History Books
Boydell and Brewer The Experimental Sutton Hoo Ship Context and Design
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£22.49
University of Wales Press The Governance of St Davids 16001750
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£23.74
Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers Religious Change Conflict Persecution Henry VIII 1520 to William III 1702
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£6.99
Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers Morning
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£13.49
The Historic Towns Trust An Historical Map of Beverley: Medieval, Georgian
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£9.49
The Historic Towns Trust An Historical Map of Swansea & Mumbles: medieval
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£10.44
The Historic Towns Trust An Historical Map of Cambridge: University and
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£10.44
The Historic Towns Trust An Historical Map of Bath
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£10.79
The Historic Towns Trust An Historical Map of Chester
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£10.79
EnvelopeBooks A Sin of Omission
Book SynopsisWinner of The Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards. Shortlisted for the Walter Scott PrizeTorn from his parents and tribe as a boy in the 1870s, Stephen Mzamane is picked by the Anglican church to train at the Missionary College in Canterbury to be a rural preacher in Southern Africa’s Cape Colony.He is a brilliant success but troubles stalk him: his unresolved relationship with his family and people, the condescension of church leaders towards their own native pastors, and That Woman—seen once in a photograph and never forgotten.And now he has to find his mother and take her a message that will break her heart.In this raw and compelling story, Marguerite Poland employs her considerable experience as a writer and specialist in South African languages to recreate the polarised, duplicitous world of Victorian colonialism and its betrayal of the very people it claimed to be enlightening.Trade ReviewThe Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, 2020: It's a rare book that punishes the sins of the past with beauty, but Marguerite Poland knows the power of doing just that. Quietly, implacably, in writing that cuts to the heart of the matter, she draws us into the life of Stephen Mzamane, a young South African trained for Christian missionary work, eager to serve both God and his own people but hampered by conflicted loyalties and the entrenched prejudices of both society and the Anglican Church. Set in the late nineteenth century, the bells of Canterbury and the bells of Africa ring out a story of what was, what might have been, and what in some places, shamefully, still is. An important story, then, and a difficult one, but in the hands of Marguerite Poland, a story luminously told. +++++ The Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards, South Africa, 2021 Book of the Year: A wrenching, deeply felt story about Stephen Malusi Mzamane, a young Anglican priest, trained in England but now marooned in a rundown mission in Fort Beaufort ... battling the prejudices of colonial society, and the church itself. +++++ John Mbangyeno, Africa Now: An emotional rollercoaster-the astonishing love story of a man for a church, an ideal and a woman. Heart-wrenching. +++++ Reverend Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town: Marguerite Poland, as always, is able to use words to paint reality. She has written an incredibly moving and compassionate yet piercing historical account which both demands apologies for the sins of the past yet is also redemptive. +++++ Dr Sindiwe Magona, writer: I love the book and admire its courage, to say nothing of its skilfulness. The subject is painful. Reading the manuscript, I was driven to tears more times than I care to remember. I couldn't stop thinking: if this is what priests thought, why do we wonder Apartheid happened? It is horrifying but also humbling to see how, with the best intentions, we err and betray the very values we preach. Marguerite Poland is to be commended for writing such a revelatory account of societal attitudes. The book is fiction but is based on church history and bigotry parading as decency. This is a painful and humbling reminder that none of us is above erroneous judgment. +++++ Mark Gevisser, novelist and critic: "Poland is a worthy descendant of Olive Schreiner in her heritage and passions.
£999.99
EnvelopeBooks Postmark Africa: Half a Century as a Foreign
Book SynopsisThe intelligence and passion that brought independence to colonial countries in Eastern and Southern Africa was greeted with enthusiasm by many progressive Whites. Michael Holman was one of them. A Rhodesian student activist whose support for black independence frightened his own minority white government, he was inspired by the black unionists and political leaders he interviewed, and whose message he took to Western readers, notably through the London Financial Times. But as the years passed, their early ideals became increasingly corrupted, internally and by what Holman still sees as the misguided policies of outside donors. Now brought together into a single volume, Holman’s 50 years of reporting vividly conveys the hopes and disappointments of the post-colonial era.Trade ReviewAlexander McCall Smith: "If you want to see what a good man in Africa has done, read this book. It contains profound observations of real and lasting significance on virtually every page ..."; Malcolm Rifkind: "This book should be read by anyone who not only wants to know the history of central and southern Africa but to understand its people, black and white. They are a fine people and in Michael they have had an honest, articulate and worthy champion, as rigorous, objective and professional in this book as he was in his journalism as Africa Correspondent for the Financial Times. He has an energy and an eloquence in recording not just what he knows or has analysed but also what he feels to be the reality of his homeland's tragic experience both under white, colonial domination and the black-led governments that followed ..."; Ed Balls: "Africa has no fiercer critic and no greater advocate than Michael Holman. Passionate, sometimes angry but also caring and often hilarious, Michael Holman once again delivers his trademark combination of beautiful prose and compelling story-telling. This book is both a delight and a tragic tale of hopes still unfulfilled ..."; John Githongo: "Throughout his career as a journalist and author, Michael has been a rebel with a clear cause. He has a seamless capacity to get under the African skin, and a ruthless insight for sniffing out what's working, even though it may not look it, and what's an utter waste of time, even though no one else will admit. He has brought this insight and unapologetic attitude in his quest for the truth to everything he has ever done, on and for Africa. All of it is informed by a deep sense of empathy for the land of his upbringing, warts and all, and a biting sense of humour ..."Table of Contents1960s Letter, Bulawayo Chronicle, 10 September 1964 1970s Apartheid, Rhodesian-style, 27 August 1971 Letter to friends in London, 11 March 1974 Dr. Sithole's success story, 16 June 1974 Mr. Smith in the black books, 23 July 1974 Daniel Madzimbamuto, 25 January 1975 Ndabaningi Sithole, 31 January 1975 Last hide-out for the Tangwena, 6 July 1975 Letter from Lusaka, 8 July 1976 Ian Smith torturers exposed, 4 September 1977 1980s In search of the missing M form, 18 June 1982 The strains begin to tell, 6 January 1983 Julius Nyerere, 1986 Medicine too harsh, 15 February 1988 Kinshasa: As time goes by, c. 1988 Namibia, 16 November 1988 Don't trust those statistics, 14 December 1989 1990s Facing up to the ethnic issue, 26 July 1990 Between reform and more decline, 13 August 1990 Step ahead, leap back, 2 November 1991 A continent at stake, September 1993 Long snakes and short ladders,15 March 1994 Who, me? A racist?, 21 January 1995 Robert Mugabe's legacy, 1995 Apartheid and the power of rugby, 20 May 1995 Patensie, Eastern Cape, June 1995 Welcome to the Hotel Milimani, c. 1995 A hotel at the peak of its decline, 14 October 1995 The sultan's band, 7 October 1996 Harry Oppenheimer, grandee, 7 November 1998 2000s Ideas of luxury, 2 October 2002 From Gwelo to Soweto, 2004 Africa's Potemkin village, 20 January 2004 Lessons from Kenya, August 2005 When a crocodile eats the sun, March 2007 Oliver Tambo, 2007 Desmond Tutu, 2007 Beyond the Malachite Hills, July 2009 2010s The last resort: A Zimbabwe memoir, May 2010 Mandela: Conversations with myself, December 2010 Band Aid, September 2011 Africa is rising, 28 February 2012 Dambisa Moyo: Dead Aid, August 2012 The last train to Zona Verde, June 2013 Blue Dahlia, Black Gold, September 2013 Mandela's magic, 6 December 2013 Mandela obituary, 7 December 2013 Funeral circus, 16th December 2013 Investors in corrupt 'new Africa', 9 April 2014 A young continent, 23 December 2014 The World Bank fails to credit, 27 January 2015 David Beresford, April 2016 What's next for Zimbabwe? 6 October 2016 The struggle continues, 13 January 2017 Can a crocodile change its spots? November 2017 Robert Mugabe: creature of colonialism, September 2017 Zimbabwe's broken dreams, 13 July 2018 Robert Mugabe obituary, 6 September 2019 Counting the geckos, May 2020 Appendices Rhodesian cabinet minutes, 1967 Exemption Board hearing, 13 January 1977
£12.34
Mark Bridgeman The River Runs Red
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£10.44
Marble Hill Publishers Facing up to Father: The pleasures and pains of a
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£10.44
Safe Haven Books 100 People You Never Knew Were at Bletchley Park
Book SynopsisThe reason for the huge commercial success of Sinclair McKay's The Secret Life of Bletchley Park was simple: for the first time it told the stories of the ordinary people (mostly women), who worked there, and what it was like. Sworn to secrecy, they never divulged their remarkable wartime service for decades. But what did they go on to achieve after the war? And what about those who did become household names, but whose Bletchley Park years remain unknown? Now Sinclair McKay tells the stories of a hundred such people, and the often equally extraordinary lives they went on to. Here are dozens of unsung heroes, who certainly made their mark after the war as well as during its finest hour: people like Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, or novelist Angus Wilson; or Jane Fawcett, a trained ballerina who went on to co-found the Victorian Society and save St Pancras Station; or James Bernard, a protege of Benjamin Britten who wrote all the music for the Dracula films; or Joan Clarke, Alan Turing's girlfriend, who became a senior codebreaker herself at GCHQ.Trade Review'Most codebreakers' families were unaware of their relatives' crucial work. This book does a great service in revealing the lives of 100 of them', Kate Green, Country Life; 'A great idea for a book', Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC Technology Correspondent and author of Always On
£13.49
Signal Books Ltd Beirut: Scarred City, Walks through Beauty and
Book SynopsisOn 4 August 2020 a massive explosion in the port area obliterated parts of Beirut and damaged many others, bringing fresh international attention to a city already recovering from civil war and weakened by economic instability. This book contributes to the rediscovery of Beirut by inviting the visitor and reader to explore a city that is unique in the region for its multicultural heritage, where antiquity jostles with Ottoman and French colonial influence as well as with striking expressions of modernity. The history of Beirut, as with so many other cities, is multi-layered; but this is exceptionally conspicuous in the cultural, denominational and economic diversity of its neighbourhoods. These are best investigated slowly and on foot, a strategy both practicable and pleasurable despite a tyrannical car culture. Between 2019 and 2021, in the aftermath of the explosion, Beatrice Teissier walked through the city’s streets and recorded her impressions as a record of Beirut’s architectural fabric and turbulent recent history. Beirut: Scarred City offers twelve itineraries in parts of west, central and east Beirut, with a foray south, which take the reader to easily accessible areas of the city. From crumbling mansions to brutalist high-rises, from seascapes to inner-city parks and cemeteries, from ancient ruins to the latest reconstruction, from graffiti to international street art and contemporary art galleries, each area tells its story. The present crisis is not avoided, and the author discusses Lebanon’s economic crisis, the political problems that have beset the city since the civil war and the controversies surrounding reconstruction. References to contemporary Arab literature on Beirut and, more personally, private insights and conversations give voice to the spirit of the city and to the resilience and creativity of its citizens.
