History Books

Book Synopsis"The garden that once was still haunts my dreams and no season will ever be the same again ... " When Ceri and her brothers move to Fern Cottage in the small North Wiltshire village of Little Somerford, they discover a place unchanged by modern life. The kitchen garden is a riot of fruit trees and vegetables, and the old farming family next door still works the land with horses. This is a community full of character, and slowly the life and beauty of Little Somerford steals into Ceri's heart ... A beautiful memoir full of the people and magic of Little Somerford in the 1950s and 60s

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Book SynopsisThe redoubtable Owtram sisters, best-selling authors of Codebreaking Sisters, take us back in time once again with recently rediscovered diaries and letters from the '20s and 30s that paint a vivid picture of their childhood at Newland Hall in Lancashire's Lune Valley. Here they lived with their parents Bunty and Cary Owtram and younger brother Bob, supported by a fascinating cast of cooks, maids and groundsmen, all presided over by 'Grandboffin', the sisters' indomitable grandfather. The Owtram sisters' childhood was one of nannies and governesses, balls and tennis parties, theatricals and ponies. But their hilarious stories of British eccentricity and etiquette and the trials and tribulations of boarding school, are set against the backdrop of a world in the throes of great change; the Spanish Civil War, the Great Depression, hunger marches, the abdication of Edward VIII and his wedding to "that American", Mrs Simpson... Closer to home, the sisters witnessed a shocking murder- suicide, in a scenario straight out of Romeo and Juliet. In 1938, the arrival at Newland Hall of the first Austrian Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis, became the catalyst for the Owtram sisters' decision to join the women's forces, where they serve with such distinction in World War Two. The war changed their lives forever. The work of post war recovery opened to the sisters a world that hitherto inconceivable. Jean immersed herself in travel, working with refugees. Later, she became a social worker and one of the founding members of the team that set up Lancaster University. Pat became one of the first female journalists on the Daily Mail before pursuing a career in television at Granada and the BBC, producing such great family favourites as University Challenge and the Sky At Night. With Jean soon to turn 98 and Pat approaching her 100th birthday in June 2023, this is a unique opportunity to hear more first-hand stories from a soon-to-be-forgotten world. Using the sisters' contemporaneous correspondence, diary entries (including Pat's 1940/41 Blitz diary) and their 21st century reflection, Century Sisters will tell those stories with the inimitable Owtram style and flair.

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Book SynopsisThe border between Scotland and England is rich in history. It has been the site of battles, treaties, castles and crossroads. It is also a place where both countries display their nationalism: Saltires flying in the north, the Cross of St George to the south. But it can also be a lens through which to look at the changing history and identities of these two countries.Alistair Moffat is a life-long borderer and the ideal guide on this one-hundred-mile journey. We begin just north of the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Already the battlelines have been drawn - the town having been grabbed by the English from Berwickshire in 1482 and never given back. From here we will head west as our tour travels backwards and forwards through history. In all, we will walk through eight centuries before we reach our journey's end at the mouth of the River Sark.Between Britain is a history book, a travelogue, a personal reminiscence and a gently prodding examination of national identity. But above all it is a celebration of a place and the people who live there.Trade ReviewA study in nationalism . . . A journey of 100 miles but one that time travel[s] through 800 years of complex history * * Sunday Post * *Praise for Alistair Moffat: [To the Island of Tides] is often beautifully evocative of places, the past and the landscape . . . compelling and revealing * * The Times * *Extraordinary . . . There is a powerful, natural beauty in Moffat's writing * * Herald * *[Moffat] is a great teacher . . . Alert though he is to change and to the world we have lived into, he is forever in search of time that is lost and can be recovered. Enthralling . . . * * Scotsman * *Joyous . . . [The Secret History of Here] is a delightful meditation on a place, and on the role that humans played in its evolution * * Foreword * *Absorbing and thought-provoking * * Countryfile * *Truly fascinating * * Sunday Mail * *

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Book Synopsis'Delicious... Wonderful' Guardian'Fascinating... Full of incident and food for thought' Mail on Sunday'Delightful... Vogler offers up a feast of tales about popular British foods' Financial TimesA SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARA WATERSTONES BEST FOOD & DRINK BOOK OF 2023The fascinating history of the people, the ideas and the dishes that have fed - and starved - the nation, by the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Scoff.In times of plenty, we stuff ourselves. When the food runs out, we're stuffed too. How have people in the British Isles shared the riches from our fields, dairies, kitchens and seas, as well as those from around the world? And when the cupboard is bare, who steps up to the plate to feed the nation's hungry children, soldiers at war or families in crisis?Stuffed tells the stories of the food and drink at the centre of social upheavals from prehistory to the present: the medieval inns boosted by the plague; the Enclosures that finished off the celebratory roast goose; the Victorian chemist searching for unadulterated mustard; the post-war supermarkets luring customers with strawberries. Drawing on cookbooks, literature and social records, Pen Vogler reveals how these turning points have led to today's extremes of plenty and want: roast beef and food banks; allotment-fresh vegetables and ultra-processed fillers.It is a tale of feast and famine, and of the traditions, the ideas and the laws which have fed - or starved - the nation, but also of the yeasty magic of bread and ale, the thrill of sugary treats, the pies and puddings that punctuate the year, and why the British would give anything - even North America - for a nice cup of tea.Trade ReviewA fact-stuffed romp through our edible history... Impressively wide-ranging... [Vogler] relishes the moments where the past crashes up against the present. * The Times *A banquet of fascinating titbits, deep research and intellectual nourishment... Stuffed is dusted, metaphorically speaking, all over with icing sugar: a delicious and tempting thing. -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *Fascinating... A scholarly and imaginative book full of incident and food for thought * Mail on Sunday *Delightful... Vogler offers up a feast of tales about popular British foods, ranging from potatoes to kippers and ale. -- Gillian Tett * Financial Times *Delicious... [Vogler] is excellent, as in her 2020 book Scoff, at foraging among the sources to bring us wonderful stories of older food cultures. * Guardian *In this provocative history of British food, Pen Vogler goes back 400 years to lay the blame for our absurd modern eating habits. * Sunday Times *Engaging... Vogler shows how ongoing - and vital - the battle is to eat well... Deeply researched and great fun. It might make you think twice about what you eat, too. * Evening Standard *There is so much to enjoy in Stuffed... Vogler is a hands-on historian for whom the past is right there in the kitchen, the supermarket and the everyday ingredient. In Stuffed, her delight in the taste and craft of food-making, its stories and its skills is irresistibly palpable. * Literary Review *Vogler's book is divided into the histories of different foods - each telling of supply and demand falling into the right or wrong hands. The stories span pre-Enclosure times to the recent pandemic. They are deeply unsettling and anger-provoking, and it's a book that those who have influence over what we eat should read. -- Rose Prince * Spectator *Persuasive... This clever and informative account confirms that we are indeed what we eat, and that our history is a product of it too. * New Statesman *Eating and feeding are the central projects of all human societies and Stuffed reveals that they are the very best lenses through which to understand our shared history. This is an extraordinary book about food, health and power; meticulously scholarly and extremely funny; as important as it is entertaining. Crucially it slices through the contemporary and historical politics of state versus individual responsibility: eating well is our responsibility, but it is the responsibility of the state to ensure we have that ability. And the book furnishes some ability itself with a series of recipes so that you can dine like a 17th central nobleman or a medieval peasant and feel a little more connected to the story of why we eat what we eat. Shot through with wit and humanity Stuffed is an all-consuming read. -- Chris van Tulleken, author of Ultra-Processed PeopleThoughtful, thought-provoking and full of fascinating detail (and intriguing recipes), this is a timely reminder we should never take our food for granted. -- Felicity CloakePen Vogler's Stuffed may tackle the question of hunger, but it is a generous and irresistible feast of a book. Spanning more than one thousand years of history, and focussing on 26 staple foods, Stuffed details the complex forces that determine diet, making clearer than ever that what we feed ourselves, our families and our communities is socially and politically shaped, and it always has been. -- Polly RussellAn ambitious book, leaping merrily from the Neolithic to the modern day... A wry sense of humour keeps it light, widening the appeal beyond food-history devotees, and modernised recipes are cleverly used to illustrate Vogler's points... A fun read and an illuminating look at food inequality - and responsibility - in the past. -- Annie Gray * BBC History Magazine *This culinary history of Britain looks at the foods that sustained, nourished or delighted its inhabitants in times of plenty and hardship... Pen Vogler is warm, wise company throughout * History Revealed, 'Book of the Month' *Serves up a veritable smorgasbord of delicious tidbits as it charts the history of our island through the contents of its dinner plates * Buzz Magazine *This mouthwatering, kaleidoscopic history is infused with a light, informative tone and is convincingly argued... Meticulously researched, spiced with penetrating analysis and rich in colourful detail, Stuffed is a sparkling banquet. * Business Post *Informative, enraging and entertaining in equal measure * Choice Magazine *Packed with facts - fascinating, illuminating, sometimes funny and at times shocking - about the history of food and society... You'll be engrossed from the first page. * Delicious Magazine *Table of ContentsPart One: Before the Enclosures 1: Introduction 2: Beans Recipe:: Fried Beans 3: Worts 4: Bacon 5: Bread and Ale 6: Carp Part Two: The Enclosures and After 1: Introduction 2: Turnips Recipe: Beef Stew with Turnips 3: Goose 4: Herring 5: Potatoes and Jam 6: Cheese Part Three: Organization 1: Introduction 2: Salt Beef 3: Oatmeal Recipe: Havercakes 4: Christmas Pudding 5: Strawberries Part Four: Children and Families 1: Introduction 2: Sugar 3: Gruel 4: Yorkshire Pudding 5: Scotch Barley Broth and Rhubarb Tart Recipe: Barley Broth or Scotch Broth Part Five: Sharing 1: Introduction 2: Beef and Beer (No Fish) 3: Wine and Ale 4: Pumpkin Pie Recipe: Pumpkin Pie 5: Meat Pie and Woolton Pie Part Six: Crises 1: Introduction 2: Tea 3: Bread and Butter 4: Potatoes and Cornmeal Recipe: Cornbread 5: Mustard and Pickles

