History and Archaeology Books

4032 products


  • 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

  • Oxford University Press Perceptions of Medieval Manuscripts

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisPerceptions of Medieval Manuscripts takes as its starting point an understanding that a medieval book is a whole object at every point of its long history. As such, medieval books can be studied most profitably in a holistic manner as objects-in-the-world. This means readers might profitably account for all aspects of the manuscript in their observations, from the main texts that dominate the codex to the marginal notes, glosses, names, and interventions made through time. This holistic approach allows us to tell the story of the book''s life from the moment of its production to its use, collection, breaking-up, and digitization--all aspects of what can be termed ''dynamic architextuality''.The ten chapters include detailed readings of texts that explain the processes of manuscript manufacture and writing, taking in invisible components of the book that show the joy and delight clearly felt by producers and consumers. Chapters investigate the filling of manuscripts'' blank spaces, presenting some texts never examined before, and assessing how books were conceived and understood to function. Manuscripts'' heft and solidness can be seen, too, in the depictions of miniature books in medieval illustrations. Early manuscripts thus become archives and witnesses to individual and collective memories, best read as ''relics of existence'', as Maurice Merleau-Ponty describes things. As such, it is urgent that practices fragmenting the manuscript through book-breaking or digital display are understood in the context of the book''s wholeness. Readers of this study will find chapters on multiple aspects of medieval bookness in the distant past, the present, and in the assurance of the future continuity of this most fascinating of cultural artefacts.Trade ReviewTreharne offers a useful...introduction to the manuscript book as object. * T. M. Izbicki, CHOICE *Like the rest of Treharne's trenchant and feeling work on manuscripts, this book is not to be ignored, but rather, as she suggests for medieval codices, held in close contact,imagined in a community of voices past and present, and allowed to speak for itself in all its multiplicity. * Rachel A. Wilson, Medieval Studies, Yale University, Comitatus *...conclusion issues a vital plea not simply for thick description of and detailed metadata on these digital objects but also-critically-for expert engagement with the public in articulating the perspective on manuscripts that these digitized objects present. * Sonja Drimmer, Manuscript Studies *Elaine Treharne shows her unparalleled expertise in manuscript research, early textuality and other related areas in Perceptions of Medieval Manuscripts. The volume's wide ambit testifies to it being the product of long reflection and work...it is an outstanding and welcome contribution to the ample field of Medieval Studies and will be of interest not only to scholars and students but also to general readers, who may feel curious to peruse inspiring academic books like the one reviewed here. * Laura Esteban-Segura, University of Málaga, Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature *Table of Contents1: 'A Profit to People': Introduction 2: 'Fingers folded me': Making the Book 3: 'Covered me with tracks': Writing the Book 4: 'People will use me': Book as Archive 5: 'My name is famous': Presence in the Book 6: 'In spirit the wiser': Invisible Things in the Book 7: 'Covered with protecting boards': Representing the Book 8: 'Cut by the edge of the knife': Libricide and the Modern Book Trade 9: 'More true and better': Digital Fragmentation and Frameworks of Understanding 10: Bookending þa wuldorgesteald, 'the wondrous edifice' Bibliography

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • 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

    Out of 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

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • Oxford University Press British Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century The Oxford History of Philosophy

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisSarah Hutton presents a rich historical study of one of the most fertile periods in modern philosophy. It was in the seventeenth century that Britain''s first philosophers of international stature and lasting influence emerged. Its most famous names, Hobbes and Locke, rank alongside the greatest names in the European philosophical canon. Bacon too belongs with this constellation of great thinkers, although his status as a philosopher tends to be obscured by his status as father of modern science. The seventeenth century is normally regarded as the dawn of modernity following the breakdown of the Aristotelian synthesis which had dominated intellectual life since the middle ages. In this period of transformational change, Bacon, Hobbes, Locke are acknowledged to have contributed significantly to the shape of European philosophy from their own time to the present day. But these figures did not work in isolation. Sarah Hutton places them in their intellectual context, including the social,Trade ReviewHuttons book is an impeccable work of scholarship and one that will serve as an essential point of reference for years to come. * Christopher Tilmouth, The Seventeenth Century *the remarkable accomplishment of a novel contribution in the much explored area of early modern philosophy. * Giovanni Gellera, Journal of Scottish Philosophy *This account of 17th-century British philosophy highlights the cultural, social, and intellectual issues embedded in philosophical discussions of the era. Hutton's impressive reconstruction of the contributions of and interactions among a large cast of individuals, minor as well as major, leaves readers with a lively sense of the broad intellectual flavor of the day . . . Recommended. * D. C. Kolb, CHOICE *an important contribution ... a truly comprehensive narrative of seventeenth- century British philosophy . . . Hutton's book is an impeccable work of scholarship and one that will serve as an essential point of reference for years to come. * Christopher Tilmouth, Seventeenth Century *Sarah Hutton is an excellent choice for author. She is an eminent senior scholar with an extensive publication record . . . Hutton does a wonderful job presenting a large body of diverse and complicated material accurately and concisely. She is to be commended heartily. * Benjamin Hill, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction 1: An Age of Transformation 2: Philosophy in the Universities 3: Cross Currents, Conduits, and Conversations 4: Aristotelianism and its Enemies 5: Bacon and Herbert of Cherbury 6: Thomas Hobbes 7: A Cambridge Enlightenment: The Cambridge Platonists and Richard Cumberland 8: From Philosophy to Science: Natural Philosophy of Boyle, Newton, and Others 9: John Locke 10: Free Thinkers, Idealists, and Women Philosophers: Philosophy from 1690 to 1710-and after Biographical Appendix Bibliography Index

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • Oxford University Press, USA Mediatrix Women Politics and Literary Production in Early Modern England

