History Books

Book SynopsisNOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTUREOscar Nominated For Best Picture and Best Adapted ScreenplaySet amid the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA's African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America's space program.Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as Human Computers', calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts, these colored computers' used pencil and paper to write the equations that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.Moving from World War II through NASA's golden age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the women's rights movement, Hidden Figures interweaves a rich history of mankind's greatest adventure with the intimate stories of five courageous women whose work forever changed the world.Trade ReviewA TIME Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book of 2016 ‘Clearly fueled by pride and admiration, a tender account of genuine transcendence and camaraderie.The story warmly conveys the dignity and refinements of these women’ New York Times Book Review ‘Much as Tom Wolfe did in The Right Stuff, Shetterly moves gracefully between the women’s lives and the broader sweep of history … Shetterly blends impressive research with an enormous amount of heart in telling these stories … Genuinely inspiring book’ Boston Globe ‘A fascinating and important document about the hitherto unknown impact of NASA’s endeavours’ BBC Sky at Night magazine ‘Shetterly’s highly recommended work offers up a crucial history that had previously and unforgivably been lost. We’d do well to put this book into the hands of young women who have long since been told that there’s no room for them at the scientific table’ Library Journal ‘Inspiring and enlightening’ Kirkus ‘Exploring the intimate relationships among blackness, womanhood, and 20th-century American technological development, Shetterly crafts a narrative that is crucial to understanding subsequent movements for civil rights’ Publishers Weekly ‘This an is incredibly powerful and complex story, and Shetterly has it down cold. The breadth of her well-documented research is immense, and her narrative compels on every level. The timing of this revelatory book could not be better, and book clubs will adore it’ Booklist ‘Meticulous … the depth and detail that are the book’s strength make it an effective, fact-based rudder with which would-be scientists and their allies can stabilise their flights of fancy’ Seattle Times

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Book SynopsisDrawing on 30 years of scholarship, this is a unique, richly illustrated history of the Ancient Assyrian Army and Empire. For the greater part of the period from the end of the 10th century to the 7th century BC, the Ancient Near East was dominated by the dynamic military power of Assyria. This book examines the empire that is now acknowledged as the first ''world'' empire, and thus progenitor of all others. Fully illustrated in colour throughout, with photographs of artefacts, drawings and maps, it focuses on the Assyrian Army, the instrument that secured such immense conquests, now regarded by historians as being the most effective of pre-classical times. It was not only responsible for the creation of history''s first independent cavalry arm, but also for the development of siege weapons later used by both Greece and Rome.There is a great deal of visual evidence showing how this army evolved over three centuries. During the rediscovery and excavation of thTrade ReviewHealy’s book will become the go-to volume for anyone wanting to explore the military history of Assyria, with plenty of other more general insights into Assyrian history. * History of War *Packed full of archaeological images, pictures, illustrations and maps showing how this army was dressed, its equipment and weaponry and the strategies it used. It brings the Assyrian empire back to life for the reader. * Army Rumour Service *The Ancient Assyrians is a must-read for all interested in military history, ancient history or the captivating world of the Assyrians in general. With its comprehensive coverage, stunning visuals and engaging storytelling, Healy’s book stands as a definitive resource on this remarkable civilisation. * Aspects of History *Table of ContentsPreface Part One: The Empire Chapter One: Introduction Chapter Two: Assyria, 934–745 BC Chapter Three: Assyria, 745–720 BC Chapter Four: Sargon II, 721–705 BC Chapter Five: Sennacherib, 704–681 BC Chapter Six: Esarhaddon, 680–669 BC Chapter Seven: Ashurbanipal, 668–?627 BC Chapter Eight: The End of the Assyrian Empire, 627–612 BC Part Two: The Army Chapter Nine: 'The Invincible Weapon' Chapter Ten: Aspects of the Neo-Assyrian War Machine Chapter Eleven: The Assyrian Army at War Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe first dedicated examination of Alexander the Great''s final battle and acknowledged tactical masterpiece. In the years that followed Alexander the Great''s victory at Gaugamela on 1 October 331 BC, his Macedonian and Greek army fought a truly ''Herculean'' series of campaigns in what is today Iran, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. But it was in the Indus Valley, on the banks of the Hydaspes River (known today as the Jhelum) in 326 BC that Alexander would fight his last major battle against King Poros. Using detailed maps and 3D diagrams, this beautifully illustrated work shows how Alexander used feints and deception to transport a select force from his army across the swollen River Hydaspes without attracting the enemy''s attention, allowing his troops the crucial element of surprise. Battlescene artworks and photographs reveal the fascinating array of forces that clashed in the battle, including Indian war elephants and chariots, and horse arcTrade ReviewI particularly enjoyed finding out more on the Indian side of the campaign. * Wargames Illustrated *Table of ContentsORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN Literary sources CHRONOLOGY OPPOSING COMMANDERS Alexander Poros OPPOSING FORCES Alexander’s army Poros’ army THE BATTLE OF THE HYDASPES The crossing The battle Analysis AFTERMATH ABBREVIATIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

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Book SynopsisIn this gripping graphic novel, a Jewish journalist encounters an extension of the horrors of the Holocaust in North Africa. In the lead-up to World War II, the rising tide of fascism and antisemitism in Europe foreshadowed Hitler's genocidal campaign against Jews. But the horrors of the Holocaust were not limited to the concentration camps of Europe: antisemitic terror spread through Vichy French imperial channels to France's colonies in North Africa, where in the forced labor camps of Algeria and Morocco, Jews and other "undesirables" faced brutal conditions and struggled to survive in an unforgiving landscape quite unlike Europe. In this richly historical graphic novel, historian Aomar Boum and illustrator Nadjib Berber take us inside this lesser-known side of the traumas wrought by the Holocaust by following one man's journey as a Holocaust refugee. Hans Frank is a Jewish journalist covering politics in Berlin, who grows increasingly uneasy as he witnesses the Nazi Party consolidate power and decides to flee Germany. Through connections with a transnational network of activists organizing against fascism and anti-Semitism, Hans ultimately lands in French Algeria, where days after his arrival, the Vichy regime designates all foreign Jews as "undesirables" and calls for their internment. On his way to Morocco, he is detained by Vichy authorities and interned first at Le Vernet, then later transported to different camps in the deserts of Morocco and Algeria. With memories of his former life as a political journalist receding like a dream, Hans spends the next year and a half in forced labor camps, hearing the stories of others whose lives have been upended by violence and war. Through bold, historically inflected illustrations that convey the tension of the coming war and the grimness of the Vichy camps, Aomar Boum and Nadjib Berber capture the experiences of thousands of refugees through the fictional Hans, chronicling how the traumas of the Holocaust extended far beyond the borders of Europe.Trade Review"Comprehensive and cinematic, Boum's and Berber's incisive graphic novel illuminates a forgotten and essential story of Holocaust refugees in North Africa."—David Kushner, author of Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master and Masters of Doom"Based on extensive archival research, Undesirables powerfully depicts how the experience of Jews and Muslims in both Europe and North Africa was an inseparable part of World War II and the Holocaust."—Daniel Schroeter, co-editor of Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa"Undesirables connects the histories of Jews and North Africans, of antisemitism and racism, of the Holocaust and colonialism in the twentieth century in innovative and surprising ways. It is an eye-opening book in the literal sense of the word."—Michael Brenner, American University, Washington DC and University of Munich"Vivid in word and image, Aomar Boum's and Nadjib Berber's rewarding graphic novel introduces readers to a lesser-known chapter from the Holocaust and the relentless stench of antisemitism. Undesirables powerfully portrays the raw horror of the period in its intelligent and expressive historical account."—Samantha Baskind, Distinguished Professor of Art History, Cleveland State University"Berber's black-and-white artwork has a throwback noir feel, thick with period details.This in-depth graphic history brings a shameful period to broader awareness."—Publishers Weekly"While the willing cooperation of Vichy with Nazis is well known, their activities in North Africa in running their own system of labour, effectively concentration, camps is not.... [Undesirables] is both an accessible and an important addition to our understanding of the history of Jews in North Africa."—Mike Cushman, Jewish Voice for Labour"Undesirables offers opportunities to both reimagine Holocaust experience and appeal to different audiences through the multimodality of the comics form. The volume is an essential tool for prompting conversation on the impact of the Nazi Regime outside of Europe as much as on the role of comics and graphic novels in the historiography of World War II."—Elizabeth "Biz" Nijdam, EuropeNowTable of Contents1. PART I: GERMANY – FRANCE - ALGERIA 2. PART II: THE SAHARAN CAMPS

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Book SynopsisThe perfect introduction to the world of Japanese myth and legend. This is a smart and succinct guide to the rich tradition of Japanese mythology, from the earliest recorded legends of Izanagi and Izanami, their divine offspring and the creation of Japan, to medieval tales of vengeful ghosts, through to the modern-day reincarnation of ancient deities as the heroes of mecha anime. While many around the world love Japanâs cultural exports, few are familiar with Japanâs unique mythology - enriched by Shinto, Buddhism and regional folklore. Mythology remains a living, evolving part of Japanese society, and the ways in which the people of Japan understand their myths are very different today even from a century ago, let alone over a millennium into the past. Offering much more than any competing overview of Japanese mythology, The Japanese Myths not only retells the ancient stories but also considers their place within the patterns of Japanese religions, culture and history, helTrade Review'Well-written, thought-provoking, and visually engaging … this book is a wonderful guide to an enduring fascination with stories and the supernatural in Japan. Frydman’s explanations prove mythology acts as a compass to guide past, present and future generations' - The Japan Society'Students, travellers, and all readers interested in the history of Japan, Japanese ideology, and the nation's current cultural products will find this authoritative work absorbing' - Library Journal'Eminently readable, interesting and authoritative ... Highly recommended' - Fortean TimesTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. What are the Japanese Myths? 2. Age of the Gods 3. The Imperial Mythos 4. Living Kami and Divine Humans 5. Canon Foreigners 6. A World Flush with Spirits 7. Invention and Rediscovery

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Book SynopsisThe 1980s was the revolutionary decade of the twentieth century. To look back in 1990 at the Britain of ten years earlier was to look into another country. The changes were not superficial, like the revolution in fashion and music that enlivened the 1960s; nor were they quite as unsettling and joyless as the troubles of the 1970s. And yet they were irreversible. By the end of the decade, society as a whole was wealthier, money was easier to borrow, there was less social upheaval, less uncertainty about the future. Perhaps the greatest transformation of the decade was that by 1990, the British lived in a new ideological universe where the defining conflict of the twentieth century, between capitalism and socialism, was over. Thatcherism took the politics out of politics and created vast differences between rich and poor, but no expectation that the existence of such gross inequalities was a problem that society or government could solve - because as Mrs Thatcher said, 'There is no such thing as society ... people must look to themselves first.'From the Falklands war and the miners' strike to Bobby Sands and the Guildford Four, from Diana and the New Romantics to Live Aid and the 'big bang', from the Rubik's cube to the ZX Spectrum, McSmith's brilliant narrative account uncovers the truth behind the decade that changed Britain forever.Trade ReviewIt was a wild, wild decade: strong politics, riots, revival, bad hair, great comedy, some dreadful music, lurid newspapers and a war or two. The Margaret Thatcher rollercoaster carried so many of us into today's Britain, with so many bumps and shrieks, that it needs a writer of cool judgement and a reporter who misses nothing to tell its story. Andy McSmith has managed it, ranging from barcodes to TVam, feminism to Torvill and Dean, and Sloane Rangers to flying pickets. It's hard to see how this account could be bettered. * Andrew Marr *McSmith has a sharp eye for a revealing story. * The Sunday Times *A fine account of the decade. * Independent on Sunday *....an enjoyable romp through the decade. * The Spectator *A rollicking read. * Metro *(McSmith) presents his views and his recollections clearly, accurately and accessibly in a very readable, social document. * The Scotsman *

