History Books

Book SynopsisFestivals is a must-have guide to the world’s best and most memorable music festivals – a list of all those you need to know and those you should experience.   Discover the compelling stories behind the most significant and exciting events around the world which shape music and festival culture. This inspirational global guide showcases 50 bucket list festivals with photographs, posters, facts and figures, and draws attention to hundreds more to explore.   Highlighting festival giants and jazz classics, pop powerhouses and indie favourites to dance scene darlings and punk rock adventures, we travel from Woodstock, Glastonbury, Coachella and Roskilde to Fuji Rock, Tomorrowland, Burning Man and Afro Punk. Here, the unique experience of a music festival is evocatively captured and an overview of the rise of the wonderful world of festival culture asTable of ContentsIntroduction Montreux Jazz Festival Isle of Wight Festival Woodstock Glastonbury Roskilde Reading Festival North Sea Jazz Festival WOMAD Rock am Ring Rock in Rio Burning Man Love Parade Lollapalooza Electric Daisy Carnival KaZantip Big Day Out Sziget Sonar Fuji Rock Lillith Fair Melt Tuska Creamfields Iceland Airwaves Coachella Splendour in the Grass Primavera Sound AfrikaBurn Lovebox Nuits Sonores Bang Face Weekender Rock en Seine Download Secret Garden Party Bestival Flow Festival Lake of Stars Afropunk Tomorrowland Way Out West Kappa FuturFestival Strawberry Fields Dimensions Dekmantel Nyege Nyege The Crave Magnetic Fields Secret Solstice Oasis Festival Mighty Hoopla Mad Cool Index Index of festivals by country Index of festivals by month Index of festivals by musical genre Acknowledgements Picture credits

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Book SynopsisA not-for-the-squeamish journey back through the centuries to urban England, where the streets are crowded, noisy, filthy, and reeking of smoke and decayTrade Review"This book inhabits a grubby and squalid world, truffling out details that are vivid, colourful and sometimes downright nauseous. It's a veritable feast of filth and foulness, and I loved every minute of it."—Christopher Hart, Literary Review "Taking us by the hand, Emily Cockayne leads us through the streets of early modern London—Manchester, Bath and Nottingham, too—and shows us a series of Hogarthian prints come to life. . . . Cockayne has dug deep into the archives and come up with a hundred little snatches of story that show ordinary people bustling about their business and taking care not to step in something nasty. Mostly they don't succeed."—Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian "The pot pourri that Emily Cockayne has put together in this compendium of sensual unpleasantries reminds us that life in early modern England was not always the carnival of topsy-turvy pleasures we like to imagine. . . . This is a book about vile bodies and personal space in the days before privacy was invented. Or, as Emily Cockayne puts it, about 'how people were made to feel uncomfortable by other people—their noises, appearance, behavior, proximity and odours.' . . . But Hubbub is no Whiggish tale of progression . . . it is a tale instead of how humans cope and don't cope with annoyance, how we get used to living in difficult conditions and why we continue to complain even when conditions improve."—Frances Wilson, The Sunday Telegraph "For the citizens of London, Oxford, Bath and Manchester in the 17th and 18th centuries, life was not merely nasty, brutish and short. As Cockayne's chapter titles record, it was ugly, itchy, mouldy, noisy, grotty and dirty. . . . Cockayne tells the story of hubbub through a variety of sources. Some are court records . . . her main sources, though, are diarists. . . . [An] enjoyable wallow in the land of Cockayne."—David Honigmann, Financial Times "Hubbub is an engaging read. Cockayne not only appears fascinated by her material but clearly revels in the language of the period. One of the book's strengths is the insight it offers into the lively rhetoric of various journalists, diarists, and chroniclers. . . . Whether Hubbub is best described as a history of the senses of the body, or as a microstudy of daily life, it compiles—and, with the help of the index, even organizes—an impressive amount of research."—Bookforum "An amusing and occasionally gag-inducing attempt . . . to portray the grittier and grottier side of life in England in the mid-1600s through the 1700s."—Christopher Shea, Boston Sunday Globe "This volume is a useful corrective to unrealistic modern suppositions about urban life in jolly old England as a frolicsome idyll of handsome beaux and Jane Austen heroines. . . . Hubbub is revelatory and . . . amusing."—David Aikman, Weekly Standard "Hubbub is an absolutely disgusting journey through the streets, homes, markets, beds and privies of early Modern England. And it's utterly fascinating. You may want to shower between chapters, but it's worth it. . . . Hubbub is really a masterful book."—PhiloBiblos "[An] enchantingly icky new book."—Alexandra Mullen, New Criterion "Rich in primary sources . . . Hubbub is a wonderfully lively account of a blessedly bygone time."—I.D. International Design Magazine "This powerful, convincing antidote to any inclination to wax romantic about life in early modern England, whether private or public, looks at London, manchester, Bath and other cities, and discusses how and why so much of life was ugly, smelly, dirty, flea infested, and garbage strewn. . . . The book includes many powerful anecdotes. . . . Highly recommended."—Choice "Hubbub offers a treasure-house of material for scholars, and it will make an ideal present. It makes us reflect too on the parallels as well as contrasts between our own age and the past."—Bernard Capp, Renaissance Quarterly "Cockayne manages to do what historians of the senses often miss: she locates changes in perception in changes in material culture and specific historical context. . . . No review can do justice to the extraordinary research and empirical texture of [this] book."—Mark M. Smith, Winterthur Portfolio "Presents aspects of daily life that even early modernists are unlikely to know, and it tells great stories."—Mary E. Fissell, Isis "A powerful and convincing antidote to any inclination to wax romantic about life, wheter private or public, in early modern England."—Joel T. Rosenthal, Project Muse "Cockayne's prose is fluid, making this work an enjoyable read for a broad audience. For the seasoned scholar her research into the crude and disgusting is an important thematic counterpoint to focus on more refined aesthetics. . . . Hubbub presents rich, new material for English urban historians but also is an essential addition to the histories of the environment and the senses. It does much to further our understanding of the connections among pollution, disruption,and development of English urban life."—Matthew Milner, Journal of British Studies "A significant contribution to our knowledge of preindustrial life. . . . Cockayne's prose is clear, free of jargon, and interspersed with rich quotations drawn from a wide array of primary sources. . . . An excellent study of English urban life in all its filth and stench."—A. Roger Ekirch, American Historical Review

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Book SynopsisColonizers continuously transform spaces of violence into spaces of home. Israeli Jews settle in the West Bank and in depopulated Palestinian houses in Haifa or Jaffa. White missionaries build their lives in Africa. The descendants of European settlers in the Americas and Australia dwell and thrive on expropriated indigenous lands. In The Colonizing Self Hagar Kotef traces the cultural, political, and spatial apparatuses that enable people and nations to settle on the ruins of other people''s homes. Kotef demonstrates how the mass and structural modes of violence that are necessary for the establishment and sustainment of the colony dwell within settler-colonial homemaking, and through it shape collective and individual identities. She thus powerfully shows how the possibility to live amid the destruction one generates is not merely the possibility to turn one''s gaze away from violence but also the possibility to develop an attachment to violence itself. Kotef thereby offers a Trade Review“Hagar Kotef has written a fierce, rigorous, intimate, unrelenting, account of settler colonialism. We who make our homes on stolen land live in the crevices of all-too-concrete structures of oppression. We turn our faces to the wall. Kotef faces what we too often ignore. This may be harshest in Israel where Kotef's book is set, but the import of the work goes beyond that site. Perhaps all homes are built on cruel exclusions and indefensible claims. Perhaps all homes shelter cruelties. Hagar Kotef's ability to raise these unsettling questions is admirable for its intellectual clarity and its courage.” -- Anne Norton, author of * On the Muslim Question *“An incredibly detailed and engaging study that illustrates Palestinian erasure from within the settler consciousness, the book brings forth an understanding from within that does much to bring the Palestinian trauma to the fore.” * Middle East Monitor *“The Colonizing Self is an incisive book about the dispossessor. In lyrical prose and through wide-ranging source material, Hagar Kotef traces the constitutive violence of settler colonialism.... Kotef’s book alerts us to the task of uprooting desires that secure settler colonialism.” -- Derek S. Denman * Political Theory *“Two intuitions inform this book about the Israeli ‘colonizing self ‘: one is about home, the other about violence. Taken together, these two intuitions converge on the understanding of the specific ways in which the settler’s identity consolidates, which is a crucial question and has been overlooked by scholars so far.” -- Lorenzo Veracini * Journal of Palestine Studies *“The ongoing challenge of decolonization . . . will inevitably require an unsettling of the very notion that the colonizer possesses a single self. Kotef ’s book is a critical milestone in this endeavor.” -- Noam Leshem * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction: Home 1 Theoretical Overview: Violent Attachments 29 Part I. Homes Interlude. Home/Homelessness: A Reading in Arendt 55 1. The Consuming Self: On Locke, Aristotle, Feminist Theory, and Domestic Violences 73 Epilogue. Unsettlement 109 Part II. Relics Interlude. A Brief Reflection on Death and Decolonization 127 2. Home (and the Ruins That Remain) 137 Epilogue. A Phenomenology of Violence: Ruins 185 Part III. Settlement Interlude. A Moment of Popular Culture: The Home of MasterChef 203 3. On Eggs and Dispossession: Organic Agriculture and the New Settlement Movement 215 Epilogue. An Ethic of Violence: Organic Washing 251 Conclusion 261 Bibliography 267 Index 293

