Social and cultural history Books

Book SynopsisA terrific collection of images highlighting some of the most interesting examples of British-made military Dinky toys.

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Book Synopsis''Alex von Tunzelmann is one of the most gifted historians writing today. Brilliant and trenchant, witty and wise, Fallen Idols is a book you will adore, devour, and talk about to everyone you know. Hesitate no longer; buy this book.'' Suzannah Lipscomb, author, award-winning historian and broadcaster''Like all the best historians von Tunzelmann uses the past to explain what the hell is going on today. She does so with a flair, her signature mix of scholarship and succinctness that is so compelling. If you want to make sense of the statues debate, and the coming culture war over our history, this is where you need to start.'' Dan Snow''A timely, sparkling and often hilarious book.'' Michael WoodIn the past few years, there has been a rush to topple statues. Across the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Belgium and elsewhere, Black Lives Matter protesters defaced and in some cases hauled down statues of slaveholders, ConfTrade ReviewAlex von Tunzelmann is one of the most gifted historians writing today. Brilliant and trenchant, witty and wise, Fallen Idols is a book you will adore, devour, and talk about to everyone you know. Hesitate no longer; buy this book * Suzannah Lipscomb, author, award-winning historian and broadcaster *This timely, sparkling and often hilarious book is all that we have come to expect from Alex von Tunzelmann - witty (often wickedly so) scintillating, skewering pomposity. Readers will relish her eagle-eyed knack of offering jaw dropping anecdote while always keeping us aware of the big picture * Michael Wood, Historian *Like all the best historians von Tunzelmann uses the past to explain what the hell is going on today. She does so with a flair, her signature mix of scholarship and succinctness that is so compelling. If you want to make sense of the statues debate, and the coming culture war over our history, this is where you need to start * Dan Snow *Alexandra von Tunzelmann has chosen a subject akin to a minefield for her new book, except that the mines are statues and very much above ground . . . Tunzelmann is as skilled a guide as one could wish for; her erudition and light touch are major advantages. There is not a dull sentence in the book, which from the moment American revolutionaries topple George III in New York, grips the reader from start to finish. -- Michael Burleigh * Literary Review *It's a lively, engaging and often witty exploration of why statues are put up, why they are taken down and what this teaches us about history and memory . . . If it has an agenda, it's one that urges us to see the layers, the nuance and the different points of view * The Sunday Times *Forensically unpicking polemical arguments from all sides in the debate, von Tunzelmann calmly and deftly guides us through this important issue, while never stopping being hugely informative, surprising and entertaining. * Aspects of History *Timely and necessary. -- Philippe Sands * Financial Times *Alex von Tunzelmann deftly captures ... [that] ... statues are always works in progress: toppled, moved, reworked, re-erected and reinterpreted. There has never been a time when they were not contested. -- Mary Beard * Guardian *It's a timely, well written and often entertaining look at statues that were pulled down not only in 2020's wave of iconoclasm but in other places and at other times too. * New Statesman - Books of the Year, Richard J Evans *Excellent -- Professor Anna Whitelock * BBC History Magazine *

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Book SynopsisFrom leeches to lice, bowels to bedpans, nurses relate their experiences of hospital wards in the 20th century.

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Book SynopsisAn exuberant history of postwar Rome, as seen through the lenses of its burgeoning filmmakers and paparazzi.Trade ReviewShawn Levy's fascinating book takes you on a postwar tour of Rome at the birth of celebrity during the boomtime of Cinecittà, the studio responsible for the city's glory days reputation as 'Hollywood on the Tiber' ... Levy has achieved a feat in including so much in one volume - he pours a large bottle of chianti into a digestivo glass ... [A] beautifully written walk on the wild side ... [It] oozes nostalgic glamour -- Alex O'Connell * The Times Book of the Week *The energy of 1950s Rome fizzes in this epic biography of the city at the height of its filmic glory and postwar stylishness. The hub of the book is the Cinecitta studio, where stars from Hollywood and Europe worked and played, but it is beyond that complex where Levy paints his most vivid picture. Rome, as he tells it, was a place of power, sex and death - and the birthplace of the paparazzi that now dominate cultural life. His book is a nostalgic trip with an edgy underbelly - much like Rome itself, then -- Jonathan Dean * Sunday Times Stage & Screen Book of the Year *Something extraordinary in cultural terms happened in Italy in the postwar years, as Levy recounts with enthusiasm and colour ... [He] captures much of the excitement of that time and place in a prose style that is teeming with satisfying gossipy details ... This book would be just the thing to pack if you were intending a Hepburn-ish Roman holiday this summer -- Bee Wilson * Guardian *Uproariously readable ... [Levy] tells some terrific, if dreadful, stories about the convergence of noblemen and actresses ... Fans of La Dolce Vita will recognise many scenes from the film in these tales. Levy pulls all the threads of his story together in his discussion of the world-conquering movie. The author of Rat Pack Confidential, he is a master of the group biography, pacing his chapters for maximum suspense and revelation ... The climactic story is a humdinger ... Wickedly readable -- John Walsh * Sunday Times *Shawn Levy's absorbing, well-researched book exalts the intoxicating, beguiling dreaminess of Rome in its celluloid heyday -- Ian Thomson * Times Literary Supplement *Shawn Levy has composed an exuberant portrait of postwar Rome and the filmmakers, movie stars, fashion designers, journalists and paparazzi whose supreme hunger, energy and creativity transformed it into the most stylish city in the world. He brings an infectious and freewheeling enthusiasm to every page as he reintroduces us to the extravagant romanticism of fast cars, reckless hedonism, and beautiful people behind the resurrection of the Eternal City -- Glenn Frankel, author of The Searchers: The Making of an American LegendA fantastically gossip-filled but intelligent history of Italy's postwar film-making industry and the culture it spawned * Sunday Times Summer Reads *[A] zabaglione of a book -- Roger Lewis * Daily Mail Book of the Week *A palatable and stimulating engagement with an era that still functions as a powerful marketing tool for Italian exports ... This is an exciting account of a revolution in art and society ... Levy's snapshots of ruthless newshounds and voluble starlets show his flair for scene-setting. He takes us on a joyride through the photoshoots and exposés that gave birth to new, competitive media, and the ideas and freedom generated by democracy ... All roads led to Fellini's masterpiece of decadence, La Dolce Vita. Levy laps up the image that encapsulated an era: the blonde goddess Anita Ekberg lifting her skirts in the ancient well-spring of the Trevi -- Lilian Pizzichini * The Spectator *A sensational read -- John Cooper Clarke * Irish Examiner Books of the Year *An entertaining and exhaustive look at the glamorous world of 'Hollywood on the Tiber'. [Levy]'s a good man for the job as it was he who wrote the much-admired Rat Pack Confidential -- John Meagher * Irish Independent *A brisk, frothy narrative ... informative and fun -- Ben Downing * Wall Street Journal *Although it also covers the rise of Italian fashion and automobiles, the real heart of Dolce Vita Confidential, Shawn Levy's account of post-war Italian culture, is pure celluloid; from the emergence of Hollywood on the Tiber (resulting in films like Roman Holiday and Quo Vadis) to the rise of Italian directors such as Roberto Rosselini, Michelanglo Antonioni and, the book's real hero, Federico Fellini. Levy is enamoured of Italian sixties cinema and the way it reflected and refracted Il Boom years. Fellini's La Dolce Vita was both a response to and an advertisement for the emergence of paparazzi photographers on Via Veneto after all. But the pleasure of the book probably comes in the gossip; here are love affairs between actresses and aristocrats, a tragic murder or two and the inevitable starry feuds -- Teddy Jamieson * The Herald Best Film Books of 2017 *An account of the life-enhancing background from which sprang the masterpieces of Italian cinema in the 1960s -- Duncan Fallowell * The Spectator Books of the Year *Details the fashion and cinema of 1950s Rome - from Pucci to Peck - with love -- Sloan Crosley * Vanity Fair *

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Book SynopsisParish churches have been at the heart of communities for more than a thousand years. But now, fewer than two in one hundred people regularly attend services in an Anglican church, and many have never been inside one. Since the idea of ''church'' is its people, the buildings are becoming husks - staples of our landscapes, but without meaning or purpose. Some churches are finding vigorous community roles with which to carry on, but the institutional decline is widely seen as terminal.Yet for Richard Morris, post-war parsonages were the happy backdrop of his childhood. In Evensong he searches for what it was that drew his father and hundreds like him towards ordination as they came home from war in 1945. Along the way we meet all kinds of people - archbishops, chaplains, campaigners, bell-ringers, bureaucrats, archaeologists, gravediggers, architects, scroungers - and follow some of them to dark places.Part personal odyssey, part lyrical history, Evensong