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Book SynopsisMay We Be Spared to Meet on Earth collects the private correspondence of the officers and sailors who set out in May 1845 on the Erebus and Terror for Sir John Franklin’s fateful Arctic expedition, providing new insights into the personalities of those on board, the voyage’s significance, and the dawning realization that they might never return.Trade Review“Graced with an appropriately light editorial touch, May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth is a worthy enterprise that will be read and used by a growing cohort of scholars and Franklin sleuths on both sides of the Atlantic.” Shane McCorristine, Newcastle University“May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth provides insight into the hopes and fears of the two crews, linking the officers and men to lives already lived: friendships and family connections of considerable complexity, magnetic and other scientific research, career prospects and reputation, and prospective marriages. Though the subject has inspired media interest around the globe, there is no other collection that assembles this material in a single volume, and the book will attract a wide readership.” Andrew Lambert, King’s College London“This is an exceptional collection of letters, offered complete, with exhaustive endnotes for most, explaining terms, expanding on the subject matter, adding details concerning the sender or receiver and tying letters to other letters in this collection and/or other archives. The opening essay is an excellent synopsis of the present historiography of the Franklin Expedition and the numerous efforts to find them. It details the twists and turns in telling the story from the disappearance up to present day. Touching on historical and fictional accounts the essay reminds the reader of the cultural impact the story of this misadventure has had. May We Be Spared To Meet On Earth, is an essential source for future historians and other writers, exploring the Franklin Expedition.” The Canadian Nautical Research Society 2023 Keith Matthews Prize jury“May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth is a labour of love. For those who are seriously interested in Arctic exploration, it is a must-have.” Canada’s History

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Book SynopsisHow did a venerable Indian spiritual discipline turn into a £20 billion-a-year mainstay of the wellness industry? What happened along yoga’s winding path from the caves and forests of the sages to the gyms, hospitals and village halls of the modern West? This comprehensive history sets yoga in its global cultural context for the first time, leading us on a journey from arcane religious rituals and medieval body-magic, through Christianity and the British Empire, to Indian nationalists and the twentieth-century West. Yoga has now become embedded in powerful social currents including feminism, digital media, celebrity culture, the stress pandemic and the quest for authentic identity. Shearer’s revealing history boasts a colourful cast of characters past and present, in an engaging tale of scholars and scandal, science and spirit, wisdom and waywardness. This is the untold story of yoga, warts and all.Trade Review‘This is a tale of what happens when East and West meet, and about a shift from the sacred to the secular. [Yoga’s] journey west gives Shearer a compelling cast of characters.’ -- The Sunday Times'Erudite, scholarly and engrossing.' -- The Sunday Telegraph'A clear-eyed, elegantly written and wonderfully informative history of yoga … Shearer’s remarkable book is a wide-ranging and rather sobering discussion on the nature of authenticity.’ -- Spectator‘Amid a sea of guidebooks, historian Alistair Shearer has provided a worthwhile counterpoint, [offering] advice as important as any guru’s techniques.’ -- Financial Times‘A quick-witted and erudite chronicle of the Hindu practice that is now a lucrative staple of “wellness” in the West.’ -- The Wall Street Journal‘This is a compelling history of how an amazing ancient art became an integral part of western life.’ -- The Irish Times‘Shearer … writes with exquisite sensitivity about the teacher-student relationship.’ -- Hindustan Times‘An ambitious book indeed … [with] a scholarly side, and a catchy journalistic verve.’'This is a fascinating survey not only for practitioners of the world’s burgeoning Wellness industry [but also] for general readers anxious about the fate of civilisation itself.' -- Asian Affairs Journal‘Erudite, informative and witty … I cannot over-emphasize the grace and humour of the text as well as its seriousness of purpose.’ -- Journal of the Scientific and Medical Network'The history of East meeting West through Yoga is as complex and enigmatic as it is important. Alistair Shearer unfolds the narrative with just the right combination of scholarly rigour and compelling prose.' -- Philip Goldberg, author of 'American Veda' and 'The Life of Yogananda'' "The Story of Yoga" offers an absorbing chronicle of the rise of yoga, tracing its evolution through history to its rapid global proliferation today, with insights into the challenges on the way ahead. Exceedingly accessible and engaging, this is the definitive account of the remarkable growth of one of the world's most popular and beneficial human activities.' -- Shashi Tharoor, author of 'Inglorious Empire''Frequently amusing, but always scholarly and engaging, Shearer's study deftly works it way through the history of yoga, from the purity of Patanjali's Sutras to the mix'n'match brands endorsed by modern celebrities.' -- John Zubrzycki, author of 'Empire of Enchantment: The Story of Indian Magic'

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Book SynopsisThe Katrina disaster was not a weather event of summer 2005. It was a disaster a century in the making, a product of lessons learned from previous floods, corporate and government decision making, and the political economy of the United States at large. New Orleans’s history is America’s history, and Katrina represents America’s possible future.Trade ReviewThe main thrust of Horowitz’s account is to make us understand Katrina—the civic calamity, not the storm itself—as a consequence of decades of bad decisions by humans, not an unanticipated caprice of nature…He leaves readers with a strong sense that it’s only a matter of time before there is a similar disaster in New Orleans, and that, in whatever lull there is between now and then, things aren’t great. -- Nicholas Lemann * New Yorker *Brilliant…If you want to read only one book to better understand why people in positions of power in government and industry do so little to address climate change, even with wildfires burning and ice caps melting and extinctions becoming a daily occurrence, this is the one… Horowitz shows—patiently and damningly—how the decisions made by Louisiana’s political and business elite systematically rendered the region vulnerable to disaster. -- Scott W. Stern * Los Angeles Review of Books *Easily the best book on the subject since Douglas Brinkley’s 2006 The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast…The fact that Katrina’s impact fell disproportionately on poor Louisianans raises a host of issues that Horowitz addresses better than any previous narrative history of the catastrophe. -- Steve Donoghue * Christian Science Monitor *Horowitz does a masterful job of describing the public and private engineering projects that made possible real estate construction, oil exploration, and other forms of economic expansion in New Orleans during the twentieth century, building fortunes for a few while putting thousands in the path of the next big storm… Disasters have the power to reveal who we are, what we value, what we’re willing—and unwilling—to protect. -- Eric Klinenberg * New York Review of Books *Horowitz is engrossed by the stark imbalance that pandering to the powerful industries of shipping and oil and gas has produced between ‘private profits and public liabilities.’ His story is a feisty blend of urban environmental history and history of political economy, of land subsidence (drained land sinks) and subsidized loans that create a false sense of impermeability…From start to finish, Horowitz’s necessary book is passionately political. -- Peter Coates * Times Literary Supplement *This masterful history opens nearly a century before the storm and examines how so many people came to live in such a vulnerable place. * The Economist *Horowitz chronicles an endless hustle in which governments and wealthy developers seize landscapes and mold them without regard to long-term consequences, and in which white people and moneyed interests have fixed advantages…A sadly predictable, distinctly American story. -- John McQuaid * Washington Monthly *Politicians and corporations, among others, have made poor communities of color vulnerable to climate disasters. As Katrina: A History demonstrates, political and economic choices traded the present and future lives of Louisiana’s poor (and especially poor Black) people for unevenly distributed short-term gain…Attentive to history, Horowitz has harsh words for climate utopians who look for technological solutions to the city’s problems. -- Elias Rodriques * Bookforum *Calling upon a century of history to tell the story of what many Americans limit to a span of days or weeks, Horowitz’s Katrina is a devastating and important text for understanding the deep-seated inequality, infrastructure failure, and government carelessness that led to one of America’s worst disasters…Reading Horowitz in the age of COVID-19, as the powerful determine who and what are expendable, feels especially instructive. -- Andru Okun * Los Angeles Review of Books *The definitive portrait of the ‘causes and consequences’ of Hurricane Katrina. Horowitz brilliantly explores the disastrous links between warming temperatures, systemic racism, government mismanagement, and corporate greed. Few books better capture the monumental threat that climate change poses to America’s cities. * Publishers Weekly *For those who are interested in getting through this current disaster by reading about other disasters…The whole idea is that Katrina was not just a tragic singular event that happened in 2005, but the result of centuries of terrible—often intentional—political and business decisions that had been made over the course of the hundred years prior…A super lively and engaging writer. * The Strategist *[A] sweeping overview of the historic, social and economic factors that played into the disaster and its aftermath. * The Times-Picayune *A vivid and persuasive chronicle of the ‘causes and consequences’ of Hurricane Katrina…Horowitz argues that a combination of environmental challenges, structural racism, and governmental misjudgment resulted in a massive loss of life…Even readers who have never visited the Crescent City will be moved by this incisive account. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Incisive…Horowitz argues persuasively that the destruction incurred by Hurricane Katrina was not merely a meteorological event, but part of a long process of political, environmental, economic, and cultural decisions…An eye-opening environmental history. * Kirkus Reviews *Horowitz’s lucid, detailed, and balanced account of the long, crooked paths that led up to Katrina reinforces one of history’s most important lessons. * Daily Beast *Horowitz disrupts the narrative of disaster as exception…[Tells] the story of Katrina as a cycle of profit-driven and government-sanctioned growth and dispossession. -- Maia Silber * Public Books *Horowitz relentlessly pursues how the history of New Orleans, Louisiana, and the United States produced Katrina over the course of a century…Horowitz’s argument…has the potential to make a radical contribution to the history of technology…The writing is masterful, at times transcendent. -- Cornelis Disco * Technology and Culture *This thoroughly researched and clearly written book exposes the relationship between inequality and urban geography, offering a chilling glimpse of future disasters in the making. * Climate and Capitalism *Among the best histories of modern New Orleans. It is, moreover, a towering intervention in modern urban environmental and political history that shows not only how human actions shape disasters, but also how urban history is inseparable from metropolitan, regional, and national histories. Finally, it offers a warning that in an age of climate change and rising sea levels, no one may assume that future crises will visit themselves only on the disadvantaged in urban America. -- J. Mark Souther * The Metropole *Not only a definitive analysis of the storm as it affected New Orleans but also a peerless example of how historians should understand disasters—regardless of specialization—and why those events might matter even to scholars normally unconcerned with such seemingly extraordinary phenomena…As Horowitz goes on to illustrate in gripping detail, the wreckage of Hurricane Katrina is inextricable from decades of slow-moving, unexceptional events that are as much the province of social or political history as environmental history. -- Adam Mandelman * Environmental History *Horowitz is a gifted storyteller…This book is the best published history of Katrina. It is a major contribution to urban history, environmental history, and disaster studies, with relevance far beyond southern Louisiana. -- Josiah Rector * Journal of Southern History *Katrina: A History is a beautiful book about a long, ugly chapter in our nation’s history. Horowitz brilliantly demonstrates that the storm carried with it a century of poor decisions that both preceded and followed the disaster. Corporate greed, misguided policymaking, environmental blindness, corrupt politics, crippling racism, and class inequality: all these human failings were as significant as the broken levees and hurricane-force winds. This is not just a compelling history; it is a distressing warning about our future. -- Lizabeth Cohen, author of Saving America’s Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban AgeThis is by far the most important treatment of Hurricane Katrina—an extraordinarily valuable work of scholarship. Andy Horowitz offers a fresh perspective that serves both as a corrective and also an entirely different way of understanding one of the most critical chapters in the nation’s environmental and political history. -- Ari Kelman, author of A River and Its City: The Nature of Landscape in New OrleansIn 2005, in the eyes of many, the history of New Orleans and lower Louisiana shrank to a single moment of natural disaster. Andy Horowitz’s Katrina recovers the all-too-human policies, limited perspectives, and sheer greed that created the conditions for the events of 2005 over the course of the previous century—conditions that prevented an equitable recovery process, and continue to obscure the ways in which ‘Katrina’ was not just about one unfortunate group of people, but also heralds our collective future. This book is an important reinterpretation of the history of New Orleans, the history of disaster, and the history of our nation. -- Leslie M. Harris, author of In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626–1863This book sees not only the forest and the trees but the blades of grass between the trees. Horowitz properly places the disaster of Hurricane Katrina in the much larger context of regional history, national and local policy decisions, and societal mores which all added up to having tragic if—mostly—unintended consequences, while not losing sight of intimate details and the personal stories of those who experienced the storm and rebuilt the city. Well-written and at times gripping, this is the most important book about Katrina so far. -- John M. Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed AmericaAlthough it is difficult to imagine a fresh take, Andy Horowitz has provided one…Horowitz has made a superb contribution to the field. His long view of the conditions that created New Orleans’s particular vulnerability fundamentally shifts the paradigm for understanding both the impact of and recovery from the storm, and his extraordinary prose will make the reader stop and read twice just for the fun of it. -- Christopher Manning * Louisiana History *Meant to be read, and ought to be read, by anyone who wishes to be an engaged citizen in our current moment of climate change, racial reckoning, and vast economic inequality. -- Aaron Sachs * California History *Katrina is a masterful work that is multi-disciplinary in its approach to a very complex city situated in a hazardous environment…[and] a model for the evaluation of exposure and vulnerability in other cities and communities that experience geophysical events (such as earthquakes and tornadoes). It makes a strong case that ‘disasters’ are not natural. -- Gerald Mills * Society *

