General and world history Books

Book SynopsisReissue of the second printing published in 1968, with a foreword and postscript by the author.Table of Contents*Frontmatter, pg. i*FOREWORD. CONSERVATISM: NEW AND OLD, pg. vii*PREFACE, pg. xxiii*CONTENTS, pg. xxv*INTRODUCTION, pg. 1*CHAPTER I. TOWARD A DEFINITION OF CONSERVATISM, pg. 17*CHAPTER II. THE GENESIS OF THE DILEMMA, pg. 33*CHAPTER III. THE REVIVAL OF GERMAN CONSERVATISM IN THE YOUTH MOVEMENT AND DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR, pg. 43*I. THE REVOLUTION OF 1918-1919 AND ITS CONSERVATIVE ASPECTS, pg. 71*CHAPTER II. THE FORMATIVE YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC, pg. 92*CHAPTER III. THE LATER YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC, pg. 117*CHAPTER IV. NATIONAL BOLSHEVISM AND THE NEO-CONSERVATIVES, pg. 139*CHAPTER I. THE THIRD REICH OF MOELLER VAN DEN BRUCK, pg. 153*CHAPTER II. THE PESSIMISM OF OSWALD SPENGLER, pg. 170*CHAPTER III. THE NIHILISM OF THE EARLY ERNST JUNGER, pg. 180*CHAPTER I. THE FAILURE OF THE FINAL TEST: THE CONVERGING OF THE TWO MOVEMENTS, pg. 191*CHAPTER II. THE "GOD THAT FAILED", pg. 202*CONCLUSION, pg. 220*POSTSCRIPT, 1968, pg. 227*BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY, pg. 232*INDEX, pg. 249

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Book SynopsisGraham Hancock is the author of the major international bestsellers The Sign and The Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods and Heaven's Mirror. His books have sold more than five million copies worldwide and have been translated into 27 languages. He is an extremely successful investigative journalist, having been Editor of Condé Nast's Traveller magazine and East Africa Correspondent for the Economist. His public lectures and TV appearances, including the three-hour series Quest For The Lost Civilization, have put his religious and historical theories before audiences of tens of millions. He has become recognized as an unconventional thinker who raises legitimate questions about humanity's history, religion and prehistory and offers an increasingly popular challenge to the entrenched views of orthodox scholars.Trade ReviewIntriguing * Sunday Times *Hancock challenges orthodox history with extraordinary theories of a vanished early civilisation destroyed by a cataclysm... However heretical his arguments, his sweep through the ancient world is arresting and audacious * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisThe story of the extraordinary relationship between a former slave and England’s most distinguished man of lettersTrade Review“Bundock is elegant and precise in this detailed account of the life of Samuel Johnson’s black servant and eventual heir.”—The Sunday Times ‘Best Paperbacks of 2021’ “A remarkable work of detection, a biography of a black Briton from the eighteenth century that brings to life a rich and vital aspect of our shared history.”—David Olusoga“At last, the biography that Francis Barber deserves. A meticulous yet imaginative book which teases out the full humanity of Dr. Johnson’s servant—and of the affection and hostility he generated among contemporaries.”—James Walvin, author of The Zong: A Massacre, the Law and the End of Slavery“Michael Bundock has written the first biography in over one hundred years of Francis Barber, Samuel Johnson’s black servant and heir. Acknowledging the groundwork laid over a century ago, Bundock goes well beyond earlier commentators in exploring the evolving relationship between Johnson and Barber.”—Vincent Carretta, University of Maryland“Like James Boswell before him, Michael Bundock is a lawyer, and in his biography of Samuel Johnson’s servant that background serves him well. Reading the evidence, some newly discovered, he brings Francis Barber to life, deepens our understanding of Johnson, enriches our sense of quotidian eighteenth-century London, and provides an unusual contribution to black history in England.”—Robert Folkenflik, University of California, Irvine“The Fortunes of Francis Barber is the most complete and accurate account of the life of Francis Barber that has ever been produced or is ever likely to be produced. This book far outstrips all earlier accounts.”—Robert DeMaria, Jr., Vassar College“A remarkable work of detection, a biography of a black Briton from the eighteenth century that brings to life a rich and vital aspect of our shared history.”—David Olusoga -- David Olusoga“No longer a footnote to Johnson’s story, Barber emerges as a man whose complicated story gives an inside view of what it was like to be a black man in 18th-century Britain.”—Gretchen Gerzina, author of Black London -- Gretchen Gerzina“Commendable not only for its careful research, but also for harnessing the considerable power of Barber's untold story. It will appeal to those who care about history, but it should appeal to those who care about humanity as well.”—Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton -- Sara Collins“Elegant, precise, formidably informed. Bundock clears away a fog of falsehoods and rebalances the story.”—John Carey, Sunday Times -- John Carey * The Sunday Times *“Bundock weaves into the absorbing tale of Barber’s life a wealth of material relating to black people in England, especially in London, throughout the 18th century… He writes with clarity, sympathy and tact.”—Freya Johnston, Literary Review -- Freya Johnston * Literary Review *“A supremely skilled biography … Barber’s extraordinary and varied career allows Bundock to explore what life felt like for a black man in Georgian England.”—Kathryn Hughes, Guardian -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *“Bundock’s lively biography offers a fresh perspective on Johnson and locates Barber both in Johnson’s household and in the context of an empire beginning to debate the political and moral legitimacy of slavery.”—Publishers Weekly * Publishers Weekly *‘[Bundock] imaginatively recreates the textures of life in 18th-century England and shows an admirable determination to question received wisdom’—Henry Hitchings, the Guardian. -- Henry Hitchings * The Guardian *

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Book SynopsisThe present Ukrainian city of Odessa, formerly an economic asset for the Russian Empire and a resort town for the Soviet Union, always a non-conformist city at once rambunctious and European in style, has become a contested area. Imperial Russian tsars and Soviet leaders maintained an ambivalent attitude towards the maverick city, appreciating the fame and fortune it generated, but also leery of the activities of secret foreign national societies, pogromists, revolutionaries, and simply the perceived lack of patriotism in the singular city so far away from the heart of Russia. With the withering of the lucrative grain trade by the time of the Soviet Union, Odessa became a neglected city, drained of its foreign flavor. With the independence of Ukraine in 1991, there were hopes raised that the architectural beauty and economic prospects of the city would be revived. Given the current hostilities in Eastern Ukraine, with the potential of the Odessa area becoming a possible land bridge to the Crimean Peninsula, the fate of the former Pearl of the Black Sea hangs in suspension.Trade Review"With a profound understanding of the multi-ethnic and multilingual character of the city, Herlihy brings together the life stories of famous Odessites with a rich discussion of Odessa’s unique political, sociocultural, and economic conditions across the centuries. In sum, Odessa Recollected: The Port and the People is a crucial read for all those studying or even visiting Odessa, the ‘Pearl by the Sea’." - Journal of European StudiesTable of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part 1: Culture The Persuasive Power of the Odessa Myth Odessa Memories How Ukrainian Is Odesa? From Odessa to Odesa Jewish Writers of Odessa Part 2: Community Death in Odessa: A Study of Population Movements in a Nineteenth-Century City The Ethnic Composition of Odessa in the Nineteenth Century Greek Merchants in Odessa in the Nineteenth Century The Greek Community in Odessa, 1861–1917 Part 3: Commerce Odessa: Staple Trade and Urbanization in New Russia Commerce and Architecture in Odessa in Late Imperial Russia Port Jews of Odessa and Trieste: A Tale of Two Cities Russian Wheat and the Port of Livorno, 1794–1865 The South Ukraine as an Economic Region in the Nineteenth Century

