History Books

Book SynopsisIn recent times the popularity of the Camino de Santiago has prompted renewed interest in pilgrim walks in Ireland. Increasing numbers now follow ancient Irish pilgrim paths to such holy places as Glencolumbkille, Croagh Patrick, Lough Derg and Glendalough. John G. O'Dwyer has walked - or, in the case of Clonmacnoise, cycled - the pilgrim trails of Ireland, from Slieve Mish in the northeast, where Christianity may have had its first dawning in Ireland, to Skellig Michael in the southwest, where the known world once ended. Each walk description has directions, the degree of difficulty, estimated time and a map. The paths are varied and suited to a range of abilities, from casual ramblers to committed walkers. In each route the author recounts his feelings and experiences, and describes the entertaining and insightful characters he meets along the way.Trade Review"The author recounts his feelings and experiences, and describes the entertaining and insightful characters he meets along the way.""This one has earned its place in the rucksack.""A great addition to the seasoned hillwalker's library." "Beautifully produced with fine photographs and clear, if rather basic, maps.""Even in familiar surroundings O'Dwyer's prose seems fresh ... for those who are prepared to acknowledge a rationale beyond just visiting summits, this may well end up being considered to be a bit of a minor classic.""Excellent." "Attractive little guide." "This book acts as the perfect satnav. It leads you along your chosen path."

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Book SynopsisDionysius of Halicarnassus, born c. 60 BCE, aimed in his critical essays to reassert the primacy of Greek as the literary language of the Mediterranean world. They constitute an important development from the somewhat mechanical techniques of rhetorical handbooks to more sensitive criticism of individual authors.

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Book SynopsisAeschylus (ca. 525–456 BC) is the dramatist who made Athenian tragedy one of the world’s great art forms. Seven of his eighty or so plays survive complete, including the Oresteia trilogy and the Persians, the only extant Greek historical drama. Fragments of his lost plays also survive.Trade ReviewAlan Sommerstein’s three-volume Aeschylus…is in many respects the best critical edition of this playwright available in any format. Sommerstein’s authority as a linguist and expert in Aeschylean drama is second to none, and he has provided an up-to-date and carefully constituted text for the seven surviving plays, plus all of the fragmentary remains that are at least one line long. Important manuscript variants and modern conjectures are scrupulously recorded (making the page a little cluttered, but clear enough); and in addition he has provided copious notes, fuller and more numerous than is normal for a Loeb, on matters of myth, geography, history and interpretation. -- Mark Griffith * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisAelius Aristides (117–after 180), among the most versatile authors of the Second Sophistic and an important figure in the transmission of Hellenism, produced speeches and lectures, declamations on historical themes, polemical works, prose hymns, and essays on a wide variety of subjects.

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

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Book SynopsisLucian (ca. AD 120190), apprentice sculptor then traveling rhetorician, settled in Athens and developed an original brand of satire. Notable for the Attic purity and elegance of his Greek and for literary versatility, he is famous chiefly for the lively, cynical wit of the dialogues in which he satirizes human folly, superstition, and hypocrisy.

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Book SynopsisSilius Italicus composed an epic Punica in 17 books on the Second Punic War. His poem relies largely on Livy’s prose for facts. It also echoes poets, especially Virgil, and employs techniques traditional in Latin epic.

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Book SynopsisFrontinus’ Stratagems, written after AD 84, gives examples of military stratagems and discipline from Greek and Roman history, for the instruction of Roman officers. The Aqueducts of Rome, written in 97–98, gives some historical details and a description of the aqueducts for the water supply of the city, with laws relating to them.

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Book SynopsisKoonz’s latest work reveals how racial popularizers developed the infrastructure and rationale for genocide during the so-called normal years before World War II. Challenging conventional assumptions about Hitler, Koonz locates the source of his charisma not in his summons to hate, but in his appeal to the collective virtue of his people, the Volk.Trade ReviewFaced with the German degradation and murder of the Jews from 1933 to 1945, historians and, indeed, so many thoughtful men and women have posed no question more insistently than, 'How could it happen?' Claudia Koonz's powerfully written study of the inculcation of a Nazi racialist ethos in the years before extermination answers this question as persuasively as any other to date. -- Charles S. Maier, author of The Unmasterable Past: History, Holocaust, and German National IdentityIn this valuable and original book, Claudia Koonz analyzes how the Nazis legitimized the Third Reich and facilitated Hitler's consensual dictatorship and genocidal policies. This daring reinterpretation of the relationship between the Nazi leadership, its middle- and low-ranking cadres, and other sectors of the German population shows the gradual shift in public opinion toward the regime's worldview. Ultimately, Nazism created a positive, moral image of itself just as it sanctioned the annihilation of enemies perceived as unethical and immoral. -- Omer Bartov, author of Germany's War and the Holocaust: Disputed HistoriesClaudia Koonz's arresting new book makes the case that between 1933 and 1939, before the Second World War and the Holocaust, the Nazis built a perverse ethical consensus in Germany. Preaching fears of racial weakness along with pride and commitment to a new moral order, self-righteous opinion leaders created an ethnic fundamentalism--of which we have not, she suggests in a closing reflection, seen the last. -- Michael R. Marrus, author of The Holocaust In HistoryThis is an artfully written book, with engaging asides and a captivating sense of detail and touching comment that is rare for a volume on Nazism. I don't know where else I've learned so much about everyday life and culture under Nazism. -- Robert N. Proctor, author of The Nazi War on CancerHitler, Koonz says, understood the German people's need for a sense of coherence in the wake of what many saw as the degeneracy of the Weimar Republic--and 'he promised to rescue old-fashioned values of honor and dignity' by offering a secular faith to replace lost religious certainties. Koonz explores the promotion of these beliefs in German culture and law, and how they led to the catastrophe of the Holocaust, adding much to our understanding of how a civilized society could reach such infamous levels of violence. * Publishers Weekly *Claudia Koonz...explains in her insightful new book how Germans, who were among Europe's least anti-Semitic people, came to support a leadership that sought to annihilate European Jewry...The readiness of many Germans to acquiesce evolved as a consequence of their internalization of the knowledge that was disseminated apparently by legitimate institutions of the state. As Koonz notes, the indoctrination was successful because there was little reason to question the facts conveyed by experts, documentary films, educational materials, and popular science. The German public was reeducated to support the elimination of Jews, Gypsies, the chronically ill, and other categories of the 'unfit'--all as a moral good, consistent with the dictates of conscience. Koonz's prodigious work is a major contribution to our understanding of the social and ideological history of the Third Reich. -- Jack Fischel * Weekly Standard *Koonz does not deny the existence of extremist and violent anti-Semites in the Nazi leadership. But her stress on the moderate way their ultimately genocidal plans were presented as necessary cruelties adds an important dimension in our understanding of the Nazi regime and its crime. -- Antony Polonsky * Boston Globe *Trudl Junge, former personal secretary to Adolf Hitler, once noted that the Führer's success came with his ability to manipulate other people's conscience. On a vast scale, the German people no longer knew right from wrong. Koonz presents a compelling argument to suggest that Junge was in some degree right. The Germans did not surrender their conscience but submitted to its transformation away from conventional Western notions of right and wrong to a radical, racial nationalism that established criteria for assessing moral actions and outcomes. -- J. Kleiman * Choice *Koonz displays the gradual transformation of the traditional idea of conscience into something that was utterly shaped by the subordination of one's own self to that of the Volk. -- Aharon ben Anshel * Jewish Press *[Koonz] documents in exemplary fashion what the historical actors actually thought, felt, advocated, planned, and organized before they acted...impressively researched, lucidly organized, disturbing, yet eminently readable. -- Michael Meyer * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsPrologue 1. An Ethnic Conscience 2. The Politics of Virtue 3. Allies in the Academy 4. The Conquest of Political Culture 5. Ethnic Revival and Racist Anxiety 6. The Swastika in the Heart of the Youth 7. Law and the Racial Order 8. The Quest for a Respectable Racism 9. Racial Warriors 10. Racial War at Home Abbreviations Notes Acknowledgments Illustration Credits Index

