Search results for ""Author Owen""

This book presents a selection of eighteen land battles and sieges that span the Classical Greek period, from the Persian invasions to the eclipse of the traditional hoplite heavy infantry at the hands of the Macedonians. This of course is the golden age of the hoplite phalanx but Owen Rees is keen to cover all aspects of battle, including mercenary armies and the rise of light infantry, emphasising the variety and tactical developments across the period. Each battle is set in context with a brief background and then the battlefield and opposing forces are discussed before the narrative and analysis of the fighting is given and rounded off with consideration of the aftermath and strategic implications. Written in an accessible narrative tone, a key feature of the book is the author's choice of battles, which collectively challenge popularly held beliefs such as the invincibility of the Spartans. The text is well supported by dozens of tactical diagrams showing deployments and various phase of the battles.

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This beautiful and visually immersive book charts the fascinating story of the institution of the Museum, from its origins to the present. Visited by millions around the world every year, museums are one of mankind’s most essential creations. They tell stories, shape cultural identities and hold valuable insight about the past and about the future. This captivating works charts a path from the very first collection through to the latest developments in cultural curation, interweaving Using examples of the greatest cultural institutions to shape the narrative, historian and academic Owen Hopkins draws on his deep knowledge of the field to outline the history of the museum movement. Tracking the evolution from princely collections in Europe and the Enlightenment’s classically inspired temples of curiosities, via the public museums of the late nineteenth century, on to today’s global era oficonic buildings designed by the world’s leading architects, this book is a vital work for anyone seeking to understand the development of the museum into what it is today. Over the course of five chapters filled with stunning imagery that highlights the beauty of these venerated buildings, the origins of key institutions are revealed, including: Louvre Metropolitan Museum of Art British Museum Tate Modern The Hermitage Guggenheim Smithsonian Institute Acropolis Museum Also outlined are the motivations of the architects, curators and patrons who have shaped how we experience the modern museum, a cast that includes names such as King George II, Napoleon, Henry Clay Frick, Peggy Guggenheim, Andrew Carnegie, Alfred Barr, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Frank Gehry, Richard Rogers, Nicholas Serota and Zaha Hadid. By examining how these venues became intrinsic to our shared cultural experience, analysing the changing roles they play in society and questioning what the future holds in a digital age, this book is for anyone who has stood in awe at the spectacle of a museum.

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A complete and unabridged full-color edition of the classic sourcebook on ornamental designFirst published in 1856, The Grammar of Ornament remains a design classic. Its inspiration came from pioneering British architect and designer Owen Jones (1809–1874), who produced a comprehensive design treatise for the machine age, lavishly illustrated in vivid chromolithographic color. Jones made detailed observations of decorative arts on his travels in Europe, the Middle East, and in his native London, where he studied objects on display at the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in 1851 and at local museums. His aim was to improve the quality of Western design by changing the habits of Victorian designers, who indiscriminately mixed elements from a wide variety of sources.Jones's resulting study is a comprehensive analysis of styles of ornamental design, presenting key examples ranging from Maori tattoos, Egyptian columns, and Greek borders to Byzantine mosaic, Indian embroidery, and Elizabethan carvings. At once splendidly Victorian and insistently modern, The Grammar of Ornament celebrates objects of beauty from across time periods and continents, and remains an indispensable sourcebook today.

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In 1966 a coal slag heap collapsed on a school in south Wales, killing 144 people, most of them children. Poet Owen Sheers has given voice to those who still live in Aberfan, the pit village in which tragedy struck, and uses their collective memories to create a striking work of poetic power. This is a portrait not just of what happened, but also of what was lost. What was Aberfan like in 1966? What were the interests of the people, the social life, the sporting obsessions, the bands of the day? What was the deeper history of the place? Why had it become the mining village it was, and what had it been before the discovery of coal under its soil? Perhaps most significantly: what is Aberfan like today? The Green Hollow is a historical story with a deeply urgent contemporary resonance; a story of what can happen when a community is run by a corporation. It is also a story known along generational rather than geographic borders. Based on the BBC One production, The Green Hollow is a beautifully rendered picture of a time and place - and a life-altering event whose effects are irrevocable.

