Social and cultural history Books

Book SynopsisAs an archaeologist, Steven Mithen has worked on the Hebridean island of Islay over a period of many years. In this book he introduces the sites and monuments and tells the story of the island’s people from the earliest stone age hunter-gatherers to those who lived in townships and in the grandeur of Islay House. He visits the tombs of Neolithic farmers, forts of Iron Age chiefs and castles of medieval warlords, discovers where Bronze Age gold was found, treacherous plots were made against the Scottish crown, and explores the island of today, which was forged more recently by those who mined for lead, grew flax, fished for herring and distilled whisky – the industry for which the island is best known today. Although an island history, this is far from an insular story: Islay has always been at a cultural crossroads, receiving a constant influx of new people and new ideas, making it a microcosm for the story of Scotland, Britain and beyond.Trade Review'Not only a mighty guide to the archaeological landscape of Islay, but a thrilling microcosm of all human history' -- Joyce MacMillan * The Scotsman *'[a] deep-dive into the archaeology of the Ilich – the people of Islay... a scholarly, accessible and very pleasant read, complemented by delicate illustrations, maps, and high quality colour photographs' * Current Archaeology *

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Book SynopsisSt Andrews is without doubt one of Scotland’s most historic and beautiful cities. Once the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland, it played a prominent role in the nation’s political life until the seventeenth century. In addition, it is also home of the nation’s oldest university; and whilst claims that it is the birthplace of golf may remain controversial, there is no doubt it is regarded as world capital of the game today. This fascinating and comprehensive account of St Andrews traces its history from Pictish times to the present day. It is based not only on a huge amount of original research, but also on an intimate knowledge of the town which Raymond Lamont-Brown accumulated in over twenty years’ residence there. In addition to facts and figures, the book also introduces many of the people who have featured prominently in the story of St Andrews – from doughty residents such as Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair and Cardinal Archbishop David Beaton to illustrious visitors like Mary, Queen of Scots, John Knox and Samuel Johnson.

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Book SynopsisThe page-turning biography of an Australian woman who refused to bend to the expectations of her husband and her time. Julia Sorell was an original. A colonial belle from Tasmania, vivacious and warm-hearted, Julia’s marriage to Tom Arnold in 1850 propelled her into one of the most renowned families in England and into a circle that included Lewis Carroll and George Eliot. Her eldest daughter became a bestselling novelist, while her grandchildren included the writer Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, and the evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley. With these family connections, Julia is a presence in many documented and famous lives, but she is a mostly silent presence. When extracted from her background of colonial life, extracted from the covers of marriage and family life, her story reveals an extraordinary woman, a paradox who defied convention as much as she embraced it. What began as a marriage born of desire soon turned into a relationship riven by discord. Tom’s sudden decision to become a Catholic and Julia’s refusal to convert with him plunged their lives into a crisis wherein their great love for each other would be pitted against their profoundly different understandings of marriage and religion. It was a conflict that would play out over three decades in a time when science challenged religion, when industrialisation challenged agrarian forms, when democracy challenged aristocracy, when women began to challenge men. It was a conflict that would shape not only their own lives and that of their children, but also touch the lives of all those who came into contact with them. Told with the pace, depth, and psychological richness of a great novel, An Unconventional Wife is a riveting biography that shines a shaft of light on a hidden but captivating life.Trade Review‘In An Unconventional Wife, Mary Hoban has given us an inconvenient heroine: a woman hobbled by her times, champing at the bit, going nowhere but telling us everything. Pieced together through impeccable research and told with all the urgency and intrigue of a soap opera, the story of Julia Sorell demands recognition of — and respect for — a woman who would otherwise be lost to history. Utterly charming.’ -- Clare Wright‘An Unconventional Wife is superbly written, and skilfully draws on a number of diverse sources, compensating for a lamented lack – an intimate diary kept by Julia herself. Mary Hoban has got to the kernel of this story, since she has correctly conceived it as an exercise in the recuperation of women’s history.’ -- Jim Davidson * Australian Book Review *‘Mary Hoban has bypassed poets and thinkers, churchmen and colonial administrators to create a spirited biography of the ‘‘unknown woman’’, as she calls Julia Sorell Arnold.’ -- Brenda Niall * Sydney Morning Herald *‘An exceptional exercise in factual delving and a feat of imaginative sympathy.’ -- Gideon Haigh‘A magisterial work of biography, utterly assured in research and style. This compelling and moving book reanimates the lost life of Julia Sorell Arnold, a spirited, independent woman in an age when women were expected to be quiet. With deep insight and empathy Hoban brings to life Julia and Tom’s troublesome marriage. Their passionate but fractious relationship speaks directly to the irascible relations between women and men in our own divisive times. This book is a remarkable achievement by an expert and gifted biographer.’ -- Rod Jones‘Hoban has uncovered the story of a woman, admired by many friends and family, who refused to bow to the customs of the day, spoke her mind when others would have kept quiet and stayed true to her faith ... a remarkable life that needed to be told.’ -- Barry Reynolds * Herald Sun *‘An Unconventional Wife, Mary Hoban’s elegant biography of Julia Sorrell Arnold, who was born in Tasmania in 1826 and died in England 61 years later, challenges traditional notions of biography, examining a woman other writers might have ignored ... An Unconventional Wife performs a worthy act of recovery in lucid prose, revealing an intelligent woman caught up in the struggles and limitations of her time.’ -- David Mason * Weekend Australian *‘Hoban portrays her as an independently-minded woman at a time when women were expected to conform to their husband’s views.’ -- Andrea Ripper * Courier Mail *‘An illuminating portrait of a Victorian wife and mother who was rescued from silence ... A sparkling biography and cultural history.’ STARRED REVIEW * Kirkus Reviews *‘This is a wonderful story, told with great clarity. There is compassion too, and you can only imagine that the author is taking great pains to suppress her own anger at the way Victorian society was expected to behave, whether in distant Tasmania or academic Oxford or backwater Dublin. The reader is caught between sympathy for Julia and admiration for her insistence on her dignity.’ -- Frank O’Shea * Tinteán *‘This is an absorbing book, one I could not put down ... She writes well and fluently, and her prose is a pleasure to read.’ -- Alison Alexander * Tasmanian Historical Research Association, Papers and Proceedings *‘Expertly told … well-researched … Hoban’s writing is engaging. She expertly draws the reader in to Julia’s story and, rather than a dry catalogue of facts, the reader is presented with a page-turning account of an incredible woman.’ -- Hannah Viney * Eras Journal, Monash University *

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Book SynopsisMcMillan's Galloway, a witty and irreverent look at contemporary Dumfries and Galloway, provides a suitably individualistic snapshot of a place which operated for so long as an independent entity completely separate from its neighbours, Scotland and England. McMillan takes us on a rollicking tour from the Mull of Galloway to Langholm, through land once shrouded in myth and populated by warriors, emigrants, fairies and liars, rooting out the truth and the fiction and frequently confusing them.Trade ReviewWRITER Hugh McMillan has brought together a collection of irreverent stories about Dumfries and Galloway in the book just published by Luath Press "McMillan's Galloway". In it he tells of the Dumfries local, famous for being an excellent fishermen who was notoriously poor at having permits for it, being asked in the pub if he could secure a large salmon for someone willing to pay him for it. THE HERALD Although this unconventional guidebook is irreverent in tone, it's clear that McMillan's feelings for Galloway run deep. And we're sure yours will too, after joining MacMillan on this witty and whimsical tour of his homeland. SCOTLAND MAGAZINEOne could say that McMillan’s Galloway is an Encyclopaedia in the same way that the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a travel book. His Galloway is less a geographic than an imaginary space, an imagined place more like, built on and in dialogue with perspectives borrowed from those who have written, drawn, filmed or simply visited it in the past. ALISTAIR FINDLAY spent two weeks searching for a zeppelin base near new Galloway. I am deeply disappointed by the research that has gone into this book. TONY BARBOURA sort of public transport road movie, where mostly it is raining and the narrator not in good shape. ANDREW GRIEG

