History Books

Book SynopsisThe acclaimed first English-language biography of the great European novelist and journalist, Joseph Roth, author of The Radetzky March, a writer who captured life in Europe between the wars like no other. The mercurial, self-mythologising novelist and journalist Joseph Roth, author of the 20th-century masterpiece The Radetzky March, was the finest observer and chronicler of his age. Endless Flight travels with Roth from his childhood in the town of Brody on the eastern edge of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to an unsettled life spent roaming Europe between the wars, including spells in Vienna, Paris and Berlin. His decline mirrored the collapse of civilised Europe: in his last peripatetic decade, he opposed Nazism in exile from Germany, his wife succumbed to schizophrenia and he died an alcoholic on the eve of WWII. Exploring the role of Roth's absent father in his imaginings, his attitude to his Jewishness and his restless search for home, Keiron Pim's gripping account of Roth's chaotic life speaks powerfully to us in our era of uncertainty, refugee crises and rising ethno-nationalism. Published as Roth's works rapidly gain new readers and recognition, Endless Flight delivers a visceral yet sensitive portrait of his quest for belonging, and a riveting understanding of the brilliance and beauty of his work.Trade ReviewFascinating, sophisticated, meticulous: this biography of Joseph Roth catches his cosmopolitan spirit, turbulent nature and literary genius amidst the melancholy of a darkening age -- Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin the court of the red tsarUtterly engrossing. Endless Flight is a biography of deep humanity, one that captures the individual, the place and the times with acute and affecting brilliance. I loved it -- Philippe SandsA novelist of genius, an anti-nationalist prophet in the wilderness, a human being capable of the monstrous: Endless Flight does humane and painstaking justice to all these aspects, and more, of Joseph Roth's short, utterly compelling life. Anyone who reckons The Radetzky March one of the supreme twentieth-century novels will devour Keiron Pim's biography avariciously -- David KynastonA superb biography - fascinating, shrewd, insightful. Finally, Joseph Roth's extraordinary life is recounted for his multitude of English readers in compelling detail... Enthralling -- William BoydIt's incredible that it's taken this long for an English-language biography of Joseph Roth to appear-and incredibly fortunate that Keiron Pim has been the one to do it, evoking with compassion and depth the work and the world of one of the greatest of modern writers -- Benjamin MoserA remarkable and penetrating study of Roth's life and times. Today, even more of the world finds itself in endless flight. As such, this beautiful, timely and critically important book introduces English readers to an indispensable guide both to Roth's past and to our present -- Devorah BaumPim has told this vital and singular story with the deft tenacity and the passionate flexibility of attitude and tone that it requires, and his book is a mighty achievement -- Patrick MackieKieron Pim combines admirably lucid prose with exhaustive research and a great affection for his subject... A thoughtful, absorbing and assured account of a great author's complex, rootless and ultimately tragic life... [Endless Flight is] an indispensable guide to [Roth's] life and work, and essential reading for admirers and newcomers. -- David CollardAlmost unbearably affecting. Make no mistake, this biography is a masterpiece -- Neel MukherjeeThis wonderful biography is a major contribution to the appreciation of Joseph Roth in the English-speaking world. Roth's unique genius is richly portrayed, as are the turbulent times that formed him. A propulsive journey through European, Jewish, and literary life between the wars -- Adam FouldsThis resplendent biography not only opens for us a window into a life unknown, but serves up a mirror inviting us to take a look at our own lives. We are left in no doubt that the forces that rended Roth's world are still active in ours * The Times *Absorbing... This is a thoughtful, thorough, and sympathetic book, and a necessary one... Endless Flight is a welcome aid for people like me who can't read Roth, or his critics and biographers, in German, and for any English-language readers who might want an introduction to his work. And now, more than ever, is the time to read him -- Hermione Lee * NYRB *[Roth's] fiction may rob us of our illusions, but he singlehandedly, and with an extraordinary story-teller's gift of elegance and wit, cleared Europe's literary decks of their 19th-century hangovers and readied it for modernity. This fine biography, with its spirited, shrewd, thorough understanding of its times, shows us exactly what that cost its subject -- Julian Evans * Telegraph *Thrilling... Pim's detective work, untangling Roth's tortured (sometimes maddening) contradictions, is enormously impressive, and his analysis of Roth's work is incisive and sometimes revelatory. But what really drives this biography is Pim's deep sympathy for Roth, which he sustains without ever glamorising or sentimentalising his subject * Literary Review *Thankfully, with Endless Flight, we finally have an English language biography of Roth. And biographer Pim is worthy of the mammoth task at hand, chronicling the complex story of Roth's ultimately tragic life with sensitivity, intelligence, and some serious and revelatory research... an important biography * Big Issue *Pim's... effort to understand the man in full is profound and the result feels definitive. His research empowers him to be rigorously sceptical... Pim steadily builds the case that Roth's vagabond life - he lived out of three suitcases and was happiest in hotels - was his animating paradox -- Dorian Lynskey * The Guardian *Keiron Pim... brings all the details of this consistently creative but wretched life together in an engrossing fashion, giving all the historical context we might need... His analysis of Roth's novels is clear and convincing, clear of any fanciful conjecture * The Irish Times *Deeply considered, rigorously researched and brimming with fascinating details and insights, it situates the man and his work in their wider political and social context, ably showing how Roth "drew from his multiple traumas to create works that endure owing to their conscience, percipience [and] ironic humour" * Financial Times *Pim's masterstoke is to view Roth first and foremost as a writer... Pim is scrupulous in his research and fair in his assessments, but he goes beyond observing such biographer's duties... The further Pim delves, the richer the picture becomes -- Rachel Seiffert * Prospect *Vivid... convincing... It is Keiron Pim's substantial achievement in Endless Flight to have shown us the magnitude of Roth's struggle in a turbulent era that has alarming parallels with our own -- George Prochnik * TLS *Really sympathetic and gets [Roth's] contradictions... Couldn't be more relevant -- Samantha Ellis * BBC Radio 4 Front Row *Pim is particularly good on Roth's Jewishness... A dark story, movingly told * Jewish Chronicle *Timely... Keiron Pim's is the first English-language biography of Roth, and what a superb book it is - impeccably researched, extremely readable and, it must be said, grimly relevant... Unfailingly well-written and informative, Endless Flight is a grand tribute to one of the most discomfiting literary geniuses of the 20th century -- Ian Thompson * Observer *With the publication of Keiron Pim's Endless Flight, it's as if the shutters have been flung open and the lights switched on. English readers finally have a comprehensive, detailed and supremely empathetic account of Roth's whole life, researched with breathtaking thoroughness and told with a transparency and a compassion worthy of Roth's own writing... A masterly and moving biography, and anyone interested in the fate of European culture in the 20th century will want to read it. And then, as with Roth's own work, to return and re-read it in mounting gratitude, pity and wonder * The Critic *Capably carried out -- Philip Hensher * Spectator *A fitting account of one of Europe's great, troubled literary geniuses * New European *Richly detailed, insightful and compendious, this biography supplies all the information on Roth's tormented, rootless, inebriated life: good and bad, noble and shameful. We have the work - now we have the man. A great deal is explained and clarified as a result -- William Boyd * TLS *Reading Pim's sparkling, effervescent study of Roth's life, it seems his gifts flourished not in spite of his suffering but because of it -- Madoc Cairns * Oldie *Keiron Pim is a determined, persistent biographer. There are no easy subjects in his eye; instead, he focuses on figures we know little about, who we want to know more about, and then, in a meticulous, no-stone-unturned pursuit of their lives, tells us a fascinating story about even more fascinating characters * Eastern Daily Press *Keiron Pim joins Roth on his rackety grand European tour and with him recaptures that age -- Laura Freeman * The Times *

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Book SynopsisA landmark journey along the full length of the old Iron Curtain - from the Arctic Circle to Turkey's eastern border - tracing the history of the Cold War and meeting the people who live with its legacy. The Iron Curtain divided the continent of Europe, north to south, with the Berlin Wall as its most visible, infamous manifestation. Since the Cold War ended and these borders came down, Europe has transformed itself. New generations have grown up, freed from the tensions and restrictions of the past. But what do the Curtain and the Wall mean today? What has happened to the people and places they divided? What have they left in their wake? In a major new book, Timothy Phillips travels the route of the Iron Curtain from deep inside the Arctic Circle to the meeting point of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey. He explores the borderlands where the clash of civilisations was at its most intense between 1945 and 1989, and where the world's most powerful ideologies became tangible in reinforced concrete and barbed wire. He looks at the new Europe that emerged from the ruins. The people he meets bear vivid witness to times of change. There are those who look back on the Cold War with nostalgia and affection. Others despise it, unable to forgive the hard and sometimes lost decades that their families, friends and nations endured. These old fault lines have much to tell us about Europe now and about our societies' current disputes - over borders, and about belonging and the meaning of progress. The Curtain and the Wall transports the reader across 5,000 kilometres of Europe and through eight decades to show how one of the defining stories of the 20th century continues to shape our world today.Trade ReviewAn account not only of how the Cold War frontiers were drawn, guarded or penetrated by brave escapers, but - more importantly - of how often they were rendered discreetly porous by all kinds of compromise ... fascinating -- Neal AschersonA brilliant book, not only based on an inspired idea, but also written with a keen eye for human hopes, fears and tragedies. ... full of surprises -- William Hague[Phillips] visited strange places that very few people have ever heard of but which, nevertheless, were vitally important in the east-west divide... [He] can be very funny... Yet Phillips can also be sombre... Excellent * Sunday Times *Phillips has a good ear for historical anecdotes and writes with empathy and acuity about the people and places he encounters... These individual stories are narrated with energy and aplomb * TLS *At a time when we seem to be entering a new Cold War, here's a book on the hangover from the original one... [Phillips] travels from the Arctic Circle to Turkey's eastern border, tracing the history of the Iron Curtain and meeting the people who live with its legacy * Deskbound Traveller *An engaging blend of travel, history and politics, with much resonance for today * Bookseller *A first class analysis of cold war history... well researched * Sunday Independent *