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Book SynopsisNo account is more critical to our understanding of Joan of Arc than the contemporary record of her 1431 trial. The record, which sometimes preserves Joan's very words, unveils her life, character, visions, and motives in fascinating detail. This new translation, the first in 50 years, is based on the full record of the trial proceedings in Latin.Trade Review[Hobbins’s] careful translation, the first in 50 years, may well become the definitive edition. -- Janice Farnham * America *The Trial of Joan of Arc is a translation of those illuminating Latin trial records by Daniel Hobbins… It is in these records that Joan speaks and her words—though filtered through the pens of enemies determined to mark her a blasphemous liar and heretic—are capable of moving anyone reading them, hence the numerous authors and poets that have been bewitched, including the likes of Leonard Cohen, Hilaire Belloc and Mark Twain… Joan’s replies, no matter how edited, have ensured her place in history not as a heretic burned at the stake as her inquisitors wanted, but as national hero, a saint, a fable, a myth—everything this trial tried to suppress. -- Gerry Bellett * Vancouver Sun *While no portraits of Joan of Arc survive from her lifetime, we are very fortunate to have access to the record of her trial in several languages, including this latest, first-rate edition in English. Daniel Hobbins…does an excellent job not only with his translation of the original texts themselves (in medieval French and Latin), but also with his introduction to the trial, Joan’s life and the importance of the trial record as medieval literature… It is an engrossing read, regardless of one’s academic background. -- Patricia Grimshaw * H-Net Online *Given Joan’s celebrity, Daniel Hobbins’s translation and commentary on the records (both in Latin and French) of her trial are welcome. His review of the transcripts and their subsequent interpretation by scholars over the last two centuries is a model of economy and clarity… In his historical commentary and excellent translation of the trial records, Hobbins does justice not only to both visionary and soldier, but also to the extraordinary peasant girl who amazed and troubled her contemporaries, and has continued to bedevil historians ever since. -- Herbert Berg * Journal of Church and State *Daniel Hobbins’s English translation of the three Latin and French legal records of proceedings against Joan of Arc contains both a readable translation and a valuable commentary on the trials’ context and importance. The records correct many misconceptions about what actually happened during the trials… Those wishing to understand how fifteenth century politics, inquisitorial procedure and gender constraints condemned a nineteen year old girl for wearing male garb and acting as a soldier (among many other charges) would profit from reading Hobbins’s translation. -- Laurence W. Marvin * Journal of Military History *Joan of Arc, the French peasant girl who claimed God instructed her to lead the French army to victory at Orléans during the Hundred Years’ War, has intrigued people for centuries. Captured by the Burgundians in 1430, she was held in a secular prison and tried the following year. Hobbins has translated the entire Latin text of the trial as found in Pierre Champion’s Proces de Condamnation de Jeanne d’Arc (1920), providing introductions and—in the case of matters dealing with court procedure rather than the actual trial—summaries. His translation is the first in 50 years. The text documents Joan’s belief in the voices she heard, her resistance to authority, her ‘err’ in faith to the Mother Church, and her immodest men’s dress. After four months of trial, she submitted to a retraction and some rehabilitation but continued to wear men’s clothing and was eventually burned at the stake as a relapsed heretic. This trial transcript demonstrates her lack of intimidation by authority. -- L. Kriz * Library Journal *The record of Joan of Arc’s 1431 heresy trial is one of the most significant primary sources historians have for understanding this young woman’s life and beliefs. Now Hobbins, who teaches history at the University of Texas, has produced what is sure to be the definitive edition of the trial documents… Especially valuable is Hobbins’s 32-page introduction, which assesses the reliability of the text, explains medieval court procedure, and offers a description and evaluation of Joan herself… Sure to find wide use in classrooms, this text promises to transport any reader who wishes to go back in time with Joan of Arc. * Publishers Weekly *Table of ContentsMap, 1429 Note on the Translation Introduction 1. Preparatory Trial Joan is questioned about her voices, conduct in battle, wearing of men's clothing, and other matters. Her judges decide to proceed to an ordinary trial. 2. Ordinary Trial Joan is formally accused of heresy but refuses to submit to the Church. Upon sentencing, she recants and receives a sentence of perpetual imprisonment. 3. Trial for Relapse Joan withdraws her recantation and resumes wearing men's clothing. Sentenced as a relapsed heretic, she is handed over to the secular authorities for punishment. 4. Aftermath The authorities deliver their assessments after the death of Joan. Appendix: The "Poitiers Conclusions" Chronology Major Participants in the Trial Notes Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisFrancis Fukuyama’s controversial 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man demonstrates an important aspect of creative thinking: the ability to generate hypotheses and create novel explanations for evidence. In the case of Fukuyama’s work, the central hypothesis and explanation he put forward were not, in fact, new, but they were novel in the academic and historical context of the time. Fukuyama’s central argument was that the end of the Cold War was a symptom of, and a vital waypoint in, a teleological progression of history. Interpreting history as “teleological” is to say that it is headed towards a final state, or end point: a state in which matters will reach an equilibrium in which things are as good as they can get. For Fukuyama, this would mean the end of “mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government”. This grand theory, which sought to explain the end of the Cold War through a single overarching hypothesis, made the novel step of resurrecting the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel’s theory of history – which had long been ignored by practical historians and political philosophers – and applying it to current events.Table of ContentsWays in to the Text Who is Francis Fukuyama? What does The End of History and the Last Man Say? Why does The End of History and the Last Man Matter? Section 1: Influences Module 1: The Author and the Historical Context Module 2: Academic Context Module 3: The Problem Module 4: The Author's Contribution Section 2: Ideas Module 5: Main Ideas Module 6: Secondary Ideas Module 7: Achievement Module 8: Place in the Author's Work Section 3: Impact Module 9: The First Responses Module 10: The Evolving Debate Module 11: Impact and Influence Today Module 12: Where Next? Glossary of Terms People Mentioned in the Text Works Cited

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Book SynopsisA fascinating and dramatic investigation into the events that led to Winston Churchill becoming Prime Minister against the odds.‘A gripping story of Churchill’s unlikely rise to power’ Observer London, May 1940. Britain is under threat of invasion and Neville Chamberlain’s government is about to fall. It is hard for us to imagine the Second World War without Winston Churchill taking the helm, but in Six Minutes in May Nicholas Shakespeare shows how easily events could have gone in a different direction. It took just six minutes for MPs to cast the votes that brought down Chamberlain. Shakespeare moves from Britain’s disastrous battle in Norway, for which many blamed Churchill, on to the dramatic developments in Westminster that led to Churchill becoming Prime Minister. Uncovering fascinating new research and delving into the key players’ backgrounds, Shakespeare gives us a new perspective on this critical moment in our history.‘Totally captivating. It will stand as the best account of those extraordinary few days for very many years’ Andrew Roberts ‘Superbly written… Shakespeare has a novelist’s flair for depicting the characters and motives of men’ The Times ‘Utterly wonderful… It reads like a thriller’ Peter Frankopan SHORTLISTED FOR THE HWA NON-FICTION CROWN 2018*** Selected as a 2017 Book of the Year in the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Observer and The Economist ***Trade ReviewHistory books should give us insight and information, surprise and entertainment, and allow us to see the world, an incident or a character differently. Nicholas Shakespeare’s Six Minutes in May delivers in abundance. -- Anthony Sattin * Observer, Best Books of 2017 *Unputdownable… Us[es] new evidence with a novelist’s feeling for personality and atmosphere -- John Gray * Guardian, Best Books of 2017 *Of the abundant new books on the Second World War, Nicholas Shakespeare’s Six Minutes in May…takes the prize. The familiar story of how Churchill unexpectedly became prime minister in 1940 has never been told so amusingly, nor in such detail -- Simon Heffer * Daily Telegraph, Best History Books of 2017 *Nicholas Shakespeare’s Six Minutes in May: How Churchill Unexpectedly Became Prime Minister…is as gripping as a novel. Apart from being meticulously researched, thoroughly original and beautifully written, the book is an important reminder of the fact that the direction of history can change in a heartbeat -- Peter Frankopan * History Today, Best History Books of 2017 *An eloquent study in how quickly the political landscape can change -- and history with it * The Economist, Books of the Year 2017 *

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Book SynopsisHMS Conqueror is Britain''s most famous submarine. It is the only sub since World War Two to have sunk an enemy ship. Conqueror''s sinking of the Argentine cruiser Belgrano made inevitable an all-out war over the future of the Falkland Islands, and sparked off one of the most controversial episodes of twentieth century politics. The controversy was fuelled by a war-diary kept by an officer on board HMS Conqueror, and as a young TV producer in the 1980s Stuart Prebble scooped the world by locating the diary''s author and getting his story on the record. But in the course of uncovering his Falklands story, Stuart Prebble also learned a military secret which could have come straight out of a Cold War thriller. It involved the Top Secret activities of the Conqueror in the months before and after the Falklands War.Prebble has waited for thirty years to tell his story. It is a story of incredible courage and derring-do, of men