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Book SynopsisThis book offers a provocative retelling of Palestinian political history through an examination of the international commissions that have investigated political violence and human rights violations. More than twenty commissions have been convened over the last century, yet no significant change has resulted from these inquiries. The findings of the very first, the 1919 King-Crane Commission, were suppressed. The Mitchell Committee, convened in the heat of the Second Intifada, urged Palestinians to listen more sympathetically to the feelings of their occupiers. And factfinders returning from a shell-shocked Gaza Strip in 2008 registered their horror at the scale of the destruction, but Gazans have continued to live under a crippling blockade. Drawing on debates in the press, previously unexamined UN reports, historical archives, and ethnographic research, Lori Allen explores six key investigative commissions over the last century. She highlights how Palestinians' persistent demands for independence have been routinely translated into the numb language of reports and resolutions. These commissions, Allen argues, operating as technologies of liberal global governance, yield no justice—only the oppressive status quo. A History of False Hope issues a biting critique of the captivating allure and cold impotence of international law.Trade Review"This brilliant study not only succeeds in recovering the lives, aspirations and agency of Palestinians written out of history, but helps correct the balance of long-term bias against them. All those who have wondered why successive investigative commissions in Palestine have created only impotent solidarity should read this book."—Raja Shehadeh, author of Going Home: A Walk Through Fifty Years of Occupation"Lori Allen provides a remarkable account of how investigative commissions shaped the form, content, and tenor of conversations about Palestine and between Palestinians and western powers. A History of False Hope is indispensable for understanding the nature of the failure of international law in Palestine."—Ilana Feldman, George Washington University"Lori Allen has produced a fascinating, engaging, and innovative scholarly assessment of how international commissions have failed to deliver political results to the Palestinian people. This disillusioning narrative of good intentions gone awry sheds light on the interplay of law and politics in international relations, and is further enriched by illuminating archival research and the arresting insights of a first-class anthropologist."—Richard Falk, Former UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine, author of Palestine's Horizon: Toward a Just Peace"Allen's book juxtaposes Palestinian investment in their political rights against the international community's determination to thwart a solution. A book that takes a subaltern view of history, the book presents the illusion of "hope" in an accessible and chronological manner, pinning culpability on the international culprits that exploited Palestine for the spoils of settler-colonialism."—Ramona Wadi, The New Arab"A History of False Hope constitutes a significant contribution to the scholarly understanding of the workings of international law and of investigative bodies, along with a fresh perspective on how and why they have failed the Palestinians."—Zachary Lockman, H-Diplo"If history serves as a signpost for the future, Allen's book expertly shows the limitations of engaging with international commissions and international law as a mechanism for Palestinians to attain their long-denied rights."—Josh Ruebner, The Electronic Intifada"Focusing on half a dozen of the most important missions with a sharp anthropologist's eye, Lori Allen highlights the reaction of Palestinian opinion to the ostensible opportunities offered by the commissions, and the hopes they raised and dashed."—Jim Muir, London School of Economics Review of Books"The project of [A History of False Hope] is to explain why Palestinians have generally provided consent to processes that have contributed to their subjugation and undermined their national desires at every turn. Allen does this successfully through careful explication of how the liberal paradigm came to dominate Palestinian politics."—Abraham Silberstein, Israel Studies ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction: International Law as a Way of Being 1. Petitioning Liberals: The King-Crane Commission 2. Universalizing Liberal Internationalism: The Arab Revolt and the Boycott of the Peel Commission 3. The Humanitarian Politics of Jewish Suffering: The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry 4. Third World Solidarity at the General Assembly: A UN Special Committee on Human Rights 5. The Silences of Democratic Listening: The Mitchell Committee 6. The Shift to Crime and Punishment: UN Missions Renewing Hope in International Law Conclusion: Toward an Anthropology of International Law, and Next Time and Again for Palestine

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Book SynopsisA cartographic exposition of the 19th century's most dramatic and intriguing murders from the world's most crime-ridden cities and regions.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Sensationalized Murder & the Rise of the Detective • Part 1: London, England • Suffolk, England • Liverpool, England • Glasgow, Scotland • Paris, France • Auvergne, France • Bavaria, Germany • Vienna, Austria • Budapest, Hungary • Prague + Polná, Bohemia • Emilia Romagna, Italy • Madrid, Spain • Part 2: New York City, USA • Massachusetts, USA • Indiana, USA • Chicago, USA • Kansas, USA • San Francisco, USA • Part 3: New South Wales, Australia • Victoria, Australia • Criminology Matrix

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Book SynopsisDrawing from distinctly African source materials and methods, Achebe’s groundbreaking historical account examines the shared power, influence, and authority that uniquely African, female-gendered entities—people, diviners, and deities—exert across Africa’s interconnected physical and spiritual worlds.Trade Review“This brilliant, insightful, and accessible work by a highly gifted historian superbly maps a continent-wide articulation of women’s power, influence, and authority in Africa. Achebe’s African-centered and culturally grounded work mandates a rethinking of African historiography and unveils a deeper understanding of the gender question in Africa.”“A must-read for all lovers of women’s history and a great resource for teaching feminism, sexuality, queer identities, and governance in Africa. Indeed, Achebe deserves high praise for her very powerful contribution to gender and African history.” * African Studies Review *“A brilliant, thoroughly engaging and accessible book … a fascinating and quick read that shows the many, many ways that women across the African continent have always led and continue to lead. It lays permanently to rest the notion of African women as passive or powerless and shows that women play key roles in every sector of society. It also makes a powerful case that African societies have more in common in this regard than differences, despite the continent’s size and diversity. Finally, Achebe makes a welcome contribution to efforts to bring analysis of queer identities to African Studies, showing definitively that notions of gender and sexuality have long been fluid and adaptable on the continent.” * Washington Post *“Achebe has provided students of African and world history with an invaluable guide to the roles played by African women in politics, economics, and religion, past and present. She has done much to fill the gap left in African studies by the shortage of accessible studies such as this one.”“A unique volume … suitable for specialist researchers and popular audiences alike. The book is written in such a way that one could read or teach each chapter independently…. The book is accessible for undergraduate students and it contains critical analysis of key frameworks in African gender studies for researchers or graduate students.” * H-Africa / H-Net Reviews *

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Book SynopsisBest-selling, Oxford-educated investigative author Joseph P. Farrell takes on the Kennedy assassination and the involvement of Lyndon Baines Johnson and the Texas machine that he controlled. Farrell says that a coalescence of interests in the military industrial complex, the CIA, and Lyndon Baines Johnson''s powerful and corrupt political machine in Texas led to the event culminating in the assassination. Without the help of the Dallas police chief and others of the Texas underworld, including Jack Ruby, the Kennedy assassination could not have taken place. Farrell analyzes the data as only he can, and comes to some astonishing conclusions. Topics include: Oswald, the FBI, and the CIA: Hoover''s Concern of a Second Oswald; Oswald and the Anti-Castro Cubans; The Mafia; Hoover, Johnson, and the Mob; The FBI, the Secret Service, Hoover, and Johnson; The CIA and Murder Incorporated; Ruby''s Bizarre Behavior; The French Connection and Permindex; Big Oil; The Military; Disturbing Datasets, Doppelgängers, Duplicates and Discrepancies; Two Caskets, Two (or was that Three?) Ambulances, One Body: The Case of David S. Lifton; Two (or is that Three?) Faces of Oswald; Too Many (or Was That Too Few?) Bullets; Too Many Films, with Too Many, or Too Few, Frames; The Dead Witnesses: Jack Zangretti, Maurice Brooks Gatlin, John Garret Gary Underhill, Guy F. Bannister, Jr., Mary Pinchot Meyer, Rose Cheramie, Dorothy Mae Killgallen, Congressman Hale Boggs; The Alchemy of the Assassination: Ritual Magic and Murder, Masonic Symbolism, and the Darkest Players in the Death of JFK; LBJ and the Planning of the Texas Trip; LBJ: A Study in Character, Connections, and Cabals; LBJ and the Aftermath: Accessory After the Fact; The Requirements of Coups D''État; more.

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Book SynopsisThe great warship the Mary Rose was built between 1509 and 1511 and served 34 years in Henry VIII's navy before catastrophically sinking in the Battle of the Solent on 19 July 1545. A fighting platform and sailing ship, she was the pride of the Tudor fleet. Yet her memory passed into undeserved oblivion until the remains of this magnificent flagship were dramatically raised to the surface in 1982 after 437 years at the bottom of the Solent. Part of the bestselling Conway Anatomy of The Ship series, Tudor Warship Mary Rose provides the finest possible graphical representation of the Mary Rose. Illustrated with a complete set of scale drawings, this book contains technical plans as well as explanatory views, all with fully descriptive keys. Douglas McElvogue uses archaeological techniques to trace the development and eventful career of Henry VIII's gunship, while placing it in the context of longer-term advances in ship construction.This volume feTrade ReviewContaining more interpretation of the hull and working of the ship than any publication to date, this book includes a huge mount of very detailed historical, iconographic and archaeological information. The author has interpreted the recovered structure to make it fit the Mary Rose illustrated by Anthony Anthony in 1546. The numerous scale drawings are augmented by technical illustrations with a descriptive index and explanatory views. The number of concepts covered in detail is impressive; all aspects of the ship and how she worked and fought are included, together with a history of the ship and description of life on board. For anyone interested in how the Mary Rose worked, it is a must * Alexzandra Hildred, Archaeologist and Curator of Ordnance at The Mary Rose Trust *Tudor Warship Mary Rose is a unique insight into the architecture and construction of the iconic ship of the Tudor period * Quarterdeck *Tudor Warship Mary Rose provides valuable graphical representation of Mary Rose. Technical plans are supported with copies of paintings and artefacts as well as explanatory views. * Trinity House Flash magazine *Table of ContentsSECTION 1 Preface 1. Commissioning the Mary Rose 2. Building the Mary Rose 3. Fitting out the Mary Rose 4. Arming and fighting the Mary Rose 5. Manning the Mary Rose 6. Life on board the Mary Rose 7. Seamanship and ship handling 8. The history of the Mary Rose 9. The loss of the Mary Rose SECTION 2 10. The drawings SECTION 3 11. The Mary Rose project 12. The significance of the Mary Rose

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Book SynopsisLaunched in 1906, HMS Dreadnought was the first ''all-big-gun'' battleship and as such revolutionised battleship design for more than a generation. She was built at Portsmouth in 14 months, a record which has never been equalled, and when she was launched she was superior in both firepower and speed to anything then afloat. Perhaps even more radical than her design was the proposal to adopt Parsons turbines, which at the time had been hardly tested. Though she saw little action during her career, her influence was profound and she gave her name to a class of ship that dominated the high seas for more than a generation. As part of the renowned Anatomy of the Ship series, this book provides the finest documentation of the Bellona, with a complete set of superb line drawings, supported by technical details and a record of the ship''s service history.Trade ReviewStunning photos to accompany the line drawings; those on Dreadnought are particularly good. The subtitle to these reprints in soft back, the ultimate references to the world s great ships from the inside out says it all. * Scuttlebutt Magazine *Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION The gunnery revolution A question of Speed Design Construction The experimental cruise/Operational history Summary of service Hull, weights and stability Machinery Steering gear Electrical machinery/Ventilation Accommodation/Armament Fire control equipment Armour Compasses Wireless/Telephone system/Modifications NOTES SOURCES The PHOTOGRAPHS The DRAWINGS General arrangement Lines and constructional details Machinery Accommodation Superstructure Rig Armament Fire control Fittings Ground tackle Boats

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Book SynopsisBoris Pahor spent the last fourteen months of World War II as a prisoner and medic in the Nazi camps at Bergen-Belsen, Harzungen, Dachau and Natzweiler-Struthof. Twenty years later, as he visited the preserved remains of a camp, his experiences came back to him: the emaciated prisoners; the ragged, zebra-striped uniforms; the infirmary reeking of dysentery and death.Necropolis is Pahor's stirring account of providing medical aid to prisoners in the face of the utter brutality of the camps - and coming to terms with the guilt of surviving when millions did not. It is a classic account of the Holocaust and a powerful act of remembrance.Trade ReviewAn extraordinary book . . . The raw intensity of Pahor's writing takes the reader deep into the world of the camps. It stands equal to Primo Levi's If This Is A Man * * Sunday Times * *A superb English translation . . . [Pahor's] determination to provide the most truthful account possible brings him to question continually, and to examine every complication and contradiction. This is a testimony all of us would do well to discover * * Los Angeles Review of Books * *A harrowing book . . . described with hallucinatory precision and exceptionally subtle analysis * * Le Monde * *Deserves a place alongside Primo Levi and Imre Kertesz's masterpieces of Holocaust literature * * La Repubblica * *Extraordinarily poetic * * Mirror * *