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Book SynopsisAn epic journey across 5,000 kilometres and through eight decades, to tell a new story about the old Cold War faultlines With the fall of the Berlin Wall, it seemed that the old divisions between East and West had been consigned to history. But with tensions once again rising, the past has much to tell us about our present. Here Timothy Phillips undertakes a fascinating journey along the full length of the former Iron Curtain, from the Arctic Circle to Turkey's eastern border, to meet the people who bore witness to this tumultuous era and those who continue to live in its shadow. 'A first class analysis of Cold War history' Sunday Independent '[Phillips] visited strange places that very few people have ever heard of but which were vitally important in the east-west divide... Phillips is a good observer... [with] excellent powers of narrative' Sunday Times 'Narrated with energy and aplomb... Phillips has a good ear for historical anecdotes and writes with empathy and acuity about the people and places he encounters' Times Literary SupplementTrade ReviewAn account not only of how the Cold War frontiers were drawn, guarded or penetrated by brave escapers, but - more importantly - of how often they were rendered discreetly porous by all kinds of compromise ... fascinating -- Neal AschersonA brilliant book, not only based on an inspired idea, but also written with a keen eye for human hopes, fears and tragedies. ... full of surprises -- William Hague[Phillips] visited strange places that very few people have ever heard of but which, nevertheless, were vitally important in the east-west divide... [He] can be very funny... Yet Phillips can also be sombre... Excellent * Sunday Times *Phillips has a good ear for historical anecdotes and writes with empathy and acuity about the people and places he encounters... These individual stories are narrated with energy and aplomb * TLS *At a time when we seem to be entering a new Cold War, here's a book on the hangover from the original one... [Phillips] travels from the Arctic Circle to Turkey's eastern border, tracing the history of the Iron Curtain and meeting the people who live with its legacy * Deskbound Traveller *An engaging blend of travel, history and politics, with much resonance for today * Bookseller *A first class analysis of cold war history... well researched * Sunday Independent *

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Book Synopsis'Powerful and gripping... Goñi [is] impressively relentless: leaving no discoverable stone unturned' Philippe Sands, author of The Ratline As Russian forces closed in on Berlin, and Hitler's regime drew to a close, many Nazi officials began to organize their escape from Germany. Thanks to an international effort - which included the enthusiastic support of the Vatican and President Juan Perón - they were able to evade justice, and found refuge in Argentina. In this startling, meticulously researched account, acclaimed author Uki Goñi unravels the complex network that protected these fugitives, revealing the 'ratline' that allowed Adolf Eichmann - the architect of the 'Final Solution' - Josef Mengele, Erich Priebke, and many more to escape Europe. Both compelling and revelatory, this remarkable investigation sheds vital light on a disquieting period in Europe's history. This revised edition includes a new foreword by the author, new interviews, and a comprehensive list of the Nazi and European World War Two criminals who fled to Argentina.Trade ReviewUki Goñi's five year search for collateral evidence led him to files in Europe that confirmed a true story more gripping than... fiction * The Times *A fascinating expose... essential * New Statesman *Breathtakingly sinister - the stuff of every postwar spy novel * Sunday Telegraph *Historical honesty shines through the pages of one of the most dishonest episodes in history -- Richard Overy * Sunday Telegraph *Despite being thwarted by Argentine bureaucracy, we now have the full scandalous picture... [Goñi] has performed an essential task with bravery and discipline * Guardian *A brilliant work of detection and painstaking perseverance * Morning Star *Goni has powerfully exposed the deceits and conniving, and pierced what he calls the "wall of silence" * Sunday Times, Culture *

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Book SynopsisA TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR The year is 1851. It's a time of radical change in Britain, when industrial miracles and artistic innovations rub shoulders with political unrest, poverty and disease. It's also a turbulent time in the life of Charles Dickens, as he copes with a double bereavement and early signs that his marriage is falling apart. But this year will become the turning point in Dickens's career, as he embraces his calling as a chronicler of ordinary people's lives. The Turning Point transports us into the foggy streets of Dickens's London, closely following the twists and turns of a year that would come to define him, and forever alter Britain's relationship with the world.'Sparklingly informative' Guardian'Wonderfully entertaining' Observer'It is hard to imagine a better book on Dickens' New StatesmanTrade ReviewThis tremendous book dazzles and delights... it's full of discoveries. A glorious book; revealing and unravelling Charles Dickens before our very eyes, melding his life and his work, using scholarship, wit and passion - a triumph. * Miriam Margolyes *This immersive biography, by the author of the Costa-shortlisted The Story of Alice, had me hooked... published in a sumptuous package, with illustrations throughout. * The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice *Clever and witty, packed with fiercely academic research and erudite analysis, but written in featherlight, elegant prose. -- Natalie HaynesThe Turning Point...builds incrementally towards Bleak House...[and] makes for a very satisfying finale... Robert Douglas-Fairhurst has taken pains of his own and this wonderfully entertaining book is the result. -- Anthony Quinn * Observer *Douglas-Fairhurst is a shrewd, amusing and original guide... [he] gives you fascinating facts... [and] a brisk and brilliant analysis of Bleak House. -- Laura Freeman * The Times *

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Book Synopsis'A remarkable oral history of black postwar British life… Homecoming is an extraordinary and compelling book' Daily TelegraphHomecoming draws on over a hundred first-hand interviews, archival recordings and memoirs by the women and men who came to Britain from the West Indies between the late 1940s and the early 1960s. In their own words, we witness the transition from the optimism of the first post-war arrivals to the race riots of the late 1950s. We hear from nurses in Manchester; bus drivers in Bristol; seamstresses in Birmingham; teachers in Croydon; dockers in Cardiff; inter-racial lovers in High Wycombe, and Carnival Queens in Leeds. These are stories of hope and regret, of triumphs and challenges, brimming with humour, anger and wisdom. Together, they reveal a rich tapestry of Caribbean British lives. Homecoming is an unforgettable portrait of a generation, which brilliantly illuminates an essential and much-misunderstood chapter of our history.** A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week****A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year**Trade ReviewA remarkable oral history of black postwar British life… Homecoming is an extraordinary and compelling book in which the memories of bus drivers, civil servants, engineers, nurses, RAF and army recruits, teachers, shop stewards and seamstresses jostle with those of journalists, musicians, novelists and poets... The recovered memories in Homecoming are a formidable challenge to those still nostalgic for a lost empire, to all who cling to narrow and parochial definitions of Britishness... The voices in Homecoming sing throughout the book but they also reverberate pain, for so many are recounting stories they do not want to remember. -- Hazel V Carby * Daily Telegraph *Grant is the writer to do justice to [the Windrush Generation’s] lives… he has conducted dozens of interviews, dug into the Mass Observation archives, and combed through semi-forgotten oral histories from the 1960s to produce this anthology of submerged lives that prickles with beautiful, comic and brutal details. * Observer *Homecoming by Colin Grant is...by turns sad, painful, warm, revelatory and utterly fascinating. I think we would live in a slightly kinder and better country if everyone read [it]. -- Mark Haddon * New Statesman *Books of the Year* *Drawing on scores of first-hand accounts, Colin Grant offers oral history at its finest. -- Bel Mooney * Daily Mail *Hundreds of first hand interviews, archive footage and memoir extracts of the Windrush Generation, beautifully edited into a patchwork quilt of experience and heritage. It's so powerful hearing these voices direct, making for a hopeful and angry, joyful and tear-jerking read. * Grazia *