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Book SynopsisFarewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat traces the momentous decline and fall of the greatest of empires - from Queen Victoria''s Diamond Jubilee to the death of Winston Churchill in 1965. With characteristic balance, this masterpiece of narrative history describes the long retreat and final dissolution of the British Empire. The Pax Britannica Trilogy includes Heaven''s Command: An Imperial Progress and Pax Britannica: The Climax of an Empire. Together these three works of history trace the dramatic rise and fall of the British Empire, from the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 to the death of Winston Churchill in 1965. Jan Morris is also world-renowned for her collection of travel writing and reportage, spanning over five decades and including such titles as Venice, Coronation Everest, Hong Kong, Spain, A Writer''s World and most recently, Contact! ''The British Empire is fortunate in havin

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Book SynopsisIn the summer of 1812 Britain stood alone, fighting for her very survival against a vast European Empire. Only the Royal Navy stood between Napoleon''s legions and ultimate victory. In that dark hour America saw its chance to challenge British dominance: her troops invaded Canada and American frigates attacked British merchant shipping, the lifeblood of British defence.War polarised America. The south and west wanted land, the north wanted peace and trade. But America had to choose between the oceans and the continent. Within weeks the land invasion had stalled, but American warships and privateers did rather better, and astonished the world by besting the Royal Navy in a series of battles.Then in three titanic single ship actions the challenge was decisively met. British frigates closed with the Chesapeake, the Essex and the President, flagship of American naval ambition. Both sides found new heroes but none could equal Captain Phili

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Book SynopsisRenowned and much-loved travel writer Jan Morris turns her eye to Sydney: ''not the best of the cities the British Empire created ... but the most hyperbolic, the youngest at heart, the shiniest.'' Sydney takes us on the city''s journey from penal colony to world-class metropolis, as lively and charming as the city it describes. With characteristic exuberance and sparkling prose, Jan Morris guides us through the history, people and geography of a fascinating and colourful city. Jan Morris''s collection of travel writing and reportage spans over five decades and includes such titles as Venice, Hong Kong, Spain, Manhattan ''45, A Writer''s World and the Pax Britannica Trilogy. Hav, her novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. ''Sydney should be flattered. A great portrait painter has chosen it for her recent subject . . . Few writers - a handful of novelists apart - have got so far under the city'

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The first memoir of the Vietnam War and an all-time classic of war literature|40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION|In March 1965, Marine Lieutenant Philip J. Caputo landed in Danang with the first ground combat unit committed to fight in Vietnam. Sixteen months later, having served on the line in one of modern history's ugliest wars, he returned home - physically whole but emotionally destroyed, his youthful idealism shattered.A decade later, having reported first-hand the very final hours of the war, Caputo sat down to write ‘simply a story about war, about the things men do in war and the things war does to them’. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest war memoirs of all time.____________________‘A singular and marvellous work – a soldier’s-eye account that tells us, as no other book that I can think of has done, what it was actually like to be fighting in this hellish jungle’ The New York Times‘Unparalleled in its honesty, unapologetic in its candour and singular in its insights into the minds and hearts of men in combat, this book is as powerful to read today as the day it was published in 1977. Caputo has more than earned his place beside Sassoon, Owen, Vonnegut, and Heller’ Kevin Powers‘To call this the best book about Vietnam is to trivialize it. A Rumour of War is a dangerous and even subversive book, the first to insist that readers asks themselves the questions: How would I have acted? To what lengths would I have gone to survive? A terrifying book, it will make the strongest among us weep’ Los Angeles Times Book Review‘Caputo’s troubled, searching meditations on the love and the hate of war, on fear and the ambivalent discord warfare can create in the hearts of decent men are amongst the most eloquent I have read in modern literature’ New York Review of Books‘Superb. At times it is hard to remember that this is not a novel’ New Statesman

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Book Synopsis''It is the most singular of sounds, yet among the most ubiquitous. It is the sound of isolation that has sold itself to millions.''Miles Davis''s Kind of Blue is the best selling piece of music in the history of jazz, and for many listeners among the most haunting in all of twentieth-century music. It is also, notoriously, the only jazz album many people own. Recorded in 1959 (in nine miraculous hours), there has been nothing like it since. Its atmosphere - slow, dark, meditative, luminous - became all-pervasive for a generation, and has remained the epitome of melancholy coolness ever since.Richard Williams has written a history of the album which for once does not rip it out of its wider cultural context. He evokes the essence of the music - identifying the qualities that make it so uniquely appealing - while making effortless connections to painting, literature, philosophy and poetry. This makes for an elegant, graceful and beautifully-written narrative.

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Book SynopsisFew people rode the popular wave of the sixties quite like Tara Browne. One of Swinging London's most popular faces, he lived fast, died young and was immortalized for ever in the opening lines of 'A Day in the Life', a song that many critics regard as The Beatles' finest. But who was John Lennon's lucky man who made the grade and then blew his mind out in a car?Author Paul Howard has pieced together the extraordinary story of a young Irishman who epitomized the spirit of the times: racing car driver, Vogue model, friend of The Rolling Stones, style icon, son of a peer, heir to a Guinness fortune and the man who turned Paul McCartney on to LSD.I Read the News Today, Oh Boy is the story of a child born into Ireland's dwindling aristocracy, who spent his early years in an ancient castle in County Mayo, and who arrived in London just as it was becoming the most exciting city on the planet. The Beatles and the Stones were about to conquer America, Carnaby Street was setting the style template for the world and rich and poor were rubbing shoulders in the West End in a new spirit of classlessness. Among young people, there was a growing sense that they could change the world. And no one embodied the ephemeral promise of London's sixties better than Tara Browne.Includes a sixteen-page plate section of stunning colour photographs.Trade ReviewTara Browne was the golden boy around whom, for a short while, the entire extraordinary world of Sixties London seemed to revolve. Tara knew everybody and they all loved him, not for his money, as he feared, but because he, above them all, embodied the spirit of the age. I absolutely loved this book. It's a brilliant, vivid portrait of extraordinary times -- Miranda Seymour, author of In My Father's House After all these years, we at last know about the real life of the lucky man who made the grade. I found it fascinating to discover the true story of Tara Browne, a legend in a lyric. -- Hunter Davies, author of The Beatles: The Authorised BiographyI loved it! Howard's skilful evocation of an extraordinary turning point in cultural history is an absolute joy to read. The life of Tara Browne offers the perfect conduit into a psychedelic world populated by a legendary cast of characters that you simply couldn't make up. While it's clear that Howard undertook years of rigorous original research, his prose is always gripping and never laboured. The deep but slightly exasperated affection Howard feels for Browne injects pathos into this highly entertaining account of an extraordinary, chaotic, high-octane life -- Eleanor Fitzsimons, author of Wilde’s Women: How Oscar Wilde Was Shaped by the Women He Knew Tara Browne held the rare quality of romance. A figure of intense but passive glamour, he stood at the epicentre of the bohemian Anglo-Irish aristocracy and 1960s London at its most swinging, yet somehow gave the air of merely passing through life. In a wonderfully readable book, gleaming with detail, Paul Howard evokes the splendid vanished worlds that Browne inhabited and - no easy thing to do - makes us believe in his elusive, imperishable enchantment -- Laura Thompson, author of Take Six Girls: The Lives of the Mitford SistersI read - no, devoured - I Read the News Today, Oh Boy. It's an absolute gem. Great humour is balanced with the sadness, and the writing is so deft with all that research woven so lightly into the mix. I can only imagine how much labour is involved in making it all flow so effortlessly -- John Butler, writer and director of The StagThis is a wonderful book about the Swinging Sixties; it opens a door into an extraordinary world that we all clung to long ago, and dreamed of remotely, at the other end of our tiny transistor radios. Back then we only knew the sound track. But this is the real thing. Man -- Michael Harding, author of Staring at Lakes: A Memoir of Love, Melancholy and Magical ThinkingA vivid and immaculately researched account of a remarkable life. A fascinating journey through post-war Irish and English society, in the company of a cast of extraordinary characters. -- Antony Edmonds, author of Oscar Wilde's Scandalous SummerI was fascinated to read this beautifully written book, which gripped me on many different levels. Vividly telling the extraordinary story of Tara Browne, a mythical figure through the Beatles' song, showing how extremes of love with no rules combined with limitless funds, is as disastrous as it is glamorous. Paul Howard documents in detail through his exacting conversations with many of the people in Tara's life, the post war/pre 60s British aristocratic attitudes - illuminating a life that seems more like centuries ago, than decades. Having been to Luggala as a child, and remembering my meeting with Oonagh, Paul brought her to life for me, told me much I had absolutely no idea about, showing both her brilliance and originality - and also the tragic outcome of many of her choices. It is a compelling read and a story that is only possible to believe because it is actually true. I can only hope that Julian and Dorian live more peaceful, if less exciting lives. -- Julia Samuel, founder of Child Bereavement UK and author of Grief Works: Stories of Life, Death and Surviving Dramatic and engrossing . . . the opening chapters read like an Irish Great Gatsby by way of Downton Abbey . . . "A lucky man who made the grade", as The Beatles have it in A Day in the Life? This book removes Browne from a song lyric and repositions him as an alluring figure of wonderment . . . This is a masterpiece -- Brian Boyd * Irish Times *A richly populated history traced along this spirited character's journey from Ireland to Swinging London, it is a fascinating piece of work * Daily Telegraph *A masterpiece -- Ian O'Riordan * Irish Times *A compelling, sympathetic and unusually poignant book about someone whose star may have burned briefly, but who has left an indelible impression on almost everybody he left behind * Daily Mail *The devastating crash that killed him has become near folkloric, not least because of the Beatles song that is the title of this book. But for many people who read the news that day, Tara is alive and golden, beautiful and poetic, somewhere deep in their hearts today * Spectator *

