History Books
The History Press Ltd Towton 1461
Book SynopsisThe Battle of Towton
£13.49
The Library of America W.e.b. Du Bois: Black Reconstruction (loa #350):
Book Synopsis
£34.39
Oxford University Press Inc Weavers Scribes and Kings
Book SynopsisA unique history of the ancient Near East that compellingly presents the life stories of kings, priestesses, merchants, bricklayers, and othersIn this sweeping history of the ancient Near East, Amanda Podany takes readers on a gripping journey from the creation of the world''s first cities to the conquests of Alexander the Great. The book is built around the life stories of many ancient men and women, from kings, priestesses, and merchants to brickmakers, musicians, and weavers. Their habits of daily life, beliefs, triumphs, and crises, and the changes that people faced over time are explored through their own written words and the buildings, cities, and empires in which they lived.Rather than chronicling three thousand years of rulers and states, Weavers, Scribes, and Kings instead creates a tapestry of life stories through which readers will come to know specific individuals from many walks of life, and to understand their places within the broad history of events and institutions inTrade ReviewAdopting a truly innovative approach, Podany has provided us with a wonderfully vivid and compelling account of the region. * The Past *[A] remarkably lively...chronicle. * Science *Podany makes her subject accessible, pointing out that, from what people ate (bread and beer) to how they amused themselves (playing board games), 'life hasn't changed dramatically from earliest times'. * The New Yorker *This is a masterpiece. Writing in a warm, conversational tone and using ancient texts and letters, Podany tells the story of ordinary people from the ancient Near East, bringing them to life through their own words. This is a joy to read, spanning four thousand years of history, with interesting facts and details on every page. Highly recommended! * Eric H. Cline, author of 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed *This vivid and engaging narrative offers a genuinely new and exciting approach to ancient Middle Eastern history. Combining the very latest research—there are new insights here, even for specialists—with empathy and imaginative flair, Professor Podany invites us to consider the people of the distant past as real human beings, with bodies and minds, senses and emotions. I loved every page of this book and can't wait to share it with my students. * Eleanor Robson, author of Mathematics in Ancient Iraq: A Social History *Amanda Podany has an amazing ability to make people of the ancient Near East—from weavers to queens, farmers to kings—come alive, taking us through the millennia-long history of the region with short stories based on original documents. This book is a fascinating read. * Marc Van De Mieroop, author of Hammurabi of Babylon: A Biography *This book is truly impressive. Podany has managed to breathe life into people who have been dead for thousands of years, whose remains are nothing more than a name on a clay tablet, and to reconstruct what life may have been like for them in the brief moments we see in the evidence. As Podany says, "each person's story becomes a window into their era", and the windows all show a colourful existence full of humanity. * Owain Williams, Ancient History *This rich and rewarding history connects us effortlessly to a vibrant and very human place. * Paul Collins, Times Literary Supplement *In this delightfully readable work P. describes the history and culture of ancient Mesopotamia from its urban origins (c. 4000 BCE) up to the fall of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great (331 BCE)...The book is largely held together by the remarkable stories of everyday people and their experiences. These stories are artfully narrated and animated by Podany's lively writing, and she is to be praised for her extensive research of archaeological remains together with her scrutiny of countless clay cuneiform tablets documenting Mesopotamian life in all its richness and complexity. * Classical Review *Podany offers a great many highly entertaining historical vignettes, introducing Mesopotamian rulers, but also merchants, musicians, priests, poets, gardeners, brewers, barbers, artisans, charioteers, mercenaries, conspirators, slaves, and of course the eponymous 'weavers and scribes'. Many of them were women. They all come to life in this illuminating history, thanks to the author's impressive ability to synthesise arcane technical studies by other scholars (and herself) without dumbing them down, and to turn the data and statistics these studies provide into engaging stories... It offers an enormous amount of detailed information, in accessible prose, and stands out as a unique achievement of synthesis. Highly recommended! * Eckhart Frahm, World Archaeology *Recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Uruk, the First City: Builders and Organizers, 3500-3300 BCE 2. The Uruk Period: Colonizers, Scribes, and the Gods, 3300-3000 BCE 3. The Early Dynastic Period: Kings and Subjects, 2900-2400 BCE 4. The Early Dynastic Period: Queens, Diplomats, and Weavers, 2400-2300 BCE 5. The Early Dynastic Period: Royal Couples, Divine Couples, and Envoys, 2400-2300 BCE 6. The Akkadian Period: A Conqueror and a Priestess, 2300-2200 BCE 7. The Ur III Period: Brickmakers, Litigants, and Slaves, 2200-2000 BCE 8. The Isin-Larsa Period: Kings and Military Commanders 2000-1800 BCE 9. Merchants and Families 10. Princesses and Musicians 11. The Old Babylonian Period: A Lawgiver, Land Overseers, and Soldiers, 1792-1750 BCE 12. The Old Babylonian Period: Naditums and Scribal Students, 1792-1712 BCE 13. The Late Old Babylonian Period: Barbers, Mercenaries, and Exiles, 1742-1550 BCE 14. The Late Bronze Age: Businessmen, Charioteers, and Translators, 1550-1350 BCE 15. The Late Bronze Age: Gift Recipients and Royal In-Laws, 1450-1333 BCE 16. The Late Bronze Age: Negotiators, Sea Traders, and Famine Sufferers, 1333-1000 BCE 17. Empire Builders, Sculptors, and Deportees 18. The Neo-Assyrian Period: Conspirators, Diviners, and Officials, 681-648 BCE 19. The Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods: Gardeners, Artisans, and a Centenarian Priestess, 648-544 BCE 20. The Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Periods: Brewers, Rebels, and Exorcists 544-323 BCE Cast of Characters Acknowledgements Abbreviations Bibliography
£32.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies
Book SynopsisHeiresses is a glorious book, endlessly entertaining and about much more than its stated subject. Thompson is a fabulous writer' Caroline O'Donoghue 'Witty, insightful, deliciously gossip-laden and slightly scandalous... Heiresses makes for an entertaining, occasionally sad and never less than gripping read' Anne Sebba 'Excellent... [A] wonderfully entertaining book' Sunday Times 'Exquisite and gossipy... Thompson, a gifted storyteller, obviously delighted in the writing of this book' TLS '[A] deeply empathetic study of heiresses through the ages' The Times 'Life is less sad with money', said Emerald Cunard; Barbara Hutton was the 'Poor Little Rich Girl', but which is true? Laura Thompson explores the phenomenon of the heiress from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries. Take Mary Davies, a child bride at the age of twelve, and her thousand-acre dowry of today's Mayfair and Belgravia, which gave the Grosvenors their stupendous wealth. Or Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough, whose American railroad fortune helped sustain Blenheim Palace. Winnaretta Singer showcased the work of Debussy in her Parisian salon; Daisy Fellowes enjoyed parties, fashion – and other people's husbands – without shame or conscience. Alice de Janzé shot one of her lovers and was suspected of murdering a second; Woolworth heiress, Barbara Hutton, married seven times. Money should mean power and opportunity, but in the hands of these women it was so often absent. Why did so many struggle to live with so much? Did the removal of need render their life meaningless? Were they riven with guilt at all they had, knowing they really should be happy? With her signature intelligence and wit, Laura Thompson tells these women's stories – glittering and fascinating but often sad and scandalous – on a gripping search for the answer.Trade ReviewHeiress is one of those words, like penthouse or superyacht, that invite schadenfreude. As Laura Thompson's excellent book makes clear, there is nothing more satisfying to the popular imagination than a poor little rich girl... [A] wonderfully entertaining book' * Sunday Times *[A] deeply empathetic study of heiresses through the ages * The Times *Exquisite and gossipy... Thompson, a gifted storyteller, obviously delighted in the writing of this book' * TLS *Hugely entertaining... Thompson writes about her subjects' psyches with wit and insight' * Sunday Business Post *Heiresses is a glorious book, endlessly entertaining and about much more than its stated subject. Through the lens of these very rich girls, we are given an opera-box view of money and class, women and men, crime and punishment. Thompson is a fabulous writer -- Caroline O'DonoghueI always enjoy Thompson's books and this sounds fabulous * The Bookseller *[A] fluent, readable study of wealthy women * Daily Telegraph *With plenty of gossip, scandal and witty insights on every page, Heiresses is undoubtedly an entertaining read from start to finish, telling stories that range from sad and heartbreaking to outrageous, frustrating and spectacularly glamorous... This is an intelligent, fascinating and infinitely readable book that's been structured well and offers such a wealth of brilliant material (not to mention an entirely new reading list to explore afterwards) that even the most casual of readers will not fail to be captivated by the lives of the Million Dollar Babies' * CultureFly *Absorbing study of women burdened by prodigious inheritances... Thompson presents a gossip-strewn survey of rich women with time on their hands' * Financial Times *An entertaining introduction to the adventures of independently wealthy women in Britain over the past four centuries * BBC History Magazine *A fascinating account of the lives of women born filthy rich * Best magazine *An entertaining book – who doesn't love a tale of excess, and there are plenty here! * This England *Laura Thompson is no stranger to the beau monde [...] Heiresses announces itself as exploring the phenomenon of the heiress from the 17th to the 21st centuries * The Oldie *Skillfully evoking disparate social milieus and generational divides, Thompson packs the narrative full of juicy gossip without resorting to caricature. Readers will be enthralled * Publishers Weekly *
£9.49
University of California Press Tolerance Is a Wasteland
Book SynopsisHow denial sustains the liberal imagination of a progressive and democratic Israel. The question that this book aims to answer might seem simple: how can a violent project of dispossession and discrimination be imagined, felt, and profoundly believed in as though it were the exact oppositean embodiment of sustainability, multicultural tolerance, and democratic idealism? Despite well-documented evidence of racism and human rights abuse, Israel has long been embraced by the most liberal sectors of European and American society as a manifestation of the progressive values of tolerance, plurality, inclusivity, and democracy, and hence a project that can be passionately defended for its lofty ideals. Tolerance Is a Wasteland argues that the key to this miraculous act of political alchemy is a very specific form of denial. Here the Palestinian presence in, and claim to, Palestine is not simply refused or covered up, but negated in such a way that the act of denial is itself denied. The effects of destruction and repression are reframed, inverted into affirmations of liberal virtues that can be passionately championed. In Tolerance Is a Wasteland, Saree Makdisi explores many such acts of affirmation and denial in a range of venues: from the haunted landscape of thickly planted forests covering the ruins of Palestinian villages forcibly depopulated in 1948; to the theater of pinkwashingas Israel presents itself to the world as a gay-friendly haven of cultural inclusion; to the so-called Museum of Tolerance being built on top of the ruins of a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, which was methodically desecrated in order to clear the space for this monument to human dignity.Tolerance Is a Wasteland reveals the system of emotional investments and curated perceptions that makes this massive project of cognitive dissonance possible.Trade Review"Tolerance is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial is an incisive and provocative treatise on the culture of denial that informs a series of contemporary affects, practices, and relations about Israel and Zionism." * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"This is a book as much about the martial politics that structure liberalism as it is about Zionism and the settler colonial project in Palestine. Makdisi unravels the productive and destructive forces that normalize this project as part of global politics. Hence, the book is as much about us—the inheritors of liberalism sitting in Europe and North America—as it is about Palestine or the Israeli state." * International Affairs *"Readers familiar with and sympathetic to critiques of Israel’s history of displacement and coercive control of the non-Jewish population of Palestine can appreciate the author’s approach." * CHOICE *"An immensely satisfying book. . . . powerful and necessary." * Arab Studies Quarterly *Table of ContentsContents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Sustainability 2. Democracy 3. Diversity 4. Tolerance Conclusion Postscript Notes Index