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Book Synopsis‘Can one part of humanity learn from the bitter experience of another or can it not? Is it possible or impossible to warn someone of danger...to assess soberly the worldwide menace that threatens to swallow the whole world?I was swallowed myself. I have been in the dragon’s belly, in its red-hot innards. It was unable to digest me and threw me up. I have come to you as a witness to what it is like there, in the dragon’s belly’During 1975 and 1976, Nobel Prize-winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn embarked on a series of speeches across America and Britain that would shock and scandalise both countries. His message: the West was veering towards moral and spiritual bankruptcy, and with it the world’s one hope against tyranny and totalitarianism.From Solzhenitsyn’s warnings about the allure of communism, to his rebuke that the West should not abandon its age-old concepts of ‘good’ and ‘evil’, the speeches collected in Warning to the West provide insight into Solzhenitsyn’s uncompromising moral vision. Read today, their message remains as powerfully urgent as when Solzhenitsyn first delivered them.Trade ReviewWhen we look back at the 20th century, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn will be remembered not just as an influential author, but as one of the few authors who actually altered the way in which millions of people thought about politics... Solzhenitsyn stood out, even among an exceptional generation of Russian dissidents and writers, for his extraordinary commitment to truth-telling -- Anne Applebaum

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Book SynopsisThe first volume of the remarkable autobiography of Arthur Koestler, author of Darkness at Noon.In 1931, Arthur Koestler joined the Communist Party, an event he felt to be second only in importance to his birth in shaping his destiny. Before that point, he lived a tumultuous and varied existence. He was a member of the duelling fraternity at the University of Vienna; a collective farm worker in Galilee; a tramp and street vendor in Haifa; the editor of a weekly paper in Cairo; the foreign correspondent of the biggest continental newspaper chain in Paris and the Middle East; a science editor in Berlin; and a member of the North Pole expedition of the Graf Zeppelin. Written with enormous zest, joie de vivre and frankness, Arrow in the Blue is a fascinating self-portrait of a remarkable young man at the heart of the events that shaped the twentieth century. The second volume of Arthur Koestler's autobiography is The Invisible Writing.Trade ReviewA brilliant and deeply moving record of a whole generation as well as of an individual * Observer *The cumulative effect is overwhelming * New Republic *He is a journalist of ideas on a very high level - the kind we lack and need in this country - who functions midway between the realms of art and of society, but whose function is indispensable, if thought is to be part of culture * Saturday Review *Perhaps the most remarkable autobiography since the confessions of Rousseau -- V. S. Pritchett * New Statesman *

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Book Synopsis'Clear, dispassionate and selfless' Spectator'Exhaustive in her research, tenacious in spotting errors, indignant in denouncing lies.' Guardian'A compelling account of an extraordinary political scandal, written from inside the Stonehouse family'. Martin Bell** The authoritative account of the infamous runaway MP, by his daughter **On 20 November 1974, British Labour MP and Privy Counsellor John Stonehouse faked his death in Miami and, using a forged identity, entered Australia hoping to escape his old life and start anew. One month later his identity was uncovered and he was cautioned; the start of years of legal proceedings.In a tale that involves spies from the communist Czechoslovak secret service, a three-way love affair and the Old Bailey, John's daughter examines previously unseen evidence, telling the dramatic true story for the first time, disputing allegations and upturning common misconceptions which are still in circulation.The story was never far from the front pages of the press in the mid-70s, and yet so much of the truth is still unknown. A close look at the political dynamics of the time; paced like a thriller, it's time for the world to know the real John Stonehouse.'No book before this has delved into this fascinating political scandal in so much detail and with empathy.' ReactionTrade ReviewA compelling account of an extraordinary political scandal, written from inside the Stonehouse family. -- Martin BellClear, dispassionate and selfless. -- Craig Brown * Spectator *Exhaustive in her research, tenacious in spotting errors, indignant in denouncing lies. -- Blake Morrison * Guardian *No book before this has delved into this fascinating political scandal in so much detail and with empathy. * Reaction *

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Book SynopsisJanuary, 1953. It is eight years on from the most destructive conflict in human history and the Cold War has entered its most deadly phase. An Iron Curtain has descended across Europe, and hostilities between the United States and the Soviet Union have turned hot on the Korean peninsula, as the two powers clash in an intractable and bloody proxy war. Meanwhile, the pace of the nuclear arms race has become frenetic. The Soviet Union has finally tested its own atom bomb, as has Britain. But in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the United States has detonated its first thermonuclear device, dwarfing the destruction unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War. For the first time the Doomsday Clock is set at two minutes to midnight, with the chances of a man-made global apocalypse becoming increasingly likely. As the Cold War powers square up in political and military battles around the globe, every city has become a potential battleground and every citizen a target. 1953 is set to be a year of living dangerously.Trade Review"A page-turning account of an epoch-changing year, with unexpected portraits and gripping narrative details. Popular history at its best." - Andrew Marr "For far too long, 1953 has been thought of as a monochrome year; just another twelve months in the boring 1950s. Now Roger Hermiston explodes that theory by showing it in all its most vivid colours, presenting it in a way that will ensure that it will be appreciated as a true turning point in modern history. His gripping account of the death of Stalin, the discovery of DNA, Winston Churchill's stroke, Dwight Eisenhower's presidency and so much more will stay with readers long after they finish the last page of this well-researched, thoughtful, well-written and groundbreaking book." - Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny "A fascinating account of a remarkable year. Roger Hermiston builds a compelling, and eminently readable, case for the view that 1953 was a pivotal year, a turning point in the Cold War and in the creation of the world we still inhabit today." - Jonathan Freedland, Guardian columnist and presenter of BBC Radio 4's The Long View

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Book SynopsisThe story of us - without hesitation, repetition or deviation.Join national treasure and Just a Minute regular Gyles Brandreth on a hilariously addictive romp through British history. This isn't just another history book - there's a catch! From Stonehenge and Boudicca to Megxit and Brexit, each topic is written in 60-second installments, without hesitation, repetition, or deviation.A History of Britain in Just a Minute celebrates key moments, people and places from our past: kings and queens, heroes and villains, triumphs and disasters, inventions and events, battles and bonnets, art, science, literature, entertainment, sport, gossip, and more. Some entries are uninterrupted minutes, while others feature challenges for repetition and even, er...hesitation. You'll even find other Just a Minute panellists occasionally grabbing the pen to regale us with their witty takes on history.You've never heard the history of Britain told quite like this. You'll enjoy every uproarious minute of it.

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Book SynopsisKhalil Maleki (1901–1969) was a selfless campaigner for democracy and social welfare in twentieth-century Iran. His was a unique approach to politics, prioritising the criticism of policies detrimental to his country’s development over the pursuit of power itself. An influential figure, he was at the centre of such formative events as the split of the communist Tudeh party, and the 1953 coup and its aftermath. In an age of intolerance and uncompromising confrontation, Maleki remained an indefatigable advocate for open discussion and peaceful reform – a stance that saw him jailed several times. This work makes a compelling case for him to be regarded among the foremost thinkers of his generation.Trade Review'The combination of Katouzian’s firsthand knowledge of some of the episodes on which he reports, his detailed record of Maleki’s associations with other prominent intellectual and political figures of the mid-twentieth century, and his wide-angle account of social and political life in modern Iran makes the book a unique and valuable resource for scholars of modern Iranian history and political thought.' -- Iranian Studies‘Khalil Maleki is not only an authoritative and insightful account of the political life and ideas of Iran’s foremost democratic socialist during the middle decades of the twentieth century, but an erudite and incisive analysis of the country’s intellectual and political history through that fateful century. It is based on a wealth of primary sources and the author’s own lifetime of prodigious scholarship.’ -- Ali Banuazizi, Professor of Political Science, Boston College‘A major contribution to the recovery of the rich, but lesser-known, tradition of the Iranian Left. Khalil Maleki’s life, and his intellectual journey, tell the story of the complicated road Iran travelled in its desire to achieve a “national” modernity, and to be at “home” with the modern world. In this context, Dr Katouzian’s work deserves considerable scholarly attention for its achievement.’ -- Ali Mirsepassi, Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University‘Drawing on his lifetime’s work on Iranian modern history, Homa Katouzian has provided us with a rich and authoritative account of Khalil Maleki’s political and intellectual life.’ -- Roham Alvandi, Associate Professor of International History, London School of Economics and Political ScienceTable of ContentsAcknowledgements A Note on Transliteration Introduction: The Age of Khalil Maleki 1 Khalil Maleki and the Fifty-Three 2 The Tudeh Party 3 Power Struggles and Oil Nationalisation 4 The Toilers Party 5 The Third Force 6 The 1953 Coup and After 7 Power Struggles, 1960–1963 8 Maleki: The Last Phase Epilogue: Maleki’s Success and Failure Select Bibliography Notes Index

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Book SynopsisCharles Wheeler, the BBC's longest-serving foreign correspondent, was one of Britain's greatest news reporters. For more than four decades, he reported for radio and television from most of the world's trouble spots. Present at many of the key episodes of the twentieth century, he had - as a BBC manager noted after the shooting of George Wallace, Presidential candidate and Governor of Alabama, on 15 May 1972, 'a knack of being in the right place at the right time'. It was typical of Charles that he ran towards the sound of the gunshot while the crowd was running in the opposite direction.Wheeler's investigative skill and sense of judgement made him one of the most authoritative reporters of his generation. But what was it like to have been witness to the events that shaped our modern world? In this book - part memoir, part history, part reflection - his daughter, Shirin Wheeler, examines her father's journalistic legacy and brings her personal knowledge to bear on the project. She will tell the story of her father: a patient listener and forensic interrogator who was driven by curiosity and passion to report and expose injustice, and above all to give a voice to people ignored or unheard by many.