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Book SynopsisTo some it''s antisocial anathema, to others it is a harmless way to relax, or provides relief from crippling pain. Some fear it is a dangerous drug that leads to ''reefer madness'' and addiction; to others still it is a legal anomaly and should be decriminalized. Whatever the viewpoint, and by whatever name it is known, cannabis - or marijuana, hashish, pot, dope, kif, weed, dagga, grass, ganja - incites debate at every level. In this definitive study, Martin Booth - author of the acclaimed OPIUM: A HISTORY - charts the history of cannabis from the Neolithic period to the present day. It is a fascinating, colourful tale of medical advance, religious enlightenment, political subterfuge and human rights; of law enforcement and customs officers, smugglers, street pushers, gang warfare, writers, artists, musicians, hippies and pot-heads.Booth chronicles the remarkable and often mystifying process through which cannabis, a relatively harmless substance, became outlawed tTrade ReviewEnlightening...a very engaging history. * Daily Telegraph *Booth tells this story with admirable restraint...this book should be on the shelf of anyone interested in human freedoms and bad laws. * Independent *So good no one will need to do another for at least fifty years...mesmerizing detail, fantastical digressions, lots of jokes and wry asides. -- James Delingpole * Literary Review *A testament to the late Booth that he could make such a boring subject so interesting. * Sunday Times *A colourful tale ... Chronicles the remarkable and often mystifying process through which cannabis became outlawed throughout the Western world, and the devastating effect such legislation has had on the global economy. * Sunday Telegraph *Table of ContentsTo some it's anathema, to others it provides relief from crippling pain: to others still, it is a legal anomaly and should be decriminalized. Whatever the viewpoint, and by whatever name it is known, cannabis - or marijuana, hashish, dope, kif, weed, dagga, grass, ganga - incites debate at every level and its impact on the world's cultures and economies is undeniable. Dating back to the Neolithic period, the history of cannabis is a tale of medical advance, religious enlightenment, political subterfuge and human rights; of law enforcement and customs officers, cunning smugglers, street pushers, gang warfare, writers, artists, musicians and happy-go-lucky hipples and pot-heads.

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Book SynopsisThe second half of the seventh millennium BC saw the demise of the previously affluent and dynamic Neolithic way of life. The period is marked by significant social and economic transformations of local communities, as manifested in a new spatial organization, patterns of architecture, burial practices, and in chipped stone and pottery manufacture. This volume has three foci. The first concerns the character of these changes in different parts of the Near East with a view to placing them in a broader comparative perspective. The second concerns the social and ideological changes that took place at the end of Neolithic and the beginning of the Chalcolithic that help to explain the disintegration of constitutive principles binding the large centers, the emergence of a new social system, as well as the consequences of this process for the development of full-fledged farming communities in the region and beyond. The third concerns changes in lifeways: subsistence strategies, exploitation of the environment, and, in particular, modes of procurement, consumption, and distribution of different resources.

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Book SynopsisIn this new book royal historian Lady Colin Campbell covers The Queen's Marriage in intimate detail. Using her connections and impeccable sources she recounts details of the inside story of the monarch's relationship with the Duke of Edinburgh and her close family.

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Book SynopsisJun Uchida draws on previously unused materials in multi-language archives to uncover the obscured history of the Japanese civilians who settled in Korea between 1876 and 1945, with particular focus on the first generation of "pioneers" between the 1910s and 1930s who actively mediated Japan's colonial presence on the Korean peninsula.Trade ReviewWith contemporary Japanese–Korean relations so inextricably entrenched within contentious politics of national identity and divergent expressions of historical consciousness, Jun Uchida’s Brokers of Empire could not be a more welcome addition to the field of modern East Asian history… Richly deserving of the American Historical Association’s John K. Fairbank Prize in 2012, Brokers of Empire stands as one of the finest English-language books to date on the highly complex social and political dynamics of Japanese colonial expansionism in Korea… While Brokers of Empire is ostensibly a book about Japanese colonialism in Korea, no one writing on any geographical region of the Japanese empire can afford to ignore this work. Moreover, scholars of European empire in Asia and Africa also stand to learn much from what Uchida offers here. Brokers of Empire is a remarkable achievement that sets a high standard for future scholarship on the history of modern East Asia and imperialism itself. -- Erik Esselstrom * Reviews in History *This is an impressive and important work that will quickly become required reading for scholars and graduate students in modern Japanese and Korean history; it will also be of great use to historians outside of East Asian studies with an interest in the global phenomenon of settler colonialism… This is doubtless a major achievement that will spark much debate and stimulate new research. -- Takashi Fujitani * American Historical Review *Brokers of Empire is a magisterial work. This is a lavish compliment, but Uchida deserves it. Her book is grand in the sweep of its reinterpretation and in its command of information about a huge cast of actors. Viewing the Korean colonial experience through the lens of the all-but-forgotten settler community, she compels us to rethink the empire-building process. -- James C. Baxter * Japan Review *The Roman deity Janus, he of two faces, is a constant presence in Brokers of Empire, serving as a metaphor for the brokering activities of the Japanese settlers who acted as intermediaries between the colonial state and Korean society or between Korean nationalists and the metropolitan government… But it might equally be applied to Uchida herself, as she artfully turns through multiple sources and historiographical approaches, and as she leads the reader through multiple Janus-like transitions—from the microhistories of Kobayashi to the comparative histories of Japanese settlers and the French colons of north Africa—with elegant turn of phrase and clarity of argument. Brokers of Empire is an outstanding book, one that will be read and referenced for many years to come. -- Martin Dusinberre * Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History *Uchida’s history offers a wide-ranging treatment of the Japanese population that first flocked to the peninsula as part of Korea’s annexation and subsequently put down their roots as a privileged, if precarious, group of colonizing expatriates… [A] path-breaking study… A truly insightful piece of scholarship, one that students of colonialism in East Asia and beyond will no doubt enjoy for years to come. -- Todd A. Henry * Journal of Korean Studies *Brokers of Empire engages a number of larger questions about the functioning and meaning of colonial domination in the modern world. Through an analysis of memoirs, meeting minutes, reports, and punditry generated by Japanese emigrants to Korea, this ambitious study chronicles seven decades of turbulent colonial social history… Uchida’s superbly executed account is likely to become required reading for all serious students of modern Japanese and Korean history. -- Paul D. Barclay * Journal of Social History *This well-researched and elegantly written social history of Japanese settlers in colonial Korea fills a critical void. Much has been written on the political history of Japan’s expansion into and annexation of Korea and the Korean experience under Japanese colonial rule, but Japanese settlers hardly feature in the history of Japanese colonialism in Korea. Drawing on Korean and Japanese primary sources, Uchida crafts a bottom-up narrative of Japanese colonialism in Korea, portraying Japanese settlers as both vanguards of and obstacles to Japanese colonial rule. Settlers’ interests did not always align with the colonial state’s interests. According to Uchida, the volatile relationship between settlers and the colonial state partly stems from the group’s social composition. More like French settlers in Algiers than British settlers in Kenya, Japanese settlers in Korea were mostly from lower social classes, and were mostly concerned with improving their own conditions. In spite of their humble social origins, there were several success stories about those who built business empires or established themselves in journalism or politics. The inclusion of these settlers’ biographies highlights individual experiences often lost in the state-centered narratives of colonial expansion. -- L. Teh * Choice *Brokers of Empire is a triumphant, landmark study. In Uchida’s skillful hands, the Japanese settler population in Korea—comparable in size to the colons in French Algeria—is resuscitated from colonial memories and archives. At once lyrical and analytical in its prose, Brokers of Empire offers—through the lens of settler colonialism—a complete re-examination of Korea under colonial rule and, with it, the role of settlers in shaping the Japanese empire. Unquestionably, the impact of Uchida’s work will be felt not only in the study of Japan, but also in the broader literature on comparative settler colonialism and empire, writ large. -- Caroline Elkins, Harvard UniversityRichly researched and nicely argued, this study brings Asia into the burgeoning literature on colonialism that stresses the co-production of empire by the colonizers and the colonized. Uchida shows how Japanese settlers and Korean elites operated in a tense dynamic with one another, with the colonial state, and with the imperial metropole in a more complex choreography of colonial power than the conventional narrative admits. An important contribution to the history of twentieth-century East Asia. -- Carol Gluck, Columbia University