£11.69
The Dovecote Press Lost Dorset: The Towns
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£19.00
Troubador Publishing The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide
Book SynopsisA guide to places to visit, history and wildlife along the Liverpool, Wirral and Cheshire shores of the Mersey Estuary Stretching for around thirty miles to the coast, the Mersey Estuary is perhaps best known for Liverpool’s spectacular waterfront and the Mersey Ferry. But there are many hidden gems along its shores, including waterside parks, sandy beaches and poignant reminders of the days of steamships and sail. The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide provides suggestions for places to visit around the estuary from its upper reaches in Warrington to Liverpool, Wirral and the coast at New Brighton and Formby Point. Other destinations include Birkenhead, Ellesmere Port, Port Sunlight, Runcorn and Widnes. Suggested places to visit in Liverpool include the Three Graces, Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool Cathedral, the Museum of Liverpool and the Maritime Museum. In addition to the main tourist attractions, readers will discover some less well-known sights, including lighthouses, outdoor art, medieval buildings, and a transporter bridge, along with ideas for boat trips around the estuary’s docks and canals and places for a bird’s eye view of Liverpool and beyond. There are also maps and route descriptions for fifteen suggested walks and cycle routes around the estuary, ranging from a couple of hours to a full day trip. Highlights include walks in Liverpool, New Brighton, Runcorn, Warrington and Widnes and cycle rides that take in Port Sunlight, Warrington’s waterways and the Another Place statues at Crosby Beach. For those interested in a more in-depth look at the estuary, the second part of the book has chapters on maritime connections, wildlife and rivers and tides. Maritime history themes include the development of the Port of Liverpool, the Mersey ferries and modern-day shipping and navigation. Further inland, topics include efforts to create a shipping route to Warrington and Manchester starting with the Mersey and Irwell Navigation and culminating in the Manchester Ship Canal. Wirral’s maritime history is discussed too, including the development of Port Sunlight and Birkenhead Docks. River and tidal themes include an introduction to the key role that scientists from Liverpool and Bidston Observatory played in the developing the science of tidal prediction, and how the estuary has been cleaned up in recent decades so that even salmon have returned. Other wildlife topics include the many nature reserves around the estuary and the types of habitat and wildlife they shelter. There are also tips on seeing seals, red squirrels, wading birds and the Mersey’s little-known tidal bore. With stunning colour photographs, The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide is a must-read for travellers to the area and local residents alike.
£16.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Etruscan Places: Travels Through Forgotten Italy
Book SynopsisThe last of Lawrence's travel books, Etruscan Places is an ephemeral and vivid account, replete with hauntingly evocative descriptions of the way of life of this once great civilisation. The Etruscan civilisation, which flourished from the 8th until the 5th century BC in what is now Tuscany, is one of the most fascinating and mysterious in history. An uninhibited, elemental people, the Etruscans enthralled D.H. Lawrence, who craved their 'old wisdom', the secret of their vivacity and love of life. To him they represented the antithesis of everything he despised in the modern world, perhaps because their spontaneity and naturalness struck a chord with his own quest for personal and artistic freedom - so often censured or repressed. Lawrence approaches the enigmatic Etruscans as a poet, passionately and searchingly, and so the reader is swept up in his luminous descriptions of a utopian world where dancing and feasting, art and music were everything. The exhilaration of Lawrence in his Etruscan adventures stands in stark contrast to his intimations of the darkness of Mussolini's Italy - at a time when Europe was beginning its inexorable drift towards tragedy.Trade ReviewHe wrote something like three dozen books, of which even the worst page dances with life that could be mistaken for no other man’s, while the best are admitted, even by those who hate him, to be unsurpassed. * Time and Tide *He is an extraordinarily acute noticer of the world, human and natural. And it is not just the natural world that beckons Lawrence to flood it with beautiful language . . . he can be as precise and compact an observer of human interaction as Flaubert or Forster. * The Guardian *Table of ContentsForeword by Michael Squires 1. Cerveteri 2. Tarquinia 3. The Painted Tombs of Tarquinia 4. The Painted Tombs of Tarquinia 5. Vulci 6. Volterra
£14.24
Amber Books Ltd The History of Russia: From the Rus' people to
Book SynopsisFrom monarchy to the world’s first socialist state, from Communism to Capitalism, from mass poverty to Europe’s new super rich, Russia has seen immense revolutions in just the past century, including purges, poisonings, famines, assassinations and massacres. In that time, it has also endured civil war, world war and the Cold War. But the extremes of Russian history are not restricted to the past 100 years. When Napoleon invaded in 1812, the Russians retreated, slashing and burning their own country and Moscow itself, rather than conceding defeat to Napoleon. They were victorious, but at immense cost. Russia’s history is also spiked with mystery. Did Stalin shoot his wife? Who ordered the killing of Rasputin? Or the shooting of Anna Politkovskaya and the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko or the Skripals in Salisbury, England? What involvement and influence did Russian intelligence have on the 2016 US Election? In addition, it is a history of appalling disasters, such as at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, the sinking of the Kursk submarine, and the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Ranging from medieval Kievan Rus' to Vladimir Putin, The History of Russia explores the murder, brutality, genocide, insanity and skulduggery in the efforts to seize, and then maintain, power in the Slav heartland. Illustrated with 180 photographs and artworks, the book is a fascinating, lively and wide-ranging history from the Mongol invasions to the present day.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. ‘The Expanses are so Great...’: Kievan Rus 2. Life, Death and Tyranny 3. ‘I Write on Human Skin...’ 4. Time and Patience 5. Something Better? 6. Tempering the Steel 7. ‘A War of Extermination’ 8. Drowning in Falsehood 9. ‘We Will Bury You’ 10. Opening Up and Closing Down 11. The Bear is Back Bibliography Index
£16.99
Amber Books Ltd Tarot: Cards For Divination, Wisdom And Self
Book SynopsisGaining insight into our deeper selves through the use of divination tools to help decide future actions has preoccupied mankind since ancient times. In Europe, cards which became known as Tarot have been used to map the soul and predict the future since the 16th century. The 78 cards in the Tarot deck each has its own imagery, symbolism and story. This beautiful hand-bound edition showcases each card from the Rider-Waite set, the one most commonly used by Tarot readers. Practitioners believe that the 22 Major Arcana cards represent life’s karmic and spiritual lessons, and the 56 Minor Arcana cards reflect the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Tarot offers an elegantly presented, concise guide to the 78 cards, from number 0 The Fool – who represents unlimited potential, through The Hermit – who represents a break from everyday life, to number 21 The World – which indicates a sense of wholeness, completion and fulfilment.Table of ContentsIntroduction ------- The standard modern tarot deck is based on the Venetian or the Piedmontese tarot. It consists of 78 cards divided into two groups: the major arcana, which has 22 cards, also known as trumps, and the minor arcana, which has 56 cards. The Rider-Waite card set featured was first issued in 1909 and is the most commonly-used set by readers worldwide. Major Arcana cards 0 The Fool 1 The Magician 2 The High Priestess 3 The Empress 4 The Emperor 5 The Hierophant 6 The Lovers 7 The Chariot 8 Strength 9 The Hermit 10 Wheel of Fortune 11 Justice 12 The Hanged Man 13 Death 14 Temperance 15 The Devil 16 The Tower 17 The Star 18 The Moon 19 The Sun 20 Judgement 21 The World Minor Arcana cards There are four different card suits that make up the Minor Arcana: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. Every one of these suits contains 14 cards: 10 numbered cards, and four cards called "court cards" that include the Page, Knight, Queen, and King.
