Search results for ""author michael foley""
Simon & Schuster Ltd Isn't This Fun?: Investigating the Serious Business of Enjoying Ourselves
Michael Foley, the author of bestselling The Age of Absurdity, wants to understand why he doesn't appear to be experiencing as much 'fun' as everyone else . . . And so, with characteristic wit and humour, Foley sets out to understand what fun really means, examining its heritage, its cultural significance and the various activities we associate with fun. He investigates pursuits such as dancing, sex, holidays, sport, gaming and comedy, and concludes that fun is not easy, simple and fixed, as many seem to believe, but elusive, complex and constantly changing. In fact, fun is a profoundly serious business. His findings will invigorate you with insights, quite possibly help you to understand why the post-post-modern is actually the pre-pre-modern and, at the very least, make you laugh at life.‘This book is such a wondrous kaleidoscope of rage, based on such a deep reading of all the sources, that I shall be searching out his other works to read forthwith. The man is a marvel.’ Daily Mail
£9.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Britain's Railways in the Second World War
The outbreak of the Second World War had an enormous effect on the railway system in Britain. Keeping the trains running through times of conflict was not such a distant memory for the railway companies and their workers but in this second major war of the twentieth century, the task was to prove a very different one. The railway system no longer consisted of the hundreds of companies of the past, but the 'Big Four' still needed to learn how to work together and forget their differences for the war effort. The logistics of the mass evacuation of children, and transporting thousands of troops during the evacuation of Dunkirk and the preparations for D-Day, for instance, were unprecedented. At the same time, they had to cope with the new and constant threat of aerial bombing that military advances brought to the Second World War. The railway system, and the men and women who ran it, effectively served as another branch of the military during the conflict. At the end of the war, Winston Churchill likened London to a large animal, declaring that what kept the animal alive was its transport system. The metaphor could have been applied to the whole of Britain, and its most vital transport system was the railway. This book is a fascinating account of the important role that the railways played in the defence of the country as well as in their support of the Allied forces in theatres of war around the world. It brings to light the often forgotten stories of the brave and hard-working men and women who went to work on the railways and put their lives on the line.
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Britain's Railway Disasters: Fatal Accidents From the 1830s to the Present Day
Passengers on the early railways took their lives in their hands every time they got on board a train. It was so dangerous that they could buy an insurance policy with their ticket. There seemed to be an acceptance that the level of danger was tolerable in return for the speed of travel that was now available to them. British Railway Disasters looks at the most serious railway accidents from the origins of the development of the train up to the present day. Seriousness is judged on the number of those who died. Information gleaned from various newspaper reports is compared with official reports on the accidents. The book will appeal to all those with a fascination for rail transport as well as those with a love of history. Michael Foley examines the social context of how injuries and deaths on the railways were seen in the early days, as well as how claims in the courts became more common, leading to a series of medical investigations as to how travelling and crashing at high speed affected the human body.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Russian Civil War: Red Terror, White Terror, 1917-1922
The Russian Revolution is remembered as the catalyst for the bloody conflict between the Reds and the Whites as each side tried to gain control of the country. But it was far from being so simple. The conflict did not only involve the Russians. The author contemplates whether the Russians could have capitulated to Germany and whether in fact Russia was ever in any condition to carry on the fight even before the revolution began, examining whether a collapse of the war in the east would lead to Allied defeat in the west. The effect of the revolution and the civil war went far beyond the borders of the enormous Russian Empire and far beyond the end of the Great War and the civil war, not least of all whom the millions of subject peoples and races supported: the Reds, the Whites, the Germans, or none. The conflict in Russia between 1917 and 1922 is a fascinating and complex period of history but the brutally colourful cast of characters-Tsar Nicholas II, Brusilov, Kerensky, Lenin, Trotsy, Stalin and Churchill-would make a violent impact on the world stage for a century to come.
£12.99
O'Brien Press Ltd The Children of Croke Park: Bloody Sunday 1920
Dublin 1920 ‘Above the noise of the crowd, I could hear men shouting. I looked back and saw them – a line of trucks, and men with guns starting to run towards the field. That’s when it happened.’ On a bright day in November, three boys joined the huge crowd heading to a Gaelic football match at Croke Park. Excitement filled the air, but also fear. Important men had been killed in their beds that morning by the IRA. The police were angry. In the middle of a cruel war for Irish independence, people were afraid of what might happen next. But that war wouldn’t come to Croke Park. Would it?
£12.09
O'Brien Press Ltd The Bloodied Field: Croke Park. Sunday 21 November 1920
£14.99
Simon & Schuster Ltd The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy
Like Alain de Botton crossed with Charlie Brooker, Foley succeeds in educating and enlightening us in this wry take on the existential dilemmas of modern life. ‘Fascinating . . . the quest for happiness and how we are getting it all wrong' Jeremy Vine, Sunday Telegraph The good news is that the great thinkers from history have proposed the same strategies for happiness and fulfilment. The bad news is that these turn out to be the very things most discouraged by contemporary culture. This knotty dilemma is the subject of The Age of Absurdity – a humourous and accessible investigation into how the desirable states of wellbeing and satisfaction are constantly undermined by modern life. Michael Foley examines the elusive conditions of happiness common to philosophy, spiritual teachings and contemporary psychology, then shows how these are becoming increasingly difficult to apply in a world of high expectations. The common challenges of earning a living, maintaining a relationship and ageing are becoming battlegrounds of existential angst and self-loathing in a culture that demands conspicuous consumption, high-octane partnerships and perpetual youth. Rather than denouncing and rejecting these challenges, Foley presents an entertaining strategy of not just accepting but embracing today's world – finding happiness in its absurdity.