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Book SynopsisBritain has scarcely begun to come to terms with its recent upheavals, from the crisis over Brexit to the collapse of Labour's 'red wall'. What can explain such momentous shifts?In this essential work, Tom Hazeldine excavates the history of a divided country: North and South, industry versus finance, Whitehall and the left-behind. Only by fully registering these deep-seated tensions, he argues, can we make sense of the present moment. Hazeldine tracks the North-South divide over the longue durée, from the formation of an English state rooted in London and the south-east; the Industrial Revolution and the rise of provincial trade unions and the Labour party; the dashed hopes for regional economic renewal in the post-war years; the sharply contrasting fates of northern manufacturing and the City of London under Thatcher and New Labour; to the continuing repercussions of financial crisis and austerity. The Northern Question is set to transform our understanding of the politics of Westminster - its purpose, according to Hazeldine, to stand English history on its head.Trade ReviewA lively, provocative and richly researched book. Tom Hazeldine shows that far from being marginal to British politics and culture, northern England has played a pivotal role in British history - and must be given serious consideration by the politicians of the future. Well-written and absorbing. -- Selina Todd, author of Tastes of Honey and The PeopleThe definitive account of the historical importance of the North-South Divide. A masterly history of the shifting social forces shaped by this enduring fault-line. -- Geoffrey Ingham, author of The Nature of Money and Capitalism Divided?The disparity between the North of England and the South East is a rich and tangled history. Hazeldine's account is persuasive, and his long view is valuable. With real acuity, he highlights key differences in people's ideas of political possibility. -- John Harris * Guardian *The first serious study of the social and historical fissure to appear in more than 30 years. * Big Issue *An expansive account of the north-south divide -- Lynsey Hanley * Financial Times *Shunning simplifications and panegyrics, Hazeldine's book is particularly strong on the postwar period, during which both Labour and Tory governments wrestled with the northern question and failed to provide an answer -- ProspectDeserve[s] a place on the bookshelves of any historian concerned with England. * New Welsh Review *Brilliant ... [a] gripping, important, infuriating history -- Review31 * http://review31.co.uk/essay/view/90/england's-house-divided *A confident, synoptic book, taking on a thousand years of England's North/South divide -- Owen Hatherley * Tribune *Compelling, rigorous and ambitious * Jacobin *Hazeldine painstakingly recounts how successive twentieth-century governments sacrificed the North on the altar of sterling and the South East. * Times Literary Supplement *A historical travelogue not for the politically faint-hearted. -- Mark Perryman * Philosophy Football *

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Book SynopsisTHE IRISH BESTSELLER 'Ferriter has richly earned his reputation as one of Ireland's leading historians' Irish Independent 'Absorbing ... A fascinating exploration of the Civil War and its impact on Ireland and Irish politics' Irish Times In June 1922, just seven months after Sinn Féin negotiators signed a compromise treaty with representatives of the British government to create the Irish Free State, Ireland collapsed into civil war. While the body count suggests it was far less devastating than other European civil wars, it had a harrowing impact on the country and cast a long shadow, socially, economically and politically, which included both public rows and recriminations and deep, often private traumas. Drawing on many previously unpublished sources and newly released archival material, one of Ireland's most renowned historians lays bare the course and impact of the war and how this tragedy shaped modern Ireland.Trade ReviewSimply outstanding ... Between Two Hells takes us closer to the messy truth behind independent Ireland's birth pangs than ever before -- Andrew Lynch * Irish Independent *Original and arresting -- Henry Patterson * Sunday Times Ireland *Meticulously researched, judiciously balanced and unflinching ... breaks new ground -- Dermot Bolger * Sunday Business Post *Excellent ... Diarmaid Ferriter, Ireland's best-known and most prolific historian ... enriches lucid and judicious accounts of events and personalities with fresh archival evidence -- Cormac Ó Gráda * BBC History Magazine *Fascinating ... absorbing -- Eunan O'Halpin * Irish Times *Praise for A Nation and Not a Rabble: 'Very illuminating detail...simply setting violent events in context is a step forward. Thoughtful, balanced, even handed * Irish Times *Ferriter's book is of such comprehensive and original scope...immensely readable and impressive * Sunday Business Post *...The mighty mind this book comes from... rightly renowned for his voracious learning * Sunday Times *Tugs at the tapestry of myths surrounding the independence struggle and the civil war that followed...A tremendous feat of documentation * The Independent *

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Book SynopsisOn 23 May 1988, Paul Baker sat down with his family to eat cake on his sixteenth birthday while The Six O’Clock News played in the background. But something was not quite right. There was muffled shouting – ‘Stop Section 28!’ – and a scuffle. The morning papers would announce: ‘Beeb Man Sits on Lesbian’. The next day Section 28 passed into law, forbidding local authorities from teaching ‘the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. It would send shockwaves through British society, silencing gay pupils and teachers while galvanizing mass protests and the formation of the LGBTQ+ rights groups OutRage! and Stonewall. Now available in paperback, Outrageous! tells the full story: the background to the Act, how the press fanned the flames and what politicians said during debates, how protestors fought back to bring about the repeal of the law in the 2000s, and its eventual legacy. Based on detailed research, interviews with key figures – including Ian McKellen, Michael Cashman and Angela Mason – and personal recollection, it is an impassioned, warm, often moving account of unthinkable prejudice enshrined within law, and of the power of community to overcome it.Trade Review'I loved Baker's previous book, Fabulosa!. Now he has written this engaging history of Section 28, the act that forbade local authorities from teaching "the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretend family relationship". Interweaving elements of memoir, it charts how the press fanned the flames around the act, and how protestors fought to bring about the repeal of the law in the 2000s.' – The Bookseller; 'An important and fascinating deep dive into one of the most damaging pieces of legislation in modern history.' – Matthew Todd, author of Straight Jacket and Pride; 'A surprising, smart, funny, and beautifully written book. Equal parts memoir and cultural history, it tells a detailed and deeply personal story of grassroots LGBT activism and everyday queer life in the UK over the past thirty years.' – Jason Baumann, editor of The Stonewall Reader; 'Blowing the lid off a circus of sanctimony with flair, enormous heart and an eye for the absurd, this indispensable history reads like a madcap caper – reaffirming Paul Baker as an expert malarkey decoder, hope detector amid calamity rubble, and dab hand at the queer deep dive.' – Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of Gay Bar; 'The entirely pleasing thought that Outrageous! will be stocked in school libraries is a satisfying slap in the face to the battle-bus of bigots who thought Section 28 was a good idea in the first place . . . A lovely conversational social history.' – Paul Flynn, author of Good As You; 'Peppered with wry asides and anecdotes, this is a profile of Britain not so long ago – and of the people who fought back.' – History Revealed magazine; 'As Paul Baker sets out in this vivid look at the legislation and its effects, Section 28 represented "the culmination of the moral panic around homosexuality that took place over the 1980s". He sets this panic into its broader historical context, charting the long-burning cultural and political embers ignited when a London school stocked Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin . . . Baker movingly recounts the more pernicious ways in which it affected the lives of gay people . . . Baker's chatty, tart tone and personal asides serve to throw the heady extremes of a not-so-distant era into even sharper relief.' – BBC History magazine; 'Outrageous! tells the history of this legislation, interwoven with anecdotes from the author’s own adolescence. It balances the fraught subject matter with humor, particularly in its exploration of the inventive protests Section 28 inspired. This included a group of lesbian protestors who abseiled into the House of Lords on a clothesline as the legislation was being debated; and two years later, when Princess Diana’s speech at a family conference was invaded by five protestors holding placards that said "Lesbian mothers aren’t pretending.' – Huck Magazine; 'Entertaining, informative and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, this history of how Margaret Thatcher’s Section 28 was eventually defeated is also a timely reminder that the old demons of bigotry and exclusion are never far away.' – The Scotsman; 'Lucid, clear-eyed, warmly personable and peppered with deliciously wry commentary, it is a detailed, incisive background to the Act and the ideological and party politics from which it germinated, revealing how the press fanned the flames, what precisely politicians said during debates, and how protestors fought back to bring about the repeal of the law in the 2000s . . . Fascinating, engaging, inspiring.' – Attitude Magazine; 'As anyone familiar with Paul Baker's fantastically camp Fabulosa! would expect, his new book, in spite of its bleak subject matter, is more uproarious than self-pitying . . . A strength of Baker's book is the clear outline of the history of Section 28 and the context in which it arose . . . Baker's style is ultra-accessible.' – Literary Review; 'Outrageous! is a vitally important book that charts a very specific time in history and ensures that it can never be forgotten . . . Despite the heavy topic, it is written in a surprisingly light-hearted and conversational style, something that helps a lot given the sensitive topics it covers on every page.' – GeekMom.com