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Book SynopsisIn The Atlantic Realists, intellectual historian Matthew Specter offers a boldly revisionist interpretation of "realism," a prevalent stance in post-WWII US foreign policy and public discourse and the dominant international relations theory during the Cold War. Challenging the common view of realism as a set of universally binding truths about international affairs, Specter argues that its major features emerged from a century-long dialogue between American and German intellectuals beginning in the late nineteenth century. Specter uncovers an "Atlantic realist" tradition of reflection on the prerogatives of empire and the nature of power politics conditioned by fin de siècle imperial competition, two world wars, the Holocaust, and the Cold War. Focusing on key figures in the evolution of realist thought, including Carl Schmitt, Hans Morgenthau, and Wilhelm Grewe, this book traces the development of the realist worldview over a century, dismantling myths about the national interest, Realpolitik, and the "art" of statesmanship.Trade Review"One may believe there is little left to know about the realist theory of international relations and its founder Hans Morgenthau. But through the complex figure of Morgenthau, Matthew Specter is able not only to work out the ambivalent pathways of the German mandarins who emigrated to the USA, but also put the theory of political realism itself into a wholly new light as a transatlantic exchange of ideas between the US and Germany. This dates back to the geopolitical thought and social Darwinistic milieu of both rising industrial powers in the 1880s. A particular gem is the surprising chapter on Wilhelm Grewe—a student of Carl Schmitt, who continued his Nazi career in the Federal Republic unbroken—and here, in postwar Germany, played a role similar to that of Morgenthau in the USA. An original, an illuminating, a brilliant book."—Jürgen Habermas, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Goethe University Frankfurt"A singular aspect of the German-American relationship is the cross-pollination of political and constitutional thought going back to the Revolutionary era. Matthew Specter's fascinating study shows that the concept of realism made several Atlantic crossings—beginning not, as has long been assumed, in the global cataclysm of World War II, but in the heyday of US and German empire. His trenchant critique of the 'imperial blindspots and democratic deficits' of realism is also a useful warning to the current advocates of restraint seeking to wrap themselves in the mantle of the Atlantic realist tradition."—Constanze Stelzenmüller, Fritz Stern Chair on Germany and trans-Atlantic relations, Brookings Institution"Matthew Specter's rich history rewrites the genealogy of realism. Specter lays bare the intellectual foundations of the default setting of American foreign policy. This is not just a major addition to trans-Atlantic intellectual history. In a world of escalating international tension, it is an urgent book."—Adam Tooze, Kathryn and Shelby Davis Professor of History and Director of the European Institute, Columbia University"An intensively grounded study of a carefully defined body of thought, ambitiously pitched, and persuasively contextualized, The Atlantic Realists brings both clarity and challenge to some vital cross-disciplinary conversations, from international relations and political theory to intellectual history and political history. Among its many particular virtues is a thought-provokingly helpful commentary on the influence of Carl Schmitt."—Geoff Eley, Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Professor of Contemporary History, University of Michigan"Specter's important cultural-historical reinterpretation of Realism relocates its intellectual origins from the Weimar Republic back to late nineteenth-century imperialism. He shows how American and German thinkers, steeped in provincial assumptions about imperialism and competition, developed the apologies for empire and the international use of force that still haunt international relations theory today."—Isabel Hull, John Stambaugh Professor of History Emerita, Cornell University"Matthew Specter has written a superb study that spans the intellectual history of realism across two centuries and between two continents, and traces in a most original way the network of interconnections among Atlantic Realists, notably between the US and Germany."—Karl Kaiser, Harvard Kennedy SchoolA Financial Times Best summer book of 2022: Politics"Atlantic Realists stands as a significant and important contribution to the history of international political thought and to continuing debates over what it means to be realistic in world politics."—Michael C. Williams, Contemporary Political Theory"Specter makes a solid case that the classical realists in many ways invented a noble lineage for themselves, identifying great historical philosophers whose work fit in with their notions of the world (such as Hobbes) while eliding or avoiding altogether their more questionable historical antecedents. ...This intellectual genealogy of realism is an impressive contribution."—Emma Ashford, Foreign Affairs"[Specter] makes the innovative choices of studying the timespan from the late 19th century to the present to show the long emergence of post-WW II realism and identifying relevant currents of thought between Europe, especially Germany, and the United States. These choices reveal new sources for tracking the development of realism, and readers come to appreciate that the key tenets of the theory are historical constructs that evolved somewhat erratically as currents of German and American thought interacted. ... Recommended."—M. A. Morris, CHOICE"[Specter's] criticisms are compelling and they are grounded in a close reading of the published writings and private correspondence of key figures in Germany and the United States. Specter shows that modern realism does indeed have connections to imperial pretensions from the late nineteenth century, and it smuggles subjective value judgments and political aims into its naturalized discourse. The realist worldview is not any more organic than non-realist frameworks, including liberal internationalism, Leninism, or others."—Jeremi Suri, Diplomatic History"By forcing us once more to confront the quixotic character of realism as both aggressively imperial, but with a hyperromantic attachment to politics as the art and exercise of power, Specter compels us to consider very carefully what exactly we think we are doing if we are also teachers of political thought in the first place."—Duncan Kelly, Perspectives on Politics"Specter'sThe Atlantic Realistsis an invaluable, thought-provoking addition to the history of International Relations and sheds further lights on the debates that made this discipline. Readers will learn a great deal about American-German intellectual relations since the end of the nineteenth century and how they shaped International Relations. More of this kind of work is needed."—Felix Rösch, E-International Relations