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Book Synopsis- ''Illuminating . . . an important book'' Sunday Times- ''A fascinating journey through the social, cultural and historical meanings of breastfeeding. A sublime book'' Elinor Cleghorn, author of Unwell Women- ''Erudite, intimate and compelling . . . a long-overdue history'' Leah Hazard, author of Hard Pushed- ''A story for us all'' BBC History MagazineMilk is elemental. It is the first thing we look for at birth and, for most, it is the first substance to touch our tongues after we enter the world. It is the promise of nourishment, of care, of life.Using the arc of her own experience, cultural historian Joanna Wolfarth takes us on an intimate journey of discovery beyond mother and baby, asking how the world views caregivers, their bodies, their labour and their communal bonds. By bringing together art, social histories, philosophy, folk wisdom and contemporary interviews with women from across the world, Milk Trade ReviewCompassionate, compelling and beautifully told, Milk is a fascinating journey through the social, cultural and historical meanings of breastfeeding. Through her intricate, personal and tender research, Wolfarth deftly explores the human complexities of caring, nurturing and nourishing. A sublime book -- ELINOR CLEGHORN, author of UNWELL WOMENA feminist blend of memoir and history . . . Wolfarth takes us on an illuminating tour of shifting attitudes and practices . . . as a cultural historian she is excellent at detailing how motherhood changes her perspective of art . . . this is an important book: however personal each mother's "journey" may seem, there are always bigger forces at play -- Francesca Angelini * THE SUNDAY TIMES *Erudite, intimate and compelling, Milk is a long-overdue history of humanity's first food -- LEAH HAZARD, author of HARD PUSHEDThe beauty of Wolfarth's storytelling is difficult to convey . . . [Milk] is a story for us all * BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE *Milk is a fascinating book, a rigorous and intimate study of something at once essential to life, and yet too often overlooked. Wolfarth uses breastfeeding as a lens through which to examine and critique the structures of motherhood, but it's also a text suffused with love and care, and I felt equal parts enlightened and comforted after reading it -- MIRANDA WARD, author of ADRIFTSensitively drawn and full of insight, this is an intelligent and inventive new approach to a subject that should matter to all humans. Stunning -- JENNIE AGG, author of LIFE, ALMOSTI adored Milk. It is such an open-hearted, tender, gorgeous book; the way Wolfarth writes of mothers and milk so carefully crafted and so caring in equal measure. Art and bodies are interwoven so beautifully it becomes a dance; one that pays tribute to our ancestors and our experience, both individual and collective. We are asked in myriad ways what exactly it means to give sustenance, to nurture, to give ourselves over to a small stranger we are changed by forever; no matter how we fed them. An important, non-judgmental and truly healing book; I am most grateful for it indeed -- Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author of THIN PLACES

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Book SynopsisWhat were the cultural factors that held the British world together? How was Britishness understood at home, in the Empire, and in areas of informal British influence? This book makes the case for a ‘cultural British world’, and examines how it took shape in a wide range of locations, ranging from India to Jamaica, from Sierra Leone to Australia, and from south China to New Zealand. Eleven original essays explore a wide range of topics, including images of nakedness, humanitarianism, anti-slavery, literary criticism, travel narratives, and household possessions. The book argues that the debates around these issues, as well as the consumer culture associated with them, helped give the British world a sense of cohesion and identity. The cultural construction of the British world will be essential reading for historians of imperialism and globalisation, and includes contributions from some of the most prominent historians of British imperial and cultural history.Trade Review'This volume brings together some of the most eminent scholars of British imperial history, and provides a thought-provoking showcase for a range of innovative approaches to the cultural history of empire. The essays set new agendas for future research, and offer fascinating insights into the cultural connectedness of a once-British world.'Simon J. Potter, Reader in Modern History at the University of Bristol'"Culture" here knows no bounds. It hails politics, the popular, military, capital and the body – not simply to show their interconnections but to track the ways that empire itself both integrated and compartmentalised the terrains it aimed to colonise.'Antoinette Burton, Professor of History and Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies at the University of Illinois -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: The cultural construction of the British world – Barry Crosbie and Mark Hampton1. Naked natives and noble savages: the cultural work of nakedness in imperial Britain – Philippa Levine2. British radicals in Asia and the persistence of empire c.1820–1950 – C.A. Bayly3. Sugar wars: the culture of free trade versus the culture of antislavery in Britain and the British Caribbean, 1840–50 – Philip Harling4. At home in the Ottoman Empire: humanitarianism and the Victorian diplomat – Michelle Tusan5. A semi-exclusionary empire?: the use of British colonial ideals in Trinidad and Bengal – Martin J. Wiener6. The curious case of the chabutra-wallahs: Britons and Irish imperial culture in nineteenth-century India – Barry Crosbie7. Sorting out China: British accounts from pre-opium war Canton – John M. Carroll8. John Stuart Mill’s other island: the discourse of unbridled capitalism in post-war Hong Kong – Mark Hampton9. Scrutiny abroad: literary criticism and the colonial public – Christopher Hilliard10. Mr. Hickey’s pictures: Britons and their collectibles in late eighteenth-century India – Tillman Nechtman11. Material culture and Sierra Leone’s civilising mission in the nineteenth century – Bronwen EverillIndex

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Book SynopsisThe Russian Revolution of 1917 was not just a world-historical event in its own right, but also struck powerful blows against racism and imperialism, and so inspired many black radicals internationally. This edited collection explores the implications of the creation of the Soviet Union and the Communist International for black and colonial liberation struggles across the African diaspora. It examines the critical intellectual influence of Marxism and Bolshevism on the current of revolutionary ‘black internationalism’ and analyses how ‘Red October’ was viewed within the contested articulations of different struggles against racism and colonialism. Challenging European-centred understandings of the Russian Revolution and the global left, The Red and the Black offers new insights on the relations between Communism, various lefts and anti-colonialisms across the Black Atlantic – including Garveyism and various other strands of Pan-Africanism. The volume makes a major and original intellectual contribution by making the relations between the Russian Revolution and the Black Atlantic central to debates on questions relating to racism, resistance and social change.Trade Review'This ideologically diverse collection is uniformly well-written and exceedingly informative. The inescapable and unavoidable conclusion it renders is that the Russian Revolution of 1917 delivered a mighty blow against colonialism, imperialism and forms of apartheid alike. Simultaneously, by implication it blazes the trail and illuminates the way forward for those seeking to create a better world.' Gerald Horne, author of Paul Robeson: The Artist as Revolutionary'Featherstone and Høgsbjerg must be credited with putting together a fantastic edited collection which makes both an important contribution to keeping alive, and shedding new light on, herstories and histories of Black radical rebellion. In doing so, they have further reminded us of the struggles that have, in different ways, been central to the Black Lives Matter movement in recent times, as well as wider transnational (and interconnected) opposition to neo-imperialism.'Stephen D. Ashe, University of Durham, Ethnic and Racial Studies -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: Red October and the Black Atlantic – David Featherstone and Christian HøgsbjergPart I Racism, resistance and revolution1 Claude McKay’s Bolshevization in London – Winston James2 From Russian colonies to Black America … and back: Lenin and Langston Hughes – Matthieu Renault3 African American literature in the Soviet Union, 1917-1930s: contacts, translations, criticism and editorial policy – Olga PanovaPart II Spreading the Revolution Across the Black Atlantic4 Bolshevism and African American agency in the African American Radical Press, 1917-24 – Cathy Bergin5 International Communist trade union organisations and the call to black toilers in the interwar Atlantic world – Holger Weiss6 Firebrands, trade unionists and Marxists: the shadow of the Russian Revolution, the colonial state and radicalism in Guyana, 1917-57– Nigel Westmaas7 Racialising the Caribbean Basin: the Communist racial agenda for the American hemisphere, 1931-35– Sandra Pujals8 The Left Book Club and its associates: The transnational circulation of socialist ideas in an Atlantic network– Matheus Cardoso da SilvaPart III Africa, the Soviet Union and the Cold War9 The beginning of the Cold War in the Gold Coast? – Marika Sherwood10 Decolonisation and the Cold War: African student elites in the USSR, 1955-64 – Harold D. Weaver11 ‘Peoples' Friendship’ in the Cold War: the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University – Rachel RubinAfterword: A Black journey of Red hope – Maxim Matusevich