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Book Synopsis'An enlightening, enjoyable and frequently very funny journey into what makes Yorkshire stand out from the crowd ... a fascinating insight into our wonderful region and the people that make it what it is.' The Yorkshire PostWritten from the perspective of an exiled Yorkshireman this bestselling, award-winning author returns to his native county to discover and reveal its soul.We all know the tropes - Geoffrey Boycott incarnate, ferret-leggers and folk singers gambolling about Ilkley Moor without appropriate headgear - but why is Yorkshire God's Own County? Exiled Yorkshireman Rick Broadbent sets out to find out whether Yorkshireness is something that can be summed up and whether it even matters in a shrinking world. Along the way he meets rock stars, ramblers and rhubarb growers as he searches for answers and a decent cup of tea. Now Then is a biographical mosaic of a place that has been victimised and stereotyped since the days of William the Conqueror. Incorporating social history, memoir and author interviews, Now Then is not a hagiography. Broadbent visits the scenes of industrial neglect and forgotten tragedy, as well as examining the truth about well-known Yorkshire figures and institutions. Featuring Kes, the Sheffield Outrages and the most controversial poem ever written, as well as a heroic dog, a lost albatross and a stuffed crocodile, Now Then is an affectionate but unsparing look at a county, its inhabitants and their flinty vowels. This is a funny, wise and searching account of a place that claims to have given the world its first football club and England its last witch-burning. It does include cobbles, trumpets and stiff-necked, wilful obstinacy, but it is also about ordinary Yorkshire and its extraordinary lives.Trade ReviewFrom Yorkshire? Who do you think you are? Cut through the cliches and seek the truth with Now Then. Not from Yorkshire? Commiserations, but you can still enjoy some vicarious greatness by reading Rick's book. -- Tom Palmer, author of AFTER THE WAR and winner of the Ruth Rendell AwardA humorously honest, unsparing, celebratory biographical mosaic, not a hagiography. [...] Social history, memoir and reportage, high hills and flat vowels are woven into the mosaic of Yorkshire now and Yorkshire then, ordinary Yorkshire and its extraordinary lives. * The Press *If you wish to know what social, cultural and historical erosions shaped the land we live on - a behind-the-scenes view of 'God's Own Country' - then look no further than Now Then. * Dalesman *Quite unputdownable. In Now Then, Rick Broadbent has encapsulated the spirit of the folk and the mood of the places so perfectly. I was hooked from page one. Prodigiously researched with wit woven into the narrative, it recreates the raw atmosphere of the place that made me. Anyone born in the county should read it. It will help them understand just what they were born into. -- Alan TitchmarshAs a Lancastrian, I should try and tell you that this is a terrible book. But it is not. A passionate but clear-eyed evocation of the 'Texas' of England that avoids 'God's Own Country' blather but is broad and rich enough to include Ted Hughes and Jarvis Cocker as well as Orgreave and Hillsborough. Excellent. -- Stuart MaconieAn enlightening, enjoyable and frequently very funny journey into what makes Yorkshire stand out from the crowd ... a fascinating insight into our wonderful region and the people that make it what it is. * Yorkshire Post *Table of ContentsI: Prologue: Digging Up the Past 1: Outsiders 2: Workers 3: Writers 4: Miners 5: Minstrels 6: Artists 7: Yorkists 8: Stereotykes 9: Champions 10: Ramblers 11: Chefs 12: Pioneers 13: Legends 14: Seasiders 15: Now 16: Then Ii: Bibliography Iii: Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisThe 1960s have gone down in history as the swinging sixties; when the permissive society swept the country in a haze of mini-skirts, psychedelic posters, pop festivals and ‘love-ins’. But what was it really like for ordinary British people? In this book, Mike Brown looks at some of the major aspects of living in Britain at the time; how we lived, worked and played, how we shopped, what we ate, wore, drove, watched and listened to. He looks at the stories and people who made the headlines; the mods and rockers, the ‘beautiful people’, but most of all, how ordinary people really lived and reacted to events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Great Train robbery, and the first moon landing. The book will bring back memories for those who were there, and, for those who were not yet born, it will give them an idea of what the 60s were really like.

