History and Archaeology Books

2378 products


  • Helion & Company Peter the Great Humbled: The Russo-Ottoman War of

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £18.95

  • With the Guards in Flanders: The Diary of Captain

    Helion & Company With the Guards in Flanders: The Diary of Captain

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £16.95

  • Tudor Book of Days

    Graffeg Limited Tudor Book of Days

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Tudor Book of Days is a beautifully produced perpetual diary inspired by The Tudor Book of Hours, designed for keeping important dates, events and seasonal notes in a personal day book. Important events from Tudor history are listed alongside each day and at the start of each month, with ample space for all of your own notes and reminders throughout the year.

    2 in stock

    £17.10

  • The Riddle of Dmitri: Considered from historical,

    Temple Lodge Publishing The Riddle of Dmitri: Considered from historical,

    Book SynopsisIn a private conversation on his deathbed, Rudolf Steiner informed his friend Count Polzer-Hoditz of three spiritual problems that would need to be resolved in the coming years: 'Firstly, the question of the two Johns [John the Baptist and John the Evangelist]. Secondly: Who was Dmitri? Thirdly: Where did Caspar Hauser come from?' Tackling these issues, said Steiner, would be of critical importance for humanity's future. He added: 'In all three problems it is important that one's gaze is directed not towards death but towards birth. Where did they come from and with what tasks?' In Dmitri's case, Steiner emphasized that the most important thing was to discover what was to have been achieved through him. --- Utilizing the significant clues left by Rudolf Steiner, Sergei O. Prokofieff takes on the second of these tasks, the great unsolved mystery of Russian history. Tsarevich Dmitri, the son of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, was tragically murdered as a young boy. Later, he was impersonated by a series of rogues and pretenders. Prokofieff's wide-ranging study integrates historical, psychological and spiritual-scientific perspectives to work towards the truth behind Dmitri's brief life, his mission and the distortions created by the 'false Dmitris'. He also examines the significance of Friedrich Schiller's unfinished play, Demetrius.Table of ContentsIntroduction - Chapter 1: Rudolf Steiner on the Problem of Dmitri - Chapter 2: The Riddle of Dmitri from a Historical Point of View - Chapter 3: The Riddle of Dmitri from a Psychological Point of View - Chapter 4: The Riddle of Dmitri from a Spiritual-Scientific Point of View - Chapter 5: Friedrich Schiller's Demetrius and the Spiritual-Historical Reality lying at its Foundation: the Struggle against the Spirit - Conclusion: The Problem of Dmitri and the Present - Appendix: Eduard Winter: Russia and the Papacy, Extract from the chapter entitled 'Papal Diplomacy during the Time of Troubles in Russia' - Afterword to the Second German Edition - Notes - Bibliography - List of Historical Literature and Abbreviations used in the text and Notes - Commentary about the List of Historical Literature

    £21.38

  • Aerial Operations in the Revolutions of 1922 and

    Helion & Company Aerial Operations in the Revolutions of 1922 and

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £16.10

  • The Sea is My Element: The Eventful Life of

    Helion & Company The Sea is My Element: The Eventful Life of

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £30.00

  • The Great Northern War: A Wargamers' Guide

    Helion & Company The Great Northern War: A Wargamers' Guide

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £22.50

  • Operation Meghdoot: India’S War in Siachen - 1984

    Helion & Company Operation Meghdoot: India’S War in Siachen - 1984

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £16.10

  • Artificial Islands: Adventures in the Dominions

    Watkins Media Limited Artificial Islands: Adventures in the Dominions

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisGreat Britain has just left one Union, after years of bitter argument and divisive posturing. But what if the island's future lies in another Union altogether, with some of its former colonial “kith and kin” across the seas? Why be in a Union with your immediate neighbours, when you could instead be in a trans-oceanic super-state with our old friends in Canada, Australia and New Zealand? Welcome to the strange world of the 'CANZUK Union', the name for a quixotic but apparently serious plan to reunify the white-majority 'Dominions' of the British Empire under the flag of low taxes, strong borders and climate change denialism. Artificial Islands tests the idea that Britain's natural allies and closest relations are in these three countries in North America and the Antipodes, through a good look at the histories, townscapes and spaces of several cities across the settler zones of the British Empire. These are some of the most purely artificial and modern landscapes in the world, British-designed cities that were built with extreme rapidity in forcibly seized territories on the other side of the world from Britain. Were these places really no more than just a reproduction of British Values planted in unlikely corners of the globe? How are people in Auckland, Melbourne, Montreal, Ottawa and Wellington re-imagining their own history, or their countries' role in the British Empire and their complicity in its crimes? And do they have any interest in a union with us?Trade Review"A rich cliché-busting book, a model of how to think critically about empire and its contemporary relevance." - David Edgerton, author of The Rise and Fall of the British Nation "Hatherley carries the narrative with an opinionated and entertaining style." — Rob Greer, The Idler "Hatherley’s accounts of walking Dominion cities display the intuitive feel for place, epigrammatic flair and caustic impatience for cant which make him a successor to the great urban explorers." — The Critic

    1 in stock

    £11.69

  • The British Campaign for Soviet Jewry 1966-1991:

    i2i Publishing The British Campaign for Soviet Jewry 1966-1991:

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe British Campaign for Soviet Jewry 1966-1991: Human Rights and Exit Permits is the first full length study of the movement based on primary sources. The book tells the story of one of the three or four most significant events of twentieth century Jewish history. Almost 1.5 million Jews left the Soviet Union mainly for Israel and the United States. According to Natan Sharansky, the international human rights campaign was the most successful such movement in history. It was one of the principal props of the Soviet dissidents campaigning, and an important factor that led to the humbling of the regime and the eventual disintegration of the Soviet Empire. It was also a rare example of the reversal of an attempt at Cultural Genocide, that the Soviet Union had intended to inflict on its Jewish citizens. The book attempts to weave the exciting story of the British movement in its international context in a fluent and readable manner. It focusses on its various components – the women and students and the National Council for Soviet Jewry; and differentiating it from its American counterparts, and the Israeli government, which attempted to guide its over-all strategy. While it covers the changing attitude of the British government to human rights from Harold Wilson to Margaret Thatcher, it also details the trials and tribulations of a countless number of Jewish and other dissidents and their supporters overseas. They bravely defied not only Stalin and his successors but the secret police and enabled the mass migration of Soviet Jewry to happen.

    1 in stock

    £16.99

  • Medieval Wrestling: Modern Practice of a

    FreeLance Academy Press Medieval Wrestling: Modern Practice of a

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn the Middle Ages, wrestling was practiced as both pastime and self-defense by every level of society - nobles, townsman and peasants alike - and was regarded as the foundation of all other martial arts. And no medieval wrestler's name looms as large as that of the Jewish master Ott, 'wrestler to the noble Princes of Austria', whose treatise is included in over a dozen fencing manuscripts. In this first of its kind book, Jessica Finley of the renowned medieval martial arts association, the Selohaar Fechtschule, guides the reader on a journey that begins with the historical background of Ott's wrestling and culminates in step-by-step instruction for practicing the techniques of this ancient fighting art. Both the lover of history and the wrestler on the mat will find this work an invaluable resource. Trade Review Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Martial Arts of Medieval Germany Chapter 2: Master Ott, the Baptised Jew Chapter 3: Organization of Ott's Treatise Chapter 4: Ott's Prologue and Fight Theory Chapter 5: Basic Wrestling Chapter 6: Stance and Grips Chapter 7: Treatment of the Techniques Appendix A: Ott's Wrestling from the Von Danzig Fechtbuch Appendix B: Ott's Treatise across Manuscripts Appendix C: Drills and Class Notes Bibliography Primary Sources

    1 in stock

    £28.02

  • The Book of Historic Fashion: A Newcomer's Guide

    FreeLance Academy Press The Book of Historic Fashion: A Newcomer's Guide

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Late Middle Ages (c.1350 - 1500) provides us with many of our stock, childhood images of the 'Middle Ages': the knight in shining armour, the joust, lords and ladies dressed in rich, voluminous robes and elegant dresses. Yet it is a paradox, for at the start of the period, Europe had endured the worst pandemic of recorded history: the Black Death, the climate was rapidly cooling, causing massive crop failures and France and England were locked in the brutal, dynastic struggle of the Hundred Years War. Meanwhile, in the second half of the period, intrepid merchants became the new knighthood of Europe, seeking new wealth in Asia and Africa, and launching what has been called the 'Age of Discovery' while a new interest in Classical culture would give birth to the Renaissance. All of these elements have long intrigued and inspired writers, researchers and reenactors to take a trip through the looking glass to this lost world. In the Book of Historic Fashion: A Newcomer's Guide to Medieval Clothing (1300 - 1450), authors Allen and Mele provide a visual snap shot of the courtly elegance and common wear of the period. Filled with hundreds of sketches taken from original sources, mechanical drawings and detailed 'layer drawings' demonstrating how the clothing was worn, this entrée both introduces the period and helps newcomers find their way forward in the study of primary and secondary sources. Whether you are a teacher or professor who wants your students to understand what the clothing of the day really looked like, a costume designers working in theater, TV and film looking for visual reference or just new to medieval reenacting who wants guidance on what to wear in order to be appropriately dressed at events, this volume is for you. Trade Review Table of ContentsIntroduction Part One: A World in Chaos - the Tumultuous Fourteenth Century Period Overview Men's Fashions The Pen of History: Gaston Phebus and the Book of the Hunt Women's Fashions The Pen of History: Jean, Duc de Berry Headgear, Footwear and Accessories Part Two: Old Glories Re-Imagined - the Fifteenth Century and the Waning of the Gothic Era Period Overview Men's Fashions The Pen of History: King Rene d'Anjou Women's Fashions Headgear, Footwear and Accessories Part Three: Arming Clothes and Military Fashion Period Overview Arming Clothes The Pen of History: How a Man Shall be Armed Appendix: Fabrics, Furs and Fashions 1300-1450 Bibliography