£23.99
Amber Books Ltd Abandoned Ireland
Book SynopsisAn ancient island with a romantic history and lush green landscape, Ireland’s culture stretches back to the time of St Patrick and the first Christian monks and includes the Norman invasion, clan wars, mass emigration and partition in the early 20th century. Today, remnants of the country’s heritage can be found in every corner of this fascinating land, from the thinly inhabited west coast to the modern, populated areas of Leinster. There are thousands of ruined castles, abbeys, churches, ancient sites, houses and mills spread around the island of Ireland. Abandoned Ireland offers you a substantial taste of the most intriguing of these. In Abandoned Ireland, discover Athassel Abbey on the banks of the River Suir and the largest medieval priory in Ireland; marvel at the imposing Carrigogunnel Castle, destroyed during the second siege of Limerick in 1691; explore Carrigglas Manor, a turreted fairytale exterior with a bloody history; see Hilden Mill, a former factory with ghostly sightings; explore the creepy, overgrown ruin of Ennis District Lunatic Asylum in County Clare; and wander the ruins of Rinn Dúin (“fortified headland”) overlooking the River Shannon, a key military and trading town fought over by Norman barons and Irish chieftains. Illustrated with 180 photographs, Abandoned Ireland provides a fascinating pictorial exploration of the little-known corners of this enchanting land.Table of ContentsContents includes: Castles and Houses: Dunamase Castle, County Laois Menlo castle Leamaneh Castle, County Clare Ballycarbery Castle, County Kerry Ballinskellig Castle - Ring of Kerry Carbury Castle, County Kildare Dunluce Castle, County Antrim Minard Castle, Dingle Bay, Kerry Castle MacGarrett, County Mayo Ballygrennan Castle, County Limerick Graystown Castle, County Tipperary Castle Otway, County Tipperary Lackeen Castle, County Tipperary Fiddaun Castle, County Galway Kinbane Castle - Northern Ireland Kincasslagh, County Donegal Castle Saunderson, Belturbet, Cavan Duckett’s Grove, Carlow Rock of Dunamase, Southwest of Dublin Carrigogunnel Castle, County Limerick Tyrone House, County Galway Rockstown Castle, County Limerick Carrigglas Manor, County Longford Cahercon House, County Clare Cairndhu House, County Antrim Transport, Industrial and Urban: Old Red Iron Bridge, Kilkenny Loughglynn Convent, County Roscommon O’Shea’s Pub – made famous by the Guinness commercial Connacht District Lunatic Asylum (Former) city mortuary at Forster Green Hospital, County Down Ennis District Lunatic Asylum / Our Lady’s Hospital, County Clare Logistics ship, River Shannon Parkmore narrow gauge station, N. Ireland Adare Railway Station Allihies Copper Mine, West Cork Victorian Coast Guard station at Fanad Head Castle Saunderson, Belturbet, Cavan Mayfield House, County Waterford Hilden Mill, County Antrim Religious Place & Islands: Kilkishen Church in County Clare Rathronan Church, County Tipperary St John’s Church, Ballymoe, Galway Lackagh Church, Kildare Derralossory Church, County Wicklow Newgrange, Ireland – Stone Age passage tomb Cahergal & Leacanabuile Ring Fort Ballinskelligs Abbey Muckross Abbey Fore Abbey Athassel Abbey, County Tipperary Hore Abbey Bective Abbey Mellifont Abbey Jerpoint Abbey Corcomroe Abbey Rinn Dúin, the old Gaelic name, means“fortified headland Islands: Bishop’s Island’s Ruins, County Clare Devenish, Northern Ireland Great Blasket Innisfallen Inishmurray Skellig Michael
£999.99
Amber Books Ltd Saints Illustrated
Book SynopsisIn Catholicism, sainthood is the highest state of holiness for any soul in Heaven. There are more than 10,000 saints that have been canonized by the Catholic Church – some were exemplary models, others extraordinary teachers, while some worked miracles or changed the lives of millions through their guidance and good works. Arranged in chronological order, the book covers all the major saints, from St Paul, the Apostle who did most to spread Christianity following the death of Christ, and established Christian communities in Asia Minor – to Pope John Paul II, famous for being a peacemaker and providing spiritual inspiration during the fall of communism. In between, this compact volume covers well-known historical figures such as Joan of Arc, who defended the honour of France in the Medieval era, the philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas, and lesser-known saints such as Zita, the 13th century patron saint of maids and domestic servants. Beautifully produced in traditional Chinese binding and with 150 illustrations and artworks of saints from every part of the world, this book will fascinate anyone interested in inspiring – and often very human – religious figures from Biblical times to the present.Table of ContentsContents:BC St. Raphael the archangel (2/3rd century BC) St Mary the Blessed Virgin (18 BC) St Joseph (1st century BC) St. Joachim (75 BC) St. Anne (49 BC) St. Gabriel, the Archangel Anna the Prophetess (1st century) St. Elizabeth (biblical – 1st century BC)1st Century AD The Holy Innocents (contemporaries of Christ) St. Mary Magdalene St Philip (1st century AD) St Bartholomew (1st century) St Matthew (1st century) St Thomas (1st century) St James the Less (1st century) St Jude (1st century) St Simon (1st century) St Matthias (1st century) St James the Great (1st century) Luke the Evangelist (1 AD-16 AD) St. John the Baptist (1st century) St. Paul (5 AD) St. Peter (30/64 AD) St. Stephen (5 AD) St. Andrew the Apostle (5 AD) St John the Apostle (6 AD) St. Mark (12 AD) St Veronica (1st Century)AD 100-400 St. Felicitas of Rome (101 AD) St. Apollonia (2nd Century) St. Michael the Archangel (2nd/3rd century) St. Valentine (3rd Century) St. Christopher (3rd Century) St. Catherine of Alexandria (4th century) St. Julian the Hospitaller (4th Century) St. Lawrence (3rd century) St. Denis of Paris (3rd Century) St. Augustine of Hippo (354 AD) St. Agatha (231 AD) St Cyprian (210) St. Blaise (276) St. Lucy (3rd/4th century) St. Monica (332 AD) St. Sebastian (255 AD) St. Philomena (291 AD) St. Agnes (291 AD) St. Victor and Corona (170 AD) Sts Andronicus, Probus, and Tarachus (239AD) St Helena (246/248 AD) St. Basil the Great (330) St. Nicholas (270 AD) St. Anastasia (281 AD) St Devota (d. 303) St Martin of Tours (316) St. Ambrose (339AD) St. George (303 AD) St. Fortunatus of Spoleto (400 AD) St. Patrick (5th century)AD 400-1000 St. Leo the Great (400) St. Alexis of Rome (c.400 AD) St. Brigid of Ireland (451) St. Genevieve (419 AD) St. Benedict (480) St. Columba (521 AD) St. Gobnait (6th century) St. Emma (975 AD) St. Chrodegang (712 AD) St. Alena (640 AD) St. Scholastica (480) St. Florentina of Cartagena (612 AD) St. Wilibald (700 AD) St. Adelaide (931) St Gertrude of Nivelles (628 AD) St. Virgil of Salzburg (700) St. Paulinus II of Aquileia (726) St. Hunna St Theophanes the Confessor (c. 758/760) Sts. Cyril and Methodius (826 and 815) St Ansgar (801) St. Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor St. Edward Pope Saint Gregory the Great (540) St. Wenceslaus (907 AD)**AD 1000-1500 ** St. Edward St. Lidwina (1380) St Joan of Arc (1412) St Catherine of Siena (1347) St. Hedwig (1174) St. Francis of Assisi (1181) St. Anthony of Padua (1195) St. Rita (1381) St. Veronica of Milan (1445) St. Casimir (1458) St. Clare of Assisi (1194) St. Elizabeth of Hungary (1207) St. Thomas Aquinas (1225) St. Gertrude the Great (1256) St. Roch (1295) St. Bridget of Sweden (1303) St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090) St. John of God (1495) St. Zita (1212) St. Peregrine Laziosi (1260) St. Colette (1381) St. Margaret of Scotland (1045) St. Juan Diego (1474) St. Angela Merici (1474) St. Ignatius Loyola (1491)AD 1500-2000 St. Teresa of Avila (1515) St. Vincent de Paul (1581) St. Lorenzo Ruiz (1594) St. Philip Neri (1515) St. Charles Borromeo (1538) St. John of the Cross (1542) St. Martin de Porres (1579) St Rose of Lima (1586) St. Kateri Tekakwitha (1656) St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696) St. Junípero Serra (1713) St. Felix of Nicosia (1715) St. Mary Frances of the Five Wounds (1715) St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774) St. Gerard Majella (1726) St. Joseph of Cupertino (1603) St. Damien of Molokai (1840) St. Catherine Laboure (1806) St. Dominic Savio (1842) St Thérèse of Lisieux (1873) St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850) St. Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala (1878) St. Maria Goretti (1890) St. Bernadette (1844) St. Padre Pio (1887) St. Teresia Benedicta a Cruce (1891) St. Maximilian Kolbe (1894) St. Theresa of Los Andes (1900) Laura Montoya (1874) Toribio de Mogrovejo (1538) Mariana of Jesus Paredes (1618) St. Faustina Kowalska (1905) Benedict Daswa (1946) St. Ambrose of Optina (1812) Clelia Barbieri (1847) Andrew Kim Taegon (1821) Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910) Oscar Romero (1917) St John Paul II (1920)
£23.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The King is Dead
Book SynopsisOn 28 January 1547, the sickly and obese King Henry VIII died at Whitehall. Just hours before his passing, his last will and testament had been read, stamped and sealed. The will confirmed the line of succession as Edward, Mary and Elizabeth; and, following them, the Grey and Suffolk families. It also listed bequests to the king's most trusted councillors and servants. Henry's will is one of the most intriguing and contested documents in British history. Historians have disagreed over its intended meaning, its authenticity and validity, and the circumstances of its creation. As well as examining the background to the drafting of the will and describing Henry's last days, Suzannah Lipscomb offers her own, illuminating interpretation of one of the most significant constitutional documents of the Tudor period. 'A bold and original attempt to unravel one of the great mysteries of English history' DAVID STARKEYTrade ReviewI was gripped by Suzannah Lipscomb's The King is Dead, an elegantly written forensic examination of Henry VIII's last will and testament -- Saul David, Book of the Year in the Evening StandardThis is a book that deserves to be read. Lipscomb has produced an entirely credible interpretation of a contentious issue. Her sober but still engaging prose thankfully lacks that sweet sentimentality that so often characterises popular histories of the Tudors... With admirable authority, she provides an interesting allegory about how misplaced trust can undermine the best-laid plans of a powerful king' * The Times *As generous with its detail as it is with its beautifully reproduced images... a must-read for those fascinated by the Tudor world' * History Revealed *Learn of Henry's last days and the drafting of the will in this beautiful, illuminating – and illuminated – tome * Historical Trips UK *A bold and original attempt to unravel one of the great mysteries of English history -- David Starkey
£9.49
Atlantic Books The Year of Chaos: Northern Ireland on the Brink
Book Synopsis'Frank and incisive - an insightful look at the most tumultuous period of the Troubles.' Ian Cobain'This is the Belfast I grew up in. Malachi writes from first-hand experience and brings back memories that will always resonate with those who lived in those times.' Eamonn HolmesIn the eleven months between August 1971 and July 1972, Northern Ireland experienced its worst year of violence. No future year of the Troubles experienced such death and destruction. The 'year of chaos' began with the introduction of internment of IRA suspects without trial, which created huge disaffection in the Catholic communities and provoked an escalation of violence. This led to the British government taking full control of Northern Ireland and negotiating directly with the IRA leadership. Operation Motorman, the invasion of barricaded no-go areas in Belfast and Derry, then dampened down the violence a year later. During this whole period, Malachi O'Doherty was a young reporter in Belfast, working in the city and returning home at night to a no-go area behind the barricades where the streets were patrolled by armed IRA men. Drawing on interviews, personal recollections and archival research, O'Doherty takes readers on a journey through the events of that terrible year - from the devastation of Bloody Sunday and Bloody Friday to the talks between leaders that failed to break the deadlock - which, he argues, should serve as a stark reminder of how political and military miscalculation can lead a country to the brink of civil war.Trade ReviewA haunting portrait of a vanished place and time... written with such grace, tenderness, anger and, most of all, sorrow. The Year of Chaos is a gripping and brilliant imaginative reconstruction of that "strange kind of war, if it was a war at all." Every word is suffused with humanity. * Sunday Independent *Frank and incisive - an insightful look at the most tumultuous period of the Troubles. -- Ian Cobain, author of Anatomy of a KillingMalachi O'Doherty recalls this