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisMediatrix examines the roles women played as patrons, dedicatees, and readers, as well writers, in the English Renaissance, and the relationship between these literary activities and religious and political activism.Trade ReviewThis is in most ways an excellent, indispensable book for the political moment through which we are living. * Neal Ascherson, The Political Quarterly *Julie Crawford's book will appeal to any scholar interested in the variety of ways women (not only women writers) were intricately involved in early modern literary culture ... an important new perspective on the central role played by women not only in literary, political and intellectual culture but in the growth and expression of radical Protestantism in England. * Johanna Harris, The Times Literary Supplement *an insightful and thought-provoking contribution to ongoing developments in our understanding of the significant cultural and political roles played by early modern women. It will be of special interest to scholars working on the four women who are focal to the chapters, but it also has much to offer to general discussion of how aristocratic women operated in early modern England. * Helen Hackett, Review of English Studies *Donne's provocative description of Bedford as a "mediatrix" inspires the book's use of the term to capture the ways in which its subjects wielded political power and influence through textual exchanges within networks of family and literary and courtly associates. * Tracey Miller-Tomlinson, SHARP News *With its wide-ranging sense of women's agentive roles in this faction, Crawford's monograph significantly extends scholarship on women's relationship to political, social and textual cultures in the early modern period. * Sarah C.E. Ross, English Historical Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Female Constancy and The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia 2: How Margaret Hoby Read Her De Mornay 3: 'His Factor for our loves': The Countess of Bedford and John Donne 4: Wroth's Cabinets Epilogue Bibliography Index

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • Oxford University Press Poetry and Radical Politics in Fin de Siecle France

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisPoetry and Radical Politics in fin de siècle France explores the relations between poetry and politics in France in the last decade of the nineteenth century. The period covers the most important developments in modern French poetry: from the post-Commune climate that spawned the ''decadent'' movement, through to the (allegedly) ivory-towered aestheticism of Mallarmé and the Symbolists. In terms of French politics, history, and culture, the period was no less dramatic, with the legacy of the Commune, the political and financial instability that followed, the anarchist campaigns, the Dreyfus affair, and the growth of Action française. This study demonstrates the connections between the anti-Symbolist reaction of the école romane of 1891 (in which Charles Maurras first made his name) and the far-right cultural politics of Action française in the early twentieth century. It also redefines many of the debates about late nineteenth-century French poetry by complicating the political engagemTrade ReviewCombining close reading with broad theoretical questions, Patrick McGuinness's latest book is a thorough, lively, and multidimensional study of the relation, or rather relations, between poetry and radical politics ... scholars interested in fin-de-siècle poetry and politics and non-specialists interested in a context-based theoretical articulation of the relations between poetry and politics will find much to provoke further question and analysis. * Cory Browning, Nineteenth-Century French Studies *Perhaps the greatest of the many strengths of this book is its author's clear exposition of the complicated nature of the poetic, cultural, and political scene of the fin de siècle. The style is lively, witty, and engaging - the novelist's hand is in evidence - but also accessible to those who are not specialists of poetry. Professor McGuinness's book thus makes an important contribution to the field and should be of great interest not only to literary specialists of French poetry and modernism, but also to historians who explore the intersection of culture and politics at the fin de siècle. * Modernist Cultures *He [McGuinness] shows us how poets at the time grappled with these issues. Most failed to grasp them, Mallarmé being a major exception. One of the revelations of the book is Pierre Quillard, who appears in this account to be the most lucid contemporary analyst of relations between Symbolism and politics. McGuinness emerges as a very worthy successor to Mallarmé and Quillard in his unfolding of such relations. Like them, through analyses that somehow seem to go to the heart of what poetry is, he shows us how and why poetry and politics draw on each other, but resist being mapped on to each other. * Forum of Modern Language Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Poetry, Politics, and the Legacies of Romanticism 1: The Language of Politics in Symbolist and Decadent Polemic 2: Symbolism and Literary Anarchism 3: Symbolists and Anarchists 4: The École romane: An arrière-garde within the avant-garde 5: Reactionary Poetics: Maurras and the École romane Afterword Selective Bibliography Index

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • The Poets of Rapallo How Mussolinis Italy shaped

    Oxford University Press The Poets of Rapallo How Mussolinis Italy shaped

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisExplores W.B. Yeats and Ezra Pound's relationship as played out against the backdrop of Mussolini's Italy in the 1920s and 1930s and shows how Yeats, Pound, and others in their Italian network developed a late modernist style aimed at effecting world change.Trade ReviewThe Poets of Rapallo is a work that students and established scholars of modernism will never fail to find less than stimulating ... Without a doubt, it will provoke lively debate and discussion within academic circles for some time to come: between those who agree with, and those who dispute some of its contentions. * Graham Price, Irish Studies Review *A fresh, insightful literary history. * L. Simon, CHOICE *Meticulously researched and clearly and comprehensibly written. * Brian Maye, Irish Times *The most valuable reading Arrington offers is of the works by Pound's long-neglected wife, Dorothy... Arrington convincingly draws out the parallels between Dorothy's paintings of Roman architecture and the fascist ideal of a 'return to order'. * Daniel Swift, Literary Review *[A] beautifully produced and meticulously researched book ... The weight of material associated with the women of the group is valuable and fascinating [and] an important balance to the misogynistic, homophobic and masculinist influence of Pound. * William Wall, Dublin Review of Books *a fascinating, intricate study of Pound's first steps on the road to perdition, and the cast of fellow travelers, Yeats among them, who went part of the way with him and then covered their tracks. * Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal *This book has a depth of detail and breadth of reference that will make it invaluable for those already familiar with intellectual currents between the wars... the theme of friendship disavowed speaks painfully to our times. Arrington brilliantly traces the toing and froing between rage and affectionate loyalty, and the way members of the group accommodated eccentricity, suspending judgement - until they couldn't. * Noonie Minogue, The Tablet *A fresh, insightful literary history. Highly recommended. * L. Simon, CHOICE *Lauren Arrington is a careful, nuanced scholar, weighing words carefully. * David Luhrssen, Shepherd Express *Arrington's archival research is especially impressive, and the unpublished correspondence and other drafts that she has uncovered flesh out the frequently fractious relationships between her protagonists... [The Poets of Rapallo is] a sharp, controlled study of an influential literary network, and of shifting debates about art and politics, in a country descending into political hell. * Sean Pryor, Australian Book Review *Lauren Arrington writes a literary history at once super-informed and consistently surprising, even to those who think they know the territory. Ezra Pound's colony-village-retreat-beachhead-Utopia-publishing venture at Rapallo, under Arrington's scholarly scrutiny—and in her welcome, lucid prose—turns out to be the semi-hidden hinge for modernist journals, for Basil Bunting (who did more work there than Bunting fans suppose), and above all for the later intellectual and artistic developments in the work of W. B. Yeats. Ballads, collaborations, the afterlife of Robert Burns, and—most of all—the still-contested legacies of Italian fascism shape Arrington's persuasive introductions and discussions, while contested or underappreciated artists and writers—Aldington, Stokes, and especially Dorothy (Shakespeare) Pound—receive their moments in the Italian sun. This is a book to recommend. * Stephanie Burt, Professor of English at Harvard University *This is essential reading on Ezra Pound and W. B. Yeats. It is also indispensable in its balanced approach to the wider coterie drawn to Pound in Rapallo, including Richard Aldington and the younger poets Zukofsky and Bunting. Of particular value is the book's focus on the women of the group—Dorothy Pound and George Yeats, among others, are given their due as individuals—as culpable as the men in their engagement with fascist aesthetics. Arrington deftly balances lively biography with an astute contribution to debates on Late Modernism. This book presents its impressive and extensive research in a clear and scrupulous manner, offering valuable arguments and opening doors to an objective and fuller understanding of fascism and modern art. The result is often discomforting, at times devastating, and always enormously readable. * Alan Gillis, The University of Edinburgh *The Poets of Rapallo was a pleasure to read. Wonderful phrasings punctuate Arrington's prose throughout. * David Ben-Merre, State University of New York, Buffalo State College , ALH Online Review *The Poets of Rapallo, it is worth mentioning that it is alive with literary gossip and intriguing background stories of affairs and friendships, rumours and scandals, offering comic relief from the serious matters of racism, sexism, anti-semitism, and rightwing politics that the book is otherwise preoccupied with... This broad-based approach to a niche subject makes the book appealing to a wide range of readership. * Ashim Dutta, Department of English, University of Dhaka *Table of ContentsA Brief Chronology of Comings and Goings 1: The Roads to Rapallo 2: Shell-Shocked Walt Whitmans 3: Primavera 1928 4: Singing School 5: Making Living History 6: Accounting for Rapallo Selected Bibliography