£22.50
The History Press Ltd The Titanic Expeditions
Book SynopsisThe most complete (to date) overview of all the important expeditions to the wreck of Titanic from 1985 to 2021
£23.38
Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd Memory Art in the Contemporary World: Confronting
Book SynopsisMemory Art in the Contemporary World deals with the ever-expanding field of transnational memory art, which has emerged from a political need to come to terms with traumatic historical pasts, from the Holocaust to apartheid, colonialism, state terror and civil war. The book focuses on the work of several contemporary artists from beyond the Northern Transatlantic, including William Kentridge, Vivan Sundaram, Doris Salcedo, Nalini Malani and Guillermo Kuitca, all of whom reflect on historical situations specific to their own countries but in work which has been shown to have a transnational reach. Andreas Huyssen considers their dual investment in memories of state violence and memories of modernism as central to the affective power of their work.This thought-provoking and highly relevant book reflects on the various forms and critical potential of memory art in a contemporary world which both obsesses about the past, in the building of monuments and museums and an emphasis on retro and nostalgia in popular culture, and simultaneously fosters historical amnesia in increasingly flattened notions of temporality encouraged by the internet and social media.Trade Review‘The art of memory allows us to ask a crucial question: what can we do to prevent these violent, traumatic events from happening again? Andreas Huyssen writes an essential book to imagine alternatives.’ – Andrea Giunta, ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin AmericaTable of Contents1. Disappearances/Spaces of Violence: Kuitca’s Painting and Salcedo’s Sculpture; 2. Installation as Form: Sundaram’s Memorial and Salcedo’s Casa Viuda and Untitled; 3. Installation in Urban Space: Salcedo, Noviembre 6&7, Kentridge, Triumphs and Laments; 4. The Shadow Play as Medium: Nalini Malani and William Kentridge; 5. Traveling Trauma Tropes: Salcedo Atrabiliarios, Sundaram, 12 Bed Ward/ Trash/The Ascension of Marian Hussain; 6. Re-coding Museum Space: Salcedo, Shibboleth and Sundaram, History Project; 7. Memory Museums: Santiago de Chile’s Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos and Bogotá’s Fragmentos; Coda: Space/Time: Guzmán, La Nostalgia de la luz and Kentridge The Refusal of Time
£26.99
University of Wales Press Introducing the Medieval Swan
Book SynopsisWhat comes to mind when we think of swans? Likely their beauty in domestic settings, their preserved status, their association with royalty, and possibly even the phrase ‘swan song’. This book explores the emergence of each of these ideas, starting with an examination of the medieval swan in natural history, exploring classical writings and their medieval interpretations and demonstrating how the idea of a swan’s song developed. The book then proceeds to consider literary motifs of swan-to-human transformation, particularly the legend of the Knight of the Swan. Although this legend is known today largely through Wagner’s opera, it was a best-seller in the Middle Ages, and courts throughout Europe strove to be associated as descendants of this Swan Knight. Consequently, the swan was projected as an icon of courtly and eventual royal status. The book’s third chapter looks at the swan as icon of the Lancasters, particularly important during the reign of Richard II and the War of the Roses, and the final chapter examines the swan as an important item of feasting, focusing on cookery and husbandry to argue that over time the right to keep swans became an increasingly restricted right controlled by the English crown. Each of the swan’s medieval associations are explored as they developed over time to the modern day. Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Medieval Swan: History and Culture 2. The Swan in Literature 3. The Swan at Court 4. The Swan in Art 5. The Legacy of the Medieval Swan Bibliography
£11.39
Amberley Publishing The Fall of Charles I
Book SynopsisWritten in an accessible style and supported by robust research, Jane Hayter-Hames tells the intriguing story of one of the most fascinating moments in the history of the British monarchy: the downfall and execution of Charles I.
£17.00
Oxford University Press This is the BBC Entertaining the Nation Speaking
Book SynopsisIn the hundredth year of the British Broadcasting Corporation, historian Simon J. Potter looks back over the hundred year history, asking if the BBC is really the ''voice of Britain'', and what comes next for British public broadcasting.2022 marks the centenary year of the British Broadcasting Corporation. As Britain''s most famous and influential broadcaster, the BBC faces a range of significant challenges to the way it operates, and perhaps to its existence, from the government but also from a rapidly changing media environment. Historian Simon J. Potter explores the hundred year history of this corporation, drawing out the roots of these challenges and understanding how similar threats - hostile politicians and prime ministers, the advent of television - were met and overcome in the past.Potter poses the question ''Is the BBC the voice of Britain?'', exploring its role in changing wider culture and society, promoting particular versions of British national identity, both at home and overseas. The BBC has long claimed to speak for the British people, to the British people, and with a British accent, and Potter explores how far these claims have been justified with this exciting new study which covers the establishment of the BBC Empire Service and the World Service, and focuses on people, programmes, and politics to understand the Corporation''s engagement with changing ideas about culture and society in Britain, including issues of class, gender, and race.Trade ReviewIn just over 300 pages the author gives a comprehensive history of the BBC and also provides much in the way of analysis of the relationship between the broadcaster and state. * David Harris, Radio Listeners Guide 2023 *A sharp-eyed survey of the BBC's increasingly fraught relations with other people, notably politicians and listeners. * Dominic Green *In my view, this book is a masterpiece because it blends perceptive political analysis and thorough historical perspective with an informed evaluation of future challenges. * David Harris, Radio User *Like a good physician, [Potter] is not squeamish about sticking in the scalpel to reveal some grisly realities * Oscar Jelley, Oxford Review of Books *... lucid book provides a useful account of the key staging posts in the life of this national institution... leads readers on a pleasant canter, starting from the BBC's small beginnings... this book offers value for money as a general introduction to the BBC and a good read overall. * Chandrika Kaul, BBC History Magazine *... academic and astringent... [earns its] place on the ever lengthening shelf of Beebology. * Stefan Collini *Potter's book This is the BBC can best be seen as a summarising study of the abundant BBC literature, with a special focus on broadcasting's international function. * Huub Wijfjes, TMG journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction - A Century of the BBC 1: Public Utility, 1922-1939 2: Propaganda, 1939-1945 3: Losing Control, 1945-1959 4: Transformation and Stagnation, 1960-1979 5: On the Market, 1980-1999 6: Going Digital, 2000-2022 Prospect - The BBC after Broadcasting
£23.49
Harvard University Press Necropolis
Book SynopsisIn antebellum New Orleans, whites and Blacks died in droves from yellow fever. But the fortunes of survivors were less equal. Kathryn Olivarius explores the resulting framework of immunocapital. For whites, immunity signaled creditworthiness. For enslaved Blacks, immunity enhanced their exploitability, relegating them to the harshest labor.Trade ReviewThis book is prescient for the questions it provokes about our experiences of COVID-19…Necropolis shows how elite white people exploited disease in this uniquely unhealthy space for their own personal gain…Olivarius’s new perspectives on yellow fever, immunocapitalism, and the politics of acclimation are a powerful addition to this important body of scholarship that will influence a generation of scholars to come on the intersections of racism, slavery, and public health. -- Richard M. Mizelle, Jr. * The Lancet *More than two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, the social, economic and political implications of public health crises are more apparent than ever—as is the fact that people of color and poorer communities often bear the brunt of these contagions’ consequences. [This] new analysis of yellow fever in antebellum New Orleans highlights striking parallels with the ongoing pandemic. -- Karin Wulf * Smithsonian *Olivarius’s account is rich in thick descriptions of this fevered environment. She adeptly resurrects voices not just from elite men but from women, the impoverished, and even from former slaves…An excellent reconsideration of the impact of yellow fever on a major southern trading port in the antebellum era. -- Margaret Humphreys * Civil War Book Review *Necropolis makes a compelling argument for the near-determinative nature of disease in antebellum New Orleans…It is also hard to imagine [a book] more thought-provoking or more appropriate as a mirror to our current moment. Thus, Necropolis will stimulate all readers—as much the general public as students of medical history, American slavery, capitalism, or the South writ large. -- Robert Colby * H-Net Reviews *Necropolis offers revelatory insights into how capitalism controls responses to disease, and how disease exacerbates inequalities, arguments that feel particularly prescient in the midst of an ongoing coronavirus pandemic…An engrossing and timely work of scholarship. -- Kevin McQueeney * Journal of Southern History *Olivarius puts a rich trove of primary sources to good use, lending the volume authenticity in its arguments and engaging readability while demonstrating the lengths to which New Orleans residents went to preserve the cyclical epidemic status quo, which preserved Creole dominance and limited the success of American and European immigrants. * Choice *Captivating…Olivarius illuminates the complex workings of ‘immunocapitalism’ and paints a vivid picture of antebellum New Orleans. This is a timely and thought-provoking look at how disease outbreaks have exacerbated inequality in America. * Publishers Weekly *A brilliant book. Olivarius’s insightful reading of sources and beautiful writing give us a new and important way to think about slavery, race, health, and hierarchy. This transformative work is a pivotal addition to the scholarship on American slavery. -- Annette Gordon-Reed, author of On JuneteenthOlivarius delivers a stunning account of ‘high-risk, high-reward’ profiteering in the yellow fever–ridden Crescent City. Nineteenth-century New Orleans appears as a world in which a deadly virus altered every aspect of a brutal social system, exacerbating savage inequalities of enslavement, race, and class—inequalities that will have readers pondering the choices we make as a society in epidemics of our own. -- John Fabian Witt, author of American Contagions: Epidemics and the Law from Smallpox to COVID-19A real page-turner. Necropolis propels the reader along, not least because the parallels to our coronavirus pandemic are impossible to ignore. Olivarius is convincing in her argument that disease was an important way to wield power—political, economic, and racial. This fresh, beautifully written book makes original contributions to the literatures on medicine, capitalism, politics, and welfare. -- Leslie M. Harris, author of In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626–1863In flowing prose, Olivarius offers an intriguing account of the systematic relationship between yellow fever and power in nineteenth-century New Orleans. Her innovative term ‘immunocapitalism’ brings together multiple threads to show the ways in which yellow fever was not simply a natural phenomenon, no matter how much those who profited because of its inequitable impact tried to naturalize it. Deeply researched, extremely well written, and provocatively argued, Necropolis is a rich and fascinating book. -- Edward E. Baptist, author of The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American CapitalismThe remarkable thing about Necropolis is that its subject has been hiding in plain sight all along. In nineteenth-century New Orleans, yellow fever was more than an episodic worry; it saturated everyday consciousness, splitting the world between those who had gained immunity and those who had not. No effort was spared to prove that the scourge’s supposedly deterministic properties not only necessitated African enslavement, but also produced the foreign exchange that kept the urban economy humming. Olivarius unpacks this story with skill and feeling in a book of truly impressive research and scope. -- Lawrence N. Powell, author of The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans