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Book SynopsisThrough the centre of China’s historic capital, Long Peace Street cuts a long, arrow-straight line. It divides the Forbidden City, home to generations of Chinese emperors, from Tiananmen Square, the vast granite square constructed to glorify a New China under Communist rule. To walk the street is to travel through the story of China’s recent past, wandering among its physical relics and hearing echoes of its dramas. Long Peace Street recounts a journey in modern China, a walk of twenty miles across Beijing offering a very personal encounter with the life of the capital’s streets. At the same time, it takes the reader on a journey through the city’s recent history, telling the story of how the present and future of the world’s rising superpower has been shaped by its tumultuous past, from the demise of the last imperial dynasty in 1912 through to the present day.Trade Review‘Filled with insights, observations and anecdotes, Chatwin brings to life the past – and present – of one of the world’s great cities in an account that is as thoughtful as it is informative.’Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History, Worcester College, University of Oxford'Bringing together past and present, personal and political, Jonathan Chatwin gives readers a thoughtful and deeply-informed account of modern China through the marvellous device of a stroll down Beijing's longest avenue - and all in lucid and compelling prose.'Rana Mitter, Director of the University China Centre, University of Oxford'Even the most dedicated flâneur has to work hard to find the charm in Chang’an Avenue, the main thoroughfare of, as Jonathan Chatwin rightly describes it, the "glorious mess of Beijing". Industrial relics, bankrupt theme parks, rabbit hutch housing, paranoid Communist Party elite boltholes and Tiananmen’s ghosts all loom large. But Chatwin walks the walk and, along the way dissects the street, its denizens and its enduring role in China’s history and collective modern traumas. 'Paul French, New York Times bestselling author of Midnight in Peking and City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir'Jonathan Chatwin offers a distinctive window onto Beijing's past and present by taking readers along with him on a long trek down an important thoroughfare. An appealing mix of anecdotes from a journey and digressions backward in time make Long Peace Street a novel addition to the rich literature on China's sprawling capital.' Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, coauthor of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know'This three-dimension, moving timeline along the heart of imperial and contemporary Beijing made me want to head out the door and follow Chatwin's flaneur footsteps. "Long Peace Street" seamlessly blends history and reporting, shining a light on both the capital's neglected bookends and its dense core. I couldn't put it down.'Michael Meyer, author of The Last Days of Old Beijing, In Manchuria, and The Road to Sleeping Dragon'Long Peace Street is a brilliant achievement. To read this book is to travel with an engaging writer as he explores the China of today and the raw pathos of its past. Long Peace Street gives its readers an insight essential for a sophisticated understanding of Chinese society today.'M. A. Aldrich, author of The Search for a Vanishing Beijing: A Guide to the Capital of China through the Centuries'As a dive into Beijing’s history and an excursion through its present, Long Peace Street is entertaining, informative, well-written and companionable.'Post Magazine -- .Table of ContentsIntroductionDay one: Shougang Iron and Steel to Tiananmen1 Capital Iron and Steel – origins – the Great Leap Forward – a bad neighbour – future plans2 New suburbia – the city in history – the hutong – Shijingshan Amusement Park3 Change – ring roads and the New Beijing – Great Olympics4 Babaoshan ghosts – the cemetery – the life of Peng Dehuai – return to Hunan5 A diversion – straightness – the road as metaphor6 Military markings – Tomb of the Princess – new regime, new capital? – the Military Museum7 Diaoyutai State Guesthouse – December 1980 – ‘To Rebel is Justified’ – Chairman Mao’s dog8 Big roofs – Capital Museum – pailou – some history9 Muxidi Bridge – petitions and protests – May Fourth – Democracy Movement – 1976 – 1978 – 1989 – the aftermath10 Rainbows – walls, walls, and yet again walls – breaches – New Year’s Day in Xi’an – demolition – socialist core values11 A hungry refrain – little grey streets – reform and opening-up – state owned enterprises12 An assassination – Middle and Southern Seas – imperial pretensions – Xinhuamen – paranoia – hidden places – Mao at ZhongnanhaiDay two: Tiananmen to Sihui Dong subway station13 The middle of the Middle Kingdom – hidden tales of Tiananmen – the Great Helmsman14 A walk to Tiananmen – into the Forbidden City – intruders15 Four days in the Forbidden City16 Out of the Forbidden City – scholar trees – dislocation – destruction – impressions of Beijing – going native – Legation Street today – fireworks over Tiananmen17 The man who died twice – Wangfujing – a literary traveller – the end of the Qing – Morrison and Yuan Shikai – a sad coda – Palm Sunday in Sidmouth18 Oriental Plaza – walking in cities – the Imperial Observatory – origins of the Chinese calendar – the Jesuits – the Republican calendar – time in modern China19 Outside the wall – the Grand Canal and the eastern suburbs – 22nd August 1967 – all palaces are temporary palaces – Forsan et haec olim – red20 One city – the east is rich – weird architecture – mall life – underground21 G103 – the story of a nation – the endEpilogueIndex

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Book SynopsisThe Beano is Britain's longest-running and best-loved comic. Since 1938 it has brought thrills and laughter to generation after generation of children, seeing the young and young-at-heart through World War 2, the social changes of the 1950s and 60s and on into a new millennium. How has the comic evolved since its early days? How many of the classic characters and their stories do you remember? What are the important changes that have happened through the years, why have they happened and why has The Beano survived when all the other comics have folded? Every child in the UK since the 1950s has known Dennis the Menace, the Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx and Roger the Dodger, but how many know the writers and artists who created these iconic comic characters? How do they write the scripts week after week? Where did the inspiration come from? How did the artists come to work for this Great British institution? This is the story of the Beano Comic, told in the words of the people who made it, going back to the dark, harsh days of the 1930s and continuing through to the present day. A unique insight into the country's most beloved comic.

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Book Synopsis'THOUGHT-PROVOKING' Bernardine Evaristo 'IMPORTANT' Melissa Hemsley 'RAZOR-SHARP' Nels Abbey 'ESSENTIAL' Jaspreet Kaur 'INSPIRATIONAL' Sophie Williams 'REVEALING' Tineka Smith 'NECESSARY' Natalie Alexis LeeWhat does it mean to be mixed race in today's society?In this powerful book, Natalie and Naomi Evans, founders of anti-racist advocacy and platform Everyday Racism, explore the complexities of mixed-race identities - from the discrimination endured by the 1.2 million mixed people in Britain and millions more elsewhere, to the privileges it can afford. Sharing their own personal experiences of growing up in Britain to illuminate the nuances of racial identity, the book also weaves in:- Interviews with people from mixed backgrounds and in mixed relationships- Research to dispel common myths and stereotypes- Practical advice for mixed-race families and friendshipsThe Mixed-Race Experience will help you to recognise and confront the racism within your own family and communities, helping us all to deepen our intersectional awareness and commitment to allyship.Trade ReviewI really enjoyed reading the different angles and stories in this book on the experiences of being mixed-race in a society where we are all racialised as white, black or a bit of both ... An important and welcome addition to the ongoing conversation about who we are in this society ... current, informative, thought-provoking. * Bernardine Evaristo, Winner of the Man Booker 2019 (Girl, Woman, Other) *Educational for even the most racially aware, without being condescending. A must-read guide for mixed-race families and relationships * Tineka Smith, author of 'Mixed Up' *An essential read. Packed with thought-provoking interviews and practical advice, Natalie and Naomi have created a necessary piece of reading not only for those navigating the world as mixed-race but for us all * Jaspreet Kaur, author of 'Brown Girl Like Me' *A powerful and important read. It is one that challenges, interrogates, inspires and gives you much to think about and lots to act on. A book for anyone who truly wants to ask difficult questions of themselves, have deeper conversations with loved ones or colleagues and responsibly be a part of real change * Melissa Hemsley, author of 'Feel Good' and 'Eat Green' *An essential, highly engaging, razor-sharp and deeply thoughtful body of work. Without reading this you will struggle to properly understand and appreciate our rapidly emerging future as a country * Nels Abbey, author of 'Think Like a White Man' *

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Book SynopsisFrom nurses and teachers to wildland firefighters and funeral directorsan intimate, honest, and illuminating collection of interviews that reveal what it's like to work in America at this historic and volatile moment in time.Author Mark Larson sits down with more than one hundred workers from across the socioeconomic spectrum as they share their experiences with work and what it has meant in their livesthe good, the bad, the mundane, and the profound. Doulas, firefighters, chefs, hairstylists, executives, actors, stay-at-home parents, and so many more talk about what they do all day and how it aligns (or doesn't) with what they want to be doing with their lives. The pandemic, the ensuing Great Resignation, and the current reckonings with racial justice are among the forces that are now upending and reshaping our longstanding relationships with work. Larson's interviews display how these forces collide in the lives of average Americans as they tell their own stories with passion, heartbreak, and, ultimately, hope. Working in the 21st Century asks why we show upor don'tto the jobs we've chosen, and how the upheaval of the past few years has changed how we perceive the work we do. It will be released to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Studs Terkel's 1974 classic Working.

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Book Synopsis2014 Gold Medal Winner from the North American Guild of Beer Writers for Best Beer Book Like good wine, certain beers can be aged under the right conditions to enhance and change their flavors in interesting and delicious ways. Good candidates for cellaring are either strong, sour, or smoked beers, such as barleywines, rauchbiers, and lambics. Patrick Dawson gives a list of easy-to-follow rules that lay the groundwork for identifying these cellar-worthy beers and then delves into the mysteries behind how and why they age as they do. Beer styles known for aging well are discussed and detailed profiles of commonly available beers that fall into these categories are included. There is also a short travel guide for bars and restaurants that specialize in vintage beer gives readers a way to taste what this new craft beer frontier is all about.