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Book SynopsisMagic, sorcery and witchcraft are among the most common themes of the great medieval Icelandic sagas and poems, the problematic yet vital sources that provide our primary textual evidence for the Viking Age that they claim to describe. Yet despite the consistency of this picture, surprisingly little archaeological or historical research has been done to explore what this may really have meant to the men and women of the time. This book examines the evidence for Old Norse sorcery, looking at its meaning and function, practice and practitioners, and the complicated constructions of gender and sexual identity with which these were underpinned. Combining strong elements of eroticism and aggression, sorcery appears as a fundamental domain of women's power, linking them with the gods, the dead and the future. Their battle spells and combat rituals complement the men's physical acts of fighting, in a supernatural empowerment of the Viking way of life. What emerges is a fundamentally new image of the world in which the Vikings understood themselves to move, in which magic and its implications permeated every aspect of a society permanently geared for war. In this fully-revised and expanded second edition, Neil Price takes us with him on a tour through the sights and sounds of this undiscovered country, meeting its human and otherworldly inhabitants, including the Sámi with whom the Norse partly shared this mental landscape. On the way we explore Viking notions of the mind and soul, the fluidity of the boundaries that they drew between humans and animals, and the immense variety of their spiritual beliefs. We find magic in the Vikings' bedrooms and on their battlefields, and we meet the sorcerers themselves through their remarkable burials and the tools of their trade. Combining archaeology, history and literary scholarship with extensive studies of Germanic and circumpolar religion, this multi-award-winning book shows us the Vikings as we have never seen them before.Trade ReviewThis is a brilliant and beautifully written book, as evidenced, for instance, by Price’s evocative retelling of Ragnarǫkr in Chapter 2. The first edition of Viking Way was a watershed publication for Viking archaeology, and as it has now been updated and extended, this book will only cement its position as a truly fundamental piece of scholarship painting a much richer, more complex, and more disconcerting picture of what are frequently caricatured and romanticized people. The Viking Way will undoubtedly be read, cited, and remembered for a very long time. * Early Medieval Europe *The Viking Way is a saga-like page-turner. […] It was the most important work to have been published on Norse magic when I first read it in 2002. In this second, revised and expanded edition, Price sets the benchmark for research on the Viking Way for at least another twenty years. * Time & Mind: the Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture. *The Viking Way is a precious and detailed handbook in every respect […] the book is a first-rank culture history of the Vikings. * Shaman *Price’s easy-to-read writing style allows the study to clearly present and explain an assortment of complicated subject matters, which in turn makes these intricate topics more accessible for a varied audience […] Ultimately, this book remains one of the most influential studies on the Viking Age… * Kyngervi *In summary, readers will be pleased by this new edition in that it largely preserves the much sought-after first edition while simultaneously updating some pieces of information and adding over 500 new references to relevant works published since the first edition, some new photographs and illustrations, and an index. * Journal of English and Germanic Philology *Table of ContentsList of figures and tables Abbreviations Preface and acknowledgements to the first edition Preface and acknowledgements to the second edition A note on language A note on seid 1. Different Vikings? Towards a cognitive archaeology of the later Iron Age A beginning at Birka Textual archaeology and the Iron Age The Other and the Odd? An archaeology of the Viking mind? 2. Problems and paradigms in the study of Old Norse sorcery Entering the mythology Research perspectives on Scandinavian pre-Christian religion Gods and monsters, worship and superstition The shape of Old Norse religion The double world: seiðr and the problem of Old Norse ‘magic’ Seiðr in the sources Seiðr in research 3. Seiðr Óðinn Freyja and the magic of the Vanir Seiðr and Old Norse cosmology The performers The performance Engendering seiðr Seiðr and the concept of the soul The domestic sphere of seiðr Seiðr contextualised 4. Noaidevuohta Seiðr and the Sámi Sámi-Norse relations in the Viking Age Sámi religion and the Drum-Time Rydving’s terminology of noaidevuohta Women and noaidevuohta The rituals of noaidevuohta The ethnicity of religious context in Viking-Age Scandinavia 5. Circumpolar religion and the question of Old Norse shamanism The circumpolar cultures and the invention of shamanism The shamanic world-view Shamanism in Scandinavia Seiðr and circumpolar shamanism 6. The supernatural empowerment of aggression Seiðr and the world of war Valkyrjur, skaldmeyjar and hjálmvitr Supernatural agency in battle The projection of destruction Battle magic Seiðr and the shifting of shape Berserkir and ulfheðnar Ecstasy, psychic dislocation and the dynamics of mass violence Weaving war, grinding battle: Darraðarljóð and Grottas˛ongr in context 7. The Viking way A reality in stories Viking women, Viking men 8. Magic and mind Receptions and reactions Cracks in the ice of Norse ‘religion’ Walking into the seiðr: contested interpretations of Viking-Age magic Queering magic? The social world of war The Viking mind: a conclusion References Primary sources, including translations Pre-nineteenth-century sources for the early Sámi and Siberian cultures Secondary sources Sources in archive Index

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Book Synopsis'A Baedeker of the past, absorbing and revealing in equal measure' Peter Ackroyd'Brings the age's tortuous splendours and profound murkiness vividly to life' ObserverWhen Dr Johnson published his great Dictionary in 1755, London was the biggest city in Europe. The opulence of the rich and the comfort of the 'middling' sort contrasted sharply with the back-breaking labour and pitiful wages of the poor. Executions were rated one of the best amusements, but there was bullock-hunting and cock-fighting too. Crime, from pickpockets to highwaymen, was rife, prisons were poisonous and law-enforcement rudimentary.Dr Johnson's London is the result of the author's passionate interest in the practical details of the everyday life of our ancestors: the streets, houses and gardens; cooking, housework, laundry and shopping; clothes and cosmetics; medicine, sex, hobbies, education and etiquette. The book spans the years 1740 to 1770, starting when the gin craze was gaining ground and ending when the east coast of America was still British. While brilliantly recording the strangeness and individuality of the past, Dr Johnson's London continually reminds us of parallels with the present day.Trade ReviewAt last, a riveting history book with no wars, few dates and minimal references to the King ... Picard has an unerring eye for picking out the most vivid phrase, the most apt memory or pithiest description from the wealth of contemporary information that exists -- Ruth Cowen * Sunday Express *There are fascinating disquisitions on do-it-yourself decorating, on male and female underwear, on funerals, and on the language of fans ... Dr Johnson's London is a Baedeker of the past ... It is absorbing and revealing in equal measure -- Peter Ackroyd * The Times *In this new survey of Johnson's London, which spans the years 1740 to 1770, Liza Picard reveals what it was that proved so compelling about the monstrous metropolis ... With her keen eye for human quirks and human weakness, Picard brings the age's tortuous splendours and profound murkiness vividly to life, and does so with great verve and originality -- Henry Hitchings * Observer *Picard's exploration of life in the mid-eighteenth century succeeds in being both accessible and vivid. Her curiosity and enthusiasm are infectious, and she has an instinct for what will interest the lay reader -- Victoria Lane * Daily Telegraph *This book sweeps across the London of 1740 to 1770 like a flying magnifying glass. [Picard's] dry humour and eagle eye make her a superb guide. It opens with a sedan chair tour around George II's London and along the river. I can only say it is brilliant -- Illtyd Harrington * Camden New Journal *This wonderful book drops us right in the noisy, dirty, dung-ridden heart of mid-eighteenth-century London ... Picard's street-level approach builds up a compelling, all-encompassing picture of how Londoners, from commoners to kings, lived and died * Glasgow Herald *Read Liza Picard's book, wrap yourself in the atmosphere of the past, and you'll emerge with a gulp of relief to be living now, not then -- Miranda Seymour * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisBracketed by the catastrophes of the Great War and the Wall Street Crash, 1920s America was a place of drama, tension and hedonism. It glittered and seduced: jazz, flappers, wild all-night parties, the birth of Hollywood, and a glamorous gangster-led crime scene flourishing under prohibition. But the period was also punctuated by momentous events - the political show trials of Sacco and Vanzetti; the huge Ku Klux Klan march down Washington DC's Pennsylvania Avenue - and it produced a splendid array of writers, musicians and film stars, from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Bessie Smith and Charlie Chaplin.Trade Review"'It was a decade that absolutely fizzed - and Lucy Moore has produced an absolutely fizzing book to match her subject. I could not put it down... The most entertaining work of history you are likely to read in a long while.' A. N. Wilson 'A varied and dazzling portrait gallery of crooks and film stars, boxers and presidents, each brilliantly delineated and coloured in by a historian with a novelist's relish for human foibles.' Christopher Hart, Sunday Times 'Eminently readable... A sparkling collection of the anecdotes and personalities that defined the roaring Twenties... Fascinating.' Jennifer O'Connell, Sunday Business Post 'Zestful... A delightful canter through the history of America in the 1920s' Sunday Times Books of the Year 'Like the champagne-immersed age she portrays, Moore's book effervesces with the detail of this fascinating story.' Juliet Nicolson, Evening Standard"