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Book SynopsisAs Britain entered lockdown in the spring of 2020, drawings, paintings and messages proliferated in windows and gardens across the country: signs of the eternal human desire to communicate, even as face-to-face contact became impossible. When restrictions temporarily eased, writer James Attlee began ringing doorbells in his hometown of Oxford. On doorsteps and park benches, on council estates and amid genteel terraces, he recorded the voices of those briefly emerging from isolation, winning the trust of rainbow painters and anti-vaxxers, a Covid nurse, an LGBTQ+ artist, a VE Day celebrator, Black Lives Matter protesters, as well as frontline workers in a bakery and a supermarket. Their words, Attlee's pithy observations and sixteen pages of his photographs make Under the Rainbow a unique record of an extraordinary year, and a tribute to creativity and resilience in desperate times.Trade Review‘A unique book that is a travel guide of sorts, and a fascinating collection of reflections and revelations, with Attlee’s fine mind pulling it together, Under The Rainbow is a brilliant read.’ Mab Jones, Buzz Magazine----'Attlee's form of attention shows us a sensitive way of caring and relating and recognising the lives of others: by attending to messages, gestures, signals in the surrounding streets, by inviting neighbours' stories and explanations, he has assembled a searching portrait of the time of Covid.' Marina Warner ----'Under the Rainbow refracts the pandemic into a prism of colours, revealing it not just as a public health crisis but as one that touches issues from racial injustice to the climate emergency. Beyond the statistics and political statements, Attlee helps us make sense of living through the shared moments of a global catastrophe.' Roman Krznaric ----'Attlee captures an intense moment of national self-reckoning by letting those who speak to him from their doorsteps really speak. The result is a carefully curated form of polyphony, sometimes interjected with personal support, but more often with real sympathy, that carries him back to reflections upon poetry and art.' Sally Bayley ----'Full of warmth, wit and eloquence, and a rare, refreshing combination of modesty and conviction, Under the Rainbow is a supple investigation of familiar symbols. I loved the careful anthropological questioning of the complex world on our doorsteps.' Alexandra Harris ----'Attlee's intrepid enquiring sympathetically explores the anxieties and hopes of summer 2020.' Patrick Keiller ----'Observant, enquiring, contemplative, James Attlee has carried out a deft investigation of a city in lockdown. I love the way he listens to people, thinks about what they've said, and lets it lead him to some relevant allusion or philosophical notion.' Tim Pears ---- Praise for James Attlee's Isolarion ----'Unique and very special.' Geoff Dyer, The Guardian ----'A new Oxford that no guidebook has yet captured.' New York Times

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Book SynopsisThis book recovers the neglected history of Gerlin Bean, an activist and community organiser in the Black radical movement of the 1960s-1980s.

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Book Synopsis‘The Kurd requires a beating one day and a sugar plum the next.’ British Government official 1921 ‘Saddam throws a little gas, everyone goes crazy, “oh, he’s using gas!’’’ former President Donald Trump 2019 Delving into history and mixing eye-witness accounts with compelling anecdotes from his journalistic career, John Cookson examines the Kurds' eternal quest for independence. He tells of his encounters with Kurdish guerillas in their mountain hideouts and of his travels with Kurdish smugglers. He documents survivors' stories from Saddam Hussein's genocidal campaign and reveals for the first time how Iraqi Kurdistan was saved from being overrun by murderous jihadis in the summer of 2014. He also digs through secret archives to discover why Sir Winston Churchill and Middle East titans like T. E. Lawrence and Gertude Bell made a fateful decision to leave the Kurds landlocked and doomed to an eternity of conflict.Table of ContentsForeword 9 1. Magic carpet ride 21 2. Wounded guerrilla on board 28 3. Welcome back Mr John. 32 4. Downtown 38 5. Who are the Kurds? 42 6. Hoshayar 46 7. Iskan Street 53 8. Christians in peril 60 9. ‘Please help me!’ 71 10. Brown envelope anyone? 78 11. Chalabi the Cheshire Cat 87 12. Jalal Talabani 94 13. A matter of ‘honour’? 97 14. Shayan 99 15. Those who die first 103 16. Dara 110 17. The long march 114 18. ‘The Kurd requires a beating.’ 122 19. The Cairo Conference 125 20. Gertrude Bell 128 21. The Kurdish question 132 22. The King of Kurdistan 135 23. The Cairo legacy 141 24. Driving with Mustafa 146 25. Remembering Anfal 153 26. Halabja 157 27. Chemical Ali 163 28. Hypocrisy 165 29. Iran accused 167 30. Inside the clan 170 31. The King’s tomb 177 32. Bring me the manager 182 33. Smugglers’ paradise 188 34. Komola and Iran’s rebellious Kurds 199 35. Khalkhali: the hanging judge 206 36. Four empty graves 208 37. Mahabad 214 38. By the rivers of Babylon 221 39. Betrayal 229 40. The PKK 233 41. The millennials 236 42. They reap what they sow 240 43. Saving the economy 243 44. Not in the news 245 45. Final thoughts 250

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Book SynopsisA Wilder Wales highlights the astonishing transformation of Wales from a poor rural backwater to the crucible of the industrial revolution and offers readers an insight into the ways in which outsiders viewed the land and its people. A fine gift book for discerning travellers and tourists wanting to take words from Wales home. “Even Hannibal himself wou’d have found it impossible to have march’d his army over Snowden” Daniel de Foe, A tour thro’ the whole island of Great Britain... 1724Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. Early Visitations 2. Setting Out 3. The Journey 4. Eating and Sleeping 5. The Sublime, Romantic and Picturesque 6. Manners and Customs 7. Religion 8. Industry 9. North Wales 10. South Wales 11. A Riposte Bibliography Index 1 – People Index 2 – Places

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Book SynopsisA Thousand Fates explores the afterlife of medieval monasticism in England and Wales. A thousand years of monasticism came to an abrupt end in the mid-sixteenth century with the Dissolution of the Monasteries. At its peak two hundred years earlier, many people chose the contemplative life, while the rich sought salvation through the foundation or embellishment of religious houses. Much of the nation’s wealth was locked into these complexes through elaborate rebuilding, gifts of precious objects and flourishing libraries of rare books. Then in just four years all of the eight hundred plus houses were closed and ten thousand people dispersed, with the monastic fortune liquidated and passed to the crown. Today we are left with echoes of a time dominated by an enclosed elite, their homes repurposed or derelict or obliterated. Some of these foundations still thrive as churches, schools, homes or tourist attractions. Others have left little physical trace, the casual viewer ignorant of their existence. A Thousand Fates is not an account of why the monasteries closed or what happened to the people displaced. Instead it focuses on the monastic buildings and their numerous fates and brings life to their stories.

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Book SynopsisRichard Trahair shares an insider's experience of the wide-ranging 'goings on' in a large Church of England diocese in the south of England from the 1980s. As estate manager - Diocesan Property Secretary - for more than thirty years, he reflects on the astonishing range of characters he worked alongside, and the diverse buildings and land for which he was responsible. Richard delves into the nature of a parsonage house, its parish loyalties, and the keen controversy over selling the grand old houses and replacing them with smaller ones so that the impoverished clergy and their families can at least keep warm. Both people and places were a heady mix of the delightful, the worthy, the curious and the downright eccentric. With encounters recounted that range from wacky and hilarious, to thought-provoking and historical, catch a glimpse into the life of a twenty-nine-year-old surveyor in a diocesan office dominated by retired military gentlemen, rattling around in a huge 15th century former city workhouse, as he grows into his role.

