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The Essence of Style
By Joan Dejean. 2005
What makes fashionistas willing to pay a small fortune for a particular designer accessory -- a luxe handbag, for example?…
Why is it that people all over the world share the conviction that a special occasion only becomes really special when a champagne cork pops -- and even more special when that cork comes from a bottle of Dom Pérignon? Why are diamonds the status symbol gemstone, instantly signifying wealth, power, and even emotional commitment? One of the foremost authorities on seventeenth-century French culture provides the answer to these and other fascinating questions in her account of how, at one glittering moment in history, the French under Louis XIV set the standards of sophistication, style, and glamour that still rule our lives today. Joan DeJean explains how a handsome and charismatic young king with a great sense of style and an even greater sense of history decided to make both himself and his country legendary. When the reign of Louis XIV began, his nation had no particular association with elegance, yet by its end, the French had become accepted all over the world as the arbiters in matters of taste and style and had established a dominance in the luxury trade that continues to this day. DeJean takes us back to the birth of haute cuisine, the first appearance of celebrity hairdressers, chic cafes, nightlife, and fashion in elegant dress that extended well beyond the limited confines of court circles. And Paris was the magical center -- the destination of travelers all across Europe. As the author observes, without the Sun King's program for redefining France as the land of luxury and glamour, there might never have been a Stork Club, a Bergdorf Goodman, a Chez Panisse, or a Cristophe of Beverly Hills -- and President Clinton would never have dreamed of holding Air Force One on the tarmac of LAX for an hour while Cristophe worked his styling genius on the president's hair. Written with wit, dash, and élan by an author who knows this astonishing true story better than virtually anyone, The Essence of Style will delight fans of history and everybody who wonders about the elusive definition of good taste.Mes Combats
By Col. René Fonck, Maréchal Ferdinand Foch. 2017
« Le simple récit de ses combats, véritables exploits épiques accomplis dans les airs, donne un exemple des activités, des…
énergies, des vertus, mises en jeux dans les luttes nationales de nos jours. Par là cet ouvrage indique aux générations à venir la hauteur morale où elles doivent monter leur préparation à la guerre, ce qui est, dans la paix, leur devoir. » Préface du Maréchal Foch.United States Army in WWII - the Mediterranean - Sicily and the Surrender of Italy: [illustrated Edition] (United States Army In Wwii Ser.)
By Howard Mcgaw Smyth, Albert N Garland, Martin Blumenson. 2013
[Includes 17 maps and 113 illustrations]This volume, the second to be published in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations subseries, takes…
up where George F. Howe's Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West left off. It integrates the Sicilian Campaign with the complicated negotiations involved in the surrender of Italy.The Sicilian Campaign was as complex as the negotiations, and is equally instructive. On the Allied side it included American, British, and Canadian soldiers as well as some Tabors of Goums; major segments of the U.S. Army Air Forces and of the Royal Air Force; and substantial contingents of the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy. Opposing the Allies were ground troops and air forces of Italy and Germany, and the Italian Navy. The fighting included a wide variety of operations: the largest amphibious assault of World War II; parachute jumps and air landings; extended overland marches; tank battles; precise and remarkably successful naval gunfire support of troops on shore; agonizing struggles for ridge tops; and extensive and skillful artillery support. Sicily was a testing ground for the U.S. soldier, fighting beside the more experienced troops of the British Eighth Army, and there the American soldier showed what he could do.The negotiations involved in Italy's surrender were rivaled in complexity and delicacy only by those leading up to the Korean armistice. The relationship of tactical to diplomatic activity is one of the most instructive and interesting features of this volume. Military men were required to double as diplomats and to play both roles with skill.Rome: The Autobiography
By Jon E. Lewis. 2010
The history of Ancient Rome has been passed down to us through official accounts, personal letters, annotated words of great…
