Glycerius, Emperors of the West475 The Patrician Orestes476 His Son Augustulus, the last Emperor of the West476-490. Odoacer, King of Italy476 or 479. Extinction of the Western Empire. Augustus is banished to the Lucullan Villa. Decay of the Roman Spirit476-490. Character and Reign of Odoacer. Miserable State of ItalyChapter XXXVIIOrigin, Progress, and Effects of the monastic Life.—Conversion of the Barbarians to Christianity and Arianism.—Persecution of the Vandals in Africa.—Extinction of Arianism among the Barbarians.A.D.I. Institution of the Monastic LifeOrigin of the Monks305 Antony, and the Monks of Egypt341 Propagation of the monastic Life at Rome328 Hilarion in Palestine360 Basil in Pontus370 Martin in Gaul. Causes of the rapid Progress of the monastic Life. Obedience of the Monks. Their Dress and Habitations. Their Diet. Their manual Labour. Their Riches. Their Solitude. Their Devotion and Visions. The Coenobites and Anachorets395-451. Simeon Stylites. Miracles and Worship of the Monks. Superstition of the AgeII. Conversion of the Barbarians360, &c. Ulphilas, Apostle of the Goths400, &c.The Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, &c. embrace Christianity. Motives of their Faith. Effects of their Conversion. They are involved in the Arian Heresy. General Toleration. Arian Persecution of the Vandals429-477. Genseric477 Hunneric484 Gundamund496 Thorismund523 Hilderic530 Gelimer. A general View of the Persecution in Africa. Catholic Frauds. Miracles500-700. The Ruin of Arianism among the Barbarians577-584. Revolt and Martyrdom of Hermenegild in Spain586-589. Conversion of Recared and the Visigoths of Spain600, &c. Conversion of the Lombards of Italy612-712. Persecution of the Jews in Spain. ConclusionChapter XXXVIIIReign and Conversion of Clovis.—His Victories over the Alemanni, Burgundians, and Visigoths.—Establishment of the French Monarchy in Gaul.—Laws of the Barbarians.—State of the Romans.—The Visigoths of Spain.—Conquest of Britain by the Saxons.A.D.The Revolution of Gaul476-485. Euric, King of the Visigoths481-511. Clovis, King of the Franks486 His Victory over Syagrius496 Defeat and Submission of the Alemanni. Conversion of Clovis497, &c. Submission of the Armoricans and the Roman Troops499 The Burgundian War500 Victory of Clovis532 Final Conquest of Burgundy by the Franks507 The Gothic War. Victory of Clovis508 Conquest of Aquitain by the Franks510 Consulship of Clovis536 Final Establishment of the French Monarchy in Gaul. Political Controversy. Laws of the Barbarians. Pecuniary Fines for Homicide. Judgments of God. Judicial Combats. Division of Land by the Barbarians. Domain and Benefices of the Merovingians. Private Usurpations. Personal Servitude. Example of Auvergne. Story of Attalus. Privileges of the Romans of Gaul. Anarchy of the Franks. The Visigoths of Spain. Legislative Assemblies of Spain. Code of the Visigoths. Revolution of Britain449 Descent of the Saxons455-582. Establishment of the Saxon Heptarchy. State of the Britons. Their Resistance. Their Flight. The Fame of Arthur. Desolation of Britain. Servitude of the Britons. Manners of the Britons. Obscure or fabulous State of Britain. Fall of the Roman Empire in the WestGeneral Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the WestChapter XXXIXZeno and Anastasius, Emperors of the East.—Birth, Education, and first Exploits of Theodoric the Ostrogoth.—His Invasion and Conquest of Italy.—The Gothic Kingdom of Italy.—State of the West.—Military and Civil Government.—The Senator Boethius.