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Book SynopsisGeorge Washington claimed that anyone who attempted to provide an accurate account of the war for independence would be accused of writing fiction. At the time, no one called it the “American Revolution”: former colonists still regarded themselves as Virginians or Pennsylvanians, not Americans, while John Adams insisted that the British were the real revolutionaries, for attempting to impose radical change without their colonists’ consent. With The Cause, Ellis takes a fresh look at the events between 1773 and 1783, recovering a war more brutal than any in American history save the Civil War and discovering a strange breed of “prudent” revolutionaries, whose prudence proved wise yet tragic when it came to slavery, the original sin that still haunts America. Written with flair and drama, The Cause brings together a cast of familiar and forgotten characters who, taken together, challenge the story we have long told ourselves about our origins as a people and a nation.Trade Review"The Cause comes across as a special gift, the book the author most wanted to write to the reader from the great scholar." -- Robert S. Davis - The New York Review of Books"Masterly... [Ellis] deftly foreshadows all the issues that would complicate America’s trajectory and ends with a historical cliffhanger: Would the Republic survive? It did, but only when the Constitution became the embodiment of The Cause....Can America be truly great if we are built on a foundation that includes slavery?... [Ellis] would say that while the Constitution contains that terrible defect, it also contains the cure for democracy’s wrongs — if we choose to use it." -- Richard Stengel - The New York Times Book Review"No one would accuse Joseph J. Ellis of making history dull. He is a masterly story-teller." -- T. H. Breen - The Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisAn award-winning account of Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz’s most controversial novel and the fierce debates that it provoked Naguib Mahfouz’s novel Children of the Alley has been in the spotlight since it was first published in Egypt in 1959. It has been at times banned and at others allowed, sold sometimes under the counter and sometimes openly on the street, often pirated and only recently legally reprinted. It has inspired anxiety among the secular authorities, rage within the religious right, and a drawing of battle lines among Arab intellectuals and writers. It dogged Mahfouz like a curse throughout the remainder of his career, led to his attempted assassination, and sparked a public debate that continues to this day, even after the author’s death in 2006. It is Egypt’s iconic novel, in whose mirror millions have seen themselves, their society, and even the universe, some finding truth, others blasphemy.In this award-winning account, Mohamed Shoair traces the story of Mahfouz’s novel as a cultural and political object, from its first publication to the present via Mahfouz’s award of the Nobel prize for literature in 1988 and the attempt on his life in 1994. He presents the arguments that swirled about the novel and the wide cast of Egyptian figures, from state actors to secular intellectuals and Islamists, who took part in them. He also contextualizes the interactions among the principal characters, interactions that have done much to shape the country’s present.Extensively researched and written in a lucid, accessible style, The Story of the Banned Book is both a gripping work of investigative journalism and a window onto some of the fiercest debates around culture and religion to have taken place in Egyptian society over the past half-century.Trade Review“The Story of the Banned Book is highly researched investigative journalism at its best. . . . This is a fascinating study of the intricate dynamics of the intersectionality of the political, religious, social, and cultural life in modern Egypt.” —Arab Studies Quarterly“[A] forensic literary investigation. . . . Like any good detective—and Shoair is an exceptional one—he presents the reader with a fluent intellectual thriller, a cross-over book that will interest scholars of Arabic literature and intellectual historians as much as it will delight the general reader for whom it is mostly addressed. . . . The Story of the Banned Book is not only a literary and intellectual achievement, but also a methodological triumph.” —Yoav Di-Capua, The Journal of North African Studies"A thrilling thread on Naguib Mahfouz, literary rivalries, and Egyptian politics as they stood in the mid 20th century, pulled through the needle’s eye of the story of a single novel."— M. Lynx Qualey, ArabLit Quarterly"It is rare that one book documenting the life of another book sheds so much light on the literature, politics, religious feuds, and even cinematic trends of a couple of generations"—Peter Theroux, Middle East Quarterly“Diving deep into the various interpretations and defenses of Mahfouz's most famous novel . . . Shoair's investigation is a fascinating insight into the lack of literary freedom in Egypt at the time.” —Amelia Smith, Middle East Monitor"Readers invested in the ongoing debates about book banning will find this to be a worthy resource."—Publishers Weekly“The plot is more compelling than most literature I have read.” —Elliott Colla, Georgetown University"[E]xcellent and thought-provoking"—David Tresilian, Al-Ahram Weekly“The joy of this book is its evocation of time and place, and the way it seeks out what may be absent or forgotten from the stances of intellectuals. However Shoair does not recount gossip; rather, his concern is verifiable knowledge.” —al-Quds al-‘Arabi"A study of literary censorship and of the fight between artistic expression and religious and political authority in Egypt from the 1950s through today."—BULAQ“Outstanding” —al-Ahram“Shoair digs into the passion of how this iconic novel was written”—Donia Kamal, author of Cigarette Number Seven"Shoair’s meticulous, forensic account of the fierce controversies and confrontations provoked by the publication and censorship of Mahfouz’s notorious novel takes the reader on a page-turning journey through the labyrinth of postcolonial Egypt’s fraught and high-stakes cultural politics and offers nuanced critical insight into the author's work. A perfect marriage of literary and cultural history, and investigative journalism, and masterfully translated by Humphrey Davies, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding an entire era of modern Egyptian history and its place in contemporary global politics."—Samah Selim, Rutgers University

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Book SynopsisThe Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April, 1320, is one of the most remarkable documents to have been produced anywhere in medieval Europe. Signed by 51 Scottish nobles, it confirms Scotland’s status as an independent sovereign state with the right to use military action if unjustly attacked. Quoted by many, understood by few, its historical significance has now almost been overtaken by its mythic status. Since 1998, the US Senate has claimed that the American Declaration of Independence is modelled upon ‘the inspirational document’ of Arbroath. This is the first book-length study to examine the origins of the Declaration and the ideas upon which it drew, while tracing the rise of its mythic status in Scotland and exploring its impact upon revolutionary America.Trade Review'Cowan’s bold chronological sweep is to be admired' * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisCustoms play an important part in all societies and offer fascinating insights into a country’s history and culture. Scotland boasts a multitude of unique customs, many of which can be traced back to the times of the Druids, Celts and Romans. This book introduces hundreds of Scottish customs associated with a huge range of topics. As well as customs associated with key events of our lives, from birth to death, it also includes customs associated with the world of work, food and drink, health, animals and nature. Extracts from written works through the ages bring these customs to life and show how important they have been in the story of Scotland for thousands of years.

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Book SynopsisDisease is the true serial killer of human history: the horrors of bubonic plague, cholera, syphilis, smallpox, tuberculosis and the like have claimed more lives and caused more misery than the depredations of warfare, famine and natural disasters combined. Murderous Contagion tells the compelling and at times unbearably moving story of the devastating impact of diseases on humankind - from the Black Death of the 14th century to the Spanish flu of 1918-19 and the AIDS epidemic of the modern era. In this book Mary Dobson also relates the endeavours of physicians and scientists to understand and identify the causes of diseases and find ways of preventing them.This is a timely and revelatory work of popular history by a writer whose knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, her subject shines through her every word.Trade Review'This is an amazing book ... written in clear and concise chapters and free of scientific jargon ... lively and easily understandable essays' Western Daily Press. * Western Daily Press *

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of how we grow, make, buy and eat our food around the world, which proposes the principles for a perennial and global philosophy of food; from the Sunday Times-bestselling author of How the World Thinks.

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Book Synopsis*Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize*In late eighteenth-century London, a group of extraordinary people gathered around a dining table once a week.The host was Joseph Johnson, publisher and bookseller and he was joined at dinner by a shifting constellation of great minds including William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Henry Fuseli, Anna Barbauld and Mary Wollstonecraft.Johnson's years as a maker of books saw profound change in Britain and abroad. In this remarkable portrait of a revolutionary age, Daisy Hay captures a changing nation through the stories of the men and women who wrote it into being, and whose ideas still influence us today.'Rich in period and personal detail' Guardian'Hugely engrossing' Sunday TimesTrade ReviewHay's meticulously researched biography, rich in period and personal detail, sheds light on both Johnson and the vibrant cultural world he inhabited -- Hannah Beckerman * Guardian *[A] compelling and magnificent study... Dinner with Joseph Johnson is an admirable achievement of biography and humanistic imagination -- Katheryn Sunderland * Times Literary Supplement *Dinner with Joseph Johnson sheds much-needed light on a key figure in both the ideological and material context of the 18th century... Hay's meticulous research brings this "paper age" to life... Evokes the noise and excitement of an age characterised by the unceasing hum of literary debate... a fitting reflection of the period that Hay describes: a time when the written word could make someone's name - or cost them their liberty * Financial Times *This delightful book by the English literature professor Daisy Hay gives the reader the feeling of being at a rather elevated party... Johnson's guests talked, wrote and painted about democracy, human rights, atheism, feminism, anatomy, chemistry and electricity. While dreaming of a better future, they befriended each other, loved each other and criticised each other... shaped an era... Johnson was a brilliant talent spotter and supported the best minds of his day -- Emma Duncan * The Times *A portrait of literary ferment... Daisy Hay's compendious and impressive survey illuminates the contribution to these significant ideological shifts of the ill-assorted men and women whose kinship was marked by their shared participation in Joseph Johnson's hospitality * Daily Telegraph *