orators and the considered histories of powerful men. It is found on inscriptions, in private memoirs and official reports from every corner of the Empire. Over 150 pieces are collected in this autobiography of Ancient Rome, from the written accounts of Caesars and slaves, generals and poets on major battles, conspiracy and politics to the minutiae of everyday life and includes amongst them:How to keep a slave, by Cato the Elder; The Life of a Roman Gentleman by Pliny the Younger; Gang Warfare in Rome, by Cicero; a Chariot Fight, by Julius Caesar; Female Athletes and Gladiators, by Juvenal; the Eruption of Vesuivius, by Pliny the Younger; Nero Murders Britannicus, by Tacitus; On Going to bed with Cleopatra, by Mark Antony; Homosexuals in Rome, Juvenal; Alaric the Visogoth Sacks Rome,by Jordanes; The Great Fire of Rome, by Tacitus; Gladitorial Shows, by Seneca; Two Days in the Life of an Emperor's Son, Marcus Aurelius.Adrift: A True Story of Tragedy on the Icy Atlantic and the One Who Lived to Tell about It
By Brian Murphy, Toula Vlahou. 2018
A story of tragedy at sea where every desperate act meant life or deathThe small ship making the Liverpool-to-New York…
trip in the early months of 1856 carried mail, crates of dry goods, and more than one hundred passengers, mostly Irish emigrants. Suddenly an iceberg tore the ship asunder and five lifeboats were lowered. As four lifeboats drifted into the fog and icy water, never to be heard from again, the last boat wrenched away from the sinking ship with a few blankets, some water and biscuits, and thirteen souls. Only one would survive. This is his story.As they started their nine days adrift more than four hundred miles off Newfoundland, the castaways--an Irish couple and their two boys, an English woman and her daughter, newlyweds from Ireland, and several crewmen, including Thomas W. Nye from Fairhaven, Massachusetts--began fighting over food and water. One by one, though, day by day, they died. Some from exposure, others from madness and panic. In the end, only Nye and the ship's log survived.Using Nye's firsthand descriptions and later newspaper accounts, ship's logs, assorted diaries, and family archives, Brian Murphy chronicles the horrific nine days that thirteen people suffered adrift on the cold gray Atlantic. Adrift brings readers to the edge of human limits, where every frantic decision and desperate act is a potential life saver or life taker.3200 Old-Time Cuts and Ornaments (Dover Pictorial Archive)
By Blanche Cirker. 2001
Royalty-free illustrations from 1909 French typography foundry catalog: more than 100 plates, over 3,200 pictures and motifs, including fruits, flowers,…
plants, and trees; animals; stray eyes and ears; playing cards; angels, saints, and religious motifs; musical instruments; carriages and sailing vessels; sporting events; plus ornamental borders, mortised cuts, banners, wreaths, and other line art.Widowhood in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Women And Men In History)
By Sandra Cavallo, Lyndan Warner. 1999
This new collection of essays brings together brand new research on widowhood in medieval and early modern Europe. The volume…
opens with an introductory chapter by the Editors which looks generally at the conditions and constructions of widowhood in this period. This is followed by a range of essays which illuminate different dimensions of widowhood across Europe - in England, Italy, France, Germany and Spain. A particular attraction of the volume is the attention given to widowers, and the comparisons made between the male and female experience of widowhood. It is an exciting reinterpretation of the subject which will do much to undo the traditional stereotype of the widow.Contributing to the volume are: Jodi Bilinkoff, Giulia Calvi, Sandra Cavallo, Isabelle Chabot, Julia Crick, Amy Erikson, Dagmar Freist, Elizabeth Foyster, Margaret Pelling, Pamela Sharpe,Tim Stretton, Barbara Todd, and Lyndan Warner.Tom, Ned and Kitty: An Intimate Portrait Of An Irish Family
By Eliza Pakenham. 2008
'I am standing in the dining room of my father's house in Ireland, gazing up at ten Pakenham family portraits.…
What thoughts went on behind those passive, chalky faces? How can I bring them out of the shadows?'Eliza Pakenham, granddaughter of the seventh Earl of Longford, chronicles the fortunes of her colourful ancestors against the backdrop of Napoleonic wars and Irish revolutions.Through her painstaking research and discovery of hidden records, she unearthed the story of an extraordinary dynasty peppered with intriguing characters: Kitty, Duchess of Wellington, kept apart from her love for over a decade; Tom, second Earl of Longford, who fathered three illegitimate children; and Ned, the darling of the family, a war hero.Through them we learn of life in times of peace and war, of the pain of bereavement, and rapid changes in politics and society. A vivid and absorbing account of a fascinating generation, brought truthfully to life.Conscience on Trial