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Book SynopsisSelected as a Times best history Book of the Year 2024'Every page glittering with insight... [a] wonderful book' Dominic Sandbrook'Brilliantly written... evokes the wonder of an entire civilisation.' Tom Holland'Takes us beyond the familiar into a real, visceral, far more satisfying Viking world.' Dan Snow'A wondrous, gorgeously-written book' Rebecca Wragg SykesImagine a Viking, and a certain image springs to mind: a nameless, faceless warrior, leaping ashore from a longboat, and ready to terrorise the hapless local population of a northern European country.Yet while such characters define the Viking Age today, they were in the minority. This is the history of all the other people - children, enslaved people, seers, artisans, travellers, writers - who inhabited the medieval Nordic world. Encompassing not just Norway, Denmark and Sweden, but also Iceland, Greenland, parts of the British Isles, Continental Europe and Russia, this is a history of a Viking Age filled with real people of di

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Book SynopsisTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR 'A dystopian odyssey through the dark authoritarian landscape of the modern world’ The Times To be born American in the late twentieth century was to take the fact of a particular kind of American exceptionalism as granted – a state of nature arrived at after all else had failed. In the span of just thirty years, this assumption would come crashing down. After the fall, we must determine what it means to be American again. In 2017, as Ben Rhodes was helping Barack Obama begin his next chapter, the legacy they worked to build for eight years was being taken apart. To understand what was happening in America, Rhodes decided to look outwards. Over the next three years, he travelled to dozens of countries, meeting with politicians, activists, and dissidents confronting the same nationalism and authoritarianism that was tearing America apart. Along the way, a Russian opposition leader he spends time with is poisoned, the Hong Kong protesters he comes to know see their movement snuffed out, and America itself reaches the precipice of losing democracy before giving itself a second chance. After the Fall is a hugely ambitious and essential work of discovery. Throughout, Rhodes comes to realize how much America’s fingerprints are on a world it helped to shape: through the excesses of the post-Cold War embrace of unbridled capitalism, post-9/11 nationalism and militarism, mania for technology and social media, and the racism that shaped the backlash to the Obama presidency. At the same time, he learns from a diverse set of characters – from Obama to rebels to a rising generation of leaders – how looking squarely at where America has gone wrong only makes it more essential to fight for what America is supposed to be – for itself, and for the entire world.Trade ReviewA dystopian odyssey through the dark authoritarian landscape of the modern world * The Times *After the Fall takes the form of a quest . . . Rhodes’s travels, and his contemplation of the scene at home, lead him to an important conclusion: The United States, having exported to the world unleashed capitalism, ungoverned social media and a militarized foreign policy, has now seen its pathologies weaponized by its enemies and turned back upon itself * New York Times *Vital reading for Americans and people anywhere who seek to understand what is happening 'after the fall' of the global system created by the United States and shaped increasingly by China under Xi Jinping * New York Journal of Books *The story of an aftermath . . . Elegantly expressed * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisFrom the first shots fired at Fort Sumter in 1861 to the final clashes on the Road to Appomattox in 1864, The Atlas of the Civil War reconstructs the battles of America's bloodiest war with unparalleled clarity and precision. Edited by Pulitzer Prize recipient James M. McPherson and written by America's leading military historians, this peerless reference charts the major campaigns and skirmishes of the Civil War. Each battle is meticulously plotted on one of 200 specially commissioned full-color maps. Timelines provide detailed, play-by-play maneuvers, and the accompanying text highlights the strategic aims and tactical considerations of the men in charge. Each of the battle, communications, and locator maps are cross-referenced to provide a comprehensive overview of the fighting as it swept across the country. With more than two hundred photographs and countless personal accounts that vividly describe the experiences of soldiers in the fields, The Atlas of the Civil War brings to life the human drama that pitted state against state and brother against brother.

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Book SynopsisA work of genius' Philip HoareOne of the best things I've read in many many years' Hilton Als'Beautifully provocative ... the most compelling exploration of life, death, love and resistance that I've read for a very long time' Eimear McBrideA story of loss and grief, sex and love, and refusing to relinquish dreamsHe said he would understand if it was too much for me, that I could leave him, that I was young, I should be living, I said to him, I am living. Johnny Grant faces stark life decisions. Seeking answers, he looks back to his relationship with Jerry Field. When they met, nearly thirty years ago, Johnny was 19, Jerry was 45. They fell in love and made a life on their own terms in Jerry's flat: 1, Nova Scotia House. Johnny is still there today but Jerry is gone, and so is the world they knew. As Johnny's mind travels between then and now, he begins to remember stories of Jerry's youth: of experiments in living; of radical philosophies; of the many possibilities of love, sex and friendship before the AIDS crisis devastated the queer community. Slowly, he realizes what he must do nextand attempts to restore ways of being that could be lost forever. Nova Scotia House takes us to the heart of a relationship, a community and an era. It is both a love story and a lament; bearing witness to the enduring pain of the AIDS pandemic and honouring the joys and creativity of queer life. Intimate, visionary, and profoundly original, it marks the debut of a vibrant new voice in contemporary fiction, and a writer with a liberating new story to tell.

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Book SynopsisIn early 1940, a battle raged to control the ice-free, iron-ore port in northern Norway with changing fortunes until the very end. This highly detailed book covers both the naval battles and the individual Norwegian, British, Polish, French and German units that fought the land campaign over northern Norway. Highly detailed maps guide you step by step through the events. Few other books on Narvik give you as much detail on the forces of the fighting five. From Gebirgsjägers to Guardsmen, Fallschirmjägers to Foreign Legionnaires, it offers you an impressive level of tactical detail, even down to company command, whilst also helping you understand the strategic confusion surrounding the whole Allied expedition to the north too. Among the naval clashes covered in this action-packed story are the destroyer battles in the fjords, the sinking of the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and the roles the famous battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau played in the fighting. No less dramaticTrade ReviewThe author has done a great job of covering this topic in great detail, looking at both sides of the conflict covering tactics, commanders, troops on the ground and equipment. He also takes a detailed look at some of battles which includes some of the naval skirmishes. Anyone thinking of recreating parts of this conflict on the tabletop, then this is an ideal companion to pick up. You’ll definitely find plenty of background information that will provide a plethora of ideas to re-create. -- Jason Hubbard * Irregular Magazine *Table of ContentsORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN CHRONOLOGY OPPOSING COMMANDERS Allied German OPPOSING FORCES Allied German Orders of battle OPPOSING PLANS Allied German THE BATTLE OF NARVIK The German landing and the naval battles, 10–13 April 1940 German deployments and tactics The Allied landings at Narvik Gratangen, 24–25 April 1940 Beisfjord Gressdalen and Roasme, 1–13 May 1940 The Bjerkvik landing, 13 May 1940 Stautner on the Litlebalak position, 22 May 1940 Kuberg The Orneset landing and Beisfjord, 28 May 1940 Defending the ore railway Point 620 and Haugfjell Bodø Stien, 17–18 May 1940 Pothus, 25–26 May 1940 The Allied evacuation AFTERMATH Conclusion BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