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Book SynopsisKate Grenville's The Secret River was one of the most loved novels of 2006. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and awarded the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, the story of William Thornhill and his journey from London to the other side of the world has moved and exhilarated hundreds of thousands of readers. Searching for the Secret River tells the story of how Grenville came to write this wonderful book. It is in itself an amazing story, beginning with Grenville's great-great-great grandfather. Grenville starts to investigate her ancestor, hoping to understand his life. She pursues him from Sydney to London and back, and slowly she begins to realise she must write about him. Searching for the Secret River maps this creative journey into fiction, and illuminates the importance of family in all our lives.Trade ReviewGrenville's skill is to turn what could have been too obviously a representative moral fable into a rich novel of character. * * Sunday Telegraph * *Grenville, as ever, describes an Australia so overwhelmingly beautiful that readers will lust after its sunbaked soul too. * * Daily Telegraph * *We have had to wait five years for The Secret River but the wait has been worth it... Splendidly paced, passionate and disturbing. * * The Times * *

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Book SynopsisMany books have been written, and continue to be written, about the Second World War: military histories, histories of the Holocaust, the war in Asia, or collaboration and resistance in Europe. Few books have taken a close look at the immediate aftermath of the worldwide catastrophe.Drawing on hundreds of eye-witness accounts and personal stories, this sweeping book examines the seven months (in Europe) and four months (in Asia) that followed the surrender of the Axis powers, from the fate of Holocaust survivors liberated from the concentration camps, and the formation of the state of Israel, to the incipient civil war in China, and the allied occupation of Japan. It was a time when terrible revenge was taken on collaborators and their former masters; of ubiquitous black markets, war crime tribunals; and the servicing of millions of occupation troops, former foes in some places, liberators in others. But Year Zero is not just a story of vengeance. It was also a new beginning, of democratic restorations in Japan and West Germany, of social democracy in Britain and of a new world order under the United Nations. If construction follows destruction, Year Zero describes that extraordinary moment in between, when people faced the wreckage, full of despair, as well as great hope. An old world had been destroyed; a new one was yet to be built.Trade ReviewBuruma's book is a study of the mess that the world was in 1945, a mess we choose largely not to remember. It is also a brief but valuable study of how that mess began to be cleaned up. It gives us, too, simple lessons, both touching and terrifying, about how human beings are and can be... Excellent and lucid -- David Aaronovitch * The Times *A superbly written chronicle of the conflict's bittersweet aftermath -- Ian Thomson * Observer *Sweeping... [The] book's most substantial merit is its grasp of the moral, social, and political confusions that pervaded every nation following the war... Buruma conveys a powerful sense of the horror and chaos of 1945 -- Max Hastings * Foreign Affairs *A graphic account - well-researched, splendidly constructed and stylishly written - of the hinge year of the twentieth century, of its horrors, hopes, illusions and roots of troubles to come. Altogether compelling - a fine achievement. -- Ian KershawMoving and excellent -- Neal Ascherson * Guardian *Brilliant... Year Zero is a major acheivement, a book of many parts, which commemorates a generation, as they stood on the brink of an unknown future -- Joanna Kavenna * Spectator *Ian Buruma's elegant and humane new book illuminates one of the most important modernhistorical moments... As generations with few memories of the second world war come of age in Europe and Asia, this luminous book will remind them of the importance of what Buruma terms "mental surgeons", the politicians and warriors who reconstructed two continents left in rubble. -- Rana Mitter * Financial Times *Ian Buruma's wonderful book is about a time, immediately after the end of the war, which has somehow fallen between the cracks of history, and which the author has now devastatingly brought to light... A compelling and astounding addition to the literature of the war -- Christopher Hudson * Daily Mail *Buruma excels as a social historian of the aftermath of the war... It is hard to overstate Buruma's accomplishment in crafting the first truly worldwide account of perceptions and experiences in the pivotal years after the guns had fallen silent... Outstanding -- Samuel Moyn * Prospect *Ian Buruma's lively new history, Year Zero, is about the various ways in which the aftermath of the Good War turned out badly for many people, and splendidly for some who didn't deserve it. It is enriched by his knowledge of six languages, a sense of personal connection to the era and his understanding of this period -- Adam Hochschild * New York Times *It is well written and researched, full of little-known facts and incisive political analysis. What makes it unique among hundreds of other works written about this period is that it gives an overview of the effects of the war and liberation, not only in Europe, but also in Asia. -- Charles Simic * New York Review of Books *Year Zero - 1945 - is the founding moment of the modern era. Ian Buruma's history of that moment is vivid, compassionate and compelling. -- Michael IgnatieffA brilliant recreation of that decisive year of victory and defeat, chaos and humiliation, concentrating on peoples, not states... In the face of so much horror, it is an astounding effort at deep comprehension. A superb book, splendidly written. -- Fritz SternIan Buruma gives a heart-wrenching account of the horrors, the unimaginable cruelties, and the sheer stupidities of the last months of World War II, and the attempts to deal with them in the first months of peace. -- Brian UrquhartYear Zero is a searing indictment of war, yet not about the Second World War itself but about its aftermath, the trauma, the revenge, the regrets, the desire to forget, the need to remember... This is Ian Buruma at his best. -- Donald SassoonBuruma is an admirably thoughtful writer -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *Intelligent, fresh and compelling -- Nicholas Shakespeare * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisA visual history of tea towel design, from the 1950s to today. Both practical and beautiful, the tea towel has over the last century established itself firmly as an essential piece of domestic design. This lavishly illustrated book explores 100 of the best tea towel designs from the 1950s to today. Featured are tea towels from well-known textile designers such as Lucienne Day, Emma Bridgewater, Pat Albeck, Cath Kidston, Orla Kiely and Angela Harding, as well as collectable tea towels from key retail stores such as Heal's and Selfridges. Together they showcase a rich visual history of textiles and homeware design of the last century. With full-page images and close-up details, The Art of The Tea Towel will appeal to those interested in both textile design and homeware.