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Book Synopsis Conflict, domination, violence—in this wide-ranging, briskly narrated volume from acclaimed Mexican historian Carlos Illades, these three phenomena register the pulse of a diverse, but inequitable and discriminatory, social order. Drawing on rich and varied historical sources, Illades guides the reader through seven signal episodes in Mexican social history, from rebellions under Porfirio Díaz’s dictatorship to the cycles of violence that have plagued the country’s deep south to the recent emergence of neo-anarchist movements. Taken together, they comprise a mosaic history of power and resistance, with artisans, rural communities, revolutionaries, students, and ordinary people confronting the forces of domination and transforming Mexican society.Trade Review “Unequivocally, a very timely work that expands the understanding of Mexico’s social history…Highly recommended.” • Choice “Students and scholars of Mexican and Latin American history will benefit greatly from this accessibly written and timely collection.” • Bulletin of Latin American Research “This book pieces together emblematic fragments of Mexican social history to shed light on their structural continuities (in the repertoires of violence, forms of domination and cycles of contestation), and succeeds in posing important historical and political questions that may ultimately pertain to the present and future of social movements in and beyond Mexico.” • Journal of Latin American Studies “As one of the preeminent Mexican historians of his generation, Carlos Illades is uniquely able to provide a long-term perspective on themes of great contemporary relevance. This long-awaited translation of his work into English demonstrates his expertise on a range of historical topics, making a vital contribution to Mexican historiography.” • Pablo Piccato, Columbia UniversityTable of Contents Spanish Terms Used in This Book List of Organizations List of Figures, Illustrations and Tables Preface Chapter 1. The Historiography of Social Movements Chapter 2. The Organization and Collective Action of Craftsmen Chapter 3. The ‘Pueblos Unidos’ Rebellion Chapter 4. Revolution and Xenophobia Chapter 5. The Circle of Violence Chapter 6. Taking the Streets Chapter 7. Violence and Public Protest Chapter 8. The Autumn of Discontent Sources and Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisExplore the fascinating world of Greek and Roman history in this new entry in the bestselling Bite-Sized Chunks series.Perhaps more than any other period in history, the era of classical antiquity shaped the Western world as we know it today. From the pioneering schools of Greek philosophy to the far-reaching influence of the Roman Empire, so much of what we consider fundamental to our contemporary civilization can trace its roots back to Mediterranean Europe during this time.Divided into eight chapters, each covering an aspect of the classical world - the gods, heroes and monsters, rulers and government, war, art, philosophy, literature and science - this is the perfect primer for any reader looking for an introduction to one of the most captivating periods in history.With dozens of easy-to-digest entries on the most important people, events, art and mythology of the era, accom

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Book Synopsis"Throughout his long career, Frederick Douglass cut an imposing figure, renowned as an impassioned abolitionist, a fiery writer and newspaper editor. He was a great public speaker, who became a one-man crusade for black liberation." - Robert McCrum, The Guardian."It is difficult to think of anyone, at any time, who examined the race problem in its many aspects more profoundly, extensively, and subtly than W. E. B. Du Bois." - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy."I knew that, in a large degree, we were trying an experiment--that of testing whether or not it was possible for Negroes to build up and control the affairs of a large educational institution. I knew that if we failed it would injure the whole race." ?Booker T. Washington.Three African American Classics contains three of the most significant works of African American literature by three authors who led vastly different lives. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), a runaway slave, describes the horrors and humiliations of slavery, his escape, and his journey to becoming one of America''s great statesmen and orators. Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), born into slavery, was freed at the age of nine at the end of the Civil War. Until his first day at school he was known only by the name "Booker," but to be like all the other children, he quickly added "Washington," beginning his non-confrontational approach to self-advancement. Up from Slavery describes his childhood as a slave, his dogged pursuit of education, his founding of the Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, his work promoting educational and business opportunities for former slaves, and as an advisor to several US presidents.The Massachusetts-born, Harvard-educated W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) begins The Souls of Black Folk with the prescient phrase: "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the colour line." Lyrically and poetically written, The Souls of Black Folk is a seminal work in the history of sociology and a cornerstone of African-American literature. It is a profound examination of race in America, drawing on both Du Bois''s academic training and his personal experience as an African American in the United States. The Souls of Black Folk has been called "the political Bible of the Negro race."This edition is set in an easy to read 11-point font. 

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Book SynopsisBy the time he was six years old, Stephen Matthews had been bombarded by the Luftwaffe and deported from occupied Guernsey, along with his family, to a prison camp in the heart of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. He had seen men die in front of him and walked with Jews straight off the cattle-trucks from Bergen-Belsen. He had nearly drowned, menaced by Alsatian guard dogs, been beaten by a member of the SS, stranded in a minefield and had his hand broken by a German guard for attempting to feed Russian prisoners.The family kept going through over three of imprisonment, held together by their will to survival and their love for each other. But the island home they eventually returned to had been scarred and stricken by Nazi occupation.The Day the Nazis Came Here is an utterly unique memoir, depicting the world of Nazi prison camps through the eyes of a child - a world in which the real dangers often seemed trivial and every day was a new adventure. Above all, it pays tribute to the preciousness of hope, and shows that human kindness may flower in the unlikeliest of places.

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Book SynopsisThe Colour of Time spans more than a hundred years of world history from the reign of Queen Victoria and the US Civil War to the Cuban Missile Crisis and beginning of the Space Age. It charts the rise and fall of empires, the achievements of science, industry and the arts, the tragedies of war and the politics of peace, and the lives of men and women who made history. The book is a collaboration between a gifted Brazilian artist and a leading British historian. Marina Amaral has created 200 stunning images, using contemporary photographs as the basis for her full-colour digital renditions. Dan Jones has written a narrative that anchors each image in its context, and weaves them into a vivid account of the world that we live in today. A fusion of amazing pictures and well-chosen words, The Colour of Time offers a unique – and often beautiful – perspective on the past. This compact edition of The Colour of Time makes the perfect gift for anyone (and not just anyone interested in history).Trade ReviewA clever, deftly executed book... Marina Amaral has chosen 200 black-and-white photographs, taken between 1850 and 1960, and skilfully colourised them, which gives them new life, new relevance and new power... Dan Jones gives a nicely thoughtful commentary to it all' * Daily Mail, Coffee Table Books of the Year *Purists argue that colourising black and white photographs is sacrilege, but the world has always been in colour... Truth be told, monochrome is a contrivance. Human experience is always colourful' * The Times, Books of the Year *[The Colour of Time] does something simple yet extraordinary. It takes black-and-white photos of historic events and colours them in. The effect is transformative * Daily Telegraph *There is something of The Wizard of Oz about Marina Amaral's photographs. She whisks us from black-and-white Kansas to shimmering Technicolor Oz... When you see Amaral's coloured portraits, you think: phwoar!... She changes the way we see a period or a person' * Spectator *The effect of colour is far more transformative than you might imagine... [Amaral's] touched-up photographs look even more realistic, and closer to life, than a photograph taken yesterday... Extraordinary' * Mail on Sunday *What also elevates The Colour of Time above regular coffee table fare is the startling vivacity and impact of the photographs chosen, and the concise but focused and gripping texts by Jones, making the book a worthwhile cover-to-cover read as much as it serves as a showcase book to dip into at will * All About History *Spanning more than 100 years of world history, from Queen Victoria to the Cuban missile crisis, this book offers a fresh perspective on the past by transforming the black and white photographs that defined global events into full colour * BBC History *Illustrator Marina Amaral has digitally colourised 200 historic black-and-white photographs, making them look as though they were taken yesterday. Dan Jones explains the historical context of each startling image * Mail on Sunday, Books of the Year *I have long considered colourisation sacrilege... after reading this book, I've changed my mind' * The Times. *The most breathtakingly colourised black-and-white pictures ever * Daily Mail. *Both revelatory and familiar. Amaral's skills bring 19th- and early 20th-century photographic images to wholly unexpected and vivid life... Jones offers perceptive commentary, contextualising the events and people depicted with concise skill, meaning that this fine book is hugely readable' * Observer *Jones sketches the historical context with wry economy. Even familiar images take on a new dimension in colour * Daily Mirror *Stunning photos. The perfect gift for any historian * Bristol Life *