    1 in stock

    £26.50

  • FreeLance Academy Press Fighting with the German Longsword

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisRecorded over six centuries ago, the teachings of the 14th-century Master-at-Arms Johannes Liechtenauer have been given new life by a world-wide community of modern swordsmen and women, fascinated by the elegance, efficiency and depth of his unique martial art. Christian Henry Tobler was one of the pioneers in reviving the medieval Master's art, creating the first, published syllabus for training with the two-handed longsword back in 2004. This fully rewritten, revised and expanded edition brings to bear a decade of refinement, creating a definitive, "how to" guide for students. Beginning with a short historical overview of the art, Mr. Tobler teaches stance, footwork, methods for gripping the sword, and step-by-step instructions for executing the core techniques of the Liechtenauer tradition. Additional chapters introduce students to wrestling, spear and armoured combat; demonstrating the art's depth and breadth. Heavily photo-illustrated, the book also makes use of decision-trees and training drills to aid in learning. Used as a complete, self-contained course, or a primer for studying the original medieval works themselves, this unique book will be invaluable to martial artists, reenactors, medieval historians, or anyone who has ever wondered "how did knights fight?"Table of ContentsForeword About the Author The Chivalric Fighting Arts Association The Selohaar Fechtschule Preface Introduction Chapter 1: Beginning Your Training Chapter 2: Line, Footwork, Measure, and Time Chapter 3: Vier Leger Chapter 4:Three Wounders Chapter 5: Four Openings Chapter 6: Initiative Chapter 7: Defending with Attacks Chapter 8: The Five Strokes Chapter 9: Zornhau Chapter 10: Breaking the Four Openings Chapter 11: Krumphau Chapter 12: Zwerchhau Chapter 13: Schielhau Chapter 14: Scheitelhau Chapter 15: Vier Versetzen Chapter 16: Nachreisen Chapter 17: Fuhlen and Indes, an Interlude Chapter 18: Uberlaufen Chapter 19: Absetzen Chapter 20: Durchwechseln and Zucken Chapter 21: Ringen Chapter 22: Durchlaufen Chapter 23: Sprechfenster Chapter 24: Zwei Hengen, Acht Winden Chapter 25: Nebenhut Chapter 26: Fence! Chapter 27: Armoured Foot Combat Chapter 28: Fencing with the Spear Chapter 29: Fencing with the Half-Sword Chapter 30: Conclusion Table of Drills Glossary & Bibliography

    1 in stock

    £38.00

  • Vietnam War

    Random House USA Inc Vietnam War

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £17.85

  • The Shadow in the East

    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Shadow in the East

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisAn insightful, nuanced account that highlights the present multitude of currents at play in Europe' - Peter PomerantsevThe Baltics are vital democracies in North-Eastern Europe, but with a belligerent Vladimir Putin to their east plotting his war on Ukraine and expansionist' NATO to their west, these NATO members have increasingly been the subject of unsettling headlines in both Western and Russian media. But beyond the headlines, what is daily existence like in the Baltics, and what does the security of these frontline nations mean for the world? Based on her extensive research and work as a journalist, Aliide Naylor takes us inside the geopolitics of the region. Travelling to the heart of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania she explores modernity in the region, investigates smuggling and troop movements in the borderlands, and explains the countries' unique cultural identities. Naylor tells us why the Baltics have been vital to the political struggle between East and West, and how they pTrade ReviewIn this riveting debut, Naylor combines lyrical personal observations with insightful political analysis to offer a timely and comprehensive picture of the complex societies, economies, and political landscapes of this frequently overlooked region. * The Moscow Times *[A] captivating depiction of the relationship between domestic politics, geopolitics, socioeconomic issues and generational differences. * New Eastern Europe *An insightful, nuanced account that highlights the present multitude of currents at play in Europe, while showing how Russia has used the near-abroad as a laboratory for methods later deployed elsewhere. A mix of travelogue, social and political analysis, Naylor tells the stories and dynamics of the region from the inside, which is really the only way to understand them. * Peter Pomerantsev, author of This is not Propaganda and Nothing is True and Everything is Possible *Over the last six years, as Russia showed the world that it could, at will, seize territory on its Western border, the Baltic states were thrust into limbo, perpetually braced to become the next Ukraine. Aliide Naylor offers us a much-needed look at the netherworld that is the Baltics, an in-between space where anti-Putin intellectuals and shadowy money have sought shelter. Naylor, whose own relatives escaped West from Estonia, is an engaging companion, guiding us through pagan rites, cigarette smugglers' routes, and the lingering secrets of the Nazi occupation. Naylor takes us inside a swath of Europe in a state of suspended animation, forced to serve as a testing ground for a war that may never come. * Ellen Barry, Chief International Correspondent at The New York Times *Table of ContentsChapter 1: The past in the present Chapter 2: Tangible evidence Chapter 3: The view from Russia Chapter 4: Russia in the Baltics Chapter 5: The Baltics in the 21st century Chapter 6: The Baltic states in Europe Conclusion Index

    1 in stock

    £12.99

  • Set Adrift Upon the World: The Sutherland

    Birlinn General Set Adrift Upon the World: The Sutherland

    Book SynopsisWinner of Saltire Scottish History Book of the Year They would be better dead, they said, than set adrift upon the world. But set adrift they were - thousands of them, their communities destroyed, their homes demolished and burned. Such were the Sutherland Clearances, an extraordinary episode, involving the deliberate depopulation of much of a Scottish county. What was done in the course of that episode was planned and carried out by a small group of men and one woman. Most of those involved wrote a great deal about their actions, intentions and feelings, and much of it has been preserved. There are no equivalent collections of material from those whose communities ceased to exist. Their feelings and fears are harder to access, but they are by no means irrecoverable. In this book James Hunter tells the story of the Sutherland Clearances. His researches took him to archives in Scotland, England and Canada, to the now deserted straths of Sutherland, to the frozen shores of Hudson Bay. The result is a gripping, moving, definitive account of a people's struggle for survival in the face of tragedy and disaster which includes experiences which have not featured in any previous such account.Trade Review'a moving, gripping, definitive account of a struggle for survival' * Scots Magazine *'Rarely have the clearances been written about so evocatively. Hunter’s method and his empathy with those involved speaks to us with elegant restraint in an account that sweeps from the Sutherland straths to the struggles of those forced to seek new lives in North America' * Saltire Society *'Hunter unravels and leads us through [the clearances] with the sharpest of eyes for telling details. His account is detailed and unsparing. His fellow-feeling for the cleared people is unmistakable…[he] is careful to present the evidence for all he records. No assertion is left unqualified' * London Review of Books *'[Hunter’s] scholarship is breathtaking' * The Herald *'The best Scottish book I've read, not just in 2016, but probably in recent years. Hunter weaves a narrative which crosses continents and centuries as, in his own recent journey, he follows in the footsteps of cleared Sutherland emigrants to Winnipeg and onwards to the frozen expanses of Hudson Bay in what is a very compelling narrative underpinned by the authority of meticulous research' * Bottle Imp, Best Book of 2016 *

    £14.24

  • Scotland's Merlin: A Medieval Legend and its Dark

    John Donald Publishers Ltd Scotland's Merlin: A Medieval Legend and its Dark

    Book SynopsisWho was Merlin? Is the famous wizard of Arthurian legend based on a real person? In this book, Merlin's origins are traced back to the story of Lailoken, a mysterious 'wild man' who is said to have lived in the Scottish Lowlands in the sixth century AD. The book considers the question of whether Lailoken belongs to myth or reality. It looks at the historical background of his story and discusses key characters such as Saint Kentigern of Glasgow and King Rhydderch of Dumbarton, as well as important events such as the Battle of Arfderydd. Lailoken's reappearance in medieval Welsh literature as the fabled prophet Myrddin is also examined. Myrddin himself was eventually transformed into Merlin the wizard, King Arthur's friend and mentor. This is the Merlin we recognise today, not only in art and literature but also on screen. His earlier forms are less familiar, more remote, but can still be found among the lore and legend of the Dark Ages. Behind them we catch fleeting glimpses of an original figure who perhaps really did exist: a solitary fugitive, tormented by his experience of war, who roamed the hills and forests of southern Scotland long ago.Trade Review'Tim Clarkson should be congratulated on producing a book which marries together painstaking and detailed research with common-sense and open-minded analysis ... The book that emerges succeeds in cutting through centuries of confusion and complexity in a way that is deeply impressive' - Undiscovered Scotland

    £14.24

  • Homilies

    Harvard University Press Homilies

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisHomilies collects seven sermons delivered by Sophronios during his short tenure as patriarch of Jerusalem, which coincided with the Holy City’s capitulation to the Arab army in 638 CE. Based on a completely new edition of the Byzantine Greek text, this is the first English translation of the homilies of Sophronios.