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Book SynopsisTokyo, which in Japanese means the "Eastern Capital," has only enjoyed that name and status for 150 years. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the city that is now Tokyo was a sprawling fishing town by the bay named Edo. Earlier still, in the Middle Ages, it was Edojuku, an outpost overlooking farmlands. And thousands of years ago, its mudflats and marshes were home to elephants, deer, and marine life. In this compact history, Jonathan Clements traces Tokyo's fascinating story from the first forest clearances and the samurai wars to the hedonistic "floating world" of the last years of the Shogunate. He illuminates the Tokyo of the twentieth century with its destruction and redevelopment, boom and bust without forgoing the thousand years of history that have led to the Eastern Capital as we know it. Tokyo is so entwined with the history of Japan that it can be hard to separate them, and A Short History of Tokyo tells both the story of the city itself and offers insight into Tokyo's position at the nexus of power and people that has made the city crucial to the events of the whole country.Trade Review"Clements' skillset--Asian specialist, linguist, historian and foodie--might have been designed specifically for his newly published Armchair Traveller's History of Tokyo, combining as it does a history of the city from a time of myth, conjecture and hazy record to the current year 2018 with a gazetteer containing a selection of the sights and attractions of the city."--Helen McCarthy, author of All the AnimeTable of ContentsTokyo, the ‘Eastern Capital’, has only enjoyed that name and status for 150 years. Before then, it was Edo, a sprawling town by the bay. Earlier still, it was Edojuku, a medieval outpost overlooking farmlands. And, thousands of years ago, its mudflats and marshes were hometo elephants, deer and marine life. Jonathan Clements traces Tokyo’s fascinating history from the first forest clearances and the samurai wars to the hedonistic ‘floating world’ era – and onwards to the twentieth century with its destruction and redevelopment, boom and bust. So entwined is Tokyo with the history of Japan that it can be hard to separate them – its position at the nexus of power and people for over a thousand years has made it crucial to the events of the whole country.

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Book SynopsisA gripping and compelling account. The peaceful ending of the Cold War between West and East remains one of the greatest achievements of modern statecraft' CHRISTOPHER ANDREW, Literary ReviewThis landmark global study makes us rethink what happened when the Cold War ended and our present era was born.The world changed dramatically as the Berlin Wall fell and protest turned to massacre in Tiananmen Square. Now, with deft analysis and a wealth of newly declassified archival sources, historian Kristina Spohr offers a bold and novel interpretation of the revolutionary upheaval of 1989 and, how in its aftermath, a new world order was forged without major conflict.The Post-Wall world, Spohr argues, was brought about in significant measure through the determined diplomacy of a small cohort of international leaders. They engaged in tough but cooperative negotiation and worked together to reinvent the institutions of the Cold War. Exploring this extraordinary historical moment, Spohr offers a mTrade Review WINNER OF DAS POLITIKWISSENSCHAFTLICHE BUCH 2020 FOR THE BEST POLITICAL SCIENCE BOOK PUBLISHED IN GERMANY. ‘Kristina Spohr beautifully reconstructs the events of the 1989-92 era, reminding us of the importance of intelligent, responsible political leadership at critical moments of history … Uses recently declassified material in the British, French, German, Russian and US archives … She mentions not only those who filled the streets of East Berlin and Prague in peaceful demonstrations, but also brave individuals such as Lech Walesa, the earthy, politically astute electrician from Gdansk, who symbolised Poland’s non-violent move to democracy.’ Financial Times ‘Sweeping panorama … One of the many strengths of this book is the way Spohr pulls together these stories of befuddled leaders and of the forces they unleashed, wittingly or otherwise, in effect providing a global history … Post Wall, Post Square is free of jargon and filled with insight on the interplay between individual decisions and larger historical forces. The result is a magisterial account of the momentous events of 1989 and the diplomacy that put in place a new global settlement, with a reunified Germany at the heart of an expanded NATO and an enlarged and deepened European Union.’ Times Literary Supplement ‘Gripping and compelling’ Christopher Andrew, Literary Review ‘Reads excellently … Spohr lets the fundamental ideas of her global history emerge from an abundance of colourful and lively miniatures. It is the monumental painting of an impressionist, always hard on the heels of the historical protagonists. Whoever reads this roams the hallways of power in Beijing and Paris, sits opposite Helmut Kohl and Margaret Thatcher … The fact that the big picture is never lost is due to the confident structuring of the facts and the stylistic skills of the author.’ Freie Presse

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Book SynopsisBeating its biplane rivals in a 1936 Reich Air Ministry design competition, the Arado Ar 196 provided the Kriegsmarine with possibly the best shipborne reconnaissance seaplane of World War II. Replacing the Heinkel He 60 biplane as the standard catapult-launched floatplane embarked on the Kriegsmarine's capital ships, the Ar 196 flew an assortment of combat missions during World War II, including coastal patrol, submarine hunting, light bombing, general reconnaissance and convoy escort sorties. The first vessel to take its Ar 196A-1s to sea was the pocket battleship Graf Spee, which embarked two in the autumn of 1939. The battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz could carry six Arados each, the battlecruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst four and smaller pocket battleships and cruisers two. Shore-based aircraft were also operated from coastal ports on the Channel, Baltic, North Sea and Bay of Biscay coasts, as well as in the Balkans and Mediterranean. In this tTable of Contents1. The Last Floatplane 2. First Blood 3. Ahead of the Atlantic Wall 4. The Seven Seas 5. Eastern Front and the Mediterranean 6. War's End and Foreign Use Appendices - Colour Plates Commentary - Bibliography - Index

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Book SynopsisFrom critically acclaimed Eastern Front expert Prit Buttar comes this paperback edition of his detailed and engrossing account of the World War II''s Eastern Front as German forces were driven back following the Battle of Kursk.Making use of the extensive memoirs of German and Russian soldiers to bring this story to life, Retribution follows on from On A Knife''s Edge, which described the encirclement and destruction of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad and the offensives and counteroffensives that followed throughout the winter of 194243. Beginning towards the end of the Battle of Kursk, Retribution tells the story of the massive Soviet offensive that followed the end of Operation Zitadelle, which saw depleted and desperate German troops forced out of Western Ukraine. In this title, critically acclaimed Eastern Front expert Prit Buttar describes in detail the little-known series of near-constant battles that saw a weakened German army coTrade ReviewAn excellent strategic and operational analysis of this mostly ignored campaign... * New York Journal of Books *Table of ContentsList of Maps Author's Note Dramatis Personae Introduction 1 – Summer 1943: The Decisive Shift 2 – The Mius 3 – Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev 4 – Akhtyrka and Bogodukhov 5 – Kharkov 6 – Attrition: From the Mius and Donets to the Dnepr 7 – The Dnepr Bridgeheads 8 – Krivoy Rog 9 – Kiev and Zhitomir 10 – Year's End 11 - A Year of Decision Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThoughtful and challenging, this book argues for a reassessment of the role historically played by Islam in Africa, and offers new hope for in creased mutual understanding between African people of different faiths. Drawing on a wealth of sources, from the colonial period to the most up-to-date scholarship, the author challenges the widely held perception th at, while Christianity oppressed and subjugated the African people, Islam fitted comfortably into the indigenous landscape. Instead, this penetrating account reveals Muslim settlers to be as guilty of enforcing slavery and conversion as those of their more maligned sister tradition. Only with an acknowledgement of the true roles of both faiths in African history, suggests Azumah, can the people of both traditions move themselves and their continent towards a new future of tolerance and self-awareness.Table of Contents1. A glance at Post-Colonial Assessment of the Western-Christian and Arab-Islamic Legacies in Tropical Africa; Definition of the Problem; A Critique of Prevailing Approaches and Perceptions; Methodology, Outline and Sources. 2. Indigenous Africa as a Cultivating Ground for Arab-Islam; Introduction; The Introduction of Islam to Tropical Africa; The Indigenous African Environment and Conversion to Islam; Conclusion. 3. Muslim Jihad and Black Africa; Introduction; Sunni Muslim Doctrine of JihadJihad - Theories and Campaigns in Africa; Interpreting the Jihad Tradition in Africa; Evaluating the Jihadists' Shari`a Rule; Conclusion. 4. Muslim Slavery and Black Africa; Introduction Slavery in Muslim Africa - Indigenous or Islamic Stimuli?; Classical Muslim Ideology of Enslavement; Muslim Slavery and the Slave Trade - The Arab-Oriental; Dimension; Muslim Slavery and the Slave Trade - The African Dimension; The Various Roles of Slaves in Muslim Lands; The Condition of Slaves in Muslim Lands - Theory versus Practice; Encountering the Encounters - Arab-Islamand Black African Experience; Introduction; Truth, Dialogue and Confessional Loyalty; The Need to Rethink Arab-Islam in Light of the African; Experience; The Arab Factor in Sunni Islamic Orthodoxy.

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Book Synopsis Euclid's Elements of Geometry was a book that changed the world. Trade Review Praise for The Book of Wonders ‘An astonishingly readable and informative history of the greatest mathematical bestseller of all time, from ancient Greece to dark energy. The writing is vivid and the stories are gripping. Highly recommended!’Ian Stewart, author of Significant Figures ‘Benjamin Wardhaugh is an excellent storyteller and his collected short story approach to the history of The Elements works splendidly… simultaneously educational, entertaining and illuminating … A highly desirable read for all those, both professional and amateur, who interest themselves in the histories of mathematics, science and knowledge … over almost two and a half millennia’Thony Christie, The Renaissance Mathematicus ‘A fascinating tour through 2300 years of reading, re-imagining, & responding to perhaps most important textbook ever written’ Seb Falk, author of The Light Ages Praise for Benjamin Wardhaugh’s Gunpowder and Geometry ‘Meticulous yet lively biography, even those who have never heard of its subject could hardly disagree’ Sunday Times ‘Wardhaugh graphically describes the conditions Hutton escaped from and the importance of Newcastle and its coal to the changes taking place in Britain in the second half of the eighteenth century . . . like something from the pages of a Jane Austen novel . . . Wardhaugh has done a good job of rescuing Hutton from obscurity and setting the man and his achievements in the context of their times . . . This account of how “the pit boy turned professor” became “one of the most revered British scientists of his day” is well worth reading’ Literary Review

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the BAJS Book Prize, British Association for Jewish Studies"

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Book SynopsisRemarkably, the first book about this decisive battle in the Hundred Years War