£23.21
OR Books Decolonize Museums
Book SynopsisBehold the sleazy logic of museums: plunder dressed up as charity, conservation, and care.The idealized Western museum, as typified by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, and the Museum of Natural History, has remained much the same for over a century: a uniquely rarified public space of cool stone, providing an experience of leisure and education for the general public while carefully tending fragile artifacts from distant lands. As questions about representation and ethics have increasingly arisen, these institutions have proclaimed their interest in diversity and responsible conservation, asserting both their adaptability and their immovably essential role in a flourishing and culturally rich society.With Decolonize Museums, Shimrit Lee punctures this fantasy, tracing the essentially colonial origins of the concept of the museum. White Europeans’ atrocities were reimagined through narratives of benign curiosity and abundant respect for the occupied or annihilated culture, and these racist narratives, Lee argues, remain integral to the authority exercised by museums today. Citing pop culture references from Indiana Jones to Black Panther, and highlighting crucial activist campaigns and legal action to redress the harms perpetrated by museums and their proxies, Decolonize Museums argues that we must face a dismantling of these seemingly eternal edifices, and consider what, if anything, might take their place.Trade Review“Shimrit Lee’s provocative and lucid book is part-investigative report where the museum resembles a crime scene and part-polemic that grapples with what it would look like to upend the current ways in which museums are organized and function. Lee makes the convincing argument that museums must fall, and it is time we start taking this imperative seriously.” — Sean Jacobs, founder and editor of Africa Is a Country and author of Media in Postapartheid South Africa“This book takes us through, and far beyond, the museum as a contested space, raising urgent and complex questions about its future. Through her historically insightful and comprehensive take down, Shimrit Lee asks us to reconceptualize the museum in its entirety. She tears down the facade that museums were ever neutral, tracing their role in shaping, and perpetuating, structures of racial capitalism. Lee shows us that decolonizing museums revolves around creating an expansive sense of justice that moves us beyond its walls. Getting it right, she reminds us, means nothing less than liberation for us all.” — Anna Arabindan-Kesson, Assistant Professor of Black Diasporic Art at Princeton University and author of Black Bodies, White Gold "... in-depth research, which interrogates the foundations of museum and curatorial principles, makes Decolonize Museums an abundant read—it should be stocked in every museum gift shop worldwide." —Full-Stop
£14.24
Harvard University Press The Enchantments of Mammon
Book SynopsisEugene McCarraher challenges the conventional view of capitalism as a force for disenchantment. From Puritan and evangelical valorizations of profit to the heavenly Fordist city, the mystically animated corporation, and the deification of the market, capitalism has hijacked our intrinsic longing for divinity, laying hold to our souls.Trade ReviewExtraordinary…Like MacIntyre, McCarraher both recognizes and detests capitalism’s spoliations of creation and disintegration of communities, and casts a fond, forlorn eye toward the possibility of restoring a rationality of genuine human life…A majestic achievement. It will enjoy a long posterity…It is a work of great moral and spiritual intelligence, and one that invites contemplation about things we can’t afford not to care about deeply. -- David Bentley Hart * Commonweal *[A] monumental labor of love…There have been marvelous studies of contemporary capitalism published in recent years…But this is an extraordinary work of intellectual history as well as a scholarly tour de force, a bracing polemic, and a work of Christian prophecy…It is beautifully written and a magnificent read…McCarraher challenges more than 200 years of post-Enlightenment assumptions about the way we live and work…This mammoth portrait of the religious longings at the heart of secular materialism carries a bleak message: 20th-century fantasies of the world as one global business have been realized…Refreshingly original and splendidly pulled off. * The Observer *McCarraher’s book is more brilliant, more capacious, and more entertaining, page by page, than his most ardent fans dared hope. The magnitude of his accomplishment—an account of American capitalism as a religion that begins in early modernity and extends to the present, an analysis that goes far beyond the loose versions of this argument we’ve seen before (Economists are like clergy! The Fed is like a church!) and rewrites American intellectual history as it does so—will stun even skeptical readers…It is a wonder, an enchantment on a world that has so forgotten itself as to think enchantments rare. -- Philip Christman * Christian Century *A monumental, scholarly but also readable survey of how the champions of capitalism, their acolytes and foot soldiers—over and over, and with conspicuous success—reframed traditional religious longings and beloved communities as goals that could be achieved through the pursuit of profit…As enthralling a work of intellectual history as you could hope to read. -- Michael Duggan * Catholic Herald *A beguiling 800-page tour de force…[A] sweeping history…The author claims, with considerable evidence, that capitalism, too, is a form of worship, that it is a religion of modernity…Scintillating. -- Donald Sassoon * Church Times *A genuine delight to read…[A] searing excoriation of economics as it is currently practiced…An extraordinary book…It is difficult to characterize this book as anything but a masterpiece for its synthesis of intellectual history, anticapitalist polemic, and Romantic imagination. There is a great deal to be gained from McCarraher’s arguments. -- Daniel Walden * Current Affairs *One of the most impressive books I’ve ever read…The depth and range of McCarraher’s scholarship are incredible…A must-read for anyone serious about the mesmerizing power of capitalism. -- Mark Dunbar * The Humanist *A vitally important book…It could have an impact similar to Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue…Certainly it is a book people concerned about the state of the world and moral theology should be aware of…McCarraher…explains how capitalism has become the religion of the modern world…This detailed account of the idolatries of our age deserves wide readership and detailed examination. -- Frank Litton * Irish Catholic *The Enchantments of Mammon is a beautiful, stirring achievement. In a bold new synthesis ranging from early modern Europe to the contemporary United States, McCarraher challenges the received wisdom regarding the meanings of modernity and rationality, allowing us to look at familiar concepts in fresh and fruitful ways. This is truly a game-changer—the history of capitalism will never look the same again. -- Jackson Lears, author of Rebirth of a NationWith this book McCarraher aspires to nothing less than a history of the soul under capitalism. Far from living in a secular, disenchanted world, he argues, ours is a world of ‘misenchantment,’ in which longings for communion are perverted into a religion of plunder and technological control. Capitalism emerges here not as a system of market exchange or class domination but as an affront to the divine creation of which we are a part. An astonishing work of history and criticism. -- Casey Nelson Blake, author of The Arts of DemocracyAn intellectually ambitious, analytically insightful, engagingly well written, and unfashionably radical yet timely study of the relationship among capitalism, religion, society, and culture in the United States. McCarraher argues that modern capitalism has not been a secularizing movement from enchantment to disenchantment, but rather an alternative, competing form of enchantment. He is sharply critical of the underlying assumptions and damaging consequences of modern capitalism with its emphasis on extractive efficiency and profit-making. A powerful, impressive work. -- Brad Gregory, author of The Unintended ReformationA tour de force. McCarraher argues that capitalism is a successor faith, rather than a successor to faith. The capitalist faith in this telling is a heretical, blaspheming Black Mass of perverse sacramentality that sanctions domination by pretending to the status of immutable, impersonal laws of nature. In the world of economic enchantment masquerading as hard-eyed realism, McCarraher urges us to keep open an imaginative window through which to glimpse alternatives. His magnificent intellectual history recovers many such opportunities and invites us to appraise them with fresh eyes. -- Bethany Moreton, author of To Serve God and Wal-MartSurveying the history of capitalism from seventeenth-century England to the mid-twentieth-century United States, McCarraher argues in this magisterial work that capitalism is a corruption of the sacramental nature of the world and our desire to flourish within it. The keenest insights and best hopes for a more humane world reside not within secular traditions but within the Romantic lineage of joy and participation. The Enchantments of Mammon is a towering achievement: an exquisitely crafted refusal of the metaphysics of the free market and reassurance that the conditions of human flourishing are well within our reach. -- Charles Marsh, author of Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer McCarraher savages the sacralized fantasy of perpetual economic growth—purportedly guided by the dictates of reason—promulgated on the Left (Neo-liberalism and Socialism) and the Right. Against this worship of accumulation are set the admirable but futile efforts of those who, over time, have agitated against the idolatry of lucre. Is it possible for us to turn our eyes away from this false God? -- Bill Marx * Arts Fuse *Excellent…Argues for a Romanticism-inflected socialism…monumental. -- John Ehrett * Between Two Kingdoms *A fascinating book…which asserts, among other things, that capitalism is the religion of modernity. -- Darrell Lackey * Divergence *A magnificent work of historical scholarship, a thorough account of the rise of capitalism in the modern age. And yet it is not an economics tome, or even really a history, but rather a treatise on religion and the values that pervade society. It is also full of moral insights, with stinging critiques of a worldview that reduces human experience to opportunities for exchange…Highly readable. * The Interim *A thoughtful, beautifully written book, tracing the ways in which the values of capitalism—greed, productivity, competition, selfishness—became confounded with notions of divinity, and of God’s plan for and involvement in the lives of the divinity’s alleged favorite creation…Helps explain the hegemony of capitalist ideas in societies where religion is important even when the material interests of the working class ought clearly to expose the depravity and, for the religiously-minded, the ungodliness, of capitalism as actually practiced. -- Alvin Finkel * Labour *Much needed and much welcomed…The time into which McCarraher’s work speaks is a time perhaps readied to hear something different. A world enchanted by McDonald’s and administered by McDonnell-Douglas has begun to lose its shine, especially when it culminates in carnival hucksters parading as political, business, and religious leaders. It is time for a new and yet old word, a Christian socialism that resists the lure of capitalist enchantment. -- D. Stephen Long and Tyler Womack * Modern Theology *[An] immense work of historical synthesis. -- Stuart Walton * Review 31 *A vigorous intellectual history that challenges conventional social-science assumptions about the modern world. -- Christopher Clark * Journal of Modern History *
£22.46
Oxford University Press The Caliph and the Imam