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Book SynopsisDiscover 366 fun and surprising stories about Wales – each linked to a specific day of the year. Did you know that the recipe of Tennessee’s famous Jack Daniel’s whiskey is rumoured to have originated in Llanelli, or that the world’s first radio play was set in a Welsh coal mine? Why was a showing of the Jurassic Park film in Carmarthen so special, and how is Rupert Bear connected to Snowdonia? Delve in to discover the stories that most history books leave out.

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Book SynopsisOne of the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books for 2023 A correspondent who has spent thirty years in Israel presents a rich, wide-ranging portrait of the Israeli people at a critical juncture in their country’s history. Despite Israel’s determined staying power in a hostile environment, its military might, and the innovation it fosters in businesses globally, the country is more divided than ever. The old guard — socialist secular elites and idealists — are a dying breed, and the state’s democratic foundations are being challenged. A dynamic and exuberant country of nine million, Israel now largely comprises native-born Hebrew speakers, and yet any permanent sense of security and normalcy is elusive. In The Land of Hope and Fear, we meet Israelis — Jews and Arabs, religious and secular, Eastern and Western, liberals and zealots — plagued by perennial conflict and existential threats. Its citizens remain deeply polarised politically, socially, and ideologically, even as they undergo generational change and redefine what it is to be an Israeli. Who are these people, and to what do they aspire? In moving narratives and with on-the-ground reporting, Isabel Kershner reveals the core of what holds Israel together and the forces that threaten its future through the lens of real people, laying bare the question, Who is an Israeli?Trade Review‘A masterly and poignant portrait.’ -- Lloyd Green * The Guardian *‘Isabel Kershner’s comprehensive mapping of the challenges facing the Zionist Dream creates a bold and compelling portrait of modern-day Israel — its complexities and polarising passions and commitments — and does it with great empathy and deep concern.’ -- Dorit Rabinyan, author of All the Rivers‘For all those looking for a book that provides an understanding of what Israel has become as it approaches its 75th year, this is it! The Land of Hope and Fear is a rich and wondrous tale told through the agonising and uplifting stories of Israel’s many tribes ... Isabel Kershner brings a keen eye and a vivid style to her unique portrait of the Sabra nation.’ -- Martin Indyk, author of Master of the Game, and former US ambassador to Israel‘Once I started reading The Land of Hope and Fear I couldn’t put it down until I finished. For someone living in this country it felt nonetheless as if I was learning about it for the first time. With masterful style, Isabel Kershner peels off all the outer layers of society’s multifaceted aspects as these are seen by an onlooker, revealing them through the personal stories and eyes of the individuals themselves hidden behind their typologies. Whether one sympathises or not, one understands more. Israel in its tumultuous eighth decade is laid bare, its inner strengths and weaknesses enmeshed in a vibrant dynamic that both promises and forewarns.’ -- Sari Nusseibeh, author of Once Upon a Country‘One might not think that another book about Israel needed to be written. And yet Isabel Kershner has written one that needs to be read. For anyone trying to understand the reality of Israel today, its remarkable dynamism and its political, social, religious, and ‘tribal’ differences, The Land of Hope and Fear provides extraordinary insight.’ -- Dennis Ross, former US envoy to the Middle East and the author of Doomed to Succeed‘[The Land of Hope and Fear] delivers an in-depth look at the tribes that compete and clash within the Promised Land. Painstakingly researched, the book is the product of scores of interviews coupled with living on the ground for more than three decades. Kershner knows of what she writes.’ -- Lloyd Green * The Guardian *‘The Land of Hope and Fear details the bitter civil war for the future of Israel’s soul. Seventy-five years after the birth of modern Israel, Isabel Kershner’s book illustrates how the political and social conflicts that shaped the nation’s founding have persisted, if not deepened … In a crowded landscape of writing about Israel, Kershner’s new book is an essential contribution … it will spark critical conversation about the history and future of Israel.’ -- Alex Katz, Natan Notable Books judge‘Kershner reflects on both the history and future of the state of Israel by delving into the present and illuminating what is and always has been the soul of Israel: its people … Kershner uses her many years as a journalist to bring out the stories that shape the Israeli narrative.’‘This excellent book … paints a realistic, nuanced picture of Israel, exploring the Jewish state’s spirit of innovation, its identity politics, its culture wars and its inability to agree a border with the Palestinians … Kershner’s comprehensive, accessible book should be compulsory reading before any trip to Israel.’ -- Colin Schindler * The Jewish Chronicle *‘Compelling … [The Land of Hope and Fear] offers an insightful overview of Israel’s complex struggles … A well-reported study of Israel’s rapidly shifting cultural and religious environment.’ * Kirkus Reviews *‘With the sharp eye of an experienced reporter, a profound understanding of Israel, its internal conflicts, weaknesses and strengths, and with a great love for the country and its people, Isabel Kershner went on a fascinating journey into the minds and souls of current Israelis, Jews, and Arabs. Seventy-five years after its birth, the Jewish state is still struggling over its identity. The Land of Hope and Fear is a must-read book for people who wish to understand why and how.’ -- Nahum Barnea * Yedioth Ahronoth *‘Masterful … Kershner enriches her analysis of the forces roiling modern Israel through incisive conversations with individual Israelis … Nuanced and persuasive, this is a valuable dispatch from a country in turmoil.’ -- Publishers Weekly, starred review‘Through outstanding writing, [Kershner] introduces us to a diverse cast of characters … The book provides tantalising historical nuggets… Her narrative makes clear that the splits in Israeli society and politics aren’t new, but go back to its earliest days.’ -- Alan D. Abbey * Hadassah Magazine *‘The New York Times correspondent’s compelling history identifies the issues that have polarised a country now split by far-right extremists.’ -- Matthew Reisz * The Observer *

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Book SynopsisWith her royal insider's knowledge and historical insight, Lady Colin Campbell turns her attention to People of Colour and the Royals. She herself is strongly vested in the subject of colour, being the proud product of one of the most prominent families in the multi-racial world of Jamaica.When she was born there in 1949 that country had, although inadequate, more progressive and inclusive race relations than anywhere else. In her first eighteen years she lived through the transitional period from colonial heyday to independence in 1962, to the subsequent political and demographic changes. Jamaicans hold very dear the concept of their national motto 'Out of Many One People', and she understands the nuances whereby all Jamaicans, irrespective of colour, are regarded as members of the Black Community. Her lack of prejudice allows her to examine the sometimes difficult past with welcome objectivity and refreshing candour, and Jamaica has continued to spearhead many of the positive changes taking place in larger countries like the United States and the United Kingdom. Her book is full of welcome surprises. It takes her unique heritage, courage, insight and experience to write a book as illuminating and hopeful as People of Colour and the Royals. It is a work which she hopes will go some way to healing the divisions of the past and consolidating the unity of the present into an even more cohesive future.

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Book SynopsisVirtually anyone, anywhere knows that six million Jewish human beings were killed in the Jewish Holocaust. But how many African human beings were killed in the Black Holocaust - from the start of the European slave trade (c. 1500) to the Civil War (1865)? And how many were enslaved? The Black Holocaust, a travesty that killed millions of African human beings, is the most underreported major event in world history. A major economic event for Europe and Asia, a near fatal event for Africa, the seminal event in the history of every African American - if not every American! - and most of us cannot answer the simplest question about it. Here is a sample of what you will get from the painstakingly researched, painfully honest THE BLACK HOLOCAUST FOR BEGINNERS:The total number of slaves imported is not known. It is estimated that nearly 900,000 came to America in the 16th Century, 2.75 million in the 17th Century, 7 million in the 18th, and over 4 million in the 19th - perhaps 15 million in total. Probably every slave imported represented, on average, five corpses in Africa or on the high seas. The American slave trade, therefore, meant the elimination of at least 60 million Africans from their fatherland.THE BLACK HOLOCAUST FOR BEGINNERS - part indisputably documented chronicle, part passionately engaging narrative, puts the tragic event in plain sight where it belongs! The long overdue book answers all of your questions, sensitively and in great depth.