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Book SynopsisIn the 19th century, the Stevenson engineers pioneered marvelous lighthouses around the coasts of Scotland - lighthouses which inspire with their architectural elegance, and speak of compassion for sailors and fishermen risking their lives in these notoriously dangerous waters. But what was it actually like to be a Scottish lighthouse engineer, and how did the professional activities interact with social and economic conditions in Scotland at the time? How did the Northern Lighthouse Board's Engineer (almost invariably a Stevenson) cope with weeks aboard a small lighthouse vessel, traveling around the rugged Scottish coastline on dangerous tours of inspection and interacting with local people in some of the remotest regions of Europe? The author reveals the fascinating story of the Stevensons as family members as well as engineers - brilliant yet fallible, tough yet vulnerable, with private lives that are little known, even to lighthouse enthusiasts.It sets their work in a historical and social context, drawing heavily on eye-witness accounts by two of Scotland's most celebrated literary sons: Walter Scott, internationally famous poet and member of the Edinburgh establishment; and Robert Louis Stevenson, young family member and disenchanted engineering apprentice desperate to become an author. The reader is taken to the Orkney and Shetland Islands with descriptions of the chain of Stevenson lighthouses that illuminate a vital shipping route between the North Sea, Baltic, and North Atlantic. Finally we travel to Muckle Flugga, the northernmost outpost of the British Isles and last link in the chain, a vicious rock on which David and Thomas Stevenson dared to build their 'impossible lighthouse'.Trade Review`It's an inspiring history that's well worth exploring. Reading this book will certainly increase your appreciation of these buildings and the people who worked in and on them'. 60 North -------------------- `...the book will appeal to historians, armchair naturalists and holiday makers alike'. LAMP -------------------- `...a fascinating book...' Undiscovered Scotland -------------------- `There's lots of fascinating insight for both established fans of lighthouses and also those whose interest has just been taken by the subject matter. For those who long to look beyond the Shipping Forecast at the places behind some of the names, this book might just help cure our insomnia and curiosity'. Best of British -------------------- `…a personal story of that dynasty of engineers … Most ably the book places lives and work of Stevenson lighthouse engineers in their social and historical context and author Lynn writes of the Stevensons as a family of engineers’. Flash -------------------- `…For the interested visitor and the casual pharologist alike, this small and well-illustrated paperback will satisfy their curiosity and provide an attractive souvenir’. The Shetland Times -------------------- `…Anyone with even a passing interest will be enthralled by Scottish Lighthouse Pioneers … As well as telling a fascinating and at times, gripping, story the tale is well illustrated with contemporary drawings and pictures, maps and more modern photographs’. Dunoon Oberver -------------------- `…It’s a great little book about a family who achieved something amazing’. Desperate Reader

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Book SynopsisIn 1527 Hector Boece, the first Principal of King's College Aberdeen, wrote in his extensive History of the Scottish People of an island of rocky crags and prehistoric sheep, which could only be reached through extreme danger to life. It was, he explained, 'the last and outmaist Ile' of Scotland. It was St Kilda. St Kilda breaks the waters of the Atlantic Ocean some 100 miles west of the mainland, and 40 miles west of the Outer Hebridean island of North Uist. On clear days it appears as a dark silhouette on a distant horizon. Approach it, and it resolves into seven shapes - the four islands of Hirta, Boreray, Soay and Dun, and three towering sea stacks. It is an enigmatic and awe-inspiring landscape, a starkly beautiful vision of 'life on the edge' which has fascinated everyone from travellers, antiquarians and conservationists to writers, film crews and tourists. And, perhaps as a result, it is one of the most mythologised and misunderstood places on earth. Archaeologists Angela Gannon and George Geddes have spent over nine months living and working on St Kilda, and have been part of a team which has been researching its complex and remarkable history for more than a decade. In this new book they turn the popular perception of the archipelago on its head. St Kilda, they argue, has never existed in total isolation, but has always been linked to a network of communities scattered across the north western seaboard and the Highlands of Scotland. The Last and Outmost Isle pulls St Kilda back from the 'end of the world' to tell a compelling story of triumph over geographical adversity. What makes these islands so special is not their distance from 'civilisation', but rather their enduring capacity to remain a living, connected part of Scotland over the course of some three thousand years.Trade Review‘A fascinating book’ * Press and Journal *‘Debunks the romantic myth of an isolated, “uncivilised” community’ * The Times *‘Ground-breaking’ The Herald * The Herald *‘The definitive volume on St Kilda’ * Oban Times *

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Book Synopsis**HOW TO WIN AN INFORMATION WAR: THE PROPAGANDIST WHO OUTWITTED HITLER AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW**WINNER OF THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2020A TIMES and GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR''Quietly frightening.'' Guardian''Essential reading.'' Irish Times''Consistently chilling.'' Herald''Shocking and entertaining.'' Daily TelegraphWhen information is a weapon, everyone is at war.We live in a world of influence operations run amok, a world of dark ads, psy-ops, hacks, bots, soft facts, ISIS, Putin, trolls, Trump. We've lost not only our sense of peace and democracy but our sense of what those words even mean. As Peter Pomerantsev seeks to make sense of the disinformation age, he meets Twitter revolutionaries and pop-up populists, behavioural change' salesmen, Jihadi fan-boys, Identitarians, truth cops, and much more. Forty years after his dissid

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Book SynopsisAn enthralling account of the entwined histories of Britain, Spain, and their empires in the AmericasTrade Review"[A] magisterial comparative history of empire of the Americas. . . . [A] richly textured comparative history. . . . [A] meticulously researched and elegantly executed synthesis. . . . Mr. Elliott’s achievement is to identify with brilliant clarity the similarities and differences between British and Spanish America while embroidering his analysis with memorable details."—Niall Ferguson, Wall Street Journal"[A] monumental analysis of two New World empires . . . Elliott . . . uses the story of each colonisation to illuminate the other. He challenges our prejudices about the Spanish conquest and the patriotic myths that have grown up around the English one. There is nothing black and white about this book. . . . Elliott's writing . . . moves with a gentle rhythm of a sea swell to carry the reader along."—Christian Tyler, Financial Times Magazine"A handsome and fascinating study of the two colonisations, so different in their scope, duration and outcome. The contrasts in administration, treatment of the natives and economic viability are intriguing."—Christian Tyler, Financial Times Magazine"My favorite recent book of American history is, perhaps surprisingly, by an English scholar of the history of Spain. A model of comparative history, Empires succeeds in placing the formative years of the area that became the United States in a consistently illuminating hemispheric perspective."—Eric Foner, New York Times Book Review"Our current debate about immigration isn't only about clamping down on the U.S.-Mexican border. It's also about what it means to be an American after 9/11 and about how the nation is revamping the concept of citizenship. And it's an opportunity to reassess yet again, the relationship between the United States and its neighbors to the south, a chance to reflect on the role of Hispanic culture in the English-speaking world. For those eager to understand the historical context behind these issues, I know of no more comprehensive, readable source than J.H. Elliott's Empires of the Atlantic World. . . . A feast of insights."—Ilan Stavans, Washington Post Book World"In a masterful account, Oxford don Elliott explores the simultaneous development of Spanish and English colonies in the so-called New World. . . . Elliott’s synthesis represents some of the finest fruits of the study of the Atlantic World."—Publishers Weekly"Elliott's mastery of Spanish materials is especially impressive and allows him to show how Spanish America 'was large enough to provide the setting for a variety of holy experiments'. . . . It is refreshing to read, towards the end of this brilliant, compelling book, that in the British colonies 'a distinctively, American identity' was not so much the cause of revolution as the result."—Tom D'Evelyn, Christian Science Monitor"Elliott . . . has long been universally acknowledged as the world's foremost expert on the early modern Spanish monarchy. . . . He has shown his mastery of the techniques of comparative history. . . . Elliott's searching and open-minded scrutiny of the facts overturns most conventional thinking. . . . Empires of the Atlantic World has long been a subject in search of an author, and Elliott has long been the author destined to fulfill the role."—Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Literary Review"The two stories have almost always been told in isolation: here, each affords fascinating new perspectives on the other. . . . [A] scholarly achievement and an exciting new departure."—Michael Kerrigan, The Scotsman". . . how stimulating comparative history can be, especially when carried out with the meticulous care and breathtaking expertise that are on display on virtually every page of this handsome book. . . . This appraisal can barely begin to do justice to the formidable scholarship and the wealth of suggestions and insights contained in this magnificent book. Merely to have written a synthesis of either of the two empires would have been a brave undertaking and an impressive tour de force. But to have produced such a detailed and illuminating comparative synthesis of both, with hardly a dull paragraph despite its dispassionate – perhaps at times too dispassionate – scholarship, is a mighty triumph. Seldom can comparative history have been done so thoroughly, and presented with such flair, authority and aplomb."—Fernando Cervantes, Times Literary Supplement"Elliott’s book is an important new synthesis . . . [and] not just a scholarly tome. It is also an outstanding example of historical writing that manages to combine serious, rigorous historical scholarship with an approachable style and grand narrative that commends it to the general reader. . . . Elliott writes well and captures the sweep of history . . . [with] a practical, pragmatic bent. . . . It is a very fine book."—Michael Savage, Culture Wars"As with all Elliott's books, the architecture and the scope are breathtaking. Empires of the Atlantic World covers almost every imaginable aspect of the imperial experience, from politics and economics to art and law, religion and literature, science and technology: all encompassed within a single narrative which takes us from discovery in 1492 to the eve of final independence of the Spanish-American colonies in 1830."—Anthony Pagden, London Review of Books"[It] is a quite masterly work of comparative history by a great historian which combines in a single thesis two complex societies and sheds fresh light on each."—Michael Howard, Times Literary Supplement"Elliott writes wonderfully readable history and in Empires he offers a rattling good tale describing European expansion to the New World that will captivate readers for years to come."—Simon Middleton, BBC History Magazine"Elliott’s clearly-written book serves as an excellent general history of the Americas for the period 1492 to 1850. It is one of the few studies to compare the two spheres of the British and Spanish Americas."—British Bulletin of PublicationsSelected as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2007 by Choice MagazineSelected as a 2007 "Outstanding" book by AAUP University Press Books for Public and Secondary School LibrariesShortlisted for the 2006 Hessel-Tiltman History Prize, awarded by the English PEN ClubWinner of the 2007 Francis Parkman Prize awarded by the Society of American Historians for the best book in American history"Others have offered comparisons between the English- and Spanish-speaking worlds, but none have been as fully nuanced or fully realized as this. A masterpiece by one of the English-speaking world’s most accomplished historians."—David Weber, author of Bárbaros: Spaniards and Their Savages in the Age of Enlightenment"Elliott’s close study of the empire the English founded in North America and the one that the Spanish built to the south has given him remarkable insights and perspectives. The result is to give new dimensions to the usable past of both Americas."—Edmund S. Morgan, author of Benjamin Franklin