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Book Synopsis'The writing is sublime, the research thorough, the eye for story superb' Sunday TelegraphWhen Amitav Ghosh began the research for his monumental cycle of novels the Ibis Trilogy, he was startled to find how the lives of the 19th century sailors and soldiers he wrote of were dictated not only by the currents of the Indian Ocean, but also by the precious commodity carried in enormous quantities on those currents: opium. Most surprising at all, however, was the discovery that his own identity and family history was swept up in the story.Smoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, memoir and a history, drawing on decades of archival research. In it, Ghosh traces the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India, and China, as well as the world at large. The trade was engineered by the British Empire, which exported Indian opium to sell to China and redress their great trade imbalance, and its revenues were essential to the Empire's financial survival. Yet tracing the profits further, Ghosh finds opium at the origins of some of the world's biggest corporations, of America's most powerful families and prestigious institutions (from the Astors and Coolidges to the Ivy League), and of contemporary globalism itself.Moving deftly between horticultural histories, the mythologies of capitalism, and the social and cultural repercussions of colonialism, in Smoke and Ashes Amitav Ghosh reveals the role that one small plant had in making our world, now teetering on the edge of catastrophe.Trade ReviewGhosh has reinvented himself as a superlative commodity historian. In his new role, he has surpassed many seasoned historians in his ability to synthesise a wealth of research with remarkable intellectual clarity and suggestive simplicity . . . There's a quietly subversive element to Smoke and Ashes for which Ghosh deserves to be commended * The Times *The book gave me a deeper chill than any of the TV series about the opioid crisis I had viewed before reading it . . . The writing is sublime, the research thorough, the eye for story superb, and there are splashes of personal back story that underscore the sincerity of the author's arguments * Sunday Telegraph *A riveting new history of opium, a lucrative and destructive flower . . . Amitav Ghosh's sweeping, forcefully written Smoke and Ashes covers centuries in the life of the plant * Washington Post *A sweeping, and personal, account of the immense effect the opium trade has had on world history and how it continues to impact our lives today. * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERLONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR NONFICTIONA New Yorker Best Book of 2024 An Esquire Best Book of Fall 2024 Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard First Book Prize''Reads like a legal thriller'' ESQUIRE''As propulsive and affecting as it is infuriating'' VANITY FAIRA powerful work of reportage and American history that braids together the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation's earliest days, and a small-town murder in the 1990s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land more than a century later.Before 2020, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. By contrast, nearly 200 million acres are reserved for National Forests in the emergence of the United States as a nation, the government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peoples.In the 1830s, Muscogee people were rounded up by the US military at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At the time, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Oklahoma was created on top of Muscogee land, the new state claimed their reservation no longer existed. Over a century later, a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen on tribal land. His defense attorneys argued that the murder occurred on the reservation of his tribe, and therefore Oklahoma didn't have the jurisdiction to execute him. Oklahoma asserted that the reservation no longer existed. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court settled the dispute. Its ruling would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering almost half the land in Oklahoma, including the author's own Cherokee Nation.Here Rebecca Nagle recounts the generations long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, By the Fire We Carry stands as a landmark work of American history.

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsList of color plates vii List of figures ix List of maps xiii Preface xv Abbreviations xix I An Overview: Greek Sanctuaries and Worship 1 II Greek Gods, Heroes, and Polytheism 31 III Seven Greek Cult Myths 53 IV Major Greek Cults 67 V Religion in the Greek Family and Village 123 VI Religion of the Greek City-State 149 VII Greek Religion and the Individual 171 VIII Greek Religion in the Hellenistic Period 193 IX Greek Religion and Greek Culture 213 X How Do We Know That? 235 XI Approaches to Greek Religion 251 Color Plates 267 Glossary of recurring Greek terms 269 Index 273

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Book SynopsisThis book consists of eight comparative studies drawn from history, archeology, economics, economic history, geography, and political science. The studies cover a spectrum of approaches; geographically, they include the United States, Mexico, Brazil, western Europe, tropical Africa, India, Siberia, Australia, New Zealand, and other Pacific islands.Trade ReviewA superb collection of eminently teachable essays bound together by a common methodological framework that connects it directly to cutting-edge theoretical and empirical research across the disciplines of anthropology, archeology, history, political science, and sociology. -- John Coatsworth, Columbia UniversityNatural Experiments of History reaches across a wide variety of disciplines, in ways that should be accessible to just about every educated reader. It is tied together not by topic or region but by the idea that we can make useful and insightful comparisons in ways that are not casual or sloppy, but actually contribute to our understanding of human life. -- Jeffry Frieden, Harvard UniversityNatural Experiments of History is a short book packed with huge ideas. Its collected essays advocate how controlled experiments can be applied to the messy realities of human history, politics, culture, economics and the environment. It demonstrates productive interdisciplinary collaborations but also reveals gulfs between different cultures of academia...All of the essays in Natural Experiments of History will trigger debate. -- Jon Christensen * Nature *This ambitious, at times challenging, book aspires to contribute new ways of historical thinking and historical research by drawing attention, on the one hand, to the similarities between science (including social sciences) and history, and on the other, by using social sciences methods, especially statistical analysis, to study history. The editors argue that though the difference between studies of nature and human history is obvious, there are clear overlaps. They can be viewed through studying comparative history or by conducting "natural experiments of history" and analyzing the "perturbations" and their causes (exogenous or endogenous) in the involved cases. The book offers a broad array of case studies to illustrate and explain the argument, ranging from nonliterate to contemporary societies and from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to Brazil, India, and tropical Africa. The comparative methods showcased are quite versatile, from two-way to multiple-way comparisons. All the case studies are interesting and help demonstrate how, via comparative study, one society's, region's, or country's situation is better displayed and explained by juxtaposing it with other, similar ones. A useful read in macro, global history. -- Q. E. Wang * Choice *Natural Experiments of History is a thought-provoking collection of essays that covers an impressive array of topics and would make an excellent text for a course on comparative studies of human history." -- Thomas E. Currie * Cliodynamics *Table of Contents* Prologue: Natural Experiments of History Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson * Controlled Comparison and Polynesian Cultural Evolution Patrick V. Kirch * Exploding Wests: Boom and Bust in Nineteenth-Century Settler Societies James Belich * Politics, Banking, and Economic Development: Evidence from New World Economies Stephen Haber * Intra-Island and Inter-Island Comparisons Jared Diamond * Shackled to the Past: The Causes and Consequences of Africa's Slave Trades Nathan Nunn * Colonial Land Tenure, Electoral Competition, and Public Goods in India Abhijit Banerjee and Lakshmi Iyer * From Ancien Regime to Capitalism: The Spread of the French Revolution as a Natural Experiment Daron Acemoglu, Davide Cantoni, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson * Afterword: Using Comparative Methods in Studies of Human History Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson * Contributors

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Book SynopsisWorks in this volume recount the circumstances of Socrates’ trial and execution in 399 BC. Euthyphro attempts to define holiness; Apology is Socrates’ defense speech; in Crito he discusses justice and defends his refusal to be rescued from prison; Phaedo offers arguments for the immortality of the soul.

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Book SynopsisThe story of one of the most brilliant, flamboyant and historically important men who ever lived.''A superb achievement'' LITERARY REVIEW''Combines scholarship with storytelling to bring the ancient world to life: in his masterly new CAESAR he shows us the greatest Roman as man, statesman, soldier and lover'' Simon Sebag Montefiore''Magnificent'' DAILY TELEGRAPHFrom the very beginning, Caesar''s story makes dazzling reading. In his late teens he narrowly avoided execution for opposing the military dictator Sulla. He was decorated for valour in battle, captured and held to ransom by pirates, and almost bankrupted himself by staging games for the masses. As a politician, he quickly gained a reputation as a dangerously ambitious maverick. By his early 30s he had risen to the position of Consul, and was already beginning to dominate the Senate. His affairs with noblewomen were both frequent and scandalous.His greaTrade ReviewGoldsworthy's magnificent biography places Caesar in the context of the Roman world and shows why we return to the great man * DAILY TELEGRAPH *Goldsworthy is renowned as a military historian, but his coverage here of messy late Republican politics is also authoritative and clear. He gives us a colourful sense of the wider world and Roman society at this time, and above all, the commanding, unmistakeable presence of the timelessly fascinating man himself * INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *Adrian Goldsworthy's account of this extraordinary period is a superb achievement. He writes at length and in detail, but with a light touch, never allowing the complexities to obscure the sharpness of the story line...It is a model of the way ancient biographies should be written * LITERARY REVIEW *Goldsworthy is the one of the new generation of young classicists who combine scholarship with storytelling to bring the ancient world to life: in his masterly new CAESAR he shows us the greatest Roman as man, statesman, soldier and lover -- Simon Sebag MontefioreThe analysis of Caesar's generalship is predictably excellent, the account of the Gallic wars, in particular, has rarely been bettered * SPECTATOR *This admirable biography... is so lucid, so comprehensive and so balanced -- Allan Massie * DAILY TELEGRAPH *A compelling biography of Julius Caesar, charting his fantastically eventful life * FINANCIAL TIMES *Goldsworthy is a fine military historian and his account of the Gallic Wars is exemplary * INDEPENDENT *[Goldsworthy] is careful and judicious in his analyses, seeking to integrate the man of action, the scholar, the showman, the lover, legal reformer, town planner * THE TABLET *Adrian Goldsworthy's 519-page work certainly does justice to the scale of his subject, and the evidence is masterfully assembled -- Boris Johnson * MAIL ON SUNDAY *Richness of detail illuminates to great effect the risk-taking, self-promotion and sheer force of will that fuelled Caesar's extraordinary career * BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE *A thorough and wide-ranging biography of a legendary figure * DAILY EXPRESS *Highly enjoyable... [Goldsworthy] writes well, and with real authority -- Simon Heffer * COUNTRY LIFE *Goldsworthy's magnificent biography places Caesar in the context of the Roman world and shows why we return to the great man. -- Toby Clements * Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisIn a bestselling work of profound and lasting importance, the late Albert Hourani told the definitive history of the Arab peoples from the seventh century, when the new religion of Islam began to spread from the Arabian peninsula westwards, to the present day. It is a masterly distillation of a lifetime of scholarship and a unique insight into a perpetually troubled region.This updated edition by Malise Ruthven adds a substantial new chapter which includes recent events such as 9/11, the US invasion of Iraq and its bloody aftermath, the fall of the Mubarak and Ben Ali regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, and the incipient civil war in Syria, bringing Hourani''s magisterial history up to date. Ruthven suggests that while Hourani can hardly have been expected to predict in detail the massive upheavals that have shaken the Arab world recently he would not have been entirely surprised, given the persistence of the kin-patronage networks he describes in his book and

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Book SynopsisIn the summer of 1967, not long after the Six Day War, three young Palestinian men ventured into the town of Ramla in Israel. They were cousins, on a pilgrimage to see their childhood homes, from which they and their families had been driven out nearly twenty years earlier. One cousin had the door slammed in his face, one found that his old house had been converted into a school. But the third, Bashir, was met at the door by a young woman named Dalia, who invited him in...This poignant encounter is the starting point for the story of two families - one Arab, one Jewish - which spans the fraught modern history of the region. In the lemon tree his father planted in the backyard of his childhood home, Bashir sees a symbol of occupation; Dalia, who arrived in 1948 as an infant with her family, as a fugitive from Bulgaria, sees hope for a people devastated by the Holocaust. Both are inevitably swept up in the fates of their people and the stories of their lives form a microcosm oTrade ReviewAt a time when peace seems remote and darkness deepens, this lucid, humane, hopeful book shines like a ray of light * The Times *A superb, sustained piece of narrative non-fiction * The Sunday Times *Extraordinary... Tolan's narrative provides a much needed human dimension to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict... a highly readable and evocative history * Washington Post *Reads like a novel... an informed take for anyone interested in the human stories behind a conflict * New Statesman *A fascinating and highly absorbing account full of warmth, compassion and hope * Scotland on Sunday *