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What is a grimoire? The word has a familiar ring to many people, particularly as a consequence of such popular television dramas as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed. But few people are sure exactly what it means. Put simply, grimoires are books of spells that were first recorded in the Ancient Middle East and which have developed and spread across much of the Western Hemisphere and beyond over the ensuing millennia. At their most benign, they contain charms and remedies for natural and supernatural ailments and advice on contacting spirits to help find treasures and protect from evil. But at their most sinister they provide instructions on how to manipulate people for corrupt purposes and, worst of all, to call up and make a pact with the Devil. Both types have proven remarkably resilient and adaptable and retain much of their relevance and fascination to this day. But the grimoire represents much more than just magic. To understand the history of grimoires is to understand the spread of Christianity, the development of early science, the cultural influence of the print revolution, the growth of literacy, the impact of colonialism, and the expansion of western cultures across the oceans. As this book richly demonstrates, the history of grimoires illuminates many of the most important developments in European history over the last two thousand years.

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'Outstanding' SUNDAY TIMES 'A stunning debut thriller . . . utterly terrifying . . . absolutely riveting' DAILY MAIL 'Fascinating . . . fearsome' FREDERICK FORSYTH'Enthralling' FINANCIAL TIMES'Thrilling . . . compelling' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE1961. Hidden deep within central Soviet Russia is a place that doesn't appear on any map: a city called Arzamas-16. Here dedicated scientists and technicians are building the most powerful nuclear device the world will ever see - three thousand times more powerful than Hiroshima. But days before the bomb is to be tested, a young physicist is found dead. His body contains enough radioactive poison to kill thousands. The authorities believe it is suicide - they want the corpse disposed of, the incident filed and forgotten. But Moscow is alarmed by what's going on in this strange, isolated place. And so KGB major Alexander Vasin is sent to Arzamas to investigate. What he finds there is unlike anything he's experienced before. His wits will be tested against some of the Soviet Union's most brilliant minds - eccentrics, patriots and dissidents who, because their work is considered to be of such vital importance, have been granted the freedom to think and act, live and love as they wish. For in Arzamas, nothing can be allowed to get in the way of the project. Not even murder . . . Intricately researched, cunningly plotted and brilliantly told, Black Sun is a fast-paced and timely thriller set at the height - and in the heart - of Soviet power from the acclaimed author of An Impeccable Spy.What readers are saying: 'Woven around real events, people and places, it's genuinely terrifying stuff' *****'The twists and turns and intrigue kept me on tenterhooks' *****'Brings alive one of the most fascinating periods of Soviet history' *****

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'This is a must read!' Vince Cable, former leader of the Liberal Democrats'Reads like a rip roaring tale of a corporate high wire act' John McDonnell, former Shadow Chancellor 'Should be sold with a bottle of blood-pressure pills' Edward Lucas, The Times The proud owner of a sprawling £14m estate in the Cotswolds, boasting a stable of eventing horses, a fleet of supercars and neighbouring the royal family, Neil Woodford was the most celebrated and successful British investor of his generation. He spent years beating the market; betting against the dot com bubble in the 1990s and the banks before the financial crash in 2008, making blockbuster returns for his investors and earning himself a reputation of 'the man who made Middle England rich'.But, in 2019, after a stream of poorly-judged investments, Woodford's asset management company collapsed, trapping hundreds of thousands of rainy-day savers in his flagship fund and hanging £3.6 billion in the balance. In Built on a Lie, Financial Times reporter Owen Walker reveals the disastrous failings of Woodford, the greed at the heart of his operation, the flaws of an industry in thrall to its star performers and the dangers of limited regulation. With exclusive access to Woodford's inner circle, Walker will reveal the full, jaw-dropping story of Europe's biggest investment scandal in a decade.'Vital financial journalism with heart' Emma Barnett, broadcaster