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Book SynopsisThis Tsarist and Communist Russia 1855-1964 Revision Guide is part of the bestselling Oxford AQA History for A Level series. Written to match the new AQA specification, this series helps you deepen your historical knowledge and develop vital analytical and evaluation skills. This revision guide offers the clearly structured revision approach of Recap, Apply, and Review to prepare you for exam success. Step-by-step exam practice strategies for all AQA question types are provided (including Extract Analysis and essays linked to Key Questions), as well as well-researched, targeted guidance based on what we now know from the new AQA examiner''s reports on Tsarist Russia. Our original author team is back, offering expert advice, AS and A Level exam-style questions and Examiner Tips. Contents checklists help monitor revision progress; example student answers and suggested activity answers help you review your own work. This guide is perfect for use alongside the Student Books or as a stand-a

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Book SynopsisWho invented God? When, why, and where? Thomas Römer seeks to answer these enigmatic questions about the deity of the great monotheisms—Yhwh, God, or Allah—by tracing Israelite beliefs and their context from the Bronze Age to the end of the Old Testament period in the third century BCE, in a masterpiece of detective work and exposition.Trade ReviewRömer, a distinguished scholar rather than an ideologue, seeks to determine exactly what is historical and exactly what is not in the depiction of God. This is a brilliant book. -- Robert A. Segal * Times Higher Education *Römer presents a scholarly and provocative account of how a minor tribal deity likely grew to become—or revealed himself to be—Lord of Creation. -- David O’Reilly * Philadelphia Inquirer *Römer is interested in the emergence of a deity whose nature is now so familiar that its startling originality no longer startles. -- Brian Bethune * Maclean’s *It reads very well, is well translated and has a bit of the excitement of discovery for engaged readers. -- John C. Endres and Jean-François Racine * America *Römer deftly weaves together evidence from the Bible with extra-biblical archeological finds that mention Israel and Yhwh to outline the development of monotheism… Not until Jerusalem’s destruction in 587 BCE did Yhwh become the universal, monotheistic god untied to place or particular monarch, the god who was later adopted by Christians and Muslims. Römer writes with clarity and accuracy and tells a compelling story. This book is a masterful work, tying together an enormous amount of information in a concise format. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *There is nothing quite like this book in English. The Invention of God traces the history of the God of Israel from the late Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period, charting the rise of Yhwh as the sole God. The period covered is vast, the thesis is provocative and stimulating, and the scholarship is cutting-edge. -- Timothy Lim, University of EdinburghRömer is a sure-footed guide to what is often a difficult discussion. A learned and elegant book. -- Nathan MacDonald, University of CambridgeRömer is the first to have brought all the relevant material together in such an accessible form, setting out both literary and archaeological evidence clearly and readably. -- John Barton * Church Times *[An] excellent book…A masterly work of historical detection that looks at the evolution of Jewish faith from the Bronze Age to the Hellenic period. This is a superb work of scholarship. -- Paul Richardson * The Church of England Newspaper *

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Book SynopsisThis volume describes the content and discusses the history and origins of the three core commitments of Darwinism, examines the three critiques that challenge this Darwinian edifice and proposes a system for integrating these commitments and critiques into a structure of evolutionary thought.Trade ReviewFor all its rigorous detail and painstaking historical, scientific, and philosophical explication, Gould's massive work is profoundly personal and dramatic, laced as it is with his great love for Darwin, frank intellectual autobiography, and his belief that the history of evolutionary thought "constitutes an epic tale"...[E]very scientifically inclined reader, will be affected by some aspect of Gould's passionate argument, humanistic sensibility, and sheer pleasure in the noble pursuit of knowledge and understanding. -- Donna Seaman * Booklist *Stephen Jay Gould doesn't hold anything back in this remarkable and important book. Impressive on many levels, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory represents Gould's all-out attempt to revise and extend evolutionary theory as proposed by Darwin in 1859...Gould's respect and admiration (I would even say, love) for Darwin as a scientist and as a man have been evident throughout all his writings, and this book, which begins and ends with Darwin, is no exception. In stating his motivation for it, Gould leaves no doubt that his goal is not just to explicate evolutionary theory but to laud Darwin as well...While presenting a case that should strengthen his own place in history, Gould also makes it known that he is preserving the legacy of his mentor as well, at least for now. -- Mark Davis * Ruminator Review *[A] magisterial tome...[The Structure of Evolutionary Theory] is destined to go down in history alongside the writings of Galileo, Darwin, Huxley, Freud, Mayr and others as a work that will change its culture forever. Gould's critics (and there are plenty of them) may weep and gnash their teeth at such an assessment, but they ignore him at their--and our--peril. This man has something important to say about the preeminent origin myth of our age--evolutionary theory--and he has said it in this magnificent work. -- Michael Shermer * Washington Post *Fascinating, discursive, dogmatic, intensely personal and often quite technical, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory is also in most of its sections readily accessible to lay readers--and well worth the effort...This summation of Gould's idiosyncratic life work will undoubtedly arouse tremendous enthusiasm in loyal Gouldites...Gould's detailed arguments and scholarly exegesis of the historical literature on evolution's forebears and conflicts fully justify the length of this book. But the nuggets of Gould, the literate and rambunctious scientist, give it delicious flavor on page after page...This is a brilliant, controversial, thorough and immensely readable updating of Darwin. -- David Perlman * San Francisco Chronicle *The culmination of about 25 years of research and study, this book traces the history of evolutionary thought and charts a path for its future...This book presents Gould in all his incarnations: as a digressive historian, original thinker and cunning polemicist...Even Gould's opponents will recognize this as the magnum opus of one of the world's leading evolutionary thinkers. * Publishers Weekly *[This is] a summation of Stephen Jay Gould's life work, building on Darwinism to provide a novel synthesis of how evolution has shaped the living world...One of the joys of reading about good science is the chance not only to observe how scientific theory works, but also to participate in the workings of the mind behind the words. In Gould's...The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, the reader will find such joy in abundance. -- Tim Flannery * New York Review of Books *The Structure of Evolutionary Theory was, we are told, ten years in the making, and is in many ways likely to be seen as Gould's greatest achievement. Of the enjoyment that many hundreds of thousands have gained from reading Gould's essays there can be no doubt...[T]here is no doubt that this is a profound and major contribution to evolutionary theory, standing high above the smoke of battle in the Darwin Wars. -- Steven Rose * Times Literary Supplement *By literary standards [The Structure of Evolutionary Theory] is unique, a combination of scientific argument, historical analysis both of this argument and of all that went before it, an apologia pro vita sua, and many entertaining diversions...It is hard to think of any one else with this combination of polymathic ability and of sheer cheek, and equally hard to imagine filling a scientific auditorium with people who have read it right through--one of several ways in which the book can fairly be likened to The Origin of Species. -- John R. G. Turner * The Spectator *Stephen Jay Gould's work always generates keen interest and the present volume perhaps more so given his recent death. It is a thoughtful and technical book--a statement of position and a response to critics--and it is huge...It is not a textbook as the title might suggest; instead, it is evolutionary theory as viewed through Gould's unique vision. -- Stephen Lewis * Biologist *Stephen Jay Gould was no lightweight, physically or intellectually. This vast book...unveils his distinctive vision of evolutionary biology--as it should be, as it is, and as it has been...A book of great power, scope and learning...It is a book that one would expect to read and reread, for Gould articulates and defends a distinctive vision of the agenda of evolutionary biology; of the mechanisms of evolutionary change; and of the relationship of evolutionary biology to its own past...There is, indeed, a certain grandeur to this view of life. * The Economist *Table of Contents* *1. Defining and Revising the Structure of Evolutionary Theory * Part I: The History of Darwinian Logic and Debate *2. The Essence of Darwinism and the Basis of Modern Orthodoxy: An Exegesis of the Origin of Species *3. Seeds of Hierarchy *4. Internalism and Laws of Form: Pre-Darwinian Alternatives to Functionalism *5. The Fruitful Facets of Galton's Polyhedron: Channels and Saltations in Post-Darwinian Formalism *6. Pattern and Progress on the Geological Stage *7. The Modern Synthesis as a Limited Consensus * Part II: Towards a Revised and Expanded Evolutionary Theory *8. Species as Individuals in the Hierarchical Theory of Selection *9. Punctuated Equilibrium and the Validation of Macroevolutionary Theory *10. The Integration of Constraint and Adaptation (Structure and Function) in Ontogeny and Phylogeny: Historical Constraints and the Evolution of Development *11. The Integration of Constraint and Adaptation (Structure and Function) in Ontogeny and Phylogeny: Structural Constraints, Spandrels, and the Centrality of Exaptation in Macroevolution *12. Tiers of Time and Trials of Extrapolationism, With an Epilog on the Interaction of General Theory and Contingent History * Bibliography * Index