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Book Synopsis'A lovely debut from a gifted young author. Violet Moller brings to life the ways in which knowledge reached us from antiquity to the present day in a book that is as delightful as it is readable.' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk RoadsIn The Map of Knowledge Violet Moller traces the journey taken by the ideas of three of the greatest scientists of antiquity – Euclid, Galen and Ptolemy – through seven cities and over a thousand years. In it, we follow them from sixth-century Alexandria to ninth-century Baghdad, from Muslim Cordoba to Catholic Toledo, from Salerno’s medieval medical school to Palermo, capital of Sicily’s vibrant mix of cultures, and – finally – to Venice, where that great merchant city’s printing presses would enable Euclid’s geometry, Ptolemy’s system of the stars and Galen’s vast body of writings on medicine to spread even more widely. In tracing these fragile strands of knowledge from century to century, from east to west and north to south, Moller also reveals the web of connections between the Islamic world and Christendom, connections that would both preserve and transform astronomy, mathematics and medicine from the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Vividly told and with a dazzling cast of characters, The Map of Knowledge is an evocative, nuanced and vibrant account of our common intellectual heritage.'An endlessly fascinating book, rich in detail, capacious and humane in vision.' Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became ModernTrade ReviewSuperb . . . Ambitious but concise, deeply researched but elegantly written, and very entertaining, The Map of Knowledge is popular intellectual history at its best * Daily Telegraph *A sumptuous, glittering, endlessly fascinating book, written with passion, verve and humour. -- Catherine Nixey, author of The Darkening AgeAs the historian Violet Moller reveals in her expansive book, the passage of ideas from antiquity through the Middle Ages and beyond was fraught with obstacles . . . The story she tells is a fascinating one. -- Daisy Dunn * Sunday Times *If, say, the streets of 10th-century Baghdad seem a little remote, Moller's travelogue of ideas brings such places vividly to life - and explains how the modern world came into being along the way. * History Revealed *What Moller does . . . is to imagine vivid scenes and scenarios and to populate them with colourful historical figures thinking big, bold, beautiful ideas. -- Ian Sansom * Spectator *Moller's brings the wonders of the medieval Muslim empires vividly to life. -- James Marriott * The Times *Euclid’s Elements is the seed from which my subject of mathematics grew. Thanks to Violet Moller’s fascinating and meticulous account I’ve had a glimpse of just how this text, together with works by Ptolemy and Galen, blossomed as they wound their way through the centuries and the seven cities at the heart of her book. What an adventure. -- Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and author of The Creativity CodeThe Map of Knowledge is extremely important and insightful. It shines a light on how we know what we know about antiquity and the people and cultures we have to thank for the preservation and interpretation of ancient wisdom. We need much more of this! -- Professor Michael Scott, author of Ancient Worlds: An Epic History of East and WestA lovely debut from a gifted young author. Violet Moller brings to life the ways in which knowledge reached us from antiquity to the present day in a book that is as delightful as it is readable -- Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk RoadsAn epic treasure hunt into the highways and byways of stored knowledge across faiths and continents. -- John Agard, poet and playwrightAn exceptionally bold and important book -- Daisy Hay, author of Young RomanticsThe Map of Knowledge is an endlessly fascinating book, rich in detail, capacious and humane in vision. -- Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became ModernThe author’s prose runs smoothly and she wears her considerable learning lightly. Beautifully illustrated, bound and set, this is a concise, timely and important book—and popular history at its best. -- Ross Leckie * Country Life *Fascinating * Daily Telegraph *After the fall of Rome, the libraries of the West were burned by marauding Goths and Huns, and the Greek and Roman classics survived only in the Islamic world. Violet Moller’s wonderful The Map of Knowledge . . . tells the story of how that knowledge was first preserved, then returned to Europe through Arabic translations made in cities such as Baghdad, Palermo, Toledo and Cordoba. It is a beautifully written and researched work of intellectual archaeology. -- William Dalrymple * Spectator 'Books of the year' *Table of ContentsSection - i: Preface Chapter - 1: The Great Vanishing Chapter - 2: Alexandria Chapter - 3: Baghdad Chapter - 4: Cordoba Chapter - 5: Toldedo Chapter - 6: Salerno Chapter - 7: Sicily Chapter - 8: Venice Chapter - 9: 1500 and beyond Acknowledgements - ii: Acknowledgements Section - iii: Bibliography Section - iiii: Notes Index - iiiii: Index

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Book SynopsisSome 66 million years ago, an asteroid some seven miles across slammed into the Earth, leaving a geologic wound over 50 miles in diameter. In the terrible mass extinction that followed, more than half of known species vanish seemingly overnight. But this worst single day in the history of life of Earth was as critical for us as it was for the dinosaurs, as it allowed for evolutionary opportunities that were closed for the previous 100 million years. In The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, Riley Black walks readers through what happened in the days, the years, the centuries and the million years after the impact. Life's losses were sharp and deeply felt, but the hope carried by the beings that survived sets the stage for the world as we know it now.

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Book SynopsisArguably two of the finest fighters built during the course of World War II, the Me 262 and P-51 Mustang heralded new dawns in aircraft performance. Making its operational debut in the summer of 1944, and powered by the Jumo 004 jet engine, the Me 262 outclassed Allied planes in terms of speed and firepower ratio, offering a formidable punch with four 30 mm MK 108 nose-mounted cannons. However, in the P-51, fitted with the Rolls-Royce (Packard) Merlin engine and drop tanks, the USAAF finally had a fighter that had the legs' to escort its heavy bombers deep into Reich airspace and back. If flown to its strengths, the P-51 was more than capable of taking on the feared Me 262 on an equal footing, despite the differences in power and top speed. Indeed, the Mustang proved to be the Luftwaffe fighter arm's nemesis. When the P-51D sortied over Germany from the summer of 1944 onwards, it shredded through the ill-trained and depleted Gruppen of the Luftwaffe's defence wings.This bTable of ContentsIntroduction /Chronology /Design and Development /Technical Specifications/ The Strategic Situation /The Combatants /Combat /Statistics and Analysis /Aftermath /Further Reading /Index

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Book SynopsisThe astonishing drama of Cold War nuclear poker that divided humanity - reissued with a new Postscript to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the wall. During the night of 12–13 August 1961, a barbed-wire entanglement was hastily constructed through the heart of Berlin. It metamorphosed into a structure that would come to symbolise the insanity of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. Frederick Taylor tells the story of the post-war political conflict that led to a divided Berlin and unleashed an East–West crisis, which lasted until the very people the Wall had been built to imprison breached it on 9 November 1989. Weaving together history, original archive research and personal stories, The Berlin Wall, now published in fifteen languages, is the definitive account of a divided city and its people in a time when humanity seemed to stand permanently on the edge of destruction.Trade ReviewA gripping, impassioned history of the Cold War’s most malevolent symbol * New York Times *Superb, fast-paced and readable history * Evening Standard *Masterful * Guardian *Compulsive reading -- London Review of Books

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Book SynopsisThe Sunday Times Bestseller and insipration behind David Mitchell's Unruly'Entertaining and informative . . . Delightful' IndependentThere are many reasons to be fascinated by Germany: forests, architecture and fairy tales, not to mention its history and inhabitants’ penchant for very peculiar food. Our distant and often maligned cousin, this is a place in which innumerable strange characters have held power, in which a chaotic jigsaw of borders have moved about seemingly at random, and which at the dark heart of the 20th century fell into the hands of truly terrible forces. And now Simon Winder is here to tell us everything else there is to know about this mesmerizing, tortured and endlessly fascinating country.Germania is also a personal guide to the Germany that Simon Winder loves. In this startlingly vibrant account, Winder describes Germany’s past afresh, starting with the shaggy world of the ancient forests, all the way up to the present day – and in doing so, he sees and begins to understand a country much like our own: Protestant, aggressive and committed to betterment. Joining Danubia and Lotharingia in Winder’s endlessly fascinating retelling of European history, Germania is a brilliant, vivid and enthusiastic insight to the hidden wonders of GermanyTrade ReviewAn engrossing, informative and hilarious read * The Sunday Times *Magnificently crazy -- Will Self * Esquire *The high plateau of my year was my catching up with Simon Winder. Danubia and Germania are an idiosyncratic, often funny fusion of history writing, travel writing and disrespect. -- Sir Tom Stoppard * TLS *Travelogue and historical narrative are merged in a gloriously free-wheeling narrative of the entire sweep of German history. * The Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisWinner, 2021 Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize, given by the National Women''s Studies AssociationWinner, 2021 Harry Levin Prize, given by the American Comparative Literature AssociationWinner, 2021 Lambda Literary Award in LGBTQ StudiesArgues that Blackness disrupts our essential ideas of race, gender, and, ultimately, the humanRewriting the pernicious, enduring relationship between Blackness and animality in the history of Western science and philosophy, Becoming Human: Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World breaks open the rancorous debate between Black critical theory and posthumanism. Through the cultural terrain of literature by Toni Morrison, Nalo Hopkinson, Audre Lorde, and Octavia Butler, the art of Wangechi Mutu and Ezrom Legae, and the oratory of Frederick Douglass, Zakiyyah Iman Jackson both critiques and displaces the racial logic that has dominated scientific thought since the EnlighteTrade ReviewThis is a demanding, complex, and highly significant contribution to the literature on the nature of the moral and philosophical distinctions between human and nonhuman creatures...The implications for theological anthropology are, undoubtedly, shattering. * Literature and Theology *Within Western philosophy, Zakiyyah Iman Jackson shows, Black people historically have been 'animalized.' In examining these limitations of Western philosophy, Becoming Human shows that the fundamental idea of 'humanity' that has gained widespread credence in the West is flawed … Jackson makes an intervention by firmly placing Black literary and visual culture into philosophy. * Public Books *Jackson’s scholarship has been critical to my recent curatorial work. This groundbreaking book considers how Blackness can coincide with notions of the nonhuman and animality through imaginative and emancipatory modes of being, invoking a future that breaches contemporary ideas of humanism through thoughtful research and cultural references that center Black women as a site of origin. * Artforum, "Best of 2021" *Rewriting the pernicious, enduring relationship between Blackness and animality in the history of Western science and philosophy, Becoming Human: Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World breaks open the rancorous debate between Black critical theory and posthumanism [...] What emerges is a radically unruly sense of a being, knowing, feeling existence: one that necessarily ruptures the foundations of 'the human. * Black Perspectives *Jackson states that real change will require “revolutionizing” the human body, and her prescription for freeing oneself from the limitations of gender and species requires the same “plasticity" by which Blackness and anti-Blackness continue to be defined. * CHOICE *The book presents a compelling argument and offers worthwhile suggestions. I will certainly have my undergraduates wrestle with some of this material in upcoming semesters. * Religions Journal *The sheer beauty, force, and ingenuity of Zakiyyah Iman Jackson's aesthetic strategies and gestures are on display as she performs the very risks and rewards she conjures. Offering a brilliant intervention into questions of the human, each of Jackson’s readings profoundly unsettle our presumed relations and prevailing ontologies. She reads western philosophy and science through African diasporic literatures, theories, and visual art to open us up to what is made—what might be made—in excess of the matrix of antiblackness and its constitutive forms of the human, animal, gender, and matter. In the book’s range of knowledges, reach, and scope, no field nor discipline would not benefit from a real and sustained engagement with the work that Jackson undertakes here. -- Christina Sharpe, author of In the WakeBrilliantly reframes the relation between blackened life and the category of the human, by shifting the terms of the debate. She maintains that neither dehumanization nor exclusion are sufficient to explain antiblackness and its descending scale of life. In so doing, Jackson's ‘ontological plasticity’ reveals the controlled depletion that produces the liquidity of life and fleshly existence, and enables blackened life to be anything, which is also to say nothing at all. Jackson’s rigorous and sustained meditation is relentless in exploring the possibilities for a generative disordering of being, inhabiting other senses of the world, and imagining the field of relation in ceaseless flux and directionless becoming. -- Saidiya Hartman, author of Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments