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewEngrossing and magnificently researched… Corton’s book combines meticulous social history with a wealth of eccentric detail. Thus we learn that London’s ubiquitous plane trees were chosen for their shiny, fog-resistant foliage. And since Jack the Ripper actually went out to stalk his victims on fog-free nights, filmmakers had to fake the sort of dank, smoke-wreathed London scenes audiences craved. It’s discoveries like these that make reading London Fog such an unusual, enthralling and enlightening experience. -- Miranda Seymour * New York Times Book Review *Corton’s eye for social history is superb. We are led with wit and intelligence through a London in which clerks in counting-houses are forbidden to leave their books lying open lest the sooty fogs blacken the pages… Corton is excellent on the extent to which, in the twentieth century and since, the close association between Victorian London and Gothic fog has clouded perceptions of Victorian life and art. -- Richard Smyth * Times Literary Supplement *Christine Corton takes a subject that is now scarcely more than a heritage item—like gaslight and hansom cabs—and puts it where it belongs among the great public-health movements of the 19th and 20th centuries… Of course, fog was not solely a public-health problem. With the help of wonderful contemporary illustrations, Corton vividly describes the chaos it brought—pedestrians groping, traffic crawling, accidents, crime and drunkenness soaring. The melting, blurring, looming transformations of fog seemed to symbolize the dissolution of society itself. Writers saw the possibilities, and Corton pursues their metaphorical fogs through every kind of moral, psychological and social disintegration. Charles Dickens, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Robert Louis Stevenson, all are here—plus a mass of fascinating and forgotten popular literature—their cultural meanings perceptively analyzed… This is a rich and multifaceted book. * The Economist *In Christine L. Corton’s beautifully illustrated London Fog: The Biography, the mysterious mist takes center stage in all its noxious, stygian, primeval delicacy…Drawing on novels and poems, paintings and films, Corton’s [book] is crammed with thought-provoking elucidations. It sounds hokey to say it, but she has shed a bright light on the fog. -- Alexandra Mullen * Wall Street Journal *Corton’s wonderfully detailed and original exploration of foggy London ranges from the earliest mists to the last great pea-souper of 1962… Her account is rich in memorable anecdotes and descriptions, gleaned from popular culture, literature, journals and contemporary letters as well as cartoons and art history: the book is also splendidly illustrated. -- P. D. Smith * The Guardian *Christine L. Corton, clad in an overcoat, with a linklighter before her, takes us into the gloomier, long 19th century, where she revels in its Gothic grasp. Beautifully illustrated, London Fog delves fascinatingly into that swirling miasma. -- Philip Hoare * New Statesman *Brilliant… Corton has a deft historical, literary and visual eye. While tracing the birth, maturity and death of fog, she pays careful attention to the ways it affected everyday lives and locations… But her real interest is in the way fog played in the imagination. For centuries, she shows, novelists, essayists, cartoonists and painters used fog as a metaphor for human relationships and the moral order… Corton’s book is an unsentimental and elegant reflection on a world that has passed. -- Joanna Bourke * Daily Telegraph *In London Fog, Christine L. Corton guides us through the history of the ‘pea-souper’ (the phrase first used in print in 1849 by Herman Melville); from Victorian women, fearful of attack in the impenetrable murk, to the poets, artists and film-makers who thrived on its metaphorical potential; from the political rows over domestic coal fires to the dreadful 1952 Great Smog which claimed thousands of lives and was so thick that, even indoors, office workers could not see to the end of the corridor. -- Sinclair McKay * Daily Telegraph *London’s ‘pea-soupers’—opaque, yellowish smogs—were an environmental catastrophe, a cloak for nefarious activities and an artistic inspiration. An odiferous wig of soot from coal fires, sulfur dioxide and mist settled regularly over the city from the 1840s to the 1960s. In this richly nuanced history, scholar Christine Corton takes us from polymath Robert Hooke spotting a pall of smoke over London in 1676 through the killer fogs that felled zoo animals, spurred crime and caused traffic accidents, and that ultimately galvanized scientists and the government to craft the 1956 Clean Air Act. -- Barbara Kiser * Nature *[Corton’s] fascinating history traces London’s unique brand of photochemical smog from its surprisingly early birth in the 13th century, when complaints about the burning of ‘sea coal’ in London hearths began, through its malign maturity in the 19th, to its death throes in the second half of the 20th… The many well-chosen images in London Fog include works by minor painters of London scenes and by various illustrators, photojournalists and cartoonists playing on the terror, confusion and comedy caused by fog. These add greatly to the interest of Corton’s book. -- Catherine Peters * Literary Review *Christine Corton’s excellent book explores three questions: how people accounted for London fog, what they did about it, and how it became such an enormous, apparently inexhaustible cultural resource and metaphor… Corton has assembled an astonishing display of fog fiction… Corton has written a thoughtful, vivid, very memorable book. -- Neal Ascherson * London Review of Books *As Christine Corton emphasizes in her well-informed, original, and stimulating survey, the history of London fog is humorous and cozy but has aspects of the awesome and apocalyptic too. -- Fiona MacCarthy * New York Review of Books *It’s a definite must-read for anyone concerned with air quality and environmental history. -- Ashley Macey * Brit + Co. *Ambitious… The book is substantial, well illustrated and beautifully written, with approachable scholarship… [An] illuminating book. -- Philippa Stockley * Country Life *Christine L. Corton’s London Fog is an illuminating expedition through the literal and metaphorical meanings of pollution in the company of such artists as Dickens, Conrad, Monet and Hitchcock. -- Mark Sanderson * Evening Standard *[A] thorough and enjoyable book, not only for its historical account of what London fog was and when it began but for the rich seam of literature, spleen and death that they caused. -- Philippa Stockley * Evening Standard *What makes Christine Corton’s London Fog: The Biography special is that it demystifies the sulphurous yellow mass that once plagued the city. In this nicely written and beautifully illustrated book, fog gets its proper due as the coal-laden, murderous monstrosity it really was, beloved of novelists from Dickens to Stevenson. -- Philippa Stockley * Evening Standard *The sheer scale of the pollution described by Corton is hard to grasp… Corton leads the way, like a linklighter of old, through the poisonous clouds of times gone by, and arrives, eventually, at present day Oxford Street, where nitrogen dioxide concentrations are ‘worse than they are anywhere on earth.’ -- Charlie Gilmour * The Independent on Sunday *Excellent, if dark. * The Lady *This is an unexpectedly riveting book, scholarly, thorough yet eminently readable. * Londonist *No one, not even the most frenzied fog obsessive, could find fault with Christine Corton’s thoroughness. Wherever there’s a reference to fog in nature or art, she seems to have tracked it down. But her book is far more than just a glorified laundry list of foggy facts. Rather it’s a genuine biography in which she very cleverly treats fog less as an atmospheric phenomenon and more as though it’s a real character—sinister, beautiful and elusive, but no less fascinating for that. -- John Preston * The Mail on Sunday *Christine Corton’s absorbing and handsomely produced book directs a steady beam at both the phenomenon and the place that made [fog] famous: London. -- Anthony Quinn * The Observer *Endlessly entertaining… Corton has done a prodigious amount of research into the phenomenon of the ‘pea-soup’ fogs that enveloped London at regular intervals throughout the Industrial Age… Corton’s book is merrily chock-full of illustrations… But the real star attraction in these pages is Corton’s exuberant omniscience about her subject. She seems to have read every tenth-rate serialized novel in the whole of the Victorian and Edwardian literary shrubbery, hunting out every mention and dramatization of the great fogs and in the process giving some truly wretched writers what will surely be the most intelligent reading they’re ever likely to get. And she’s got an equally good ear for reportage, finding piercing quotes from every era of the fog’s domination… London Fog has enjoyed a nicely wide critical reception since its appearance, and it deserves every accolade it gets. This is tight-focus popular history at its finest. -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Monthly *If you want to know every last thing to know about London fog—the toxic, impenetrable moist soot that used to blanket the city in the winter—this is the book for you. Even to an outsider, it is fascinating, even astonishing, that the English put up for so long with a condition that killed people and often caused commerce to grind to a halt. -- Donald D. Breed * Providence Journal *A thoroughly researched and generally enjoyable account of the social, natural and cultural history of the peasoupers, from their first appearance in the early 1800s to the final fog of 1962. -- David B. Williams * Seattle Times *As Christine L. Corton shows in her lively and engaging cultural history, for more than 100 years London fog did not only creep into people’s homes and bodies. It saturated their way of thinking. If fog was an inescapable part of city life—in Dickens’s famous opening to Bleak House, the word is repeated so often it sounds more like a curse—it was an equally omnipresent element in the cultural imagination. -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst * The Spectator *This detailed, well-researched study is copiously illustrated with prints, cartoons, paintings and photos of the metropolitan health hazard. It is the photos which convince us that it was not a myth… London fog became inextricably linked with the image of the Victorian capital. Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper and Soames Forsyte all loom out at us from the past, under gaslight, wreathed in fog… The best place to read this engrossing but goose-bump-making book is under a sunshade on a Mediterranean beach in mid August. -- Robert Carver * The Tablet *[An] engrossing book… This book could almost make one nostalgic for the days of the pea souper were it not for the fact that it was clearly a terrible threat to health. -- Daisy Goodwin * The Times *The idea of a biography of fog in London might initially appear a doubtful enterprise, but in Christine Corton’s capable hands it works brilliantly. The liveliness of metropolitan fog is beautifully charted here in a long chronology from the Stuart era to the Clean Air Acts of the 1950s to 1990s… [A] most extraordinarily rich collection of material from scientific, journalistic, literary, humorous, artistic and medical sources… She has created a history of fog’s material and immaterial culture… The text is interspersed with some astonishing visual material, appropriately placed, making the book a visual feast especially of little-known artworks, caricatures and photographs of great beauty. Corton’s use of the perceptions of foreign visitors, especially those from China and Japan, is revelatory… London Fog is not just a literary exercise; it also charts the long trajectory of a deeply serious public health matter that we have yet to confront, as we should, once again… This fine book has real substance, generously shared, and is very timely indeed. -- Ruth Richardson * Times Higher Education *London Fog: The Biography successfully captures the enormous impact this atmospheric had on a major city’s everyday life. Ironically, the result is a portrait that is both well-defined and sharply delineated. -- Amy Henderson * Weekly Standard *An intriguing biography of the weather effect that defined a national character… An eye-opening and highly readable picture of London’s reactions to the killer fog that has characterized it for centuries. * Kirkus Reviews *Corton undertakes a definitive study of London’s ‘pea-souper’ fogs, deftly tracing the history of a weather condition that became a defining feature of the city in the world’s imagination. As Corton shows, the fog, which first appeared early in the 19th century, proved a ready metaphor for an array of Victorian anxieties, from Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror to a perceived decline in public morals. She perceptively examines the literary manifestations of these fears in chapters covering a number of famous authors, including Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, and T.S. Eliot. Readers may be surprised that the history of London fog requires a detour through the politics of the day as much as through literature; however, Corton proves a sensible guide through the labyrinthine parliamentary measures arising from public outrage over the ‘great killer fog’ and bureaucratic inaction in service of the manufacturers that were largely responsible for the pollution. Though the ‘London particular’ was finally legislated out of existence in the 1960s, Corton asserts convincingly that the fog will remain enshrined in cultural memory, a romantic if no longer accurate symbol of a great city. * Publishers Weekly *In the history of London, the Fog is a character in its own right. Now along comes a biography to do justice to this mysterious entity. Christine Corton’s London Fog is a valuable addition to the London canon. -- Catharine Arnold, author of Bedlam: London and Its MadThis anatomy of the impenetrable London pea-souper—from Dickens to modern times—is a delight. It is beautifully written, its historical learning is lightly worn, and its literary insights are intelligent, entertaining, and apt. -- Andrew LycettAn admirable and enjoyable book, full of exemplary research. The writing is always clear and accessible, even breezy. -- Jerry White, University of LondonOne of the most characteristic and important features of London was its ‘pea-souper’ fogs, or smogs, which determined so many aspects of Londoners’ lives until the 1950s—crime, romance, commerce, and of course, health. A comprehensive work on the impact and influence of fog upon the denizens of London is overdue. -- Anthony Wohl, Vassar College

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Book Synopsis Ten Days That Shook the World is an undisputed classic of political reportage. A stunning first-hand account overflowing with urgency and immediacy, Reed’s masterpiece lives and breathes the streets, meeting halls, posters and pamphlets of the revolution he witnessed. Like no other work, it places the reader shoulder to shoulder with the people’s militias, factory committees, propagandists and crowds which thronged St Petersburg’s squares to protest, celebrate, and strike. Rather than a coup orchestrated by a select few, the revolution here emerges in all its true energy, chaos, and creativity as a mass struggle from below for liberation, equality, and socialism. A hundred years after its initial publication, Ten Days That Shook the World remains an unparalleled account of one of the twentieth century’s most seminal events. John Reed (1887–1920) was an author, journalist, and activist.Trade Review“From its opening page, Ten Days has a tempo and a voice that sets it apart, in an era when reportage as a genre was still in its infancy.” –Robert McCrum, The Guardian “Rises above every other contemporary record for its literary power, its penetration, its command of detail … [ Ten Days That Shook the World] remembered when all others are forgotten.” –George F. Kennan

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Book SynopsisThe fascinating history of how the antifascist movement of the 1930s created “the left” as we know it todayTrade Review“This stimulating and insightful volume is the first global and transnational history of antifascism during the mid-1930s. The author’s linguistic abilities and historiographical acumen have created a vital book on the subject.”—Michael Seidman, author of Transatlantic Antifascisms“In stunning prose, Joseph Fronczak re-creates the extraordinary birth of the modern left, speaking across generations to our own time.”—Beverly Gage, Yale University“Elegantly written and meticulously researched, Everything Is Possible is one of those rare books that has the boldness to assert what was in front of our faces the whole time.”—Christopher Vials, author of Haunted by Hitler“Fronczak gives fascism content again, examining it as a practice, a perspective that can help us understand the present and past. He reveals a global fascist network, beyond Europe and Japan, and American participation in it. An extremely valuable historical interpretation.”—Linda Gordon, New York University“Carefully documented and limpidly written, Joseph Fronczak’s book is much more than a magisterial history of antifascism as a global movement; it is a critical and inspiring insight into the identity of the Left. A timely meditation.”—Enzo Traverso, author of Revolution

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Book SynopsisWhy did a nation-state order emerge when nationalist activism was usually an elitist pursuit in the age of empire? Ordinary inhabitants and even most indigenous elites tended to possess religious, ethnic, or status-based identities rather than national identities. Why then did the desires of a typically small number result in wave after wave of new states? The answer has customarily centered on the actions of nationalists against weakening empires during a time of proliferating beliefs that peoples should control their own destiny. This book upends conventional wisdom by demonstrating that nationalism often existed more in the perceptions of external observers than of local activists and insurgents. Lynn M. Tesser adds nuance to scholarship that assumes most, if not all, pre-independence unrest was nationalist and separatist, and sheds light on why the various demands for change eventually coalesced around independence in some cases but not others.