By Hiroaki Kuromiya. 2012
Conscience on Trial reveals the startling story, kept secret for sixty years, of ordinary citizens caught up in the elaborate…
machinery of political terror in Stalinist Ukraine. In 1952, fourteen poor, barely literate Seventh-Day Adventists living on the margins of Soviet society were clandestinely tried for allegedly advocating pacifism and adhering to the Saturday Sabbath. The only written records of this trial were sealed in the KGB archives in Kiev, and this harrowing episode has until now been unknown even within the Ukraine.Hiroaki Kuromiya has carefully analyzed these newly discovered documents, and in doing so, reveals a fascinating picture of private life and religious belief under the atheist Stalinist regime. Kuromiya convincingly elucidates the mechanism of the Soviet secret police and explores the minds of non-conformist believers -precursors to the revival of dissidence after Stalin's death in 1953.The Life of St. Patrick and His Place in History
By John B. Bury. 1998
This classic biography first appeared in 1905 and still offers a valuable resource to scholars, theologians, and others interested in…
Irish history. The well-documented study depicts St. Patrick's early life in 4th-century Britain during the Roman occupation, his abduction by Irish raiders, his conversion to Christianity, and his lifelong efforts to convert pagans and found churches.Elihu Washburne: The Diary and Letters of America's Minister to France During the Siege and Commune of Paris
By David Mccullough, Michael Hill. 2012
This is the remarkable and inspiring story--told largely in his own words-- of American diplomat Elihu Washburne, who heroically aided…
his countrymen and other foreign nationals when Paris was devastated by war and revolutionin1870-71. Elihu Washburne rose from a hardscrabble existence in New England and the Midwest to become a congressman and diplomat. A confidante of Lincoln and Grant during the Civil War, Washburne was appointed Minister to France by Grant in 1869, arriving in Europe shortly before the outbreak of the Franco- Prussian War. When Bismarck ordered the Prussian army to lay siege to Paris, intent on forcing the French to surrender, Minister Washburne--alone among major power diplomats--remained at his post, determined to protect Americans and German nationals trapped in Paris. After the French capitulation, new horrors struck Paris. The government was toppled by a band of violent revolutionaries, known as the Commune, who embarked on a reign of terror that filled the streets with blood. Once again, Washburne stepped forward to help wherever he could until the Commune collapsed and its bloody orgy ended. During his ordeal Washburne endured cannon bombardments, brutally cold weather, dwindling food supplies, bouts of ill health, and long separations from his family. He witnessed the plight of starving women and children, riots in the streets, senseless executions, and countless acts of unspeakable violence and bloodshed. In the midst of it all, Washburne kept a remarkable personal diary that chronicled the monumental events swirling about him. He knew he was at the center of history and was determined to record what he saw. The diary--and letters he wrote to family and officials in Washington--provides a vivid personal account of life during some of Paris's darkest days. Filled with political and military insight, Washburne's writings also have an unmistakable charm, at times blending homespun expressions with quotations from Shakespeare and the Bible. Michael Hill provides essential background information and historical context to the excerpts from Washburne's diary and letters, which are drawn from the original manuscript sources and collected into one volume for the first time. Through his own words, we come to know and admire Washburne as he struggles to stay alive, perform his duty, and not let his country down. The story of Elihu Washburne is a great American story--the tale of an American hero rising to greatness in the midst of difficult and extraordinary times.The Princeton Companion to Atlantic History
By Laurent Dubois, Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, Karen Ordahl Kupperman, Joseph C. Miller, Vincent Brown. 2015
Between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, the connections among Africa, the Americas, and Europe transformed world history--through maritime exploration, commercial…