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Book Synopsis‘Everything about Venice,’ observed Lord Byron, ‘is, or was, extraordinary – her aspect is like a dream, and her history is like a romance.’ Dream and romance have conditioned myriad encounters with Venice across the centuries, but the city’s story embodies the hard reality of an independent state built on conquest, profit and entitlement and on the toughness and resilience of a free people. In this new study of key moments in Venice’s history, from its half-legendary founding amid the collapse of the Roman empire to its modern survival as a fragile city of the arts menaced by saturation tourism and rising sea levels, Jonathan Keates shows us just how much this remarkable place has contributed to world culture and explains how it endures as an object of desire and inspiration for so many.Trade Review[A] sumptuous and authoritative history of Venice * The Art Newspaper *..his love of the city radiates from every page * The Economist *Celebrating its peerless contributions to world culture, it's a complex history, but ultimately inspiring * Italia! *PRAISE FOR JONATHAN KEATES: 'Keates is an enthusiastic, serious and careful writer, and this delightful book, though designed up to the hilt, contains a lot to muse over' Guardian. 'As well as having magisterial critical judgements, this is a book rich in dry humour and telling anecdote' Spectator. 'Keates appraises his works with passionate scrutiny' Sunday Times. 'A beautifully paced and meticulously detailed narrative' Literary Review. 'Admirably concise and evocative' * The Times *

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Book SynopsisA WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023This is a neglected history. Not a sweeping, definitive, exhaustive history of the world but something quieter, more intimate and particular. A single journey, picked out in 101 objects, through the fascinating, too-often-overlooked, manifold histories of women.Open up this cabinet of curiosities and you'll find objects that have been highly esteemed - even, like the Bayeux tapestry, fought over by nations - and others that are humble and domestic. Some (like a sixteenth century glass dildo) are objects of female pleasure, some (a thumbscrew) of female subjugation. There are artefacts of women celebrated by history and of women unfairly forgotten by it; examples of female rebellion and of self-revelation; objects that are inspiring, curious or (like radium-laced chocolate) just fundamentally ill-conceived.Through the variety and nuance in all these 101 objects, Annabelle Hirsch has created a new history - teeming, unexpected, witty and always illuminating. This overdue corrective reveals what a healed femur says about civilisation, what men have to fear from hat pins, and it shows that the past has always been as complicated and fascinating as the women that peopled it.Trade ReviewAn ambitious project, wide in scope, idiosyncratic in approach . . . The power of this book is cumulative; read as a whole it becomes increasingly affecting. At its heart it is about female pain, female bravery and female creativity * * Sunday Times * *Hirsch provides a rich, subversive take on history . . . The scope and delicious imaginative leaps of Hirsch's work, translated from German by Eleanor Updegraff, start to work their magic. I guarantee many readers will be exposed to something new * * Financial Times * *Whimsical, fun and witty. Annabelle Hirsch's book is a like a treasure hunt through history, culture, politics, fashion and art -- ANDREA WULFA reminder, lest we forget, that women are and have always been, whether quietly or vociferously, on the periphery or centre stage, the engine, the glue, the inspiration behind it all -- GILLIAN ANDERSONI adored this book! Hirsch's intimate observational gifts turn that world into a rousing, living record of all that we have wrestled with -- OLIVIA COLMANA History Of Women In 101 Objects isn't just my best book of 2023. I'll keep it on my desk for years and whenever I need a coffee break or a pause for inspiration, I'll dip into it. Annabelle Hirsch's book is written with great flair and style, her sly wit giving us a new perspective on our lives -- JACQUELINE WILSONA fantastic cabinet of curiosities that rethinks the role of women in history. Educational, funny - a joy! -- LEILA SLIMANII love this book . . . A new feminist history of the world . . . Stirring, provocative and carefully researched -- LAUREN ELKINAn intimate, inspiring and unexpected look at the overlooked lives of women. Far from being weighed down with academic heft, this is the literary equivalent of spending a happy afternoon rooting through your grandma's handbag. A treasure trove of ideas, artefacts and stories -- SAM BAKERAn excellent reminder that women have always been there. They may be written out of texts, but the objects they leave behind reveal them in all their complexity. Women that fought, women that worked, women that wielded power and carried agency. Through these 101 objects you can touch the hands of ancestors and understand the worlds they inhabited -- DR JANINA RAMIREZI loved every chapter of this compelling, enlightening and inspiring book. Annabelle Hirsch writes with such warmth, humour and generosity. This book illuminates our past so we can envision a bolder and brighter present -- SALENA GODDENFrom cave painting to the newest frontiers of technology, women have made so many aspects of the world we live in whilst also witnessing their presence in the halls of history being cast into shadow or erased. Annabelle Hirsch grabs back the spotlight and through an astonishing, eclectic array of objects she places women's achievements centre stage. Splendid and inspiring -- JUDE KELLYThe domestic nature of many objects may seem of minor consequence, but Hirsch channels a steely perceptiveness and not a little subversive humour in revealing their quiet power and enduring significance. Eleanor Updegraff captures the sparky wit of Hirsch's prose with a jaunty elegance. It's a book with a large personality which is as enjoyable to dip into as it is to read from cover to cover -- CAROLINE SANDERSON * * Bookseller * *The book creates new stories . . . Where women throughout time have always been multifaceted, multi-talented and powerful. Reading about it, I feel it deep in my robust bones * * Sunday Star-Times * *Quirky [and] idiosyncratic . . . wide-ranging, beautifully presented book * * Herald * *

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Book SynopsisMartin Sheppardâs Primrose Hill is the thrilling history of one of Londonâs greatest landmarks, recounting the many remarkable events that took place there over the centuries.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive account of the Royal Artillery at Normandy: unparalleled level of information drawing on personal account and official records

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book Synopsis''CAN WE ALL AGREE THAT WE WANT SHALINA TO BE OUR HISTORY TEACHER?''Anita Rani''SHALINA PATEL IS THE HISTORY TEACHER I WISH I HAD AT SCHOOL''Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland''GO AND BUY THIS BOOK - SHALINA IS AN EXTRAORDINARY TEACHER AND MAKES EVERY SUBJECT FASCINATING''Bella Mackie, author of How to Kill Your FamilyTaking the reader on a tour through history, from the Romans to the Second World War via Tudor courts, medieval castles and more, this hugely entertaining debut from an award-winning history teacher explores a variety of historical topics in a thoughtful and engaging way. Written in an approachable and accessible style, Shalina Patel will be your guide on an eye-opening and jaw-dropping journey back in time. The History Lessons invites readers to reclaim our history education, and is a treat for curious minds keen to look beyond the usual narratives. This is a book that celebrates stories and people that may be less familiar - but no less remarkable or fascinating.

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Book Synopsis*''A TIMELY AND IMPORTANT BOOK'' - ORLANDO FIGES**''SPELLBINDING'' - ANDREI KURKOV*For more than a millennium, the Russian Orthodox Church has shown astonishing survival skills - from the Mongol yoke to tsarist demagoguery and enlightenment, from Soviet atheism to the chaotic 1990s. Now again, it is at the right hand of power, sanctifying Vladimir Putin''s invasion of Ukraine. In this provocative new book, Lucy Ash reveals how, under Putin, religion is being stripped of its spiritual content and used as a weapon to control the population. Orthodox clerics and their acolytes distort theology as they preach Slav Christian supremacy and drag Russia backwards into a new Middle Ages. Combining historical research with vivid present-day reportage, The Baton and the Cross explores the impact the Church is having on millions of lives - from the tower blocks of big cities to far-flung villages in Siberia. Delving into the underbelly of politics, state security and big money, Ash shows how the

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Book SynopsisIf you''ve ever been interested in the rich culture and epic history of Ancient Rome, dive into this whirlwind tour and discover the highlights of this mighty civilizationGrowing from humble origins into a world-spanning empire, the Ancient Roman civilization has captured human imagination for generations. Uncover its history, from the legendary Roman army and its conquests to the art, culture and everyday life of its citizens, in this fascinating little book. Within these pages you will find the following and much more:- A whistle-stop tour of the Ancient Roman timeline, from the founding of Rome to the fall of the Roman Empire.- Profiles of some of the most influential figures in politics, art, and culture, from Ceasar to Hadrian to Ovid.- An insight into the daily life of an Ancient Roman citizen. - The influence of Ancient Rome on the modern day, from architecture and trade to the calendar.In this pocket-sized window into the past, discover the key events, people and trivia you need to know to understand this remarkable period of history.

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Book Synopsis1900. For Tianjin’s European colonists a profitable new century is dawning, but for the city’s downtrodden Chinese natives the Zodiac cycle’s end signals imminent catastrophe. Meanwhile the fearsome Boxer warriors – said by some to be bulletproof – are spilling in from the provinces.On restless streets, a dangerous liaison begins. Ouyang Jue, gentle layabout and heir to a merchant fortune, finds himself entangled with Xénia, a French officer’s daughter indulging every impulse on her first visit to China. Each sees liberation in the other; a chance to leap through the mirror and escape the mundane.Separated by the widening divide between their two worlds, the lovers were never meant to be. But as discontent sparks into all-out conflagration, will they find paradise behind the glass? Or will they join the ashes of what might have been?

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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.