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

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Book SynopsisExamining the strengths and weaknesses of European and Chinese military techniques during the period, this title provides a balanced perspective on long-held assumptions about Western power, Chinese might, and the nature of war.Trade Review"In this page-turning historical narrative, Andrade chronicles the 1661-62 battle for Taiwan in what is often seen as the first modern conflict between an Eastern and Western power. While historians have traditionally viewed Europeans then as more advanced in science, technology, and political infrastructures than their Eastern counterparts, Andrade reveals that Chinese warfare tactics based on ancient texts and military philosophy, built up over a millennia of a rich cultural heritage, actually allowed for the enigmatic leader Koxinga and his Chinese generals to neutralize any European superiority in weaponry and defeat the Dutch and thus the Dutch East India Company's hold on Taiwan... For the global and military history enthusiast, this book is exceptionally insightful about the early-modern history of European contact in Asia."--Library Journal "Tonio Andrade succeeds brilliantly not only in writing good history but in telling a gripping story. If you read only one book on Chinese history this year ... make it this one."--Timothy Brook, Literary Review "A most interesting, very well-written and highly important account of the Dutch loss of Taiwan that is deliberately located in terms of the debate over Western military proficiency vis-a-vis that of China. The book offers much."--Jeremy Black, European Review of History "[The Lost Colony] could easily pass for an exciting historical novel. Andrade spins a gripping tale, full of excellent anecdotes and insights ... well written with a wealth of details that are well documented."--Gerrit van der Wees, Taipei Times "Lost Colony proves to be a good read as Andrade turns that would seem like a minor footnote in history into a stirring and insightful account of military campaigns, pirates, sieges, treachery, and naval battles."--Hilton Yip, Asian Review of Books "Andrade's provocatively titled book is a much-needed addition to the relatively small body of work about pre-modern Taiwan in English that tells how the infamous Zheng Chenggong (Coxinga) threw the Dutch off the island in 1662. He draws very deeply on rich archival sources in both Dutch and Chinese to give a vivid, almost overly detailed, account from both sides of the conflict."--Choice "[T]his monograph is a triumph of narrative brilliance and academic depth at the same time. It rarely happens that a work of such scholarly profundity will appeal to scholars ... and a general non-specialist readership hungry for an exciting story."--Barend Noordam, Shilin "Andrade gives a colourful, detailed explanation of the Chinese victory at Zeelandia, carefully weighing both sides' leadership, tactics, weaponry, ships and fortifications... This is engaging history, rooted in copious records kept at the time, by a reflective writer with a good story to tell--both about the events of 1661 and how history itself gets written."--Michael Clugston, South China Morning Post "[T]his is an excellent work, a must-read for scholars interested in early modern contact between Asia and Europe, the histories of Taiwan and China, and the history of warfare. It would also serve as an excellent addition to courses due to its readable and engrossing narrative, solid research, and well-reasoned argument."--Scott Relyea, Historian "Andrade's larger argument is supported by an engaging narrative that is written in accessible prose that makes it suitable for use in high school or undergraduate university classes. Andrade lays out large themes and historiographical controversies in clear, understandable language. Perhaps more importantly, the engaging narrative will hold students' interest... I look forward to using it in my own world history and Asian history courses in the future."--Robert Hoppens, Education about Asia "Lost Colony is ambitiously theorized, well researched, stimulatingly argued, and beautifully written. Those interested in Chinese, Asian, military, and global history will find it fruitful, stimulating reading. In terms of Asian military history, Lost Colony is another excellent addition to accomplishments over the last decade by scholars on South, Southeast, and East Asia, but military history of Asia still lags behind that of Europe. A genuine global (non-Eurocentric and non-Asiacentric) military history is one step closer due to Lost Colony."--Sun Laichen, Journal of Asian Studies "This is an intriguing book with remarkable and lively accounts written in accessible prose and with engaging humour. It also offers valuable information and insight about Europe's first war with China as well as Chinese history in general, and provides a welcome and much-needed addition to our understanding of military and maritime history more specifically."--Chia-Lin Huang, European History Quarterly "Lost Colony makes a major contribution not only to the historiography of Taiwan, but indeed to that of the wider genre of maritime Asia. It provides an excellent basis for comparative inter-disciplinary studies."--Niki Alsford, IRA "With its meticulous use of detailed and colorful sources, this account should appeal to a wide readership."--Roger Des Forges, HistorianTable of ContentsIllustrations ix Dramatis Personae xi Preamble An Execution 3 ONE Destinies Entwined 21 Pirate War 34 War Is the Art of Deception 45 The Wrath of Heaven 54 The Samurai 60 The General 68 The Sea King 82 Heaven Has Not Tired of Chaos on Earth 99 TWO An Extreme and Terrifying Storm 111 A Foggy Morning 117 Koxinga's Victories 124 Parleys and Capitulations 137 The Castle 152 An Assault 165 A Summer of Misery 181 Relief from the Sea 194 THREE The Fleet 207 A Foolish Attack 218 The Defectors 227 Koxinga Closes In 239 The Accidental Embassy 250 Acrimony 269 The Last Battle 278 Surrender 290 A Mad Death 298 CLOSING Epilogues and Conclusions 307 Acknowledgments 331 Notes 335 References 399 Index 423

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Book SynopsisIn this revised and all-colour edition of her indispensable guide to the ancient Games, Judith Swaddling traces their mythological and religious origins, and describes the events, the sacred ceremony and the celebrations that were an essential part of the Olympic festival.

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Book Synopsis* Three best-selling and highly acclaimed books condensed into one complete volume. * Tank (the first of the three) was described by The Times as having an authenticity 'which could only come from deep personal experience translated by a lucid pen.' * Graphic, first-hand description of life inside a Sherman tank during the Second World War.Trade ReviewA minor classic in battle-picture painting. It has an authenticity about it which could only come from deep personal experience, translated by a lucid pen. * The Times *Movingly and evocatively written. Tank! surely merits a place on the bookshelf of Second World War classics. * British Army Review *

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Book SynopsisA warriors face the strong brows inlaid with red garnets, the nose and mouth gilded and its surface tinned a silvery colour this is how the Sutton Hoo helmet once appeared to those who saw it. This book explains how it was discovered together with other priceless treasures including a ship in the great mound at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk.