    1 in stock

    £29.92

  • 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

    £130.50

  • 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

    Out of 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

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • 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

    Out of 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

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • 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

  • Disease and the Environment in the Medieval and

    Taylor & Francis Ltd Disease and the Environment in the Medieval and

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis volume brings together environmental and human perspectives, engages with both historians and scientists, and, being mindful that environments and disease recognize no boundaries, includes studies that touch on Europe, the wider Mediterranean world, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.Disease and the Environment in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds explores the intertwined relationships between humans, the natural and manmade environments, and disease. Urgency gives us a sense that we need a longer view of human responses and interactions with the airs, waters, and places in which we live, and a greater understanding of the activities and attitudes that have led us to the present. Through a series of new research studies, two salient questions are explored: What are the deeper patterns in thinking about disease and the environment? What can we know about the environmental and ecological parameters of emergent human diseases over a longer period aspects of disease tTable of ContentsIntroduction: Diseases in Historical Environments Section I: Cleansing and Managing Local Airs, Waters, and Places 1. "For the Good and Pacific State of the People and the Commune": Healthscaping in Bologna and Siena before the Black Death (c. 1100–1348) 2. "The Nourishment of Infections": Disease and Waterscape in Late Medieval Valencia 3. From Helpful Gardens to Hateful Words: Moral and Physical Healthscaping in the Late Medieval Rhineland Section II: Recalibrating Airs, Waters, and Places: New Environments, New Mentalities 4. "Turkey is Almost a Perpetual Seminary of the Plague": Relocating Pathogenic Plague Environments 5. Managing Disaster and Understanding Disease and the Environment in the Early Eighteenth Century 6. "Hot Climates" and Disease: Early Modern European Views of Tropical Environments Section III: Science Meets Historical Disease Environments 7. Environments of Health and Disease in Tropical Africa before the Colonial Era 8. The Rise and Fall of a Historical Plague Reservoir: The Case of Ottoman Anatolia 9. Survival in the Context of Urbanization and Environmental Change in Medieval and Early Modern London, England

    1 in stock

    £35.99

  • 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

  • Taylor & Francis Ltd (Sales) Knowledge and Discernment in the Early Modern

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisIn early modern Europe, discernment emerged as a key notion at the intersection of various domains in both learned and artisanal cultures. Often used synonymously with judgment, ingenuity, and taste, discernment defined the ability to perceive and understand the secrets of nature and art, and became explicitly connected with a kind of knowledge available only to experts in the respective fields. With contributions by historians of art and historians of science, and with geographic coverage focusing on the Low Countries and their multiple connections to different parts of the world, this volume reframes recent scholarship on what the editors term âcultures of knowledge and discernmentâ in the early modern period. The collection is innovative in its focus on investigating types of knowledge linked to what was then called the âscienceâ (scientia) of art, to artistic expertise and connoisseurship, and to âsecrets of art and nature.âTable of ContentsTable of ContentsIllustrationsNotes on ContributorsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Hidden ArtificesSven Dupré and Christine Göttler Part I: Sites of Discernment1 Transforming Nature into Art: Fall of the Rebel Angels (1562) by Pieter Bruegel the ElderTine Luk Meganck2 Vulcan’s Forge: The Sphere of Art in Early Modern AntwerpChristine Göttler Part II: Artifices and Imitation3 Superb Craftsmanship in Antwerp: Baroque Goldsmiths’ Work in Competition with the Visual ArtsLorenz Seelig 4 The Veronica according to Zurbarán: Painting as Figura, and Image as VestigioFelipe Pereda 5 ‘The Various Natures of Middling Colours We May Learne of Painters’. Sir Kenelm Digby Looks at Rubens and Van DyckKarin Leonhard Part III: Secrets and Knowledge6 Oil Painting as a Workshop Secret: On Calumnies, Legends, and Critical InvestigationsOskar Bätschmann 7 Peiresc in the Parisian ‘Jewel House’ Peter N. Miller 8 Germanic Antiquity in Rembrandt’s CircleThijs Weststeijn Part IV: Mechanical Science and Technique9 Rembrandt and Painting as a Mechanical Science in Dutch Seventeenth-Century ArtJan Blanc10 From Mechanism to Technique: Diderot, Chardin, and the Practice of Painting Paul Taylor