—Last Acts and Death of Theodoric.A.D.455-475. Birth and Education of Theodoric474-491. The Reign of Zeno491-518. of Anastasius475-488. Service and Revolt of Theodoric489 He undertakes the Conquest of Italy. His march489-490. The three Defeats of Odoacer493 His Capitulation and Death493-526. Reign of Theodoric, King of Italy. Partition of Lands. Separation of the Goths and Italians. Foreign Policy of Theodoric. His defensive Wars509 His Naval Armaments. Civil Government of Italy according to the Roman Laws. Prosperity of Rome500 Visit of Theodoric. Flourishing State of Italy. Theodoric an Arian. His Toleration of the Catholics. Vices of his Government. He is provoked to persecute the Catholics. Character, Studies, and Honours, of Boethius. His Patriotism. He is accused of Treason524 His Imprisonment and Death525 Death of Symmachus526 Remorse and Death of TheodoricChapter XLElevation of Justin the Elder.—Reign of Justinian:—I. The Empress Theodora.—II. Factions of the Circus, and Sedition of Constantinople.—III. Trade and Manufacture of Silk.—IV. Finances and Taxes.—V. Edifices of Justinian.—Church of St. Sophia.—Fortifications and Frontiers of the Eastern Empire.—VI. Abolition of the Schools of Athens, and the Consulship of Rome.A.D.482 or 483. Birth of the Emperor Justinian518-527. Elevation and Reign of his Uncle Justin I.520-527. Adoption and Succession of Justinian527-565. The Reign of Justinian. Character and Histories of Procopius. Division of the Reign of Justinian. Birth and Vices of the Empress Theodora. Her Marriage with Justinian. Her Tyranny. Her Virtues548 And Death. The Factions of the Circus. At Rome. They distract Constantinople and the East. Justinian favours the Blues532 Sedition of Constantinople, surnamed Nika. The Distress of Justinian. Firmness of Theodora. The Sedition is suppressed. Agriculture and Manufactures of the Eastern Empire. The Use of Silk by the Romans. Importation from China by Land and Sea. Introduction of Silk-worms into Greece. State of the Revenue. Avarice and Profusion of Justinian. Pernicious Savings. Remittances. Taxes. Monopolies. Venality. Testaments. The Ministers of Justinian. John of Cappadocia. His Edifices and Architects. Foundation of the Church of St. Sophia. Description. Marbles. Riches. Churches and Palaces. Fortifications of Europe. Security of Asia after the Conquest of Isauria. Fortifications of the Empire, from the Euxine to the Persian Frontier488 Death of Perozes, King of Persia502-505. The Persian War. Fortifications of Dara. The Caspian or Iberian Gates. The Schools of Athens. They are suppressed by Justinian. Proclus485-529. His Successors. The last of the Philosophers541 The Roman Consulship extinguished by JustinianChapter XLIConquests of Justinian in the West.—Character and first Campaigns of Belisarius.—He invades and subdues the Vandal Kingdom of Africa.—His Triumph.—The Gothic War.—He recovers Sicily, Naples, and Rome.—Siege of Rome by the Goths.—Their Retreat and Losses.—Surrender of Ravenna.—Glory of Belisarius.—His domestic Shame and Misfortunes.A.D.533 Justinian resolves to invade Africa523-530. State of the Vandals. Hilderic530-534. Gelimer. Debates on the African War. Character and Choice of Belisarius529-532. His Services in the Persian War533 Preparations for the African War. Departure of the Fleet. Belisarius lands on the Coast of Africa. Defeats the Vandals in a first Battle. Reduction of Carthage. Final Defeat of Gelimer and the Vandals534 Conquest of Africa by Belisarius. Distress and Captivity of Gelimer. Return and Triumph of Belisarius535 His sole Consulship. End of Gelimer and the Vandals. Manners and Defeat of the Moors. Neutrality of the Visigoths550-620. Conquests of the Romans in Spain534 Belisarius threatens the Ostrogoths of Italy522-534. Government and Death of Amalasontha, Queen of Italy535 Her Exile and Death. Belisarius invades and subdues Sicily534-536. Reign and Weakness of