tumultuous period in a confessional and autobiographical tone. Backing up political opinion with lived experience gives an authority that an academic writing on the same subject simply wouldn't possess. O'Doherty's analysis is convincing precisely because he lived through what he is analysing. * Sunday TImes *This is the Belfast I grew up in. Malachi writes from first-hand experience and brings back memories that will always resonate with those who lived in those times. -- Eamonn Holmes, TV presenterO'Doherty is a literary surgeon who uses his pen like a scalpel, cutting through the cancerous tissue of propaganda that has served all sides during "The Troubles". This excellent book is a must-read for all who want to understand what happened during the first years of the conflict. -- Richard O’Rawe, author of BlanketmenEssential reading for anyone trying to make sense of a past frequently distorted by rival sectarian myths and attempts to rewrite history. We need more of this kind of pragmatic history if we are to move forward into a more peaceful future. -- Aaron Edwards, author of Agents of InfluenceThis is an important book which reminds us of the reality and brutality of Belfast in 1971-72. The narrowness between living and dying is laid bare by someone who lived through the "heat of that crazy time", and is a totally authentic account as a result. -- Arlene Foster, former DUP First Minister of Northern IrelandAn impressive, rounded review of a turbulent and formative year, looking at state failures and paramilitary roots with thoughtfulness but not indulgence. -- Claire Hanna MP, SDLPOne year, described by one Belfast writer which lays bare the whole story of Northern Ireland... A vital book for understanding how Northern Ireland has reached deadlock and how it might yet escape, with incredible insights from boy soldiers of the 1970s, on both sides of the religious divide. -- Lesley Riddoch, author of Huts: A Place BeyondA unique insight into the unfolding chaos. Reads like a game of chess. Protestant and Catholic civilians, police and soldier pawns. Politicians, army generals, Republican and Loyalist godfathers prepared to risk lives with dangerous moves. All sides made wrong moves... Sadly the game is still in play. -- George Larmour, author of They Killed the Ice Cream ManA brilliant, utterly moving account of life in the North between 1969 and Internment and after... This is a work which exposes the inconvenient truths of the past, once again in need of recognition and healing. An absorbing, utterly driven political memoir. -- Mary O’Donnell, author of Massacre of the BirdsWithout ego or self-aggrandisement, Malachi O'Doherty captures the thrill and horror of being young in a war zone. A war zone on the doorstep of England. This is essential reading for anyone trying to understand the Troubles. -- Rowena McDonald, author of The Threat Level Remains SevereMalachi O' Doherty brings a unique perspective to the Northern Ireland conflict. Unsentimental, accomplished and authoritative writing is tempered by vivid and compelling lived experience. As Ulster teetered on the edge of civil war, this book travels back to a terrifying tipping point for the province. Opportune and apposite, it should be read as a cautionary tale in these challenging times. -- Paul Burgess, author of Through Hollow LandsIn his final paragraph, O'Doherty suggests that maybe the question is not the more usual one of what tore Northern Ireland apart, but what held it together. His answer, that it never really wanted to be torn apart in the first place, helps us gain some semblance of hope from his thought-provoking account of such a horrifying year. -- Sheila Llewellyn, author of Winter in TabrizThis book reminds us that there are those of us who want to be friends and those that want to drive us apart. It is an invaluable insight not only into the mistakes that we made but also of the true character of the people here that want to live in peace with their neighbours and that they are the foundation on which we must build a future together in Northern Ireland, this island and between these islands. -- Trevor Ringland, former Unionist and Conservative politicianA vivid account of an awful year. There are lessons here for Northern Ireland today. -- Sarah Creighton, commentatorTable of Contents1: Introduction 2: The Boy Soldiers 3: Gearing Up 4: Internment 5: One of Those Things That Happen in War 6: Summitry 7: Shooting Women 8: The Army Gets It Wrong 9: Deepening Deadlock 10: Living in the Middle of It 11: Routines of Murder 12: It's Normal Now 13: A New Year 14: Bloody Sunday 15: Britain Is Now the Problem 16: The Abercorn 17: London Takes Control 18: New Strategies 19: Dublin's Pitch for Unity 20: The Building Backlash 21: Hunger Strikes 22: Negotiations for a Ceasefire 23: Breakdown 24: Bloody Friday 25: Motorman 26: Conclusion: Not Like Other Wars
£10.44
Atlantic Books The Lost Queen
Book SynopsisSophie Shorland has a PhD in Early Modern English literature and is a former Research Fellow at the University of Warwick. She was a semi-finalist in the BBC's New Generation Thinkers competition and the proposal for her first book was shortlisted for the Tony Lothian Prize.
£21.25
Atlantic Books The Platinum Queen: Over 75 Speeches Given by
Book Synopsis***Published in honour of our late Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee, The Platinum Queen presents seven decades of world history through the words of Britain's longest-reigning monarch: over 256 exquisitely designed pages, packed with 130 photos and featuring every single major speech given over the course of Her late Majesty's time on the throne, a foreword by Jennie Bond and historical context to each decade.***For the first time, all 70 of our late Queen's Christmas speeches are published together in full, along with six additional feature speeches made at significant points in her life.Organised by decade, each chapter opens with a narrative essay on the key events that follow, providing an important contextual backdrop to the speeches. From times of national and global turmoil - including wars, terror attacks and health crises - to times of joy - such as the new millennium and Olympics - The Platinum Queen is a testament to the late Elizabeth's unwavering resolve, faith and dedication to her role.
£17.00
Atlantic Books Dark Brilliance: The Age of Reason from Descartes
Book SynopsisA sweeping history of the Age of Reason, which shows how, although it was a time of progress in many areas, it was also an era of brutality and intolerance, by the author of The Borgias and The Florentines.During the 1600s, between the end of the Renaissance and the start of the Enlightenment, Europe lived through an era known as the Age of Reason. This was a revolutionary period which saw great advances in areas such as art, science, philosophy, political theory and economics.However, all this was accomplished against a background of extreme political turbulence and irrational behaviour on a continental scale in the form of internal conflicts and international wars. Indeed, the Age of Reason itself was born at the same time as the Thirty Years' War, which would devastate central Europe to an extent that would not be seen again until the twentieth century.The period also saw the development of European empires across world and a lucrative new transatlantic commerce began, which brought transformative riches to western European society. However, there was a dark underside to this brilliant wealth: it was dependent upon mass slavery. By exploring all the key events and bringing to life some of the most influential characters of the era, including Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Newton, Descartes, Spinoza, Louis XIV and Charles I, Paul Strathern tells the story of this paradoxical age, while also counting the human cost of imposing the progress and modernity upon which the Western world was built.Trade ReviewStrathern's canvas is immense, yet the picture he paints is never less than pellucid, and packed with lively detail and fascinating facts -- John Banville * Wall Street Journal on The Other Renaissance *Strathern has a good eye for striking details and arresting anecdotes * Literary Review on The Other Renaissance *Strathern combines diligent research with an exemplary narrative verve and keeps the pages turning * Financial Times on Death in Florence *Strathern has done his research thoroughly, and tells a good story well * Sunday Telegraph on The Medici *This is popular history at its narrative best - rich in colour, character and consequence * The Times on The Artist, the Philosopher and the Warrior *He [Strathern] is adroit in bringing together his personalities and wider currents and illuminates them with vivid detail. * New Statesman *Table of ContentsPrologue: Prologue 1: Reason and Rationale 2: Two Italian Artists 3: Spread of the Scientific Revolution 4: The English Civil War and Thomas Hobbes 5: The New World and the Golden Age of Spain 6: Two Transcendent Artists 7: The Money Men and the Markets 8: Two Artists of the Dutch Golden Age 9: The Sun King and Versailles 10: England Comes of Age 11: A Quiet City in South Holland 12: Exploration 13: A Courtly Interlude 14: Spinoza and Locke 15: The Survival and Spread of the Continent of Reason 16: New Realities 17: Logic Personified 18: On the Shoulders of Giants Epilogue: Epilogue
£21.25
Atlantic Books A City Runs Through Them: Dublin and its Twenty
Book SynopsisAn original and fascinating history of Dublin that tells the story of the city through its bridges.Dublin started life on the south bank of the River Liffey and for six or seven centuries that is more or less where the town stayed. In all that time, there was only one bridge across the river. Then, suddenly, in the twenty years after 1670, three more bridges were thrown up and the north side was born. Within a century, Dublin was being talked of as one of the ten largest cities in the whole of Europe.Built over a span of a thousand years, the twenty bridges that now traverse the tidal section of the Liffey have each contributed to the city's development, as it pushed through the open fields north of the river and east towards the bay, so much so that it is possible to piece together Dublin's history by tracing their construction in chronological order.Starting with Church Street Bridge, Dublin's first, which dates back to the Vikings, and ending with Rosie Hackett Bridge, erected in 2014, Fergal Tobin charts the rise of Ireland's capital city as never before and reveals how, perhaps more than any other city in the world, it has been truly made by its bridges.Trade ReviewA stunning achievement * Irish Times *Anyone interested in Dublin and its development will find it a joy * Sunday Independent *Witty, thought-provoking, wide-ranging and highly readable. * Irish Times on THE IRISH DIFFERENCE *The beauty of this book is in the telling: The Irish Difference lays out its themes and chronologies with impeccable clarity, and is full of fascinating detail... Exemplary. * Irish Independent on THE IRISH DIFFERENCE *You may not agree with everything Fergal Tobin says; you may not even agree with any of it. But the book is so entertaining, so well-written, and so thought-provoking that you are certainly likely to enjoy it. -- David McCullagh * RTÉ Online on THE IRISH DIFFERENCE *Table of Contents1: Fr Mathew Bridge 2: Islandbridge 3: Rory O'More Bridge 4: Grattan Bridge 5: O'Donovan Rossa Bridge 6: Mellowes Bridge 7: O'Connell Bridge 8: The Ha'penny Bridge 9: Heuston Bridge 10: Liffey Viaduct 11: Butt Bridge 12: Loopline Bridge Water Break: Water Break 13: Talbot Memorial Bridge 14: Frank Sherwin Bridge 15: East Link 16: Millennium Bridge 17: James Joyce Bridge 18: Seán O'Casey Bridge 19: Samuel Beckett Bridge 20: Rosie Hackett Bridge
£20.00
Verso Books Morbid Symptoms: An Anatomy of a World in Crisis
The deadly coronavirus spread across societies already riddled with political ills: rampant xenophobia and corruption, privatisation run amok, Brexiteer vainglory of 'a global Britain', a Euroland dominated by self-proclaimed nasty parties, and in America, the unspeakable Trump. As the acclaimed historian Donald Sassoon observes in this blistering polemic, there were morbid symptoms galore.Sassoon paints an unforgettable picture of our galloping descent into political barbarism, mixing blunt exposé and classical references with an astonishing array of data. Why does the United States proportionately have more civilians owning guns than Yemen, where there is a war on? Why did the UK enter the pandemic with fewer doctors than any EU country except Poland and Romania? In Morbid Symptoms he refuses to abandon what Antonio Gramsci termed the optimism of the will, instead recalling a line from Machiavelli's Istorie fiorentine: 'do not impute past disorders to the nature of the men, but to the times, which, being changed, give reasonable ground to hope that, with better government, our city will have better fortune in the future'.