Book SynopsisThe authoritative account of the sectarian division that for centuries has shaped events in the Middle East and the Islamic world. In 632, soon after the prophet Muhammad died, a struggle broke out among his followers as to who would succeed him. The majority argued that the new leader of Islam should be elected by the community''s elite. Others believed only members of Muhammad''s family could lead. This dispute over who should guide Muslims, the appointed Caliph or the bloodline Imam, marks the origin of the Sunni-Shii split in Islam. Toby Matthiesen explores this hugely significant division from its origins to the present day. Moving chronologically, his book sheds light on the many ways that it has shaped the Islamic world, outlining how over the centuries Sunnism and Shiism became Islams two main branches, particularly after the Muslim Empires embraced sectarian identity. It reveals how colonial rule institutionalised divisions between Sunnism and Shiism both on the Indian subcontTrade ReviewAmbitious...undoubtedly an admirable study...an accessible introduction to the historical context that underpins the modern Middle East * Tariq Mir, BBC History Magazine *a remarkable, ambitious and successful survey of Sunni-Shii relations that will be the definitive single-volume study of the subject for years to come. * Eamonn Gearon, Times Literary Supplement *clearly written, nuanced and meticulously documented * Malise Ruthven, Literary Review *a truly ambitious book in its historical and geographic scope...This book should be read by any expert who deals in the Middle East * Francis Ghiles, Esglobal *A useful correction to religious pigeonholes about Muslims, and to the easy-going prejudice that sectarian differences can never make things right with the Islamic world. * Michiel Leezenberg, NRC Handelsblad *Matthiesen's masterful survey of Sunni-Shiite relations in history is firmly grounded in the primary sources and ranges more widely geographically than is common in other works on the subject, including South Asia. The author avoids the glib truisms that have come to dominate discussion of this subject, while giving us thought-provoking, contextual insights into one of the key flash points within Islamic civilization. * Juan Cole, Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History and Director, Program in Arab and Muslim American Studies, University of Michigan *Ambitious in its historical as well as geographical scope, this is the first truly global account of the intimate and sometimes also violent relationship of Sunni and Shia in the making and remaking of Islam. * Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History, University of Oxford *Table of ContentsPrologue: From Karbala to Damascus PART I THE FORMATION OF SUNNISM AND SHIISM, 632-1500 Chapter 1 After the Prophet Chapter 2 Sunni Reassertion and the Crusades Chapter 3 Polemics and Confessional Ambiguity PART II THE SHAPING OF MUSLIM EMPIRES, 1500-1800 Chapter 4 The Age of Confessionalisation Chapter 5 Muslim Dynasties on the Indian Subcontinent Chapter 6 Reform and Reinvention in the 18th Century PART III EMPIRE AND THE STATE, 1800-1979 Chapter 7 British India and Orientalism Chapter 8 Ottoman Reorganisation and European Intervention Chapter 9 The Mandates Chapter 10 The Muslim Response PART IV REVOLUTION AND RIVALRY, 1979- Chapter 11 The Religion of Martyrdom Chapter 12 Export and Containment of Revolution Chapter 13 Regime Change Chapter 14 The Arab Uprisings Conclusion: Every Place is Karbala BIBLIOGRAPHY ENDNOTES
£23.84
Oxford University Press Inc Decision Advantage Intelligence in International
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis lengthy work gives readers a great deal to ponder, particularly Sims's illustration of the critical roles that intelligence gathering and analysis play in determining the course of conflict, invisible though they often are. * Choice *In a real tour de force, Jennifer Sims develops and deploys a broadened concept of intelligence to show how it can lead to a decision advantage that affects the course of history. The cases studied are unusual and extraordinarily well done. This important book is a pleasure to read and deserves a wide audience." -Robert Jervis, author of Why Intelligence FailsJennifer Sims takes the reader on a fascinating tour of intelligence failures and successes from the Spanish Armada to today's post-911 world. Her rigorous analysis reminds us that intelligence in war does not need to be perfect; it just needs to be better than the intelligence on the enemy's side." -Scott D. Sagan, Caroline S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science, Stanford UniversityThe concept 'decision advantage' is central to the mission of U.S. intelligence * providing policy makers with intelligence to give them an information advantage over other international actors. Indeed, the term 'decision advantage' figures prominently in a display in the offices of the Director of National Intelligence. Jennifer Sims, a long time intelligence veteran, is properly credited with originating the concept and its definition. She has now taken this concept and examined how it worked across a range of historic policy dilemmas, from the threat posed to England by the Spanish Armada to the current issue of cyberspace. Dr. Sims has produced a thoughtful and provocative study that bridges intelligence theory and intelligence history." -Mark M. Lowenthal, Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis & Production (2002-05), and author of Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy *Sims has produced a thought-provoking book that seeks to bridge intelligence theory and history. The case-studies are engaging and full of detail on the influence of intelligence on military and diplomatic competition, which will be of interest to a broad audience...Sims's book should be read widely. * Dan Lomas, International Affairs *Jennifer E. Sims's Decision Advantage is an examination of how intelligence has influenced select decision-makers, through three broad periods in history, culminating in a proposed theory of intelligence in international politics...as a historical study of intelligence, the book excels. * Robin Kemp, H-Net *In Decision Advantage, Jennifer E. Sims seeks to correct both popular misconceptions of how espionage operates and rebut the views of those who dismiss its importance in international politics. * Mitchell B. Reiss, Intelligence, Strategy and Governance in the Twenty-first Century *Table of Contents1. Intelligence and Decision Advantage in International Politics 2. The Spanish Armada 3. Gaining Decision: Advantage in the Anglo-Spanish War 4. Intelligence Lessons from The Spanish Armada 5. Battlefield Intelligence: The Battles of First Manassas and Chancellorsville During the US Civil War 6. Gaining Advantage: First Manassas and Chancellorsville 7. Intelligence Lessons from Civil War Battlefields 8. Intelligence for the Chase: Races, Chases, and Interdictions in Complex Contingencies 9. Intelligence Support to Diplomacy 10. Knowledge and Diplomacy in the Era of Total War 11. Gaining Diplomatic Advantages before WWI 12. Intelligence and Decision in 1938 13. A Theory of Intelligence in International Politics 14. 21st Century Intelligence: Distributed Power and Cyberwar Appendix 1: Report By Nuño Da Silva, Portuguese Pilot Captured by Francis Drake, 19.1.1578 Appendix 2: A General Theory of Intelligence Index
£39.99
Profile Tracks on the Ocean
Book Synopsis'Ingenious. Caputo picks out a fascinating path and leads readers along it with the confidence of a practised pilot' Felipe Fernández-Armesto, author of 1492'Accessible and entertaining, as well as deeply erudite and constantly mind-expanding' Philip Ball, author of How Life WorksFrom their first appearance on Renaissance maps, linear tracks representing maritime voyages have shaped the way we see the world. But why do we depict journeys as lines, and what is their deeper meaning? Ferdinand Magellan's route to the Pacific embodied the promise of adventure and colonisation, while the scientific charts of the Royal Navy inspired others to plan conquests, navigate treacherous waters and establish settlements across the oceans.In Tracks on the Ocean, prize-winning historian Sara Caputo charts a hidden history of the modern world through the tracks left on maps and the sea. Taking us from ancient Greek itineraries to twenty-first-century digital mapping, via the voyages of Drake and Cook, t
£24.00
Dorling Kindersley Ltd Banned Books
Book SynopsisImmerse yourself in the stories behind the most shocking and infamous books ever published!Censorship of one form or another has existed almost as long as the written word, while definitions of what is deemed acceptable in published works have shifted over the centuries, and from culture to culture.Banned Books explores why some of the world''s most important literary classics and seminal non-fiction titles were once deemed too controversial for the public to read - whether for challenging racial or sexual norms, satirizing public figures, or simply being deemed unfit for young readers. From the banning of All Quiet on the Western Front and the repeated suppression of On the Origin of the Species, to the uproar provoked by Lady Chatterley''s Lover, entries offer a fascinating chronological account of censorship and the astonishing role that some banned books have played in changing history. Packed with eye-opening insights
£11.69
Pluto Press Learning Whiteness
Book SynopsisAs racism persists across the world, we need to understand the role of education in sustaining white supremacyTrade Review'A defiant corrective to the attempts to deny the existence of systemic racism. Refusing the lure of easy 'solutions', this book argues that education has an ongoing responsibility to open up spaces for grappling with racial injustice and imagining futures freed from racial domination' -- Professor Paul Warmington, author of 'Black British Intellectuals and Education'‘A much-needed analysis of education for teachers, policy makers and activists interested in racial justice, serving as an important reminder that all schools within the colony operate on the sovereign land of Indigenous People. Readers are challenged to confront the colonial foundations of schooling’ -- Hayley McQuire, co-founder and CEO of National Indigenous Youth Education Coalition, Australia'Fresh and bold [...] Decisively structural in their analysis, resolutely critical in their orientation, and radical in their hopes, the authors stoke our anti-racist imagination about the possibilities of a world after whiteness' -- Zeus Leonardo, Professor of Education at the University of California, Berkeley and author of ‘Race, Whiteness and Education’'Theoretically astute, […] providing the reader with the coordinates to make sense of the ongoing creation of whiteness, its reactions to perceived threat, and how education is a crucial extension of the state in settler colonial structures. Through rich examples, we are offered both a comprehensive and accessible guide to confronting the desires of whiteness' -- Leigh Patel, Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and author of 'No Study Without Struggle''Highly impressive. The question of how racism associated with white privilege is learned is of vital importance. This book provides an insightful analysis of this difficult question in ways that are not only theoretically astute and accessible but also pedagogically helpful' -- Fazal Rizvi, Emeritus Professor at the University of Melbourne, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and author of 'Globalization and Education''Opens important and troubling questions. Highlighting Indigenous scholarship, the authors trace how the education systems created in settler-colonial history have actually sustained white privilege. To change this is no small task; it requires a deep re-thinking of institutions, ideas and practices' -- Raewyn Connell, Professor Emerita at the University of Sydney and author of 'Southern Theory''Provides rich conceptual resources for critically comprehending how education is shaped by colonizing societies, imagining an education that enables reparative rather than racially dominant futures' -- David Theo Goldberg, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Irvine and author of 'The Racial State''While many works argue that whiteness is constructed, very few go into the actual process of construction. This book does, taking us to the educational construction site where the white mind-body assemblage is fashioned' -- Ghassan Hage, Professor at the The University of Melbourne and author of 'White Nation''A compelling, incisive and authoritative analysis, exposing the oppressive contours of whiteness which is all the more essential in an era marked by the heightened surveillance and attempted eradication of racial justice pedagogies' -- Nicola Rollock, Professor of Social Policy & Race at King's College LondonTable of ContentsAcknowledgements PART I WHITENESS: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURES 1. Educating the Settler Colony 2. Whiteness and the Pedagogies of the State PART II LEARNING WHITENESS 3. Materialities 4. Knowledges 5. Feelings PART III OPENINGS 6. Educational Reckonings Notes Bibliography Index
£18.99
C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd Diplomatic Gifts: A History in Fifty Presents