    10 in stock

    £26.96

  • Romanland

    Harvard University Press Romanland

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisWas there ever such a thing as Byzantium? Certainly no emperor ever called himself Byzantine. While the identities of eastern minorities were clear, that of the ruling majority remains obscured behind a name made up by later generations. Anthony Kaldellis says it is time for the Romanness of these so-called Byzantines to be taken seriously.Trade ReviewRomanland is brilliant. With great lucidity, Anthony Kaldellis challenges us to set aside an immense tradition of misdirection. He excavates the conceits by which the West created ‘Byzantium’—and itself—and then demolishes them. Only then do we see what was in fact there all along: a community of Romans, and a polity of remarkable creativity and endurance. This is tremendous scholarship. -- Clifford Ando, author of Roman Social ImaginariesEthnicity in the later Roman empire has been highly contested and immensely controversial, from medieval times to the present. Like a Hercules cleaning the Augean stables, Kaldellis is purging the field of the nationalistic contentions and prejudices that have beset scholarship, starting with the artificial name ‘Byzantium.’ This blockbuster of a book performs for ‘Byzantine’ Studies the service that Edward Said’s Orientalism did for Arabic and Islamic Studies. Romanland offers a clean slate for serious and sophisticated study, with love and empathy, of the history of these societies. -- Dimitri Gutas, author of Greek Thought, Arabic CultureIn his most persuasive work to date, Kaldellis calls an astonishing number of medieval witnesses to testify that they were Romans, rather than the ‘Byzantines’ scholars have wanted them to be. This extraordinary book should shift the ground under Byzantine studies. -- Leonora Neville, author of Guide to Byzantine Historical WritingFascinating…Kaldellis’s scholarship is always learned, but also fiercely iconoclastic, tearing down orthodoxies that have stood for centuries…[An] innovative and eye-opening book by one of the most important Byzantinists working today. -- Thomas F. Madden * New Criterion *

    1 in stock

    £37.76

  • The Art of Discovery

    Princeton University Press The Art of Discovery

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £25.20

  • Lucifer

    Cornell University Press Lucifer

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisDrawing on an impressive array of sources from popular religion, art, literature, and drama, as well as from scholastic philosophy, mystical theology, homiletics, and hagiography, Russell provides a detailed treatment of Christian diabology in the Middle Ages.Trade ReviewAn attractively written survey of the way the devil appears in art, literature and treatise, during the medieval period, with many signs of an engaging sense of personal commitment to the subject, and an attempt to show its contemporary relevance. -- John O. Ward * Journal of Religious History *If, as Chesterton claimed, the devil's greatest triumph was convincing the modern world that he doesn't exist, Jeffrey Burton Russell means to rob him of his victory. Lucifer is both a scholarly assessment of the development of diabology in the Middle Ages and an impassioned plea to the 20th century to recognize and acknowledge the existence of real, objective evil. The third in a series of works tracing the history of the devil... it represents a formidable undertaking: the devil's history is integrally related to the problem of evil, which is in turn at the heart of Western religious thought. Each of the volumes comprises, in essence, a judicious and able tour of Christian theology from the villain's point of view.... In Lucifer, Russell provides a wealth of documentatlon on the extent to which the devil is simply the projection onto a living being of our fears and hostilities about the universe, our neighbors, and ourselves.... A pleasure to read. -- John Boswell * The New Republic *Russell shows an admirable mastery of a vast and varied array of sources, and an equally admirable skill in summarizing them. -- Norman Cohn * New York Times Book Review *Table of ContentsPrefaceI. The Life of Lucifer2. The Devil in Byzantium3. The Muslim Devil4. Folklore5. Early Medieval Diabology6. Lucifer in Early Medieval Art and Literature7. The Devil and the Scholars8. Lucifer in High Medieval Art and Literature9. Lucifer on the Stage10. Nominalists, Mystics, and Witches11. The Existence of the DevilEssay on the Sources Bibliography Index

    7 in stock

    £22.79

  • The Red Vienna Sourcebook

    Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Red Vienna Sourcebook

    Book SynopsisAn encyclopedic selection of original documents from the Austrian capital's pathbreaking, progressive interwar period, translated and with contextualizing introductions and commentaries. The current blockbuster German TV series Babylon Berlin introduces viewers to the tumultuous period in German history known as the Weimar Republic. Critics have praised the series for its relevance to the present: it showsdark populist forces undermining a fragile democracy. While Weimar Germany makes a fascinating backdrop, its story does not inspire much hope for our present-day political and cultural woes. A fascinating contrast is the Austrian capital, Vienna. After the First World War the former imperial city elected a Social Democratic majority that persisted into the 1930s. "Red Vienna" undertook large-scale experiments in public housing, hygiene, and education,while maintaining a world-class presence in music, literature, art, culture, and science. Though Red Vienna eventually fell victim to fascist violence, it left a rich legacy with potential to inform our own tumultuous times. The Red Vienna Sourcebook provides scholars and students with an encyclopedic selection of key documents from the period, carefully translated and introduced. The thirty-six chapters include primary works from canonical names such as Sigmund Freud and Arthur Schnitzler but also introductions to lesser-known figures such as sociologist Käthe Leichter and health-policy pioneer Julius Tandler. The documents will be of interest to such diverse disciplines as economics, architecture, music, film history, philosophy, women's studies, sports and body culture, and Jewish studies.

    £47.50

  • Women Intellectuals and Leaders in the Middle

    Boydell & Brewer Ltd Women Intellectuals and Leaders in the Middle

    Book SynopsisWide-ranging examination of women's achievements in and influence on many aspects of medieval culture. Medieval women were normally denied access to public educational institutions, and so also denied the gateways to most leadership positions. Modern scholars have therefore tended to study learned medieval women as simply anomalies, and women generally as victims. This volume, however, argues instead for a via media. Drawing upon manuscript and archival sources, scholars here show that more medieval women attained some form of learning than hitherto imagined, and that women with such legal, social or ecclesiastical knowledge also often exercised professional or communal leadership. Bringing together contributors from the disciplines of literature, history and religion, this volume challenges several traditional views: firstly, the still-prevalent idea that women's intellectual accomplishments were limited to the Latin literate. The collection therefore engages heavily with vernacular writings (in Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, French, Dutch, German and Italian), and also with material culture (manuscript illumination, stained glass, fabric and jewelry) for evidence of women's advanced capabilities. But in doing so, the contributors strive to avoid the equally problematic view that women's accomplishments were somehow limited to the vernacular and the material. So several essays examine women at work with the sacred languages of the three Abrahamic traditions (Latin, Arabic and Hebrew). And a third traditional view is also interrogated: that women were somehow more "original" for their lack of learning and and dependence on their mother tongue. Scholars here agree wholeheartedly that women could be daring thinkers in any language; they engage readily with women's learnedness wherever it can be found.Trade ReviewThe team of scholars who pulled this collection together have rendered us a great service. . . . Each contributor is a gifted and concise writer. Younger scholars will find much here to expand their own research and thinking; so will graduate students in many fields. The book is especially valuable in its modeling of effective collaboration among interdisciplinary fields. * Magistra *The readers will find it helpful to have the introductory sections focus on the wider methodological framework and scholarship for each of the approaches taken, while the didactic setup makes this book an ideal tool for teaching purposes. The overall introduction and epilogue are superb in setting the scene, warning of pitfalls, and identifying new avenues of research. Above all, they remind the reader that the women discussed in this volume constitute probably only the tip of an iceberg and for this reason they encourage us to continue digging in archives and libraries to identify more of them. * Church History *Women Intellectuals and Leaders in the Middle Ages is an impressive volume of essays that ranges across academic disciplines, countries, time periods, and sources in order to contribute to key debates about women's history and role in intellectual life throughout the medieval period. The editors, Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, Katie Ann-Marie Bugyis, and John Van Engen, set out to "tak[e] early women intellectuals and leaders seriously," as the title of Kerby-Fulton's introduction puts it, and in this aim it absolutely succeeds. * Journal of British Studies *Table of Contents"Taking Early Women Intellectuals and Leaders Seriously" - Kathryn Kerby-Fulton "Authorship and Intellectual Life: Jewish and Muslim Women" - Ruth Karras "Gender, Scholarship, and the Construction of Authority in the Pre-Modern Muslim World" - Asma Afsaruddin "The Historiography of Absence: Preliminary Steps Towards a New History of Andalusi Women Poets" - S.J. Pearce "Medieval Anglo-Jewish Women at Court" - Adrienne Williams Boyarin "Intellectuals, Leaders, Doctores" - David Wallace "Agnes of Harcourt as Intellectual: New Evidence for the Composition and Circulation of the Vie d'Isabelle de France" - Sean L. Field "Catherine of Siena, Auctor" - F Thomas Luongo "Christine de Pizan on the Jews, in Three Texts: The Heures de contemplation sur la Passion de Nostre Seigneur Jhesucrist, the Fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V, and the Mutacion de Fortune" - Thelma Fenster "Walking in Grandmothers' Footsteps: Mary Ward and the Medieval Spiritual and Intellectual Heritage" - Gemma C.J. Simmonds "New Solutions to Old Problems" - Kathryn Kerby-Fulton "A Woman Author? The Middle-Dutch Dialogue between a 'Good-willed Layperson' and a 'Master Eckhart'" - John Van Engen "Recovery and Loss: Women's Writing around Marie de France" - Jocelyn Wogan-Browne "The Visions, Experiments, and Operations of Bridget of Autruy (fl. 1305-15)" - Nicholas Watson "Methodological Innovations for the Study of Women's Authorship and Agency" - Nicholas Watson "Written with Her Own Hand: Perpetua's Representation of Non-Binary Gender in Old English Hagiography" - Leanne MacDonald "The Materialization of Knowledge in Thirteenth-Century England: Joan Tateshal, Robert Grosseteste, and the Tateshal Miscellany" - Anna Siebach-Larson "Networks of Influence: Widows, Sole Administration, and Unconventional Relationships in Thirteenth-Century London" - Amanda Bohne "Religious Women in Leadership, Ministry, and Latin Ecclesiastical Culture" - John Van Engen "Bede's Abbesses" - Sarah Foot "Women's Latinity in the Early English Anchorhold" - Megan J. Hall "The Treatment of Ordination in Recent Scholarship on Religious Women in the Early Middle Ages" - Gary Macy "Saint Colette de Corbie (1381-1447): Reformist Leadership and Belated Sainthood" - Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski "Women Priests at Barking Abbey in the Late Middle Ages" - K.A. Bugyis "Laywomen as Leaders" - Dyan Elliott "Women Donors and Ecclesiastical Reform: Evidence from Camaldoli and Vallombrosa, c. 1000-1150" - Maureen C. Miller "Laywomen's Leadership in Medieval Miracle Cults: Evidence from Britain, ca. 1150-1250" - Rachel Koopmans "Mechthild of Magdeburg at Helfta: A Study in Literary Influence" - Barbara Newman "Positioning Women in Medieval Society, Culture, and Religion: An Epilogue" - John Van Engen