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Over the past twenty years European cities have become the envy of the world: a Kraftwerk Utopia of historic centres, supermodernist concert halls, imaginative public spaces and futuristic egalitarian housing estates which, interconnected by high-speed trains traversing open borders, have a combination of order and pleasure which is exceptionally unusual elsewhere.In Trans-Europe Express, Owen Hatherley sets out to explore the European city across the entire continent, to see what exactly makes it so different to the Anglo-Saxon norm - the unplanned, car-centred, developer-oriented spaces common to the US, Ireland, UK and Australia. Attempting to define the European city, Hatherley finds a continent divided both within the EU and outside it.

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THE PHENOMENAL BESTSELLER'Fantastic, timely, eye-opening' Armando Iannucci, New Statesman, Books of the Year'Captures a collective sense of anger and awakening' Matt Haig, Observer, Books of the YearBehind our democracy lurks a powerful but unaccountable network of people who wield massive power and reap huge profits in the process. In exposing this shadowy and complex system that dominates our lives, Owen Jones sets out on a journey into the heart of our Establishment, from the lobbies of Westminster to the newsrooms, boardrooms and trading rooms of Fleet Street and the City. Exposing the revolving doors that link these worlds, and the vested interests that bind them together, Jones shows how, in claiming to work on our behalf, the people at the top are doing precisely the opposite. In fact, they represent the biggest threat to our democracy today - and it is time they were challenged.'A book of revelations ... The Establishment have stitched it up - stitched you up - and they know it' Danny Dorling, Times Higher Education Supplement'A dissection of the profoundly and sickeningly corrupt state that is present-day Britain. He is a fine writer, and this is a truly necessary book' Philip Pullman'Owen Jones is a phenomenon of our times' David Kynaston, The Times Literary Supplement 'You will be enlightened and angry' Irvine Welsh

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From talented duo comes a FLAP-TASTIC garden bird adventure.

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If you are silly about squid or just daft for amazing animals of the deep, dive in for a fact-packed illustrated journey into the ocean. Did you know that an octopus has three hearts and a doughnut-shaped brain? You'll discover that these incredible creatures are super-smart and have great survival skills. From the truly terrifying giant Pacific octopus to the inventive common octopus, find out where members of this eight-armed family live, what they eat and how we can protect them.

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Between March and May 1871, the Parisian Communards fought for a revolutionary alternative to the status quo grounded in a vision of internationalism, radical democracy and economic justice for the working masses that cut across national borders. The eventual defeat and bloody suppression of the Commune resonated far beyond Paris. In Britain, the Commune provoked widespread and fierce condemnation, while its defenders constituted a small, but vocal, minority. The Commune evoked long-standing fears about the continental ‘spectre’ of revolution, not least because the Communards’ seizure of power represented an embryonic alternative to the bourgeois social order.This book examines how a heterogeneous group of authors in Britain responded to the Commune. In doing so, it provides the first full-length critical study of the reception and representation of the Commune in Britain during the closing decades of the nineteenth century, showing how discussions of the Commune functioned as a screen to project hope and fear, serving as a warning for some and an example to others. Writers considered in the book include John Ruskin, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Eliza Lynn Linton, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Margaret Oliphant, George Gissing, Henry James, William Morris, Alfred Austin and H.G. Wells. As the book shows, many, but not all, of these writers responded to the Commune with literary strategies that sought to stabilize bourgeois subjectivity in the wake of the traumatic shock of a revolutionary event. The book extends critical understanding of the Commune’s cultural afterlives and explores the relationship between literature and revolution.

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It's time to learn about the sea's most feared (and most misunderstood) residents: sharks! Owen Davey returns to nonfiction to explain the mysteries of those denizens of the deep. Some are deadly, others are less so, but all of them are fascinating creatures. Exciting and detailed illustrations fill the page and educate young readers about these thrilling residents of the sea. Davey's whimsical text and eye-popping imagery saw his previous book win the affection of the Wall Street Journal, Smart About Sharks is sure to have teeth!