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Book SynopsisEsarhaddon, King of Assyria continues Josette Elayi's narrative journey through the lives of the kings of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Using both archaeological and textual evidence, Elayi examines the contentious circumstances surrounding Esarhaddon's accession to the throne in 681 BCE, his rebuilding of Babylon, which had been destroyed by his father Sennacherib, his successful campaigns in Media, the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Caucasus, and the Levant, and his ultimate achievement, the conquest of Egypt in 671 BCE. Throughout, Elayi presents a rich portrait of this enigmatic figure, whose short but impactful reign was plagued by chronic illness and a complex--and ultimately fatal--relationship with his court officials. Yet, through it all, Esarhaddon emerges as one of the most scholarly and most politically successful kings of the empire.Table of ContentsChronology of Esarhaddon’s Reign Introduction The Portrait of Esarhaddon Esarhaddon, the Crown Prince His Accession to the Throne Diviners and Other Scholars in the Court of Nineveh The Rebuilding of Babylon and Other Building Activities The First Phase of Campaigns (680-675) The Second Phase of Campaigns (674-669) The Problem of Succession The End of Esarhaddon’s Reign Conclusion: An Assessment of Esarhaddon’s Reign Selected Bibliography Index of Ancient Sources Index of Modern Authors Index of Personal Names

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Book Synopsis Winner of the 2021/2022 People's Book Prize Best Achievement Award Homes can be both comforting and troubling places. This timely book proposes a new understanding of Florence Nightingale’s experiences of domestic life and how ideas of home influenced her writings and pioneering work. From her childhood homes in Derbyshire and Hampshire, she visited the poor sick in their cottages. As a young woman, feeling imprisoned at home, she broke free to become a woman of action, bringing home comforts to the soldiers in the Crimean War and advising the British population on the home front how to create healthier, contagion-free homes. Later, she created Nightingale Homes for nursing trainees and acted as mother-in-chief to her extended family of nurses. These efforts, inspired by her Christian faith and training in human care from religious houses, led to major changes in professional nursing and public health, as Nightingale strove for homely, compassionate care in Britain and around the world. Shedid most of this work from her bed after contracting the debilitating illness, brucellosis, in the Crimea, turning her various private homes into offices and ‘households of faith’. In the year of the bicentenary of her birth, she remains as relevant as ever, achieving an astonishing cultural afterlife.Trade Review“Florence Nightingale at Home makes a strong case for renewed attention to Nightingale’s career as a nursing pioneer and as an imperial sanitary reformer. … The book … demonstrates the importance of the notion of domesticity for rethinking and rescaling analyses of social bodies, nations, empires … ecologies.” (Richard Bonfiglio, Victorian Studies, Vol. 65 (1), 2022)“The depth of research is admirable: this book draws on materials within the Nightingale family archive and is also the first major study to be able to use all sixteen volumes of Lynn McDonald’s Collected Works of Florence Nightingale … . This book is a valuable read for scholars of Nightingale and those working more broadly on the history of medicine and Victorian domesticity, as well as the public with an interest in this famous historical figure.” (Charlotte Wilson, BAVS Newsletter, Vol. 23 (2), 2023)“This latest book on Nightingale makes an insightful contribution to the existing literature on the world’s most well-known nurse, being the first to explore her domestic experiences and how the theme of home influenced her writings and work.” (David Stewart, nottinghamnursinghistory.wordpress.com, July 7, 2021)“Part of the pleasure in reading this thoughtful and well-executed collaborative work is the way in which the received narrative boundaries have been dissolved. … For any student of Nightingale, or of gender and health in the nineteenth century, the authors offer a wonderfully detailed discussion of the past 40 years of scholarship assembled along the lines of home and domesticity.” (Sioban Nelson, Social History of Medicine, March 12, 2021)Table of Contents1. Home Sweet Home?2. Childhood Homes3. Leaving Home 4. Health at Home5. Homely Institutions6. Home Front7. Working from Home8. Spiritual Home9. Afterlife

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a critical account of the development of questions, approaches, methods, and understandings of literacy within and across disciplines and interdisciplines. It provides a critique of literacy studies, including the New Literacy Studies. This book completes a series that the author began in the 1970s. It criticizes and revises the New Literacy Studies and how we think about literacy generally. It is a revisionist study which argues that literacy and literacy studies are historical developments and must be understood in those terms to comprehend their profound impact on our traditions of thinking about and understanding literacy, and how we study it. Graff argues that literacy studies in its academic, institutional, and policy forums, but also in popular parlance, has lost its critical foundations, and this hinders efforts to promote literacy. He examines literacy over time and across linguistics; anthropology; psychology; reading and writing across modes of communication and comprehension; “new” literacies across digital, visual, performance, numerical, and scientific domains; and history. He underscores the value of new directions of negotiation and translation. This book will interest scholars and students in the many fields that constitute literacy studies across the humanities, social sciences, education, and beyond. Table of ContentsPart 1. Searching for Literacy Studies.1. Back to Basics.2. Linguistics: Between Orality and Writing.3. Anthropology: Reading and Writing from Pictographs to Ethnography.4. Psychology: Between Mind and Culture.5. Literature and Composition: Reading and Writing Revised.6. Many Literacies, Other Visions: Digital, Visual, Science, Numbers, Performance.7. Historicizing Literacy and Literacy Studies: Axioms and Lessons.8. Epilogue: Many Pasts, Many Futures.Part 2. 2021: Looking Forward and Backward.9. The New Literacy Studies and the Resurgent Literacy Myth.10. Literacy, Politics, Culture, and Society: The New Illiteracy and the Banning of Books, Past and Present.11. The Economic Debasement of Literacy: The Misrepresentation and Marketing of “Financial Literacy”.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first book to tell the story of the bebop subculture in London’s Soho, a subculture that emerged in 1945 and reached its pinnacle in 1950. In an exploration via the intersections of race, class and gender, it shows how bebop identities were constructed and articulated. Combining a wide range of archival research and theory, the book evocatively demonstrates how the scene evolved in Soho’s clubs, the fashion that formed around the music, drug usage amongst a contingent of the group, and the moral panic which led to the police raids on the clubs between 1947 and 1950. Thereafter it maps the changes in popular culture in Soho during the 1950s, and argues that the bebop story is an important precedent to the institutional harassment of black-related spaces and culture that continued in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This book therefore rewrites the first chapter of the ‘classic’ subcultural canon, and resets the subcultural clock; requiring us to rethink the periodization and social make-up of British post-war youth subcultures. Trade Review“Ray Kinsella’s book, which is based on his PhD thesis, sheds light on the dimly lit British bebop scene of the mid-to-late 1940s and early 1950s. It gently disproves misconceptions about beboppers and the milieu they created. … The Bebop Scene in London’s Soho is an authoritative text on a neglected subject in British cultural history. … the book uses it as an entry point to explore wider topics, such as histories of fashion, race, gender … .” (Jacob Bloomfield, H-Soz-Kult, hsozkult.de, July 6, 2023)Table of Contents1. Introduction2. Contextualizing Soho, 1800-19453. Bebop Music and the Soho Clubs4. Men’s and Women’s Sartorial Style in the Clubs: The Bebop Look5. The Police Raids on the Soho Bebop Clubs, 1947-19506. Soho After the Raids7. Is This a Subculture?8. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisWith essays by Pedro Alonso, Pedro Álvarez, Nicole Cristi, Francisca Espinosa, Mario Garcés, Michael Lemon, Eden Medina, Carlos Montes de Oca, Hugo Palmarola, Marian E. Schlotterbeck, Martin Tironi, Rita Torres, Camilo Trumper and Peter Winn. From 1970 to 1973 Chile carried out on a political experiment in which socialist change would occur peacefully and with respect for existing democratic institutions. This “Chilean road to socialism,” as it was often called, offered a unique political third way at the height of the Cold War – one that broke from the opposing models put forth by the United States and the Soviet Union. This short and abruptly ended period in Chilean history resulted in product and communication design that powerfully demonstrates how design can influence social behavior and identity and foster solidarity and cohesion. How to Design a Revolution documents this Chilean visual language born out of exceptional circum- stances. The publication broadens the study of influential and consequential visual languages of the social (protest) movements of the1960s and1970s, such as the Cuban Revolution, the Vietnam War and May 68, and illustrates how design came to reflect the dynamics of this political moment while also becoming a tool for political change.