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Book Synopsis'Intensely readable... A stimulating and necessary redress' David Kynaston, SpectatorPoliticians say social mobility is real... this book proves otherwise.From servants' children who became clerks in Victorian Britain, to managers made redundant by the 2008 financial crash, travelling up or down the social ladder has been a fact of British life for more than a century. Drawing on hundreds of personal stories, Snakes and Ladders tells the hidden history of how people have really experienced that social mobility in both directions. It shows how a powerful elite on the top rungs have clung to their perch, as well as introducing us to the unsung heroes who created more room at the top. As we face political crisis after crisis, Snakes and Ladders argues that only by creating greater opportunities for everyone to thrive can we ensure the survival of our society.'A fascinating, important book' Mail on Sunday'A trove of stories of human hope and disappointment' New Statesman'Fascinating... A rich and well-observed historical account' Financial TimesTrade ReviewThe great strength of Selina Todd's Snakes and Ladders . . . is the richness of her presentation of it as a lived experience, whether upwards or downwards . . . intensely readable . . . a stimulating and necessary redress -- David Kynaston * Spectator *In this fascinating, important book, Professor Selina Todd shows us that 'levelling up' has always been a far more chancy, even unrewarding, business than we like to think -- Kathryn Hughes * Mail on Sunday *Structured around the personal stories of people who have experienced upward social mobility over the past 140 years or so . . . The social history that Todd deals with here is fascinating . . . The pandemic, as she argues, has reminded us that the jobs we reward are often not those that matter most. So instead of (or as well as) agonising about who gets to join the elite, we need to redefine the elite itself -- David Aaronovich * The Times *Snakes and Ladders arrives at a moment of particular relevance . . . this pandemic is an opportunity to look at what is "essential" in work and to reward it appropriately. Society is only as mobile as its structures allow. And it would be no bad thing if affording status to all strata of society became more important than "getting ahead" -- Andrew Anthony * Observer *Fascinating... [Snakes & Ladders is a] rich and well-observed historical account -- David Willetts * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisWere the 1960s really a great time of liberation and joyful experimentation? Growing Up takes an unflinching look at the dark underbelly of the sexual revolution.No era in recent history has been both more celebrated and vilified than the 1960s. And at the heart of all that controversy - the music, drugs, fashion, hopes, dreams and political movements - is sex.In this wide-ranging and eye-opening survey of the sexual landscape of the 1960s, Peter Doggett has assembled a dozen little-known stories that reveal how the sexual revolution transformed people's lives - for better or worse.'An important reappraisal of a decade that changed us, for good and ill' Sunday Times'Fascinating...shows rather conclusively that the sixties was not a sexual paradise' Evening Standard'Creates an account of the 1960s that, unlike most popular histories, does not edit out the grim bits' Mail on SundayTrade ReviewThe case to rethink our assumptions about the period is one Doggett makes with verve and controlled passion ... An excellent book -- David Aaronovitch * The Times, *Book of the Week* *[A] fascinating...new book about the decade [the 60's] -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *Refreshingly undogmatic, well-researched and highly readable -- David Kynaston * Spectator *I very much enjoyed the ride. Growing Up's strengths lies not so much in it being an expert guide to the seedier side of the 1960s (which it certainly is) but in the question Doggett has woven in every chapter, but just manages to leave unsaid: just how much has changed? -- Kate Lister * Daily Telegraph *In rich and playful prose, Growing Up knits together material from newspapers, women's magazines, films, television and pop music to create an account of the 1960s that, unlike most popular histories, does not edit out the grim bits -- Louise Perry * Mail on Sunday *An important reappraisal of a decade that changed us, for good and ill -- Christina Patterson * Sunday Times *Peter Doggett's fascinating new book Growing Up shows rather conclusively that the sixties was not a sexual paradise -- Tomiwa Owolade * Evening Standard *

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Book Synopsis'The unexpected comic masterpiece of the year' Daily MailIn 1967, retired army major and self-made millionaire Paddy Roy Bates inaugurated himself ruler of the Principality of Sealand on a World War II Maunsell Sea Fort near Felixstowe - and began the peculiar story of the world's most stubborn micronation. Having fought off attacks from UK government officials and armed mercenaries for half a century - and thwarted an attempted coup that saw the Prince Regent taken hostage - the self-proclaimed independent nation still stands. It has its own constitution, national flag and anthem, currency, and passports - and offers the esteemed titles of 'Lord' or 'Lady' to its loyal patrons. Incorporating original interviews with surviving members of the principality's royal family, and many rare, vintage photographs, Dylan Taylor-Lehman recounts the outrageous attempt to build a sovereign kingdom by a family of rogue, larger-than-life adventurers on an isolated platform in the freezing waters of the North Sea.Trade ReviewThe unexpected comic masterpiece of the year -- Daily Mail

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Book SynopsisRevised and updated edition of Christian Wolmar's classic history of the London Underground, with a new chapter on Crossrail.'I can think of few better ways to while away those elastic periods awaiting the arrival of the next eastbound Circle Line train than by reading [this book].' Tom Fort, Sunday TelegraphSince the Victorian era, London's Underground has played a vital role in the daily life of generations of Londoners. In The Subterranean Railway, Christian Wolmar celebrates the vision and determination of the nineteenth-century pioneers who made the world's first, and still the largest, underground passenger railway: one of the most impressive engineering achievements in history. From the early days of steam to electrification, via the Underground's contribution to twentieth-century industrial design and its role during two world wars, the story comes right up to the present with a new chapter on the sleek and futuristic Crossrail line. The Subterranean Railway reveals London's hidden wonder in all its glory and shows how the railway beneath the streets helped create the city we know today.Trade ReviewI can think of few better ways to while away those elastic periods awaiting the arrival of the next eastbound Circle Line train than by reading [this book]. -- Tom Fort * Sunday Telegraph *The ferocious rivalries, administrative bungles, short-sighted compromises, cost over-runs and delays. Railway politics were ever thus. * Independent *An excellent history of the London Underground * The Times *Table of Contents0: Introduction: The Phantom Railway 1: Midwife to the Underground 2: The Underground Arrives 3: London Goes Underground 4: The Line to Nowhere 5: Spreading Out 6: The Sewer Rats 7: Deep under London 8: The Dodgy American 9: Beginning to Make Sense 10: The Underground in the First World War 11: Reaching Out 12: Metroland, the Suburban Paradox 13: The Perfect Organization? 14: The Best Shelters of All 15: Decline - and Revival? 16: London's New Subterranean Railway

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Book SynopsisAn epic and highly readableinvestigation into our very earliest ancestors, focusing on the land corridor thorough which humans passed from Africa to Europe and the evidence left behind of their lives and deaths, struggles and beliefs.

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Book SynopsisA study of the thirty-five Carnegie libraries built in towns and industrial communities in Wales before the First World War. The library system is in a transformative phase that attracts much attention; these Carnegie buildings have never been fully recorded, and some are in critical condition. This book illustrates their social, cultural and architectural significance, and how they reflect Carnegie’s extraordinary philanthropic vision. It reviews the free and public library system in Wales and Great Britain from the first Public Libraries Act of 1850, followed by an account of Carnegie’s career as ‘the richest man in the world’ and the importance he attached to promoting libraries for all, regardless of age and gender. The haphazard development of public libraries in the nineteenth century is the context in which Carnegie’s links with Wales are noted, along with the circles in which he moved in Britain. The largest section discusses the libraries’ locations, sites and patrons, and the buildings themselves. It concludes with Carnegie’s legacy in Wales, not least the role of his UK Trust in the county library movement after 1911.Table of ContentsPreface Illustrations 1. The Public Library 2. Andrew Carnegie, 1835-1919 3. Philanthropy and the Free Library 4. Early Public Libraries in Wales 5. Andrew Carnegie and Wales 6. Creating Carnegie Libraries 7. Building the Carnegie Libraries Sites Architects and builders Architectural styles Inside the libraries Patrons 8. Abortive Proposals for Carnegie Libraries 9. The Carnegie Legacy in Wales Gazeteer of Carnegie Libraries built in Wales Notes List of Sources

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Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE'An incredible work of scholarship' Sathnam SangheraThrough the story of his own family's history as slave and plantation owners, Alex Renton looks at how we owe it to the present to understand the legacy of the past. When British Caribbean slavery was abolished across most of the British Empire in 1833, it was not the newly liberated who received compensation, but the tens of thousands of enslavers who were paid millions of pounds in government money. The descendants of some of those slave owners are among the wealthiest and most powerful people in Britain today. Blood Legacy explores what inheritance - political, economic, moral and spiritual - has been passed to the descendants of the slave owners and the descendants of the enslaved. He also asks, crucially, how the former - himself among them - can begin to make reparations for the past.Trade ReviewA courageous, deeply affecting and excoriatingly honest account of his family's role in enslavement -- PHILIPPE SANDS * * Financial Times * *Renton . . . dismantles the myths with the efficiency of someone shelling pistachios for a snack . . . remarkable . . . an incredible work of scholarship -- SATHNAM SANGHERA * * The Times * *An important book . . . one of the strengths of Renton's book is that it takes seriously the issue of class . . . In breaking class ranks, Renton has given voice to a long suppressed truth . . . [an] admirable book * * Observer * *In this unflinching, fascinating and very human account, drawn from his own family papers, Alex Renton takes a crucial first step towards reparation, by acknowledging the cruel reality of his ancestors' callous exploitation of enslaved people's labour from afar; detailing the damage done, and both asking and beginning to answer the question of what can be done to purge these sins and their legacies today -- MIRANDA KAUFMANN, author of Black TudorsBlood Legacy is a moving, timely, well-written and strikingly thoughtful book that makes an important contribution to the growing debate on the horrors that accompanied Britain's empire-building. Alex Renton's forensic and remarkably honest analysis of his own family papers, and the profound darkness they contain, highlights our continuing failure to acknowledge the extreme toxicity of so much of our Imperial history -- WILLIAM DALRYMPLEUtterly gripped - an incredible book. Alex's work is my book in practice -- EMMA DABIRIA deeply moving, brave and powerful book -- ANDREW MARRMoving and deeply researched, Alex Renton's account of his ancestors' slaveholding brings home the everyday brutality of Caribbean slavery and its contribution to the making of Britain both then and since. Blood Legacy sets the ordinariness of slaveholding in the eighteenth-century monied world alongside accounts of the extraordinary lives of those they owned. This is a book that asks white Britons to look hard at our past and its consequences in the present -- PROFESSOR DIANA PATONA fascinating family history of profit and loss made during slavery in the Caribbean. This book is truth not fiction -- PROFESSOR SIR GEOFF PALMERA useful counter to British self-congratulation on the ending of the Atlantic slave trade . . . It must make any reader question much of the received wisdom about the eighteenth-century Enlightenment -- ANDREW MARR * * Sunday Times * *

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Book SynopsisWhat happened to America? Is there still hope?We have arrived at a critical moment in American history. The United States is divided, its democracy is shaken. But all is not lost.The remarkable fruit of two decades of research, Last Best Hope is a riveting, urgent, clear-sighted analysis of how America got here, and how it can move forward. It presents a hopeful vision for a radical reform of American life - one that enables meaningful change, via policy, legislation, executive action, civic activism, scholarship and the media. Drawing on the best of American history - what once made it great - without being trapped in the past, Last Best Hope dares America to step into a new and better era. The thrilling new work from one of America''s most incisive thinkers, Last Best Hope is a modern classic of political and societal commentary.''One of the most talented non-fiction writers in the US.'' FINANCIAL TIMES *BOOKS O