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Book SynopsisThe story of the building of an iconic mid-century housing estate, that is often seen as the model for housing architecture. Fully illustrated with commissioned photography of the interiors and exteriors, archive images and newly commissioned writing by leading architectural historians, plus interviews with people on the estate to capture their story. Following World War II, the population in the City of London plummeted, and with a duty to provide housing for those working in the area – such as nurses, policemen and doctors – the City Corporation commissioned architect Geoffry Powell in 1952 to design the Golden Lane Estate. Powell invited Christoph Bon and Jo Chamberlin to join him in developing a detailed design for the Estate. They would later become Chamberlin, Powell & Bon, working on world-renowned projects such as the Barbican Estate and the University of Leeds. Golden Lane Estate, now Grade II and Grade II* listed is often cited as being a model estate. With its high level of detailing, use of materials, colour, its humane scale, thoughtfulness of space, light, communal spaces, leisure facilities and integrated shops, it is exemplary, particularly for social housing. It was deemed as a success from the off and remains popular today, with many original tenants and/or their families still choosing to live there. What sets the estate apart is the sense of community and neighbourliness which is promoted by the architecture and design. Trade Review‘A rich combination of architectural and social history, tracing the rise and fall and rise of the estate’s fortunes’ * Wallpaper Feature *‘A rich combination of architectural and social history, tracing the rise and fall and rise of the estate’s fortunes’ * Wallpaper* *

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Book SynopsisLighthouses have been used as aids to maritime navigation for centuries. They are highly recognisable and beloved features of our coastline and waterways, treasured by communities and captivating visitors. But how many are there and is it really possible to visit them all? The British Lighthouse Trail is the only book of its kind to provide a comprehensive listing of all lighthouses in Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and Channel Islands accompanied by practical advice on how to reach them. The author, an avid pharologist, set off on a quest in 2012 to visit all lighthouses around the British coastline only to find that there were many more lighthouses to be discovered. This comprehensive book is the result of further extensive research and significant travel. Over 600 lighthouses are featured - from the perilous beauty of Shetland's Muckle Flugga Lighthouse to the elegant serenity of Jersey's Corbiere Lighthouse. Complete with helpful maps highlighting the location of every lighthouse in each region and colour photography of a broad selection of our nation's most weird and wonderful aids to navigation throughout, this book is an indispensable guide to visiting and seeing some of our nation's most majestic, historical and isolated buildings. Each listing features a description of the structure, its light characteristic as well as any notable designers. Access information offers the best ways to reach or see each lighthouse, and whether it is possible to explore inside the tower. Nearby or related places of interest, such as other notable aids to navigation and relocated lighthouse optics, are also included. Experience the secluded joy of visiting tidal islands, watch waves lapping against some of the most remote rock structures, and feel the magic of walking in the footsteps of the lighthouse keepers inside the towers. This book will guide you on countless journeys never to be forgotten.Trade Review`...is a very useful and comprehensive guide for planning visits to lighthouses in the UK. Looking through the book I was amazed at how many lighthouses I had missed in previous visits to regions in the UK. I shall certainly be buying the book for my next trip!' LAMP------------------'...will in future be accompanying us on all our travels ...the book comes as a sturdy paperback that feels like it will survive hard handling and exposure to the elements and the end result really is a great book about lighthouses'. Undiscovered Scotland------------------'...Truly, a monumental work in its own right. ...A real treat for the serious lighthouse "bagger"...this important addition to the world of pharology!' Bellrock.org-------------------'...a thoroughly-researched reference book, detailing virtually everything you'd ever want to know about a particular lighthouse. The attention to detail is among its main selling points. From each lighthouse's general appearance and accessibility to best vantage points for viewing and interesting facts about their unique light patterns, this book is a must for lighthouse aficionados...this is a delightful book for avid lighthouse enthusiasts and anyone who wants to discover a little bit more about these important structures watching over our oceans and seas'. Travellowdown.com-------------------'...Walkers keen on maritime history may be interested in The British Lighthouse Trail, a guide to all the lighthouses in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and The Channel Islands'. Strider Magazine------------------'...is detailed and informative with photos of each light....It is an incredible piece of research which has been thoroughly studied and laid out to make it accessible for the reader...would make a great coffee table addition for any Shetland home'. Shetland Life------------------'...this very handy guide for existing and aspiring pharologists provides vital visiting details for no fewer than 612 lighthouses...conveys the incredible variety of lighthouses in British waters...and the frequently beautiful locations in which they are sited...delivers an infectious appreciation of these often stunning structures'. Nautilus International

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Book SynopsisA garden at the foot of Europe and a crossroads between Spain, Africa and the New World, Andaluca has been a cultural customs house on the border of the Mediterranean and Atlantic civilisations for more than ten thousand years. This book traces its origins from the earliest hominid settlers in the Granada mountains 1.8 million years ago, through successive Phoenician, Greek, Roman and Muslim cultures, and the past five hundred years of modern Castilian rule, up to and including the present day of post-modern novelists in Crdoba and Sevilla, guerrilla urban archaeologists in Torremolinos and Marbella, and underground lo-fi bands in Granada and Mlaga.Trade Review'A cultured and riveting read, with a simmering sense of adventure.' --Irish Times

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Book SynopsisOne of the greatest cities of the Himalaya, Kathmandu, Nepal, is a unique blend of thousand-year-old cultural practices and accelerated urban development. In this book, Thomas Bell recounts his experiences from his many years in the city--exploring in the process the rich history of Kathmandu and its many instances of self-reinvention. Closed to the outside world until 1951 and trapped in a medieval time warp, Kathmandu is, as Bell argues, a jewel of the art world, a carnival of sexual license, a hotbed of communist revolution, a paradigm of failed democracy, a case study in bungled western intervention, and an environmental catastrophe. In important ways, Kathmandu's rapid modernization can be seen as an extreme version of what is happening in other traditional societies. Bell also discusses the ramifications of the recent Nepal earthquake. A comprehensive look at a top global destination, Kathmandu is an entertaining and accessible chronicle for anyone eager to learn more about this fascinating city.Trade Review-A wonderful literary journey through the streets and history of Kathmandu.---Sir Ranulph Fiennes

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Book SynopsisSo you''re expecting a baby - congratulations! Now comes one of the most enjoyable, yet difficult, decisions you''ll have to make as new parents: choosing a name for your baby. We guide you through what you need to consider when making this important decision, as well as a generous helping of funny and unfortunate real names, so you know what NOT to name your baby. If your surname is WHITE don''t call your child ISLA; Check that your baby''s initials don''t spell GBH or RAT; What are the top 10 boys and girls names? With over 10,000 names, their origin and meaning, we''ll provide the inspiration and advice you need to make a choice you and your baby are happy with for life.