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the role of popular forms of social mobilization during Spain's process of transition to democracy. It focuses on the nature of citizenship that was forged during the period of conflict and mobilisation that characterised Spain from the late 1950s until the late 1980s. It offers a two-pronged exploration of social movements at the time. On the one hand, it provides a detailed analysis of four very different cases of social mobilisation: among Catholics, residents, farmers and teachers. It discerns processes of organisation, repertoires of action, collective meaning, and interactions with communities and local political actors. On the other hand, it reflects on how the fight over specific issues and the use of similar tactics generated shared interpretations of what it meant to be a citizen in a democracy.Trade Review“Julia Preece’s book is an exciting and very important book for the community engagement field—not just in South Africa and the global south where many of her case studies are located, but for the field more broadly too. … this is an excellent book and an essential read for SL and CE practitioners and students in both the global South and North.” (Janice McMillan, International Journal of Lifelong Education, Vol. 37 (6), 2018)​Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Catholicism and Citizenship under the Franco Dictatorship.- Chapter 3: The Right to the City and the Right to the State: Neighbourhood Associations and the Negotiation of Citizenship.- Chapter 4: Professional Citizenship in the Workplace: Teachers’ Civic Initiatives.- Chapter 5: Citizenship and democracy in the Spanish countryside.- Chapter 6: Citizen building during the Spanish Transition to Democracy: Between the Spanish Debate and the Social Movements Debate.

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Book SynopsisIn the years following World War I, Los Angeles was a city awakening to its darker side, transforming itself from a backwater town to a gleaming metropolis and city of the future. But along the way a tarnished patina began to coat its ever-more glamorous façade. As thousands flocked to the city with their dreams and desires, so too came get-rich-quick schemes, phony religions, organized crime, and corruption. A visual history like no other, Dark City brings together images from archives, museums, newspaper photo morgues, private collections, and the author’s extensive image library to reveal the true grit, grime, and sheer horror stories of Los Angeles from the 1920s to 1950s. In large format, we roam through the back alleys, gin joints, tattoo parlors, gambling dens, nightclubs, and the most brutal crime scenes, to uncover a city crawling with murder and mayhem. From Sunset Boulevard to a jazz-saturated Central Avenue, tabloid headlines chronicle the most famous celebrities and infamous crimes in a hopped-up city that provided inspiration for journalists, pulp fiction scribes, and filmland script writers in their creation of the noir genre. With rare vintage magazine reprints from the crime tabloids of the time, this is a uniquely evocative visual history through which the crime, crooks, crazies, and mean streets of the City of Angels are transformed from myth to reality.

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Book SynopsisSephardic Trajectories brings together scholars of Ottoman history and Jewish studies to discuss how family heirlooms, papers, and memorabilia help us conceptualize the complex process of migration from the Ottoman Empire to the United States. To consider the shared significance of family archives in both the United States and in Ottoman lands, the volume takes as starting point the formation of the Sephardic Studies Digital Collection at the University of Washington, a community-led archive and the world’s first major digital repository of archival documents and recordings related to the Sephardic Jews of the Mediterranean world. Contributors reflect on the role of private collections and material objects in studying the Sephardi past, presenting case studies of Sephardic music and literature alongside discussions of the role of new media, digitization projects, investigative podcasts, and family memorabilia in preserving Ottoman Sephardic culture. Trade Review"Sephardic Trajectories is a landmark demonstration of international collaboration between Turkey and the United States, advancing Jewish historiography by integrating the latest digital technology to copy, itemize, and disseminate Ladino literature. Sephardic Trajectories is not a sole beneficiary of state or foundational backing, but a collective labor of love involving over 80 community members from organizations as diverse as Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) in downtown Istanbul and the Sephardic congregation of Bikur Holim in Seattle. The collections of Sephardic material, largely originating from printers and manufacturers in the Ottoman Empire, currently housed at the University of Washington, exemplifies the potential of community-led archives." * Tablet *"Sephardic Trajectories represents an exemplary mix of sources and creative thematic structure....there is no doubt that this volume and the novel sources that it introduces will inspire future works in Sephardic studies. Researchers who are interested in the Sephardim will certainly find value in this book. The large swath of materials from the UWSSC and the revisionist approaches of the authors will become an invaluable tool for Sephardic scholars, in general, and historians of Ottoman Jews, in particular." * Sephardic Horizons *Table of ContentsIntroduction (Oscar Aguirre-Mandujano, UPenn; Kerem Tinaz, Koç University) Part I Histories: The Formation of a Community-Led Archive Ottoman Imprints and Erasures among Seattle’s Sephardic Jews (Devin Naar, UW) “The Seeds for a New Judaeo-Spanish Culture on the Shores of Puget Sound?” (Ty Alhadeff, UW) Part II Studies: Reading the Past through the Seattle Sephardic Studies Collection From the Aegean to the Pacific: Ottoman Legacies in Seattle Sephardi Synagogues (Maureen Jackson) Walking Through a Library: Notes on the Ladino Novel and Some Other Books (Laurent Mignon, Oxford U.) Sephardic Soldiers in the Late Ottoman Army (Özgür Özkan, UW) Part III Reflections: Ottoman Pasts, Private Collections, and Family Memories Artifacts and their Aftermath: The Imperial and Post-Imperial Trajectories of Late Ottoman Material Objects (Benjamin Fortna, U. Arizona) Deporting Ottoman Americans (Chris Gratien, UVA; Sam Negri) Amid Galanti’s Private Documents: Reflections on the Legacy, Trajectory, and Preservation of a Sephardi Intellectual’s Past (Kerem Tinaz, Koç U.) Galante’s Daughter: Crafting an Archival Family Memoir (Hannah Pressman)

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Book SynopsisDelhi: A History is a historical portrait of a city whose past has reference in mythology and whose present is rooted in modernity. A city destroyed and populated by events of history, its journey has been unparalleled when compared with other ancient cities of the world.

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Book SynopsisThe Shades of the Wilderness by Joseph A. Altsheler is a novel set during the American Civil War, specifically after the Battle of Gettysburg. Lee's army is retreating, wounded soldiers fill the wagons, and Harry Kenton, a young Confederate cavalryman, is sent to observe and report on the enemy's movements. Harry reflects on the loss of the Confederate army's lieutenant, Stonewall Jackson, and his belief that they could have won the battle if Jackson had been there. Despite the victory, Harry feels melancholic about the loss of so many men. Harry's friends, St. Clair and Langdon, who are also wounded, are in high spirits and believe that they will win the next battle. Harry, however, is more contemplative and less optimistic about the future. The novel is an exploration of the emotional and psychological impact of war on soldiers, and their deep sense of loyalty to their cause and their leaders.