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

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Book SynopsisA dramatic blow-by-blow account of the defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English fleet - a tale of daring and disaster on the high seas by one of our best narrative historians.After the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, Protestant England was beset by the hostile Catholic powers of Europe - not least Spain. In October 1585 King Philip II of Spain declared his intention to destroy Protestant England and began preparing invasion plans, leading to an intense intelligence war between the two countries, culminating in the dramatic sea battles of 1588.Robert Hutchinson's tautly written book is the first to examine this battle for intelligence, and uses everything from contemporary eye-witness accounts to papers held by the national archives in Spain and the UK to recount the dramatic battle that raged up the English Channel. Contrary to popular theory, the Armada was not defeated by superior English forces - in fact, Elizabeth I's parsimony meant that her ships had no munitions left by the time the Armada had fought its way up to the south coast of England. In reality it was a combination of inclement weather and bad luck that landed the killer blow on the Spanish forces, and of the 125 Spanish ships that set sail against England, only 60 limped home - the rest sunk or wrecked with barely a shot fired.Trade ReviewThe victory of the English navy over the Spanish Armada in 1588 is one of those defining moments in our history, a shining example, so the story goes, of British pluck and determination to succeed against almost overwhelming odds. Well no, not really, says historian Robert Hutchinson in his revelatory new book. Instead he argues that the Spanish forces were defeated by a combination of bad weather, poor strategy and sheer ill fortune * CHOICE *Napoleon once called history "a fiction that men agree to believe". The Spanish Armada is a case in point, as Robert Hutchinson ably demonstrates in this cogent, readable account of the attempted invasion of England by the Spanish forces in 1588... Hutchinson tells this bloody, brilliant story authoritatively and without sentiment, revealing a real 'game of thrones' that shames the TV series for drama, ruthless ambition and grand enterprise * YOUR FAMILY TREE *The author does a magnificent job of describing the military campaign from Drake's daring raid on Cadiz to the critical battle of Gravelines, but he also shows what a close-run thing it was, and how Elizabeth was not supported unanimously by her own council and nobles. He also argues convincingly that, in terms of intelligence, and particularly the role played by her spymaster Francis Walsingham, this was a truly modern war * GOOD BOOK GUIDE *In a book which successfully weaves together the different elements of the dramatic story, Robert Hutchinson, making use of fresh research (not least his own), sets out to consider the background and the events themselves, using all the evidence now available to historians * THE TABLET *This is a well-written book by an accomplished author and its true strength lies in its skilful presentation of the period context. The account of the Spanish Armada and its unfortunate progress into battle and eventual ruin is well worth reading. Hutchinson places us in the centre of intrigue and action... This is history soaked in blood and bedecked with guts * WARSHIPS INTERNATIONAL FLEET REVIEW *

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Book SynopsisRobert the Bruce had himself crowned King of Scots at Scone on a frozen March morning in 1306. After years of struggle, Scotland had been reduced to a vassal state by Edward I of England and its people lived in poverty. On the day he seized the crown Bruce renewed the fight for Scotland's freedom, and let forth a battle cry that would echo through the centuries. Using contemporary accounts, Ronald McNair Scott tells the story of Scotland's legendary leader, and one of Europe's most remarkable medieval kings. It is a story with episodes as romantic as those of King Arthur, but also one which belongs in the annals of Scottish History, and has shaped a nation.Trade ReviewThe definitive biography of this heroic figure * * Mail on Sunday * *A thundering good narrative . . . splendidly told * * Sunday Telegraph * *A splendid read . . . Bruce has found his right chronicler * * Daily Telegraph * *

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Book SynopsisDiscover how to practice God's presence at all times and see His glory in every facet of life. Includes Spiritual Maxims--two classics in one!

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Book SynopsisIllustrated with stunning color photographs by the world's leading nature photographers, Sea Turtles will inform and inspire readers of all ages everywhere.Trade ReviewIn this comprehensive guide, [Spotila] treats in detail the seven species: green turtles, hawksbills, olive ridleys, Kemp's ridleys, loggerheads, flatbacks, and leatherbacks. Each chapter includes tables of data on where the species is found, population estimates of colonies, and, in some cases, a chronology of conservation efforts... Spotila, fittingly, offers vignettes of conservation projects that provide human interest... Spotila's book is recommended for high school, university, and research-level libraries. Library Journal Such enthusiasm is infectious... The accessible text is beautifully illustrated with numerous color photographs. The lay readers will be captivated. The book's review of what scientists know about these charismatic but woefully endangered creatures is substantial enough to interest biologists and conservationists as well. -- Roger Harris American Scientist 2005 Each species gets a chapter with sumptuous photographs, and short personal profiles pay homage to those spearheading conservation efforts. New Scientist 2005 Sea Turtles is spellbinding, articulate, indispensible and, with its many full-color photos, taken by the world's leading underwater photographers, astonishing. Spirit of Aloha 2005 The author is both a leading authority on sea turtles and a talented writer; his passion for the subject is on every page. Choice 2005 An evocative portrait of the seven species and their valiant fight for survival. Compendium Newsletter 2006 This is a great book. Wildlife Activist 2006 Clearly written and well-illustrated book... provides a helpful primer for nonscientists. -- Larry Evans Charlotte Herald-Tribune 2005 It is this mixture of scientific expertise and outright human awe that makes this book such a treasure... A trove of information, a collection of spectacular photos, and an ode to a creature that somehow, years after its birth, is able to navigate back to the precise beach where it was born to lay its own eggs. Philadelphia Inquirer 2004 Bottom line: This book is worthy of centerpiece placement on any coffee table. But Sea Turtles' loftier goal make it more than just another pretty picture book. -- Mary Beth Regan Baltimore Sun Sea Turtles capitalizes on the depth of James Spotila's experience in field and political environments as well as his evident passion for conservation, [producing] an equally compelling, modern book. Readers of all stripes will be captivated by the outstanding photography and entertained by the stories... A wonderful entree into the exciting world of sea turtles for the uninitiated and a delightful repast for everyone. His eloquent words are inspiring, and his hopeful message deserves to be heard. -- Fredric J. Janzen Science 2005 This lavishly produced book is filled with numerous excellent photographs, as well as beautiful schematics of anatomy and distribution maps. But this is much more than a coffee-table book: it deserves space on the academic's bookshelf. -- Graeme C. Hays Nature 2005 Open this new, beautifully produced book and you'll find yourself hopelessly caught up in the life of sea turtles. Post Register 2006 This is simply a great book: lucid, literate, and lavishly illustrated. -- Tony Tucker Aquatic Mammals 2006 This volume hits the sweet spot between a hard science manual and a mere coffee table book. -- Michael Stachowitsch Marine Ecology 2008 A worldwide study into what is causing the decrease in sea turtles throughout the world. Going beyond just what is causing it, though, [Spotila] carefully explicates why the decline is so important to all living things. Black Sheep Dances 2011Table of ContentsPrefaceChapter 1. Introduction: The Seven SwimmersChapter 2. Life Cycles: From Sand to SeaChapter 3. Biology: Under the ShellChapter 4. History: The Ancient LineageChapter 5. Conservation: An Uncertain FutureChapter 6. Green Turtles: The Grass EatersChapter 7. Hawksbills: The Sponge EatersChapter 8. Olive Ridleys: A Phenomenon of NatureChapter 9. Kemp's Ridleys: The Rarest of AllChapter 10. Loggerheads: A Crushing JawChapter 11. Flatbacks: Australia's TurtleChapter 12. Leatherbacks: The Giant MarinerChapter 13. Conclusion: Dreaming of Eden Sources and Suggested ReadingIndex

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Book SynopsisOsiris, Horus, Isis, Thoth, Anubis - the many strange and compelling figures of the Egyptian gods and goddesses seem to possess endless fascination. The renowned Egyptologist Erik Hornung here studies the ancient Egyptians' conceptions of god, basing his account on a thorough reappraisal of the primary sources. His book, now available in...Trade ReviewAfter surveying the approaches to Egyptian religion from antiquity through twentieth-century scholarship, Hornung... considers aspects of divinity, the iconography and characteristics of the gods, and the relationship between gods and believers.... A masterly, scrupulously documented work that combines close attention to textual and artifactual evidence with penetrating theological insights. * Library Journal *An excellent historical overview of the gods... It is a recommended necessary reading for those studing Ancient Egyptian religion. * Frankie's Reviews in Egyptology *Hornung asks usually neglected questions concerning what the Egyptians themselves thought about their gods, thus meeting these people on their own terms. Along the way he carefully examines evidence that has been marshaled in favor of monotheism or monotheistic tendencies within what appears to be a vast Egyptian pantheon. Adding to the pleasure and usefulness of this work is the fine translation by John Baines.... Containing a full index, a glossary of gods, and appropriate illustrations, this is a significant volume. * Choice *It is not often that an introduction to the thorny topic of ancient Egyptian religion can be recommended unreservedly.... Over the past thirty-five years the acceptable introductions to Egyptian religion can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and all are from the pens of scholars trained in a Germanic tradition! The present work by Erik Hornung maintains this excellent, though rare, standard. * American Historical Review *