£18.00
Verso Books The Shadow of the Mine: Coal and the End of
Book SynopsisNo one personified the age of industry more than the miners. The Shadow of the Mine tells the story of King Coal in its heyday - and what happened to mining communities after the last pits closed. Coal was central to the British economy, powering its factories and railways. It carried political weight, too. In the eighties the miners risked everything in a year-long strike against Thatcher's shutdowns. Defeat foretold the death of their industry. Tens of thousands were cast onto the labour market with a minimum amount of advice and support. Yet British politics all of a sudden revolves around the coalfield constituencies that lent their votes to Boris Johnson's Conservatives in 2019. Even in the Welsh Valleys, where the 'red wall' still stands, support for the Labour Party has halved in a generation. Huw Beynon and Ray Hudson draw on decades of research to chronicle these momentous changes through the words of the people who lived through them.Trade ReviewA powerful study of tumultuous political events steeped in knowledge of the coalfields. Essential reading for all those who care about the future - and hence the past - of working-class politics. -- Hilary Wainwright, author of A New Politics from the LeftAfter defeat by Thatcher, the pits were levelled and the Miners' Welfare Halls, their social and intellectual centres, vanished. With carefully controlled passion, this book indicts such ruthless disregard for the values of care and association. -- Sheila Rowbotham, author of Daring to HopeDrawing on decades of research ... [The Shadow of the Mine] is a moving account of 150 years of coalfield history ... By tracing the "deep story" of the marginalisation of Britain's coalfields, it aims to understand the continuing exclusion of working-class people in deindustrialised areas from political and social life. -- Diarmaid Kelliher * Antipode *The Shadow of the Mine reminds us why this spirit [of solidarity and collectivism] has lived on in the coalfields, in spite of people feeling a sense of political betrayal going back decades ... enlightening. -- Conrad Landin * Guardian *Refreshing and necessary ... [The Shadow of the Mine] explains in loving, careful detail why working people's relationship with Labour in former industrial communities ... had become complex and ultimately soured. -- Laura Pidcock * Red Pepper *Beynon and Hudson ... write with authority and respect of the former mining communities of Britain. -- John Lloyd * Financial Times *Starmer and his allies in Renaissance would do better to pick up a copy of The Shadow of the Mine ... As Beynon and Hudson make clear, the succession of defeats inflicted on the trade unions over the last four decades has brought about the gradual fragmentation of old loyalties. -- Tom Blackburn * Tribune *A solid account of the history of the coalfields in Durham and South Wales and the impact of deindustrialisation and closure upon them. -- Mike Phipps * Labour Hub *A brave book ... anyone interested in the transformation that has reshaped Britain's former coalfields should read The Shadow of the Mine. -- Ewan Gibbs * Jacobin *Considered, comprehensive and insightful ... a book that deserves the widest distribution -- Steven Andrew * Morning Star *Elegiac ... [The Shadow of the Mine] provides essential economic and social context for both the Leave vote in 2016 and the consequent collapse of the so-called 'Red Wall'. -- Rhian E. Jones * Tribune *The work of two outstanding 'organic intellectuals' of the very communities they are giving voice to ... Anyone who wants to go beyond the 'Red Wall' platitudes of British politics ought to start with The Shadow of the Mine. * Spokesman *Excellent -- Robert Colls * New Statesman *Superb and timely ... full of lessons and insights for today -- Steve Davies * New Socialist *A concern for the dignity of those who made (and continue to make) their lives in the coalfields runs through the book like an unbroken seam. -- Gavin Bridge * AAG Review of Books *
£18.00
Verso Books Making the Revolution Global: Black Radicalism
Book SynopsisMaking the Revolution Global shows how black radicals transformed socialist politics in Britain in the years before decolonisation. African and Caribbean activist-intellectuals, such as Amy Ashwood Garvey, C.L.R. James, Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah and George Padmore, came to Britain during the 1930s and 1940s and intervened in debates about capitalism, imperialism, fascism and war. They consistently argued that any path towards international socialism must have colonial liberation at its heart. Although their ideas were met with opposition from many on the British Left, they convinced significant sections of the movement of the revolutionary potential of colonised peoples. By centring the entanglements between black radicals and the wider British socialist movement, Theo Williams casts new light on responses to the 1935 Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the 1945 Fifth Pan-African Congress, and a wealth of other events and phenomena. In doing so, he showcases a revolutionary tradition that, as illustrated by the global Black Lives Matter demonstrations of 2020, is still relevant today.Trade ReviewTheo Williams authoritatively details how Black militant Pan-Africanist radicals in Britain around George Padmore not only fought for colonial liberation in Africa and the Caribbean during the 1930s and 1940s but also worked with the Independent Labour Party led by Fenner Brockway to help change the way half the British Left thought about racism and imperialism. This very impressive organisational history of the International African Service Bureau thus illuminates the wider relationship of socialism to black liberation in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and so represents an invaluable contribution to scholarship on 'the red and the black'. -- Christian HogsbjergA fine, nuanced study of Black radical contributions to critical debates within the U.K, Europe, Africa and the colonies about the interplay of capitalism, fascism, and imperialism. Williams's exceptional archival research is matched by a dogged commitment to recovering the lives and work of key figures like George Padmore and C.L.R. James. This book gives fresh perspective to the 20th century European Left, and helps to decolonize the study of global radicalism. -- Bill V. Mullen, Emeritus Professor of American Studies, Purdue UniversityA timely book which sparkles with fresh ideas. In his accommodating prose Williams shows how the native traditions of British socialism and diasporic Pan-Africanisms coexisted in a jarring but constant dialogue. He brings to light the buried pas de deux which reveals each to have been in the other. This is a history in which every moment resonates for the present.. -- Bill SchwarzWilliams' account throws more light on a story that has yet to be told in its entirety - how campaigners across race lines worked together to contribute to the great world-shaping movements towards decolonisation and liberation. This is a serious and worthwhile addition to scholarship on internationalism. -- Priyamvada GopalMaking the Revolution Global powerfully recasts the story of interwar Black British radicalism, illustrating the ways anti-imperialism and pan-Africanism shaped British socialism. This timely, rich and layered account demonstrates that anti-racism and anti-imperialism were not marginal to the metropolitan left, but instead constituted key axes of debate and contestation among British socialists. -- Adom Getachew, author of Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-DeterminaitonThis very thoroughly researched book is an exploration of the political attitudes/policies of left-wing political parties (and then even the Labour Party) regarding imperialism, colonialism and independence in the UK. It investigates the relationships between Black activists - individuals and organisations - and these political parties. After all, 'imperialism was central to capitalism', which explains why some/many want to retain the colonies. And what was the effect on them all? So a vast amount of information on George Padmore, Makonnen, C.L.R.James, Chris Jones, et al, including women activists. And just as much on the organisations they set up/were involved with eg IASB, Pan-African Federation, Negro Welfare Association. It ends with an analysis of their influence on returning African leaders such as Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah. -- Marika SherwoodFascinating and revealing -- Neil Rogall * rs21 *
£18.00
Verso Books Red List: MI5 and British Intellectuals in the
Book SynopsisIn the popular imagination MI5, or the Security Service, is known chiefly as the branch of the British state responsible for chasing down those who endanger national security-from Nazi fifth columnists to Soviet spies and today's domestic extremists. Yet, working from official documents released to the National Archives,distinguished historian Caute discovers that suspicion also fell on those who merely exercised their civil liberties, posing no threat to national security. In reality, this 'other history' of the Security Service, was dictated not only by the consistent anti-Communist and Imperial aims of the British state but also by the political prejudices of MI5's personnel. The guiding notions were 'Defence of the Realm' and 'subversion.' Caute here exposes the massive state operation to track the activities and affiliations of a range of journalists, academics, scientists, filmmakers, writers actors and musicians, who the Security Service classified as a threat to national security. Guilt by association was paramount. Letters were opened, phones were intercepted, private homes were bugged and citizens were placed under physical surveillance by Special Branch agents. Among the targets of surveillance are found such prominent figures as Arthur Ransome, Paul Robeson, J.B. Priestley, Kingsley Amis, George Orwell, Doris Lessing, Christopher Isherwood, Stephen Spender, Dorothy Hodgkin, Jacob Bronowski, John Berger, Benjamin Britten, Christopher Hill, Eric Hobsbawm, Kingsley Martin, Michael Redgrave, Joan Littlewood, Joseph Losey, Michael Foot and Harriet Harman. More than 200 victims are listed here but further MI5 files will be released to the National Archives.Trade ReviewRed List reintroduces us to lost generations of artists and writers, many of whom opposed imperial wars and British colonialism in India but disappeared into the annals of history - perhaps due to MI5 influence... [Caute] exemplifies how capitalist superpowers can control their own history and the legacy of radical art. -- Billy Anania * Hyperallergic *An exceptional and seminal work of impeccable scholarship and exhaustive research. * The Midwest Book Review *[Red List] provides a wealth of information about left-wing British intellectuals and artists in the postwar era. -- Richard J. Evans * The Nation *Caute has pieced together an extensive history of MI5 surveillance across the twentieth century...Red List demonstrates that the function of the security state is to foreclose political possibilities before they pose any direct threat to the established order, often ruining countless lives in the process. * Jacobin *Red List is a lucidly written account of MI5's surveillance of [Caute's] country's intelligentsia. * Shepherd Express *Table of ContentsNote on Sources ix List of Abbreviations x Introduction 1 PART I 9 1. MI5 and the First World War 11 2. MI5 and the Communist Party of Great Britain 30 PART II 45 3. Dangerous Voices, Disloyal Pens 47 4. Theatre and Players 98 5. Film Censorship 118 6. Discordant Musicians 125 PART III 133 7. History as Heresy 135 8. Veteran Academics 178 9. Black Liberation and the Africanists 186 PART IV 219 10. Science and Treachery 221 PART V 255 11. Not to Be Trusted 257 12. Illegitimate Lawyers 271 13. Publish and Be Damned 284 14. The BBC Toes the Line 300 15. Art and Design 312 PART VI 339 16. MI5 and the Labour Left 341 Conclusion. MI5 and 'Subversion' 356