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Book SynopsisForeword by Michael Sadgrove, Dean of Durham Cathedral 2003â??2015â??Generations of painters have sought new pictorial songs to sing in depicting Durham and its great Cathedral. I was no different in this respect, until I became aware of the infinite variations endowed upon these historic structures by the ever-changing world they inhabit. This book contains some of my songs, but there are many more yet to sing.â? â?? Stuart FisherAward-winning artist Stuart Fisher is considered to be one of the most talented painters of architectural landscapes in Northern England. Mostly Durham contains 75 of his beautiful watercolour paintings and drawings from around the historic city of Durham and beyond. About the AuthorStuart Fisher was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire in 1954 and grew up in Peterlee, County Durham, where he showed a prodigious artistic talent at an early age. A career in architecture spanning almost 34 years, routinely interrupting a love of painting, culminated in 2006 with his multi-award-winning design for the Science Learning Centre North East.Stuart turned professional in 2010 and has regularly exhibited throughout the region, including several solo exhibitions in Durham Cathedral. Stuart was a shortlisted finalist in the prestigious Sunday Times Watercolour Competition in 2013.

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Book SynopsisA Passion for Fashion provides an amusing look at some of the clothes, underclothes, shoes and accessories worn by many of the more colourful characters in Blenheim Palace’s 300-year history, as well as a cautionary look at the role that arsenic, lead, mercury and mousetraps played in the fashions of the day. Adult and children’s fashions from the 18th and 19th centuries are examined, as well as contemporary style from renowned designers including Christina Stambolian, Stephen Jones, Christian Louboutin and most recently of all, Dolce & Gabbana. Blenheim Palace’s on-going relationship with the House of Dior, is celebrated with a look at the early catwalk shows of the 1950s, and the launch of Dior’s Cruise collection, which took place at Blenheim in May 2016. The Palace is renowned for many things, but one of its leading claims to fame is that it is the birth place of a certain Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill – twice prime minister of Great Britain and accomplished writer, artist, sometime bricklayer and arguably, in fashion terms, the inventor of the ubiquitous and ever popular ‘Onesie’! A Passion for Fashion brings 300 years of Blenheim style to life.Trade Review‘The ultimate visual treat for lovers of vintage fashion’ The Lady

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Book SynopsisTowards the end of 1974, a stranger arrived in the small town of Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. He could often be found sitting at the bar in the Napier Tavern, drinking lager and smoking Gauloises while flicking through the pages of the Kent Evening Post. "Charles" was the name he offered to his new acquaintances. But this unexpected immigrant was actually Uwe Johnson, originally from the Baltic province of Mecklenburg in the GDR, and already famous as the leading author of a divided Germany. What caused him to abandon West Berlin and spend the last nine years of his life in Sheerness, where he eventually completed his great New York novel Anniversaries in a house overlooking the outer reaches of the Thames Estuary? And what did he mean by detecting a “moral utopia” in a town that others, including his concerned friends, saw only as a busted slum on an island abandoned to “deindustrialisation” and a stranded Liberty ship full of unexploded bombs? Patrick Wright, who himself abandoned north Kent for Canada a few months before Johnson arrived, returns to the “island that is all the world” to uncover the story of the East German author’s English decade, and to understand why his closely observed Kentish writings continue to speak with such clairvoyance in the age of Brexit. Guided in his encounters and researches by clues left by Johnson in his own “island stories”, the book is set in the 1970s, when North Sea oil and joining the European Economic Community seemed the last hope for bankrupt Britain. It opens out to provide an alternative version of modern British history: a history for the present, told through the rich and haunted landscapes of an often spurned downriver mudbank, with a brilliant German answer to Robinson Crusoe as its primary witness.Trade Review"A monumental sifting and arranging of local particulars, stitched against the savage farce of a great European novelist’s elective exile... Patrick Wright has picked over the landfill of a very specific Estuary culture to devastating effect.""A double 'biography' of the great but always tempestuous German writer Uwe Johnson and his ultimate home, the gritty and disreputable Isle of Sheppey. 'Biography' is in quotes because Wright is a saboteur of genres and his books encompass multiple worlds. I stand in awe of what he has accomplished here.""A masterful modernist history, and Patrick Wright’s most important book, bringing Europe to England by showing it has always been here, at a moment when too many want to believe something else.""An extraordinary, haunting book... a phenomenal achievement.""An astonishing chronicle of the great German author Uwe Johnson, who moved to Sheerness, Kent, in the 70s.”“To repeat: this tidal book, reaching into everything and then withdrawing to show what is left behind, is a triumph."“A huge achievement: a comprehensive portrait of a place and a person, and the best book about Brexit that’s yet been written.""A model portrait of person and place, a kind of cultural and literary geography that never fails to fascinate.""A glorious rabbit hole of a book ... a longue durée portrait, from the 17th century to Thatcher, of a single location on the edges of British national life."“Wright plays both the anatomist and the elegist for the blighted modernity of seemingly forsaken spots such as Sheppey … a fragmentary panorama of traumatic, half-remembered history, personal and national.”“Thorough, discerning, compassionate.”"The most involving and originally-conceived social history of modern England to have appeared in decades." "A hymn to estuarial peculiarity and a lament for an awkward man determined never to find his place." "I was entirely captivated by this microscopic, discursive study of Uwe Johnson... a great book about the relationship between Britain and the rest of Europe, and not a page too long."

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Book SynopsisFrom Battle of Britain fighter station to commercial airport, this is the inspiring story of Biggin Hill. Biggin Hill, world-famous as a Battle of Britain fighter station, has had many lives. First used as an airfield in 1917, Biggin Hill saw brutal action in both World Wars, never losing a day’s operations despite devastating enemy attacks. Since 1959 two dynamic figures have kept this historic airfield open against the odds: fighter ace Jock Maitland, creator of the renowned Biggin Hill International Air Fair, and army pilot Andrew Walters, who has turned it into London’s No 1 business airport, with a thriving aviation community that includes air charter companies, engineering firms, flying schools, storage and restoration, and major Formula 1 and Bombardier operations. Meanwhile a new Museum and St George’s Memorial Chapel keep memories of its days as a Royal Force Station alive. The first full history of this great airfield, Nine Lives looks behind the scenes of a busy modern airport, digs deep into its dramatic past, and tells an inspiring tale of enterprise, innovation, teamwork and determination.

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Book SynopsisSeventy years since the radical music of the 1960s first hit the airwaves, the anthems of the era continue to resonate with our current times. Through studying these musicians and the political contexts in which their pioneering songs were birthed; amidst paranoia, psychedelic delusions, desire and civil unrest; Aaron Leonard’s Whole World in an Uproar is an important new critical history of countercultural music from the Summer of Love to the unwelcome arrival of Bob Dylan.Trade Review"What happened when HUAC, the FBI, Jim Crow, corporate media outlets, drug warriors, the religious right, and even the Old Left tried to stop a freight train? Drawing on a broad range of sources, including FBI files, Whole World in an Uproar recounts that momentous story.""Aaron Leonard integrates an amazing amount of research into a story that ranges from FBI surveillance of the Old Left to the rock scene to the social dissension around the anti-Vietnam War and Black liberation movements. A well-thought through, fascinating documentary about movements and people who were affected by oppressive societal actions.""A fascinating counter-history of the 1960s music revolution through the eyes of the persecutors, paranoiacs and culture warriors who tried to stop it."