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • 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

    £45.59

  • 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

  • Historicizing Roma in Central Europe

    Taylor & Francis Ltd Historicizing Roma in Central Europe

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn Central Europe, limited success in revisiting the role of science in the segregation of Roma reverberates with the yet-unmet call for contextualizing the impact of ideas on everyday racism. This book attempts to interpret such a gap as a case of epistemic injustice. It underscores the historical role of ideas in race-making and provides analytical lenses for exploring cross-border transfers of whiteness in Central Europe. In the case of Roma, the scientific argument in favor of segregation continues to play an outstanding role due to a long-term focus on the limited educability of Roma. The authors trace the long-term interrelation between racializing Roma and the adaptation by Central European scholars of theories legitimizing segregation against those considered non-white, conceived as unable to become educated or civilized. Along with legitimizing segregation, sterilization and even extermination, theorizing ineducability has laid the groundwork for negating the capacity of RoTable of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. Whiteness: The Never-ending Story of Epistemic Injustice Against Roma; 1. Whiteness: A Locus for Doing Race; 2. Obscure Racism: From National Indifference to Whitening Roma; 3. The Post-socialist Shift in Pathologizing: From Disabled Roma to Disabled Socialism; 4. The Limits and Options of Historical Narratives Concerning Roma in Central Europe; Part II. The (In)educability of Roma: Central Europe between Overt and Enlightened Racism; 5. The Inception of Whiteness: The Grellmannian Intersections of European Roma; 6. Global Racial Order Comes to Central Europe: The Puzzle of "White Gypsies" at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century; 7. The Institutionalization of a Racialized Approach to Roma in the 1920s – 1940s: Rooting the Stigma of an Insecure Population; 8. In (Re)search of Inclusion: Roma Under the Pressure of De-historicizing between the 1950s and 1990s; 9. Conclusion: Epistemic Justice for Central European Roma: Toward the Unlimited Negation of Whiteness

    15 in stock

    £39.99

  • 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

  • Taylor & Francis Ltd Medieval Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean and Beyond

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisCollected Studies CS1066The articles in this collection cover the region extending from Italy to the Black Sea and to Egypt, over a period of seven centuries, with an emphasis on the considerable economic and social interaction between the West and the regions of the Eastern Mediterranean. They represent key works in the oeuvre of David Jacoby, the doyen of scholars in the field over many decades.Table of Contents1. Venetian Commercial Expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean, 8th-11th centuries 2. The Venetians in Byzantine and Lusignan Cyprus: Trade, Settlement, and Politics 3. Commercio e navigazione degli Amalfitani nel Mediterraneo orientale: sviluppo e decline 4. The Economic Function of the Crusader States of the Levant: a New Approach 5. Acre-Alexandria: A Major Commercial Axis of the Thirteenth Century 6. Marco Polo, His Close Relatives, and His Travel Account: Some New Insights 7. Byzantium, the Italian Maritime Powers, and the Black Sea before 1204 8. Mediterranean Food and Wine for Constantinople: The Long-Distance Trade, Eleventh to Mid-Fifteenth Century 9. Rural Exploitation and Market Economy in the Late Medieval Peloponnese 10. Jews and Christians in Venetian Crete: Segregation, Interaction, and Conflict

    15 in stock

    £39.99

  • 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

    £44.78

  • Taylor & Francis Ltd (Sales) Women Gender and Religious Cultures in Britain

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisThis volume is the first comprehensive overview of women, gender and religious change in modern Britain spanning from the evangelical revival of the early 1800s to interwar debates over womenâs roles and ministry. This collection of pieces by key scholars combines cross-disciplinary insights from history, gender studies, theology, literature, religious studies, sexuality and postcolonial studies. The book takes a thematic approach, providing students and scholars with a clear and comparative examination of ten significant areas of cultural activity that both shaped, and were shaped by womenâs religious beliefs and practices: family life, literary and theological discourses, philanthropic networks, sisterhoods and deaconess institutions, revivals and preaching ministry, missionary organisations, national and transnational political reform networks, sexual ideas and practices, feminist communities, and alternative spiritual traditions. Together, the volume challenges widely-held truisms about the increasingly private and domesticated nature of faith, the feminisation of religion and the relationship between secularisation and modern life. Including case studies, further reading lists, and a survey of the existing scholarship, and with a British rather than Anglo-centric approach, this is an ideal book for anyone interested in women's religious experiences across the nineteeth and twentieth centuries.Trade Review'This volume makes an excellent contribution to the field of religious and gender history, properly marking the revival of interest in religion within British cultural and social history that has been quietly developing over the past decade ... as a whole this book provides exactly what the field needs: a discussion of British Christianity which explores women's agency in their encounter with Christian discourses; which offers an interrogation of the categories of the sacred and the secular; and which examines the profound connections between (expansive and flexible) Christian cultures and the histories of sexuality, reform, feminism, the family and domesticity.' – Reviews in History'Women, Gender and Religious Cultures in Britain, 1800-1940, should be read and used by anyone interested in nineteenth-century British women's history.' – Anglican and Episcopal History'Morgan and deVries's collection...rethinks popular trends and assumptions in the scholarship of gender studies and religion, demanding a high level of intellectual rigor regarding topics that often encourage glib assumptions and simple dichotomies. Anyone doing work on gender and religion would profit from reading this book.' – Victorian Studies Table of ContentsIntroduction Sue Morgan and Jacqueline DeVries 1. Is there a Bible in the house? Gender, Religion and Family Culture Sarah Williams 2 Women, Writing and the Creation of Theological Cultures Julie Melnyk 3 Women and Philanthropic Cultures Susan Mumm 4 Women, religious ministry and female institution-building Carmen Mangion 5 ‘With fear and trembling’: women, preaching and spiritual authority Pamela Walker 6 Professionalising their faith: Women, religion and the cultures of mission and empire Rhonda Semple 7 Women, religion and reform Clare Midgley 8 ‘The Word Made Flesh’: Women, Religion and Sexual Cultures Sue Morgan 9 More than Paradoxes to Offer: Feminism, History and Religious Cultures Jacqueline DeVries 10 Modernity, Heterodoxy and the Transformation of Religious Cultures Joy Dixon Afterword: Women, Gender and Religion in post-1940 Britain Sue Morgan and Jacqueline DeVries Index