    £33.24

  • The Great Exhibition 1851 A sourcebook

    Manchester University Press The Great Exhibition 1851 A sourcebook

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisAn invaluable compendium of sources relating to the Great ExhibitionTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 Origins and organisation 2 Display 3 Nation, empire and ethnicity 4 Gender 5 Class 6 Afterlives Index

    1 in stock

    £18.99

  • Black Lives in the English Archives 15001677

    Taylor & Francis Black Lives in the English Archives 15001677

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisContaining an urgently needed archival database of historical evidence, this volume includes both a consolidated presentation of the documentary records of black people in Tudor and Stuart England, and an interpretive narrative that confirms and significantly extends the insights of current theoretical excursus on race in early modern England. Here for the first time Imtiaz Habib collects the scattered references to black people-whether from Africa, India or America-in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, and arranges them into a systematic, chronological descriptive index. He offers an extended historical and theoretical interpretation of the records in six chapters, which serve as an introductory guide to the index even as they articulate a specific argument about the meaning of the records. Both the archival information and interpretive scholarship provide a strong framework from which future historical debates on race in early modern England can proceed.Trade Review'Imtiaz Habib's meticulous examination of English sources, both manuscript and printed, will profoundly reshape the ongoing arguments about "race" in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. For decades to come, scholars in many fields will gratefully mine Habib's chronological chart of 448 records of "black people" between 1500 and 1677 and debate his extensive analysis. Black Lives in the English Archives is a major contribution.' Alden T. Vaughan, Columbia University, USA '...A valuable reference for ethnic historians, archivists, and Anglophiles...Recommended.' Choice ’Imtiaz Habib has done us a great service by providing this accessible database of references to Africans, Indians and Americans in early modern England, some never published before.’ Times Literary Supplement '[Habib's] book is a detailed and sophisticated study that makes a significant contribution towards filling the yawning gap in our knowledge, a gap that apparently we did not know was there. ...[an] important contribution to advancing historical understandings of race and colonialism in early modern England.' ParergonTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Missing (Black) Subject1 Early Tudor Black Records The Mixed Beginnings of a Black Population2 Elizabethan London Black RecordsThe Writing of Absence3 Black Records of Seventeenth-Century LondonABenign Neglect and the Legislation of Enslavement4 Black People outside London, 1558–1677The Provincial Backdrop5 Indians and OthersThe Protocolonial DreamAfterword

    1 in stock

    £39.67

  • A Specter Haunting Europe

    Harvard University Press A Specter Haunting Europe

    Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA timely reminder of the intellectual tradition deployed by Republican politicians in the U.S. when they join the loose coalition of conspiracy theorists across the Atlantic gleefully demonizing George Soros. It is both salutary and depressing to be reminded of how enduring the trope of an exploitative global Jewish conspiracy against pure, humble and selfless nationalists really is…A century after the end of the first world war, we have, it seems, learned very little. -- Mark Mazower * Financial Times *One of the great merits of Paul Hanebrink’s A Specter Haunting Europe is its demonstration of how Europe’s most pervasive and powerful twentieth-century manifestation of anti-Semitic thought—the myth of Judeo-Bolshevism—emerged before the rise of National Socialism and has continued to have a curious life long after the Holocaust and the defeat of Nazi Germany. -- Christopher R. Browning * New York Review of Books *Magisterial…Hanebrink’s book covers this dark history with insight and skill. He has the linguistic ability to bring Eastern Europe fully into the narrative, and the vision to include American and Western European debates, too. The end result is a major intervention into our understanding of 20th-century Europe and the lessons we ought to take away from its history. -- James Chappel * The Nation *Outstanding…Makes clear that Judeo-Bolshevism was far from an afterthought; it was a—perhaps the—central catalyst in driving forward the Nazi genocidal project…The most exhaustive account to date of the Nazi obsession with Judeo-Bolshevism, but also of the other sites and eras in Europe in which the myth of Judeo-Bolshevism flourished. -- David N. Myers * Los Angeles Review of Books *This masterful interpretation of the origins and trajectory of the Judeo-Bolshevik myth is far more than a new classic in the canon of the writing of twentieth-century history. With the politics of exclusion and Islamophobia now sweeping Europe, alongside the election of Donald Trump in the United States, Paul Hanebrink’s reconstruction of the conspiratorial imagination that led shadowy others to be blamed—and worse—is an indispensable warning for our own time. -- Samuel Moyn, author of Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal WorldHanebrink follows the myth’s twisted course from its European origins in the immediate aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution, through the jaundiced politics of the interwar period, to its devastating culmination in Nazi Germany…He argues that it survives today in the resurgent right-wing nationalism cropping up in many Western countries. From the start, the fantasy held that an alien element—the Jews—aimed to subvert the cultural values and national identities of Western societies. As Hanebrink points out, this theme is echoed in modern anti-Muslim conspiracy theories. The writers, politicians, and shills whose poisonous ideas he exhumes have many contemporary admirers. -- Robert Legvold * Foreign Affairs *Thoughtful and informative…In addition to examining the origins and influence of the Judeo-Bolshevik myth in the period from 1917 to 1945, Hanebrink attempts to show that it is still an important element in anti-Semitism, both in Europe and beyond…While Judeo-Bolshevism may have lost its resonance, Paul Hanebrink is right to insist that its history still matters, both as a key to understanding the tragic fate of Europe’s Jews in the first half of the twentieth century and as a reminder of how myths can open the way to political and moral catastrophe. -- James J. Sheehan * Commonweal *A masterful attempt to dissect the origins and the development of the idea of Judeo-Bolshevism in different cultural and political settings across twentieth-century Europe, and to explain why and how this canard came to shape the intentions of the leaders of so many parties and organizations, and dominate the minds of intellectuals as well as of average players in the Age of Extremes… Hanebrink’s close study of the way in which Nazism refashioned Judeo-Bolshevism is magisterial in the detailed assessment of how different European countries and organizations responded to Germany’s acclaimed mission to lead Europe against the common enemy… [A] tour de force… [A] definitive history of Judeo-Bolshevism. -- Elissa Bemporad * Marginalia *As Paul Hanebrink demonstrates in this masterly account, the myth of Judaeo-Bolshevism rose on a tide of hysteria whipped up by the chaos in central Europe that marked the end of the Great War…This in turn fed easily into a vicious racist rhetoric that characterized much of the discourse of the political right in Europe between the two world wars and which was of course a cornerstone of the Nazi enterprise. -- Geoffrey Alderman * Times Higher Education *An edifying new book that serves as a valuable addition to the corpus of scholarship on the long history of antisemitism. -- Tibor Krausz * Jerusalem Post *Remarkably lucid and disturbingly relevant…An explicit response to the continued use of Judeo-Bolshevism among far-right movements…The scope of Hanebrink’s achievement here should not be underestimated. -- Sean Martin * Russian Review *During World War II the phantom idea of Judeo-Bolshevism fueled genocides that killed millions of Jews and East Europeans, but, as Paul Hanebrink tells us, we hear its echoes anytime politicians stir fears about outsiders threatening civilization—whether they call it European, Western, or Christian. Hanebrink’s tour de force is rare in its brilliance and originality, but also urgent in its message for our time. -- John Connelly, author of From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews, 1933–1965Hanebrink has written a remarkable study…[He] successfully blends the political history of twentieth-century Eastern Europe—with Germany figuring prominently in his narrative—with an originally conceived intellectual history of the Judeo-Bolshevik myth and various echoes that it spawned in public discourse…His book is too good and too rich to be summarized. It should be read. -- Jan T. Gross * American Historical Review *Tremendous…Could not be more timely…These are dangerous times and we need to know as much about the history and politics of the far-right as we can. Hanebrink’s book is a challenging and important contribution helping to develop that understanding. -- John Newsinger * Socialist Review *Superb…Argues cogently that the Judeo-Bolshevism peril was constructed from ‘the raw materials of anti-Judaism, recycled and rearranged to meet new requirements.’ -- Sheldon Kirshner * Times of Israel *A tour de force…This is a first-rate, innovative study not only of a crucial chapter in European history, but also of vicious forces still at play in the present. -- Michael Stanislawski * Journal of Modern History *[An] absorbing work. -- Diane Cypkin * Martyrdom & Resistance *[A] historical tour de force…A Specter Haunting Europe is a masterful work and essential reading for both scholars and students of modern European history, antisemitism, and Jewish Studies. -- Jonathan Zisook * Religious Studies Review *

    £17.95

  • German Foreign Policy from Bismarck to Adenauer

    Taylor & Francis German Foreign Policy from Bismarck to Adenauer

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisFirst Published in 1989. Tackling the problem of Germany's role in the history of world politics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is one of the most interesting tasks of historiography. Furthermore, the relationship between Britain and Germany is of central significance in understanding this role.Table of ContentsPart 1 The European Order between German Unification and the First World War; Chapter 1 Great Britain and the foundation of the German Reich; Chapter 2 Lord Clarendon, Bismarck and the problem of European disarmament, 1870.; Chapter 3 Between alliance and antagonism.; Chapter 4 The crisis of July 1914; Part 2 The Revolution in the International Order in the Twentieth Century; Chapter 5 Hitler’s policy towards France until 1936; Chapter 6 War in peace and peace in war.; Chapter 7 The German Resistance and its proposals for the political future of Eastern Europe; Part 3 The Federal Republic and its Policies towards East and West; Chapter 8 The provisional state and ‘eternal France’.; Chapter 9 Adenauer and Soviet Russia, 1963–7.; Chapter 10 The German Eigenweg;

    1 in stock

    £135.00

  • The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini Penguin

    Penguin Books Ltd The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini Penguin