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Book SynopsisHuman civilisation was not just created by humans: we had the help of many creatures, and foremost among these were sheep. From Argentina to Australia and from Mesopotamia to Mongolia, just about every country with hills and meadows has adopted and then developed sheep farming as a way of living. And in Wales in particular, sheep played a central role in shaping landscape and culture. Sheeplands outlines the journeys taken by some of these sheep as they voyaged across the world, both by themselves and with human shepherds, from the earliest human settlements to the present day. Along the way, Alan Marshall paints vivid portraits of the roles sheep have played in the development of the modern world, in times of peace and war, and describes how our sheeplands might continue to influence Wales and the wider world in future years.

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Book SynopsisJack Roberts' research calls 'bollocks' on the staid academic view of Sheela-na-gigs.

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Book SynopsisSince the dawn of humanity, women have changed the world as leaders, warriors, athletes, innovators, reformers, advocates, activists, and scholars. They have ruled empires, traversed the skies, fronted political and social movements, produced prolific literature, art, and music, and pioneered ground-breaking inventions and discoveries. This wonderfully illustrated full-color hardback explores the history of women through many different cultural systems and historical eras - from First Nation women resisting gender-based violence to queer feminism - shining a light on the influential role that women have played in challenging and resisting gender stereotypes and inequalities through creative strategies. Julia Morris tells how the story of women''s history, identity, and influence is a record of dynamism, brilliant creativity, and determination where women of all backgrounds have dreamt big and broken barriers. Featuring figures such as Cleopatra, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Katherine Johnson, Mary Wollstonecraft, Toni Morrison, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and many more, this book explores the triumphs and challenges evident in the amazing achievements and legacies of these heroes past and present provides the foundations for the modern heroes of today. Illustrated with hundreds of fascinating contemporary artworks, illustrations and photographs, this reference guide is an inspiring study of women across history and their battle for equality.

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Book SynopsisAmong the many Americans who fought to liberate Europe in 1944, some arrived on the battlefield with no combat experience while others were already veterans of the North African and Italian campaigns. This book traces the career of fifty soldiers, who, during the conflict held a variety of positions: shock troops, bomber pilot, quartermaster aboard a destroyer or chaplain in a motorized cavalry unit. Several nurses and a telephone operator are included and demonstrate the commitment of the female staff. A short genealogical study precedes each story, allowing the reader to discover the origins and family background of each personnel. A study of official records as well as archival documents kept by the soldier helps trace his military career from draft to theater. The author offers additional perspective through historical newspapers and walking units, providing valuable information on the progress of the fighting that would lead to victory and homecoming for the luckiest. At a time when many veterans of World War II are quickly diminishing, it is important to treasure these moving testimonies of a painful past.

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Book SynopsisAccording to the United Nations, Myanmar's Rohingyas are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Only now has the media turned its attention to their plight at the hands of a country led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Yet the signs of this genocide have been visible for years. For generations, this Muslim group has suffered routine discrimination, violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, extortion, and other abuses by the Buddhist majority. As horrifying massacres have unfolded in 2017, international human rights groups have accused the regime of complicity in an ethnic cleansing campaign against them. Authorities refuse to recognise the Rohingyas as one of Myanmar's 135 'national races', denying them citizenship rights in the country of their birth and severely restricting many aspects of ordinary life, from marriage to free movement. In this updated edition, Azeem Ibrahim chronicles the events leading up to the current, final cleansing of the Rohingya population, and issues a clarion call to protect a vulnerable, little known Muslim minority. He makes a powerful appeal to use the lessons of the twentieth century to stop this genocide in the twenty-first.Trade Review`The persecution of Rohingyas rests on a belief that they are outsiders ... Ibrahim debunks these claims in his essential new book, claiming that Rohingyas were in Arakan well before 1784, and may even have arrived there before the Buddhist Rakhine. Ibrahim offers a credible genealogy that links Rohingyas to Indo-Aryan groups who arrived from the Ganges Valley as early as 3000 BC.' * London Review of Books * `Ibrahim dwells on the history of the Rohingya in order to give an account of how and why they have come to arouse such fear and loathing. ... [his] analysis is excellent.' * Literary Review *

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Book SynopsisThis book interrogates white responses to black-led movements for racial justice. It is a philosophical self-reflection on the ways in which ‘white’ reactions to Black Lives Matter stand in the way of the movement’s important work. It probes reactions which often prevent white people from according to black activists the full range of human emotion and expression, including joy, anger, mourning, and political action. Johanna C. Luttrell encourages different conceptions of empathy and impartiality specific to social movements for racial justice, and addresses objections to identity politics.Table of ContentsChapter 1: Getting my People 1.1 Whiteness and Self-Reflection 1.2 “We” White People: On the Possibility of Collective Identity 1.3 The Hate that we see Might be our Own: Distinguishing Black Anger from White Hate Chapter 2: Empathy and Racial Justice: Redefining Impartiality in Response to Social Movements 2.1 White Empathy and Black Lives Matter 2.2 Perspectives Against ‘Just Empathy’ 2.3 Managing Empathy Through Colorblindness 2.4 Empathy and Racial Justice: A Different Idea of Impartiality Chapter 3: How White People Refuse to Understand Black Mourning 3.1 White Responses to Black-led Political Mourning 3.2 Conservative Responses to Black Mourning: Militarization, Gas-lighting, Tone-policing 3.3 Liberal Responses to Black Mourning: Voyeurism and Appropriation 3.4 Recognizing Agency, Giving up the Idealized Victim 3.5 Mourning’s Potential: Undoing the Political Order in Antigone and the Book of Jeremiah Chapter 4: Respecting Black Lives Matter as Arendtian Political Action 4.1 How Political Action is Different from Scientific Inquiry 4.2 Political Action as Unprecedented 4.3 Political Action as Revelatory 4.4 Political Action as Knowledge-Creating 4.5 Arendt’s Failure to Respect Black-Led Social Movements as Political Action Chapter 5: Conclusion 5.1 Interrogating Allyship 5.2 Answering Objections to Identity Politics 5.3 White Feminism and Allyship 5.4 A Positive Prescription for Empathy?

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Book SynopsisThis book promotes a historically and culturally sensitive understanding of trauma during and after World War II. Focusing especially on Eastern and Central Europe, its contributors take a fresh look at the experiences of violence and loss in 1939–45 and their long-term effects in different cultures and societies. The chapters analyze traumatic experiences among soldiers and civilians alike and expand the study of traumatic violence beyond psychiatric discourses and treatments. While acknowledging the problems of applying a present-day medical concept to the past, this book makes a case for a cultural, social and historical study of trauma. Moving the focus of historical trauma studies from World War I to World War II and from Western Europe to the east, it breaks new ground and helps to explain the troublesome politics of memory and trauma in post-1945 Europe all the way to the present day. This book is an outcome of a workshop project ‘Historical Trauma Studies,’ funded by the Joint Committee for the Nordic Research Councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS) in 2018–20.Chapters 4, 5 and 6 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.Table of ContentsPart I Comparative Approaches1 The Limits of Trauma: Experience and Narrative in Europe c. 1945 2 Beyond the Western Front Part II Case Studies 3 Testing the Silence: Trauma and Military Psychiatry in Soviet Russia and Ukraine During and After World War II 4 Experiencing Trauma Before Trauma: Posttraumatic Memories, Nightmares and Flashbacks Among Finnish Soldiers 5 Entangled Bystanders: Multidimensional Trauma of Ethnic Cleansing and Mass Violence in Eastern Galicia 6 Traumatized Children in Hungary After World War II 7 “We will cry a little, but then we will forget”: Narratives of Loss and Victory in Postwar Yugoslavia 8 Guilt, Responsibility and Trauma: Restoring the Moral Self-Image in Postwar Slovakia 9 “Perpetrator Trauma” in Memoirs of Veterans of the Polish Home Army 10 Environmental Trauma in the Narratives of Postwar Reconstruction: The Loss of Place and Identity in Northern Finland After World War II 11 Suicide Rates as a “Social Thermometer”: Reading the Traumatized History of Lithuania Part III Coda 12 Towards a History of Trauma in Central and Eastern Europe After World War II: A Coda