engagements, human migrations and settlements, political realignments and upheavals, cultural exchanges, and more. This book, the first encyclopedic reference work on Atlantic history, takes an integrated, multicontinental approach that emphasizes the dynamics of change and the perspectives and motivations of the peoples who made it happen. The entries--all specially commissioned for this volume from an international team of leading scholars--synthesize the latest scholarship on central themes, including economics, migration, politics, war, technologies and science, the physical environment, and culture.Part one features five major essays that trace the changes distinctive to each chronological phase of Atlantic history. Part two includes more than 125 entries on key topics, from the seemingly familiar viewed in unfamiliar and provocative ways (the Seven Years' War, trading companies) to less conventional subjects (family networks, canon law, utopias).This is an indispensable resource for students, researchers, and scholars in a range of fields, from early American, African, Latin American, and European history to the histories of economics, religion, and science.The first encyclopedic reference on Atlantic historyFeatures five major essays and more than 125 alphabetical entriesProvides essential context on major areas of change:Economies (for example, the slave trade, marine resources, commodities, specie, trading companies)Populations (emigrations, Native American removals, blended communities)Politics and law (the law of nations, royal liberties, paramount chiefdoms, independence struggles in Haiti, the Hispanic Americas, the United States, and France)Military actions (the African and Napoleonic wars, the Seven Years' War, wars of conquest)Technologies and science (cartography, nautical science, geography, healing practices)The physical environment (climate and weather, forest resources, agricultural production, food and diets, disease)Cultures and communities (captivity narratives, religions and religious practices)Includes original contributions from Sven Beckert, Holly Brewer, Peter A. Coclanis, Seymour Drescher, Eliga H. Gould, David S. Jones, Wim Klooster, Mark Peterson, Steven Pincus, Richard Price and Sophia Rosenfeld, and many moreContains illustrations, maps, and bibliographiesA Brief History of Ireland (Brief Histories )
By Richard Killeen. 2010
From the dawn of history to the decline of the Celtic Tiger - how Ireland has been shaped over the…
centuries.Ireland has been shaped by many things over the centuries: geography, war, the fight for liberty. A Brief History of Ireland is the perfect introduction to this exceptional place, its people and its culture.Ireland has been home to successive groups of settlers - Celts, Vikings, Normans, Anglo-Scots, Huguenots. It has imported huge ideas, none bigger than Christianity which it then re-exported to Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. In the Tudor era it became the first colony of the developing English Empire. Its fraught and sometimes brutal relationship with England has dominated its modern history. Killeen argues that religion was decisive in all this: Ireland remained substantially Catholic, setting it at odds with the larger island culturally, religiously and politically. But its own culture and identity have stayed strong, most obviously in literature with a magnificent tradition of writing from the Book of Kells to the modern masters: Joyce, Yeats, Beckett and Heaney.The Fall of Toulon: The Last Opportunity To Defeat The French Revolution (Wn Military Ser.)
By Bernard Ireland. 2005
In the summer of 1793 French Royalists surrendered the great naval base at Toulon to the British, intending this to…
be the springboard for a full-scale counter-revolution. A multi-national taskforce led by the British, and including Spanish, Austrian and Italian forces, landed in the city.But the Royalists' hopes were dashed: the Revolutionaries reacted with great speed and violence. Instead of striking into France, the Royalists and their foreign allies were besieged in Toulon. Among the Republican forces was a young artillery officer who soon made a name for himself: Napoleon Bonaparte. The stage was set for tragedy.Bernard Ireland's popular and accessible account of the fall of Toulon brings to life a savage episode in European history.Otra idea de Galicia
By Miguel. 2008
Galicia es sin duda alguna la nacionalidad hist rica de la que menos suelen ocuparse los medios…
de comunicaci n pese a tratarse de una de las m s singulares Para despejar esas brumas Miguel-Anxo Murado ofrece al lector un recorrido mapa en mano de la historia la sociolog a la pol tica y la geograf a gallegas Se trata de un recorrido moderadamente heterodoxo y en muchas ocasiones sorprendente en el que desechando los t picos acumulados sobre este pa s tanto por sus visitantes como por los propios gallegos se lanza una mirada fresca a fen menos como la emigraci n el caciquismo el supuesto conservadurismo de su sociedad o incluso los malentendidos acerca de su clima y su paisaje Son los gallegos realmente celtas Por qu en Galicia apenas se venden productos contrala cal de las lavadoras Qu hac a el rey castellano Alfonso X escribiendo su poes a en gallego Este libro desmitificador ir nico y ameno procura dar respuesta a muchas de las preguntas que el lector pueda haberse planteado alguna vez sobre Galicia y sobre todo a aquellas que ni siquiera se hab a planteado hasta ahoraGerman History in Global and Transnational Perspective