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • The Fascism Reader

    Taylor & Francis The Fascism Reader

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Fascism Reader is a fascinating and wide-ranging introduction to the complex nature, limits, aspects and dynamics of fascism as both ideology and practice. The book draws together classic and recent interpretations to trace the development of generic fascism.Exploring fascism in all its diverse manifestations, this book discusses the classic examples of National Socialism in Germany and Fascism in Italy, as well as a series of less familiar movements and regimes, including the Iron Guard in Romania, the British Union of Fascists, Salazar's dictatorship in Portugal and Franco's regime in Spain. The Fascism Reader explores all the key aspects of fascism including: the essence and limitations of generic fascism the intellectual and ideological dimensions of fascism regimes of fascism as particular models of the exercise of power fascism and society - from anti-Semitism to fascist attitudes to women. A mustTable of ContentsIntroduction: Fascism in Historiography Part 1: Generic Fascism: The Search for Definitions and Explanations 1. Fascism – A 'Generic' Concept? 2. What Produces Fascism? Part 2: Fascist Movements: Ideology and Variations 3. Fascist Ideology – The Quest for the 'Fascist Minimum' 4. Varieties of Fascist Movements Part 3: The 'Regime-Model' of Fascism 5. Techniques of Fascist Rule – The Exercise of Power by the 'Regime-Model' of Fascism 6. Fascism and Anti-Semitism Part 4: Societal Attitudes to Fascism: Support, Conformity, Opposition and Resistance 7. Society and Attitudes to Fascism – Support, Conformity and Resistance 8. Fascism and Social Elites – Complicity and Antagonism

    1 in stock

    £43.99

  • The Reformation World Routledge Worlds

    Taylor & Francis The Reformation World Routledge Worlds

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis beautifully illustrated book is the most ambitious one-volume survey of the Reformation yet. A timely and much-needed account, it looks at every aspect of the Reformation world and considers new historical research which has led to the expansion of the subject both thematically and geographically. The strength of The Reformation World is its breadth and originality, with material drawn from many different countries, including archival material only recently made available to scholars in central Europe.Topics included are:* the Church before the Reformation* Luther and Germany* the Reformation outside Germany* Calvinism and the Second Reformation* the Reformation and society* arts and architecture* the printed book and visual media.Trade Review'Contender for classic status ... this is a superb volume, overseen with masterly control by its editor ... Real experts summarise their knowledge in a uniformly readable and authoratative fashion, and the prose is enriched by a mass of excellent and intelligent illustrations.' – History Today'Contender for classic status ... this is a superb volume, overseen with masterly control by its editor ... real experts summarise their knowledge in a uniformly readable and authoratative fashion, and the prose is enriched by a mass of excellent and intelligent illustrations.' - History TodayTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Changing Face of Reformation History 1. The Church Before the Reformation 2. Luther and Germany 3. The Reformation Outside Germany 4. Calvanism and the Second Reformation 5. The Reformation and Society.

    1 in stock

    £56.04

  • A History of Eastern Europe

    Taylor & Francis Ltd A History of Eastern Europe

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis welcome second edition of A History of Eastern Europe provides a thematic historical survey of the formative processes of political, social and economic change which have played paramount roles in shaping the evolution and development of the region. Subjects covered include: Eastern Europe in ancient, medieval and early modern times the legacies of Byzantium, the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Empire the impact of the region''s powerful Russian and Germanic neighbours rival concepts of ''Central'' and ''Eastern'' Europe the experience and consequences of the two World Wars varieties of fascism in Eastern Europe the impact of Communism from the 1940s to the 1980s post-Communist democratization and marketization the eastward enlargement of the EU. A History of Eastern Europe now includes two new chronologies  one for the Balkans and one for East-Central Europe anTable of ContentsPart 1: The Balkan Peninsula from Graeco-Roman Times to the First World War Part 2: East Central Europe from the Roman Period to the First World War Part 3: From National Self-determination to Fascism and the Holocaust: the Balkans and East Central Europe, 1918–45 Part 4: In the Shadow of Yalta: The Communist-Dominated Balkans and East Central Europe, 1945–89 Part 5: Post-Communist Transformations

    1 in stock

    £49.39

  • Taylor & Francis Ltd (Sales) WitchHunting in Scotland Law Politics and

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisShortlisted for the 2008 Katharine Briggs AwardWitch-Hunting in Scotland presents a fresh perspective on the trial and execution of the hundreds of women and men prosecuted for the crime of witchcraft, an offence that involved the alleged practice of maleficent magic and the worship of the devil, for inflicting harm on their neighbours and making pacts with the devil.Brian P. Levack draws on law, politics and religion to explain the intensity of Scottish witch-hunting. Topics discussed include: the distinctive features of the Scottish criminal justice system the use of torture to extract confessions the intersection of witch-hunting with local and national politics the relationship between state-building and witch-hunting and the role of James VI Scottish Calvinism and the determination of zealous Scottish clergy and magistrates to achieve a godly society. This original survey combines broad interpretations of the rise and fall of Scottish witchcraft prosecutions with detailed case studies of specific witch-hunts. Witch-Hunting in Scotland makes fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in witchcraft or in the political, legal and religious history of the early modern period.Trade Review‘Brian Levack has once again produced an eminently readable and accessible book on witch-hunting which will be a boon to all who teach the subject’ – Journal of Ecclesiastical HistoryTable of Contents1. Witch-Hunting in Scotland and England 2. Witchcraft and the Law in Early Modern Scotland 3. King James VI and Witchcraft 4. Witch-Hunting in Revolutionary Britain 5. The Great Scottish Witch-Hunt of 1661–1662 6. Absolutism, State-Building, and Witchcraft 7. Demonic Possession and Witch-Hunting in Scotland 8. The Decline and End of Scottish Witch-Hunting 9. Witch-Hunting and Witch-Murder in Early Eighteenth-Century Scotland