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Book Synopsis*One of The Times Best Art Books of the Year*'Looking to Sea is a remarkable and compelling book... I loved it.' Edmund de Waal'In her first, transporting book, Lily Le Brun sweeps the beaches of the past century of British art, collecting treasures from sea, shingle and shore... A book to pack in your picnic basket for shivering dips, heatwave day trips and ice-cream Sundays' The TimesAn alternative history of modern Britain, Looking to Sea is an exquisite work of cultural, artistic and philosophical storytelling. Looking to Sea considers ten pivotal artworks, from Vanessa Bell's Studland Beach, one of the first modernist paintings in Britain, to Paul Nash's work bearing the scars of his experience in the trenches and Martin Parr's photographs of seaside resorts in the 1980s, which raised controversial questions of class. Each of the startlingly different pieces, created between 1912 and 2015, opens a window onto big ideas, from modernism and the sublime, the impact of the world wars and colonialism, to issues crucial to our world today like the environment and nationhood. In this astonishingly perceptive portrait of the twentieth century, art critic Lily Le Brun brings a fresh eye to a vast idea, offering readers an imaginative new way of seeing our island nation.'Le Brun's writing is at once bold and delicate, far-reaching and fine-tuned. Her book explores the inexhaustible variety of human perception.' Alexandra Harris'A smart and clear-eyed set of meditations on marine gaze, made with a painterly touch worthy of the chosen artists. Empathy and intelligence lift memoir into cultural history.' Iain Sinclair'Elegant and endlessly interesting . . . as much a rich compendium of social history as it is a hard consideration of art itself' CriticTrade ReviewThis history of twentieth-century Britain, refracted through ten artistic responses to the sea, is beautifully written - authoritative and questioning; scholarly, but also vividly insightful about bodies, private lives, feelings, the often-overlooked quotidian. -- Aida Edemariam, judge of the RSL awardsLooking to Sea is a remarkable and compelling book. It is both a wonderfully sustained mapping of the intersection between artists, writers and the sea and a meditation on belonging and displacement. I loved it. * Edmund de Waal *Le Brun's writing is at once bold and delicate, far-reaching and fine-tuned. Her book explores the inexhaustible variety of human perception. * Alexandra Harris *A smart and clear-eyed set of meditations on marine gaze, made with a painterly touch worthy of the chosen artists. Empathy and intelligence lift memoir into cultural history. * Iain Sinclair *An elegant scheme, beautifully written... From Alfred Wallis to Tracey Emin's Margate beach hut, this is an elegant guide to a century of seaside art... This book will give you sea fever. Pack your sou'wester, fill your Thermos, take a train to the coast. Read this sitting on the pier and see what you can see -- Laura Freeman * The TImes *Ambitious . . . accessible . . . a chronicle of British art, unfurled against the panoramic backdrop of 20th-century history * Sunday Telegraph *A carefully considered and enjoyable mix of biography, art criticism and personal reflection -- Chloë Ashby * Spectator *One for wild swimmers, beachcombers, wind surfers and all who like to be beside the seaside with a sketchbook and watercolour set. In her first, transporting book, Lily Le Brun sweeps the beaches of the past century of British art, collecting treasures from sea, shingle and shore . . . A book to pack in your picnic basket for shivering dips, heatwave day trips and ice-cream Sundays. -- Books of the Year * The Times *Held within a neatly conceived structure and based on far-reaching research, this book is not only about art but also about national identity, belonging and displacement. It churns with large ideas as well as persuasive arguments . . . Le Brun has an eye and ear for details that catch the reader's attention. She handles words with great skill and piercing thought -- Frances Spalding * Literary Review *Ten hallmark, water-themed artworks provide a key into reading the modern history of the UK and the 20th century * Monocle *A beautifully illustrated, meditative book for art lovers who also like the sea . . . This guide will make you long for salty air, sand and fish and chips. Pack the book and a flask of tea (or whisky) and head for the coast * The Lady *[A] rich portrait of our island nation . . . Le Brun has written a study of Britain imagined, Britain as it recently was, and of Britain becoming . . . elegant and endlessly interesting . . . as much a rich compendium of social history as it is a hard consideration of art itself . . . reading Le Brun's book will give you a renewed love for this place that sits apart -- Patrick Galbraith * Critic *Each chapter mixes biography with anecdote, cultural criticism with lyrical description and wider philosophical musing . . . Le Brun apparently uses the artists' own visions to comment on today's Britain, though in fact her own range often outstrips theirs -- Jan Dalley * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisA blackly funny account of everyday life in Ramallah and refreshingly different from most writing on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law describes Suad Amiry's life on the West Bank from the early 1980s to the first decade of the new millennium. Vividly evoking her neighbourhood and her moving family history, Amiry creates a fascinating account of her attempts to live a normal life in an insane situation: from the impossibility of acquiring gas masks during the first Gulf War to her dog acquiring a Jerusalem passport when thousands of Palestinians couldn't. During the Israeli invasion of Ramallah in March 2002, Amiry's feisty ninety-two-year-old mother-in-law came to live with them, and Amiry's diary of this time is at the heart of this wonderful book about the absurdity (and agony) of life in the Occupied Territories.Trade ReviewA refreshingly funny account of the absurdities of everyday life in the occupied territories -- Stephanie Merritt * Observer *Amiry's acute ear for gossip makes it almost a kind of Palestinian Desperate Housewives -- Christina Lamb * The Sunday Times *Spirited, thought-provoking and shockingly entertaining -- Hephzibah Anderson * Daily Mail *Not only is it really funny but it also shows the kind of courage, vision and humanity needed to bring peace to the Middle East -- Eve Ensler, author of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES

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Book Synopsis· · A Daily Mail Book of the Week · ·The sensational story of the rise and fall of one of the most notorious families in history.____________________ 'A wickedly entertaining read' The Times____________________The Borgias have become a byword for evil. Corruption, incest, ruthlessness, avarice and vicious cruelty - all have been associated with their name. But the story of this remarkable family is far more than a tale of sensational depravities - it also marks the golden age of the Italian Renaissance and a decisive turning point in European history. From the family's Spanish roots and the papacy of Rodrigo Borgia, to the lives of his infamous offspring, Lucrezia and Cesare - the hero who dazzled Machiavelli, but also the man who befriended Leonardo da Vinci - Paul Strathern tells the captivating story of this great dynasty and the world in which they flourished.'A vivid insight into the hothouse world of papal politics in the tumultuous years before the Reformation.' Daily Telegraph'Authoritative and well-written' Wall Street JournalTrade ReviewStrathern strikes a successful balance between gorblimey Horrible Histories and the reverence due to Renaissance men. Don't be beside a pool or under a loggia in Italy this summer without a copy from which to read (luridly) aloud... This history of ruthlessness, intrigue and men broken on Fortune's Wheel is a wickedly entertaining read. * The Times *A vivid insight into the hothouse world of papal politics in the tumultuous years before theReformation. * Daily Telegraph *Authoritative and well-written... Strathern has an admirable talent for the biographical sketch, particularly of artists and writers. * Wall Street Journal *The Borgias, Mr Strathern explains, did not merely acquire their reputation through roistering and making the bureaucracy run on time. They also earned it through the ruthless elimination of their enemies - and friends... This is a book rich in such telling details. * The Economist *Strathern's latest venture into Renaissance Italy proves just as exciting as his previous histories... One of the author's great strengths has always been his ability to keep the many assorted players from confusing readers, and that holds true in his latest. Strathern's smooth narrative and comprehensive insight bring the Borgias to life. * Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) *Engaging and informative... To be immersed in this group biography is to visit a particularly exciting and consequential period in European history in all its high drama and richness of character... Outstanding * Booklist *In this accessible look behind the curtain, Strathern lays out the history of the infamous Italian clan. Strathern makes a tangled and thorny history readable. * Publishers Weekly *Highly recommended for readers interested in the drama surrounding the Borgias that spurred a number of scandalous rumors that continue to circulate today. * Library Journal (Starred Review) *Table of Contents0: Prologue: The Crowning Moment 1: Origins of a Dynasty 2: The Young Rodrigo 3: Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia Emerges in His True Colours 4: The Way to the Top 5: A New Pope in a New Era 6: 'The Scourge of God' 7: The Best of Plans... 8: A Crucial Realignment 9: A Royal Connection 10: Il Valentino's Campaign 11: Biding Time 12: The Second Romagna Campaign 13: The Borgias in excelsis 14: Cesare Strikes Out 15: Changing Fortunes 16: Cesare Survives 17: Borgia's 'Reconciliation' 18: Lucrezia in Ferrara 19: The Unforeseen 20: Desperate Fortune

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Book SynopsisA true Cold War espionage thriller set in the ultra-secret Berlin Tunnel - where British officer George Blake must run a high-stakes double cross to maintain his cover.Trade ReviewA spy thriller that kept me up all night. Magnificent story-telling, always clear, every episode meticulously researched. It's also a fascinating commentary on the height of the Cold War with Eisenhower, Kennedy and Khrushchev intimately involved in the skulduggery in Berlin -- Peter SnowA super book, beautifully told and compelling throughout. Vogel sketches George Blake perfectly as a diffident traitor who combines high intellect with ruthlessness -- Luke Harding, author of 'Collusion'A crackling Cold War espionage story, Betrayal in Berlin takes you to the peaks of spying ambition and the depths of betrayal * The Billion Dollar Spy *One of the most dramatic spy stories of the Cold War, superbly told by a real authority on the subject * One Minute to Midnight *Through fresh interviews with principal participants and extensive archival research, Steve Vogel has made the story of the Berlin Tunnel new again. I was riveted to the narrative from start to finish * A Brotherhood of Spies *Steve Vogel is a talented and gifted writer who brings the personalities and idiosyncrasies of every participant in this operation to life...truly one of those rare books you can't put down * Circle of Treason *Praise for Steve Vogel:Probably the best piece of military history that I have read or reviewed in the past five years. . . . This well-researched and superbly written history has all the trappings of a good novel * The Washington Times *[A] fine study . . . Steve Vogel does a superb job of bringing this woeful tale to life * The Washington Post *

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Book SynopsisAs the only child of the Prince Regent and Caroline of Brunswick, Princess Charlotte of Wales (1796-1817) was the heiress presumptive to the throne. Her parents' marriage had already broken up by the time she was born. She had a difficult childhood and a turbulent adolescence, but she was popular with the public, who looked to her to restore the good name of the monarchy. When she broke off her engagement to a Dutch prince, her father put her under virtual imprisonment and she endured a period of profound unhappiness. But she held out for the freedom to choose her husband, and when she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg she finally achieved contentment. Her happiness was cruelly cut short when she died in childbirth at the age of twenty-one only eighteen months later. A shocked nation went into mourning for its people's princess', the queen who never was.