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Book SynopsisStuart Hall was one of the most insightful and incisive critics of the Thatcher era. In this essential selection of his essays during the period, he elaborates both how Thatcher's rise to power exploited weakness in the left, but also how the left itself can refresh itself in the shadow of defeat. This collection is as vital today as it was in 1988. Through the essays Hall shows how Thatcher has exploited discontent with Labour's record in office and with aspects of the welfare state to devise a potent authoritarian, populist ideology. This ranges through the formation of the SDP, inner city riots, the Falklands War and the signficance of Antonio Gramsci. He suggests that Thatcherism is skillfully employing the restless and individualistic dynamic of consumer capitalism to promote a swingeing programme of 'regressive modernization'.In response he elaboraties a new politics for the Left as it is with the project of the Right. Hall insists that the Left can no longer trade on inherited politics and tradition. Socialists today must be as radical as modernity itself. Valuable pointers to a new politics are identified in the experience of feminism, the campaigns of the GLC and the world-wide response to Band Aid.Trade ReviewHall's metier was to tease out the competing histories, the contradictory political, economic, and social forces condensed within a particular historical moment, an excavation of ideology he called 'conjunctural analysis.' . . . [H]is work is all too timely, for the haphazard project of neoliberalism, justified retroactively by nonsensical appeals to the 'free market,' is as advanced as the decades-long economic decline it magics away with bubbles and rhetoric -- Michael Robbins, Bookforum * [For Selected Political Writings] *Hall's work has become especially resonant as Britain has voted for a narrower identity and a more isolationist attitude to the rest of the world.... There is a generosity and literary imagination in his writing-a recognition that humans are complex, contradictory creatures shaped by, among other things, what they believe, where they live, how they shop, and who they sleep with -- New Republic * [For Selected Political Writings] *He has left us a vital legacy of intellectual passion, analytical rigor, and political prescience that should be heeded, especially now, by progressive scholars and activists -- Angela Y Davis * [For The Fateful Triangle] *Hall is a key thinker. His analysis remains profound. In these days of Brexit we need his nuanced view of identity more than ever. -- New Statesman * [For Familar Stranger] *The most significant figure on the British intellectual left over the course of the last 50 years. -- Guardian * [For Familar Stranger] *

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Book SynopsisA brilliant survey of the history and civilisations of the Middle East by one of the world's greatest authorities on the subjectIn this immensely readable and wide-ranging book, Bernard Lewis charts the successive transformations of the Middle East, beginning with the two great empires, the Roman and the Persian, and covering the growth of Christianity, the rise and spread of Islam, the waves of invaders from the east, the Mongol hordes of Jengiz Khan, the rise of the Ottoman Turks, and the changing balance of power between the Muslim and Christian worlds. 'This book is a masterpiece' Sir Anthony Parsons, Daily Telegraph

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Book SynopsisThe extended critical interview is especially flexible as a form, by turns tenacious and glancing, elliptical or sustained, combining argument and counter-argument, reflection, history and memoir with a freedom normally denied to its subjects in conventional writing formats. Lives on the Left brings together sixteen such interviews from New Left Review in a group portrait of intellectual engagement in the twentieth century and since.Four generations of intellectuals discuss their political histories and present perspectives, and the specialized work for which they are, often, best known. Their recollections span the century from the Great War and the October Revolution to the present, ranging across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Psychoanalysis, philosophy, the gendering of private and public life, capital and class formation, the novel, geography, and language are among the topics of theoretical discussion. At the heart of the collection, in all its diversity of testimony and judgement, is critical experience of communism and the tradition of Marx, relayed now for a new generation of readers.Lives on the Left includes interviews with Georg Lukács, Hedda Korsch, Jean-Paul Sartre, Dorothy Thompson, Jir?i Pelikan, Ernest Mandel, Luciana Castellina, Lucio Colletti, K. Damodaran, Noam Chomsky, David Harvey, Adolfo Gilly, João Pedro Stédile, Asada Akira, Wang Hui and Giovanni Arrighi.New Left Review was founded in 1960 in London, which has remained its base ever since. In fifty years of publication, it has won an international reputation as an independent journal of socialist politics and ideas, attracting readers and contributors from every part of the world. A Spanish-language edition is published bi-monthly from Madrid.Trade ReviewThe biography of the review cannot be reduced to a formula: its experience so far has been too rich and too contradictory... It is up to date without being merely journalistic; it is scholarly but unscarred by citation-compulsion; and it is analytical about the long-term forces at work in politics rather than obsessed by the spume of the latest wavelet of manoeuvring and posturing... That's what I admire above all about NLR: its intellectual seriousness-its magnificently strenuous attempt to understand, to analyse, to theorise. -- Stefan Collini * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisThe first volume in Tim Robinson's phenomenal Connemara Trilogy - which Robert Macfarlane has called 'One of the most remarkable non-fiction projects undertaken in English'. In its landscape, history and folklore, Connemara is a singular region: ill-defined geographically, and yet unmistakably a place apart from the rest of Ireland. Tim Robinson, who established himself as Ireland's most brilliant living non-fiction writer with the two-volume Stones of Aran, moved from Aran to Connemara nearly twenty years ago. This book is the result of his extraordinary engagement with the mountains, bogs and shorelines of the region, and with its folklore and its often terrible history: a work as beautiful and surprising as the place it attempts to describe.Chosen as a book of the year by Iain Sinclair, Robert Macfarlane and Colm Tóibín'One of the greatest writers of lands ... No one has disentangled the tales the stones of Ireland have to tell so deftly and retold them so beautifully' Fintan O'Toole 'Dazzling ... an indubitable classic' Giles Foden, Condé Nast Traveller'He is that rarest of phenomena, a scientist and an artist, and his method is to combine scientific rigour with artistic reverie in a seamless blend that both informs and delights' John Banville'One of contemporary Ireland's finest literary stylists' Joseph O'Connor, GuardianTrade ReviewMany landscape writers have striven to give their prose the characteristics of the terrain they are describing. Few have succeeded as fully as Robinson. -- Robert Macfarlane * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisNeil Hegarty's bestselling history of Ireland is a story crowded with the drama of complex characters, shifting allegiances and changing identities. Revisiting the major turning points in the Irish story, Hegarty looks not only at the dynamics of what happened in Ireland, but also at the role of events abroad. With a new afterword that covers the dramatic events of 2011 - including the multi-billion-euro international bailout of Ireland's economy, Fianna Fáil's electoral meltdown, and the first ever visit by a British sovereign to the Irish Republic - Story of Ireland is the history of a country shaped by and helping shape the world around it. Accompanying a landmark series coproduced by the BBC and RTE, and with an introduction by series presenter, Fergal Keane, Story of Ireland is an epic account of Ireland's history for an entire new generation.Trade ReviewAn engrossing and highly readable account of the sweep of Irish history. * Sunday Independent *

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Book SynopsisA both controversial and comprehensive historical analysis of how the British Empire worked, from Wolfson Prize-winning author and historian John DarwinThe British Empire shaped the world in countless ways: repopulating continents, carving out nations, imposing its own language, technology and values. For perhaps two centuries its expansion and final collapse were the single largest determinant of historical events, and it remains surrounded by myth, misconception and controversy today.John Darwin's provocative and richly enjoyable book shows how diverse, contradictory and in many ways chaotic the British Empire really was, controlled by interests that were often at loggerheads, and as much driven on by others' weaknesses as by its own strength.Trade ReviewA breadth of perspective few other imperial historians can boast. The British Empire really does look different in the light of it ... Breadth of vision, fizzing ideas and a brilliant style as well as superb scholarship ... It deserves to supplant every other book on this topic, including - though my publisher and bank manager won't thank me for saying this - my own. It is British imperial history at last without hang-ups; the one we've been waiting for -- Bernard Potter * History Today *A brilliantly perceptive analysis of the forces and ideas that drove the creation of an extraordinary enterprise ... Bringing together his huge erudition, scrupulous fairness and elegant prose, Mr Darwin has produced a wonderfully stimulating account of something that today seems almost incredibly yet was, in historical terms, only yesterday. It is also a much-needed antidote both to the leftish consensus of the past 50 years that Britain's empire was unrelievedly awful ... and the recent triumphalist revisionism of more conservative historians * Economist *Engrossing ... What Darwin adds to this insight is a rare, wonderful capacity for comparison. Empire here is a jigsaw of dreams and anxieties, conquests and loss of faith ... Seeing the imperial experience in the round like this does gives us a clearer, more subtle appreciation of the range of power and violence at play. It raises the historical writing on empire to another level * BBC History Magazine *How incredibly refreshing it is when as distinguished an historian as John Darwin ... writes something as thoughtful, well-researched and persuasive as Unfinished Empire, which explains the half-millennium-long expansion of Britain across the globe in terms that genuinely make sense ... The author's deep familiarity with all the key sources of this vast subject allows him to pluck examples for his arguments from across the centuries and continents ... Best of all ... is the thought that Darwin's book might at long last herald the victory of the post-Marxist phase of imperial historiography, and not a moment too soon -- Andrew Roberts * Sunday Telegraph Book of the Week *Balanced, original and impressive ... Subtle ... intelligent * Literary Review *Comprehensive ... Darwin's erudition allows him to skirt around the narrow orthodoxies of apologist v critic and provide an insightful account of Britain's unlikely period of global hegemony * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisNearly a century had passed since Languedoc had been put to the sword in the Albigensian Crusade, but the stain of Catharism still lay on the land. Any accusation of Catharism invited peril. But repression bred resentment and it was in Carcassonne that resistance began to stir. In 1300 a great orator emerged who brought together the currents of resistance. Three years later the terrible prisons were stormed and the inmates set free. The orator was a Franciscan friar, Bernard Délicieux. The forces ranged against Delicieux included the ruthless Pope Boniface VII, the Machiavellian French King Philip IV and the grand inquisitor of Toulouse Bernard Gui (the villain of The Name of the Rose). This magnificent book, which forms a kind of sequel to Stephen O'Shea's bestselling The Perfect Heresy, tells his inspiring life and tragic story.Trade ReviewO'Shea's vivid and evocative story of the extraordinary and moving career of Bernard Délicieux rests on thorough and wide-ranging knowledge and shrewd historical judgement -- R. I. Moore, author of 'The Formation of a Persecuting Society'