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Book SynopsisThis book is designed to help instructors effectively incorporate images and other aspects of material culture into their pedagogy in an engaging and relatable manner. The author draws on her personal experiences as an art historian of ancient art who instructs a wide variety of undergraduates. In addition to helping students to look and think critically, the book explores how the material culture of the past can be a potent tool in motivating student involvement with course content and sharpening skills vital for navigating contemporary culture.Table of Contents1 Introduction.2 Taking the Time to Look, Learning the Skills to See.3 The Past Is the New Present.4 New Approaches for Old Material.5 Letting Students Shape the Future.6 Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisDuring the occupation of France in WWII the villages around Le Chambon-sur-Lignon pulled off an astonishing and largely unknown feat. Risking everything, they underwent a long-running battle of nerves and daring to hide 5,000 men, women and children, 3,500 of them Jews, from the Nazis and their Vichy stooges. Despite the danger, a whole community rallied together, from the pacifist pastor who defied orders to the glamorous female agent with a wooden leg, from the 18-year-old master forger to the schoolgirl who ran suitcases stuffed with money for the Resistance.Told using first-hand testimonies of many of the survivors and face-to-face interviews conducted by the author, A Good Place to Hide is the thrilling story of ordinary people who thwarted the Nazis and sheltered strangers in desperate need.Trade ReviewA story resonant in our days, the age of refugees, and a grand narrative in its own right, all told with absorbing skill. Peter Grose's tale of the astounding rescue village of Chambon is a tale of the practical deliverance of the hunted from the Nazis. A book to cherish and recommend! -- Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's ArkIncredibly moving... Ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the most extraordinary circumstances. A book full of love for the region. Grose underlines underlines the role played by the brilliant forger, Oscar Rosowsky. A reminder of the best that humans are capable of, but also an inspiration. * Times Literary Supplement *Peter Grose's book stands out as a complete story about life on the Plateau during World War II. Peter uses only facts to tell us a true story. He is one of those rare raconteurs who can write a history book that reads like a novel. -- Nelly Trocmé, eyewitness and daughter of André and Magda TrocméA fine book and a captivating and heartening story. * Scotsman *Grose has written …ambitious book that covers, among other things, the history of French Protestantism and the policy of the Vichy government, It is, however, the individual stories that stand out. Some striking characters cross their pages. Albert Camus came to the plateau, hoping that the air would be good for his tuberculosis, and wrote the first draft of La Peste there. Virginia Hall, an American adventuress so hard-bitten that she would have made Ernest Hemingway look like Marcel Proust, was sent to contact the local Maquis. She received packets of tea with parachute drops of weapons and refused to accept that having a wooden leg and an atrocious accent might make her an unsuitable guerrilla leader. Above all, this book depicts the mosaic of little tragedies behind the collective tragedy of death and deportation. * Evening Standard *Extraordinary. * Daily Mirror *Fabulous. A page-turning account, told with the full cooperation of many of the survivors. Meticulous and dogged research. Compelling. -- Caroline Sanderson * The Bookseller, 'Ones to Watch' *Well written in a pleasant style and easy to read... A fascinating and inspiring story. * The Association of Jewish Refugees Journal *A compelling story of wartime bravery and the plight of refugees. * France *

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Book SynopsisBerlin has survived two world wars, was divided by a wall during the Cold War, and after the fall of the wall was reunited. The city emerged as a center of European power and culture. From 1860 to the present day, this book is the most comprehensive photographic study of this extraordinary city, dense with spirit as much as with history. Some 560 pages gather aerial views, street scenes, portraits, and more to trace Berlin history from the Imperial Era as capital of Prussia through the Roaring Twenties to devastating images of war to heartwarming postwar photos of a city picking up the pieces—the Reichstag in ruins and later wrapped by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Among the photographs are works by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helmut Newton, René Burri, Robert Capa, Thomas Struth, and Wolfgang Tillmans in addition to well-known Berlin photo-chroniclers such as Friedrich Seidenstücker, Erich Salomon, Willy Römer, and Heinrich Zille (an index of photographers’ biographies is also included). The images are accompanied by quotes from Berliners and Berlin connoisseurs such as Vladimir Nabokov, Alfred Döblin, Herwarth Walden, Marlene Dietrich, Billy Wilder, John F. Kennedy, Willy Brandt, Helmut Newton, Sir Simon Rattle, and David Bowie. More than a tribute to the city and its civic, social, and photographic history, this book pays homage to Berlin’s inhabitants: full of hope and strength, in their faces is reflected Berlin’s undying soul.Trade Review“This volume of photographs takes the reader on a journey through 150 years of German history, with all its turbulences … garnished with brilliant essays and quotations and a superb layout that does not detract from the photographs.” * Der Spiegel *“An illustrated history of Berlin. The magnificence of the German capital and its turbulent story is told through images from many international photographers… If you are interested in the history of Berlin and world-class photography, this book will be a great addition to the book-shelf.” * Amateur Photographer *

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Book SynopsisInterest in local history just continues to grow. For the professional and amateur alike, in the context of the local experience the past becomes real and immediate, as the stories of individuals, families and communities emerge from our research. And now more than ever, a wealth of primary and secondary source material is within everyone's reach. This invaluable book, written by one of our most eminent and experienced local historians, and now completely updated, provides clear, wise and always practical advice about the process of research and writing. It gives essential guidance on a wide range of key topics, including finding sources; transcribing, analysing and interpreting evidence; writing; historical perspectives and methods; and ways to present and publish the finished product. Using examples and exercises the author guides the reader through the whole process. Written with humour and understanding, and attractively illustrated, this book is an enjoyable and fascinating introduction to the subject, especially useful to those who enjoy local history but wish to write and possibly publish, and to students on local history courses who want authoritative guidance on the preparation of dissertations and theses.Table of ContentsIllustrations vi Abbreviations vii Glossary ix Preface xiii 1. Choosing a subject: theme, place and time 1 2. The search for sources 35 3. Transcribing 53 4. Analysing and assembling evidence 67 5. Creating an interpretation 79 6. The challenge of writing 85 7. Starting to write 93 8. Producing a final draft 111 9. Publishing 125 10. Recapitulation 137 11. Conclusions: the nature of local history 139 12. Further reading 169 Appendices 1. Published sources 175 2. Transcribing documents 182 3. Historical dating 185 4. Choosing words and framing sentences 186 5. Characteristics of historical language 188 6. Basic rules for referencing 190 7. Extracts of written history 199 Index 206

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