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Book SynopsisThe Swan King is the biography of one of the most enigmatic figures of the 19th century, described by Verlaine as 'the only true king of his century'. A man of wildly eccentric temperament and touched by a rare, imaginative genius, Ludwig II of Bavaria is remembered both for his patronage of Richard Wagner and for the fabulous palaces which he created as part of a dream-world to escape the responsibilities of state. In realization of his fantasies, he created a ferment of creativity among artists and craftsmen, while his neglect of Bavaria's political interests made powerful enemies among those critical of his self-indulgence and excesses. At the age of 40, declared insane in a plot to depose him, Ludwig died in mysterious circumstances.Table of ContentsPreface The Northern Apollo Reborn The Captive Years From Cage to Throne The Coming of the Friend The Second Lola A Triumph, an Idyll and a Parting Germany in Turmoil Sophie Lilla...and Others Wagnerian Strains A Crucial Decade 1866-1876 Fantasies in Stone Dreams of El Dorado Ludwig II and the Theatre Forbidden Longings Farewell to Wagner The Twilight Years The Trap Closes Prophecies Fulfilled Epilogue: The Cult of the Swan King

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Book SynopsisIgniting the $100 billion Indigenous economyIt is time. It is time to increase the visibility, role, and responsibility of the emerging modern Indigenous economy and the people involved. This is the foundation for economic reconciliation. This is Indigenomics.Indigenomics lays out the tenets of the emerging Indigenous economy, built around relationships, multigenerational stewardship of resources, and care for all. Highlights include: The ongoing power shift and rise of the modern Indigenous economy Voices of leading Indigenous business leaders The unfolding story in the law courts that is testing Canada''s relationship with Indigenous peoples Exposure of the false media narrative of Indigenous dependency A new narrative, rooted in the reality on the ground, that Indigenous peoples are economic powerhouses On the ground examples of the emerging Indigenous economy. Indigenomics Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Foreword Introduction The Indigenomics Manifestation 1. Through the Lens of Worldview The Indian Problem Indigenous Economic Displacement and Marginalization Indigenous Worldview and Responsibility 2. The Nature of Wealth Timeline of Money Ceremony as an Expression of Wealth The Economic Distortion: Through the Lens of Wealth and Poverty 3. The Landscape of Indigenous Worldview Principle 1: Everything Is Connected Principle 2: Story Principle 3: Animate Life Force Principle 4: Transformation Principle 5: The Teachings Principle 6: Creation Story Principle 7: Protocol Principle 8: To Witness Principle 9: To Make Visible Principle 10: Renewal 4. "But I Was Never Taught This in School" A History of the Development of British Columbia 5. The Indigenous Economy Characteristics of an Indigenous Economy 6. Indian Act Economics The Indian Act and the Aboriginal Question The Indian Act Economics Effect: The Conditions for an Indigenous Economic Market Failure Perception of the Indian Act 7. The Indigenomics Power Center The Indigenomics Push/Pull Dynamic 7 Rs of the Indigenomics Power Center 8. The Dependancy Illusion The Great Debunk: Addressing the Illusion 9. The Power Play And Then Indigenous People Went to Court! The Legal Spectrum The Push/Pull Dynamic: An Inception into a New Economic Reality 10. The Power Shift: A Seat at the Economic Table The Effect of the Emerging Indigenous Power Shift The Risk of Doing Nothing The Collective Response to Now 11. The Emerging Modern Indigenous Economy Setting a Target for Indigenous Economic Growth Understanding the Growth of the Indigenous Economy The State of Indigenous Economic Research Building a Collective Economic Response: The Emerging $100 Billion Indigenous Economy 12. Indigenomics and the Unfolding Media Narrative Indigenous Business Media Themes Media Theme 1: Growing Indigenous Business Success Media Theme 2: Conflict and Risk in Industry Project Development Media Theme 3: Tone of Media Headings Media Theme 4: Aboriginal Legal Challenges and New Requirements Media Theme 5: Indigenous Business Innovation and Leadership Media Theme 6: Indigenous Worldview Media Theme 7: Aboriginal Relations/Reconciliation Media Theme 8: Growing Indigenous Economic Influence Media Theme 9: Shifting Aboriginal Business Environment Media Theme 10: Indigenous Ownership Media Visual Portrayals of Conflict and the Assertion of Aboriginal Rights 13. Building a Toolbox for Economic Reconciliation Reconciliation and the Pathway to an Inclusive Economy The Characteristics of an Inclusive Economy The Indigenomics Toolbox 14. The Global Indigenous Power Shift Ecuador: The Power Moment Bolivia: The Law of the Rights of Mother Earth Power Moment Clayoquot Sound: The War in the Woods Power Moment New Zealand: The Rights of a River Power Moment Māori Economy Measured at $50 billion Annually: Power Moment United Nations Calls for Revolutionary Thinking: Power Moment 15. Indigenomics and the Great Convergence Economic Distortion: Addressing Dysfunctionality in the New Economy Regeneration: The Great Convergence Economic Design for an Inclusive Economy The Great Economic Convergence and the Transformation of Meaning An Economy of Meaning Addressing the Economic Disconnect 16. A Seat at the Economic Table Appendix A: The Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth Appendix B: Truth and Reconcilation Commision Call to Action #92 Notes Index About the Author About New Society Publishers

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Book SynopsisA wonderfully concise and readable, yet comprehensive, history of the Mediterranean Sea, the perfect companion for any visitor -- or indeed, anyone compelled to stay at home.''The grand object of travelling is to see the shores of the Mediterranean.''Samuel Johnson, 1776The Mediterranean has always been a leading stage for world history; it is also visited each year by tens of millions of tourists, both local and international. Jeremy Black provides an account in which the experience of travel is foremost: travel for tourism, for trade, for war, for migration, for culture, or, as so often, for a variety of reasons. Travellers have always had a variety of goals and situations, from rulers to slaves, merchants to pirates, and Black covers them all, from Phoenicians travelling for trade to the modern tourist sailing for pleasure and cruising in great comfort.Throughout the book the emphasis is on the sea, on coastal regions and on port cities vTrade ReviewPraise for Jeremy Black's The Holocaust'A demanding but important work.'Praise for Jeremy Black's Insurgency and Counterinsurgency: A Global History'A significant and timely contribution to understanding the new meaning of war.' - Choice

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Book SynopsisFatherhood is the debut novel from award-winning poet Caleb Klaces, combining prose and poetry in an experimental work of verse fiction. Following the birth of their first child, a couple move out of the capital to the northern countryside, where they believe the narrator’s great-grandfather, a Russian emigrant, was laid to rest. The father dedicates himself to parenting, writing and conversation with his dead ancestor, newly conscious of the ties that bind the present to the past. It is a time of startling intimacies, baby-group small talk, unexpected relationships and tender rhythms, when every clock seems to tell a different time, and the solidity of language is broken. As his daughter begins to speak, the father’s gentleness turns to unexplainable rage. He begins to question who he must protect his child from – the outside world or himself. Their new house, the family discover, is built on a floodplain.Moving between history, memory and autobiography, its shifting form captures a life and language split open by fatherhood. An experiment in rewriting masculinity, it asks how bodies can share both a house and a planet.

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Book SynopsisFor centuries, we have been fascinated with the iconic architecture, mystical religious beliefs, and once-thriving societies of the ancient Egyptians. Starting with a detailed chronology and ending with a comprehensive glossary of terms and bibliography, this meticulously researched resource explores the development of the ancient civilizations of the Egyptians. Organised chronologically, it traces Egyptian history in chapters starting with prehistoric times and including The Age of the Pyramids, The Classical Period, The Empire of the Pharaohs, The Late Period and The Age of Foreign Dominion. Hundreds of photographs of the major sites, three-dimensional reconstructions, and close-up shots of ancient artifacts, statues, and funerary goods take readers on a tour of the pyramids, temples, and other major monuments of ancient Egypt. The images reveal fascinating insights into the religious beliefs and rituals of the ancient Egyptians as well as demonstrate their unsurpassed artisanship and remarkable artistic output. The compelling text provides fascinating information on the everyday lives of the ancient Egyptians, interweaving these details with the thrilling tales of the major archaeological discoveries including those relating to Khufu, Tutankhamun, and Ramesses II.

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Book SynopsisJulia Lovell is Professor of Modern China at Birkbeck College, University of London.Her two most recent books are The Great Wall and The Opium War (which won the 2012 Jan Michalski Prize). Her many translations of modern Chinese fiction into English include Lu Xun's The Real Story of Ah Q, and other Tales of China (2009). She is currently completing a new translation of Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en.She writes about China for several newspapers, including the Guardian, Financial Times, New York Times and Wall Street Journal.Trade ReviewRevelatory and instructive… [a] beautifully written and accessible book -- David Aaronovitch * The Times *There is not a dull sentence in this scintillating and wry account of the global impact of Maoism -- Michael Burleigh * Evening Standard, *Book of the Week* *Wonderful -- Andrew Marr * New Statesman *An exciting, alternative history of the 20th century that deviates from the well-rehearsed narrative that relays between Washington and Moscow -- Tanjil Rashid * Financial Times *A landmark work giving a global panorama of Mao's ideology filled with historic events and enlivened by striking characters -- Jonathan Fenby, author of The Penguin History of Modern ChinaJulia Lovell has given us a masterful corrective to the greatest misconception about today’s China. For too long, visitors who marveled at China’s new luxuries and capitalist zeal assumed that Maoism had gone the way of its creator. That was a mistake. Lovell’s account - eloquent, engrossing, intelligent - not only explains why Xi Jinping has revived some of Mao’s techniques, but also why Mao's playbook for the “People’s War” retains an intoxicating and tragic appeal to marginalized people the world over -- Evan Osnos, author of The Age of AmbitionLovell takes us on an exhilarating journey, tracing the spread of Maoist theories across South-east Asia and then Africa, ending up in today’s China… The historical sweep of this book is impressive -- Christopher Coker * Literary Review *Lovell has produced a work which may well be the most harrowing, fascinating and occasionally hilarious book on the subject thus far -- Stuart Kelly * Scotland on Sunday *Lovell is an accomplished storyteller with a nuanced and sophisticated understanding of China’s relationship with itself and the world -- Isabel Hilton * Prospect *Lovell has a gift for compressing long and convoluted histories via just the right stories, characters, moments, and statistics… In vivid, often grim detail, Lovell shows us how and why Maoism has proven better, both inside and outside China, at attacking state infrastructure than building it up * Daily Telegraph *Lovell breaks new ground and does so in a wonderfully well-written account packed with horrors, extraordinary characters and occasionally macabre humour -- Chris Patten * Tablet *Lovells’s descriptions of…global strands of Maoism are well-researched and colourful * Economist *Highly readable and well-researched book… timely -- David Priestland * New Statesman *A fascinating account of the influence of Maoism, during the cold war and beyond -- Gideon Rachman * Financial Times, *Books of the Year* *[A] superb and chilling study -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times, *Books of the Year* *A fascinating and timely work on one of the most influential and disruptive strands of Marxist thought: that of Mao Zedong… the book reveals the relevance of Mao to our current populist age * London Review of Economics, *Books of the Year* *