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Book SynopsisJames Connolly (1868-1916) was one of the leaders in Ireland's quest for freedom from British rule in 1916. This biography is an accurate and well-researched portrayal both of the man and the uprising. Part of the Sixteen Lives series of biographies of all sixteen men executed for their role in the rebellion.

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Book SynopsisOn 1 September 1939 Operation Pied Piper bgan to place the children of Britain's industrial cities beyond the reach of the Luftwaffe. 1.5 million children, pregnant women and schoolteachers were evacuated in 3 days. A further 2 million children were evacuated privately; the largest mass evacuation of children in British history. Some children went abroad, others were sent to institutions, but the majority were billeted with foster families. Some were away for weeks or months, others for years. Homecoming was not always easy and a few described it as more difficult than going away in the first place. In When the Children Came Home Julie Summers tells us what happened when these children returned to their families. She looks at the different waves of British evacuation during WWII and explores how they coped both in the immediate aftermath of the war, and in later life. For some it was a wonderful experience that enriched their whole lives, for others it cast a long shadow, for a few it changed things for ever.Using interviews, written accounts and memoirs, When the Children Came Homeweaves together a collection of personal stories to create a warm and compelling portrait of wartime Britain from the children's perspective.

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Book SynopsisOn 17 August 1943, the entire strength of the American heavy bomber forces in England set out to raid two major industrial complexes deep in southern Germany, the vast Messerschmitt aircraft factory and the vital KGF ballbearing plant. For American commanders it was the culmination of years of planning and hope, the day when their self-defending formations of the famous Flying Fortress could at last perform their true role and reach out by daylight to strike at targets in the deepest corners of industrial Germany. The day ended in disaster for the Americans. Thanks to the courage of the aircrews the bombers won through to the targets and caused heavy damage, but sixty were shot down and the hopes of the American commanders were shattered. Historically, it was probably the most important day for the American air forces during the Second World War.While researching this catastrophic raid the Author interviewed hundreds of the airmen involved, German defenders, 'slave workers' and eye witnesses. This took him twice to both the USA and Germany.The result is a mass of fresh, previously unused material with which the author finally provides the full story of this famous day's operations. Not only is the American side described in far greater depth than before but the previously vague German side of the story - both the Luftwaffe action and the civilian experiences in Schweinfurt and Regensburg, are now presented clearly and in detail for the first time. The important question of why the RAF did not support the American effort and follow up the raid on Schweinfurt as planned is also fully covered.Trade ReviewThe author has produced a well reasoned and comprehensively research analysis if this classic USAAF raid and the challenged involved in co-ordinating the RAF and USAAF bombing campaign in its early stages. The text is supported by illustrations and a black and white plate section. By combining research and interviews with US and German veterans, the author has introduced some valuable new material and a fresh perspective. He has also addressed the important question of why the RAD did not support and follow up the raid as originally planned. A very readable analysis that holds the reader's attention. - Firetrench

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Book SynopsisFew classical stories are as romantic as that of Jason and the Golden Fleece. The stirring tale of an adventurer who was also a disenfranchised king's son and daring sea-captain has resonated through the ages, rumbling and echoing like the clashing rocks which almost pulverised the doughty Argo to splinters. The themes of the legend are perennial, and endlessly engaging. For even while it tells of a quest to the ends of the earth, of the villainous usurper King Pelias, of dragons' teeth, of the doom of Hylas (beloved friend to Heracles), ravished to his end by nymphs who greatly desired him for his beauty, and of Jason's lust for the witch Medea (betrayed so that he might wed another), it speaks to us of more: of sex and gender; of identity and race; and, of colonisation and conquest. From Pindar to J W Waterhouse, from Max Beckmann to Ray Harryhausen and from Mary Renault to Ian Seraillier, the epic poem of "Apollonius of Rhodes" has inspired later interpretations as rich, salty and diverse as the source text itself. Helen Lovatt here unravels, like untangled sea-kelp, the diverse strands of the narrative and its numerous and fascinating afterlives. Her book will prove endlessly entertaining to those who love classical literature and myth.Trade ReviewThis book, the outgrowth of a college course, is an ambitious project, meticulously researched and rich in detail, a tour de force that brings to bear well over the 57 literary works, children’s books, comics and films. * The Classical Review *In Search of the Argonauts draws a vivid treasure map to follow the Argonaut story wherever it lands – from ancient epics to modern children’s books to contemporary film and television. On this journey, Lovatt uncovers rich veins of meaning about heroism, masculinity, and leadership stowed within the various adaptations of the Argonaut tradition. -- Monica S. Cyrino, Professor of Classics, University of New Mexico USAThis is a wide-ranging study of many different versions of the Argonautic myth from antiquity to the present and in a broad range of media: poetry, novels, paintings, films. Lovatt skillfully shows how various retellings of the story bring out important issues, especially those concerned with gender and ethnicity, and shows the myth’s centrality in many stages of western culture. -- William Thalmann, Professor Emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature, University of Southern California, USATable of ContentsList of Illustrations Versions, Texts and Abbreviations Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Back-stories and Beginnings Chapter 2: Femininity and Sexuality Chapter 3: Masculinity and Leadership Chapter 4: Entertainment and the Marvellous Chapter 5: Ethnicity and Otherness Chapter 6: Heroism and Betrayal Chapter 7: Quest and Fleece Chapter 8: Findings and Endings Notes Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis'Highlanders have long been among the most feared soldiers in the world and Tim Newark's book admirably tells their stirring tale. A great read!' Bernard CornwellOn the fields of Waterloo, the deserts of Sudan, the Plains of Abraham and the mountains of Dargai, the trenches of Flanders and the jungles of Burma - the great Highland regiments made their mark. The brave kilted troops with their pipes and drums were legendary, whether leading the charge into the thick of battle or standing fast, the last to leave or fall, fighting against the odds.Acclaimed historian Tim Newark tells the story of the Highlanders through the words of the soldiers themselves, from diaries, letters and journals uncovered from archives in Scotland and around the world. At the Battle of Quebec in 1759, only a few years after their defeat at Culloden, the 78th Highlanders faced down the French guns and turned the battle. At Waterloo, Highlanders memorably fought alongside the Scots Greys against Napoleon's feared Old Guard. In the Crimea, the thin red line stood firm against the charging Russian Hussars and saved the day at Balaclava. Yet the story is also one of betrayal. At Quebec, General Wolfe remarked that, despite the Highlanders' courage, it was 'no great mischief if they fall'. At Dunkirk in May 1940, the 51st Regiment was left to defend the SOE evacuation at St Valery; though following D-Day the Highlanders were at the forefront of the fighting through France. It is all history: over the last decade the historic regiments have been dismantled, despite widespread protest. Praise for The Mafia at War:An engrossing history that reads like a thriller. 'The Godfather' meets 'Band of Brothers'. Andrew RobertsAn engrossing account that has the read-on factor of the finest thriller. James HollandNewark tells an extraordinary tale with pace and conviction, and impressively unravels what really happened from the pervasive myths. History TodayTrade ReviewHighlanders have long been among the most feared soldiers in the world and Tim Newark's book admirably tells their stirring tale. A great read! -- Bernard CornwellFull of colour and fascinating anecdotes . . . Highlander is a fine piece of military history that is 'popular' in the very best sense - erudite but highly accessible. * Military Illustrated *Tim Newark is a remarkably gifted storyteller, and in Highlander he really brings these proud soldiers to life. * The Scotsman *This is an excellent book written with vigour and passion. * Press and Journal (Highland & Islands). *...highly readable. * Defence Focus *Great book. This is where I got my fighting spirit! * Donald Trump *Long overdue. * Contemporary Review *

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Book SynopsisA compelling history of the lives of five Scottish medical explorers set in the context of British dominance in exploration. It opens a new and enlightening window on this great era of exploration.

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