£19.00
Verso Books Going to My Father's House: A History of My Times
Book SynopsisA historian's personal journey into the complex questions of immigration, home and nationFrom Ireland to London in the 1950s, Derry in the Troubles to contemporary, de-industrialised Manchester, Joyce finds the ties of place, family and the past are difficult to break. Why do certain places continue to haunt us? What does it mean to be British after the suffering of Empire and of war? How do we make our home in a hypermobile world without remembering our pasts?Patrick Joyce's parents moved from Ireland in the 1930s and made their home in west London. But they never really left the homeland. And so as he grew up among the streets of Paddington and Notting Hill and when he visited his family in Ireland he felt a tension between the notions of home, nation and belonging. Going to My Father's House charts the historian's attempt to make sense of these ties and to see how they manifest in a globalised world. He explores the places - the house, the street, the walls and the graves - that formed his own identity. He ask what place the ideas of history, heritage and nostalgia have in creating a sense of our selves. He concludes with a plea for a history that holds the past to account but also allows for dynamic, inclusive change.Trade Reviewan immensely readable, thoroughly enjoyable book ... Hegel would have admired the way Joyce lets a sharply individualised life distil a whole socal history. -- Terry Eagleton, author of Why Marx was RightA haunting meditation on Ireland and England, war and migration, Derry and Manchester. I admired the originality of his observations and his tone of melancholy, calm wisdom. -- Colm Toibin * Books of the Year 2021, Guardian *Merges personal stories with large political moments. Joyce's family came to England from Mayo and Wexford. His account of his life in London, of the legacy of war and of his experiences in Ireland is written with wisdom and grace. -- Colm Toibin * Authors' and Critics' 2021 Favourites, Irish Times *This is a rare kind of writing, a form of meditation on the societies that are forming and melting around us in the present. Only a voice such as this can alert us to these historical worlds -- Seaumas DeaneI can't think of another historian around who could write something so suggestive and profound, so much on both a minor and major scale, constantly tracing the connections between the two. -- Paul Ginsbourg
£22.50
Verso Books Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers:
Book SynopsisThis short book calls to account the government misrulers and corporate criminals who made suffering from the global coronavirus pandemic more acute. Modeled on a famous 1940 bestseller--a pamphlet exposing appeasers of Nazi Germany--Guilty Men shows how the crisis has been stoked by the callous and opportunistic decisions of powerful men. The rogues gallery begins with Donald Trump, who deliberately downplayed the crisis despite knowing its dangers, as well as his international political allies, above all Boris Johnson. Billionaire politicians like Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler moved stocks at the same time they were telling Americans all was well . Political charlatans like Education Secretary Betsy DeVos undermined public safety in order to advance their agenda, Trump-controlled agencies, led by the ever-crooked Federal Reserve, bailed out Wall Street while failing to provide basic relief for workers. Libertarian "think tanks" like the Ayn Rand Institute decried public expenditures but were first in line to get bailout checks. Pharmaceutical companies gamed the vaccine race, and the most rapacious global corporations like Facebook, Visa, and Pfizer have found the pandemic to be very profitable indeed, vastly enriching the already grotesquely bloated fortunes of trillionaires like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Charles Koch. Guilty Men closes with a call for a version of the Pecora Commission, initiated by newly elected Franklin Roosevelt, that took aim at what FDR called "speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, and profiteering" that stoked the Depression. The commission led to some of the most far-reaching reforms in US history, as well as sensational hearings that led to the fall of the leading bankers and financiers of that era.Trade ReviewOn The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: Henry Wallace is a political figure-one of the giants of the mid-twentieth century-who has kind of been pushed out of the national political discussion. Nichols [tells us] that one of the reasons Wallace was not renominated in 1944 was because of his opposition to racism. The segregationists didn't want him around. -- Senator Bernie SandersOn The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: More than a history book-this is an examination of what progressives must do to retake our democracy. Nichols points the way toward how we can build a party based on peace, liberty, and justice for all. -- Representative Ilhan OmarOn The 'S' Word: A chilling reminder of how much rich American history has been erased by shallow messaging. A crucial book. -- Naomi KleinOn The 'S' Word: The Tom Paine of our time. -- Bill MoyersSure to alarm as much as it angers and informs ... [Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers] will leave readers with a renewed hunger for justice regarding the pandemic. * Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) *
£16.99
Verso Books The Invention of the White Race: The Origin of
Book SynopsisWhen the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, there were no 'white' people there; nor, according to colonial records, would there be for another sixty years. Historical debate about the origin of racial slavery has focused on the status of the Negro in seventeenth-century Virginia and Maryland. However, as Theodore W. Allen argues in this magisterial work, what needs to be studied is the transformation of English, Scottish, Irish and other European colonists from their various statuses as servants, tenants, planters or merchants into a single new all-inclusive status: that of whites. This is the key to the paradox of American history, of a democracy resting on race assumptions.Volume One of this two-volume work attempts to escape the 'white blind spot' which has distorted consecutive studies of the issue. It does so by looking in the mirror of Irish history for a definition of racial oppression and for an explanation of that phenomenon in terms of social control, free from the absurdities of classification by skin color. Compelling analogies are presented between the history of Anglo-Irish and British rule in Ireland and American White Supremacist oppression of Indians and African-Americans. But the relativity of race is shown in the sea change it entailed, whereby emigrating Irish haters of racial oppression were transformed into White Americans who defended it. The reasons for the differing outcomes of Catholic Emancipation and Negro Emancipation are considered and occasion is made to demonstrate Allen's distinction between racial and national oppression.Trade ReviewA meticulous study. -- AkalaSeminal -- Emma Dabiri
£18.00
Verso Books Paris in Turmoil: A City between Past and Future
Book SynopsisSince the disastrous Pompidou years, working-class Paris has been steadily nibbled away, either by destruction or more insidiously by a kind of internal colonization. Take for example a small outlying district populated by Arabs, blacks and poor whites twenty years ago, the L'Olive neighbourhood north of La Chapelle The area is noted as pleasant, people frequent it and explore it, and as the rents are low some settle there. Others follow, first friends and then anyone else. Rents go up, buildings are renovated, bars open, then an organic food shop, a vegan restaurant...The earlier indigenous inhabitants are driven out by the rising rents and settle further away, in Saint-Denis if they are lucky, or else in Garges-lès-Gonesse, Goussainville or God knows where.But new neighbourhoods are emerging, for example the Chinese quarter of Bas Belleville, which has grown since the 1970s to the point that in some streets, such as Rue Civiale or Rue Rampal, the restaurants and shops are all Chinese, with many Chinese sex workers on Boulevard de la Villette. These Chinese almost all come from Wenzhou, a large province south of Shanghai, whose inhabitants are reputedly known for their commercial skills.Paris is constantly changing as a living organism, both for better and for worse. This book is an incitement to open our eyes and lend an ear to the tumult of this incomparable capital, from the Périphérique to Place Vendôme, its markets of Aligre and Belleville, its cafés and tabacs, its history from Balzac to Sartre. In some thirty succinct vignettes, from bookshops to beggars, Art Nouveau to street sounds, Parisian writers to urban warts, Jacobins to Surrealism, Hazan offers a host of invaluable aperçus, illuminated by a matchless knowledge of his native city.Trade ReviewA jewel of a book. A must read for any aspirant Parisian flâneur or intellectually curious visitor to the city. Hazan reminds us that Paris is so much more than its wide boulevards and antiseptic tourist spots. He invites us to consider its multi-layered, multi-linguistic, multicultural, amorphous past and present. Paris in Turmoil is the perfect aperitif to the city and will enrich any visit. Better still, it can be read in one sitting on the Eurostar on your way there. -- Edward Chisholm, author of A Waiter in Paris: Adbentures in the Dark Heart of the CityHazan meshes history, architecture, philosophy, and social geography in this concise yet wide-ranging tribute to his native Paris. Throughout, Hazan expertly reflects on the city's cultural and intellectual transformations, and spotlights writers who "left their mark on the city," including Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac. The result is an astute and opinionated tour of one of the world's great cities. * Publishers Weekly *Hazan, a political activist and insatiable flâneur ("stroller," roughly), has compiled something far greater than musings on the City of Light. Read together, these pieces offer an extended invitation to the reader to take the many layers of Parisian life and history more seriously and give them the attention they merit...Readers already familiar with Paris will find this fiery and charming volume the perfect companion for a thought-provoking walk around the City of Light. -- Library JournalFascinating ... Hazan's focus on the detail, colour and texture of Paris has the effect of transporting you there. -- Rhian E. Jones * New Humanist *
£10.44
Verso Books Organize, Fight, Win: Black Communist Women's