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Book SynopsisBeyond the affluent centre of Paris and other French cities, in the deprived banlieues, a war is going on. This is the French Intifada, a guerrilla war between the French state and the former subjects of its Empire, for whom the mantra of 'liberty, equality, fraternity' conceals a bitter history of domination, oppression, and brutality. This war began in the early 1800s, with Napoleon's lust for martial adventure, strategic power and imperial preeminence, and led to the armed colonization of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, and decades of bloody conflict, all in the name of 'civilization'. Here, against the backdrop of the Arab Spring, Andrew Hussey walks the front lines of this war - from the Gare du Nord in Paris to the souks of Marrakesh and the mosques of Tangier - to tell the strange and complex story of the relationship between secular, republican France and the Muslim world of North Africa. The result is a completely new portrait of an old nation. Combining a fascinating and compulsively readable mix of history, politics and literature with Hussey's years of personal experience travelling across the Arab World, The French Intifada reveals the role played by the countries of the Maghreb in shaping French history, and explores the challenge being mounted by today's dispossessed heirs to the colonial project: a challenge that is angrily and violently staking a claim on France's future.Trade ReviewThere is some terrific and chilling reporting [here] and Hussey is at his best when on the streets... Provocative... an important new book * Economist *Compelling... Hussey makes a strong case that France's contemporary malaise can only be understood in the light of [its] tragic history... Fascinating and hugely readable -- Matthew Campbell * Sunday Times *Vivid, arresting, and striking... Hussey is a talented writer, and knows his subject... Nuanced and persuasive * Guardian *Rigorous, perceptive, clear-eyed, colourful and powerful, Andrew Hussey's The French Intifada is an important, and highly readable, book which should be read by anyone interested in France today, and in the broader question of Islam in Europe in the 21st century -- Jason BurkeDisturbing and provocative -- Rupert Edis * Daily Telegraph**** *A refreshing account [that] blends colourful narrative history with lively reportage and analysis... [This is] a good introduction to the most sensitive issues of race, religion, citizenship and history that grip modern France -- Tony Barber * Financial Times *[It] mixes lively street reportage with the history of two brutal centuries in France's former Maghreb territories... This is strong stuff -- Charles Bremner * New Statesman *A vivid illumination of the ongoing, painful and perhaps insoluble French dilemma * Kirkus *Hussey stresses the dire economic circumstances that prevail and the toxic mix of big ambitions, poor education and refusal to believe in hard graft -- Michael Burleigh * The Times *[This book] deserves our admiration -- Nick Fraser * Observer *Hussey is an engaging guide... writing with authority and humour about everything from Zinedine Zidane to architecture... A fascinating and enjoyable read * Irish Examiner *Pithy... [with] effective potted histories of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco -- Farah Nayeri * Independent *Extremely readable... a page-turner... Highly recommended * Morning Star *Urgent and brilliant... Superb writing on the complexities of race, religion and immigration that situates this in the legacies of Empire and colonialism -- Mark Perryman * Counterfire *Lively and well paced -- Natasha Lerner * TLS *Indispensable -- Patrick Marnham * 'Books of the Year' Spectator *Excellence recurs in The French Intifada, where a lust for travel and understanding of the past produces a book of disturbing power. [Hussey] brings a depth of knowledge to a study of the legacy of French colonial sojourns in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, making his travelogue read like a literary history-cum-dark documentary thriller -- Tom Adair 'Travel book of the year' * Scotsman *Fascinating and hugely readable -- Matthew Campbell ‘Pick of the Paperbacks’ * Sunday Times *Andrew Hussey knows France and its colonial history better than most French people. He tells the ugly truth... He offers no solutions, but his willingness to delve into other belief systems is a worth-while, sobering journey. French officials should read Hussey's book -- Lara Marlowe * Irish Times *Fascinating -- Charles Moore * Spectator *

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Book SynopsisAfter the Normandy break-out, the Allies' headlong dash east came to a halt in the autumn with the ill-fated MARKET GARDEN operation and over-extended supply lines short of the Rhineland. After repulsing the Nazis' daring Ardennes offensive, Montgomery's and Bradley's Army Groups cleared the Reichwald and Rhineland and closed on the Rhine. With both sides aware of the strategic significance of this physical barrier the stakes could not have been higher. Eisenhower's plan involved a vast airborne assault by General Ridgway's XV11 Airborne Corps (codename VARSITY) and the simultaneously coordinated river crossing by Monty's 21 Army Group codename PLUNDER with Dempsey's British Second Army and General William H. Simpson's US Ninth Army. This superbly illustrated and researched book describes the March 1945 assault crossing involving naval amphibious craft, the air and artillery bombardment and diversionary attack by the British 1st Commando brigade at Wesel. In concert with VARSITY and PLUNDER, Patton's US Third Army Group crossed further south. As a result of this triumph of strategic planning and tactical execution, the fate of Hitler's Thousand Year Reich' was finally sealed.

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Book Synopsis''Superbly researched and enormously entertaining... One of the outstanding books of the year'' The TimesAn epic story of empire-building and bloody conflict, this ground-breaking biography of one of history's most venerated military and religious heroes opens a window on the Islamic and Christian worlds' complex relationship.WINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZEWhen Saladin recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187, returning the Holy City to Islamic rule, he sent shockwaves throughout Christian Europe and the Muslim Near East that reverberate today.It was the culmination of a supremely exciting life. Born into a significant Kurdish family in northern Iraq, this warrior and diplomat fought under the banner of jihad, but at the same time worked tirelessly to build an empire that stretched from North Africa to Western Iraq. Gathering together a turbulent coalition, he was able to capture Jerusalem, only to tTrade ReviewSuperb, highly readable and definitive ... One of the world’s leading crusades scholars ... Phillips's narrative of Saladin's career is vivid and judicious, punctuated by set pieces that charge along like battle scenes from Game of Thrones -- Dan Jones * Sunday Times *Superbly researched and enormously entertaining ... one of the outstanding books of the year -- Gerard DeGroot * The Times *An authoritative and brilliantly told account of the life of one of the world’s greatest – and most famous – military leaders. Jonathan Phillips leaves no stone unturned in this impressive and lively history of the genius who was Saladin -- PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk RoadsOutstanding. Jonathan Phillips has written a compelling account of arguably the most inspirational of Islamic military heroes -- CHRISTOPHER DE BELLAIGUE, author of The Islamic EnlightenmentFascinating, authoritative and intelligent * Spectator *This illuminating and fascinating biography of Saladin could not be timely. Today political figures often inspire little admiration, but Saladin’s career at the height of the Crusades reminds us that moral charisma and integrity can be recognised and honoured by people on both sides of a vicious conflict. His concluding account of the intense emotion that the memory of Saladin still inspires in the Middle East today reveals the sensitivity and pain that underlies so many of the region’s unresolved problems -- KAREN ARMSTRONG, author of Fields of BloodBeautifully researched and authoritative, Jonathan Phillips's very fine biography of this fascinating historical character underlines how serious history made accessible to the general reader is invaluable if we hope to understand our world today -- JASON BURKE, author of The 9/11 WarsVivid and authoritative, with glistening details on every page. Phillips explains Saladin’s ability to mesmerise not just through the achievements of his lifetime but through his inspiration of Arab leaders, including Nasser, Assad and Saddam Hussein, ever since -- JAMES BARR, author of A Line in the SandJonathan Phillips explores new themes and makes use of various underused or wholly neglected Arabic sources ... vivid and convincing -- Robert Irwin * Literary Review *More than just a biography ... this book paints a rich, absorbing picture of the 12th-century Middle East ... gives expert accounts of the many hard-fought battles and sieges ... vividly describes the Crusader fightback ... One major lesson of this book is that the facts about the distant past are much, much more interesting than the opportunistic uses made of them by anyone in the present * Telegraph *Phillips produces an absorbing, readable narrative… an excellent introduction to the life of Saladin by a scholar who is respected around the world for his work on the sultan and the crusades… an invaluable guide -- Helen Nicholson * BBC History *Phillips’s careful scrutiny of the surprisingly numerous contemporary sources underlies an impressive piece of historical reconstruction -- Michael Prodger * New Statesman, *Books of the Year* *

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Book SynopsisFree Fall tells the brutal engrossing story of the Second Chechen War, through the eyes of a young Russian Soldier. Nicolai Lilin was trained as a sniper in an unorthodox Russian Special Forces regiment called the Saboteurs. This hardened and close-knit band of brothers, operating beyond the control of military code, faced mercenary fighters, anti-personnel mines and torture of the most extreme kind.Free Fall offers a sniper's-eye view of one of the most controversial wars in living memory. It is unflinching, unforgiving and unputdownable.Trade ReviewExtraordinary...Lilin serves up brilliantly harrowing set-pieces, but also illuminates the soul of the warrior. * * Scotland on Sunday * *A pitiless account . . . pierced with firm feelings for his 'family' of fellow saboteurs - as well as an existential sorrow over a war that made so little sense that peace, when it finally came, felt incomprehensible. * * Metro * *A young Russian soldier's brutal memoir. * * Times * *Force yourself to forget about categories of good and evil, you have to just be there and read . . . produces a thrill of pleasure that is hard to forget. -- Roberto Saviano, author of GOMORRAH * * [on SIBERIAN EDUCATION] * *Lilin's astonishing account of his life takes you into some very strange worlds; frightening, violent and yet with spirited moments of redemption which both offer hope and keep you reading . . . a breath-taking memoir. -- Misha Glenny * * Mail on Sunday [on SIBERIAN EDUCATION] * *A marvellous and illuminating book . . .This story makes most of what we call true crime writing seem insipid and effete. -- Irvine Welsh * * [on SIBERIAN EDUCATION] * *