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • Taylor & Francis International Orders in the Early Modern World

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis book examines the historical interactions of the West and non-Western world, and investigates whether or not the exclusive adoption of Western-oriented âinternational normsâ is the prerequisite for the construction of international order.This book sets out to challenge the Eurocentric foundations of modern International Relations scholarship by examining international relations in the early modern era, when European primacy had yet to develop in many parts of the globe. Through a series of regional case studies on East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and Russia written by leading specialists of their field, this book explores patterns of cross-cultural exchange and civilizational encounters, placing particular emphasis upon historical contexts. The chapters of this book document and analyse a series of regional international orders that were primarily defined by local interests, agendas and institutions, with European interlopers often playing a secondarTrade Review"Perhaps ‘1648 and all that’ fundamentally distorts our understanding of the history of international relations. By rediscovering early modern and non-western international orders, this expert team sets out a challenge to IR scholarship. It is especially welcome and important in making sense of the profound changes currently underway." - Ian Clark, E. H. Carr Professor of International Politics, Aberystwyth University"Maps centered on the South Pole are amusing, but international relations books centered on the non-Western world are essential. From its origins, international relations theory has been a Western enterprise with other parts of the world largely ignored or analyzed through parochial and often inappropriate conceptions. Suzuki, Zhang, Quirk and their collaborators turn the tables and offer perspectives on Europe from East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and generally at a time when European interlopers were unable to impose their preferences on these cultures. They effectively demonstrate the importance of non-Western cultures and their ideas in shaping global history." - Richard Ned Lebow, Professor of International Political Theory, King's College London, UK"An outstanding volume of non-Eurocentric historical-sociological essays that advances an extremely powerful critique of the English School’s commitment to what I call the ‘Eurocentric big bang theory of world politics’ – that the big bang of modernity exploded autonomously within Europe and that thereafter European ‘civilization’ expanded outwards in a non-problematic way to remake the world in its own image – by deploying the antidote of bringing Eastern agency back into the story of the long-term development of world politics." - John M. Hobson, Professor of Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield, UK. "Perhaps ‘1648 and all that’ fundamentally distorts our understanding of the history of international relations. By rediscovering early modern and non-western international orders, this expert team sets out a challenge to IR scholarship. It is especially welcome and important in making sense of the profound changes currently underway." - Ian Clark, E. H. Carr Professor of International Politics, Aberystwyth University"Maps centered on the South Pole are amusing, but international relations books centered on the non-Western world are essential. From its origins, international relations theory has been a Western enterprise with other parts of the world largely ignored or analyzed through parochial and often inappropriate conceptions. Suzuki, Zhang, Quirk and their collaborators turn the tables and offer perspectives on Europe from East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and generally at a time when European interlopers were unable to impose their preferences on these cultures. They effectively demonstrate the importance of non-Western cultures and their ideas in shaping global history." - Richard Ned Lebow, Professor of International Political Theory, King's College London, UKTable of ContentsIntroduction Shogo Suzuki, Yongjin Zhang and Joel Quirk 1. Europeans and the Steppe: Russian lands under the Mongol Rule Iver B. Neumann 2. Europe, Islam and Pax Ottomana, 1453-1774 Ayla Göl 3. Curious and Exotic Encounters: Europeans as Supplicants in the Chinese Imperium, 1513-1793 Yongjin Zhang 4. Europe at the Periphery of the Japanese World Order Shogo Suzuki 5. A Corrupt International Society: How Britain Was Duped into its First Indian Conquest Darshan Vigneswaran 6. International Relations in the Americas during the Long Eighteenth Century, 1663-1820 Charles Jones 7. Europeans, Africans and the Atlantic World, c1450-1850 Joel Quirk and David Richardson Conclusion: Eurocentrism, World History, Meta-narratives and the meeting of international societies Richard Little

    15 in stock

    £137.75

  • Cambridge University Press The Global 1989 Continuity and Change in World Politics

    1 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    1 in stock

    £23.99

  • Cambridge University Press Broken Idols of the English Reformation

    1 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    1 in stock

    £121.60

  • Cambridge University Press The Politics of Everyday Life in Vichy France

    1 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    1 in stock

    £85.50

  • Europe Between the Wars A Political History

    Taylor & Francis Ltd (Sales) Europe Between the Wars A Political History

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisMartin Kitchenâs compelling account of Europe between the wars sets the twenty-year crisis within the context of the profound sense of cultural malaise shared by many philosophers and artists, the economic crises that plagued a Europe ruined by war and the social upheavals caused by widespread unemployment and grinding poverty amid a noticeable improvement of living standards. This thoroughly revised edition, with completely new sections on intellectual, cultural and social history is richly illustrated with contemporary photographs. It is an up-to-date and lively account of a critical period of European history when the old world collapsed, the dictators offered seemingly exciting alternatives, and democracies were put to the supreme test.Written for undergraduate students studying 20th century European history, this new edition of a classic will challenge and provoke a deeper understanding of the interwar years. Trade Review'Professor Kitchen is altogether a shrewd, clear, balanced and often witty guide.'The Times Educational Supplement'This is a splendid up-to-date overview of the political, international and economic history of Europe between the wars. It will be of invaluable use to both students and scholars alike. Its strengths lie in the breadth of coverage, the clarity of the narrative and the ease with which the authors interlards his story with analysis… This remains an admirable study which students will positively welcome for its clarity, breadth of content and overall good sense.'Professor Nicholas Atkin, University of Reading, UKTable of Contents1.The Temper of the Times. 2. The Peace Treaties. 3. Inflation and Depression. 4. European Society Between the Wars. 5. Collective Security. 6. The Soviet Union. 7. Eastern Europe. 8. Italian Fascism. 9. The Weimar Republic. 10. Britain. 11. France. 12. The Spanish Civil War. 13. Nazi Germany. 14. The Origins of the Second World War. Bibliography.