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Book SynopsisA collection of humanity’s most inspiring ideas throughout time, bringing perspective to the challenges and wonders of being alive. This is an unusual sort of history book: a history of ideas – and not just any old ideas, ideas from across time and space that are best suited to healing, enchanting and reviving us. Along the way, we travel around the world, from the very beginnings of our species right up to the modern age. We hear about the Ancient Greeks and Romans, we learn about Buddhism and Islam, we acquire ideas from Hinduism and the European Renaissance, the Enlightenment and Modernity. Deliberately eclectic, the book gives us a panoramic, 3,000-year view over the finest insights of a diversity of civilisations. Every idea hangs off an image – it could be a place, a document, a building or a work of art – that has something very specific to teach us. There are ideas here that will stick in our minds because they can help to answer the biggest puzzles we may have: about the direction of our lives, the issues of relationships, the meaning of existence. The book amounts to a feast for the intellect and the imagination – to make us into the best sorts of historians, those who know how to use the past to shed light on their own lives.

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Book SynopsisBetween the 1850s and World War I, about one million North Caucasian Muslims sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire. This resettlement of Muslim refugees from Russia changed the Ottoman state. Circassians, Chechens, Dagestanis, and others established hundreds of refugee villages throughout the Ottoman Balkans, Anatolia, and the Levant. Most villages still exist today, including what is now the city of Amman. Muslim refugee resettlement reinvigorated regional economies, but also intensified competition over land and, at times, precipitated sectarian tensions, setting in motion fundamental shifts in the borderlands of the Russian and Ottoman empires. Empire of Refugees reframes late Ottoman history through mass displacement and reveals the origins of refugee resettlement in the modern Middle East. Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky offers a historiographical corrective: the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire created a refugee regime, predating refugee systems set up by the League of Nations and the United Nations. Grounded in archival research in over twenty public and private archives across ten countries, this book contests the boundaries typically assumed between forced and voluntary migration, and refugees and immigrants, rewriting the history of Muslim migration in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Trade Review"A brilliant tour de force. Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky offers a detailed, revisionist understanding of the beginnings of the modern refugee regime."—Dawn Chatty, University of Oxford"Magnificent and magisterial. Empire of Refugees not only reveals the emergence of a new template for refugee flows in the modern world, but it also captures the human experiences of the refugees themselves: their sorrows, hopes, failures, and successes. A prodigious achievement."—Michael A. Reynolds, Princeton University"Empire of Refugees is a meticulously researched and imaginatively conceived history of mass migration that represents a genuinely fresh contribution to both late Ottoman history and global refugee studies."—Laura Robson, Pennsylvania State UniversityTable of ContentsIllustrations and Tables Notes for the Reader Acknowledgments Introduction PART I: Refugee Migration 1. Muslim Migrations from the North Caucasus 2. Ottoman Refugee Regime PART II: Refugee Resettlement 3. Inequality and Sectarian Violence in the Balkans 4. Real Estate and Nomadic Frontier in the Levant 5. Building the Caucasus in Anatolia PART III: Diaspora and Return 6. Making the North Caucasian Diaspora 7. Return Migration to Russia Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisVolume II in this major new reference series brings together leading international scholars to present an expansive global vision of the latest research into Japanese history from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Genealogies of Japanese early modernity David L. Howell; Part I. The Character of the Early Modern State: 1. The end of civil war and the formation of the early modern state in Japan Morgan Pitelka; 2. Politics and political thought in the mature early modern state in Japan, 1650–1830 Kiri Paramore; 3. Regional authority during the Tokugawa period David L. Howell; 4. Tokugawa philosophy: a socio-historical introduction Federico Marcon; 5. Foreign relations and coastal defense under the mature Tokugawa regime Robert Hellyer; 6. The Meiji restoration Mark Ravina; Part II. Economy, Environment and Technology: 7. International economy and Japan at the dawn of the early modern era Adam Clulow; 8. The Tokugawa economy: of rulers, producers and consumers Bettina Gramlich-Oka and Komuro Masamichi; 9. The pacific context of Japan's environmental history Brett L. Walker; 10. Scientific communities and the emergence of science in early modern Japan Yulia Frumer; 11. The problem of western knowledge in late Tokugawa Japan Hansun Hsiung; 12. Technology, military reform and warfare in the Tokugawa–Meiji transition D. Colin Jaundrill; Part III. Social Practices and Cultures of Early Modern Japan: 13. Religion in the Tokugawa period Mark Teeuwen; 14. The medical revolution in early modern Japan Susan L. Burns; 15. Flows of people and things in early modern Japan: print culture Laura Nenzi; 16. Labor and migration in Tokugawa Japan: moving people Amy Stanley; 17. The Tokugawa status order Maren Ehlers; 18. On the peripheries of the Japanese archipelago: Ryukyu and Hokkaido David L. Howell; 19. The early modern city in Japan Thomas Gaubatz; 20. Popular movements in early modern Japan: petitions, riots, martyrs Anne Walthall; 21. Civilization and enlightenment in early Meiji Japan Amin Ghadimi.

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Book SynopsisAn engaging and authoritative history of Scotland’s influence in the world and the world’s on Scotland, from the Thirty Years’ War to the present dayTrade Review“Impressive. . . . The strength of this book lies in the way events such as the Act of Union and the Clearances are revealed to have had global consequences.”—Gerard DeGroot, Times (UK)“Engaging, lively and full of insight, a vivid account of Scottish endeavours in politics, science, literature, art and economics. . . . Pittock records the ebb and flow of Scotland’s international experience with panache and pace.”—Anna Keay, The Guardian“A much needed overview of a fascinating and underwritten subject. Spectacularly panoramic and sweeping while always remaining rigorously scholarly, it ranges effortlessly and with confident authority over 400 years of history, from Quebec to Calcutta, from Ossian to Trainspotting.”—William Dalrymple, Spectator, “Books of the Year”“Perhaps the best book on Scotland I ever have read.”—Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution (blog), “Best Nonfiction Books of 2023”“There is much to admire here. . . . One of the strengths of a history of Scotland within the United Kingdom is that it cannot avoid emphasising the sheer strangeness of Britain. It is a country quite unlike other European nations for it is, at heart, a composite state: a Union of four other nations creating a fifth which exists alongside—and sometimes above—its constituent parts. The tensions and interplay between these identities form part of Murray Pittock’s handsome new history.”—Alex Massie, The Spectator“There is scarcely a dull page in this book, though readers may well find the wealth of detail dizzying. Yet the detail is as necessary as it is fascinating, for the key to Scottish success in Europe and the wider world is the national—clannish or familial—gift or enthusiasm for networking. . . . A fascinating, thought-provoking book.”—Allan Massie, The Scotsman“The engine behind this history is running at full throttle, and its momentum carries the reader on at speed. Whatever side of the constitutional argument one stands on, this is an invigorating assessment.”—Rosemary Goring, The Herald“Yale University Press always produces beautiful books with copious colour plates and black-and-white illustrations, at attractive prices. This is one such, which will appeal to those who know relatively little of Scotland, past or present, and who relish a selective, opinionated romp strewn with random facts. Entertaining and bamboozling in equal measure, it should also stimulate readers to search for more authoritative texts on their favourite topics or periods.”—Rab Houston, BBC History Magazine“The title of Murray Pittock’s excellent new history might simply read Scotland, but really it is as much a fascinating study of the Union as it is of Scotland’s evolving place in the world.”—David McAllister, Prospect“Pittock is an extraordinary polymath whose ability to effortlessly cover a vast subject area in this remarkable work is breathtaking. . . . His scope is vast and he writes with verve and panache that rivals anything that has gone before.”—Richard Bath, Scottish Field“The two most arresting parts of Pittock’s history, which develops from pioneering work by Michael Fry and Christopher Harvie, are his accounts of Scotland’s attempts in the century before the union of the parliaments to project its power overseas and of the sudden spurt given to individual Scottish talent by the Act of Union.”—Iain Bamforth, Literary Review“It is the job of the historian, [Pittock] continues, both to bust myths and to acknowledge their appeal, a challenge he embraces in Scotland: The Global History with gusto. Part history book, part manifesto, throughout it demonstrates his concern to emphasize the distinctiveness of Scotland . . . as well as to highlight the historical significance of the country’s external relationships.”—Valerie Wallace, Times Literary SupplementNamed a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, 2023“A monumental achievement. . . . This is a tremendous book, a really significant contribution to Scottish history. It will delight, surprise and irritate in equal measure.”—Christopher Whatley, author of The Scots and the Union“A hugely important book which will astonish and delight everyone engaged in the matter of Scotland. What impresses is the range and scope of Pittock’s global vision for Scotland, but what engages is the minute human detail of the people in the diaspora that he reveals to us, positive and negative. A magisterial work which Scots will actively return to again and again, as we redefine our role in Europe and the world in the 21st century.”—Billy Kay, author of The Scottish World“As a consequence of both its long history as an independent kingdom, its position in the union state that is the UK, and the massive emigration that has characterised its modern history, Scotland has, for a small country, unusually broad and deep global connections. In this wide-ranging and engaging book, Pittock explores the survival of Scotland and the projection of its identity across the globe.”—Ewen Cameron, author of Impaled Upon the Thistle