Book SynopsisGifts have been part of international relations since ancient times. They can serve as tokens of friendship, apology or authority; as taunts, bribes, boasts or tricks. They can also go wrong: Mali’s 2013 gift of a camel to French President François Hollande was reported to have ended up in a tagine. Exploring fifty diplomatic gifts given through the ages, Brummell explains the great complexity of this political art—an exercise in brand-building for the giver, via an item that must suit the recipient’s own interests and character. Byzantine emperors sent fragments of the True Cross to fellow Christian rulers around Europe; Kings Louis XV and XVI of France used Sèvres porcelain, while the Ottoman sultans favoured robes of honour. In some cases, recipients have made no secret of the gift they would want. The Amarna Letters, dating to around 1350 BCE, record a communication from Hittite Prince Zita to the Egyptian Pharaoh, offering sixteen men—and hinting rather heavily that he would like some gold in return. From the Trojan Horse to Cleopatra’s Needle to the Statue of Liberty, this rich history offers a new take on both the curious detail and the grand spectacle of global politics.Trade Review'[A] jaunty and instructive book [that] takes the reader through an enchanting … range of gifts made by one nation (or its ruler) to another.' -- The Wall Street Journal'Engaging.' -- The Canberra Times‘We’ve all wrestled with the problem of what to give someone who has everything. In this book, my dear friend Paul illustrates how diplomatic gifts are intended to send subtle or sometimes not-so-subtle messages of power, friendship and, of course, diplomacy. A wonderful gift to all who enjoy exploring history, presented in a highly entertaining and informative way.’ -- Baroness Floella Benjamin, actress, writer, presenter, and Chair of the Windrush Commemoration Committee‘Enchanting. A delight from beginning to end, as funny as it is perceptive. Brummell shows that the best gifts are imaginative, memorable and personalised but, above all, inanimate: animals—from the Trojan Horse to Maksat the Turkmen stallion—spell trouble for the recipient. Read and enjoy.’ -- Lord Simon McDonald, former Permanent Under-Secretary and Head of the Diplomatic Service at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office‘This engaging, impressively researched book shows how objects can help us understand the people and the emotions that drove diplomatic exchanges in the past—and still drive them today. An insightful and deeply enjoyable work.’ -- Zoltán Biedermann, Professor of Early Modern History, University College London, and co-editor of Global Gifts: the Material Culture of Diplomacy in Early Modern Eurasia‘A gem of a book. Easy reading. Witty. A brilliantly told collection of fifty short stories that together reveal the complex history of global diplomacy.’ -- Stevie Spring, CBE, Chairman, British Council
£23.75
Yale University Press The Elizabethan Mind
Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive guide to Elizabethan ideas about the mindTrade Review“An outstanding achievement: broad-ranging, intelligently synthetic and written in unflaggingly lucid prose. . . . Helen Hackett shows us over and again that the inability of the Elizabethans to know themselves as fully as they wanted to mattered to them a great deal. Discomfited though this state of affairs could leave them feeling, it explains why their literature still matters to us today.”—Rhodri Lewis, Times Literary Supplement“Hackett reads a breathtaking diversity of literature with great sensitivity. . . . The Elizabethan Mind . . . is an impressive achievement.”—P. Kishore Saval, Australian Book Review“This enthralling study captures the changing ways in which the mind was understood, and the thought processes of a society that continues to captivate today.”—BBC History Revealed“Hackett callipers her subject with shrewd delicacy, arranging interventions and insights along a line of recognisable topoi—the role of women, attitudes towards race, Shakespeare, demonic possession.”—Madoc Cairns, The Tablet“Hackett’s extraordinary achievement in The Elizabethan Mind combines learning and empathy as she ranges across cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and physiological approaches. Come for Hamlet, stay for female complaint, Catholic poetics, sonnets, psychomachia, and much more.”—Emma Smith, author of This is Shakespeare“Hackett has synthesized an extraordinary range of books to illuminate aspects of the Elizabethan mind. She offers excellent readings of familiar works such as Shakespeare’s tragedies as well as little-known gems such as women’s translations of the Psalms. Readers will come away equipped to read Shakespeare and his contemporaries with renewed understanding.”—Jonathan Bate, author of Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare“Wonderfully perceptive and illuminating. If you want to understand how the Elizabethans viewed themselves, each other, and the world, read this book.”—Elizabeth Goldring, author of Nicholas Hilliard: Life of an Artist
£23.75
The History Press Ltd Canadian Pacific Ships
Book SynopsisEstablished in the 19th century to carry passengers and freight across the Atlantic and Pacific, this is the story of the development of the company and its ships
£21.25
Profile Books Ltd The Handover
Book Synopsis'The Singularity' is what Silicon Valley calls the idea that, eventually, we will be overrun by machines that are able to take decisions and act for themselves. What no one says is that it happened before. A few hundred years ago, humans started building the robots that now rule our world. They are called states and corporations: immensely powerful artificial entities, with capacities that go far beyond what any individual can do, and which, unlike us, need never die. They have made us richer, safer and healthier than would have seemed possible even a few generations ago - and they may yet destroy us. The Handover distils over three hundred years of thinking about how to live with artificial agency.
£10.44
Oldcastle Books Ltd The War That Never Ended
Book SynopsisThe Korean War of 1950-1953 ended in a frustrating stalemate, the echoes of which reverberate to this day. It was the only conflict of the Cold War in which forces of major nations of the two opposing systems - capitalism and communism - confronted each other on the battlefield. And yet, in the sixty years since it was fought it has...
£9.99
The History Press Ltd Cars We Loved in the 1990s
Book SynopsisEveryone’s favourite cars of the 1990s in this lavishly illustrated little book
£9.99
Canelo The Red Serpent
Book SynopsisIt's a mad and violent world. They must be equal to it.Ex-gladiators Drust, Kag, and their brutal band are as dirt-ridden and downbeat as ever.Drawn to the Syrian frontier at the edge of the Roman world, they are presented with a mysterious riddle from old companions. In the scorching heat, schemes and rumours breed like flies on a corpse.To survive a deadly plot, Drust and his men must face all challengers along with Mother Nature's rage.Sometimes they'll run as fast as they can pray to the Gods. But sometimes they'll have to stand, and fight...Filled with gristle, gore and jaw-dropping action, perfect for fans of Giles Kristian, David Gilman and Conn Iggulden.Praise for Robert Low'A master of the storyteller's art' S. J. A. Turney, author of the Knights Templar series
£8.99
National Maritime Museum About Time Too: A Miscellany of Time
Book SynopsisHow old is Earth? Can we look back in time? How long is a light year? How short is a femtosecond? What is Greenwich Mean Time? How did astronauts tell the time on the Moon? When did time begin? It's high time you knew the answers to these and many more intriguing questions, so why not pass the time reading this lighthearted, illustrated miscellany, packed with hundreds of amazing facts from the time experts at the Royal Observatory. In less than no time, you'll have discovered the myriad of influences that time has on our daily lives.
£15.36
Penguin Books Ltd Til Wrong Feels Right
Book SynopsisTHESE ARE THE WORDS THAT CAME TO ME. NO MATTER HOW THEY GOT HERE, THEY DID THE F***ING JOB.Iggy Pop hasn''t left a mark on music; he''s left it battered and bruised, too. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, here for the first time are his selected lyrics, complete with stunning original photographs, illustrations, alongside Iggy and others'' reflections on a genre-defining music career that spans five decades.Coinciding with a new album, FREE, this is the ultimate book for every rock and roll fan.
£21.25
Red Wheel/Weiser Confessions of an Egyptologist: Lost Libraries,
Book SynopsisIn this book, Erich von Däniken shares the story of his friend Adel H., an Egyptologist, who, as a 16-year-old boy, was trapped for days under the Step Pyramid of Saqqara. Based on his conversations with Adel H., he retells the boy''s search for a way out of the underground world, how the boy roamed passageways and chambers and saw what he calls "impossible" things of which the professional world is completely unaware. Adel experienced uncanny events, a mixture of spirit realm and reality, which is described here for the first time. "The story of Egypt," Adel says, "has two sides-the official one and the unknown one." It is secrets like the sights and events Adel experiences underground that von Däniken refers to throughout this book. Von Däniken shows that the Great Pyramid of Giza is nothing but a huge library created for the people of the future. He proves his claim through quotes from the few ancient works that still survive. Who actually had an interest for millennia in destroying knowledge/books? It''s not about a few thousand, but about millions of books. Von Däniken documents the fanatical destructive rage of the people and means: If we would only have one ten-thousandth of the former writings, human prehistory would have to be completely rewritten.And where are the lost labyrinths? The one of Crete and the gigantic labyrinth of Egypt, of which all ancient historians reported? Against the background of these revelations, von Däniken turns the spot on to another focus of his book. A paradigm shift in the question of extraterrestrial life: "The gods have already come back. They came down again. They are currently orbiting our planet!"
£14.39
The History Press Ltd Brick
Book SynopsisRevealing the fascinating social history of bricks in Britain!
£28.93
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Dante's Divine Comedy
Book SynopsisA TLS Book of the Year. 'Erudite and urgent, Ian Thomson's Dante's Divine Comedy is another book that everyone ought to read' Spectator. 'Succinct but wide-ranging, Ian Thomson's richly illustrated exploration of Dante's masterpiece is... fun... ingenious... fascinating' Observer. 'A book worth savouring as a chunky, chatty, richly illustrated guide that brings Dante and his world within our reach' Evening Standard. A lively and wide-ranging exploration of a literary masterwork and its influence on writers, poets, artists and film-makers up to our own time. Dante has no equal as he sings of other-worldly horror and celestial beatitude alike. Yet for all our distance from medieval theology, the Florentine poet's allegorical journey through hell, purgatory and paradise remains one of the essential works of world literature. At least fifty English language versions of the Inferno – the first part of Dante's poem – appeared in the twentieth century alone. If Dante's Divine Comedy speaks to our present condition, it is because it tells the story of Everyman who sets out in search of salvation in this world. Dante composed his great poem in the spoken Italian of his time. He wrote about suffering bodies and human weakness, and about divine ecstasy, in words that have resonated with readers and writers for the last seven hundred years.Trade ReviewErudite and urgent, Ian Thomson's Dante's Divine Comedy is another book that everyone ought to read * Spectator *[A] book worth savouring as a chunky, chatty, richly illustrated guide that brings Dante and his world within our reach * Evening Standard *Succinct but wide-ranging, Ian Thomson's richly illustrated exploration of Dante's masterpiece [is] fun... ingenious... Fascinating' * Observer *This book is an object of great beauty... Thomson's aim, triumphantly realised, is to remind us why Dante's great poem is a 'landmark' * Tablet *[A] lively new book... It has become a cliché to refer to critics as Virgil, but it would be hard to think of any more appropriate way to describe what Ian Thomson offers here' * Catholic Herald *Thomson teases readers into wanting to find out their own answers. He'll lead you back to that neglected copy on your book shelf. And this time you'll pick it up * Financial Times *Encapsulates everything we need for the ultimate poetic voyage from Hell to Paradise by way of Purgatory * TLS, Books of the Year *Thomson's elegant, intelligent guide views the epic poem as a kind of recovery programme for those who have lost their way, and in turn leads you back to that neglected original on your bookshelf * Financial Times, Books of the Year *Ian Thomson is a travel writer, and here he attempts the most ambitious journey of all in the company of Dante – "to hell and back", as he puts it * Church Times. *