Book SynopsisBlack Communist women throughout the early to mid-twentieth century fought for and led mass campaigns in the service of building collective power in the fight for liberation. Through concrete materialist analysis of the conditions of Black workers, these women argued that racial and economic equality can only be achieved by overthrowing capitalism.The first collection of its kind, Organize, Fight, Win brings together three decades of Black Communist women's political writings. In doing so, it highlights the link between Communism and Black liberation. Likewise, it makes clear how Black women fundamentally shaped, and were shaped by, Communist praxis in the twentieth century.Organize, Fight, Win includes writings from card-carrying Communists like Dorothy Burnham, Williana Burroughs, Grace P. Campbell, Alice Childress, Marvel Cooke, Esther Cooper Jackson, Thelma Dale Perkins, Vicki Garvin, Yvonne Gregory, Claudia Jones, Maude White Katz, and Louise Thompson Patterson, and writings by those who organized alongside the Communist Party, like Ella Baker, Charlotta Bass, Thyra Edwards, Lorraine Hansberry, and Dorothy Hunton.Trade ReviewCharisse Burden-Stelly is a sharp engaged radical thinker, representing the best of the Black radical tradition. Along with co-editor Jodi Dean, Burden-Stelly has curated a powerful and enormously valuable collection of writings by Black socialist and communist women, rightly placing their voices at the center of U.S. and international left histories. A great teaching tool and a much needed source of inspiration for contemporary activists. -- Barbara Ransby, historian, author and activistThe women whose voices are collected in Organize, Fight, Win are some of the principal radical thinkers and activists of the 20th century making this collection a must-read for researchers, teachers, and students of freedom struggles. Burden-Stelly and Dean have brought together some of the most significant women in the struggles for equality and their essential contribution to theorizing emancipation, including anticipating how we understand intersectionality and its relevance to political organization. These sources are an important corrective to the history of the Black Freedom Struggle and the women's rights movement putting radical Black women at the forefront of those histories. -- Denise M LynnIn this brilliantly curated anthology, Burden-Stelly and Dean celebrate the voices of Black and communist women whose struggles against capitalism were confluential with their struggles against sexism and white supremacy. The thoughtful collection of articles, reports, proclamations, and personal reflections provides an invaluable glimpse of the essential political role that Black women played between 1919 and 1956, an era which encompassed the first Red Scare, the Great Depression, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the second Red Scare instigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee and Joseph R. McCarthy. Organize, Fight, Win reminds us that anticommunism remains a key ideological bludgeon of American white supremacists to this day and provides relevant theoretical tools for continued resistance. -- Kristen Ghodsee, Author of Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary WomenCharisse Burden-Stelly and Jodi Dean have assembled a fascinating archive of writings by Black women in and around the CPUSA. These militants provide us with an important model for how to be anticapitalist, antiracist, antisexist, anti-imperialist, and antimilitarist all at once. -- Kathi WeeksBurden-Stelly and Dean have compiled a unique, much-needed volume on the lives and thought of black women communists. The voices of Williana Burroughs, Louise Thompson Patterson, Thyra Edwards, Lorraine Hansberry and many others ring out here, resonating with rich historical insights and political inspiration. Organize, Fight, Win is a proper tonic against those who mischaracterize and impugn left anti-capitalist struggle as some whites-only political project. -- Cedric Johnson, author of The Panthers Can't Save Us Now: Debating Left Politics and Black Lives MatterThis is an essential and beautifully curated collection that provides an important foundation for understanding the Black radical tradition. -- Vijay PrashadThis book returns the voices of Black women Communists to their rightful place in histories of labor, race, and gender in the 20th century. Libraries serving historians or general readers interested in Black women's history and activism need to add this to their shelves. * Library Journal *In their new collection Organize, Fight, Win, which gathers the writings of Black Communist women starting in the 1920s, Jodi Dean and Charisse Burden-Stelly provide a genealogy for the strains of Black feminism that emerged as part of the radicalization of the 1960s. -- Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor * The New York Review of Books *In this groundbreaking collection, Burden-Stelly and Dean have compiled a treasure trove of historical, political and seminal writings about Communism from Black women's perspectives. Includes pieces by Claudia Jones, Charlotta Bass, Alice Childress, Dorothy Burnham and so many more. * Ms. Magazine *Organize, Fight, Win brings to light to the theories and tactics activists used to build successful coalition movements at the beginning of the 20th century, and their enduring relevance in today's political climate. -- Morgan Forde * The Nation *This text is an important addition to the history of the United States, especially as regards the struggle for Black residents' freedom and equality. The fact that all of the work included in this book is written by communists is also important in that it proves the important role they played in the struggle during the period represented. However, more than just a look at that legacy, Organize, Fight, Win is also a working textbook for the current and future state of the fight for liberation and against the economic system of capitalism; a system that is the basis of most every other oppression, especially those targeting Black and Brown people. -- Ron Jacobs * Counterpunch *[Organize, Fight, Win] confounds decades of obfuscation and contemporary misconceptions, uncovering a hidden history of black women's leadership of and struggle within communist parties and movements in the twentieth century. Debates around theory and strategy take on a new vibrancy in these writings and paint a picture of left-wing party building that challenges stale caricature. -- Chris Dite * Jacobin *Urgent and passionate ... the editors' careful work has not only corrected the historical narrative but achieved something inspiring. -- Helen Mercer * Morning Star *[An] essential collection. -- Andy Hines * Public Books *Table of ContentsIntroductionCharisse Burden-Stelly and Jodi DeanSection 1: The Early YearsEditors' introduction Grace P. Campbell, "Women Offenders and the Day Court" Williana Burroughs, "Negro Work Has Not Been Entirely Successful"Grace P. Campbell (writing as Grace Lamb), "How Shall the Negro Woman Vote?"Williana Burroughs, "Trade Union Work Report"Williana Burroughs, "Work Among Negro Women", "Woman and Child Labor in the Colonies", "Negro Women in Industry"Section 2: Labor, Militancy and OrganizingEditors' introductionMaude White, "Special Negro Demands" Thyra Edwards, "Let Us Have More Like Mr. Sopkins" Williana Burroughs, "Women's Department"Ella Baker & Marvel Cooke, "The Bronx Slave Market" Louise Thompson, "Toward a Brighter Dawn" Thyra Edwards, "Attitudes of Negro Families On Relief - Another Opinion" Marvel Cooke, "She Was in Paris and Forgot Chanel"Louise Thompson, "Negro Women in Our Party"Thyra Edwards, "Food Gets Scarcer and Scarcer On Spanish Front, Says Writer Miss Thyra Edwards Tells Dramatic Story of Experiences in the War-Torn Country; Winter Rushing On"Louise Thompson Patterson, "Excerpt from Memoirs on Scottsboro Boys Organizing"Esther Cooper Jackson, "The Negro Women Domestic Worker in Relation to Trade Unionism" Section 3: Against FascismEditors' introductionEsther Cooper Jackson, "Negro Youth Organizing for Victory" Thelma Dale, "Reconversion and the Negro People" Claudia Jones, "On the Right to Self-Determination for the Negro People in the Black Belt" Thelma Dale, "The Status of Negro Women in the United States of America"Claudia Jones, "For New Approaches to Our Work Among Women" Claudia Jones, "International Women's Day and the Struggle for Peace" Section 4: International Peace ActivismEditors' introductionVicki Garvin, "Union Leader Challenges Progressive American" Sojourners for Truth and Justice, "Proclamation of the Sojourners for Truth and Justice"Dorothy Hunton, "Where Are YOU Hiding" Lorraine Hansberry, "Egyptian People Fight for Freedom" Sojourners for Truth and Justice, "Our Cup Runneth Over"Lorraine Hansberry, "'Illegal' Conference Shows Peace Is the Key to Freedom" Eslanda Goode Robeson, "Southern Officers Treat Korean POWS Like Negroes in the South" Dorothy Burnham, "Southern Tenants and 'Croppers Talk About Need for Organizing"Yvonne Gregory, "Pearl Bailey Incident Recalls Life and Death of Bessie Smith"Charlotta Bass, "Acceptance Speech of Mrs. Bass"Esther Cooper Jackson, "This is My Husband: Fighter for His People, Political Refugee"Section 5: Struggling Against White Supremacy and Anti-CommunismEditors' introductionEslanda Goode Robeson, "Unrest in Africa Due to Oppression"Dorothy Burnham, "American Women Join World Peace Crusade"Alice Childress, "A Conversation From Life"Eslanda Goode Robeson, Introduction to Ben Davis: Fighter for FreedomClaudia Jones, Excerpt from Ben Davis: Fighter for FreedomVicki Garvin, "White Advocates of Negro Freedom Continue Tradition of John Brown"Vicki Garvin, "New Hope for Negro Labor"Dorothy Hunton, "Prison: The Bail Fund Affair"Charlotta Bass, "In Retrospect: An Attack - An Answer"
£17.99
Verso Books Paths of Revolution: Selected Essays
Book SynopsisThe Argentine-born writer Adolfo Gilly has directly observed many of Latin America's most dramatic events, from the Bolivian Revolution of the 1950s and Cuba during the Missile Crisis to the guerrilla wars of Central America and Mexico's Zapatista uprising. Paths of Revolution presents the first representative selection from across his extensive body of work, collecting close-quarters reportage, sharp political analyses and reflections on art and letters.A living link between the New Left of the 1960s and the Pink Tide of recent decades, Gilly once described the twentieth century as a series of lightning flashes which can illuminate our present-day predicament. The essay form is where he fully comes into his own, covering a truly impressive range of topics and places. This collection draws out the continuities within one of the world's more vibrant and politically successful left traditions. In the Introduction, Tony Wood (author of Russia Without Putin) offer an overall portrait of Gilly's life and work.Trade ReviewA long-awaited assemblage of the writings of one of Latin America's most important revolutionary intellectuals. -- Greg Grandin, author of The End of the MythCaptures the long arc of Gilly's political commitments and his rare combination of revolutionary principle and strategic agility. -- Jeffery R. Webber, co-author of The Impasse of the Latin American LeftGilly is a gifted journalist, deep thinker, and brilliant writer-activist. This rich selection begins to fill a lacuna in the Anglophone world. -- Suzi Weissman, biographer of Victor SergeA revolutionary militant whose commitments took him all the way across Latin America and to Europe, into clandestinity, exile and the Mexican jail where his classic study La revolución interrumpida was conceived and written. * New Left Review *Adolfo Gilly shows that intelligent criticism requires passion . . . and that the vision of struggle between heroes and villains belongs to a rudimentary and scholastic version of the events. -- Carlos Monsiváis, writer and cultural critic
£27.00
Verso Books The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives