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Peaceful Climate 2. Anxious Air 3. Endangered Atmosphere 4. Global Greenhouse 5. Climate Negotiations 6. Allocated Atmosphere 7. Global Security 8. Climate Crisis Epilogue Index

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Book SynopsisNevertheless comprises essays on Machiavelli and on Pascal. The ambivalent connection between the two parts is embodied by the comma (,) in the subtitle: Machiavelli, Pascal. Is this comma a conjunction or a disjunction? In fact, both. Ginzburg approaches Machiavelli's work from the perspective of casuistry, or case-based ethical reasoning. For as Machiavelli indicated through his repeated use of the adverb nondimanco ("nevertheless"), there is an exception to every rule. Such a perspective may seem to echo the traditional image of Machiavelli as a cynical, "machiavellian" thinker. But a close analysis of Machiavelli the reader, as well as of the ways in which some of Machiavelli's most perceptive readers read his work, throws a different light on Machiavelli the writer. The same hermeneutic strategy inspires the essays on the Provinciales, Pascal's ferocious attack against Jesuitical casuistry. Casuistry vs anti-casuistry; Machiavelli's secular attitude towards religion vs Pascal's deep religiosity. We are confronted, apparently, with two completely different worlds. But Pascal read Machiavelli, and reflected deeply upon his work. A belated, contemporary echo of this reading can unveil the complex relationship between Machiavelli and Pascal - their divergences as well as their unexpected convergences.Trade ReviewA dazzling example of the pleasure of research * Il Foglio *Ginzburg calls for an intricate reading of Machiavelli. He points out that the link between the author of The Prince and the author of the Provincial Letters is justified by the fact that both pertain to the broad constellation of political theology informed by the exception, the miracle, the unique case imposed on the norm * Il Manifesto *A treasure hunt in historical sources, forgeries and the reception of texts * Avvenire *One of world's premier historians. A born detective. * New York Times *Really quite brilliant -- Jan Machielsen * Times Literary Supplement (for Old Thiess, a Livonian Werewolf) *

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Book SynopsisWilliam Buckland, Victorian fossil-hunter extaordinaire, is widely regarded as the founder of the science of geology. This and his many other achievements are presented here in vivid and entertaining detail.Trade Review‘Allan Chapman has written an irresistible biography of one of Oxford’s most colourful characters, the pioneer and populariser of paleontology William Buckland. A gifted and amusing speaker, Buckland captivated large audiences with lost worlds of prehistoric creatures, reconstructed from fossil fragments. An Anglican priest, Canon of Oxford’s cathedral and eventually, in 1845, Dean of Westminster, Buckland resolutely applied his scientific knowledge in the service of Christian philanthropy. Dr Chapman shares with his subject a proven ability to mix instruction with entertainment, but never to the detriment of two serious aims: to rescue Buckland from caricatures that have allowed his early writings on the scope of Noah’s flood to obscure his many durable contributions to geology and, secondly, to show that, as one standing in a long line of clerical scientists, he saw the earth sciences as magnifying, not threatening, the grandeur of God’s creation.’ * John Hedley Brooke, Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion, University of Oxford (1999–2006) *‘With sustained brio Allan Chapman restores the charismatic William Buckland to his rightful place in the scientific pantheon of the nineteenth century as a key figure in the peculiar genius of English life. As importantly, Chapman expertly navigates the historical currents that swept Buckland and his contemporaries to astonishing new insights into deep time, but never at the expense of their deep Christian conviction.’ * Simon Conway Morris FRS, Emeritus Professor of Paleantology, University of Cambridge *‘William Buckland was a remarkable and fascinating character who played a major part in the development of Geology as a new and important science. Allan Chapman explores the tensions that existed within Victorian Society between the development of scientific ideas and religious beliefs about the creation of the world and the evolution of life, and provides vivid descriptions of the key characters involved in these debates. He also shows the significant role that Buckland played in the cleaning up of Victorian cities and improving the health of those living in them. In all, a very engaging, informative and enjoyable read!’ * Martin Grossel, Emeritus Fellow in Organic Chemistry, University of Southampton *

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Book SynopsisThis book is a study of how human-animal relations became increasingly significant to politics, national security, and elite identities during the transitional period in late Kory and early Chosn dynasty Korea from the 1270s until 1506.

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Book SynopsisIn a world divided by the ideological struggles of the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, more than one-fifth of the people on the planet paused to watch the live transmission of the Apollo 11 mission. To watch as humanity took a giant leap forward. A companion book to the landmark documentary series on BBC TV.Trade Review‘If you think you know all that is important about the Apollo moon landings, you would be wrong. In Chasing the Moon, Robert Stone and Alan Andres offer scintillating stories both great and small.’ Roger D. Launius, former chief historian of NASA ‘[The Moon Landing] was one of the most amazing achievements in human history. And now we have a book worthy of the grand endeavor.’ William Martin, New York Times bestselling author of Cape Cod and Bound for Gold ‘Chasing the Moon is rich, lively, and deeply human’ Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize– and National Book Award–winning author of Energy: A Human History ‘Chasing the Moon tells the story I've lived for most of my life. From my testing of the lunar module on Apollo 9 to my hopes for the future as we celebrate Apollo’s fiftieth anniversary, it’s all there, and told through the personal experiences of the people who lived it. Some of it familiar, some never told before, this is a very human account of a truly historic moment as humankind emerges into the larger cosmos.’ Russell ‘Rusty’ Schweickart, astronaut, Apollo 9 ‘A fascinating and enjoyable read … Meticulously researched and definitively detailed, this book is a must-have for anyone who wants to understand why and how Apollo happened.’ James Burke, former BBC-TV science correspondent ‘Engaging’ The Space Review ‘Breathtaking … A brisk narrative, deft anecdotes, and abundant illustrations enliven a well-researched history’ Kirkus ‘Chasing the Moon’s novel approach to its topic – telling the story of Apollo against a rich backdrop of diverse characters – helps it stand out head and shoulders above the rest’ National Space Society ‘Makes the tale of Apollo 11 seem richer and more relevant than ever’ The Washington Post

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Book SynopsisThis is a revised edition of The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History.

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Book SynopsisC.J. (Christopher John) Chivers is a senior writer for the New York Times and its former Moscow Bureau Chief. He was an infantry officer in the US Marines from 1988 to 1994 and served in the First Gulf War. He is the recipient of numerous prizes including a shared Pulitzer for International Reporting in 2009 for coverage of the war in Afghanistan. He has reported from many of the major war-torn areas of the world. He lives with his family in Rhode Island.Trade ReviewWith impelling force, C. J. Chivers tells a remarkable story of how this one, superbly reliable firearm became the most abundant ever produced, and was to exceed the consequences even of Soviet nuclear know-how in the Cold War, and beyond -- Alistair Horne, author of 'The Price of Glory' and 'A Savage War of Peace'Dazzling ... startling ... The Gun does exactly what the best art history or music writing does - it opens our eyes to see anew the familiar -- Doug Stanton, author of 'Horse Soldiers'The Gun is for those who wonder how we fight today and why we fight that way. C. J. Chivers has given us a seminal work -- James Bradley, author of 'Flags of Our Fathers'Absorbing and beautifully written ... The story of this particular weapon becomes in an important sense the story of the violence and threat at the heart of the more than sixty years since the gun was first introduced -- Richard OveryChivers is a first-rate war correspondent and a prodigious researcher ... The Gun is likely to become the standard account of the world's standard assault rifle -- Max Boot * New York Times Book Review *Chivers's mastery of history and engineering is matched by his mastery of language ... The Gun is a riveting read -- Raymond Bonner * Guardian *Chivers tells the story well ... [he is] superb on the technical history of the AK-47 and its predecessors, but he also strikingly underlines its human cost as well as weaving adeptly through the propaganda -- Tim Newark * Financial Times *A formidable feat of research and writing ... he has produced surely the final word on one of the most iconic weapons of our times -- Roger Moorhouse * Independent on Sunday *Chivers is admirably meticulous in his research -- Justin Marozzi * Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisIn World War Two, 19 million people died in the conflicts across the globe. Yet in those same years, more than 20 million died from starvation and malnutrition. In The Taste of War Lizzie Collingham shows how food - and its lack - was central to the war''s causes and continuation. She explores how starvation was often a deliberate governmental policy, and reveals how the necessity of feeding whole countries lead to Pearl Harbour, Germany''s invasion of Russia, and the Holocaust itself.Trade ReviewRemarkable, powerful * The Times *Amazing... she makes it impossible to think of the war in the old terms * Daily Mail *Fascinating, shocking ... For anyone who thought that the subject of food in the Second World War could be dispatched with a few clichés about digging for victory * Mail on Sunday *Ambitious, compelling, fascinating... uncomfortable reading if you began by believing in the possibility of a just war * Guardian *This fascinating calorie-centric history of the greatest conflict in world history is wholly convincing -- Andrew RobertsA powerful and important book... One of the beauties of this book is its savage unpicking of cherished myths * Independent *Lizzie Collingham's book possesses the notable virtue of originality...[She] has gathered many strands to pursue an important theme across a global canvas. She reminds us of the timeless truth that all human and political behaviour is relative -- Max HastingsThe great merits of [this] book...lie in its extraordinary range...and in the entirely new perspective it throws on the Second World War -- Bernard Potter * London Review of Books *