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

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Book SynopsisThe book The Mormon Menace written by John Doyle Lee and Alfred Henry Lewis. John Doyle Lee become a contentious man or woman in Mormon history, most known for his function inside the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre. Some stories are fascinating and first rate, while others trap you off protect and draw you in. This version of The Mormon Menace is each cutting-edge and understandable, with an eye-catching new cowl and nicely typeset cloth. This historical book is a brilliant compilation of thoughts compacted right into an unmarried draft for readers of any age to peruse. Lee later left the religion and penned his memoirs, taking part with Alfred Henry Lewis to create The Mormon Menace. The paintings of literature are a harsh critique of Mormonism, depicting it as a dangerous and corrupt spiritual motion. It digs into the early history of the LDS Church, its creation with the aid of Joseph Smith, and its arguable polygamy practice. Lee and Lewis additionally discuss religious extremism and church violence. The Mormon Menace illustrates anti-Mormon feelings in a diffusion of settings during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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

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Book SynopsisThis book calls for a re-imagining of global picture book history: with the former Soviet Union at the centre of this narrative web. The result of an unusual collaboration between India and Lithuania, the book looks at two different global impacts of the Soviet picture book enterprise. At a particular period in Indian history, cheaply available Soviet picture books, in English and vernacular translations, changed the way Indian children read. This was part of the Soviet Union's efforts to spread 'socialist' culture across the world. Meanwhile, a different and more problematic kind of cultural 'globalization' was underway in the regions governed by the Soviet State, and Lithuania is a rich case in point.A sumptuous and unusual archive of art has been mined to go with this history: from socialist realist art to classic examples of the Lithuanian primitive-modern, many of the images in the book are featured in an English language publication for the first time.

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Book SynopsisGopalkrishna Gandhi has been an administrator, diplomat, author, and public intellectual of distinction for over four decades. His writings have spanned diverse genres, showcasing both his deep scholarship as well as a profound engagement with issues of politics, history,iterature, and culture. He is respected not only for his statesmanship, but also admired as an exemplar of a fading ideal of our republic, one that placed ethics and the pursuit of the common good at the core of our publicife. The Fourthion, a festschrift in honour of Gopalkrishna Gandhi, consists of twenty-six essays contributed by individuals drawn from various walks ofife and from across the globe. Organized into thematic sectionsLiterature and Culture, History, Environment, Politics and Public Affairs, and Memoirsthe essays speak to concerns, interests and sensibilities that animate ourives.

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Book SynopsisThe thirteen critical and well-documented chapters of Women, Work and Activism examine women’s labor struggle from late nineteenth-century Portuguese mutual societies to Yugoslav peasant women’s work in the 1930s, and from the Catalan labor movement under the Franco dictatorship to workplace democracy in the United States. The authors portray women's labor activism in a wide variety of contexts. This includes spontaneous resistance to masculinist trade unionism, the feminist engagement of women workers, the activism of communist wives of workers, and female long-distance migration, among others. The chapters address the gendered involvement of working people in multiple and often precarious and unstable labor relations and in unpaid labor, as well as the role of the state and other institutions in shaping the history of women’s labor. The book is an innovative contribution to both the new labor history and feminist history. It fully integrates the conceptual advances made by gender historians in the study of labor activism, driving home critiques of Eurocentric historiographies of labor to Europe while simultaneously contributing to an inclusive history of women’s labor-related activism wherever to be found. Examining women’s activism in male-dominated movements and institutions, and in women’s networks and organizations, the authors make a case for a new direction in gender history.Trade Review"'Women, Work, and Activism' ist ein einmaliger Sammelband, der das Potenzial des Forschungsfelds Gewerkschaftsgeschichte, Labor History und Geschlecht abwechslungsreich und vielschichtig darstellt. Es ist zu hoffen, dass hier ein erster Impuls gesetzt wurde, der weitere Arbeiten im Themenfeld inspiriert." -- Sophia Kuhnle * Arbeit – Bewegung – Geschichte *Table of ContentsList of Acronyms List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgments Introduction Thinking the History of Women’s Activism into Global Labor History Eloisa Betti, Leda Papastefanaki, Marica Tolomelli, and Susan Zimmermann Part 1 Toward Inclusive Framings: Women’s Labor Activism in Men- and Women-Dominated Contexts Women in the Mutual Societies of Portugal from the End of the Nineteenth Century to the 1930s Virgínia Baptista and Paulo Marques Alves The Female Staff in the PTT International between Trade Unionism and Feminism from the Early Twentieth Century to the Interwar Period Laura Savelli Women and the Labor Movement under a Dictatorship: Comisiones Obreras (Workers’ Commissions) in Greater Barcelona during Franco’s Dictatorship and the Transition to Democracy (1964–1981) Nadia Varo Moral “Traditionally Reserved for Men”: Australian Trade Unions and the 1970s Working Women’s Campaign for Liberation Diane Kirkby, Lee-Ann Monk, and Emma Robertson Part 2 Women in Motion: Rethinking Agency and Activism at the Workplace and Beyond The Strike, the Household, the Gendered Division of Labor, and International Networks: Women Auxiliaries and the Ship Repair Workers’ Strike (Genoa, 1955) Marco Caligari “In Order to Safeguard the Lives of Our Children and Families”: Resistance and Protest of Women Workers in the Greek Tobacco Industry, 1945–1970 Thanasis Betas Inside the Factory, Outside the Party-state: The Agency of Yugoslav Women Workers in Late Socialism (1976–1989) Rory Archer Work and the Politics of the Injured Body: Nurse Activism, Occupational Risk, and the Politics of Care in the United States Elizabeth Faue Part 3 How the Personal Reveals the Political: Women Activists’ Biographies and Beyond Women Activists’ Relationship to Peasant Women’s Work in Yugoslavia in the 1930s Isidora Grubački Women in the Trade Union Movement and Their Biographies: The Camera del Lavoro (Chamber of Labor) in Milan (1945–1965) Debora Migliucci French Trade Unionists Go International: The Circulation of Ideas on the Education and Training of Women Workers in the 1950s and 1960s Françoise F. Laot Trade Union Feminism in Lyon: Commissions-femmes as Sites of Resistance and Well-being in the 1970s Anna Frisone Working Women on the Move: Genealogies of Gendered Migrant Labor Maria Tamboukou List of Contributors Chapter Abstracts Index