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisBenvenuto Cellini was a celebrated Renaissance sculptor and goldsmith - a passionate craftsman who was admired and resented by the most powerful political and artistic personalities in sixteenth-century Florence, Rome and Paris. He was also a murderer and a braggart, a shameless adventurer who at different times experienced both papal persecution and imprisonment, and the adulation of the royal court. Inn-keepers and prostitutes, kings and cardinals, artists and soldiers rub shoulders in the pages of his notorious autobiography: a vivid portrait of the manners and morals of both the rulers of the day and of their subjects. Written with supreme powers of invective and an irrepressible sense of humour, this is an unrivalled glimpse into the palaces and prisons of the Italy of Michelangelo and the Medici.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 represeTable of ContentsAutobiographyIntroductionA Chronology of CelliniAutobiographyNotes Select BibliographyIndex

    1 in stock

    £13.49

  • Dictators Dilemma

    Oxford University Press Dictators Dilemma

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisMany observers predicted the collapse of the Chinese Communist Party following the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, and again following the serial collapse of communist regimes behind the Iron Curtain. Their prediction, however, never proved true. Despite minor setbacks, China has experienced explosive economic growth and relative political stability ever since 1989. In The Dictator''s Dilemma, eminent China scholar Bruce Dickson provides a comprehensive explanation for regime''s continued survival and prosperity. Dickson contends that the popular media narrative of the party''s impending implosion ignores some basic facts. The regime''s policies may generate resentment and protest, but the CCP still enjoys a surprisingly high level of popular support. Nor is the party is not cut off from the people it governs. It consults with a wide range of specialists, stakeholders, and members of the general public in a selective yet extensive manner. Further, it tolerates and even encourages aTrade ReviewA clear-headed, very useful guide to what the world can hope, fear, and expect as China's system faces an unprecedented set of challenges." * James Fallows, author of China Airborne *The Dictator's Dilemma is that rare example of impeccable scholarship and highly readable prose. Bruce Dickson draws on remarkable nationwide surveys conducted in China before and after the leadership transition in 2012 to unpack sources of support and prospects of survival of the Chinese one-party state. In so doing, Dickson challenges many assumptions that have become conventional wisdom." * Melanie Manion, Professor of Political Science, Duke University and author of Information for Autocrats *No topic is more hotly debated in the China field than the subject of democratization: Will China finally embark on a process of democratization-or be pushed into one? Dickson looks at the way the Chinese government generates support and suppresses dissent, the way it has evolved in response to societal change, and the attitudes of Chinese citizens to come to the level-headed conclusion that democratization, though possible, is unlikely. He also provides the sober warning that governmental breakdown does not always lead to democracy. The Dictator's Dilemma should be read by all interested in democratization." * Joseph Fewsmith, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University and author of The Logic and Limits of Political Reform in China *Dickson's refreshing book reminds us not to look too far ahead but to pay attention to the current realities in China, where rising incomes and an adaptive Chinese Communist Party are providing good enough governance to keep the show alive. He is neither optimist nor pessimist but something better: a realist. The Dictator's Dilemma should be widely read." * Bruce Gilley, Associate Professor of Political Science, Portland State University and author of The Nature of Asian Politics *Table of ContentsContents1. Introduction2. The Heavy Hand of the State3. Mass Line for Modern Times4. Serving the People5. Generating Support6. Defining Democracy7. Will the Party Survive?Appendices

    1 in stock

    £22.52

  • Disconnected Empires Imperial Portugal Sri Lankan

    Oxford University Press Disconnected Empires Imperial Portugal Sri Lankan

    1 in stock

    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 *

    1 in stock

    £27.07

  • Navigating the Old English Poor Law

    Oxford University Press Navigating the Old English Poor Law

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis edition of over 600 letters written by or for the poor in the early nineteenth-century Cumbrian town of Kirkby Lonsdale provides a unique window onto the experiences, views and conditions of a much-neglected group in English society. At the most human level, these letters are replete with sickness and suffering, the inability of mothers and fathers to fulfil their basic roles, claims that people were starving and naked, writers who were at death''s door and those who were homeless and desperate. The letters also provide a sense of the emotional landscape of those who have largely escaped the attention of historians of emotion. Here we find anger, suffering, gratitude, hopelessness, fear, humiliation and humility, largely in the words and voice of those who experienced such emotions. And above all we find agency - a group of poor people and their advocates who were willing and able, indeed saw it as their right, to challenge those who administered welfare and attempt to shape a sysTrade ReviewAn impressively rich resource of primary sources ... It is simultaneously fascinating and depressing to see the historical problems of poverty that echo today ... providing an enriched understanding of the workings of an historic system of poor relief. * Gráinne McKeever, Journal of Social Security Law *This edition of primary sources is a welcome addition to the history of English welfare... * Samantha Williams, Family & Community History *This collection provides thought-provoking insights into the workings of the Old Poor Law. * Rechtsgeschichte - Legal History *Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction THE KIRKBY LONSDALE LETTERS, 1809-1836 Bibliography Index

    5 in stock

    £95.00

  • Oxford University Press Rorkes Drift and Isandlwana

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis volume recounts the battles of Isandlwana and Rorke''s Drift, exploring how they were fought, how they have been remembered, and what they mean for us today.The battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879, the first major battle in the Anglo-Zulu war, witnessed the worst single day''s loss of British troops between the battle of Waterloo in 1815 and the opening campaignns of the First World War in August 1914. Moreover, decisive defeat at the hands of the Zulu came as an immense shock to a Victorian public that had become used to easy victories over less technologically advanced indigenous foes in an expanding empire.The successful defence of Rorke''s Drift, which immediately followed the encounter at Isandlwana (and for which 11 Victoria Crosses were awarded), averted military disaster and went some way to restore wounded British pride, but the sobering memory of defeat at Isandlwana lingered for many years, while the legendary tale of the defence of Rorke''s Drift was reawakened for a new generation in the epic 1964 film Zulu, starring Michael Caine.In this new volume in the Great Battles series, Ian F. W. Beckett tells the story of both battles, investigating not only their immediate military significance but also providing the first overarching account of their continuing cultural impact and legacy in the years since 1879, not just in Britain but also from the once largely inaccessible and overlooked Zulu perspective.Trade ReviewA thorough, authoritative and perceptive account. * Lawrence James, The Times *Professor Beckett's concise account of these twin actions is a model of readable military history. * Allan Mallinson, The Spectator *[A] meticulously researched book. * Jules Stewart, Military History Matters *A very balanced book in its re-evaluation of the battles ... quite thought-provoking and very readable ... highly recommended. * Chris May, Battlefield *Professor Beckett's book brings alive the many aspects of the Zulu War and its consequences.In his splendid new study of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift, historian Ian Beckett [..] succeeds in placing these battles that took place at the outset of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 into their broader imperial context, references the misinformation associated with each conflict, and examines the role of popular culture in broadening the publics interest in these intercultural encounters. * Small Wars & Insurgencies *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Contexts 2: Battles 3: Heroes and Scapegoats 4: Impacts 5: Interpretations 6: Zulu Perspectives Conclusion Bibliography Notes Index

    2 in stock

    £12.34

  • Heroes or Villains

    Oxford University Press Heroes or Villains

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA unique new account of New Labour in power-drawing on a mass of previously unpublished contributions from most of the main players in the Blair government, including Tony Blair himself.Trade ReviewMaking me feel nostalgic for New Labour is quite an achievement. But the authors of a fascinating new book have somehow managed it ... a perceptive, scholarly study... * Iain Martin, The Times *A fascinating book. * Andrew Grice, The Independent *... fascinating retrospective ... It draws upon the rich seam of material from a host of distinguished contributors ... We hear a whole range of voices with a unique and previously unheard contribution to make [...] an account like this is long overdue. * Alan Johnson, The Spectator *A vital addition to the literature on the Blair government and New Labour ... a fascinating study, packed with first-hand accounts and primary sources, and one, as the authors posit, that the fair-minded reader will find particularly rewarding. * Robert Ledger, LSE Blogs *Davis and Rentoul make generous use of fascinating first-hand testimony. * Oliver Wiseman, CapX *Obviously well informed ... a useful source on the extreme disfunction of our unwritten constitution. * Natalie Bennett, Green World *The best survey of New Labour to date... * insidestory.org *This is an impressive new analysis of the conduct of UK government over the period 1997 to 2007... While there have been numerous treatments of this subject, the authors [...] manage to offer something here which feels genuinely original and different... Davis and Rentoul show how to make contemporary history both insightful and engaging. * Society of Professional Economists *Combining first-hand sources and independent judgement, this is the first book on the Blair-Brown years which moves beyond journalism, biography and memoir to being the first draft of history. * Ed Balls, Former Economic Secretary to the Treasury *The authors have had unprecedented access to the key figures of the Blair-Brown era and made brilliant use of it. Their superbly written book is meticulously researched, rich in insight and wise in judgement. * Sir Michael Barber *The Blair Government changed Britain radically and the reverberations echo through all our current debates. Now is the perfect time to review those years and this is the perfect guide. * Michael Gove *A stunning achievement. It is so well balanced and thoughtful, and makes masterly use of new evidence. It is a complete model of how to write a book. * Sir Anthony Seldon *Table of ContentsPrologue Introduction 1: The Blair-Brown Coalition 2: Sofa 3: Spin, Spads, and Sir Humphreys 4: The Treasury: The Brown-Balls Partnership 5: The Iraq War Conclusion Notes Index