£11.69
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The FrancoPrussian War
Book SynopsisIllustrated with colour maps and images, this is an introduction to the Franco-Prussian War, a war that marked the beginning of the creation of modern Europe. The Franco-Prussian War started in 1870 when Otto von Bismarck engineered a war with the French Second Empire under Napoleon III, as part of his plan to unite Prussia with the southern German states as a new Germany. Stephen Badsey examines the build-up, battles, and impact of the war, which was an overwhelming Prussian victory with massive consequences. The French Second Empire collapsed, Napoleon III became an exile in Britain, and King Wilhelm I was proclaimed Emperor of the new united Germany. In the peace settlement that followed, Germany gained the eastern French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, areas that were to provide a bone of contention for years to come. Updated for the new edition with revisions from the author and new images throughout, this is an accessible introduction to the largest and most important Table of ContentsIntroduction Background to War Warring Sides Outbreak The Fighting The World Around War How the War Ended Conclusion and Consequences Chronology Further Reading Index
£10.79
Oxford University Press The Scythians Nomad Warriors of the Steppe
Book SynopsisBrilliant horsemen and great fighters, the Scythians were nomadic horsemen who ranged wide across the grasslands of the Asian steppe from the Altai mountains in the east to the Great Hungarian Plain in the first millennium BC. Their steppe homeland bordered on a number of sedentary states to the south - the Chinese, the Persians and the Greeks - and there were, inevitably, numerous interactions between the nomads and their neighbours. The Scythians fought the Persians on a number of occasions, in one battle killing their king and on another occasion driving the invading army of Darius the Great from the steppe. Relations with the Greeks around the shores of the Black Sea were rather different - both communities benefiting from trading with each other. This led to the development of a brilliant art style, often depicting scenes from Scythian mythology and everyday life. It is from the writings of Greeks like the historian Herodotus that we learn of Scythian life: their beliefs, their burial practices, their love of fighting, and their ambivalent attitudes to gender. It is a world that is also brilliantly illuminated by the rich material culture recovered from Scythian burials, from the graves of kings on the Pontic steppe, with their elaborate gold work and vividly coloured fabrics, to the frozen tombs of the Altai mountains, where all the organic material - wooden carvings, carpets, saddles and even tattooed human bodies - is amazingly well preserved. Barry Cunliffe here marshals this vast array of evidence - both archaeological and textual - in a masterful reconstruction of the lost world of the Scythians, allowing them to emerge in all their considerable vigour and splendour for the first time in over two millennia.Trade ReviewThe volume is an excellent appetizer for people unfamiliar with the Scythians and the significance of the immense steppe world for ancient history * KOSTAS VLASSOPOULOS, Greece and Rome *A scintillating tour de force from probably the greatest scholar of European archaeology. * Simon Sebag Montefiore, BBC History Magazine, Books of the Year 2019 *Cunliffe writes in an uncluttered style and with a seemingly effortless authority about a complex people ... The book is beautifully produced with plenty of colour illustrations, including excellent maps of unfamiliar places. It will surely become the standard introduction to a remarkable lost world. * Tony Spawforth, Literary Review *Not to be missed. * Timeless Travels *The Scythians, superbly written and lavishly illustrated, is the best account of these hard-riding nomads we are likely to have for a long time to come. Especially worthy of note are the excellent maps and diagrams, expertly placed to help the reader chart the wanderings of the Scythians in some of the world's most remote locations. * Ed Voves, Art Eyewitness *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Discovering the Scythians 2: Observing the other 3: Landscape and people 4: Enter the predatory nomad 5: The rise of the European Scythians 6: Scythians in Central Asia 7: Bodies clothed in skins: economy and society 8: Bending the bow 9: Death and the gods 10: The flood continues 11: Reflections on the longue durée Further reading Index Introduction 1: Discovering the Scythians 2: Observing the other 3: Landscape and people 4: Enter the predatory nomad 5: The rise of the European Scythians 6: Scythians in Central Asia 7: Bodies clothed in skins: economy and society 8: Bending the bow 9: Death and the gods 10: The flood continues 11: Reflections on the longue durée Further reading Index
£17.99
Birlinn General Newcastle upon Tyne: Mapping the City
Book SynopsisNewcastle has a long and distinguished history through two millennia: a Roman fortress at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall; an important centre of monasticism; a 'royal' bulwark against attacks and invasion from Scotland; and the principal centre for the export of coal to London. In the 19th century it was transformed into an elegant Georgian townscape with dramatic streets and handsome public buildings. It and other towns on the Tyne - Gateshead, Jarrow, Wallsend, Tynemouth, North and South Shields - developed important industries: shipbuilding, glass and heavy engineering. Tyneside suffered severe contraction in the 20th century as heavy industry declined, but it has begun to reinvent itself and create new growth shoots, not least its vibrant cultural industries including music and art. This book takes an innovative approach to telling the story of the area's history by focusing on the historic maps and plans that record the growth and development of Newcastle and Tyneside over many centuries.Trade Review'The book will appeal to all map-lovers and those with an interest in how Tyneside’s layout has developed through centuries of change' * Hexham Local History Society *'This volume offers a wide selection of well-reproduced maps and plans from local and national sources… for those of us who have lived and worked here for years it offers a novel approach to the familiar' * The Local Historian *
£25.50
Granta Books To the Lake: A Journey of War and Peace
Book SynopsisA BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa. Two vast lakes joined by underground rivers. Two lakes that have played a central role in Kapka Kassabova's maternal family. As she journeys to her grandmother's place of origin, Kassabova encounters a civilizational crossroads. The Lakes are set within the mountainous borderlands of North Macedonia, Albania and Greece, and crowned by the old Roman road, the via Egnatia. Once a trading and spiritual nexus of the southern Balkans, it remains one of Eurasia's oldest surviving religious melting pots. With their remote rock churches, changeable currents, and large population of migratory birds, the Lakes live in their own time. By exploring the stories of dwellers past and present, Kassabova uncovers the human history shaped by the Lakes. Soon, her journey unfolds to a deeper enquiry into how geography and politics imprint themselves upon families and nations, and confronts her with questions about human suffering and the capacity for change.Trade ReviewTo the Lake is an exquisitely written rallying cry to embrace the notion that the people of the Balkans-and indeed humanity as a whole-have more in common than what divides them, despite generations of strife suggesting otherwise * Financial Times *[An] extraordinarily haunting mixture of travelogue, history and family memoir...a delight, exquisitely written and brimming with compassion... [a] wonderful book * Sunday Times *From the deep labyrinths of the Balkan past, Kapka Kassabova has returned with another hoard of extraordinary lives, tales of survival, dark comedy and horror. Humanity glitters under her gaze in all its facets. Her prose is spectacularly good and her storytelling is a joy -- Philip MarsdenNeatly adhering to rules of three, Kassabova's well-researched and personal book contains three strands: vivid travelogue, ancestral memoir and historical analysis... excellent... deft storytelling * New Statesman *To the Lake's objective is not healing so much as reconciliation, a quest for spiritual wholeness... The book's achievement [...] is to reconcile, thrillingly, what those twin bodies of water represent to Kassabova: the unconscious and the conscious; the darkness of history and the radiance of life and love * Guardian *Kapka Kassabova made her name with a travel book about the turbulent lands on the fringes of the former Ottoman empire. Now she's back in the Balkans in search of her family history -- Best books of 2020 * Times *Kassabova writes with such energy and style that you feel she could visit the dullest place on earth and still make it burst into life -- Philip MarsdenKassabova is a brilliant traveller, an astonishing interviewer and a writer with near clairvoyant understanding of the real lives of men and women -- Horatio ClareA beguiling mixture of memoir, travelogue and historical investigation... The book is marbled with memorable images * Scottish Sunday Times *An intimate portrait of loss * Wanderlust *Kassabova attempts to bring out... the quiet lives that get hidden by history... she is too good a writer not to allow us many individual pleasures... any writer who uses the marvellous word "lacustrine" - "of the lake" - deserves to be celebrated * Spectator *Enlightening, surprising and elegiac ... a joy to read... very elegantly written ... The actual descriptions of the lakes are written with a filigree grace, unostentatious, not overly "poetic", and with a sharp eye for telling detail... I always like books that I leave feeling bigger on the inside, and Kassabova certainly achieves that * Scotland on Sunday *Evocative... Kassabova is an excellent describer of nature... At times, Kassabova's prose seems to literally dissolve into poetry. Her narrative glides through different locations, time periods and perspectives so subtly that you don't quite realise the full scope of its ambition until it's over... You could open this book at any page and immediately get sucked into the beauty of her writing * Open Democracy *
£10.44
Yale University Press For the Freedom of Zion
Book SynopsisA definitive account of the great revolt of Jews against Rome and the destruction of the Jerusalem TempleTrade Review“Through his close analysis of the war, making extensive critical use of Josephus’s works, [Rogers] raises and resolves important questions about the nature of a revolt whose ripples can still be felt in our own time.”—David Abulafia, Catholic Herald“In his excellent new book . . . Guy MacLean Rogers tries to figure out precisely what compelled the Jews of the first century to rebel against the Roman Empire.”—Simeon Cohen, Times of Israel“A beautifully produced and thought-provoking book. . . . Fascinating questions [are] debated within these pages.”—Sara Jo Ben Zvi, Segula: The Jewish History MagazineCHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2022“A remarkable achievement. Guy Rogers provides a powerful, moving reconstruction of the scale, scope, and consequences of the great Jewish war against Rome. Thoughtful, careful, and thorough, this is a major contribution to scholarship. Rogers’ lively and engaging style makes it eminently accessible to a broad audience.”—Erich S. Gruen, University of California at Berkeley“Guy Rogers brings a profound grasp of the Roman world, historical flair, and fine judgment to this new, in-depth political and military study of the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome. This is an important and exciting book about an event that changed the course of history and that has a perennial hold on our emotions and imagination.”—Tessa Rajak, University of Oxford“Written with passion and wit, this patient and remarkably detailed reconstruction offers fresh interpretations of matters large and small, leading persuasively to the view of the war as a profound crisis with far-reaching and lasting consequences, whose meaning has been urgently debated to this very day.”—Jonathan Price, Tel Aviv University“Rogers provides a sweeping and detailed overview. This important work, written by a leading authority, will immediately become the standard reference on the First Jewish Revolt against Rome.”—Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill“Guy Rogers provides a lucid yet terrifying account of the ‘Jewish War’—the uprising of the Jews in 66 CE, and the Roman empire’s savage response, in a story that stretches from Rome to Jerusalem. It is characterized by inter- and intra-communal violence, desperate acts of resistance and bravery, and imperial repression, culminating in the destruction of the Temple, the execution of the brilliant Jewish military commander Simon bar Giora, and the capture of Masada. But Rogers is also a great historian: his narrative is a clinical, forensic examination of context, background, political culture, causality, contingency, and sources—especially the extraordinarily intimate view of events provided by the figure of the Jewish aristocrat, leader and turncoat Josephus.”—John Ma, Columbia University “Guy Rogers has retold the story of the Jewish revolt of AD 66–73/4, a turning point in Jewish history, taking full account of modern scholarship, in a style aimed at a wide audience, vividly painting the heroism and tragedy of the clash between civilizations, whose impact survived to this very day in the ethos of modern Israel.”—Hannah Cotton, Hebrew University in Jerusalem