    1 in stock

    £45.59

  • Not Enough

    Harvard University Press Not Enough

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade ReviewNo one has written with more penetrating skepticism about the history of human rights than Samuel Moyn…In Not Enough, Moyn asks whether human-rights theorists and advocates, in the quest to make the world better for all, have actually helped to make things worse…This book, like the author’s last, is the rare academic study that is sure to provoke a wider discussion about important political and economic questions. -- Adam Kirsch * Wall Street Journal *[Moyn] effectively provincializes an ineffectual and obsolete Western model of human rights…Moyn’s book is part of a renewed attention to the political and intellectual ferment of decolonialisation, and joins a sharpening interrogation of the liberal order and the institutions of global governance created by, and arguably for, Pax Americana…[The book’s] critical—and self-critical—energy is consistently bracing, and is surely a condition of restoring the pursuit of equality and justice as an indispensable modern tradition. -- Pankaj Mishra * London Review of Books *No one has done more than Samuel Moyn to unsettle the story of human rights as a triumphal march of upgrades from Magna Carta to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights…Not Enough asks us to rethink what human rights might accomplish if they were deployed not simply to set limits on state power, but to harness that power for the purpose of fostering economic equality. -- Benjamin Nathans * New York Review of Books *[S]peaks to the urgency of our contemporary politics… In Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World, Moyn suggests that our current vocabularies of global justice—above all our belief in the emancipatory potential of human rights—need to be discarded if we are work to make our vastly unequal world more equal… Best read as a companion history to Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Not Enough explains how—across the fields of development, moral advocacy, philosophy, and governmental policy—the ideal of sufficiency gradually supplanted what was once an ideal of equality for all… The apparent paradox exposed in Not Enough is what makes the book another tour de force: what are we to make of the fact that our age of human rights was coterminous with the age of neoliberalism? …Moyn implores us to consider: what is the value content of justice in our age of human rights, and how do we try to rectify inequality, if the social and economic rights enumerated in international human rights law put no ceiling on wealth creation? -- Patrick William Kelly * Los Angeles Review of Books *Why do the grimmest obscenities of economic inequality barely register on the human rights agenda? What is the historical explanation for this? Moyn’s book offers fresh and nuanced insight into these questions, surveying a dizzying array of protagonists, from eighteenth-century Jacobin revolutionaries to late twentieth-century Princeton postgrads. -- Adam Etinson * Times Literary Supplement *Not Enough makes it impossible to conceive of the current status of human rights in the same way again…[It] leads the critical and ethical heart to beat much faster. -- Mark Goodale * Boston Review *An engaging and illuminating intellectual history of the rivalry between those focused on rights and those who have insisted on a more substantively egalitarian approach to emancipation…Intended to help everyone, from policymakers to political theorists, avoid the mistakes of the past in order to shape the future more fairly. * Commonweal *Samuel Moyn breaks new ground in examining the relationship between human rights and economic fairness. If we don’t address the growing global phenomenon of economic inequality, the human rights movement as we know it cannot survive or flourish. -- George SorosPromises to cement [Moyn’s] reputation as one of the most trenchant critics of ‘liberal humanitarian’ foreign policy. -- Jon Baskin * Chronicle of Higher Education *[A] marvelous book. -- Nils Gilman * Los Angeles Review of Books *Human rights do not seem to be enough in our era of unshared affluence. Samuel Moyn’s fascinating and highly timely book explores how we ended up here despite the higher hopes for humanity pursued by multiple political and philosophical movements over the last two hundred years. This is essential reading for anybody who wants to understand the present age with its overwhelming challenges and breathtaking possibilities. -- Mathias Risse, author of On Global JusticeA brilliantly conceived and much-needed book on human rights and inequality. Moyn has a genius for writing history that is intelligent, surprising, and disciplined by fine judgment. -- Jedediah Purdy, author of After Nature: A Politics for the AnthropoceneMoyn provides important insights into how international and domestic inequalities have increased in recent decades…[His] trenchant critique of classical liberal economic and political thought questions many long-standing human rights assumptions. An important addition to the literature. -- C. E. Welch * Choice *

    1 in stock

    £17.05

  • Wales since 1939

    Manchester University Press Wales since 1939

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe period since 1939 has seen more rapid and significant change than any other time in Welsh history. Wales has developed a more assertive identity of its own and some of the apparatus of a nation state. Yet its economy has floundered between boom and bust, its traditional communities have been transformed and the Welsh language has been undermined by a globalizing world.Trade Review'This is a truly magisterial study and analysis which deserves and will certainly achieve a wide and indeed varied readership.'Gwales.com (Welsh Books Council)'Martin Johnes has written a fresh, insightful, and interesting study of Welsh history since 1939, telling the story of a small yet complicated nation in a fascinating and engaging way that will be of interest not only to Welsh historians, but to scholars in all areas of modern history.'Twentieth Century British History'As a social history of a given corner of our world, this is a good book; scholarly, erudite, comprehensive and exciting. As an account of modern Wales, this is an important, perhaps even vital, document. Indeed, in writing it, Johnes has marked himself out as an historian fit to join the likes of Gwyn Alf Williams, Kenneth Morgan and John Davies as a great panoramic storyteller of the two western peninsulas resolutely known as Wales, but whose recent past is shaped by things that matter more'Goodreads.com'Martin Johnes has written a meticulously informed account of our recent history, founded on prodigious data, and refreshingly enriched by the ‘evidence’ of poets and novelists. It is a healthy corrective to idealised narratives of Welsh progress, although perhaps a milder one than he may have intended.'Agenda'Modern Welsh history is not conveniently ‘boxed’ into categories in Wales since 1939, but instead its multifarious shades of grey of are articulated. Johnes has succeed in portraying the diversity of Wales in the second half of the 20th–century and has remedied the long-standing neglect of several topics under the microscope here. In many ways, this book does for Wales what Peter Clarke’s Hope and Glory or Dominic Sandbrook’s post-war histories do for Britain: providing an approachable history that does not forget its academic roots.'Reviews in History'[It] should be the standard narrative for some time of the forces that have combined to make the Wales of the new century’s second decade.'Wales Arts Review‘This is a truly magisterial study and analysis which deserves and will certainly achieve a wide and indeed varied readership.’J. Graham Jones, Morgannwg: The Journal of Glamorgan History, volume LVI 2012 -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction1. ‘The waging of war’, 1939–452. ‘The spirit of reconstruction’1945–513. ‘The hard times are finished’: The coming of affluence, 1951–644. ‘Promiscuous living’: Youth culture and the permissive society, 1951–705. ‘A new society’: Class and urban communities, 1951–706. ‘Life among the hills’: The Welsh Way of Life, 1951–707. ‘A cottonwool fuzz at the back of the mind’: Language and nationhoods, 1951–708. ‘Nationalists of many varieties’, 1951–709. ‘Black times’: The Passing of Labour, 1966–8510. ‘Under an acid rain’: Debating the nations, 1970–8511. ‘Adapt to the future’: The Tory remaking of Wales, 1979–9712. ‘Who’s happy?’: Social change since 197013. ‘They don’t belong here’: The countryside since 197014. ‘A nation once again’, 1997–2009ConclusionIndex