    1 in stock

    £13.49

  • Fiery Shapes Celestial Portents and Astrology in

    Oxford University Press, USA Fiery Shapes Celestial Portents and Astrology in

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA study of the representation of astrology and celestial portents in the medieval and later literature of Ireland and Wales, Fiery Shapes examines the mysterious figure of the druid, who was allegedly able to read the future from rainclouds; Taliesin and Merlin; and the Welsh gentleman poet of the later Middle Ages and beyond.Trade Review...an important contribution to an under-studied, and often marginalised, area of literary-historical study. * Marginalia *Recommended for all university libraries and gives students and scholars of medieval literature and the history of science a good survey of the prevailing views and controversies of the fields without firmly resolving many of them except in a provisional way. It is also a potential gold mine for writers of medieval fantasy, since there is so much material with enormous lacunae to be filled in imaginatively. * Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts *this is a well-produced, well-written work not only of professional scholarship but of love, for which both Mr Kenyon and his publishers can be congratulated. * Gerald Morgan, Welsh History Review *Mark Williams has given us a new, serious, and painstaking study * Andrew Breeze, Mediaevistik *Table of ContentsLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ; ABBREVIATIONS ; PREFACE: LITERATURE, PORTENTS, AND ASTROLOGY ; 1. Celestial portents and apocalypticism in medieval Ireland ; 2. Druids, cloud-divination, and the portents of Antichrist ; 3. Taliesin and Geoffrey of Monmouth's astrological portents ; 4. Comets, portents, and astrology in late medieval Wales ; 5. Morgan Llwyd and the spiritualization of astrology ; AFTERWORD ; BIBLIOGRAPHY ; GLOSSARY OF CELTIC AND ASTROLOGICAL TERMS ; GENERAL INDEX

    1 in stock

    £137.75

  • Selected Poems

    Oxford University Press Selected Poems

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis''If I by miracle can beThis livelong minute true to thee ''Tis all that heav''n allows.''The Earl of Rochester was England''s first celebrity poet, a byword for the theatricality, licentiousness, and scepticism of the Restoration age. But his scandalous reputation belies the variety and sophistication of his work: his love poems set new standards not only of sexual explicitness but also of psychological acuity and lyric grace, while his satires broke new ground as much by the refinement of their ironies as in the brutality of their invective. A fascinatingly contradictory figure, Rochester emerges more clearly than ever from this new edition, the first selection of his work in modern spelling to take account of recent revolutionary advances in textual scholarship. It includes only poems now securely attributed to the poet, in texts based not on the posthumous and unreliable printed editions but on the most authoritative manuscripts which circulated in his lifetime. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

    1 in stock

    £9.49

  • Oxford University Press Haigs Enemy Crown Prince Rupprecht and Germanys

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisDuring the First World War, the British Army''s most consistent German opponent was Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. Commanding more than a million men as a General, and then Field Marshal, in the Imperial German Army, he held off the attacks of the British Expeditionary Force under Sir John French and then Sir Douglas Haig for four long years. But Rupprecht was to lose not only the war, but his son and his throne.Haig''s Enemy by Jonathan Boff explores the tragic tale of Rupprecht''s war--the story of a man caught under the wheels of modern industrial warfare. Providing a fresh viewpoint on the history of the Western Front, Boff draws on extensive research in the German archives to offer a history of the First World War from the other side of the barbed wire. He revises conventional explanations of why the Germans lost with an in-depth analysis of the nature of command, and of the institutional development of the British, French, and German armies as modern warfare was born. Using RTrade ReviewBoff has provided a very informative, readable book for a wide audience combining military operational history with a vivid description of moving and even tragic elements of Rupprecht's life. * Christian Stachelbeck, Bundeswehr Centre of Military History and Social Sciences, Potsdam, Germany, First World War Studies *Beautifully written ... a firstclass guide to the way the war was fought from the German perspective. * Jack Sheldon, Western Front Association *Haig's Enemy helps us to understand how the German army developed and changed during the war, as well as how it came to lose. Boff charts an unedifying picture of lessons being learnt and forgotten, top-down interference from the higher command, as well as the growing intensity and lethality of the fighting ... [Haig's Enemy] illustrates the pressures and strains on one man at war, and how he did his best to mitigate them. * Nick Lloyd, The Times Literary Supplement *Using extensive German sources, Boffs scholarly military biography provides a fascinating insight not only into Rupprechts thinking, but also in the First World War from the German side. It is a fresh and unusual take on the war. * Taylor Downing, Military History Monthly *Compelling... both scholarly and very readable... I absolutely recommend it... * David Ian Hall, English Historical Review *Boff has produced a welcome study, which will interest many students of military history. He has introduced a leading German ?gure of the First World War to an anglo-phone audience, and he has offered a persuasive historical analysis of critical issues of staff and command. * Roger Chickering, Journal of Modern History *Boff has produced a welcome study, which will interest many students of military history. He has introduced a leading German figure of the First World War to an anglophone audience, and he has offered a persuasive historical analysis of critical issues of staff and command. * Journal of Modern History *The literature on the First World War has grown enormously over the past three decades, given a further recent boost by the centenary of the war. It thus comes as a surprise to realize that, apart from Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, no senior German commander has yet been the subject of a full English-language biography, though several memoirs appeared in English soon after the war. Historian Jonathan Boff (Univ. of Birmingham) has thus begun to fill a serious gap in the scholarship on World War I. Haig's Enemy centers specifically on Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria, who, for much of the war, commanded the main German forces opposing the British on the Western Front. * Michigan War Studies Review *Of all diaries and memoirs written by the senior German officers of the First World War, that of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria has long been regarded as the most revealing. Yet Rupprecht himself has remained elusive, his contribution eclipsed by his more voluble and histrionic contemporaries. Jonathan Boff has not only brought him to life (and to an English audience), but done so in a book that ranges far more widely than a conventional biography. Readers will gain fresh perspectives on the British and French as much as they learn about Rupprecht's Bavarians. * Sir Hew Strachan, University of St Andrews and Editor of the Great Battles series. *Crown Prince Rupprecht was one of the most significant German commanders to face the British Army across No Man's Land, but until now we have lacked a biography in English ... A triumph. * Gary Sheffield, Professor of War Studies, University of Wolverhampton. *This scholarly but lucid and beautifully written account of the German High Command is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand how the fighting on the Western Front developed during the First World War. * Professor Sir Michael Howard *Table of ContentsIntroduction PART I. TO WAR 1914 1: Rupprecht's Road to War 2: The Battle of the Frontiers 3: The End of the Campaign in Lorraine 4: The First Battle of the Somme 5: To Ypres PART II. THE ANVIL 1915-16 6: A Difficult Winter 7: A Successful Spring 8: Further Victories 9: Verdun and the Road to the Somme 10: Early Days on the Somme 11: Rupprecht the General PART III. HOLDING THE LINE 1916-17 12: Rupprecht Takes Command 13: Autumn on the Somme 14: Scorched Earth 15: The Battle of Arras 16: The Battle for Flanders: Summer 1917 17: The Battle for Flanders: To Passchendaele 18: Cambrai PART IV. YEAR OF DEFEATS 1918 19: Planning the Spring Offensives 20: Operation MICHAEL 21: Operation GEORGETTE and Summer 1918 22: The Hundred Days 23: Rupprecht on the Run PART V. CONCLUSIONS 24: Rupprecht the Field Marshal 25: Rupprecht and Politics 26: Last Words Appendix: Note on Military Terminology

    1 in stock

    £15.29

  • The Mismeasure of Progress

    The University of Chicago Press The Mismeasure of Progress

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review"The reader comes away persuaded that GNP, although an imperfect summary indicator of the state of an economy, plays an outsize role in contemporary conceptions of economic policy and performance." * Foreign Affairs *“This book asks a profoundly important question: What counts as progress? Since the mid-twentieth century, the answer has been the narrow one: economic growth as measured by GDP. Although there have been genuine gains from higher incomes and innovation, this has undermined progress by undervaluing many kinds of work, increasing inequality to a socially intolerable degree, and hastening climate change and environmental degradation. Macekura argues convincingly that we need a better future and better measures.” -- Diane Coyle, University of Cambridge“The Mismeasure of Progress is a highly readable and informative book about the champions and critics of the idea of economic growth over the last several decades. Macekura writes with the kind of urgency and engagé spirit that makes this book not only good scholarship but an important public intervention.” -- Quinn Slobodian, Wellesley College"What he brings is a unified story about the critics of GDP and the System of National Accounts told from the 1940s on, and particularly including the perspective of the economists and statisticians working on or in developing economies.” * Enlightened Economist *"Macekura does an impressive job surveying the critique of ‘growth as progress’ from the earliest days to the present, and then showing how it was largely ignored. His argument is beautifully written and compelling." * Survival: Global Politics and Strategy *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Meaning and Measurement of Economic Growth 1 Standard of Living, GNP, and the Narrowing of National Statistics 2 Decolonization and the Limits of Economic Measurement 3 The Growth Critics 4 The Growth Paradigm in Crisis 5 The Search for Alternatives 6 Revival and Debate at the End of the Twentieth Century Conclusion: History, Narrative, and Contemporary Growth Critics Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

    1 in stock

    £20.90

  • Unfinished Business

    Yale University Press Unfinished Business

    Book SynopsisTrade Review“The healthiest impact from Unfinished Business, Tamim Bayoumi’s well-written polemic, could be to give [the financial crisis] a new name. For him, this was the north Atlantic financial crisis. Created jointly in the US and western Europe, it also had its worst effects in these areas.”—John Authers, Financial Times“A worthwhile and occasionally bracing analysis of all that went wrong, of the terrible cost and of all that remains to be done.”—Paschal Donohoe, Irish Minister for Finance, Irish Times“This book about the causes and possible cures for the Great Financial Crisis has many excellent parts. . . Lots of fresh, sensible thinking about what went wrong and on international monetary economics.”—Charles Goodhart, Financial World“Bayoumi has succeeded in saying something both new and true about the financial crisis of 2007-12 in this important book.”—Martin Wolf, Books of the Year 2017: Economics, Financial Times"While much has been written on the U.S. Subprime Crisis and the European Debt Crisis, Tamim Bayoumi's important book is the first to show that the two crises were of a piece. Both stemmed from the influence of a powerful anti-regulatory lobby in the United States, exported to Europe via the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. And neither crisis would have been as grave and costly absent its interaction with the other. Bayoumi's encompassing view reminds us that the problem is far from fully solved, and that now is not the time for regulators and policy makers to relax."—Barry Eichengreen, George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science, Berkeley, University of California."Tamim Bayoumi’s Unfinished Business is an important corrective to much of the received wisdom coming out of the North Atlantic Financial Crisis. Bayoumi convincingly argues that intellectually blinkered and politically driven policy decisions long before 2007 set up the crisis – notably in European bank practices. This root cause is all too often overlooked in the rampant but shallow arguments that blame the bubble and bust on monetary ease, savings gluts, or Minsky moments. It also gives more hope for future crisis prevention, and thus a policy agenda to finish."—Adam S. Posen, President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics "Tamim Bayoumi, one of the International Monetary Fund's most respected economists, has achieved something I would not have thought possible. He has written a book on the "North Atlantic Financial Crisis" that is both original and persuasive. In particular, he explains how the failings of the European currency union led to a surge in lending by banks in the euro area's core that drove destabilizing property-related booms in both the US and the euro area's periphery. This book demonstrates that we need to learn more lessons from this devastating crisis."—Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times"Tam Bayoumi has brought off the near-impossible – telling us something new about the financial crisis. By illuminating the episodes of the past decade from the viewpoint of monetary finance, one of the IMF’s most seasoned practitioner-economists has provided a fresh way of assessing what went on –and how the world can avoid a repetition."—David Marsh, Managing Director, OMFIF and co-author of Six Days in September – How Britain lost the reserves and saved the economy "Tamim Bayoumi has written a deeply researched history of the 2008 North Atlantic crisis, explaining how regulatory decisions and intellectual blind spots entwined the US and Europe in a single financial meltdown. Essential reading for those seeking to understand where are have been and where we are going."—Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund.