Theodatus, the Gothic King of Italy537 Belisarius invades Italy, and reduces Naples536-540. Vitiges, King of Italy536 Belisarius enters Rome537 Siege of Rome by the Goths. Valour of Belisarius. His Defence of Rome. Repulses a general Assault of the Goths. His Sallies. Distress of the City. Exile of Pope Sylverius. Deliverance of the City. Belisarius recovers many Cities of Italy538 The Goths raise the Siege of Rome. Lose Remini. Retire to Ravenna. Jealousy of the Roman Generals. Death of Constantine. The Eunuch Narses. Firmness and Authority of Belisarius538, 539. Invasion of Italy by the Franks. Destruction of Milan. Belisarius besieges Ravenna539 Subdues the Gothic Kingdom of Italy. Captivity of Vitiges540 Return and Glory of Belisarius. Secret History of his Wife Antonina. Her Lover Theodosius. Resentment of Belisarius and her Son Photius. Persecution of her Son. Disgrace and Submission of BelisariusChapter XLIIState of the Barbaric World.—Establishment of the Lombards on the Danube.—Tribes and Inroads of the Sclavonians. Origin, Empire, and Embassies of the Turks.—The Flight of the Avars.—Chosroes I. or Nushirvan King of Persia.—His prosperous Reign and Wars with the Romans.—The Colchian or Lazic War.—The Æthiopians.A.D.527-565. Weakness of the Empire of Justinian. State of the Barbarians. The Gepidæ. The Lombards. The Sclavonians. Their Inroads545 Origin and Monarchy of the Turks in Asia. The Avars fly before the Turks, and approach the Empire558 Their Embassy to Constantinople569-582. Embassies of the Turks and Romans500-530. State of Persia531-579. Reign of Nushirvan, or Chosroes. His Love of Learning533-539. Peace and War with the Romans540 He invades Syria. And ruins Antioch541 Defence of the East by Belisarius. Description of Colchos, Lazica, or Mingrelia. Manners of the Natives. Revolution of Colchos. Under the Persians, before Christ, 500. Under the Romans, before Christ, 60130 Visit of Arrian522 Conversion of the Lazi542-549. Revolt and Repentance of the Colchians549-551. Siege of Petra549-556. The Colchian or Lazic War540-561. Negociations and Treaties between Justinian and Chosroes522 Conquests of the Abyssinians533 Their Alliance with JustinianChapter XLIIIRebellions of Africa.—Restoration of the Gothic Kingdom by Totila.—Loss and Recovery of Rome.—Final Conquest of Italy by Narses.—Extinction of the Ostrogoths.—Defeat of the Franks and Alemanni.—Last Victory, Disgrace and Death of Belisarius.—Death and Character of Justinian.—Comets, Earthquakes, and Plague.A.D.535-545. The Troubles of Africa543-558. Rebellion of the Moors540 Revolt of the Goths541-544. Victories of Totila, King of Italy. Contrast of Greek Vice and Gothic Virtue544-548. Second Command of Belisarius in Italy546 Rome besieged by the Goths. Attempt of Belisarius. Rome taken by the Goths547 Recovered by Belisarius548 Final Recal of Belisarius549 Rome again taken by the Goths.549-551. Preparations of Justinian for the Gothic War552 Character and Expedition of the Eunuch Narses. Defeat and Death of Teias, the last King of the Goths. Invasion of Italy by the Franks and Alamanni554 Defeat of the Franks and Alamanni by Narses554-568. Settlement of Italy559 Invasion of the Bulgarians. Last Victory of Belisarius561 His Disgrace and Death565 Death and Character of Justinian531.539. Comets. Earthquakes542 Plague-its Origin and Nature542-594. Extent and DurationChapter XLIVIdea of the Roman Jurisprudence.—The Laws of the Kings.—The Twelve Tables of the Decemvirs.—The Laws of the People.—The Decrees of the Senate.—The Edicts of the Magistrates and Emperors.—Authority of the Civilians.—Code, Pandects, Novels, and Institutes of Justinian:—I. Rights of Persons.—II. Rights of Things.—III. Private Injuries and Actions.