Book SynopsisThe last generation of Americans with a living memory of Jim Crow will soon disappear. They leave behind a collective memory of segregation shaped increasingly by its horrors and heroic defeat but not a nuanced understanding of everyday life in Jim Crow America. In The South, Adolph L. Reed Jr. - New Orleanian, political scientist, and according to Cornel West, "the greatest democratic theorist of his generation" - takes up the urgent task of recounting the granular realities of life in the last decades of the Jim Crow South.Reed illuminates the multifaceted structures of the segregationist order. Through his personal history and political acumen, we see America's apartheid system from the ground up, not just its legal framework or systems of power, but the way these systems structured the day-to-day interactions, lives, and ambitions of ordinary working people. The South unravels the personal and political dimensions of the Jim Crow order, revealing the sources and objectives of this unstable regime, its contradictions and precarity, and the social order that would replace it. The South is more than a memoir or a history. Filled with analysis and fascinating firsthand accounts of the operation of the system that codified and enshrined racial inequality, this book is required reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of America's second peculiar institution the future created in its wake. With a foreword from Barbara Fields, co-author of the acclaimed Racecraft.Trade ReviewErasing the Color Line -- Christopher Hitchens * New York Times *[A] trenchant history of the Jim Crow South....This spare, earnest recollection shines a unique light on the fight for racial equality in America. * Publishers Weekly *A remembrance of the author's early life below the Mason-Dixon line, while also making a case for class-based inequality as a historical constant -- Aaron Bogart * White Review, Best Books 2022 *Reed seeks to delineate exactly what Jim Crow was and wasn't. He is speaking directly to the errors of today, which threaten to calcify the reality of the past into doctrinaire historical misunderstandings. -- Jeremy Ray Jewell * Arts Fuse *If some observers today are tempted to look at the racial injustices that still abound... and claim that little has changed since the days of Jim Crow, Reed shows the folly of such a conclusion -- Jason Sokol * Washington Post *Part memoir, part history, and part political treatise, The South chronicles Reed's life under Jim Crow to correct what he sees as misleading representations of the past. -- Elias Rodriques * Bookforum *In The South, Reed recounts growing up in New Orleans while blending in his analysis of segregation. Like his criticisms of Obama or The 1619 Project, Reed's perspectives on Jim Crow are both incisive and incendiary. -- Jonah Goldman Kay * Los Angeles Review of Books *Reed has added nuance and insight to understanding the segregated South as it came to a formal end. -- Steve Suitts * Southern Spaces *
£14.24
Verso Books The Twilight of Unionism: Ulster and the Future of Northern Ireland
The fissures that have split the United Kingdom in the last decades have run through Northern Ireland. Since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the fragile peace has been threatened by Brexit, the rise and fall of the D U P and the failure of power-sharing arrangement between the main parties at the Stormont Assembly. As the very future of Northern Ireland is now in jeopardy, will Britain face up to its imperial legacy and address the deep inequalities that remain in the aftermath of the Troubles, and the uneven development of the 'New Ireland'?Geoffrey Bell offers an insightful history of Ulster Unionism from the 1960s to the present day. In recent years this has come to a crisis point. What is the future of the Union in the post-Brexit reality? How will the relationship between Northern Ireland and Westminster develop? Can the United Kingdom survive?
£14.24
Verso Books The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan: A Chronicle
Book SynopsisThe NATO occupation of Afghanistan is over, and a balance-sheet can be drawn. These essays on war and peace in the region reveal Tariq Ali at his sharpest and most prescient.Rarely has there been such an enthusiastic display of international unity as that which greeted the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Compared to Iraq, Afghanistan became the 'good war.' But a stalemate ensued, and the Taliban waited out the NATO contingents. Today, with the collapse of the puppet regime in Kabul, what does the future hold for a traumatised Afghan people? Will China become the dominant influence in the country? Tariq Ali has been following the wars on Afghanistan for forty years. He opposed Soviet military intervention in 1979, predicting disaster. He was also a fierce critic of its NATO sequel, 'Operation Enduring Freedom'. In a series of trenchant commentaries, he described the tragedies inflicted on Afghanistan, as well as the semi-Talibanisation and militarisation of neighbouring Pakistan. Most of his predictions proved accurate. The Forty Year War in Afghanistan brings together the best of his writings and includes a new introduction.Trade ReviewPraise for The Duel: 'Ali's discussion of Afghanistan is highly valuable because of the questions it raises . a starting point for a much-needed debate.' -- Ray Bonner * New York Times *Praise for The Extreme Centre: "The typical Financial Times reader might find his bias so irksome they cannot continue. This would be a pity." * Financial Times *Evergreen ... Ali has argued against each occupation from its beginning; the result is an embittered, haunting refrain. -- Eileen Gonzalez * Foreword Reviews *A key contribution to make sense of the decades-long events that culminated in the chaotic scenes at Kabul's airport in August 2021. -- Marc Martorell Junyent * Inside Arabia *Erudite and committed ... This collection is indispensable for forming an understanding of what has happened and why. -- Andrew Murray * Morning Star *No one, Left or Right, has followed the misadventure of US policy in Afghanistan with such dogged attention and keen insight. -- Paul Buhle * Counterpunch *Unlike pro-interventionist liberal and even conservative interpretations of Afghanistan's recent history, Ali's anti-imperialist understanding provides the glue that binds the bloody tale together. -- Ron Jacobs * Counterpunch *Brilliant and incisive ... a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the causes and consequences of the decades-long turmoil in Afghanistan. -- N.P. Ullekh * Open the Magazine *Witty, insightful, and full of detail ... a book replete with encounters and anecdotes, evocative descriptions, and a brutal honesty about the corrupting power of war. -- Terina Hine * Counterfire *
£10.44
Verso Books Travellers of the World Revolution: A Global
Book SynopsisThe Communist International was the first organised attempt to bring about worldwide revolution and left a lasting mark on 20th-century history. The book offers a new and fascinating account of this transnational organisation founded in 1919 by Lenin and Trotsky and dissolved by Stalin in 1943, telling the story through the eyes of the activists who became its "professional revolutionaries". Studer follows such figures as Willi Münzenberg, Mikhail Borodin, M.N. Roy and Evelyn Trent, Tina Modotti, Agnes Smedley and many others less well-known as they are despatched to the successive political hotspots of the 1920s and '30s, from revolutionary Berlin to Baku, from Shanghai to Spain, from Nazi Germany to Stalin's Moscow. It traces their journeys from revolutionary hope to accommodation, defeat or death, looking at questions of motivation and commitment, agency and negotiation, of life and love, conflict and frustration. In doing so, it reveals a forgotten Comintern, the expression of a multi-dimensional revolutionary moment, which attracted not only working-class but feminist, anti-racist, anti-colonial and anti-imperialist activists, highlighting the role of women in the Comintern and the centrality of anti-colonialism to the Communist project. The book concludes with a reflection on the ultimate demise of a historically unique undertaking.Trade ReviewOver the past quarter of a century, Brigitte Studer has established herself as the world's most original and creative historian of the Comintern. She has pioneered a style of history that transcends the Cold War story of leaders, institutions, ideological clashes, and organizational acronyms in order to explore the lives of those individuals who dedicated themselves to making communist revolution. In Travellers of the World Revolution she explores with verve and insight the lives of two dozen Comintern activists, men and women who were sent by Moscow across the world to set up communist parties, found newspapers, organize and finance political uprisings and military action, or engage in espionage on behalf of the Soviet motherland. Living out of suitcases, they were at constant risk of arrest, interrogation, torture, and even death; yet Studer also shows that much of their lives comprised a dull routine of keeping Moscow informed of what they were doing. As a study of revolutionary commitment it is a first-class piece of work. -- Steve A. Smith, All Souls College, OxfordTravellers of the World Revolution is a fascinating history of the Comintern from the perspective of the women and men who in the 1920s and 1930s staffed its offices from Moscow to Berlin, Shanghai, and Madrid. Tracking these polyglot border crossers, who worked as translators, bookkeepers, propagandists, instructors, couriers, and sometimes spies, Brigitte Studer uncovers their efforts to revolutionize the world and themselves. Her account of the everyday lives of the Comintern's daring world travellers reveals the appeal -- and the limits -- of dreams of economic, racial, and gender equality. -- Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, West Chester UniversityUsually, historians of the Communist International have focused on parties, congresses, and strategies. Brigitte Studer changes the perspective: she reconstitutes the epic, exciting, and tragic itinerary of a few generations of human beings who made revolution a form of life. She merges the carefulness of historical scholarship with the sensitivity of feminism and a postcolonial gaze, thus offering a completely new portrait of the Communist International. Her magisterial work is irreplaceable both for our historical knowledge and for the memory of the left in the twenty-first century. -- Enzo TraversoExpansive and impeccably researched, this is a valuable addition to scholarship on early 20th-century communism. * Publishers Weekly *A landmark publication...Studer's book is a fascinating and informative read for anyone wishing to understand this momentous period and the part played by the Comintern. -- John Green * Morning Star *Studer focuses on the thousands of professional revolutionaries who kept the International running. These polyglot activists earned very little money, traveling from country to country, often illegally, doing myriad jobs, and sometimes ending up in prison. They converged at different hotspots of world revolution: Moscow 1920, Berlin 1923, Shanghai 1925-27, Madrid 1936. Theirs is the story of the Comintern as a workplace. -- Nathaniel Flakin * Left Voice *
£27.00
Stenlake Publishing Old Bridgeton and Calton
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£11.35
Stenlake Publishing Old Banff and Macduff
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£11.35
Stenlake Publishing Old Arbroath
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£11.35
Stenlake Publishing Old Dumbarton
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£11.35
Stenlake Publishing Old Aston, Erdington, Kingstanding and Great Barr
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£11.35
Stenlake Publishing Old Oban
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£11.35