    £18.57

  • Yale University Press Catch67

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review“An astonishingly succinct and trenchant guide to the complexities of the internal Israeli debate.”—Peter Berkowitz, RealClearPolitics“Catch-67 plumbs the ideological and historical depths of the arguments of both the right and the left, treating them with equal respect. Goodman’s book won’t bring an end to what has long been our most urgent national conversation, but it does demonstrate, by both precept and example, how best to participate in it.”—Avi Shilon, Jewish Review of Books“Goodman emerges as a thinking, open person who is not fixed in his ideas, and is sincerely searching for a way to create an exit from the maze in which we’re trapped. He is endowed with a real ability to listen, something rare in these parts.”—Ehud Barak, Haaretz“Micah Goodman offers us a way forward through introducing a different kind of dialogue into a deeply divided Israeli society. By shifting the debate away from empty slogans and towards concrete solutions, he provides a way out of the rut that we’ve been in since 1967 and enables us to make the tough decisions, heal the rifts and continue to live as one people.”—Tzipi Livni, former Foreign Minister of Israel

    2 in stock

    £12.99

  • The Swamp Fox

    Hachette Books The Swamp Fox

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis comprehensive biography of Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, covers his famous wartime stories as well as a private side of him that has rarely been exploredIn the darkest days of the American Revolution, Francis Marion and his band of militia freedom fighters kept hope alive for the patriot cause during the critical British southern campaign. Employing insurgent guerrilla tactics that became commonplace in later centuries, Marion and his brigade inflicted enemy losses that were individually small but cumulatively a large drain on British resources and morale.Although many will remember the stirring adventures of the Swamp Fox from the Walt Disney television series of the late 1950s and the fictionalized Marion character played by Mel Gibson in the 2000 film The Patriot, the real Francis Marion bore little resemblance to either of those caricatures. But his exploits were no less heroic as he succeeded, against all odds, in repeated

    3 in stock

    £14.99

  • The Seven Ancient Wonders in the Early Modern

    Taylor & Francis Ltd (Sales) The Seven Ancient Wonders in the Early Modern

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis monograph is a study of the artistic production that formed part of the various lists of the Seven Wonders that lasted beyond Antiquity and were recovered during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The study focuses in depth on the way they were evoked in modern artistic culture and the importance they had at European courts, linked to monarchs and princes as an image of power. Table of ContentsCONTENTSACKNOWLEDGEMENTSPROLOGUE. Renaissance, Apocalypse and Wonders. THE INVENTION OF THE WONDERS. Characteristics of the wonders. The geography of the wonders. The classical and medieval lists. The Renaissance and Baroque taste for lists. The artistic series. The contemporary wonders. THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES. The myth of the Giant and its artistic depictions. A Colossus on the island of Rhodes. Imperial Colossus. Humanist evocations, between narrative and myth. The Baroque and the ephemeral Colossus. The last Baroque Giant, the Ribera Colossus. The artistic continuity of the Colossus. THE LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA. The city of Alexandria. The story and myth of the lighthouse in Antiquity. The lighthouse in medieval times: Islamic and Christian revivals. Artistic evocations in modern culture. Recreations in Enlightenment and French Revolution architecture. Skyscrapers as lighthouses. THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS AT EPHESUS. The legendary foundation of the city. The first temples of Diana. The fire and reconstruction. Ephesus under Rome. Images in Antiquity. Christianity at Ephesus. Renaissance and Baroque reconstructions. The destruction of the temple and its fame. THE MAUSOLEUM OF HALICARNASSUS. Mausoleum and Artemisia II of Caria. Architecture and sculpture. The mausoleum reborn. A new Artemisia: Catherine de Medici. She was his tomb. THE STATUE OF JUPITER AT OLYMPIA. Grandeur and majesty. Phidias. The medieval form of divine majesty. Jupiter and the image of power. Ingres and the Olympian-style Napoleon. THE HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON. The lament of the banished. Paradises lost. The excavation of Babylon. From Semiramis to Nebuchadnezzar II. The myth of the Tower of Babel in the Renaissance. Baroque evocations of the Hanging Gardens. Saint Germain at Laye, Schönbrunn and Sanssouci. THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. The birth of Egyptomania. Obelisks in Rome. Horapollo and the Renaissance fascination for hieroglyphics. Symbolic and Kircherian worlds. Pyramids and American archaeology. Pyramid-shaped mausoleums in the Baroque period, the Enlightenment and utopian architecture. Napoleon and the beginning of Egyptology. Vivant Denon at Thebes. Orientalism. EL ESCORIAL. A NEW WONDER IN THE RENAISSANCE. Idea and construction. The myth of the Eighth Wonder. The construction of El Escorial. The fame of the Eighth Wonder. Phillip IV and El Escorial. The destruction of 1671. BIBLIOGRAPHYINDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS

    1 in stock

    £39.99

  • Fieldwork of Empire 18401900

    Taylor & Francis Fieldwork of Empire 18401900

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisFieldwork of Empire, 1840-1900: Intercultural Dynamics in the Production of British Expeditionary Literature examines the impact of non-western cultural, political, and social forces and agencies on the production of British expeditionary literature; it is a project of recovery. The book argues that such non-western impact was considerable, that it shaped the discursive and material dimensions of expeditionary literature, and that the impact extends to diverse materials from the expeditionary archive at a scale and depth that critics have previously not acknowledged. The focus of the study falls on Victorian expeditionary literature related to Africa, a continent of accelerating British imperial interest in the nineteenth century, but the study's findings have the potential to inform scholarship on European expeditionary, imperial, and colonial literature from a wide variety of periods and locations. The book's analysis is illustrative, not comprehensive. Each chapter targets intercTrade Review"The broader insights generated by this comparative approach are precisely what makes the book a must-read for historical geographers working on the his-tory of travel, exploration and empire."- Edward Armston-Sheret, Royal Holloway, London, UK, Journal of Historical Geography"It is rare to read a work as rigorously interdisciplinary in its methods and objectives as Adrian Wisnicki’s Fieldwork of Empire. Making skillful use of evidence and insights from African history (including oral history), anthropology, cartography, historical geography, and literature, this is a work that defies disciplinary categorization. Although the author holds a PhD in English, teaches in an English department, and addresses issues related to ‘expeditionary literature’, as announced in the subtitle, he has written a book that is relevant and revealing to scholars in a variety of fields."- Dane Kennedy, Journal of Victorian Culture 25:3 (July 2020): 468-70"This book offers precisely the kind of dense, complex, intercultural reading of Victorian travelers, their journeys, and their literary and cartographic productions that scholars of travel writing on Africa have envisioned since the boom in such criticism began in the late 1980s and early 1990s."-- Laura Franey, Review 19 (2020) "Wisnicki offers a clear, capacious, meticulously researched and supported argument that shows not only the strong impress of European epistemologies upon the African continent, but also the unexpected (and sometimes highly determinative) influence of Indigenous African forces upon European mapping of and discourse about Central Africa."- John McBratney, Victorian Studies 62:3 (Spr. 2020)"Fieldwork of Empire complements new studies of indigenous interactions with and responses to the colonial imposition, which are increasingly highlighting the global, national and local agencies, participants and audiences which were integral to the production of identities, spaces, material cultures, archives and "knowledge" in and of Africa during the nineteenth century. [...] Wisnicki manages to weave together an insightful tapestry of the human influences that contributed to the making of Victorian expeditionary literature of Africa, illuminating the neglected, but the fundamental role of local, non‐Western individuals and populations in dynamic processes of exchange and contestation."- Jared McDonald, Historia 64:2 (2019)"Fieldwork of Empire therefore provides powerful arguments in favour of the need to ground new studies of Victorian exploration in local contexts, to the extent that the relationship in the field between British explorers and "subalterns" can be reconsidered and general assumptions about intercultural encounters can be challenged."- Guillaume Didier, Société d’Étude de la Littérature de Voyage du Monde Anglophone (2019)Table of ContentsEntry

    1 in stock

    £135.00

  • The Silent Dictatorship The Politics of the

    Taylor & Francis The Silent Dictatorship The Politics of the

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1976 and based upon the extensive use of original archival material, this book provides a detailed account of the 2 years in which the German army enjoyed unprecedented power and influence. The rise of Hindenburg and Ludendorff is seen against the background of the failure of the army to win a decisive victory in the early stages of the war. The book provides insights into the dynamics of German militarism and imperialism, and is an important contribution to the discussion of the continuity of German history. Table of Contents1. The Appointment of Hindenburg and Ludendorff 2. The Organisation of the High Command 3. The Economic Policy of the High Command 4. First Steps in Foreign Policy 5. Unrestricted Submarine Warfare 6. The July Crisis 1917 and its Consequences 7. Brest Litovsk 8. The Treaty of Bucharest 9. The Baltic and Finland 10. Eastern Policy 1918 11. The High Command and the Armistice