—IV. Crimes and PunishmentsThe Civil or Roman Law. Laws of the Kings of Rome. The Twelve Tables of the Decemvirs. Their Character and Influence. Laws of the People. Decrees of the Senate. Edicts of the Prætors. The perpetual Edict. Constitutions of the Emperors. Their Legislative Power. Their Rescripts. Forms of the Roman Law. Succession of the Civil LawyersA.U.C.303-648. The first Period648-988. Second Period988-1230. Third Period. Their Philosophy. Authority. SectsA.D.527 Reformation of the Roman Law by Justinian527-546.Tribonian528, 529. The Code of Justinian530-533. The Pandects or Digest. Praise and Censure of the Code and Pandects. Loss of the ancient Jurisprudence. Legal Inconstancy of Justinian534 Second Edition of the Code534-565. The Novels533 The InstitutesI. OF PERSONS. Freemen and Slaves. Fathers and Children. Limitations of the paternal Authority. Husbands and Wives. The religious Rites of Marriage. Freedom of the Matrimonial Contract. Liberty and Abuse of Divorce. Limitations of the Liberty of Divorce. Incest, Concubines, and Bastards. Guardians and WardsII. OF THINGS. Right of Property. Of Inheritance and Succession. Civil Degrees of Kindred. Introduction and Liberty of Testaments. Legacies. Codicils and Trusts.III. OF ACTIONS. Promises. Benefits. Interest of Money. InjuriesIV. OF CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS. Severity of the Twelve Tables. Abolition or Oblivion of penal Laws. Revival of capital Punishments. Measure of Guilt. Unnatural Vice. Rigour of the Christian Emperors. Judgments of the People. Select Judges. Assessors. Voluntary Exile and Death. Abuses of Civil JurisprudenceChapter XLVReign of the younger Justin.—Embassy of the Avars.—Their Settlement on the Danube.—Conquest of Italy by the Lombards.—Adoption and Reign of Tiberius.—Of Maurice.—State of Italy under the Lombards and the Exarchs.—Of Ravenna.—Distress of Rome.—Character and Pontificate of Gregory the First.A.D.565 Death of Justinian565-574. Reign of Justin II. or the Younger566 His Consulship. Embassy of the Avars. Alboin, King of the Lombards—his Valour, Love, and Revenge. The Lombards and Avars destroy the King and Kingdom of the Gepidæ567 Alboin undertakes the Conquest of Italy. Disaffection and Death of Narses568-570. Conquest of a great Part of Italy by the Lombards573 Alboin is murdered by his Wife Rosamond. Her Flight and Death. Clepho, King of the Lombards. Weakness of the Emperor Justin574 Association of Tiberius578 Death of Justin II.578-582. Reign of Tiberius II. His Virtues582-602. The Reign of Maurice. Distress of Italy584-590. Autharis, King of the Lombards. The Exarchate of Ravenna. The Kingdom of the Lombards. Language and Manners of the Lombards. Dress and Marriage. Government643 Laws. Misery of Rome. The Tombs and Relics of the Apostles. Birth and Profession of Gregory the Roman590-604. Pontificate of Gregory the Great, or First. His spiritual Office. And temporal Government. His Estates. And Alms. The Saviour of RomeChapter XLVIRevolutions of Persia after the Death of Chosroes or Nushirvan.—His Son Hormouz, a Tyrant, is deposed.—Usurpation of Baharam.—Flight and Restoration of Chosroes II.-His Gratitude to the Romans.—The Chagan of the Avars.—Revolt of the Army against Maurice.—His Death.—Tyranny of Phocas.—Elevation of Heraclius.—The Persian War.—Chosroes subdues Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor.—Siege of Constantinople by the Persians and Avars.—Persian Expeditions.