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Book Synopsis'I will be forever changed by Dr Eger's story' OPRAHThis practical and inspirational guide to healing from the bestselling author of The Choice shows us how to release your self-limiting beliefs and embrace your potential.The prison is in your mind. The key is in your pocket.In the end, it's not what happens to us that matters most - it's what we choose to do with it. We all face suffering - sadness, loss, despair, fear, anxiety, failure. But we also have a choice; to give in and give up in the face of trauma or difficulties, or to live every moment as a gift.Celebrated therapist and Holocaust survivor, Dr Edith Eger, provides a hands-on guide that gently encourages us to change the imprisoning thoughts and destructive behaviours that may be holding us back. Accompanied by stories from Eger's own life and the lives of her patients her empowering lessons help you to see your darkest moments as your greatest teachers and find freedom through the strength that lies within.'An essential read for tough times' RANGAN CHATTERJEE'Wise and provocative' THE DAILY MAILTrade ReviewEdith Eva Eger is my kind of hero… rather than let her painful past destroy her, she chose to transform it into a powerful gift – one she uses to help others heal -- Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass CastleDr Eger’s life reveals our capacity to transcend even the greatest of horrors and to use that suffering for the benefit of others. She has found true freedom and forgiveness and shows us how we can as well -- Desmond TutuI’ll be forever changed by Dr. Eger’s story… we all have the ability to pay attention to what we’ve lost, or to pay attention to what we still have -- OprahWise and provocative * The Daily Mail *Dr Edith Eger knows better than most how trauma and sadness can affect us all. This hopeful and helpful book explains how rather than limiting us they can transform our lives. An essential read for tough times -- Rangan Chatterjee

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Book SynopsisWhy did the Vikings sail to England? Were they indiscriminate raiders, motivated solely by bloodlust and plunder? One narrative, the stereotypical one, might have it so. But locked away in the buried history of the British Isles are other, far richer and more nuanced, stories; and these hidden tales paint a picture very different from the ferocious pillagers of popular repute.In this book, Eleanor Parker unlocks secrets that point to more complex motivations within the marauding army that in the late-9th century voyaged to the shores of eastern England in its sleek, dragon-prowed longships. Exploring legends from forgotten medieval texts, and across the varied Anglo-Saxon regions, she depicts Vikings who came not just to raid but also to settle personal feuds, intervene in English politics and find a place to call home. Native tales reveal the links to famous Vikings like Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons, Cnut, and Havelok the Dane. Each myth shows how the legacy of the newcomerTrade ReviewMeticulously researched, impressively informative, thoughtfully insightful, and an inherently fascinating read from cover to cover, "Dragon Lords: The History and Legends of Viking England" is an extraordinary work of scholarship that is exceptionally accessible for both academia and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject. * Midwest Book Review *Summing Up: Recommended. -- D.J. Shepherd, independent scholar * CHOICE *An absorbing and authoritative account of the survival of Scandinavian legends and history in post-Conquest England. This beautifully written book succeeds in casting Viking invaders and settlers in an unexpected new light. -- Carolyne Larrington, University of Oxford, UKDragon Lords tells the fascinating and hitherto unknown story of how the Viking invasions of England were turned into myth and legend by those whom the Scandinavians raided and later ruled. -- Heather O'Donoghue, University of Oxford, UKPart literary study, part historical investigation and part folkloric inquiry, it makes a riveting and rewarding read. -- Levi Roach, University of Exeter, UKTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Timeline of Key Texts and Events Acknowledgements A Note on Names Map of Anglo-Saxon England Introduction 1. 'From the north comes all that is evil': Vikings, Kings and Saints, c. 985-1100 2. The Sons of Ragnar Lothbrok 3. The Story of Siward 4. Danish Sovereignty and the Right to Rule 5. 'Over the salt sea to England': Havelok and the Danes Epilogue: The Danes in English Folklore Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA stonemason''s story of the building of Britain: part archaeological history, part deeply personal insight into an ancient craft. In his thirty-year career, stonemason Andrew Ziminski has worked on many of our greatest monuments. From Neolithic monoliths to Roman baths and temples, from the tower of Salisbury Cathedral to the engine houses, mills and aqueducts of the Industrial Revolution and beyond, The Stonemason is his very personal history of how Britain was built - from the inside out. Stone by different stone, culture by different culture, Andrew Ziminski (with his faithful whippet in tow) takes us on an unforgettable journey by river, road and sea through our countryside showing how the making of Britain''s buildings offers an unexpected and new version of our island story.''My school history lessons were focused around flat pages of facts, events and royal personalities, but for me it was the material aspects of the past, the tangible remnaTrade ReviewThe author is a beguiling companion to the very bones of the Wessex landscape . . . I hope he has plenty left from his notebooks for another volume * Sunday Telegraph *In attempting to reconnect us to this continuous narrative of English history and architecture, Ziminski is undertaking something more profound than the charm of this delightful book first suggests. Delicate as the threads that tie us to the past can seem, thanks to work like Ziminski's, both as mason and as author, we can hope they will remain unbroken * Daily Telegraph *Andrew Ziminski is the man who rebuilt the West Country. For 30 years, this skilled stonemason has renovated some of Britain's greatest buildings . . . The author skilfully explains the history of these stones and - this is what makes his book so entertaining - relates them to jobs he has done . . . Ziminski is one of those lucky souls with rural X-ray spectacles. He looks at the countryside and sees a series of historical slides going back over several millennia . . . Ziminski has a wonderful way of describing the look and feel of stone . . . What a magician! * The Spectator *The author's eagerness to experience the past physically sets him apart from drier academic historians . . . Ziminski's writing is vividly evocative and craftsmanlike . . . it's a fascinating book and a wise one * Daily Mail *Like nurses, masons must know in detail about the lives of the buildings they care for. This intimate knowledge has given Andrew Ziminski unique insights into some of England's oldest and most beautiful structures. But this book is as much about people as mortar and stone. It's a conversation with the past, from which I learnt so much. My book of the year! * Francis Pryor, Time Team archaeologist and author of THE MAKING OF THE BRITISH LANDSCAPE *Thoughtful, observant and well-informed, as much at ease with words and emotions as with the stone he works with * History Today *A wonderful behind-the-scenes history, where time works on a different scale and stone is a living, breathing entity . . . by a master craftsman whose expertise connects him to the generations that came before him * BBC Countryfile Magazine *There are few reading pleasures that compare with a passionate expert describing their work, and Ziminski stands proudly in this field . . . Remarkable . . . Ziminski weaves together architecture, craft, landscape, archaeology and natural history, all the time keeping a sharp eye on modern everyday life around him * Literary Review *Most of us won't be jetting off to foreign adventures in the next few weeks, so there has probably never been a better time to discover or rediscover this magical land * The Times *This is a compelling book: part travel journal - paddling along misty streams in the South-West by canoe - part builder's manual - you learn about formwork and lateral thrust - and part hymn to the art of sustaining stone structures over centuries . . . it is rooted in the making of England and is a magical read * Evening Standard *[A] surrogate travel book, part memoir, part history, in which Andrew Ziminski describes his career as an itinerant craftsman. Refreshingly, he too recognizes how Eastern skills and styles arrived in Europe * Times Literary Supplement *In this delightful book about the places he's worked (from Wells Cathedral to Bath's Roman ruins) [Ziminski] reconnects us to our past * Daily Telegraph *Lyrical as much as it is factual and quickly grips the reader * The Langport Leveller *Enthralling . . . Along with riveting personal insights into this ancient craft, he immerses us in the past lives of the long-forgotten everyday craftspeople whose legacy is the buildings we so treasure today * Bookseller *

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsPreface Introduction1. Fragments of the Hymn to Dionysos2. To Demeter3. To Apollon4. To Hermes5. To Aphrodite6. To Aphrodite 7. To Dionysos8. To Ares 9. To Artemis 10. To Aphrodite 11. To Athena 12. To Hera 13. To Demeter 14. To the Mother of the Gods 15. To Lion-Hearted Herakles 16. To Asklepios17. To the Dioskouroi 18. To Hermes 19. To Pan 20. To Hephaistos 21. To Apollon 22. To Poseidon 23. To Zeus 24. To Hestia 25. To the Muses and Apollon 26. To Dionysos27. To Artemis28. To Athena 29. To Hestia30. To Earth, Mother of All 31. To Helios 32. To Selene 33. To the Dioskouroi To Guest-FriendsNotesSelect Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn illuminating study tracing the evolution of drone technology and counterterrorism policy from the Reagan to the Obama administrationsTrade Review“An insightful history of the development of America’s counterterrorism strategy, technology and organization from Reagan to Obama. This book offers well-researched and balanced judgments which underscore the crucial need for robust and clear oversight of covert operations.”—Bruce Riedel, Director of the Intelligence Project, Brookings Institution -- Bruce Riedel“In Christopher J. Fuller’s brilliantly written book, the origins of America’s controversial policy of using drones to fight terrorism emerge clearly for the first time.”—Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, author of We Know All About You: The Story of Surveillance in Britain and America -- Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones“Scholars, practitioners, and citizens alike will learn more here than anywhere else about the rise of drones and, especially, the largely unheralded role the CIA played in this development."—Loch K. Johnson, Regents Professor of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia -- Loch K. Johnson“A deeply researched, provocative, and important analysis of the origins of the CIA’s drone program.”—Kathryn Olmsted, Professor of History, University of California, Davis -- Kathryn Olmsted“Fuller carefully structures a historical analysis of American counterterrorism policy and the subsequent evolution of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) from the Reagan administration through today.”—Choice * Choice *