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Few military organisations have had a greater importance than the Wagner Group: at a cursory glance no more than a disreputable private mercenary group dedicated to committing war crimes yet also, astonishingly, the challengers of the Kremlin on 23-24 June, 2023—unheard of in over two decades of Vladimir Putin’s rule. From its inception in 2014 this nebulous organisation operating from Russia was intentionally cloaked in questions. How was it able to operate alongside Russia’s top government officials? How could it deploy the logistical systems of the Russian army up to and including ordering air attacks with fighter planes of the Russian Federation, despite the deep antipathy of Russia’s powerful defence minister Sergei Shoigu? Why did the Kremlin provide such an ample helping hand to its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, for over a decade? In this compelling book, former Financial Times journalist Owen Wilson investigates the Wagner Group and their ties to Vladimir Putin. It skilfully sets out its history and the dramatic death of Yevgeny Prigozhin to cast a searching light on the person who ultimately stands behind the group.

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In February 2021, Joe Biden released the CIA report that concluded the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia 'was responsible' for the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi secret service lured him into the Saudi diplomatic mission in Istanbul on 2 October 2018, dismembered him, and packed him into five suitcases. Crime writer Owen Wilson has forensically gathered all the known facts about the slaughter, what we know happened exactly, and what prompted the most demonic conspiracy of the twenty-first century. Chilling to the core and informative about Middle Eastern politics.

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From the outside, Carter Tomlin's life looks perfect: a big house, a pretty wife, two kids - a St. Paul success story. But Tomlin has a secret. He's lost his job, the bills are mounting, and that perfect life is hanging by a thread. Desperate, he robs a bank. Then he robs another.As the red flags start to go up, FBI Special Agent Carla Windermere hones in on Tomlin from one direction, while Minnesota state investigator Kirk Stevens picks up the trail from another. The two cops haven't talked since their first case together, but that's all going to change very quickly. Because Carter Tomlin's decided he likes robbing banks. And it's not because of the money, not anymore. Tomlin has guns and a new taste for violence. And he's not quitting anytime soon...

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Celebrate the world of dinosaurs in this alphabet of exquisite pop-ups.From the allosaurus to the zuniceratops, discover dinosaurs great and small in this prehistoric pop-up alphabet. Featuring a selection of popular, unusual and incredible dinosaurs, with illustrations from the award-winning Owen Davey, this is a stylish treasury perfect for any dinosaur fan.

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The Empire Reformed tells the story of a forgotten revolution in English America—a revolution that created not a new nation but a new kind of transatlantic empire. During the seventeenth century, England's American colonies were remote, disorganized outposts with reputations for political turmoil. Colonial subjects rebelled against authority with stunning regularity, culminating in uprisings that toppled colonial governments in the wake of England's "Glorious Revolution" in 1688-89. Nonetheless, after this crisis authorities in both England and the colonies successfully rebuilt the empire, providing the cornerstone of the great global power that would conquer much of the continent over the following century. In The Empire Reformed historian Owen Stanwood illustrates this transition in a narrative that moves from Boston to London to Barbados and Bermuda. He demonstrates not only how the colonies fit into the empire but how imperial politics reflected—and influenced—changing power dynamics in England and Europe during the late 1600s. In particular, Stanwood reveals how the language of Catholic conspiracies informed most colonists' understanding of politics, serving first as the catalyst of rebellions against authority, but later as an ideological glue that held the disparate empire together. In the wake of the Glorious Revolution imperial leaders and colonial subjects began to define the British empire as a potent Protestant union that would save America from the designs of French "papists" and their "savage" Indian allies. By the eighteenth century, British Americans had become proud imperialists, committed to the project of expanding British power in the Americas.