—Victories and Triumph of Heraclius.A.D.Contest of Rome and Persia570 Conquest of Yemen by Nushirvan572 His last War with the Romans579 His Death579-590. Tyranny and Vices of his son Hormouz590 Exploits of Bahram. His Rebellion. Hormouz is deposed and imprisoned. Elevation of his Son Chosroes. Death of Hormouz. Chosroes flies to the Romans. His Return, and final Victory. Death of Bahram591-603. Restoration and Policy of Chosroes570-600. Pride, Policy, and the Power of the Chagan of the Avars595-602. Wars of Maurice against the Avars. State of the Roman Armies. Their Discontent. And Rebellion602 Election of Phocas. Revolt of Constantinople. Death of Maurice and his Children602-610. Phocas Emperor. His Character. And Tyranny610 His Fall and Death610-642. Reign of Heraclius603 Chosroes invades the Roman Empire611 His Conquest of Syria614 Of Palestine616 Of Egypt. Of Asia Minor. His Reign and Magnificence610-622. Distress of Heraclius. He solicits Peace621 His Preparations for War622 First Expedition of Heraclius against the Persians623, 624, 625. His second Expedition626 Deliverance of Constantinople from the Persians and Avars. Alliances and Conquests of Heraclius627 His third Expedition. And Victories. Flight of Chosroes628 He is deposed. And murdered by his Son Siroes. Treaty of Peace between the two EmpiresChapter XLVIITheological History of the Doctrine of the Incarnation.—The Human and Divine Nature of Christ.—Enmity of the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Constantinople.—St. Cyril and Nestorius.—Third General Council of Ephesus.—Heresy of Eutyches.—Fourth General Council of Chalcedon.—Civil and Ecclesiastical Discord.— Intolerance of Justinian.—The Three Chapters.—The Monothelite Controversy.—State of the Oriental Sects:—I. The Nestorians.—II. The Jacobites.—III. The Maronites.—IV. The Armenians.—V. The Copts.—VI. The AbyssiniansA.D.The Incarnation of ChristI. A pure Man to the Ebonites. His Birth and ElevationII. A pure God to the Docetes. His incorruptible BodyIII. Double Nature of CerinthusIV. Divine Incarnation of ApollinarisV. Orthodox Consent and verbal Disputes412-444. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria413, 414, 415. His Tyranny428 Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople429-431. His Heresy431 First Council of Ephesus. Condemnation of Nestorius. Opposition of the Orientals431-435. Victory of Cyril435 Exile of Nestorius448 Heresy of Eutyches449 Second Council of Ephesus451 Council of Chalcedon. Faith of Chalcedon451-482. Discord of the East482 The Henoticon of Zeno508-518. The Trisagion, and religious War, till the Death of Anastasius514 First religious War519-565. Theological Character and Government of Justinian. His Persecution of Heretics. Of Pagans. Of Jews. Of Samaritans. His Orthodoxy532-698. The three Chapters553 Vth general Council: IId of Constantinople564 Heresy of Justinian629 The Monothelite Controversy639 The Ecthesis of Heraclius648 The Type of Constans680, 681. VIth general Council: IIId of Constantinople. Union of the Greek and Latin Churches. Perpetual Separation of the Oriental SectsI. The Nestorians500 Sole Masters of Persia.500-1200 Their Missions in Tartary, India, China, &c.883 The Christians of St. Thomas in IndiaII. The JacobitesIII. The MaronitesIV. The ArmeniansV. The Copts or Egyptians537-568. 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    Book SynopsisA work on Alexander the Great. It combines analyses of terrain, climate, and supply requirements that account for Alexander's strategic decision in the light of the options open to him.Table of ContentsList of Tables and Maps Acknowledgments Frequently Abbreviated Works Introduction 1. The Macedonian Army and Its Logistic System 2. Greece and Turkey 3. Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, and Iraq 4. Iran and Afghanistan 5. Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, and Southern Iran 6. Conclusion Appendix Note on the Maps Maps Bibliography Index