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Book Synopsis''Fascinating revelations'' Max Hastings, Sunday Times''An immensely valuable guide to a great and terrible industry'' The Economist ''The book I have long been waiting for... Essential reading'' Michael KlarePetroleum has always been used by humans: as an adhesive by Neanderthals, as a waterproofing agent in Noah''s Ark and as a weapon during the Crusades. Its eventual extraction from the earth in vast quantities transformed light, heat and power. A Pipeline Runs Through It is a fresh, in-depth look at the social, economic, and geopolitical forces involved in our transition to the modern oil age. It tells an extraordinary origin story, from the pre-industrial history of petroleum through to large-scale production in the mid-nineteenth century and the development of a dominant, fully-fledged oil industry by the early twentieth century.This was always a story of imperialist violence, economic exploitation and e

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Book SynopsisDisability history exists outside of the institutions, healers, and treatments it often brings to mind. It is a history where the disabled live not just as patients or cure-seekers, but rather as people living differently in the world--and it is also a history that helps define the fundamental concepts of identity, community, citizenship, and normality. The Oxford Handbook of Disability History is the first volume of its kind to represent this history and its global scale, from ancient Greece to British West Africa. The twenty-seven articles, written by thirty experts from across the field, capture the diversity and liveliness of this emerging scholarship. Whether discussing disability in modern Chinese cinema or on the American antebellum stage, this collection provides new and valuable insights into the rich and varied lives of the disabled across time and place.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Contributors Introduction Michael Rembis, Catherine J. Kudlick, and Kim E. Nielsen Part I. CONCEPTS AND QUESTIONS 1. The Perils and Promises of Disability Biography Kim E. Nielsen 2. Disability History and Greco-Roman Antiquity C.F. Goodey and M. Lynn Rose 3. Intellectual Disability in the European Middle Ages Irina Metzler 4. Disability in the Pre-modern Arab World Sara Scalenghe 5. Disability and the History of Eugenics Michael Rembis 6. Social History of Medicine and Disability History Catherine J. Kudlick 7. Material Culture, Technology, and the Body in Disability History Katherine Ott 8. Designing Objects and Spaces: A Modern Disability History Bess Williamson 9. Documents, Ethics, and the Disability Historian Penny Richards and Susan Burch Part II. WORK 10. Disability and Work during the Industrial Revolution in Britain Daniel Blackie 11. Disability and Work in South Asia and the United Kingdom Jane Buckingham 12. Disability and Work in British West Africa Jeff Grischow 13. Race, Work, and Disability in Progressive Era United States Paul Lawrie 14. Organized Labor and Disability in Post-World War II United States Audra Jennings Part III. INSTITUTIONS 15. Deaf-blindness and the Institutionalization of Special Education in Nineteenth-Century Europe Pieter Vierestraete and Ylva Söderfeldt 16. Disability and Madness in Colonial Asylum Records in Australia and New Zealand Catharine Coleborne 17. Madness, Transnationalism, and Emotions in Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century Australia and New Zealand Angela McCarthy 18. Institutions for People with Disabilities in North America Steven Noll Part IV. REPRESENTATIONS 19. Picturing Disability in Eighteenth-Century England David M. Turner 20. Disability, Race, and Gender on the United States Antebellum Stage Jenifer L. Barclay 21. Polio and Disability in Cold War Hungary Dora Vargha 22. Monstrous Births, Birth Defects, Unusual Anatomy, and Disability in Europe and North America Leslie J. Reagan 23. Disability in Modern Chinese Cinema Steven L. Riep Part V. MOVEMENTS AND IDENTITIES 24. Transnational Interconnections in Nineteenth Century Western Deaf Communities Joseph J. Murray 25. The Disability Rights Movement in the United States Lindsey Patterson 26. The Rise of Gay Rights and the Disavowal of Disability in the United States Regina Kunzel 27. Disabled Veterans and the Wounds of War David A. Gerber Index

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Book SynopsisThe avant-garde movements of Dada and Surrealism continue to have a huge influence on cultural practice, especially in contemporary art, with its obsession with sexuality, fetishism, and shock tactics. In this new treatment of the subject, Hopkins focuses on the many debates surrounding these movements: the Marquis de Sade''s Surrealist deification, issues of quality (How good is Dali?), the idea of the ''readymade'', attitudes towards the city, the impact of Freud, attitudes to women, fetishism, and primitivism. The international nature of these movements is examined, covering the cities of Zurich, New York, Berlin, Cologne, Barcelona, Paris, London, and recenlty discovered examples in Eastern Europe. Hopkins explores the huge range of media employed by both Dada and Surrealism (collage, painting, found objects, performance art, photography, film) , whilst at the same time establishing the aesthetic differences between the movements. He also examines the Dadaist obsession with the body-as-mechanism in relation to the Surrealists'' return to the fetishized/eroticized body. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewIn a relatively small space Hopkins manages a stylish presentation and analysis of two of modernism's most famous isms. * Bear Books *Table of Contents1. Histories ; 2. Geographies ; 3. Art and Anti-Art ; 4. Actions ; 5. Politics ; 6. Minds ; 7. Bodies ; 8. Endings

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Book SynopsisEdited by Barry Cunliffe, one of the world''s leading archaeologists, this book provides a comprehensive account of prehistoric Europe from the coming of the Stone Age to the fall of the Roman Empire. Unique in its approach, it is a history of both humanity and the environment, looking at the changing landscape of Europe and the responses and adaptations to these changes.With over 300 plates, maps, and figures, this fascinating volume will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in the early history, art, and archaeology of Europe.Trade Reviewtakes the reader on a fascinating journey through the development of Western culture -- a definitive study. * Oxford Times *Table of ContentsList of Colour Plates ; List of Maps ; Acknowledgements ; Introduction ; 1. The Peopling of Europe, 700,000-400,000 Years before the Present ; 2. The Upper Paleolithic Revolution ; 3. The Mesolithic Age ; 4. The First Farmers ; 5. The Transformation of Early Agrarian Europe: The Later Neolithic and Copper Ages, 4500-2500 BC ; 6. The Palace Civilizations of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece, 2000-1200 BC ; 7. The Emergence of Elites: Earlier Bronze Age Europe, 2500-1300 BC ; 8. The Collapse of Aegean Civilization at the End of the Late Bronze Age ; 9. Reformation in Barbarian Europe, 1300-600 BC ; 10. Iron Age Societies in Western Europe and Beyond: 800-140 BC ; 11. Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians, 800 BC-AD 300 ; 12. The Impact of Rome on Barbarian Society, 140 BC-AD300 ; 13. Barbarian Europe, AD 300-700 ; Further Reading ; Chronological Tables ; Acknowledgement of Sources ; Index

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Book Synopsis(Dis)connected Empires offers a new contribution to the current debate on the role of global history in a world of resurgent nationalisms. Biedermann explores the world of early diplomatic connections between Europe and Asia in the Renaissance, focusing on the rarely told story of Portuguese encounters with the Buddhist kingdoms of Sri Lanka.Trade Review...(Dis)connected Empires is an impressive work of erudition.It is a work of real distinction that will offer many rewards to specialist readers of global history, Asian connections, and colonialism who decide to take the journey along the tortuous, connected routes described so eloquently by Biedermann. * Nira Wickramasinghe, Leiden University, Journal of Asian Studies *... (Dis)connected Empires is an impressive work of erudition. It is a work of real distinction that will offer many rewards to readers of global history, Asian connections, and colonialism who decide to take the journey along the tortuous, connected routes described so eloquently by Biedermann. * Nira Wickramasinghe, Leiden University, Journal of Asian Studies *... this theoretically ambitious and empirically rich work ... makes a compelling case for why Portugal's early imperial engagements in Asia deserve as much attention as the paradigmatic Spanish or British and French cases. * Ananya Chakravarti, Georgetown University, American Historical Review *... thoughtful and thought-provoking ... this book should enjoy a broad readership because of its deep commitment to methodological reflection. * Ricardo Padrón, University of Virginia, AAG Review of Books *... a rich, lucid, captivating and thought-provoking study ... an important contribution to the burgeoning historiography on the Habsburg Empire's polycentrism ... feeds into a broader debate about connected histories. * Stephan Hanß, University of Manchester, Bulletin of Spanish Studies *... a work that, through the dialogues it maintains ... overcomes Iberian insularity ... draws comparisons and contrasts with other early modern societies, including those of Early America. * Jorge Flores, University of Lisbon, Cuadernos de Historia Moderna *