£23.75
Verso Books Nevertheless: Machiavelli, Pascal
Book SynopsisNevertheless comprises essays on Machiavelli and on Pascal. The ambivalent connection between the two parts is embodied by the comma (,) in the subtitle: Machiavelli, Pascal. Is this comma a conjunction or a disjunction? In fact, both. Ginzburg approaches Machiavelli's work from the perspective of casuistry, or case-based ethical reasoning. For as Machiavelli indicated through his repeated use of the adverb nondimanco ("nevertheless"), there is an exception to every rule. Such a perspective may seem to echo the traditional image of Machiavelli as a cynical, "machiavellian" thinker. But a close analysis of Machiavelli the reader, as well as of the ways in which some of Machiavelli's most perceptive readers read his work, throws a different light on Machiavelli the writer. The same hermeneutic strategy inspires the essays on the Provinciales, Pascal's ferocious attack against Jesuitical casuistry. Casuistry vs anti-casuistry; Machiavelli's secular attitude towards religion vs Pascal's deep religiosity. We are confronted, apparently, with two completely different worlds. But Pascal read Machiavelli, and reflected deeply upon his work. A belated, contemporary echo of this reading can unveil the complex relationship between Machiavelli and Pascal - their divergences as well as their unexpected convergences.Trade ReviewA dazzling example of the pleasure of research * Il Foglio *Ginzburg calls for an intricate reading of Machiavelli. He points out that the link between the author of The Prince and the author of the Provincial Letters is justified by the fact that both pertain to the broad constellation of political theology informed by the exception, the miracle, the unique case imposed on the norm * Il Manifesto *A treasure hunt in historical sources, forgeries and the reception of texts * Avvenire *One of world's premier historians. A born detective. * New York Times *Really quite brilliant -- Jan Machielsen * Times Literary Supplement (for Old Thiess, a Livonian Werewolf) *
£23.75
Duke University Press At the Limits of Cure
Book SynopsisCan a history of cure be more than a history of how disease comes to an end? In 1950s Madras, an international team of researchers demonstrated that antibiotics were effective in treating tuberculosis. But just half a century later, reports out of Mumbai stoked fears about the spread of totally drug-resistant strains of the disease. Had the curable become incurable? Through an anthropological history of tuberculosis treatment in India, Bharat Jayram Venkat examines what it means to be cured, and what it means for a cure to come undone. At the Limits of Cure tells a story that stretches from the colonial period—a time of sanatoria, travel cures, and gold therapy—into a postcolonial present marked by antibiotic miracles and their failures. Venkat juxtaposes the unraveling of cure across a variety of sites: in idyllic hill stations and crowded prisons, aboard ships and on the battlefield, and through research trials and clinical encounters. If cure is frequently taken aTrade Review“How does one narrate a story of endings? At the Limits of Cure chronicles the fantasies of ending tuberculosis and the end of disease itself. Tying evocative histories of science to nuanced ethnography, Bharat Jayram Venkat reveals the attachments to curative reason that bind the clinic, the nation, and the globe. This electric and stunningly original book is infused with curiosity.” -- Harris Solomon, author of * Metabolic Living: Food, Fat, and the Absorption of Illness in India *“At the Limits of Cure is a work of art. Its medium includes historical and biographical narrative, medical journals, mythology, film, literature, and the keenest of ethnography. Thinking cure this carefully—not as an object, but as a desire and praxis—proves to be both a magical and a melancholic endeavor, riven with failures, false starts, and incurable imagination. Readers, specialists, and dreamers in cultural and medical anthropology, South Asian studies, and science and technology studies will love this highly original book.” -- Naisargi N. Dave, author of * Queer Activism in India: A Story in the Anthropology of Ethics *“This superbly written book weaves together a remarkable tale of tuberculosis in India. It is at once a transnational history of medical science and technology, an ethnohistory of the experience of disease, an ethnography of medicine, a history of India through the lens of public health, and, at its core, a compelling discussion of the complex, cultural discourse on the concept of 'cure,' not only in the history of medicine, but in the desires of doctors and governments, the self-understanding of patients, and even in Hindu mythology.” -- Joseph W. Elder Prize Committee“Venkat invites readers on an in-depth journey into the history of tuberculosis in India. [At the Limits of Cure] provides an excellent introduction to the field of medical anthropology. Highly recommended. All readers.” -- I. Glasser * Choice *“Venkat’s storytelling is absorbing. He appears a writer who finds joy in crafting prose, sometimes imbuing it with a playfulness that lands most aptly. . . . This is a meticulously crafted book, but it is nowhere stilted or overworked. It performs deep conceptual labor with a jargon-free lightness of touch that academic writing would do well to emulate.” -- Zahra Hayat * Medical Anthropology Quarterly *“An important consideration of At the Limits of Cure is rethinking what the end-goal of cure is. Is it the absolute removal of illness? Venkat suggests not, and that the possibilities available to us for cures exist within the realms of what we, individually and communally, desire of them.” -- Linda Hamrick * Synapsis *"Venkat argues that the imaginations of cure often dictate and shape the narratives of disease. Cure narratives are pluralistic, varied, and have the power to challenge the seeming homogeneity and universality claimed by colonial histories of disease and cure. . . . The narrative of cure, as the author argues, is more than a history of how disease comes to an end." -- Anandita Pan * Contemporary South Asia *"At the Limits of Cure brings a fresh perspective to a much-discussed disease and in the process transforms what we know about cure and chronicity in the history and anthropology of modern biomedicine. . . . For its methodological creativity with archival sources, attentive ethnography, and engrossing writing, the book will be a great choice in undergraduate and graduate classrooms." -- Koyna Tomar * ISIS *"At the Limits of Cure . . . is a masterclass in thinking with, and through stories. The book is rife with interruptions and twists and turns. Digressions happen. Lines are drawn and followed. Paths break. . . . Just like cures, stories have to be imagined otherwise: without absolute endings and without the power to explain—or narrate—away the messiness of the life they stage." -- Vincent Duclos * American Anthropologist *“Venkat expertly weaves archival methods of the historian and ethnographic fieldwork of the anthropologist to tell a powerful story. . . . As we are coming to a new stage in the global pandemic, this book can contribute to important conversations about our own approaches to cure.” -- Gourav Krishna Nandi * H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews *"[At the Limits of Cure] is a feminist history of disease, a social ethnography of clinical encounters, and a cinematic critical fabulation of the sanatorium. . . . This book will be a foundational text for graduate students wrestling with social histories of disease and the social life of historical actors." -- Lan A. Li * Asian Medicine *Venkat is at heart a storyteller, and the book is a sensitive interplay of the scientific and the personal as he makes the people and the drama come alive, never losing sight of the human perspective of suffering, however dry the archive . . . this is a significant book, deserving of attention by those interested in the South Asian context and in thinking about the conceptual issues of cure and chronic illness more widely." -- Catriona Ellis * Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences *"Venkat offers meticulously argued insights into cure as a concept, employing a diverse array of methods including archival research, literary and film analysis, and ethnography . . . In what is certainly one of the major highlights of the book, Venkat pens a mesmerising narrative of this history by donning the hat of a novel-writer and making the reader the subject of his description of life in a Shimla sanatorium . . . Thinking about cure through its limits is an invaluable and wonderfully fresh idea." -- Kiran Kumbhar * Contributions to Indian Sociology *Table of ContentsPreface ix Introduction. The Incurability of Fantasy 1 1. To Cure an Earthquake 23 2. Cure Is Elsewhere 77 3. From Ash to Antibiotic 121 4. Wax and Wane 165 5. After the Romance Is Over 209 Epilogue. India after Antibiotics 249 Acknowledgments 257 Bibliography 261 Index 281
£20.69
Yale University Press Tudor Textiles
Book SynopsisA detailed study of Tudor textiles, highlighting their extravagant beauty and their impact on the royal court, fashion, and taste.Trade Review“The book shines the most when it presents new and exciting research into surviving pieces such as the Bacton Altar Cloth. Non-specialist readers will find the material they encounter very thorough and will leave with a better understanding of the role of textiles in the Tudor courts, and those who are specialists will still find this a useful guide to the major topics in this area of study.”—Sarah A. Bendall, Parergon (Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies)“Altogether there is so much to recommend this book: Eleri Lynn has carved an immensely enjoyable read out of her impressive, holistic survey of the Tudor period and its love affair with textiles.”—Embroidery magazine“If you’re a history lover, an enthusiast for historical textiles, if you are curious about the Tudor period and the royalty and palaces from that era, if you’re into art history—you’ll love this book!”—Mary Corbet, Needle ’n Thread magazine“[F]ull of detail and evidence that may not have been drawn together in a book before.”—HALI magazine“Deftly told [and] nicely illustrated.”—Fisun Güner, Art Quarterly“Dress expert Eleri Lynn’s lavishly illustrated volume Tudor Textiles shines a light on the dazzling beauty and extravagance of court fashion and decor. In raiding the sumptuous Tudor royal wardrobe, Lynn has uncovered some real gems.”—Tracy Borman, BBC History Magazine, “Best Books of 2020”“Eleri Lynn’s sumptuous new book and her careful and wide-ranging research offer the reader a glimpse of this vibrant, colourful world.”—Maria Hayward, Burlington Magazine
£26.12
Biteback Publishing War and Peace: FDR's Final Odyssey D-Day to
Book SynopsisIn the much-anticipated conclusion to his masterful trilogy chronicling the wartime career of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, renowned military and political biographer Nigel Hamilton aligns triumph with tragedy to show how FDR was the architect of a victorious peace that he would not live to witness. Providing the definitive account of the events in Normandy on 6 June 1944, Hamilton also reveals the fraught nature of the relationship between the greatest wartime leaders of the Allied forces. Using hitherto unpublished documents and interviews to counter the famous narrative of World War II strategy given by Winston Churchill in his memoirs, Hamilton highlights the true significance of FDR’s leadership. Seventy-five years after the D-Day landings, we finally see, close up and in dramatic detail, who was responsible for rescuing – and insisting upon – the great American-led invasion of France in June 1944, and exactly why that invasion was orchestrated by Eisenhower. War and Peace is the rousing final installment in one of the most important historical biographies of the twenty-first century, which demonstrates how FDR’s failing health only spurred him on in his efforts to build a US-backed post-war world order. In this stirring account of the life of one of the most celebrated political leaders of our time, Hamilton hails the President as the sole person capable of anticipating the requirements of peace in order to bring an end to the war.