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Book SynopsisOn Sunday 10 June 2018, tens of thousands of women wearing scarves of green, white and violet took to the streets in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London as part of PROCESSIONS, a mass artwork to mark 100 years since the first women were allowed to vote in the UK. Produced by arts charity Artichoke and commissioned by 14-18 NOW, the UK's arts programme for the First World War centenary, PROCESSIONS was a moment for celebration and reflection on what it means to be a woman today. In the months leading up to 10 June, 100 artists were commissioned to work with arts and community organisations across the country to make banners: original artworks inspired by the banners made by the suffragists and suffragettes who had campaigned for votes for women a century before. These twenty-first-century banners were powerful statements made in text and textile, referencing the earlier struggles for equality and reflecting the modern-day concerns of women and those identifying as women. Women Making History is the first opportunity to see each of these banners up close in all their glorious detail and to observe a historic moment, when a mass artwork made by women in all their diversity transformed the central streets of our four capital cities. With contributions from Dame Helen Pankhurst, June Sarpong and Saoirse Monica Jackson, and many other collaborators, artists and participants from across the country, this fully illustrated book shows how art can both make and bring history alive.Trade ReviewA beautiful volume -- Charlotte Brook * Harper's Bazaar *An important archive of a celebration... Women Making History is evidence of the huge ambition of a community artwork and its geographic, cultural and demographic reach. * Art Quarterly *

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Book SynopsisIn this, the last book published during his lifetime, renowned historian of the English Revolution Christopher Hill uses the literary culture of the seventeenth century to explore the immense social changes of the period as well as the expressions of liberty, the law and the hero-worship of the outlaw defiance. As well as chapters on gypsies and vagabonds, Hill analyzes class, religion and the shift away from the importance of the church after the Reformation. Liberty against the Law is a late classic of Hill's work and essential reading for anyone interested in the history and politics of the seventeenth-century.Trade ReviewBarely twenty per cent of the population, Hill estimates, could have been content with the law, and he celebrates the energetic dissenters, like poachers, highwaymen, smugglers, pirates - and the antinomians, who claimed sexual liberty on the creative grounds that the godly were exempt from moral law -- Keith Thomas * Guardian *He deconstructs what was until recently the received version of English history, and leaves it tattered ... In celebrations of the vagabond life, in Robin Hood ballads and the romances of piracy, in meditations on the noble savage, and especially in the poems of John Clare, Hill finds a culture of dissent from the grim canon of progress -- Derek Hirst * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisTracing uranium's past, and how it intersects with our understanding of other radioactive elements, this book aims to disentangle our attitudes and to unpick the atomic mindset. Chain Reactions looks at the fascinating, often-forgotten, stories that can be found throughout the history of the element. Ranging from glassworks to penny stocks; medicines to weapons; something to be feared to a powerful source of energy, this global history not only explores the development of our scientific understanding of uranium, but also shines a light on its cultural and social impact. By understanding our nuclear past, we can move beyond the ideological opposition to atomic technology and encourage a more nuanced dialogue about whether it is feasible - and desirable - to have a genuinely nuclear-powered future.

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Book SynopsisFor most of recorded history, women have been sidelined, if not silenced, by men who named the built environment after themselves. Now is the time to look unflinchingly at Scotland's heritage and bring those women who have been ignored to light. Can you imagine a different Scotland, a Scotland where women are commemorated in statues and streets and buildings - even in the hills and valleys? This is a guidebook to that alternative nation, where the cave on Staffa is named after Malvina rather than Fingal, and Arthur's Seat isn't Arthur's, it belongs to St Triduana. You arrive into Dundee at Slessor Station and the Victorian monument on Stirling's Abbey Hill interprets national identity through the women who ran hospitals during the First World War. The West Highland Way ends at Fort Mary. The Old Lady of Hoy is a prominent Orkney landmark. And the plinths in central Glasgow proudly display statues of the suffragettes who fought until they won. In this guide, streets, buildings, statues and monuments are dedicated to real women, telling their often unknown stories.Trade Review'Charming or amusing though these imagined memorials are, the heart of the book is serious, the product of assiduous research, and extremely interesting. Treat it as a quasi-official gazetteer and it will deepen your knowledge of Scotland, even in many cases of your own city, town, village or countryside, and enrich your travels.' -- Allan Massie * Scotsman *'a comprehensive, vital portrait of Scotland through a female lens' * The Skinny *‘Where Are the Women? provides a tantalising glimpse of an alternative universe where the female contribution is prized.’ * Herald *‘stunning . . . a dip in, dip out “alternative guidebook” where Scotland’s late, great women are commemorated’ * Sunday Post *

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Book SynopsisThis book is both a guide and a history, exploring the curious and entertaining glories of Oxford through two of the most famous fantasies in world literature.

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Book SynopsisIn Photography: Race, Rights & Representation Mark Sealy discusses the critical work photographic images do in culture. Through photography, the book engages with notions of history, alienation, migration, civil and human rights, community and representational politics.

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the hidden history of the Bengali squatters' movement. Faced with institutional discrimination in council housing and the existential threat of the National Front, hundreds of Bengali families in 1970s East London decided to squat, taking over entire streets and estates.

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Book SynopsisFifty bridges from all over the world to be crossed on foot or with one''s imagination. Throughout history bridges have been used as a way to link people, places and cultures. Whether a natural arch or a man-made feat of engineering, bridges can be both beautiful and functional, each in a unique relationship with the land around it. And the stories that accompany these bridges are just as fascinating: the legends, anecdotes and the inspirational lives of those who designed, built and crossed them.This book celebrates some of the world''s best bridges of all description: great icons such as the Tower Bridge in London, the Charles Bridge in Prague and the Golden Gate in San Francisco; a precarious thread stretched between the Twin Towers by an acrobat; treasures destroyed and rebuilt, like the Mostar Bridge in Herzegovina; and a streak of frozen snow between the crevasses of a glacier.

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Book Synopsis‘A marvel of clarity, fluency, and (Morris’s favourite word in her final days) kindness.’ The Sunday Times The first full account of the remarkable life of Jan Morris: writer, soldier, traveller, and trans pioneer. Jan Morris is widely considered one of Britain’s best-loved writers, known for her observational genius, lyricism, and humour. Born in 1926, she spent her childhood amidst Oxford’s Gothic beauty and later participated in military service in Italy and the Middle East, before becoming an internationally fêted foreign correspondent. However, public success masked a private dilemma that was only resolved when she transitioned gender in the late sixties. She went on to live happily with her wife Elizabeth in Wales for another five decades, and never stopped writing and publishing. Here, for the first time, the many strands of Morris’s rich and at times paradoxical life are brought together. Trade Review‘Engaging … meticulously researched.’ -- Kathryn Hughes * The Guardian *‘A measured and elegant biography that Morris aficionados will find fascinating.’ -- Melanie Reid * The Times *‘Paul Clements, a journalist and travel writer who knew Morris for 30 years, has produced a lovely and scrupulous biography … a boon companion to Morris’s sprawling oeuvre.’ -- Alexandra Jacobs * The New York Times *‘A marvel of clarity, fluency, and (Morris’s favourite word in her final days) kindness.’ -- John Walsh * The Sunday Times *‘A textured portrait brimming with details of Morris’s life and work.’ * The New York Times *‘A judicious, richly researched book.’ -- Tim Adams * The Observer *‘Lively and well-written … Clements deserves plaudits.’ -- Andrew Lycett * The Spectator *‘Clements’ respectful approach does raise some fascinating questions.’ -- Miranda Seymour * Financial Times *‘Meticulously researched biography.’ -- Kathryn Hughes * The Guardian *‘Fascinating.’ -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Daily Mail *‘A work worthy of its complex and much admired subject, and one that is unlikely to be surpassed … a painstakingly assembled portrait which brings her vividly to life.’ -- John McCourt * The Irish Times *‘Life from Both Sides suggests that Jan Morris was one of the greatest writers and one of the most astonishing humans to grace the stage of English literature — her achievements mock category; her story bamboozles convention; her travels will remain unsurpassed. There are no prizes for the mighty living of life, only biographies. This will not be the last awarded to Jan Morris, but it will surely be judged the best. Beautifully written, fizzing with adventure, alight with the fire-work prose, humour, and chutzpah of its subject … Jan Morris’s was a life-changing life, and Paul Clements’s is a life-lighting book.’ -- Horatio Clare, author of Running for the Hills‘Clements shows an insatiable appetite in immersing himself in Morris’ 70-year career … he has produced here an account which the author herself would unhesitatingly recommend. An amazing life captured as a fly in amber in this riveting study.’ -- Dan McCarthy * Irish Examiner *‘A beautifully written and meticulously researched biography of one of the 20th century’s best writers, who had managed to pack two extraordinary lives into one unique and ever-so-gripping travelogue ... Jan herself, as I knew her, would have loved reading it.’ -- Vitali Vitaliev, journalist and author of Borders Up!‘In her long and extraordinary life, Jan Morris was renowned for her many roles as a writer, a traveller, and a woman: the author of Pax Britannica, “the Flaubert of the jet age”, a courageous trans pioneer, and the quixotic champion of Wales. At the same time, she never ceased to be gloriously herself, and Paul Clements’ enthralling biography brings one of the great figures of the English-speaking world in the late 20th century into focus for the first time, with memorable sympathy and understanding.’ -- Robert McCrum, author of The Story of English‘An important new biography.’ -- John Bowman * Bowman: Sunday *‘Extremely readable.’ -- Jane Hardy * Irish News *‘A striking biography.’ -- Sean Rocks * RTE Arena *‘For anyone interested in world history, it makes for absorbing reading.’ -- Susan Flockhart * The Herald *‘The book of the moment ... Remarkable.’ -- William Crawley * BBC Radio Ulster Talkback *‘A fascinating account.’ -- Orna Mulcahy * The Gloss *‘This is careful, sifted, footnote-heavy stuff, a chronological canter through a century of an utterly captivating and outrageously blessed life … Clements leaves no research stone unturned.’ -- Mike Parker * Nation *‘Humane, reliable, and rounded — a rich, multifaceted portrait of someone whose own daughter, Suki, concurred was “a really complicated person”.’ -- Olivia Edward * Geographical Magazine *‘A stunning and hefty biography … It’s a beautiful tribute … Clement’s book will inspire you to discover Jan Morris if you haven't already, and for people like me who know a little of her work, well, it made me want to read more.’ -- Phil Brown * Q Magazine *‘This is a chaste, sparkling book.’ -- Peter Craven * The Sydney Morning Herald *‘Clements presents an intimate portrait of a writer of a writer of some of the world's most-read travel books.’ -- Barry Reynolds * SA Weekend *‘Clements presents an engaging and loving tribute to a life well lived.’ -- June Sawyers * Booklist *