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Book SynopsisThe definitive biography of Israel's founder by one of Israel's most celebrated historians. As the founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion long ago secured his reputation as a leading figure of the twentieth century. Determined from an early age to create a Jewish state, he took control of the Zionist movement, declared Israel's independence, and navigated his country through wars, controversies and remarkable achievements. In this definitive biography, Tom Segev uses previously unreleased archival material to give an original, nuanced account that transcends the myths and legends that have built up around the man. He reveals Ben-Gurion's secret negotiations with the British on the eve of Israel's independence, his willingness to countenance the forced transfer of Arab neighbors, his relative indifference to Jerusalem, and his occasional eccentric moments – from UFO sightings to plans for Israel to acquire territory in South America. The result is a full and startling portrait of a man who sought a state 'at any cost' – at times through risk-taking, violence, and unpredictability, and at other times through compromise, moderation and reason. Segev's Ben-Gurion is neither a saint nor a villain but a twentieth-century leader whose iron will and complex temperament left a contentious legacy, and one of the world's most intractable national conflicts. Praise for A State at Any Cost: 'A must for anybody interested in both the glorious and the dark pages of the history of Zionism and Israel, as reflected throughout the life and times of the Jewish State's most important founding father' SAUL FRIEDLÄNDER 'The story of a hard-headed, pragmatic and ruthless politician, told without sentimentality or nostalgia. It also serves as a key to understanding today's Israel, which is still very much Ben-Gurion's creation' THE TIMES 'Fascinating... A masterly portrait of a titanic yet unfulfilled man... This is a gripping study of power, and the loneliness of power' THE ECONOMISTTrade ReviewTom Segev's meticulously researched and most elegantly written new biography of David Ben-Gurion is a must for anybody interested in both the glorious and the dark pages of the history of Zionism and Israel, as reflected throughout the life and times of the Jewish State's most important founding father -- Saul Friedländer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Nazi Germany and the Jews and Where Memory LeadsIn the course of six years of research, Segev [...] discovered a leader fraught with dramatic contrasts... The author has come up with significant historical revelations' * Ofer Aderet, Haaretz *Fascinating... A masterly portrait of a titanic yet unfulfilled man... This is a gripping study of power, and the loneliness of power' * Economist *[A] carefully researched and nonjudgemental biography... Tom Segev's A State at Any Cost aptly summarizes the lodestar of Ben-Gurion's life' -- Avraham Avi-hai, Jerusalem PostDeserves to be the definitive biography of Ben-Gurion. It is the story of a hard-headed, pragmatic and ruthless politician, told without sentimentality or nostalgia. It also serves as a key to understanding today's Israel, which is still very much Ben-Gurion's creation * The Times *Tom Segev has completed a monumental task. The work includes the research of a true detective -- Avner Cohen, author of Israel and the Bomb[A] body of work that has no equal either for the brilliance of his storytelling or the ironies of his analysis * London Review of Books *Without doubt one of the best biographies to have been written about David Ben-Gurion... Segev manages to hold the reader's attention' * Literary Review *The book offers an appreciation of the life of an extraordinary man and an understanding of the values, political attitudes and the very concept of the Zionist State... For readers with an interest in the subject, the book is worthwhile, informative and rewarding' * Pennant Magazine. *Authoritative... [Segev] gives us a many-sided character, showing Ben-Gurion's strengths and weaknesses, great moments and cruelties, successes and failures. If you want a balanced account of what has long been a controversial state, this is a good place to start, and Segev is already well known for the excellence of his writing on Israel' * Sorted. *

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Note on Pronunciation Introduction 1. Nannaya Entering the Mahabharata Udanka and the Snakes 2. Nannecoda On Poetry in Telugu How to Make God Fall in Love 3. Palkuriki Somanatha The Brahmin Widow and the Untouchable God 4. Tikkana The Slaying of Kicaka 5. Mañcana The Brahmin Who Kept His Wife in the Basement Quick Wit The Obliging Husband 6. Errapragada Vena and Prthu 7. Nacana Somanatha Naraka and Urvasi 8. Srinatha A Definition of Poetry Burning the Three Cities The Birth of Sukumara 9. Bammera Potana Visnu the Dwarf The Rescue of Gajendra 10. Annamayya Songs for the Lord of the Hills 11. Allasani Peddana The Brahmin Meets the Courtesan Sanskrit and Telugu 12. Krsnadevaraya The King’s Dream Visnu-citta of Villiputtur 13. Nandi Timmanna Satyabhama Kicks Krsna 14. Dhurjati The Story of Natkira 15. Tenali Ramakrsna On Becoming a Frog 16. Nutana-kavi Suranna Beauty or Wealth? 17. Pingali Suranna Beauty Unadorned 18. Appakavi On Poetry and Grammar On Good Books 19. Ksetrayya Courtesan Songs 20. Satakas Dhurjati. Kalahastisvara-satakamu Kañcarla Gopanna [Ramadasu]. Dasarathi satakamu Kasula Purusottamakavi. Andhra-nayaka-satakamu 21. Catu Verses 22. Sahaji Take My Wife 23. Samukhamu Venkatakrsnappa Nayaka The Love of Indra and Ahalya 24. Muddupalani How to Read a Book Radha Instructs Ila, Krsna’s New Bride, in the Arts of Love 25. Tyagaraja I Can’t See You Smile Take Me for Your Guard What Did You Give Them? Reach Him Through Music Won’t You Remove the Screen? Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIt would be easy for the modern reader to conclude that women had no place in the world of early modern espionage, with a few seventeenth-century women spies identified and then relegated to the footnotes of history. If even the espionage carried out by Susan Hyde, sister of Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, during the turbulent decades of civil strife in Britain can escape the historiographer''s gaze, then how many more like her lurk in the archives? Nadine Akkerman''s search for an answer to this question has led to the writing of Invisible Agents, the very first study to analyse the role of early modern women spies, demonstrating that the allegedly-male world of the spy was more than merely infiltrated by women. This compelling and ground-breaking contribution to the history of espionage details a series of case studies in which women -- from playwright to postmistress, from lady-in-waiting to laundry woman -- acted as spies, sourcing and passing on confidential information on account of political and religious convictions or to obtain money or power. The struggle of the She-Intelligencers to construct credibility in their own time is mirrored in their invisibility in modern historiography. Akkerman has immersed herself in archives, libraries, and private collections, transcribing hundreds of letters, breaking cipher codes and their keys, studying invisible inks, and interpreting riddles, acting as a modern-day Spymistress to unearth plots and conspiracies that have long remained hidden by history.Trade ReviewAkkerman has a knack for telling a good story, and her vignettes of strong, independent, and clever women paint a lively picture of seventeenth-century female spies. What distinguishes her book from most other academic monographs, however, is her very personal approach, which more traditional scholars might frown upon...Most of all, however, the book is proof that there is no excuse any more for excluding women from the narratives of mid-seventeenth-century political activism either on the royalist or parliamentarian side. * Gaby Mahlberg, Journal of Modern History *Revelatory. * Simon Heffer, Books of the Year 2018: History, The Daily Telegraph *A history book that will surely inspire future fiction. A work of deep scholarship and clever detective work. * Leanda de Lisle, Books of the Year 2018, BBC History Magazine *A dense, hugely researched and admirably learned history of women spies during the Civil War. * Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times *A brilliant book. * Noel Malcolm, The Sunday Telegraph *A triumph of scholarly rigour, original thinking and crisp prose. It is, in every sense, a cracking book. * Jessie Childs, The Daily Telegraph *Invisible Agents is a work of deep scholarship that suggests Akkerman would have made an excellent spy catcher. * Leanda de Lisle, The Times *Brimming with fascinating detail ... Akkerman's archival dissections admirably emulate the painstaking vigilance of early modern spy masters. * Clare Jackson, The Times Literary Supplement *Pioneering ... a most valuable book, highlighting women's contribution to the conspiratorial world of mid-17th-century Britain, while also offering a thought provoking exercise in gender and historical methods. * Ann Hughes, BBC History Magazine *An intriguing book ... [Akkerman's] own remarkable ability to ferret out secrets is often as great as that of the spies she writes about. Time after time, women whose lives, careers and even names have been forgotten or misread spring into stealthy, double-dealing life on the page. * Adrian Tinniswood, Literary Review *Invisible Agents breaks significant new ground in its focus on the special roles of Royalist and Parliamentarian 'she-intelligencers' and their hidden world. This is a model monograph, meticulously researched and relentlessly questioning, which succeeds admirably in uncovering closely guarded secrets. * R. C. Richardson, Times Higher Education *immensely readable...Akkerman has a knack for telling a good story, and her vignettes of strong, independent, and clever women paint a lively picture of seventeenth-century female spies. * Gaby Mahlberg, Journal of Modern History *Richly illustrated, scrupulously researched. * Frances E. Dolan, Renaissance Quarterly *This is a book full of rich and engaging details...this is a testament to the thoroughness of her academic practice. Ultimately, Invisible Agents is a text that serves as an invaluable starting point for the re-situation of women into narratives of early modern spying, and political history, offering readers across disciplines a varied and voluminous history of women's roles in seventeenth-century espionage. * Rose Hilton, AC Review of Books *A ground-breaking book looking at a previously unexplored aspect of the world of espionage ... Founded on work in a wide variety of archives, many of them previously undiscovered, Akkerman shines a light on one of the dark corners of the world of spies. * Military History Monthly *For a serious examination of the role of women in intelligence, turn to Nadine Akkerman's Invisible Agents. Doubly invisible, both as agents and in historical records, these women were at the heart of the intelligence network, yet they have never hitherto received the 'glory of Martyrs'. * Teresa Levonian Cole, Country Life *Fascinating and insightful ... Akkerman lifts the veil not only on a number of individual she-intelligencers, but also on the complex and varied business of female espionage in mid-seventeenth-century Britain. * Lena Steveker, English Studies *Akkerman deftly handles the challenges of writing about [female spies], assembling fragments of evidence where she can, acknowledging gaps where she must. Her book has much to teach us not only about espionage but about the creation of historical narratives. * Rachel Weil, American Historical Review *A dazzling study of a truly neglected subject, which ably demonstrates the gendered dimension of early modern spy-craft, and the unique ways in which women were able to operate. It is written by one of the foremost early modern textual-historical scholars of her generation and marshals an almost unmatched expertise in working with an impressive range of European and international archives of the period. The book delivers a series of fascinating case studies - including Charles I's prison correspondence, Secretary Thurloe, as well as female practitioners Susan Hyde, Elizabeth Murray, Elizabeth Carey, Anne Halkett, and Aphra Behn - all of which rest on a remarkable and overwhelming weight of archival research. This is an important book that will be widely read and cited, and which will have significant impact on many fields not least those of early modern gender and women's writing, but also political and diplomatic history. * Professor James Daybell, University of Plymouth *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Invisible Agents, She-Intelligencers, or Spies Invisible by Birth 1. Ciphered Pillow Talk with Charles I in Prison, 1646-1649: 'intrigues, which at that time could be best managed and carried on by ladies' 2. The Credibility and Archival Silence of She-Intelligencers: Women on the Council of State's Payroll 3. Susan Hyde. a Spy's Gendered Fate Punishment: Hide and Seek the Sealed Knot 4.I Elizabeth Murray, Loyal Subject, Lover or Double Agent?: Rumour, Hearsay and the Sins of the Father 4.II Elizabeth Murray's Continental Foray: Incompetence, Invisible Inks, and Internal Wrangling 5. Elizabeth Carey, Lady Mordaunt: The 'Enigma' of the Great Trust 6. Anne, Lady Halkett's 'True Accountt': A Married Woman Is Never to Blame 7. Aphra Behn's Letters from Antwerp, July 1666-April 1667: Intelligence Reports or Epistolary Fiction? Epilogue: Invisibility and Blanck Marshall, the Nameless and Genderless Agent Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisDescribes the history of economic thought, focusing on the development of economic theory from Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" to the late twentieth century. This text examines how important economists have reflected on the sometimes conflicting goals of efficient resource use and socially acceptable income distribution.Trade Review"Economics Evolving (excellent title) is an enjoyable and detailed presentation of the history of our profession. The focus is on the thoughts of individuals and, while schools of thought are broached, they are not central to the presentation. Historical background is presented and considered, but it is the development of economic thoughts that are at the heart of this analysis."--John J. Bethune, EH.Net "In non-technical language, he analyses how these great thinkers developed their theories, making for an essential guide to the great economic thinkers of the past 200-odd years."--Economist "Get a copy of Agnar Sandmo's book Economics Evolving."--Joseph E. Stiglitz @joestiglitz, Twitter "Taken as whole, this is one of those relatively rare books on economics that is both readable and thoughtful. It also fills a gap in the literature between primers written for non-economists and detailed (and sometimes arduous) histories of economic thought or its various subfields."--Cameron Gordon, Economic RecordTable of ContentsPreface vii Chapter 1: A Science and Its History 1 Chapter 2: Before Adam Smith 15 Chapter 3: Adam Smith 32 Chapter 4: The Classical School: Thomas Robert Malthusand David Ricardo 60 Chapter 5: Consolidation and Innovation: John Stuart Mill 89 Chapter 6: Karl Marx as an Economic Theorist 115 Chapter 7: The Forerunners of Marginalism 138 Chapter 8: The Marginalist Revolution I:William Stanley Jevons and Carl Menger 166 Chapter 9: The Marginalist Revolution II: Leon Walras 190 Chapter 10: Alfred Marshall and Partial Equilibrium Theory 213 Chapter 11: Equilibrium and Welfare: Edgeworth,Pareto, and Pigou 238 Chapter 12: Interest and Prices: Knut Wicksell and Irving Fisher 267 Chapter 13: New Perspectives on Markets and Competition 294 Chapter 14: The Great Systems Debate 318 Chapter 15: John Maynard Keynes and the Keynesian Revolution 339 Chapter 16: Frisch, Haavelmo, and the Birth of Econometrics 367 Chapter 17: The Modernization of EconomicTheory in the Postwar Period 391 Chapter 18: Further Developments in the Postwar Period 416 Chapter 19: Long-term Trends and New Perspectives 440 References 467 Index 485