    1 in stock

    £99.75

  • Conversion and Islam in the Early Modern

    Taylor & Francis Conversion and Islam in the Early Modern

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe topic of religious conversion into and out of Islam as a historical phenomenon is mired in a sea of debate and misunderstanding. It has often been viewed as the permanent crossing of not just a religious divide, but in the context of the early modern Mediterranean also political, cultural and geographic boundaries. Reading between the lines of a wide variety of sources, however, suggests that religious conversion between Christianity, Judaism and Islam often had a more pragmatic and prosaic aspect that constituted a form of cultural translation and a means of establishing communal belonging through the shared, and often contested articulation of religious identities. The chapters in this volume do not view religion simply as a specific set of orthodox beliefs and strict practices to be adopted wholesale by the religious individual or convert. Rather, they analyze conversion as the acquisition of a set of historically contingent social practices, which facilitated the process of social, political or religious acculturation. Exploring the role conversion played in the fabrication of cosmopolitan Mediterranean identities, the volume examines the idea of the convert as a mediator and translator between cultures. Drawing upon a diverse range of research areas and linguistic skills, the volume utilises primary sources in Ottoman, Persian, Arabic, Latin, German, Hungarian and English within a variety of genres including religious tracts, diplomatic correspondence, personal memoirs, apologetics, historical narratives, official documents and commands, legal texts and court records, and religious polemics. As a result, the collection provides readers with theoretically informed, new research on the subject of conversion to or from Islam in the early modern Mediterranean world.Table of ContentsIntroductionClaire NortonPart 1: Trans-Imperial Subjects: Geo-Political Spatialities, Political Advancement and Conversion1. Trans-Imperial Nobility: The Case of Carlo Cigala (1556–1631) Tobias P. Graf2. Conversion Under the Threat of Arms: Converts and Renegades during the War for Crete (1645–1669)Domagoj Madunić 3. Conversion to Islam (and Sometimes a Return to Christianity) in Safavid Persia in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth CenturiesGiorgio Rota4. Danube-Hopping: Conversion, Jurisdiction and Spatiality Between the Ottoman Empire and the Danubian Principalities in the Seventeenth CenturyMichał WasiucionekPart 2: Fashioning Identities: Conversion and the Threat to Self 5. The Early Modern Convert as "Public Property": A Typology of TurningPalmira Brummett6. The Moment of Choice: The Moriscos on the Border of Christianity and IslamHoussam Eddine Chachia7. "Saving a Slave, Saving a Soul": The Rhetoric of Losing the True Faith in Seventeenth-Century Italian Textual and Visual SourcesRosita D’AmoraPart 3: Translating the Self: Devotion, Hybridity and Religious Conversion8. Antitrinitarians and Conversion to Islam: Adam Neuser Reads Murad b. Abdullah in Ottoman IstanbulMartin Mulsow9. The Many Languages of the Self in the Early Modern Mediterranean: Anselm Turmeda/'Abdallāh al-Tarjumān (1355–1423) – Friar, Muslim Convert and TranslatorElisabetta Benigni

    1 in stock

    £47.99

  • Revolutionary Ukraine 19172017

    Taylor & Francis Ltd Revolutionary Ukraine 19172017

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis book examines four dramatic periods that have shaped not only Ukrainian, but also Soviet and Russian history over the last hundred years: the revolutionary struggles of 1917-20, Stalin's second revolution of 1928-33, the mobilization of revolutionary nationalists during the Second World War, and the Euromaidan protests of 2013-14. The story is told from the perspective of insiders. It recovers the voice of Bolshevik historians who first described the 1917-21 revolution in Ukraine; citizens who were accused of nationalist conspiracies by Stalin; Galician newspapers that covered the 1933-34 famine; nationalists who fomented revolution in the 1940s; and participants in the Euromaidan protests and Revolution of 2013-14. In each case the narrative reflects current memory wars over these key moments in history.The discussion of these flashpoints in history in a balanced, insightful and illuminating. It introduces recent research findings and new archival materials, and Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: Revolution, 1917-21 1. Repressed Memory: Bolshevik Accounts of the Ukrainian Revolution Part II: Stalin’s "Second Revolution," 1929-34 2. Fabrication of Nationalist Plots by the Secret Service in Ukraine, 1929-34 3. Ukrainization, Terror and Famine: Coverage in Lviv’s Dilo and the Nationalist Press of the 1930s 4. Call to Violence: Red Terror of 1918-22 and Literary Rhetoric of 1932-34 Part III: Nationalist Revolution, 1938-45 5. The Cult of Strength: Khmelnytskyi in the Literature of Ukrainian Nationalists Literature During the 1930s and 1940s 6. The War for Carpatho-Ukraine in 1938-39 and the Contemporary Retrospective 7. The Ukrainian Underground of the 1940s in Today’s Memory Wars Part IV: Euromaidan and War, 2013-17 8. Archival Revolution and Contested Memory: Changing Views of Stalin’s Rule in the Light of New Evidence 9. Ukrainian Intellectuals on the Euromaidan, Revolution and War with Russia: A Snapshot from 2015 10. Living with Ambiguities: Meanings of Nationalism in the Russian-Ukrainian War 11. The Landscape of Contemporary Memory

    1 in stock

    £37.99

  • Streets of Splendor

    Taylor & Francis Ltd Streets of Splendor

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis book addresses the unresolved question of how urban retailing and consumption changed during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It replaces the usual focus on just one (type of) shopping institution with that of the urban shopping landscape in its entirety. Based on secondary sources for comparable cities and an in-depth empirical analysis of primary sources for Brussels, the author demonstrates that the unbridled commercialisation of cities in the nineteenth century cannot be understood without taking into account the entirety of the shopping landscape. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis, she shows how and why the culture and spaces of shopping evolved. Table of ContentsContents;List of Figures ;List of Maps ;List of Tables ;Acknowledgements ;List of Abbreviations;Setting up shop. Introduction;1 Bursting blossoms. Brussels shops & shopping, 1830s;Late bloom;Portrait of a town;Sequences and dots;The shop and its keeper;Around the corner; 2 Shopping in style. The Galeries Saint-Hubert and the Chaussée;Brussels when it sizzles;A site of modernity;hopping in ‘space’;Close encounters;Conclusion: a site of modernity? ;3 Cleaning house. Markets and halls;Chronicle of a demise foretold?; Under pressure;The best laid plans;Exploring shadows;Conclusion: divide and conquer; 4 Bigger and brighter. Downtown and the department store;Noah’s ark;Department stores in Brussels;Location, location, location;A frenzy for more;Conclusion: shopping on speed; 5 Shopping Galore. Brussels shops & shopping, 1910s;Full bloom;Portrait of a city: Belle Epoque Brussels;Density and diversity;Conclusion: shopping galore; 6 Closing time. Conclusion;Bibliography ;Appendix 1 ; Appendix 2; Index

    1 in stock

    £39.99

  • People of the Iberian Borderlands

    Taylor & Francis Ltd People of the Iberian Borderlands

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis book is devoted to the inhabitants of the SpanishPortuguese borderlands during the early modern period. It seeks to challenge a predominant historiography focused on the study of borderlands societies, relying exclusively on the antagonistic topics of subversion and the construction of boundaries. It states that by focusing just on one concept or another there is a restrictive understanding tending to condition the agency of local communities by external narratives. Thus, if traditionally border people were reduced by some scholars to actors of a struggle against a supposedly imposed border; in a more modern perspective, their behaviors have been also framed in bottom-up processes of consolidation of spaces of sovereignty in a no less limiting vision. Faced with both approaches, the objective of this work is not to deny them but, first and foremost, to situate the experiences of border populations outside of logics that I understand as originally alien to themselvTable of ContentsPART ONE: Communities between two communities 1. The Portuguese of Castile, the Castilians of Portugal 2. The unrepresented 3. Refuge and destruction 4. Contraband, modus vivendi PART TWO: War and the politics of daily life 5. On local truces 6. A grand yet local peace 7. ‘A wolflike urge’ 8. A rayano perspective on borderland custom houses PART THREE: At peace along the Raya 9. Restored sovereignties 10. ‘At the back of the world’ 11. Innumerable unresolved conflicts 12. The return of Mars

    1 in stock

    £121.50

  • The Balkan Wars 19121913 Prelude to the First

    Taylor & Francis The Balkan Wars 19121913 Prelude to the First

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn The Balkan Wars 1912-1913, Richard Hall examines the origins, the enactment and the resolution of the Balkan Wars, during which the Ottoman Empire fought a Balkan coalition of Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia.The Balkan Wars of 1912 - 1913 opened an era of conflict in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, which lasted until 1918, and which established a basis for problems which tormented Europe until the end of the century.Based on archival as well as published diplomatic and military sources, this book provides the first comprehensive perspective on the diplomatic and military aspects of the Balkan Wars. It demonstrates that, because of the diplomatic problems raised and the military strategies and tactics pursued to resolve those problems, The Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 were the first phase of the greater and wider conflict of the First World War.Trade Review'This is a detailed account of complex events ... this book is recommended as a comprehensive yet accessible study of conflicts which are poorly covered by English language sources.' - The British Army Reviewk'Readable and concise ... an invaluable contribution to the historiography of the period ... a cogent, lucid and engaging introduction.'- balkanalysis.comTable of ContentsPreface, Maps, 1 Balkan War origins, 2 The First Balkan War: Thracian theater, 3 First Balkan War: western theater, 4 The armistice, 5 Three sieges, 6 The interbellum, 7 Interallied war, 8 Consequences and conclusions, Notes, Works cited, Index

    1 in stock

    £46.76

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