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Book SynopsisIncluding names, dates, edition citations, and detailed summaries, the work combines the virtues of an encyclopedia with the critical intelligence readers have come to expect from Italy's leading Latinist, Gian Biagio Conte.Trade ReviewConte gives the sort of biographical and historical information that might be expected in a book of this type, but with a more sophisticated awareness of the fragility of much of it than one finds in many other text books. He also gives an unfailingly intelligent and interesting account of the works themselves... His mastery of the vast range of literature that he covers is remarkable. -- Jasper Griffin New York Review of Books It will quickly become not only the preferred textbook but the standard resource for mainstream evaluations of the major surviving Latin authors through the early Middle Ages... Conte covers this era by discussing the principle writers in Latin with a remarkably concise thoroughness. Reader's Review Conte has achieved a monumental feat most scholars would shrink from attempting... [With] its relish for forgotten or underrated authors and its tight focus on cultural significance, his history shows the restlessness many late 20th-century Latinists feel with the state of their subject. -- Emily Gowers London Review of BooksTable of ContentsForewordPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Literary History and HistoriographyPart 1: The Early and Middle RepublicsPart 2: The Late RepublicPart 3: The Age of AugustusPart 4: The Early EmpirePart 5: The Late EmpireAppendixesIndex of names

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Book SynopsisThis is the most comprehensive history to date of the Truman Administration's progressive embroilment in the cold war, and it presents a stunning new interpretation of U.S. national security policy during the formative stages of the Soviet-American rivalry. Illustrated with 15 halftones and 10 maps.Trade Review"Magisterial . . . This book is without question a major achievement. It is a masterly work of synthesis, weaving together in a single coherent study the various and often contradictory trends in previous historical writing on the Cold War's origins. It is indefatigably researched . . . and most important, it is an intellectually honest work. . . . A fine book."—The Atlantic"A brilliant new book. . . . An invaluable contribution."—The Nation"The best book to date on the Truman administration and the origins of the Cold War."—Detroit Free Press

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Book SynopsisPortugal is a country that has sometimes been dismissed as small and relatively unimportant. "Portugal in European and World History", however, demonstrates that the contrary is true, showing that Portugal has been crucial to the development of Europe and the modern world. Spanning many centuries, from early Moorish times to the Atlantic Empire; the English Alliance of 1650 1900; African colonies; the Salazar regime; and, the country's liberal revolution in 1974, Malyn Newitt offers a fresh appraisal of Portuguese history and its role in the world. The author examines episodes where Portugal was a key player or innovator, linking its history to a broader context. Chapters focus on such topics as Moorish Portugal, describing the cultural impact of contact with the Moors; the discovery of Brazil and opening up of trade with western Africa; and, the explorations of Vasco de Gama and the evolution of Portugal as the first commercial empire of modern times. Newitt also examines Portugal's role in the Counter-Reformation, in Spain's wars in Europe, and in the Anglo-Portuguese alliance.The Portuguese diaspora is considered: emigration had been taking place systematically since the fifteenth century but it reached massive proportions between 1820 and 1980. The author also shows how emigration is linked to underdevelopment, imperialism and globalization, and how the Portuguese experience compares with that of other major diasporas. Finally, Portugal's position in Africa is assessed, the Salazar/Caetano regime of 1928 74 examined, and the fall of fascism and decolonization of Portugal explored in the light of global empires and movements. A new account of a country with a rich history, which has played a key role in the development and expansion of the modern world, "Portugal in European and World History" shows how Portugal has moved from being the last colonial power to one of the most enthusiastic proponents of the modern European ideal.Trade ReviewThis absorbing study helps explain the emergence - and the endurance - of this most apparently vulnerable of countries; and how, for so much of modern history it has managed to punch above its weight. The Scotsman

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Book Synopsis“Through these travels and the photographs, I got to love the United States more than I could have in any other way.” — Jack Delano Amid the ravages of the Great Depression, the United States Farm Security Administration (FSA) was first founded in 1935 to address the country’s rural poverty. Its efforts focused on improving the lives of sharecroppers, tenants, and very poor landowning farmers, with resettlement and collectivization programs, as well as modernized farming methods. In a parallel documentation program, the FSA hired a number of photographers and writers to record the lives of the rural poor and “introduce America to Americans.” This book records the full reach of the FSA program from 1935 to 1943, honoring its vigor and commitment across subjects, states, and stylistic preferences. The photographs are arranged into four broad regional sections but otherwise allowed to speak for themselves—to provide individual impressions as much as they cumulatively build an indelible survey of a nation. The images are both color and black-and-white, and span the complete spetrum of American rural life. They show us convicts, cotton workers, kids, and relocated workers on the road. We see subjects victim to the elements of nature as much as to the vagaries of the global economic market. We find the work of such perceptive, sensitive photographers as Marion Post Wolcott, Jack Delano, Russell Lee, Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, and Dorothea Lange, and read their own testimonies to the FSA project and their encounters with their subjects, including Lange’s worn, weather-beaten and iconic Migrant Mother. What unites all of the pictures is a commitment to the individuality and dignity of each subject, as much as to the witness they bear to this particular period of the American past. The subjects are entrenched in the hardships of their historical lot as much as they are caught in universal cycles of growing, playing, eating, aging, and dying. Yet they face the viewer with what is utterly their own: a unique, irreplaceable, often unforgettable presence.Trade Review“…a comprehensive survey of the work done by the FSA, including that more rarely seen color work. From street scenes to pictures of field laborers and train yards, these images show us what the United States looked like in a bygone era, one rife with economic struggle.” * washingtonpost.com *

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Book SynopsisAssesses the historical development and societal impact of the motorcycle industry, from the influence of motor sports on vehicle sales in the early 1900s to the postwar developments that led to the massive wave of motorization sweeping the Asia-Pacific region.Trade Review"This book is very much at the cutting edge of current scholarship. Besides demonstrating the role of the Japanese military and empire in the early development of the industry, it illuminates the intense competition among motorbike makers in the first decade and a half after the Second World War. - Steven Ericson, author of The Sound of the Whistle: Railroads and the State in Meiji Japan"Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Why the Motorcycle?1 Japan’s Transportation Revolution, 1896-19312 Motorcycle and Empire: A Study in Industrial Self-Sufficiency3 Know Your Customers: Designing Products for an Impoverished Postwar Market4 Know Your Competitors: Finding a Niche in a Crowded Manufacturing Field5 The Rise of the Big Four6 Bitter Realities: Going Bankrupt in Japan7 Sales versus SafetyAppendicesNotesGlossaryBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisUsing previously unpublished letters and personal interviews, The British and Cyprus is told through the words of the people who served the British Crown on Cyprus – civil and military – and includes fascinating accounts of the dramatic fight against EOKA in the 1950s, who pressed for an end to British rule on the island.

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Book SynopsisBorn January 1, 1993, after the split with Slovakia, the Czech Republic is one of the youngest members of the European Union. Despite its youth, this new state and the areas just outside its modern borders boast an ancient and intricate past. With A History of the Czech Lands, editors Jaroslav Panek and Oldrich Tuma-along with several scholars from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Charles University - provide one of the most complete historical accounts of this region to date. Panek and Tuma's history begins in the Neolithic Era and follows the development of the state as it transformed into the Kingdom of Bohemia during the ninth century, into a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, into Czechoslovakia after World War I, and finally into the Czech Republic. Such a tumultuous political past arises in part from a fascinating native people, and A History of the Czech Lands profiles the Czechs in great detail, delving into past and present traditions and explaining how generation after generation adapted to a perpetually changing government and economy. In addition, contributors examine the many minorities that now call these lands home - Jews, Slovaks, Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and others - and how each group's migration to the region has contributed to life in the Czech Republic today. With sixty new illustrations and an additional chapter examining the transformation of the Czech Republic from a post-communist country into a member of the European Union, this new edition of A History of the Czech Lands will be essential for scholars of Slavic, Central, and East European studies and a must-read for those who trace their ancestry to these lands.Trade Review"This is unquestionably the best single-volume English-language history now available, and it is enhanced by multi-language bibliographies and a set of beautiful color maps. Essential." (Choice)"

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