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive history of the Georgians, comparing past views of these exciting, turbulent, and controversial times with our attitudes today

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Book SynopsisThis breakthrough scientific masterwork - and INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - reveals the underlying forces that have shaped human history and will secure our future...'Masterful. Galor answers the ultimate mystery' Lewis Dartnell The stunning advances that have transformed human experience in recent centuries are no accident of history - they are the result of universal and timeless forces, operating since the dawn of our species. Drawing on a lifetime's scientific investigation, Oded Galor's ground-breaking new vision overturns a host of long-held assumptions to reveal the deeper causes that have shaped the journey of humanity:Education rather than industrialisationFamily size and gender equality as much as inventions and technologyGeography and diversity rather than wars, disease and famine'Unparalleled in its scope and ambition . . . All readers will learn something' Washington Post'An inspiring, readable, jargon-free and almost impossibly erudite masterwork' New Statesman'His optimism about humanity shines through' Observer'If you need an evidence-based antidote to doomscrolling, here it is' GuardianTrade ReviewA wildly ambitious attempt to do for economics what Newton, Darwin or Einstein did for their fields: develop a theory that explains almost everything ... an inspiring, readable, jargon-free and almost impossibly erudite masterwork, the boldest possible attempt to write the economic history of humanity * New Statesman *There will be inevitable comparisons with Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens ... If you need an evidence-based antidote to doomscrolling, here it is * Guardian *Journey of Humanity... is only 300 pages long, which considering it covers thousands of years of global history... is surprisingly concise. Its breadth and ambition are reminiscent of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel...and Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens * Financial Times *A large-scale survey of human history... The heart of the matter is why some countries grow and some don't... Perhaps growth-mad Liz Truss should have read it. You certainly should. * The Times, Best philosophy and ideas books of 2022 *Unparalleled in its scope and ambition ... All readers will learn something, and many will find the book fascinating * Washington Post *Deeply rewarding and fascinating * Spectator *A completely brilliant and utterly original account of humanity's transit from crude beginnings to a deeply divided planet. A vastly readable insight into why our world is as it is. A book for our epoch -- Jon Snow, former presenter of Channel 4 NewsA masterful sweep through the human odyssey, from the origin of our species to the making of the modern world, that answers the ultimate mystery: what accounts for the staggering inequality in the wealth of nations today? Exquisite, eloquent and effortlessly erudite - if you liked Sapiens, you'll love this -- Lewis Dartnell, author of OriginsAstounding in scope and insight, The Journey of Humanity provides a captivating and revelatory account of the deepest currents that have shaped human history, and the keys to the betterment of our species -- Nouriel Roubini, author of Crisis EconomicsI am in awe of Oded Galor's attempts to explain inequality today as a consequence of such profound forces. A remarkable contribution to our understanding of this mammoth dilemma -- Jim O'Neill, author of The Growth MapA wonderfully clear-sighted perspective on progress, past and future, which is essential to tackling today's big challenges - potentially catastrophic climate change and inequality -- Diane Coyle, former Vice Chair of the BBC Trust, author of Cogs and MonstersBig Science at its best ... Galor's erudition and creativity are remarkable -- Prof. Steven N. Durlauf, University of Chicago, on Unified Growth TheoryAn engaging and optimistic answer to anyone who thinks that poverty and inequality will always be with us -- Ian Morris, author of Why the West Rules – For NowGalor's project is breathtakingly ambitious -- Robert Solow, Nobel Laureate in EconomicsA magisterial account of the evolution of human civilization from its prehistoric origins into the present day. It's a page-turner, a suspense-filled thriller full of surprises, mind-bending puzzles and profound insights -- Glenn C. Loury, author of The Anatomy of Racial InequalityIn lucid, accessible prose, Galor ingeniously traces obscure influences over centuries ... This engrossing history reveals that subtle causes can have astounding effects * Publishers Weekly *A tour de force. This deeply argued book brilliantly weaves the threads of global economic history to deconstruct the rich tapestry that is the modern world -- Dani Rodrik, author of Straight Talk on TradeOne of the hottest books of the year ahead * Irish Independent *Reading Oded Galor's upbeat book I...[was] taken aback by his imagination and verve... great sections of Galor's book are to be applauded... his optimism about humanity shines through * Observer *The Journey of Humanity is a good summary of growth theories and is an elegantly written and accessible book * Irish Times *Galor argues that climate policy should not be restricted to cutting carbon but should also involve "pushing hard for gender equality, access to education and the availability of contraceptives, to drive forward the decline in fertility". India will do well to heed that advice * New Indian Express *The Journey of Humanity stretches from the emergence of Homo sapiens to the present day, and has a lot to say about the future, too. In just over 240 pages it covers our migration out of Africa, the development of agriculture, the Industrial Revolution and the phenomenal growth of the past two centuries. It takes in population change, the climate crisis and global inequality ... There will be inevitable comparisons with Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens ... If you need an evidence-based antidote to doomscrolling, here it is ... Galor builds his case meticulously, always testing his assumptions against the evidence, and without the sense of agenda-pushing that accompanies other boosterish thinkers - the Steven Pinkers or Francis Fukuyamas of this world * Guardian *Incredibly wide-ranging and detailed historical and even anthropological examination of the myriad factors that have brought success and failure to nations ... Lively and learned -- Tim Hazledine, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Auckland * Inerest.co.nz *An optimist's guide to the future ... Oded Galor's 'Sapiens'-like history of civilisation predicts a happy ending for humanity * Guardian *Enjoyable and intriguing -- Steven Poole * Guardian *An antidote to doomscrolling * Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2022* *A great historical fresco * Le Monde *Breathtaking. A new Sapiens * L'Express *Ambitious and deep ... the product of genuine scholarship -- Jason Furman, economics professor at Harvard, former advisor to Barack Obama * #1 Best Economics Book of 2022, FiveBooks.com *

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Book SynopsisGive and Take offers a new history of government in Tokugawa Japan (1600–1868), one that focuses on ordinary subjects: merchants, artisans, villagers, and people at the margins of society. Maren Ehlers explores how high and low people negotiated and collaborated with each other as they addressed the problem of poverty in early modern Japan.

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Book SynopsisIn Jezebel Unhinged Tamura Lomax traces the use of the jezebel trope in the black church and in black popular culture, showing how it is pivotal to reinforcing men''s cultural and institutional power to discipline and define black girlhood and womanhood. Drawing on writing by medieval thinkers and travelers, Enlightenment theories of race, the commodification of women''s bodies under slavery, and the work of Tyler Perry and Bishop T. D. Jakes, Lomax shows how black women are written into religious and cultural history as sites of sexual deviation. She identifies a contemporary black church culture where figures such as Jakes use the jezebel stereotype to suggest a divine approval of the “lady” while condemning girls and women seen as 'hos.' The stereotype preserves gender hierarchy, black patriarchy, and heteronormativity in black communities, cultures, and institutions. In response, black women and girls resist, appropriate, and play with the stereotype''s meanTrade Review"An amazing pick for book clubs, reading discussion groups, or faith study groups, Jezebel Unhinged offers a fresh, exciting perspective on blackness, black female bodies, African American culture, and contemporary Christian teachings." -- Claire Foster * Foreword Reviews *"A book for black women who want freedom." -- Mariam Williams * Women's Review of Books *"Jezebel Unhinged is an insightful text that not only bridges the gap between Black feminist studies, Black pop culture studies, and womanist thought in religion, but also brings fresh and innovative analyses to longstanding discourses about black womanhood." -- Ahmad Greene-Hayes * Reading Religion *"Lomax has written a thoughtful, passionate piece, one deeply concerned about the well-being of black women and girls and, by extension, the well-being of a larger social fabric." -- Nan Kathy Lin * Studies in Religion *“Jezebel Unhinged is an exciting and provocative scholarly work. … For those interested in a thorough and systematic study of black women and girls and their relationship with the Black Church and black popular culture, this book is one that must be read.” -- Angela M. Nelson * Asian Journal of Social Science *“A passionate, closely argued, energetically written and illuminating text….” -- John Clammer * Ethnic and Racial Studies *“The arrow of Dr. Lomax’s words bullseyed into my soul…. Lomax brilliantly argues for critical black feminist religious engagement with how Black womanhood and girlhood are constructed and disseminated in connection with Black religion and Black popular culture. She focuses on the Black Church as a physical and psychic site of particular interest because it holds messy grey spaces outside of the social binaries we’ve been conditioned to accept.” -- B. J. McDaniel * The Lion and the Unicorn *Table of ContentsProlegomenon. "Hoeism or Whatever": Black Girls and the Sable Letter "B" vii Acknowledgments xix Introduction. "A Thousand Details, Anecdotes, Stories": Mining the Discourse on Black Womanhood 1 1. Black Venus and Jezebel Sluts: Writing Race, Sex, and Gender in Religion and Culture 13 2. "These Hos Ain't Loyal": White Perversions, Black Possessions 34 3. Theologizing Jezebel: Womanist Central Criticism, a Divine Intervention 59 4. "Changing the Letter": Toward a Black Feminist Study of Religion 82 5. The Black Church, the Black Lady, and Jezebel: The Cultural Production of Feminine-ism 108 6. Whose "Woman" Is This?: Reading Bishop T. D. Jakes's Woman, Thou Art Loosed! 130 7. Tyler Perry's New Revival: Black Sexual Politics, Black Popular Religion, and an American Icon 169 Epilogue. Dangerous Machinations: Black Feminists Taught Us 201 Notes 211 Bibliography 243 Index 251