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2022 Ab Imperio Award for the Best Study in New Imperial History and History of Diversity in Northern EurasiaThis first English-language synthesis of the history of Dnipro (until 2016 Dnipropetrovsk, until 1926 Katerynoslav) locates the city in a broader regional, national, and transnational context and explores the interaction between global processes and everyday routines of urban life. The history of a place (throughout its history called ‘new Athens’, ‘Ukrainian Manchester’, ‘the Brezhnev`s capital’ and ‘the heart of Ukraine’) is seen through the prism of key threads in the modern history of Europe: the imperial colonization and industrialization, the war and the revolution in the borderlands, the everyday life and mythology of a Soviet closed city, and the transformations of post-Soviet Ukraine. Designed as a critical entangled history of the multicultural space, the book looks for a new analytical language to overcome the traps of both national and imperial history-writing.Trade Review“Overall, the book offers a vivid assemblage of interwoven storylines and episodes from the city’s multi-dimensional past, which combined result in an entangled history of Dnipro as a European city. This book is an essential read for everyone wishing to understand the multi-layered history of Ukraine and diversity of its regions.”— Olena Palko, European History Quarterly“Andrii Portnov has written a fascinating, well-illustrated book about an ‘entangled’ history of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro/Dnipropetrovsk… After reading Portnov’s amazing study about a history of the city of my youth, I reevaluated Dnipro’s complicated past… Portnov’s book is a most interesting and important contribution to the field of the Ukrainian studies, demonstrating the role of such multinational cities as Dnipro in the Ukrainian struggle against the Russian and Soviet empires.”— Sergei I. Zhuk, Russian Review“It is rare to find a book title more apt than the one selected by Andrii Portnov for his monograph Dnipro. An Entangled History of a European City. … I claim so because Portnov, in publishing the first English-language monograph on the history of Katerynoslav (1776–1926), then Dnipropetrovsk (1926–2016), and now Dnipro (since 2016), today the fourth largest city in Ukraine by population, has expertly demonstrated how to apply this approach to the past in practice. … Portnov’s historical tale of Katerynoslav / Dnipropetrovsk / Dnipro faithfully and consequently reflects the entangled character of the city’s history.”— Tomasz Stryjek, Kultura i Społeczeństwo“One outstanding feature of the book is its ability to bring different strands of Ukrainian historiography into dialogue. … [T]he footnotes are a priceless treasure trove of source material, secondary literature in Western languages, Russian, and, most importantly, Ukrainian and Polish. The book is written in straightforward, relatable English and is easily accessible to readers possessing no prior knowledge of Ukrainian or Russian history. … Although Portnov’s book ends before Russia’s attempted total invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it offers very timely reading, integrating different strands of Ukraine’s history into the story of a city. … In combining a multitude of different sources, research literature, and narrative styles (from interviews to close reading of sources to birds-eye geopolitical analyses), this book highlights the complexity and often contradictory nature of Dnipro’s history. This does not always make for easy reading, but following the different paths of this European city is worthy of the reader’s time.”— Boris Belge, H-Soz-Kult“This book is a great example of a history of a place that resists any linear genealogy. Andrii Portnov introduces this place—Dnipro (Ekaterynoslav/Katerynoslav, Dnipropetrovsk/Dnepropetrovsk)—as a city without ‘a single national majority, well-established self-identification, or a broadly recognizable mythology,’ and manages to avoid ascribing it one. His ‘entangled history’ approach combines a thorough, sometimes truly fascinating exploration of local circumstances with a broader perspective on the dynamics that Dnipro embodied in the pre-1917 and Soviet imperial formations. The book discusses the overlapping (national and social) revolutions, cultural movements in the city, considerable economic transformations, local religious and linguistic patterns, and aspects of basic everyday coexistence, cooperation, and competition of the city’s various ethnic and confessional communities. Dnipro is simultaneously a microhistory and a decentered history of ‘European,’ imperial, and national modernity. Finally, Portnov’s ‘entangled history’ explains the evolution of typically ‘Eastern Ukrainian’ Dnipropetrovsk into a center of Ukrainian resistance against pro-Russian separatism after the Euromaidan (2013–14) and later, its defiance of Russian aggression. The book thus offers a unique view, still lacking in English, on modern Ukrainianness. It deserves to be broadly read by all those interested in historical complexity and human agency’s potential to overcome the determinism of the past.”— Marina Mogilner, Edward and Marianna Thaden Chair in Russian and East European Intellectual History, University of Illinois at Chicago"This is a brilliant study of Katerynoslav-Dnipropetrovsk-Dnipro – the changes of the name are a first indicator of the dramatic fate of this extraordinary urban project. Andrii Portnov draws a fascinating portrait of the city that evolved from a new Athens in Southern Russia to a Soviet Manchester and finally to a stronghold of Ukrainian independence. He explains the rather surprising resistance against the covert Russian aggression in 2014 against the background of the multifaceted history of the city. Portnov takes an innovative, methodologically reflected approach and includes cultural, religious, social and political aspects in his nuanced analysis. As Portnov convincingly shows, the entangled history of Dnipro can be read as a history of Ukraine in nuce.”— Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schmid, Eastern European Studies, University of St. Gallen (Switzerland)“The fascinating city of Dnipro on the river bearing the same name is indispensable for understanding modern Ukraine and modern Eastern Europe. Surprisingly for the city of its size and importance, very little has been written about Dnipro. Andriy Portnov’s pathbreaking study finally gives the city its due. Portnov promises and delivers an ‘entangled history’ at its very best. Not only are the fates of the city’s many ethnic groups intertwined and interdependent, the city itself is written into a broader story of global processes and events that have shaped the modern world. As the book shows those global forces themselves are interlocked and materialize in all their complexity only in concrete tangible places, and Andriy Portnov’s Dnipro is one of those places.”— Andriy Zayarnyuk, Professor of History, University of Winnipeg“Professor Portnov has written an outstanding history of Dnipro, one of the most interesting cities in Ukraine. He reveals how, by the turn of the twentieth century, this Russian imperial outpost in the, South named Katerynoslav after Catherine II, became a ‘new Manchester,’ an industrial hub straddling a major river, the Dnipro. In 1926 the Soviets renamed it Dnipropetrovsk after the local Bolshevik leader Hryhorii Petrovsky. A major center of Jewish settlement that produced important Zionist leaders, Dnipropetrovsk saw the brutal murder of its Jews during the Holocaust. The Soviets then turned it into a well-supplied ‘closed city’ producing intercontinental ballistic missiles. By examining the situational responses of the local elites and civil society, Portnov solves the puzzle of present-day Dnipro, now stripped of Petrovsky’s ghost: how this eastern Ukrainian city became a Ukrainian stronghold against Russian aggression. This book makes a major contribution to the field.”— Serhy Yekelchyk, author of Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to KnowTable of ContentsIntroduction: “The Unfinished City” and Its Histories1. The Potemkin City2. Manchester on the Dnipro3. The Symphony of Revolutions4. The Soviet Dnipropetrovsk5. A City at War 6. Brezhnev’s CapitalEpilogue: Neither the City Number One nor the City Number Two BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisRoy and Zhores Medvedev, two identical twins with a unique fate, not only lived through a whole century of history, from Stalin to Putin, they wrote and made history. Their research on Stalinism, the first to come out of the Soviet Union in the 1960s-1970s, turned them into famous dissidents overnight, but their criticism of the regime always remained loyal to Soviet power. The story of their lives provides a snapshot into the history of Soviet dissent, from psychiatric hospitalization to forced exile, and from KGB interrogations to collaboration with Western news correspondents. Yet their trajectory was also marred by controversy with fellow dissidents, and in the post-Soviet era active support of authoritarian rulers, including Vladimir Putin. Trade Review“Yet even when Martin gives the brothers full voice, it is to her credit that they don't always appear noble, ethical or as smart as they seem to think. Roy comes across as brave, conspiratorial, vainglorious and ethically compromised. Zhores was less political and ideological, but then again, he lived primarily abroad until his death in 2018. … For those who remember the brothers' publications from the 1970s and 1980s, Roy and Zhores Medvedev will provide much new detail and nuance. It may be tempting from afar to disparage their ‘loyal dissent’, but Barbara Martin reminds us that they carved out this position at great personal risk to their family and themselves. For those who have not followed their more recent story, however, the book will provide a sobering perspective on the value of a loyal Russian opposition.”— Ethan Pollock, Times Literary Supplement“Historian Barbara Martin has written a compelling dual biography of brothers Zhores and Roy Medvedev, who gained fame for their ‘dissident’ writings in the late Soviet period even as they advocated for the reform of socialism not its abandonment. Martin traces their respective careers, deftly summarizes their prolific writings, and shows how they navigated pressure from the state and rebutted critiques from the regime’s more radical opponents. This study is particularly valuable for its meticulous and judicious delineation of differences among Soviet era non-conformists. Martin also analyzes Roy Medvedev’s turn toward writing laudatory biographies of Nazarbaev, Lukashenko, and Putin.”— Dr. Kathleen Smith, Professor of Teaching, Georgetown University“If we want to understand today's Russia, we need to know the biographies of its people and their winding lives, which are almost unimaginable in the West. Barbara Martin presents two such keys to Putin's Russia in the form of the ‘loyal dissidents,’ the Medvedev twins, one the famous author of Let History Judge, the other a recalcitrant biologist forced into exile in Britain in 1973. One can have been persecuted, arrested, and harassed by the Soviet state himself and still conclude that Russia must be led by a ‘strong hand.’ An important book!”— Susanne Schattenberg, author of Brezhnev: The Making of a Statesman (2022)“Roy and Zhores Medvedev are amongst the most fascinating and important figures in the history of Soviet dissent, but much about them has remained unknown or poorly understood until now. Barbara Martin’s account offers a meticulously researched and richly detailed history of the brothers’ parallel, but very different, lives in the Soviet Union, Western Europe, and the USA. Drawing on a huge amount of new archival and interview material, Martin traces their lives and activities across many fields, including history, science, and political activism, and through the Soviet and post-Soviet eras. The first joint biography in English, this landmark study is likely to remain the standard work for many years to come. More than just a biography, though, this new study also casts new light on the diverse practices and politics of dissidence, representing a major contribution to the new wave of scholarship on Soviet dissent.” — Polly Jones, Professor of Russian, University of OxfordTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsList of AbbreviationsNote on ArchivesIntroductionChapter 1. A Youth in Stalin’s Shadow Chapter 2. A Crusade in Soviet BiologyChapter 3. Stalin Is No MoreChapter 4. Making Sense of StalinismChapter 5. Rebellious IntelligentsiaChapter 6. A Question of MadnessChapter 7. New ThreatsChapter 8. Into ExileChapter 9. Carving a “Third Way” in the Cold WarChapter 10. Solzhenitsyn: The End of a FriendshipChapter 11. Finding and Losing Political AlliesChapter 12. Under the KGB’s WatchChapter 13. Andropov’s ProtectionChapter 14. The Nuclear ThreatChapter 15. The Rise and Fall of Gorbachev’s Socialist DemocracyChapter 16. The End of the Soviet OrderChapter 17. Praising the Strong Rulers