    7 in stock

    £20.70

  • The Tyrannicide Brief

    Vintage Publishing The Tyrannicide Brief

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisCharles I waged civil wars that cost one in ten Englishmen their lives. But in 1649 parliament was hard put to find a lawyer with the skill and daring to prosecute a King who was above the law: in the end the man they briefed was the radical barrister, John Cooke.Cooke was a plebeian, son of a poor farmer, but he had the courage to bring the King''s trial to its dramatic conclusion: the English republic. Cromwell appointed him as a reforming Chief Justice in Ireland, but in 1660 he was dragged back to the Old Bailey, tried and brutally executed.John Cooke was the bravest of barristers, who risked his own life to make tyranny a crime. He originated the right to silence, the ''cab rank'' rule of advocacy and the duty to act free-of-charge for the poor. He conducted the first trial of a Head of State for waging war on his own people - a forerunner of the prosecutions of Pinochet, Miloševic and Saddam Hussein, and a lasting inspiration to the modern world.Trade ReviewRedeems from obscurity an unsung hero of true greatness... Sheds invigorating light on the course of the English civil war * Spectator *Robertson has come up with that desperately rare thing: a subject worthy of biography who has never before been addressed and, to his huge advantage, in his field. The result is a work of literary advocacy as elegant, impassioned and original as any the author can ever have laid before a court -- Anthony Holden * Observer *Robertson tells a spellbinding story. He combines lucid analysis of the legal issues with acute understanding of the various factions. His prose is crisp and he inserts some comments that only a professional advocate, as opposed to an academic historian, would make -- Christopher Silvester * Daily Telegraph *Fascinating... Illuminating... This is a work of great compassion and, at a time when it seems to be fashionable for politicians to denigrate lawyers, it is an essential read for anyone who believes in the fearless independence of the law -- John Cooper * The Times *[Robertson's] forensic intelligence can penetrate where professional historians have not reached -- Blair Worden * Literary Review *

    Out of stock

    £13.49

  • Masters of Death

    Random House USA Inc Masters of Death

    7 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    7 in stock

    £15.20

  • Early Greek Philosophy Volume IX

    Harvard University Press Early Greek Philosophy Volume IX

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisVolume IX of the nine-volume Loeb edition of Early Greek Philosophy includes the so-called sophists Antiphon, Lycophron, and Xeniades, along with the Anonymous of Iamblichus, the Dissoi Logoi, a chapter on characterizations of the 'sophists' as a group, and an appendix on philosophy and philosophers in Greek drama.Trade ReviewIn brief, André Laks and Glenn Most give us a brilliant and beautiful reference work that can, at the same time, be easily enough read straight through. And spending a few months doing so gives the reader almost all that she needs (perhaps along with Loeb #258, Greek Elegiac Poetry) to reconstruct for herself the origins of the discipline of philosophy. I should want any graduate student or colleague in ancient philosophy or intellectual history to acquire and make their way through it. -- Christopher Moore * Classical Journal *The publication of the Loeb Classical Library’s nine-volume set, Early Greek Philosophy, gives us a new edition of the original texts, with fresh translations. It is a monumental achievement—the result of many years of dedicated work on the part of the two editors/translators André Laks and Glenn W. Most… We owe a profound debt of gratitude to the editors/translators for their thorough and impeccable scholarship, and to the publishers for their usual high standards of production. If you can afford them, don’t hesitate: you will be all the richer for having these volumes on your shelves. -- Jeremy Naydler * Minerva *André Laks and Glenn W. Most have made available to the world of scholarship in early Greek philosophy a resource of immense value. Every study of a thinker or of an issue within the thematic ambit of Early Greek Philosophy must henceforth start by canvassing and taking into account the appropriate selections in the Loeb set. -- Alexander P. D. Mourelatos * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *The publication of a Loeb Classical Library edition of the evidence for early Greek philosophy is a major event in classical scholarship…The editors and their assistants are to be commended for their exemplary execution of such a vast and difficult task. They have succeeded in producing what is far and away the best available edition of the texts of the early Greek philosophers with accompanying English translation…More than that, their edition effectively supersedes Hermann Diels and Walter Kranz’s Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, which has long held sway as the standard edition of the Presocratics, but it only does so because Laks and Most have respectfully taken Diels-Kranz as their model…Laks and Most have set such a high standard with this work that it is hard to imagine that we will see a better general collection on early Greek philosophy in our lifetimes…Laks and Most’s philological acumen, judiciousness as editors, and excellence as translators is evident on every page. -- John Palmer * Arion *

    15 in stock

    £23.70

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