£21.25
John Wiley & Sons Reading Lucans Civil War A Critical Guide
Book SynopsisAcclaimed by critics as one of the greatest literary achievements of the Roman Empire, the Civil War is a stirring account of the war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the republican senate led by Pompey the Great. Reading Lucan's Civil War is the first comprehensive guide to this important poem.Trade ReviewReading Lucan’s Civil War is state of the art in Lucan studies. It is an extremely useful volume for scholars and students." —Neil W. Bernstein, author of Seneca: Hercules Furens
£26.96
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC RMS Queen Mary
Book SynopsisFor 1930s Britain, the Queen Mary was a symbol of hope. Cunard had abandoned construction on what they had planned to be the grandest liner of all time (then known simply as Job 534) in the depths of the Depression. Her half-finished hull sat on the Clyde for years, but when Cunard announced they were going to complete her, it was a sign, perhaps, that the darkest days were over, that the country was emerging from economic disaster and that Britannia would soon rule the waves once again.The Queen Mary would go on to be one of the most famous ships in the world for all the right reasons. The first British ship to be over 1,000 feet in length, launched by her namesake (and for which the Clyde had to be artificially widened to allow such a large ship to pass through), she won the Blue Riband (the record for fastest Atlantic crossing) not once by twice and when she won it the second time in 1938 she held it until 1952.After wartime service carrying up to 16,000 US troops to Trade ReviewThis nicely-produced book asks, and answers, 101 questions about the Queen Mary. This approach offers a different and interesting perspective, and the informative text is accompanied by photographs and other original material. * Ships Monthly *
£13.10
Hackett Publishing Co, Inc Muslim Sources of the Crusader Period: An
Book SynopsisDrawn from greater Syria, northern Mesopotamia, and Egypt, the sources in this anthology—many of which are translated into English for the first time here--provide eyewitness and contemporary historical accounts of what unfolded in the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. In providing representative examples of the many disparate types of Muslim sources, this volume opens a window onto life in the Islamic Near East during the Crusader period and the interactions between Franks and Muslims in the broader context of Islamic history. Ideally suited for use in undergraduate courses on the Crusades or the pre-modern Islamic Near East, this anthology will also appeal to any readers seeking a better understanding of the Islamic response to the Crusades and the general history of the Near East in this period.Trade Review"In the last century, many of the main Arabic chronicles of the crusading period have been made available in English translations and are now well-known. This volume, however, gives us a whole wide range of materials, only a few of which are accessible to non-Arabists. The collection includes not just little-known narrative historians, like the lively and original Ibn Wasil, but also letters, sermons, and inscriptions. Each section is followed by a few questions, ideal essay subjects for advanced students and thought provoking for general readers. Among the many strengths of this collection is that it gives due weight to thirteenth-century writings, often neglected but often interesting. Another strength is that the translations are, in all cases, the authors' own work, giving fresh and interesting versions of such well-known classics as the Rihla of Ibn Jubayr. This is a new and exciting collection which will open new horizons for students and teachers alike." —Hugh Kennedy, SOAS, University of London"Historians and instructors alike will enthusiastically greet this book, which presents in a student-friendly manner Islamic sources relating to the crusades that are not otherwise available to persons who lack a working knowledge of Arabic and its rich literary treasury." —Alfred J. Andrea, Emeritus Professor of History, The University of Vermont"This is a superb collection, covering nearly every aspect of the Crusader entanglement with the Islamic Near East as expressed in Arabic sources, in clear, readable English translations. The editors are to be thanked for including texts from multiple genres--not just chronicles, but travel literature, memoirs, biographies, poetry, epistles, treaties, and orations. Nor is this collection limited to literary texts, as it also includes evidence from inscriptions--a revealing source for understanding the public propaganda of the age. The informative appendices, maps, and thoughtful discussion questions will make this anthology a breeze to use in teaching, and I can't wait to get started using it." —Paul M. Cobb, University of Pennsylvania"This is an outstanding collection of translations of Levantine Muslim sources from the crusading period. Lindsay and Mourad have assembled a wide-ranging and informative set of texts, most of which have not been translated into English previously, from a broad range of genres including not only chronicles, but also a range of other works such as geographies, biographies, treaties and inscriptions. In the process they have effectively demonstrated the multifaceted nature of Christian-Muslim encounters in the Levant during this period. "The collection is enhanced by invaluable supporting materials including (but not limited to) a bibliographic overview of the major Muslim sources for the period, a glossary, and a list of honorific titles and names. These make the book highly accessible for non-experts interested in the content. "This book will appeal to students and scholars alike, and I highly recommend it for university and college courses on the crusades." —Dr. Niall Christie, Instructor in History and Department Chair, Department of History, Latin and Political Science, Langara College"[An] invaluable primary resource for scholars and general readers alike. . . . This anthology does reinforce the case that sources written by Muslims, and the existing inhabitants of the Middle East in general, are vital to a fuller understanding of the reality of the Crusades which continues to be distorted for political gain by both the Western far-right and Muslim extremists. The questions posed by the editors at the end of each source also highlight important points and challenge the unconscious biases of Western readers and students. . . . Lindsay and Mourad's translations are . . . clear and up-to-date. This then, largely, allows the sources to speak for themselves in terms of their interest and accessibility for the reader and their publication constitutes a valuable addition to the primary material available in English."—Charles Ough, in Oxford Middle East Review"This anthology shows that the crusades, however defined, did not constantly preoccupy the Islamic world. . . . The volume is innovative and immensely informative. It is also accessible, readable, and easy to use. . . . Muslim Sources of the Crusader Period: An Anthology merits recognition for outstanding content put together by James Lindsay and Suleiman Mourad and for its excellent presentation, layout, and formatting. . . . I learned a lot from this volume and can imagine how much it will benefit its readership, students and researchers in particular." —Bogdan Smarandache, in Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā: The Journal of Middle East Medievalists
£19.79
Haus Publishing Bismarck: The Iron Chancellor
Book SynopsisOtto von Bismarck (1815-98) has gone down in history as the Iron Chancellor, a reactionary and militarist whose 1871 unification of Germany set Europe down the path of disaster to World War I. But as Volker Ullrich shows in this new edition of his accessible biography, the real Bismarck was far more complicated than the stereotype. A leading historian of nineteenth- and twentieth-century history, Ullrich demonstrates that the "Founder of the Reich" was in fact an opponent of liberal German nationalism. After the wars of 1866 and 1870, Bismarck spent the rest of his career working to preserve peace in Europe and protect the empire he had created. Despite his reputation as an enemy of socialism, he introduced comprehensive health and unemployment insurance for German workers. Far from being a "man of iron and blood," Bismarck was in fact a complex statesman who was concerned with maintaining stability and harmony far beyond Germany's newly unified borders. Comprehensive and balanced, Bismarck shows us the post-reunification value of looking anew at this monumental figure's role in European history
£9.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Wars of Alexander's Successors 323–281 BC:
Book SynopsisWhen the dying Alexander the Great was asked to whom he bequeathed his vast empire, he supposedly replied to the strongest. There ensued a long series of struggles between his generals and governors for control of these vast territories. Most of these Diadochi, or successors, were consummate professionals who had learnt their trade under Alexander and, in some cases, his father Philip. This second volume studies how they applied that experience and further developed the art of war in a further four decades of warfare. This is a period rich in fascinating tactical developments. The all-conquering Macedonian war machine developed by Philip and Alexander was adapted in various ways (such as the addition of war elephants) by the different successors according to their resources. Siege and naval warfare is also included.
£11.69
HarperCollins Publishers The Dive The untold story of the worlds deepest
Book SynopsisThe Dive is a thrilling narrative nonfiction in the tradition of The Perfect Storm and Apollo 13.They were out of their depth, out of breath, and out of time. It was 1973. Two men were trapped in a crippled submarine 1,700 feet below sea. They only had enough air to survive for two days. On the ocean's surface there was a hastily assembled flotilla of rescue ships from both sides of the Atlantic. The world held its breath to await word of a rescue.In a routine dive to fix the telecommunication cable that snakes along the Atlantic sea bed, their mission had gone badly wrong. There was a catastrophic fault on board the Pisces III, and Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson's mini-submarine went tumbling to the ocean bed almost half a mile below.The crippled sub and its crew were trapped far beyond the depth of any previous sub-sea rescue. They had just two days' worth of oxygen. However, on the surface the best estimates for a rescue of these men was a minimum of three days' time.The Dive is Trade Review‘An unbelievable, completely true story that is so taut and brilliantly told I defy anyone not to cherish every breath they take’ Denise Mina
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Java Sea 1942
Book SynopsisA highly illustrated study of the battle of the Java Sea, a key Japanese victory in their advance throughout Southeast Asia. The battle of the Java Sea, fought in February 1942, was the first major surface engagement of the Pacific War and one of the few naval battles of the entire war fought to a decisive victory. It was the culminating point of the Japanese drive to occupy the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) and, to defend the territory, the Allies assembled a striking force comprised of Dutch, American, British and even an Australian ship, all under the command of a resolute Dutch admiral. On 27 February 1942, the Allied striking force set course to intercept the Japanese invasion force in the Java Sea. In one of the few such times during the whole of World War II a protracted surface engagement was fought unmolested by airpower. For over seven hours, the Allied force attempted to attack the Japanese invasion force, finally breaking off in the early evening. Some three hours latTable of ContentsOrigins of the campaign/ Chronology/ Opposing commanders/ Opposing armies/ Orders of battle/ Opposing plans/ The campaign/ Aftermath/ The battlefields today/ Further reading/ Index
£14.39
C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd History Has Begun: The Birth of a New America
Book SynopsisPopular consensus says that the US rose over two centuries to Cold War victory and world domination, and is now in slow decline. But is this right? History’s great civilisations have always lasted much longer, and for all its colossal power, the US was overshadowed by Europe until recently. What if this isn’t the end? Bruno Maçães offers a compelling vision of America’s future, both fascinating and unnerving. From the early American Republic, Maçães takes us to the turbulent present, when, he argues, America is finally forging its own path. We can see the birth pangs of this new civilisation in today’s debates on guns, religion, foreign policy and the significance of Trump. What will its values be, and what will this new America look like?Trade Review'There’s no better man to guide us on the differences between Europe and America than Bruno Macaes. ... ['History Has Begun'] is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the country that invented itself — and the modern world.' -- The Sunday Times‘Brilliant and wildly provocative, [Maçães] not so much turns history on its head, as inside out … a wonderfully contrarian essay on the future of world politics … challenging to the last sentence, it has been the stimulating and fun read of the year so far.’ -- The Evening Standard‘A refreshingly bold and deeply thought-stirring book.’ -- John Gray, The New Statesman‘A fascinating survey of the decline and possible rise of the American empire.’ -- The Wall Street Journal‘[A] unique voice … exhilarating.’ -- The Wire‘As a kind of counterpoint to his insightful books on the rise of Eurasia and China’s One Belt One Road initiative, Bruno Maçães has written an absorbing, ruminative essay on the United States. Whereas his exploration of Eurasia was a true journey over that vast landmass, here he encounters America in his library and his imagination. Between Europe, oppressed by history, and China, intoxicated by technology, the United States still offers some hope of reconciling power and liberty.’ -- Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford, and author of 'Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire' and 'The Square and the Tower''The future never matches the conventional wisdom. Bruno Macaes gives us the special gift of charting a future for the United States and the world that may be very different, and quite possibly much better, than what we expect.' -- Marc Andreessen, entrepreneur, investor and cofounder of Netscape'This insightful book makes bold and counterintuitive arguments. The international system is poised for the flourishing of cultural and political diversity among nation states. At the same time, this can and should be another American Century. This round requires the United States creatively to remake itself inside and out.' -- Kiron K. Skinner, Former Director of the Office of Policy Planning, Department of State'Bruno Macaes has written an erudite, thought-provoking exploration of how the world is affected by a post-truth America, an America where the line between reality and entertainment is no longer discernible, and where the hallowed concept of the "West" is losing its meaning.' -- Yaroslav Trofimov, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, 'Wall Street Journal''A rich, digressive, aphoristic book.'
£12.34
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Land of the Turquoise Mountains: Journeys Across
Book SynopsisA compelling personal journey of discovery, illuminating the Iran that lies beyond the headlines. For Cyrus Massoudi, a young British-born Iranian, the country his parents were forced to flee thirty years ago was a place wholly unknown to him. Wanting to make sense of his roots and piece together the divided, divisive and deeply contradictory puzzle that is contemporary Iran, he embarked on a series of journeys that spanned hundreds of miles and thousands of years through the many ebbs and flows of Iranian history. Rich portrayals of Sufis and ageing aristocrats, smugglers and underground rock bands are all woven together with history, religion and mythology to form a unique portrait of contemporary Iranian society. The thread running through the heart of the narrative is Massoudi's poignant personal quest; his struggle echoing that of Iran itself, as it fights to forge a cohesive modern identity. Land of the Turquoise Mountains reveals a world beyond the propaganda-driven, media-fuelled image of fractious, flag-burning fundamentalism and provides a compelling glimpse both into the heart of a deeply misunderstood nation and what it is to seek out and discover one's heritage.Trade ReviewA fascinating insider-outsider view of a complex country we badly need to know more about. Writers like Cyrus Massoudi who illuminate our ignorance are vitally important. -- William DalrympleTable of ContentsPreface Land of the Turquoise Mountains Notes Bibliography
£999.99