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Book SynopsisExplores the streets, shops, back alleys, and gardens of Elizabethan London where a boisterous and diverse group of men and women shared a keen interest in the study of nature. This book examines six episodes of scientific inquiry and dispute in sixteenth-century London, bringing to life the individuals involved and the challenges they faced.Trade Review"Harkness's research is revelatory and her taste for the offbeat enthralling."—New Yorker". . . Harkness has written a truly wonderful book, deeply researched, full of original material, and exhilarating to read. Its grown-up realism puts to shame the glamorised pap currently spooned out on film and television as a depiction of 16th-century England."—John Carey, The Sunday Times"Through a deft navigation of printed book and manuscript records . . . Harkness’s book succeeds in evoking a city alive with the pursuit of the natural world, a pursuit infused with objects, ideas and people from foreign lands . . . she listened to the archives, established rapport with these sources, traced the connections between practitioners, and mapped the concepts of science and community in Elizabethan London."–Lauren Kassell, Times Educational Supplement". . . a significant contribution to the history of science, but also to that of London, and an exciting portrait of life in the swarming, spreading city during the reign of the first Elizabeth."—Ronald Hutton, Independent on Sunday"This is an exciting and important book, informed by deep scholarship yet replete with colourful details that make it absorbing to read."—Patricia Fara, BBC History Magazine". . . [an] innovative, imaginative, and well-written study – which is undoubtedly based on many years of research . . . Harkness unites depth and detail with a truly original argument . . . [She] is an expert historian who also knows how to operate as an archaeologist and anthropologist . . . Harkness has [brought back Elizabethan London] with great erudition and imagination."—Florike Egmond, Nuncius, Vol. XXIII, 2"[Harkness] takes us to many previously unexplored nooks and crannies of Elizabethan London, bringing alive a wide range of social and economic connections . . . [she] digs up communities of naturalists . . . [and] instrument makers . . . and meets apothecaries and surgeons who introduced some of the latest techniques from Italy . . . The Jewel House is one of the best [books] in showing how the tight, interlocking communities of the early modern capital city could prove it as vibrant intellectually and commercially as it was dramatically."—Peter Furtado, History Today"This is perhaps the most effective account to date of science in Elizabethan England . . . based on extensive archival research . . . the author has an undoubted gift for bringing her subjects vividly to life through the use of telling detail, while she also relishes the tensions and conflicts that occurred in the intellectual community that she documents."—Michael Hunter, HistoryCo-winner of the 2008 Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies Book PrizeWinner of the 2008 John Ben Snow Foundation Prize for the best book published in any discipline of British Studies covering the period from 1400-1800Winner of the Pfizer Prize for Best Book in the History of Science from 2005-2007, presented by the History of Science SocietyHighly commended for the 2008 Longman/History Today Book of the Year Award"This is the book on Elizabethan science everyone should read. Not only does it offer a convincing reinterpretation of the role of science in society, but it is written in an arresting style, jaunty, full of illuminating anecdotes, and widely accessible."—Ian Archer, Oxford University "This is a wonderful book, full of fascinating detail and stories from a lost world. It will have wide circulation among historians of science and technology, historians of England, and cultural historians in general."—Pamela Smith, Columbia University"The Jewel House of Art and Nature is by far the finest exploration ever undertaken of scientific culture in an early modern metropolis. Vivid, compelling, and panoramic, this revelatory work will force us to revise everything we thought we knew about Renaissance science."—Adrian Johns, author of The Nature of the Book"In this vivid portrait of the scientific practitioners of Elizabethan London, Deborah Harkness draws on extensive archival research to portray the city as a crucial source of social and scientific innovation and inspiration to Francis Bacon."—Ann Blair, Harvard University"Deborah E. Harkness's The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution is a finely written and informative book. . . . No one interested in the life of Elizabethan London . . . will find it less than engrossing."—Gordon Teskey, SEL Studies in English Literature

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Book SynopsisWhat did a Victorian lady wear for a walk in the park? How did she style her hair for an evening at the theatre? And what products might she have used to soothe a sunburn or treat an unsightly blemish? Mimi Matthews answers these questions and more as she takes readers on a decade-by-decade journey through Victorian fashion and beauty history. Women's clothing changed dramatically during the course of the Victorian era. Necklines rose, waistlines dropped, and Gothic severity gave way to flounces, frills, and an abundance of trimmings. Sleeves ballooned up and skirts billowed out. The crinoline morphed into the bustle and steam-moulded corsets cinched women's waists ever tighter. As fashion was evolving, so too were trends in ladies' hair care and cosmetics. An era which began by prizing natural, barefaced beauty ended with women purchasing lip and cheek rouge, false hairpieces and pomades, and fashionable perfumes made with expensive spice oils and animal essences. Using research from nineteenth century beauty books, fashion magazines, and lady's journals, Mimi Matthews brings the intricacies of a Victorian lady's toilette into modern day focus. In the process, she gives readers a glimpse of the social issues that influenced women's clothing and the societal outrage that was an all too frequent response to those bold females who used fashion and beauty as a means of asserting their individuality and independence.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A New Statesman Best Book of the Academic Presses""An Australian Most Anticipated Book""In his new book, As Gods Among Men, Bocconi University economic historian Guido Alfani outlines how in the past, rich individuals contributed more to the common good in times of war, famine, plague and financial disaster. Today, that sense of shared responsibility is gone."---Rana Foroohar, Financial Times"In this study of 1,000 years of economic inequality, the historian Guido Alfani looks not just at the means by which wealth was accumulated and kept – both largely unchanged ­– but also at the attitudes of less fortunate members of society towards the rich. Croesus-like riches have been seen as a sin, an obligation and a fact of life." * New Statesman *"In his fascinating history, As Gods Among Men, Guido Alfani shows how the super-rich have always bailed the rest of us out- until now." * The Telegraph *"If ever there was a moment to take stock of the relationship between the haves and have-nots, it is surely now, during the gilded age 2.0."---Geordie Williamson, The Australian"[An] exhaustive history of the super-rich through the ages."---Ferdinand Mount, Times Literary Supplement"Alfani notes a pattern that unfolds 'repeatedly and systematically across history': when economic élites become ingrown, impenetrable, and 'insensitive to the plight of the masses,' societies tend to become unstable."---Evan Osnos, New Yorker"The rich, like the poor, are always with us. In fact, over many centuries - as this wide-ranging and ambitious book tells us - the richest in society have captured more and more of the overall wealth of Western societies."---Roderick Floud, History Today"Guido Alfani’s magisterial As Gods Among Men offers a sweeping and welcome historical perspective on who the super-rich really are and how they got that way, blending data, biographical sketches and sociological observations reaching back to the European Middle Ages."---Martin Sandbu, Financial Times

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Book SynopsisA fascinating cartographic study of urban development, perfect for map and history lovers.The city, a concept nearly as old as history itself, is a paradox of human innovation and intervention, order and conflict. From ancient civilisations to modern-day metropolises, maps have played a crucial role in urban progress. This book explores the development of cities through more than 70 captivating maps.Each map in this beautifully designed volume gives a unique visual representation of and historical context to the city it surveys. Spanning more than 4,500 years, this book expertly curates more than 70 historical maps which tell the fascinating story of human civilisation: from cities founded on sacred places, ideas and power, to early examples of town planning and later innovations such as skyscrapers and urban transport.Featuring maps of renowned capital cities as well as lesser-known urban areas, including:Mohenjo-Daro, c. 2500 BCBabylon, c. 600 BCRome, c. 210 ADBaghdad, 762 ADConstantinople, 1422Tenochtitlan, 1524Dublin, 1610Kyoto, 1626New Amsterdam, 1660Edinburgh, 1780Adelaide, 1838Lagos, 1885Los Angeles, 1908Brasilia, 1957Chongqing, 2016Dubai, 2020

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