By David Lederer. 2017
This is a collection of essays from three of the world s pre-eminent historians of Germany which…
consider German history in global and transnational contexts It is well known that transnationalism has exploded in the last decade or so as a new academic subfield of international and global history What the transnationalism literature often ignores or downplays however is the role of the nation-state in making the transnational possible in the first place as noted in its very etymological origins This volume traces this dynamic from a different vantage-point namely the relationship between German history and transnationalism Each essay applies a transnational framework in fresh and original ways in order to illuminate different facets of the connections between Germany and the wider world in the modern period Together they will encourage the rethinking of assumptions about key moments and developments in the history of modern Germany and foster reflection on the evolving nature of German history as a subject studied in the twenty-first centuryThe Ottoman Empire: 1300-1600 (Late Byzantine And Ottoman Studies #No. 1)
By Halil Inalcik. 2000
Covering the greatest three centuries of Turkish history, this book tells the story of the Ottoman Empire's growth into a…
vast Middle Eastern Power.Born as a military frontier principality at the turn of the Fourteenth century, Turkey developed into the dominant force in Anatolia and the Balkans, growing to become the most powerful Islamic state after 1517 when it incorporated the old Arab lands. This distinctively Eastern culture, with all its detail and intricacies, is explored here by a pre-eminent scholar of Turkish history. He gives a striking picture of the prominence of religion and warfare in everyday life as well as the traditions of statecraft, administration, social values, financial and land policies. The definitive account, this is an indispensable companion to anyone with an interest in Islam, Turkey and the Balkans.By Sword and Fire: Cruelty And Atrocity In Medieval Warfare
By Sean Mcglynn. 2013
Sean McGlynn investigates the reality of medieval warfare. For all the talk of chivalry, medieval warfare routinely involved acts which…
we would consider war crimes. Lands laid waste, civilians slaughtered, prisoners massacred: this was standard fare justified by tradition and practical military necessity. It was unbelievably barbaric, but seldom uncontrolled.Such acts of atrocity were calculated, hideous cruelties inflicted in order to achieve a specific end. Sean McGlynn examines the battles of Acre and Agincourt, sieges like Béziers, Lincoln, Jerusalem and Limoges as well as the infamous chevauchées of the Hundred Years War that devastated great swathes of France. He reveals how these grisly affairs form the origin of accepted ¿rules of war¿, codes of conduct that are today being enforced in the International Court of Justice in the Hague.Titanic: Lost and Saved
By Brian Moses. 2011
First-hand accounts alongside a wealth of original documents, photographs and letters, this title tells the story of the Titanic, from…
descriptions of the passengers and the ship inside and out to why the Titanic was considered 'unsinkable' and the dangers of floating ice. Stories of heroism on board, stories from the lifeboats and theories for raising the Titanic are included. The book concludes by considering lessons that were learnt from this disaster.The Emperor's Last Victory: Napoleon And The Battle Of Wagram
By Gunther E Rothenberg. 2005
A leading expert examines one of Napoleon's most decisive but least analysed victoriesIn early July 1809 Napoleon crossed the Danube…
with 187,000 men to confront the Austrian Archduke Charles and an army of 145,000 men. The fighting that followed dwarfed in intensity and scale any previous Napoleonic battlefield, perhaps any in history: casualties on each side were over 30,000. The Austrians fought with great determination, but eventually the Emperor won a narrow victory. Wagram was decisive in that it compelled Austria to make peace. It also heralded a new, altogether greater order of warfare, anticipating the massed manpower and weight of fire deployed much later in the battles of the American Civil War and then at Verdun and on the Somme.