    1 in stock

    £18.99

  • The Angevin Dynasties of Europe 9001500

    The Crowood Press Ltd The Angevin Dynasties of Europe 9001500

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £24.75

  • Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Early Home Computers 722 Shire Library

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisDevelopments in microelectronics in the early 1970s meant that computers at home seemed about to become commonplace: the kitchen computer would hold all of the family''s recipes and keep a record of food in the larder; the study computer would manage the family finances; and the kids'' computers would educate and entertain them. Engineers, enthusiasts and budding entrepreneurs set about making home computers a reality, and although the first machines were extremely limited, later models significantly affected life at home, at school and at work. This is the story of the first commonplace home computers the Sinclairs, Commodores, Amstrads, Acorns, Apple Macs, and the earliest versions of Microsoft Windows that helped to make the computer an indispensable item in the British home.Table of Contents?Introduction / The Coming of the Microchip / Entrepreneurs, Engineers and Enthusiasts / Practical Home Computers / IBM and Apple Set the Standard / Games, Modems and the Compact Disc / Conclusion / Further Reading / Places to Visit / Index

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • Bastard Prince

    The History Press Ltd Bastard Prince

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIt took Henry VIII twenty-eight years, three wives, and a break with Rome before he secured a legitimate male heir. Yet he already had a son the illegitimate Henry Fitzroy. Fitzroy was born in 1519 after the King's affair with Elizabeth Blount. He was the only illegitimate offspring ever acknowledged by Henry VIII, and Cardinal Wolsey was even one of his godparents. So just how close did he come to being Henry IX?

    1 in stock

    £11.69

  • William and Mary

    The History Press Ltd William and Mary

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisMary (1662-94), daughter of James, Duke of York, heir to the English throne, then 15, is said to have wept for a day and a half when she was told she was to marry her cousin, William (1650-1702), son of William II of Orange (1626-50), Stadtholder of the Dutch republic, and Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I of England, who was eleven years older than her. In November 1677, on William''s 27th birthday, they married in a private ceremony at St James''s Palace. William was solemn, James gloomy, Mary in tears, and only King Charles appeared cheerful. This dual biography deals with both the ''life and times'' of the monarchs, and with England''s place in Europe. Interests of the subjects, outside the constitutional, are dealt with, as well as their personal relationships: William''s rumoured homosexuality and Mary''s hinted-at lesbianism; Mary''s troubled personal relations with her father, James II; and the relationship between Mary and her sister and husband''s successor Anne. The book also examines the personal and political relations between William and his uncle Charles II, and between William and Mary and Charles'' illegitimate son the Duke of Monmouth.

    1 in stock

    £15.19

  • The History Press Ltd A Century of Glasgow

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisThis fascinating selection of photographs illustrates the extraordinary transformation that has taken place in Glasgow during the 20th century. The book offers an insight into the daily lives and living conditions of local people and gives the reader glimpses and details of familiar places during this century of unprecedented change. Many aspects of Glasgow''s recent history are covered, famous occasions and individuals are remembered and the impact of national and international events is witnessed. The books provides a striking account of the changes that have so altered Glasgow''s appearance and records the process of transformation. Drawing on detailed local knowledge of the community, and illustrated with a wealth of black-and-white photographs, this book recalls what Glasgow has lost in terms of buildings, traditions and ways of life. It also acknowledges the regeneration that has taken place and celebrates the character and energy of local people as they move through the first years of this new century.

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • A Century of Cardiff

    The History Press Ltd A Century of Cardiff

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA Century of Cardiff offers an insight into the daily lives and living conditions of local people and gives the reader glimpses and details of familiar places during a century of unprecedented change. Many aspects of Cardiff''s recent history are covered, famous occasions and individuals are remembered and the impact of national and international events is witnessed. A Century of Cardiff provides a striking account of the changes that have so altered the town''s appearance and records the process of transformation. Drawing on detailed local knowledge of the community, and illustrated with a wealth of black-and-white photographs, this book recalls what Cardiff has lost in terms of buildings, traditions and ways of life. It also acknowledges the regeneration that has taken place and celebrates the character and energy of local people as they move through the first years of this new century.

    1 in stock

    £13.49

  • A Century of KingstonuponThames

    The History Press Ltd A Century of KingstonuponThames

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA Century of Kingston-upon-Thames offers an insight into the daily lives and living conditions of local people and gives the reader glimpses and details of familiar places during a century of unprecedented change. Many aspects of Kingston''s recent history are covered, famous occasions and individuals are remembered and the impact of national and international events is witnessed. A Century of Kingston-upon-Thames provides a striking account of the changes that have so altered the town''s appearance and records the process of transformation. Drawing on detailed local knowledge of the community, and illustrated with a wealth of black-and-white photographs, this book recalls what Kingston-upon-Thames has lost in terms of buildings, traditions and ways of life. It also acknowledges the regeneration that has taken place and celebrates the character and energy of local people as they move through the first years of this new century.

    1 in stock

    £9.49

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