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Book SynopsisFrom Ramallah to New York, Tel Aviv to Porto Alegre, people around the world celebrate a formidable, transnational Palestinian LGBTQ social movement. Solidarity with Palestinians has become a salient domain of global queer politics. Yet LGBTQ Palestinians, even as they fight patriarchy and imperialism, are themselves subjected to an "empire of critique" from Israeli and Palestinian institutions, Western academics, journalists and filmmakers, and even fellow activists. Such global criticism has limited growth and led to an emphasis within the movement on anti-imperialism over the struggle against homophobia. With this book, Sa'ed Atshan asks how transnational progressive social movements can balance struggles for liberation along more than one axis. He explores critical junctures in the history of Palestinian LGBTQ activism, revealing the queer Palestinian spirit of agency, defiance, and creativity, in the face of daunting pressures and forces working to constrict it. Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique explores the necessity of connecting the struggles for Palestinian freedom with the struggle against homophobia.Trade Review"This utterly brilliant book will be a classic. Sa'ed Atshan's comprehensive study of queer Palestinian activism provides a rich understanding of the complex intersections of selfhood, activism, and belonging. By demonstrating the limits of binarisms of East/West and self/other through detailed empirical analysis and powerful theoretical interventions, Atshan has given us a landmark work valuable to Middle East studies, queer studies, and anthropology in the broadest sense."—Tom Boellstorff, University of California, Irvine, author of The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia "Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique is a breath of fresh air! In the academic climate in which 'radical' has become synonymous with crude schisms between West and East, authentic and inauthentic, pure and sellout, this book provides a much-needed nuanced account of Queer Palestine. Sa'ed Atshan carefully historicizes the local terrain and rightly problematizes how US-based scholarship has turned the critique of empire into an empire of critique. This is a brilliant call for academic self-reflection and a brave rejection of so-called radical myths of cultural authenticity."—Gil Z. Hochberg, Columbia University "Sa'ed Atshan brilliantly weaves together ethnography and personal experience in the most thoughtful, engaging, and emotionally captivating ways. His sophisticated work captures the nexus of a scholar-activist, offering an authoritative account of the challenges and trajectory of the Palestinian LGBTQ movement. A tour de force and a remarkable book for both its theoretical and empirical contributions."—Amaney A. Jamal, Princeton University "This powerful and prophetic book shows that the struggle for justice and freedom against empire and homophobia are indivisible. Sa'ed Atshan's text is a major intellectual force for good."—Cornel West, Harvard University "In Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique, Sa'ed Atshan provides a brilliant theorization of an excessive mode of political critique that strives for the high ground yet contributes to the calcification of social justice movements. Through a nuanced ethnography that foregrounds the plurality of queer experience in Israel and Palestine and the enormous complexity of the global Palestinian solidarity movement, Atshan demonstrates how an intellectual stance that combines a conviction of the moral superiority of one's political judgments with deep suspicion concerning others' complicity in relations of domination and the likely oppressive consequences of prescriptions for social transformation engenders discursive disenfranchisement, loss of key intellectual distinctions, neglect of pragmatic constraints, demoralization of activists, and the truncation of transnational queer solidarity. This deeply insightful book makes vital contributions to Queer Studies, Middle East Studies, Social Movement Studies, and an understanding of the dynamics of social justice praxis."—Mary Hawkesworth, Rutgers University "Atshan's book, an autoethnography of queer Palestine, is methodologically impeccable, incorporating academic work and personal positioning. He advances a philosophy of critique centered on the everyday material lives of people, that is both complex and masterfully written. He makes a bold and thought-provoking argument—one that speaks to social justice activists as well as academics."—2020 Lee Ann Fujii Book Award Committee, International Studies Association "[A] timely and urgent account....Along with a succinct presentation of the immense challenges faced by the LGBTQ-identifying Palestinians, Atshan highlights Palestinian agency, ingenuity, and resilience."—Joshua Donova, New Books Network "[Atshan] immaculately illustrates the development of movements along with the challenges they face by both conservative Palestinians and Arabs at large and by the repressive occupation. This work is pioneering and fills a significant gap within Middle East Studies."—Lana Shehadeh, Arab Studies Quarterly "The goal of Atshan's sensitive 'critique of critique' is fostering a 'transforming activism with loving energy' that helps the Palestinian LGBTQ movement start to grow again and reach its full potential. His long-term hope is 'that Israelis and Palestinians, straight and queer, can all live together as equals.' My hope is that all Friends will seek to find ways to help achieve this healing vision."—Steve Chase, Friends Journal "Atshan's work, in describing the empire of critique surrounding the queer Palestinian experience, demonstrates the highly politicised nature of certain rights and their potential to be weaponised in order to subvert the gaze from other issues. Furthermore, through his analysis of the heterogeneity of narratives surrounding this liberation movement, he reminds us that the voices of those that exist at these intersections of oppressions should and must be the loudest."—Iona Cable, Human Rights Pulse "Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique is a much-needed contribution to queer studies, Middle East studies, and scholarship on social movements and a must-read for those who are committed to the difficult politics of solidarity."—Evren Savci, Journal of Middle East Women's Studies "This is a most timely and admirably courageous book that challenges the seeming gap between queer activism and anthropology...Atshan shows that anthropology has the potential to support local activist struggles against homophobia and imperialism by rigorously engaging with, rather than dismissing, the experiences and views of these activists—their simultaneous engagement with multiple axes of oppression."—2021 Ruth Benedict Book Prize Committee, Association for Queer Anthropology "Atshan makes a major contribution to the study of social movements generally and the queer Palestinian movement specifically. Atshan conceptually explores resistance and identity in the context of Israeli and Palestinian conflict. He offers an empirically rich and compelling account, where readers are let into the everyday life of the global queer Palestinian solidarity movement."—Sara Salman, Contemporary Sociology "The nature of life under colonisation and occupation, in Atshan's view, means that no one, not even 'the most radical activists and academics', can lay claim to the moral high ground. Everyone is implicated in some way. It's better to edge forward in modest ways."—Tareq Baconi, London Review of Books "[Atshan's] work fills gaps and addresses the silences and deliberate erasures in Palestine studies, Middle East studies, Middle East anthropology, queer theories, and peace and conflict studies, showing how 'queer liberation cannot be realized while colonial subjugation persists,' because these struggles are 'inextricably linked' (p. 222). Scholars and students engaged in Israel/Palestine and settler colonial struggles will benefit from this auto/ethnographic text of subjectivities on the ground."—Bernardita M. Yunis (Varas), International Journal of Communication "Atshan's work is candid, self-critical, and unexpectedly inspiring."—Lisa Anderson, Foreign Affairs "[Atshan's] book is the culmination, at least for now, of his years-long effort to persuade his activist community to simultaneously oppose Israeli rule and Palestinian homophobia, and not privilege the one over the other... Atshan's book is a trenchant clarion call, harnessed to the words of the iconic African American poet Audre Lorde: 'there is no hierarchy of oppressions.'"—Abe Silberstein, The Tel Aviv Review of Books Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: "there is no hierarchy of oppressions" chapter abstractThis introductory chapter foregrounds Audre Lorde's words that "there is no hierarchy of oppressions." It extends this thesis to the central question at the heart of this book, which is how transnational progressive social movements are able (or not) to balance struggles for liberation along more than one axis at once. The focus here is on the global queer Palestinian solidarity movement, revealing its original aim to empower queer Palestinians to achieve national and sexual freedom. The chapter defines the critical concepts that help account for the rise of this movement in Palestine and globally. These concepts include the empire of critique, radical purists, discursive disenfranchisement, movement plateau, pinkwashing, pinkwatching, ethnocracy, homophobia, Zionism, ethnoheteronormativity, and the white gaze. This chapter also contextualizes this project within the intellectual genealogy of which it is a part. Chapter 1: LGBTQ Palestinians and the Politics of the Ordinary chapter abstractChapter 1 traces the rise of the LGBTQ Palestinian movement in Israel/Palestine, also known as Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories or as historic Palestine. The first section delineates an ethnographic approach to social movement theory as the conceptual framework through which to understand this movement. The next section outlines the heterogeneity of queer Palestinian subjects, and the following section provides an overview of Palestinian homophobia. I then account for the emergence of the LGBTQ movement in Palestine and follow that with a discussion of queer Palestinian epistemologies and a section on the rise of radical purists in the movement. I conclude with examples of queer Palestinian subjectivities. I argue that queer Palestinian life and resistance derives its power from ordinary acts in extraordinary contexts under ethnoheteronormativity. This chapter furthers the case for attention to affect and more pluralism and inclusivity within the movement. Chapter 2: Global Solidarity and the Politics of Pinkwashing chapter abstractChapter 2 applies conceptions of victims and saviors to the debates on pinkwashing and pinkwatching. It explicates four examples of pinkwashing. I then provide an overview of homophobia and LGBTQ rights in contemporary Israel, recognizing the elision of Israeli homophobia and elevation of Israeli queer empowerment in pinkwashing discourse. The final section of this chapter offers an analysis of hegemonic critiques of the use of the terms pinkwashing and pinkwatching in the contexts of (a) the charge of singling out Israel for criticism, (b) the invocation of the presence of queer Palestinians in Israel, and (c) debates surrounding the salience of the Israeli occupation. It is in the interplay between pinkwashing and pinkwatching that the queer Palestinian movement has catalyzed global solidarity. Chapter 3: Transnational Activism and the Politics of Boycotts chapter abstractThe first section of chapter 3 traces how the conflict over boycotts maps onto successive Tel Aviv Pride parades. It examines queer Palestinian calls to boycott Tel Aviv Pride, decisions to participate in the parade by queer antioccupation activists, and the emergence of resistance to the Israeli state by mainstream LGBTQ organizations in Israel. The chapter then focuses on two cities that emerged as early epicenters of the pinkwatching and boycott debates. The next section examines the politics of boundary policing as they played out on multiple fronts. The chapter then turns to a critical moment in the summer of 2017 when conflict between pinkwashers and pinkwatchers came to a head and surged into the national media spotlight. This chapter demonstrates that we are equipped, from social theory and peace and conflict studies, with conceptual tools to transcend the present impasse animating boycotts in the context of queer Palestinian transnational activism. Chapter 4: Media, Film, and the Politics of Representation chapter abstractChapter 4 examines the relationship between the global queer Palestinian solidarity movement, representations of queer Palestinians in film and journalism, and the significant mistrust of the global mainstream media that has arisen among movement leaders. The chapter opens with a description of how the mainstream Western press tends to prioritize the most sensational stories about queer Palestinians. The second half of the chapter outlines the movement's critique of pinkwashing films produced by Israelis and internationals and the movement's attendant calls to boycott those films. This chapter delineates examples of cinematic tropes that clearly reinforce pinkwashing as well as others that are more nuanced. It also analyzes films that feature queer love between Israelis and Palestinians. In addition, I discuss a number of queer Palestinian films, highlighting their importance and controversy. The chapter concludes with the story of an as-yet-unreleased documentary on the first US LGBTQ delegation to Palestine. Chapter 5: Critique of Empire and the Politics of Academia chapter abstractChapter 5 examines two theoretical frameworks elaborated by Western-based scholars—the Gay International by Joseph Massad and homonationalism by Jasbir Puar—as they have been applied to the global queer Palestinian solidarity movement. I reveal the debilitating effects that these academic critiques have had on the Queer Palestine movement and the possibility for academics and activists to formulate a new mode of scholarly engagement aimed at supporting queer social movements in Palestine and across the Middle East. As in previous chapters, I compare contributions that are corrosive, placing activists in the cross-fire between left- and right-wing criticisms of their efforts, to those that raise difficult intellectual, ethical, and practical questions while protecting from paralysis those who struggle for justice. Conclusion: "we were never meant to survive" chapter abstractJust as the introduction foregrounded words of Audre Lorde, this concluding chapter does so as well, with attention to Lorde's call for racialized queer subjects to speak in the face of attempts to undermine their survival. The conclusion conceptualizes how scholars and activists can distinguish between critique and criticism. Drawing on Jose Muñoz's notions of queer futurity and utopia, I outline my vision and road map for the global queer Palestinian solidarity movement. This is done with an eye to transcending the empire of critique and the movement's current plateau so it can become a more democratic and pluralistic movement that can resume growing.

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