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Covering China's history, political economy, culture, military issues, and the U. S.-China relationship, this book presents a fascinating and multifaceted look at a country which is likely to be a major factor in U. S. foreign policy in the twenty-first century. It includes more than 28 articles on China published in The National Interest since 1995. The first in a series of readers drawn from The National Interest, the volume brings together in one place the analysis and insight of some of the leading scholars and practitioners concerned with the Sino-American relationship."China has been and is a particularly difficult subject for Americans," observes Owen Harries in his introduction. This volume tackles the hard questions. Will successful market reforms lead to the emergence of a prosperous liberal democracy or simply extend the life span of an authoritarian regime? Contributors address (and disagree about) whether Chinese culture and society can adapt to the norms of the free market and the open society. They examine whether growing economic disparities between the developed coastal regions and a backward interior threaten to unleash uncontrollable social unrest. They also consider whether or not ethnic and religious tensions among China's minority groups contain the seeds for China's disintegration. Are the United States and China destined to clash?Conclusions provided by the authors vary greatly. For some, China is a dangerous rival, a rapidly modernizing power with hegemonic ambitions to dominate East Asia. For others, China is a strategic partner and prospective ally. Contributors square off on issues of whether China's military poses a real threat or is a "paper tiger"; whether the future of Taiwan is to trigger a major war between Beijing and Washington or provide a model for peaceful accommodation of Chinese and American interests in the region; and whether containment or engagement is the sounder strategy for coping with a rising China.The distinguished contributors to this volume include Zbigniew Brzezinski, Nicholas Eberstadt, John Fitzgerald, Bates Gill, Nathan Glazer, David Lampton, Michael O'Hanlon, Robert Ross, S. Enders Wimbush, Paul Wolfowitz, and Robert B. Zoellick.With sections on history, political economy, culture, military issues, and the U. S.-China relationship, this book presents a fascinating and multifaceted overview of a country that is likely to be a major factor in U. S. foreign policy in the twenty-first century.

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This illuminating book explores the neo-Gramscian school of international political economy and their conceptualization of global hegemony, and furthers these by looking at how the often fragmented society of post-Communist Russia can provide insight into the nature and workings of neo-liberal global hegemony. The volume illustrates how historically Russia has been a unique case in rejecting Western-inspired hegemonic projects. It outlines how successive governments since the fall of the Soviet Union have attempted, often unsuccessfully, to integrate Russia into the global economy, and identifies the multitude of ideological contestation within Russia. It will prove a useful addition to the literature on both post-Communist Russian studies and international political economy.

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After the sudden loss of his wife, Michael Turner moves to London to start again. Living on a quiet street in Hampstead, he develops a close bond with the Nelson family next door: Josh, Samantha and their two young daughters.The friendship at first seems to offer the prospect of healing, but then a devastating event changes all their lives, and Michael finds himself bearing the burden of grief and a terrible secret.

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Vomiting. Diarrhea. Dehydration. Death. Confusion. In 1832, the arrival of cholera in the United States created widespread panic throughout the country. For the rest of the century, epidemics swept through American cities and towns, killing thousands. Physicians of all stripes offered conflicting answers to the cholera puzzle, ineffectively responding with opiates, bleeding, quarantines, and all manner of remedies, before the identity of the dreaded infection was consolidated under the germ theory of disease some sixty years later. These cholera outbreaks raised fundamental questions about medical knowledge and its legitimacy, giving fuel to alternative medical sects that used the confusion of the epidemic to challenge both medical orthodoxy and the authority of the still-new American Medical Association. In "Knowledge in the Time of Cholera", Owen Whooley tells us the story of those dark days, centering his narrative on rivalries between medical and homeopathic practitioners and bringing to life the battle to control public understanding of disease, professional power, and democratic governance in nineteenth-century America.