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive, readable history of the Republic of Turkey that gives equal weight to all periods in the first century of the Republic of Turkey.The republican order of Turkey seems not to have changed much since its foundation in 1923, but there were dramatic transformations: From Atatürk’s modernization dictatorship in the 1920s and 1930s, over the massive migration into the cities and the military coups in the second half of the twentieth century, up to Recep Tayyip Erdoğans electoral autocracy since the 2010s. This book makes us understand Turkey’s historical trajectory in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the fate of its various communities and ethnic groups—in particular Alevis and Kurds—and argues that a particular trait of Turkish political culture is its constant fluctuation between confidence and contention, grandeur and grievance.Trade Review“Maurus Reinkowski’s The History of Turkey: Grandeur and Grievance offers a critical retelling of Turkey’s triumphs and tragedies, providing an empathic exploration of the country’s past over a century. This expertly crafted work illuminates the country’s moments of grandeur and delves into its deep-seated grievances. Through an engagement with state-of-the-art research, Reinkowski’s keen eye for detail allows him to paint a vivid picture of Turkey’s complex history, surpassing standard textbooks. In a time of political crisis, Reinkowski’s engaging yet sober book offers a much-needed update to the perhaps overly optimistic scholarship of the last two decades. Impeccably researched and eloquently written, The History of Turkey: Grandeur and Grievance is an indispensable resource for scholars, students, and anyone seeking a critical understanding of Turkey’s past, present, and future.” — Alp Yenen, Assistant Professor of Modern Turkish History and Culture, Leiden University“In his thought-provoking introductory chapter, Maurus Reinkowski aptly observes that Turkey is a country that evokes anything but indifference. This rings acutely true in 2023, as Turkey not only faces presidential elections but also gears up to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic. The History of Turkey provides an invaluable companion to unlock the historical context of these events. Covering a period from 1912 to the present, the book offers a nuanced, meticulously researched and vividly narrated historical overview. It serves as a comprehensive and widely accessible guide to Turkish history and historiography that also features insightful discussions of Turkey’s most recent decades. By skillfully embedding key developments within their broader historical and cultural contexts, the rich narrative invites readers to explore the complexity and diversity of Turkish history and allows them to recognize enduring legacies and reverberations of the processes depicted in the book.”— Barbara Henning, professor at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Ottoman and Turkish History“This work is the culmination of some forty years of diligent language practice, intensive research, meticulous observation, and genuine engagement with the societies of Turkey. The result is a profound piece of scholarship with pages full of intellectually sophisticated analyses and magisterial detail that provide a new interpretation of the land, state, and people. Well-grounded in a wide range of old and new scholarship, it is a highly accessible account of Turkey from both a comparative and global perspective. This book will eloquently but at the same time disturbingly and constantly remind readers how firmly the genesis of state ideology is built on the foundations of the late Ottoman and early Republican period. It is essential reading for introductory and advanced courses on Turkey and the Middle East, and for those who look for a concise, yet authoritative account of the region in order to understand the state, politics, and society in depth. There is no equivalent study of this quality for Turkey; Reinkowski deserves considerable praise for a work that should receive much attention.”— Metin Atmaca, Professor of Ottoman and Middle East History, Social Sciences University of Ankara"This work of Maurus Reinkowski is an indispensable tool for those aiming to have a profound knowledge on present-day Turkish politics, or to understand this complex society. Having been trained in late Ottoman history and Middle East politics, Reinkowski is a keen observer of political and social developments in contemporary Turkey, also known officially as Türkiye. This study is chronologically organized, beginning with the historical roots of modern Turkey, followed by the Kemalist Republic (1923-1950), the period of 1950-1980, and recent Turkish history. What makes this book so appealing is its concentration on contemporary Turkish developments following the military coup of 1980. It discusses structural conditions leading to a crucial break from Kemalism, commenced with the so-called ‘Turkish-Islamic Synthesis’ ideology of the 1980s, continued by the economic liberalism of Turgut Özal, finally leading to the AKP-era presidential system accompanied by populism and authoritarianism. Reinkowski handles numerous topics, which still bear the quality of actuality, in a precise, informative and balanced manner."— Selçuk Akşin Somel, Sabancı University, Istanbul“This mature work combines affection for the subject with detached insight; serious questioning with a positive approach. Drawing on the current state of research, Reinkowski appreciates Turkey's potential and grievances, but also highlights the dead ends of its ultranationalism. Reading his insightful narrative reveals a central challenge: how to build up trust and democratic confidence in the dynamic, but troubled post-Ottoman country that is Republican Turkey? This work differs from many traditional books on modern Turkey that overemphasize Atatürk, while ignoring the late-Ottoman context and new developments of the twenty-first century.”— Hans-Lukas Kieser, Historian, University of Newcastle, Australia, and University of Zurich, SwitzerlandTable of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction Farewell to the Ottoman Empire The Kemalist Republic, 1923–1950 Precarious Pluralism, 1950–1980 The Promise of Islamic Conservatism, 1980–2013 The Road to Another Republic, 2013–the Present Update on Turkey in the Years 2021–2023 AcknowledgementsTimelineAbbreviationsIndex

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Book SynopsisA compelling and entertaining history of the British middle class by the bestselling author of THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, RAJ and WARRIOR RACE.Trade ReviewThose who buy this book will find something to intrigue them on almost every page * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *Readable and full of fascinating quotations and figures * LITERARY REVIEW *James is a well-informed guide to the past, conducting us on a tour from Chaucer to Thatcher. He has a sharp eye for detail * INDEPENDENT *[A] magisterial, sweeping new history of the middle class in Britain . . . Amirable * HERALD *

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