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Book SynopsisThe eighteenth century was a time of major global transitions. Movements of religious and intellectual revival challenged established ideas, European colonies emerged in the Western hemisphere, global trade expanded, and political revolutions and revolts in America, France, Russia, and Haiti started to reshape political life. At the beginning of the century, power and wealth were roughly balanced among the major regions of the world. By its end, this balance was upset by the emergence of European imperial nation-states and Western European industrial societies whose evolution was enabled by modern processes of industrialization, globalization, and empires. John O. Voll highlights key events and individuals in that transformation, from Emperor Kangxi''s meeting with Jesuits and Catherine the Great''s imperial expansion of Russia, Jonathan Edwards'' Great Awakening and Muhammid ibn Abd al-Wahhab''s Islam reform movement to Mulla Abdul Ghafur''s trade in cotton, Richard Arkwright''s textile factories, and Isaac Newton''s and Immanuel Kant''s contributions to the Enlightenment and modern science. This book shows that the eighteenth century was a time of transition to modernity, a time when the impact of the first globalization was being felt around the world. Old ways of life disappeared as new ways of organizing human activities emerged.

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Book SynopsisInhuman Bondage is the definitive study of slavery for our time, providing a global perspective on the subject with an emphasis on the United States. Davis is one of our preeminent historians and the authority on America's greatest historical problem.Trade ReviewA tour de force...Could not be more welcome...An invaluable guide to explaining what has made slavery's consequences so much a part of contemporary American culture and politics. * Ira Berlin, The New York Times Book Review *Impressive and sprawling...Davis's account is rich in detail, and his voice is clear enough to coax even casual readers through this dense history. * Publishers Weekly *Table of ContentsMaps A Selective Calendar of Events Prologue 1: The Amistad Test of Law and Justice 2: The Ancient Foundations of Modern Slavery 3: The Origins of Anti-Black Racism in the New World 4: How Africans Became Integral to New World History 5: The Atlantic Slave System: Brazil and the Caribbean 6: Slavery in Colonial North America 7: The Problem of Slavery in the American Revolution 8: The Impact of the French and Haitian Revolutions 9: Slavery in the Nineteenth-Century South, I: From Contradiction to Defense 10: Slavery in the Nineteenth-Century South, II: From Slaveholder Treatment and the Nature of Labor to Slave Culture, Sex and Religion, and Free Blacks 11: Some Nineteenth-Century Slave Conspiracies and Revolts 12: Explanations of British Abolitionism 13: Abolitionism in America 14: The Politics of Slavery in the United States 15: The Civil War and Slave Emancipation Epilogue Notes Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisHow did racism evolve in different parts of the Portuguese-speaking world? How should the impact on ethnic perceptions of colonial societies based on slavery or the slave trade be evaluated? What was the reality of inter-ethnic mixture in different continents? How has the prejudice of white supremacy been confronted in Brazil and Portugal? And how should we assess the impact of recent trends of emigration and immigration? These are some of the major questions that have structured this book. It both contextualises and challenges the visions of Gilberto Freyre and Charles Boxer, which crystallised from the 1930s to the 1960s, but which still frame the public history of this topic. It studies crucial issues, including recent affirmative action in Brazil or Afro-Brazilian literature, blackness in Brazil compared with Colombia under the dynamics of identity, recent racist trends in Portugal in comparative perspective, the status of native people in colonial Portuguese Africa, discriminationTrade Reviewan invaluable contribution * Anthony Soares, Bulletin of Spanish Studies *Table of ContentsPARTI I. PRESENT ISSUES; PART II. THE MODERN FRAMEWORK; PART III. THE LONG VIEW

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Book SynopsisHow do things change? The question is critical to the historical study of any era but it is also a profoundly important issue today as western democracies find the fundamental tenets of their implicit social contract facing extreme challenges from forces espousing ideas that once flourished only on the outskirts of society. This books argues that radical change always begins with ideas that took shape on the fringes. Throughout time the mainstream has been inherently conservative, allowing for incremental change but essentially dedicated to preserving its own power structures as the dominant ideology justifies existing relationships. In this tour of radical change across Western history, David Potter will show how ideologies that develop in opposition or reaction to those supporting the status quo are employed to effect profound changes in political structures that will in turn alter the way that social relations are constructed.Not all radical groups are the same, and all the groups t

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Book SynopsisThis annual volume of periods of university history consists of 11 articles devoted to the period 1760-1848, ranging from the study of particular faculties to the role of government in higher education and the concept of a liberal education.Trade Review'handsomely produced volume ... There is much to interest non-specialist historians in this volume.' Janet Howarth, St Hilda's College, Oxford. Journal of Educational Administration and HistoryTable of ContentsARTICLES ; RESEARCH IN PROGRESS ; CONFERENCE REPORTS ; BOOK REVIEWS ; INDEX TO THE BIBLIOGRAPHY ; HISTORY OF UNIVERSITIES VOLUME VIII

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Book SynopsisPassion and Action explores the place of the emotions in seventeenth-century understandings of the body and mind, and the role they were held to play in reasoning and action. Interest in the passions pervaded all areas of philosophical enquiry, and was central to the theories of many major figures, including Hobbes, Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, Pascal, and Locke. Yet little attention has been paid to this topic in studies of early modern thought. Susan James surveys the inheritance of ancient and medieval doctrines about the passions, then shows how these were incorporated into new philosophical theories in the course of the seventeenth century. She examines the relation of the emotions to will, knowledge, understanding, desire, and power, offering fresh analyses and interpretations of a broad range of texts by little-known writers as well as canonical figures, and establishing that a full understanding of these authors must take account of their discussions of our affective life. Trade ReviewWhen philosophers write about the importance of the emotions today, they usually begin by condemning earlier philosophers for separating the emotions from reason (and then all but ignoring them). Nothing could be further from the approach of Susan James ... in this beautifully written study. Her subtle and erudite interpretations of major texts of the seventeenth century show that the passions were at the heart of early modern philosophy ... her recovery of the treatment of the passions and of action in a wealth of authors from Descartes to Locke provides a perspective from which we can free ourselves a little from the unsatisfactory way we view the emotions today, and so enables us to think differently about their proper place in a sound human life. Her study also shows how early modern philosophers were open to and deeply influenced by areas of European culture other than philosophy where the emotions were at centre stage. * James Tully, Common Knowledge *

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Book SynopsisAn authoritative appraisal of the United Nations and rigorous examination of possibilities for change.Trade ReviewFrom reviews of the first edition: `excellent ... succeeds both in its appraisal and in its critical assessment' International and Comparative Law QuarterlyTable of ContentsIntroduction: The UN's Roles in a Divided World ; 1. The Historical Development of the UN's Role in International Security ; 2. The UN and International Security after the Cold War ; 3. The UN and the National Interests of States ; 4. The Role of the UN Secretary-General ; 5. The Good Offices Function of the UN Secretary-General ; 6. UN Peacekeeping and Election-Monitoring ; 7. The UN and Human Rights: At the End of the Beginning ; 8. The UN and the Problem of Economic Development ; 9. The UN and the Environment ; 10. The UN and the Development in International Law ; 11. The Historical Development of Efforts to Reform the UN ; 12. The Structure of the UN in the Post-Cold War Period ; Appendices, including: An Agenda for Peace:

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Book SynopsisImagine the planet, as if from an immense distance of time and space, as a galactic observer might see it--with the kind of objectivity that we, who are enmeshed in our history, cant attain.The Oxford Illustrated History of the World encompasses the whole span of human history. It brings together some of the world''s leading historians, under the expert guidance of Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, to tell the 200,000-year story of our world, from the emergence of homo sapiens through to the twenty-first century: the environmental convulsions; the interplay of ideas (good and bad); the cultural phases and exchanges; the collisions and collaborations in politics; the successions of states and empires; the unlocking of energy; the evolutions of economies; the contacts, conflicts, and contagions that have all contributed to making the world we now inhabit.Trade ReviewWhen a renowned academic publisher such as Oxford University Press gathers well-known (mainly British and American) historians to write an illustrated history of the whole world, one can expect a cross between the highest condition, light and metaphorical language and opulent visualization - and this is exactly what this volume delivers. * Matthias Middell, Comparativ *To say that The Oxford Illustrated History Of The World is a monumental undertaking is something of an understatement. In just over 400 pages some of the world's most noted historians come together to tell the story of human history, from its first breath to the modern age ... The result is a triumph ... The Oxford Illustrated History Of The World is lavishly illustrated with photographs, maps and wherever necessary tables and diagrams, and the balance of text versus illustration is just right. As accessible as it is well-researched, it really is a joy to read and will satisfy anyone who wants to delve deeper into the history of the world. * All About History *Extraordinary ... [A] beautiful book, with accessible essays of such originality and scholarly depth a treasure house of startling images. * Richard Drayton, Times Literary Supplement *Some books are admirable because of their sheer scope and ambition, and this overview of the entirety of the human story fits firmly within that category. * History Revealed *A handy compendium of some of the major moments and periods of transformation in human history, set in a global context. * Lucia Marchini, Minerva *Condensing the story of humanity's 200,000 year tenure on Earth into 450 pages (including pictures) could be an act of hubris or the result of orderly - yet imaginative - minds making connections across centuries and continents. The Oxford Illustrated History of the World is more the latter... a pleasure to read with many thought-provoking passages. * David Luhrssen, Shepherd Express *Are you intellectually curious, but very busy? Would you have liked to understand the biggest questions about the history of the last 200,000 years, but you don't have the time required to read 97 different fat books to tell you the answers? Are you looking for just one book that will summarize it all? Then this is your book! It's exciting, up-to-date, and well-written. You'll love it! * Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography at UCLA and Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel and The World Until Yesterday *Felipe Fernández-Armesto and his gifted team have produced the world history for our times, ecologically oriented, written from multiple standpoints and informed by systematic comparison. * Peter Burke, Professor Emeritus of Cultural History, University of Cambridge *A truly remarkable book. * Richard Lofthouse, Quad Magazine *Brilliant and provocative * Art Eyewitness *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: Children of the Ice 1: Clive Gamble: Humanity From the Ice: The Emergence and Spread of an Adaptive Species 2: Felipe Fernández-Armesto: The Mind in the Ice: Art and Thought before Agriculture Part II: Of Mud and Metal 3: Martin Jones: Into a Warming World 4: Felipe Fernández-Armesto: The Farmers' Empires: Climax and Crises in Agrarian States and Cities Part III: The Oscillations of Empires 5: John Brooke: Material Life: Bronze Age Crisis to the Black Death 6: David Northrup: Intellectual Traditions: Philosophy, Science, Religion, and the Arts, 500 BCE - 1350 CE 7: Ian Morris: Growth: Social and Political Organizations, 1000 BC-AD 1350 Part IV: The Climatic Reversal 8: David Northrup: A Converging World: Economic and Ecological Encounters, 1350-1815 9: Manuel Lucena-Giraldo: Renaissances, Reformations, and Mental Revolutions: Intellect and Arts in the Early Modern World 10: Anjana Singh: Connected by Emotions and Experiences: Monarchs, Merchants, Mercenaries, and Migrants in the Early Modern World Part V: The Great Acceleration 11: David Christian: The Anthropocene Epoch: The Background to Two Transformative Centuries 12: Paolo Luca Bernardini: The Modern World and Its Demons: Ideology and After in Arts, Letters and Thought, 1815-2008 13: Jeremy Black: Politics and Society in the Kaleidoscope of Change: Relationships, Institutions, and Conflicts from the Beginnings of Western Hegemony to the American Supremacy Epilogue Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisThe history of Russia - from Kievan Rus to Vladimir PutinRussia: A History cuts through the myths and mystery that have surrounded Russia from its earliest days, with startling revelations from classified archives that until comparatively recently were not even known to exist.A distinguished team of historians has stripped away the propaganda and preconceptions of the past to tell the definitive story of Russia, from tenth-century Kiev and Muscovy through empire and revolution to the fall of Communism and the ''new order'' of the 1990s and early 21st century. A compelling story in its own right, it is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Russia and its place in the world. This updated edition now covers the developments in the Putin era in the first decade of the 21st century.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition A brisk, exciting tour of Russia's long journey from its Kievan origins to the early Yeltsin years ... stunningly beautiful illustrations and transparent prose * Los Angeles Times *brings together the latest research into all aspects of Russian history and ... lends itself to reading by the general public as well as the undergraduate. * Contemporary Review *a lavishly illustrated volume, with a heavy-weight text * Edward Acton, The European *Table of ContentsEditor's Preface ; Glossary of Terms ; 1. From Kiev to Muscovy: The Beginnings to 1450 ; 2. Muscovite Russia, 1450-1598 ; 3. From Muscovy towards St Petersburg, 1598-1689 ; 4. The Petrine Era and After, 1689-1740 ; 5. The Age of Enlightenment, 1740-1801 ; 6. Pre-Reform Russia, 1801-1855 ; 7. Reform and Counter-Reform, 1855-1900 ; 8. Revolutionary Russia, 1890-1914 ; 9. Russia in War and Revolution, 1914-1921 ; 10. The New Economic Policy (NEP) and the Revolutionary Experiment, 1921-1929 ; 11. Building Stalinism, 1929-1941 ; 12. The Great Fatherland War and Late Stalinism, 1941-1953 ; 13. From Stalinism to Stagnation, 1953-1985 ; 14. A Modern 'Time of Troubles': From Reform to Disintegration, 1985-1999 ; 15. Meltdown, Rebuilding, Reform, 1996-2008 ; Maps ; Chronology ; Further Reading ; Index

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Book SynopsisDefining ''magic'' is a maddening task. Over the last century numerous philosophers, anthropologists, historians, and theologians have attempted to pin down its essential meaning, sometimes analysing it in such complex and abstruse depth that it all but loses its sense altogether. For this reason, many people often shy away from providing a detailed definition, assuming it is generally understood as the human control of supernatural forces. ''Magic'' continues to pervade the popular imagination and idiom. People feel comfortable with its contemporary multiple meanings, unaware of the controversy, conflict, and debate its definition has caused over two and a half millennia. In common usage today ''magic'' is uttered in reference to the supernatural, superstition, illusion, trickery, religious miracles, fantasies, and as a simple superlative. The literary confection known as ''magical realism'' has considerable appeal and many modern scientists have ironically incorporated the word into their vocabulary, with their ''magic acid'', ''magic bullets'' and ''magic angles''.Since the so-called European Enlightenment magic has often been seen as a marker of primitivism, of a benighted earlier stage of human development. Yet across the modern globalized world hundreds of millions continue to resort to magic - and also to fear it. Magic provides explanations and remedies for those living in extreme poverty and without access to alternatives. In the industrial West, with its state welfare systems, religious fundamentalists decry the continued moral threat posed by magic. Under the guise of neo-Paganism, its practice has become a religion in itself. Magic continues to be a truly global issue.This Very Short Introduction does not attempt to provide a concluding definition of magic: it is beyond simple definition. Instead it explores the many ways in which magic, as an idea and a practice, has been understood and employed over the millennia. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewDavies explores an impressive range of topics including the basic terminology of magic, major theoretical approaches to the subject, the tradition of written magic, its use as a strategy for excluding others and defining ones own group, and the revival of magic in the context of contemporary paganism. ... The book is interspersed with a selection of photographs and illustrations, and it is well worth such a modest outlay. * Juliette Wood, Folklore *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Anthropologies of magic ; 2. Historical perspectives ; 3. All in the mind? ; 4. Writing magic ; 5. Practising magic ; 6. Magic and the modern world ; Conclusion

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Book SynopsisWhat is our relationship with the past? A quiet revolution has transformed the ways in which History provides us with answers. Indeed, not so long ago the very question might have seemed odd. But in recent decades the solid moorings to which History was seemingly tethered have proved less secure than earlier supposed. That realization has produced some discomfiture, but also many more opportunities for approaching worlds with which we have lost connection. No single book can hope to reflect all the ways in which History has ''changed with the times'' nor can, or should, a volume with numerous contributors speak with one voice. Yet the Companion does range widely, addressing key themes and structures from new areas of enquiry as well as providing fresh treatment of established fields; and it does mark a significant departure in a genre still shaped by stories that are predominantly Western. It reflects a practice of history that seeks global connections and pioneers a sustained dialogueTrade ReviewReview from previous edition The stellar cast of authors... [introduce] the reader to some of the most exciting developments in the field of history over the past three decades.... the book achieves a great deal. * Stefan Berger, Times Literary Supplement *Ambitious...rich and challenging...makes some significant contributions * Alix Green, Reviews in History *How has the writing of history changed over the past half century? What are the topics and issues that interest historians today? These questions, and many more, are addressed in the Concise Companion, a pioneering and exceptionally stimulating volume of essays which indicate some of the ways in which the challenges of globalization are forcing historians to rethink their approaches to the past. * Sir John Elliott, Regius Professor Emeritus of Modern History, University of Oxford *Ulinka Rublack has created a true companion volume for readers of recent and current historical writing. In an astonishing feat of editorship, she brings together some of the best living historians and some insuperable essays on the state and drift of the subject. * Felipe Fernández-Armesto, William P. Reynolds Professor of History, Notre Dame University *Table of ContentsPreface ; PART I: WRITING HISTORY ; 1. History and World History ; 2. Causation ; 3. The Status of Historical Knowledge ; 4. Historians ; PART II: THEMES AND STRUCTURES ; 5. Commerce ; 6. Power ; 7. Communication ; 8. Population ; 9. Gender ; 10. Culture ; 11. Ethnicity ; 12. Science ; 13. Environmental History ; 14. Religion ; 15. Emotions ; 16. The Power of Ideas ; Acknowledgements ; Index

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