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Owen Bishop‘s First Course starts with the basics of electricity and component types, introducing students to practical work almost straight away. No prior knowledge of electronics is required. The approach is student-centred with self-test features to check understanding, including numerous activities suitable for practicals, homework and other assignments. Multiple choice questions are incorporated throughout the text in order to aid student learning. Key facts, formulae and definitions are highlighted to aid revision, and theory is backed up by numerous examples within the book. Each chapter ends with a set of problems that includes exam-style questions, for which numerical answers are provided at the end of the book. This text is ideal for a wide range of introductory courses in electronics, technology, physics and engineering. The coverage has been carefully matched to the latest UK syllabuses including GCSE Electronics, GCSE Design & Technology, Engineering GCSE and Edexcel‘s BTEC First in Engineering, resulting in a text that meets the needs of students on all Level 2 electronics units and courses. Owen Bishop‘s talent for introducing the world of electronics has long been a proven fact with his textbooks, professional introductions and popular circuit construction guides being chosen by thousands of students, lecturers and electronics enthusiasts.

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How does a gemsbok stay cool in the desert? Why should you never pick up a bullfrog? Which predators have the cleverest hunting techniques? Why do animals leave droppings in the veld? The answers to these and many other questions can be found in this informative and entertaining book for young nature lovers. Jam-packed with fascinating facts and photographs of animals in the wild, it introduces younger readers to the wide diversity of Africa’s wildlife, from mammals and birds to reptiles and insects, and much more. Additional fact boxes, did-you-knows and fun activities make this a book that can be enjoyed over and over again – whether at home or on an African safari. Sales points: Perfect companion on trips to the game reserve; colourful, interactive book recommended for 8–12-year-olds; striking photographs and illustrations of Africa’s diverse wildlife; packed with fun facts and activities.

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The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a place that really existed, but it is long dead. By now, the word "Soviet" should be as meaningless as "Hapsburg". Yet it endures, as in the wave of "de-communisation" in Ukraine or the strange idea that the capitalist government in Russia is "Communist". But does the Soviet experience have anything to teach us today, or was it just an enormous cul-de-sac, a nuclear-armed reincarnation of the Russian Empire? This book tries to find out, through walking the towns and great cities of the USSR, in an itinerary that goes from the Baltic to Belarus, from Ukraine to the Urals, from the Caucasus to Central Asia, in places ranging from utopian colonies of the Twenties, to nuclear new towns of the Fifties, to gleaming new capitals of the 21st century. Ranging across eleven of the fifteen countries that once made up the Soviet Union, this book searches for the remnants of revolutions both distant and recent. and for the continuities with the Communist idea. Instead of a wistful journey through ruins, this is a Marxist Humanist account of how cities and their inhabitants have tried to cope both with the end of a socialist dream and the failure of capitalism to fulfil its own promises. In this patchwork of EU democracies, neoliberal dictatorships and Soviet nostalgic enclaves (often found in the same countries) we might just find the outlines of a way of building and living in cities that is a powerful alternative, both in the past and present.

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Fox hunting with Godfrey Bloom; lunching on expenses with Janice Atkinson;talking 'shock and awful' campaign tactics with Douglas Carswell - nothingis off the table when you're on the trail of UKlP's People's Army.Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 meets Louis Theroux, FollowingFarage recounts one hack's journey as he follows, drinks with, laughs atand even occasionally defends the phenomenon that is the United Kingdomlndependence Party as it prepares to march upon Westminster.With exclusive interviews and unfettered access to all the disgracedgenerals, trusty foot soldiers, deserters and dissenters who make up itsranks, Bennett delivers the inside scoop on what makes the People's Armytick - all the while making the transition from elbowed-out hanger-on tothe journalist Farage calls for an honest, post-election run-down of events.From the initial skirmishes and battle plans (the successful and thescuppered) to the explosive events of the battle for No. 10 itself -and the all-out civil war that broke out in its aftermath - FollowingFarage leaves no stone unturned, avenue untrod or pint undrunkin its quest for the truth about Britain's newest and mostcontroversial political force.