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Book Synopsis'Wry, readable and often astonishing... A provocative and absorbing history of the United States' New York TimesThe United States denies having dreams of empire.We know America has spread its money, language and culture across the world, but we still think of it as a contained territory, framed by Canada above, Mexico below, and oceans either side. Nothing could be further from the truth.This is the story of the United States outside the United States – from nineteenth-century conquests like Alaska and Puerto Rico to the catalogue of islands, archipelagos and military bases dotted around the globe. Full of surprises and previously forgotten episodes, this fascinating book casts America’s history, and its present, in a revealing new light.Trade Review[A] smashing new book… fascinating -- Tim Stanley * Daily Telegraph *Lively and fascinating … [Immerwahr] is incapable of writing a dull page, and he has a real gift for making striking and unusual connections -- Noel Malcolm * Sunday Telegraph *To call this standout book a corrective would make it sound earnest and dutiful, when in fact it is wry, readable and often astonishing … It’s a testament to Immerwahr’s considerable storytelling skills that I found myself riveted by his sections on Hoover’s quest for standardized screw threads, wondering what might happen next. But beyond its collection of anecdotes and arcana, this humane book offers something bigger and more profound. How to Hide an Empire nimbly combines breadth and sweep with fine-grained attention to detail. The result is a provocative and absorbing history of the United States — ‘not as it appears in its fantasies, but as it actually is.’ * New York Times *There are many histories of American expansionism. How to Hide an Empire renders them all obsolete. It is brilliantly conceived, utterly original, and immensely entertaining - simultaneously vivid, sardonic and deadly serious. -- Andrew J. Bacevich, author of Twilight of the American CenturyThis book changes our understanding of the fundamental character of the United States as a presence in world history. By focusing on the processes by which Americans acquired, controlled, and were affected by territory, Daniel Immerwahr shows that the United States was not just another “empire,” but was a highly distinctive one the dimensions of which have been largely ignored. -- David A. Hollinger, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of Protestants AbroadHow to Hide an Empire is a breakthrough, for both Daniel Immerwahr and our collective understanding of America’s role in the world. His narrative of the rise of our colonial empire outside North America, and then our surprising pivot from colonization to globalization after World War II, is enthralling in the telling -- and troubling for anyone pondering our nation’s past and future. The result is a book for citizens and scholars alike. -- Samuel Moyn, professor of law and history at Yale UniversityA deft disquisition on America, and America in the world, with a raconteur’s touch and keen sense of the absurd -- Stephen Phillips * Spectator *[A] lively new book… Immerwahr peppers his account with colourful characters and enjoyable anecdotes… [How to Hide an Empire] throws light on the histories of everything from the Beatles to Godzilla, the birth-control pill to the transistor radio * Economist *This is an easily readable and vividly written book, filled with numerous fascinating tales, some well known, but many obscure… [How to Hide an Empire] illuminate[s] the wider history of both the United States and its colonies -- Andrew Johnstone * BBC History *How to Hide an Empire…achieves a strong grounding in its sources material and the wider history of empire studies… [it] is timely and raises weighty questions on themes of identity and belong that are all very relevant today * All About History *[A] vivid, and sometimes quirky, retelling of American expansionism… The originality of Immerwahr’s book… [is] in his explanation of how Washington purposely avoided converting its occupations to annexations -- Gavin Jacobson * New Statesman *Daniel Immerwahr… writes in the manner of an entertaining and informative lecturer who cannot wait to tell the class his latest discovery from the archives -- James Michael * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Written with vigor, full of absorbing stories and important insights, Croatia deserves to be read.” —New York Times “Stimulating … A long-overdue corrective to the onesidedly negative view long entertained about Croatia by the educated British public." —Times Higher Education Supplement “A lucid, expert account of Croatia's past at the bloody crossroads of big-power ambitions – Turks, Austrians, Italians, Russians – leads smoothly into a riveting close-up view of the 1990s fight for independence.” —Boyd Tonkin, Independent "Lucid and accessible."—Melanie McDonagh, Evening Standard "Croatia has often but not always been at war. After the Habsburgs historic victory over the Turks in the 1690s, northern Croatia enjoyed the benefits of peace and orderly government with few interruptions until the First World War. The 20th century has undone those gains. The last three generations have known warfare on a scale not seen since the Middle Ages. After the carnage of the First World War, followed the disastrous 'Independent State of Croatia' in 1941, a poisoned chalice, tainted with a Fascist ideology and an alliance with Hitler's Germany. The result was to plunge Croatia into civil war between left-wing Partisans and the Fascist Ustashe. And, after emerging into independent statehood once again in the 1990s, the Croats have continued to be dogged by the legacy of the past. The fighting of the 1940s and the mass killings of Croatia's Serb community came back to haunt the country 50 years on."—From the preface"Croatia has often but not always been at war. After the Habsburgs historic victory over the Turks in the 1690s, northern Croatia enjoyed the benefits of peace and orderly government with few interruptions until the First World War. The 20th century has undone those gains. The last three generations have known warfare on a scale not seen since the Middle Ages. After the carnage of the First World War, followed the disastrous 'Independent State of Croatia' in 1941, a poisoned chalice, tainted with a Fascist ideology and an alliance with Hitler's Germany. The result was to plunge Croatia into civil war between left-wing Partisans and the Fascist Ustashe. And, after emerging into independent statehood once again in the 1990s, the Croats have continued to be dogged by the legacy of the past. The fighting of the 1940s and the mass killings of Croatia's Serb community came back to haunt the country 50 years on."—From the preface

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Book SynopsisConcise history of Namibia from its origins until its independence.

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Book SynopsisA taboo-busting critique of the transfer of wealth from the global South to the global North.Trade Review'The most significant book published on the political economy of imperialism in the 21st century, written by the foremost scholar of global imperialism today.' -- Immanuel Ness, author of 'Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class''Global inequality isn't natural; it's created. Zak Cope explains how the rules of the international economy have been designed to benefit a few powerful nations in the Global North at the expense of most of the rest of the world. A brilliant intervention from one of the best scholars in the field.' -- Jason Hickel, Goldsmiths, University of London'Highly important and timely. Required reading for anyone interested in understanding the nature of current global capitalism, rather than remaining hoodwinked by the mythology of equality and liberty' -- Amiya Bagchi, Monash University'Powerfully challenges the imperialism-denial dominating Marxist theory and practice in Europe and North America and influential elsewhere. Whether or not you agree with all its arguments and conclusions, you'll find this to be a stimulating and thought-provoking book' -- John Smith, author of 'Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century'Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables Acknowledgements Introduction Part I - The Mechanics of Imperialism 1. Value Transfer 2. Colonial Tribute 3. Monopoly Rent 4. Unequal Exchange Part II - The Econometrics of Imperialism 5. Imperialism and Its Denial 6. Measuring Imperialist Value Transfer 7. Measuring Colonial Value Transfer 8. Comparing Value Transfer to Profits, Wages and Capital Part III - Foundations of the Labour Aristocracy 9. Anti-Imperialist Marxism and the Wages of Imperialism 10. The Metropolitan Labour Aristocracy 11. The Native Labour Aristocracy Part IV - Social Imperialism Past and Present 12. Social Imperialism before the First World War 13. Social Imperialism after the First World War 14. Social-Imperialist Marxism 15. Conclusion: Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism Today Appendix: Physical Quality of Life in Capitalist and Socialist Countries Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe significance of the Aran knit is so much more than an unusually popular design. Arans communicate warmth, comfort and a sense of home, which people the world over continue to respond to. Vawn Corrigan explores how the Aran knit became so iconic.

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Book SynopsisA landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family historyIn 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, ?in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.? Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi?s great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective.Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members?mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists?The Hundred Years'' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel?s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process. Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years'' War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.

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Book Synopsis

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