£9.99
Amberley Publishing Barking & Dagenham History Tour
Barking & Dagenham History Tour is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this famous old port. This new book guides us through the streets and alleyways, showing how its famous landmarks used to look and how they’ve changed over the years, as well as exploring its lesser-known sights and hidden corners. With the help of a handy location map, readers are invited to follow a timeline of events and discover for themselves the changing face of Barking and Dagenham.
£9.04
Amberley Publishing Historic England: London's East End: Unique Images from the Archives of Historic England
This illustrated history portrays one of London’s most fascinating areas. It provides a nostalgic look at the East End’s past and highlights the special character of some of its most important historic sites. The photographs are taken from the Historic England Archive, a unique collection of over 12 million photographs, drawings, plans and documents covering England’s archaeology, architecture, social and local history. Pictures date from the earliest days of photography to the present and cover subjects from Bronze Age burials and medieval churches to cinemas and seaside resorts. This book shows London’s East End as it once was, from its labyrinthine streets and alleys to its factories and warehouses. The East End was one of the poorest parts of the UK, blighted by crime and appalling living conditions. As the boundaries of London spread towards Essex, however, the picture has become very different. As transport links were improved, areas such as Bethnal Green, West Ham and Forest Gate, once small rural villages, have been swallowed up by the capital’s growth. Today, the East End is a very different place, one of regeneration and vibrancy and great cultural diversity. This books will help you discover its remarkable history.
£15.99
Chelsea Green Publishing Co Farming for the Long Haul: Resilience and the Lost Art of Agricultural Inventiveness
It’s all but certain that the next fifty years will bring enormous, not to say cataclysmic, disruptions to our present way of life. World oil reserves will be exhausted within that time frame, as will the lithium that powers today’s most sophisticated batteries, suggesting that transportation is equally imperiled. And there’s another, even more dire limitation that is looming: at current rates of erosion, the world’s topsoil will be gone in sixty years. Fresh water sources are in jeopardy, too. In short, the large-scale agricultural and food delivery system as we know it has at most a few decades before it exhausts itself and the planet with it. Farming for the Long Haul is about building a viable small farm economy that can withstand the economic, political, and climatic shock waves that the twenty-first century portends. It draws on the innovative work of contemporary farmers, but more than that, it shares the experiences of farming societies around the world that have maintained resilient agricultural systems over centuries of often-turbulent change. Indigenous agriculturalists, peasants, and traditional farmers have all created broad strategies for survival through good times and bad, and many of them prospered. They also developed particular techniques for managing soil, water, and other resources sustainably. Some of these techniques have been taken up by organic agriculture and permaculture, but many more of them are virtually unknown, even among alternative farmers. This book lays out some of these strategies and presents techniques and tools that might prove most useful to farmers today and in the uncertain future.
£15.29
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Britain's Railways in the First World War
It is easy to believe that the only part that Britain's railways played in the First World War was to carry the soldiers to the ships that would take them to France. This couldn't be further from the truth. Without the help from the railways it is unlikely that the war would have been over as quickly as it was. In _Britain's Railways in the First World War_ Michael Foley examines how the railway system and its workers proved to be a vital part of the war effort, one contemporary writer even commenting that he thought they were as significant as the navy. The book describes how the enlistment of railway troops for the Royal Engineers to meet the increasing transport demands of the military was to bleed the civilian system dry as skilled railwaymen were sent to work at the front. In addition, the military commandeered thousands of Britain's railway vehicles, sending them to each of the theatres of war, and turned the already stressed railway workshops away from maintaining what remained of the country's railways and rolling stock so they could produce armaments for the forces instead. The book also reveals how the British were so far behind their enemies and allies in the use of railway support to the front lines that they had to plead for help from Canada.
£20.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Pioneers of Aerial Combat: Air Battles of the First World War
When the Wright Brothers made their first flight in the early years of the twentieth century it sparked the imagination of those who wanted to fly, both in their country and around the world. In Britain, however, the spark wasnt strong enough to light a fire and it was in other parts of Europe, notably France, where flight began to develop seriously. Early pioneers of flight faced a high level of danger and many died in pursuit of fulfilling their dream. Although aircraft design had made incredible progress by the time of the outbreak of war, accidents still occurred on a regular basis. For some time, as many pilots died in accidents as they did in combat. This publication consolidates a range of stories, insights, and facts that, when combined, offer a vivid impression of events as they unfolded. The chaos stirred up during the First World War and the scramble to develop aircraft in response to the threat to homeland security is eloquently relayed, as are the battles that characterized this conflicted era. The reality of conflict gave aviation engineers and designers the opportunity to test their craft in the harshest of environments, pushing the benchmark ever higher in terms of what could be achieved. Sure to appeal to aviation enthusiasts and historians alike, this work offers the reader a full account of the developmental early days of flight.
£14.99