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From the grandiose histories of grand state building projects to the minutiae of street signs and corner pubs, from the rebuilding of capital cities to the provision of the humble public toilet, Clean Living in Difficult Circumstances argues for the city as a socialist project. Combining memoir, history, portraits of particular places and things, Hatherley argues for those who have tried to create and imagine a better modernity, both in terms of architecture, such as Zaha Hadid or Ian Nairn, in terms of the urban space, like Jane Jacobs or Marshall Berman, and the way we see the world more widely, like Mark Fisher or Adam Curtis. Together, these outline a vision of the city as both as a place of political argument and dispute, and as a space of everyday experience, one that we shape as much as it shapes us.

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London is conventionally seen as merely a combination of the financial centre in the City and the centre of governmental power in Westminster, a uniquely capitalist capital city. This book is about the third London - a social democratic twentieth-century metropolis, a pioneer in council housing, public enterprise, socialist design, radical local democracy and multiculturalism. If governmental power is embodied in the Palace of Westminster and financial power in the cluster of skyscrapers in the City, then this London is centred on the South Bank - County Hall, the Festival Hall, the National Theatre, Coin Street and City Hall. This book charts the development of this municipal power base under leaders from Herbert Morrison to Ken Livingstone, and its destruction in 1986, leaving a gap which has been only very inadequately filled by the Greater London Authority under Livingstone, Johnson and Khan. Rather than fashionable handwringing about the 'metropolitan elite', this book makes a case for London pride on the left, and an argument for reclaiming this history and using that pride as a weapon against a government of suburban landlords that ruthlessly exploits Londoners.

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The first of its kind, In Search of the Irish Wolfhound, takes a real in-depth look into the history and origins of the Irish wolfhound. Owen Dickey details his research into the origins of one of his favourite dog breeds and recounts stories of its loyalty, courage, and devotion. He answers the common questions and misconceptions related to the breed and whether the modern dog is the original breed revived or a more modern creation. The book features chapters which focus on the myths and legends and a description of the most important personages associated with the wolfdog from the third century to the nineteenth. Owen furthers his research, using only contemporary sources, both literary and artistic, to answer what the Irish wolfdog looked like in the past. Dickey leaves no stone unturned in In Search of the Irish Wolfhound. He takes a closer look into the legendary ancestors of the Irish wolfhound, one of the most famous dog breeds of the Middle Ag

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Russian expert OWEN MATTHEWS is the author of two highly praised works of non-fiction, Stalin's Children and An Impeccable Spy, and two acclaimed historical thrillers, Black Sun and Red Traitor. As a war correspondent, he covered conflicts in Bosnia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq and Ukraine, and for ten years he was was Newsweek's Moscow bureau chief. He divides his time between Rome and Moscow.

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Defining 'magic' is a maddening task. Over the last century numerous philosophers, anthropologists, historians, and theologians have attempted to pin down its essential meaning, sometimes analysing it in such complex and abstruse depth that it all but loses its sense altogether. For this reason, many people often shy away from providing a detailed definition, assuming it is generally understood as the human control of supernatural forces. 'Magic' continues to pervade the popular imagination and idiom. People feel comfortable with its contemporary multiple meanings, unaware of the controversy, conflict, and debate its definition has caused over two and a half millennia. In common usage today 'magic' is uttered in reference to the supernatural, superstition, illusion, trickery, religious miracles, fantasies, and as a simple superlative. The literary confection known as 'magical realism' has considerable appeal and many modern scientists have ironically incorporated the word into their vocabulary, with their 'magic acid', 'magic bullets' and 'magic angles'. Since the so-called European Enlightenment magic has often been seen as a marker of primitivism, of a benighted earlier stage of human development. Yet across the modern globalized world hundreds of millions continue to resort to magic - and also to fear it. Magic provides explanations and remedies for those living in extreme poverty and without access to alternatives. In the industrial West, with its state welfare systems, religious fundamentalists decry the continued moral threat posed by magic. Under the guise of neo-Paganism, its practice has become a religion in itself. Magic continues to be a truly global issue. This Very Short Introduction does not attempt to provide a concluding definition of magic: it is beyond simple definition. Instead it explores the many ways in which magic, as an idea and a practice, has been understood and employed over the millennia. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

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