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Jeremy Thorpe
By Michael Bloch. 2014
'A revealing, insightful and gripping biography of one of the most extraordinary people ever to lead a British political party'…
ObserverThe story of Jeremy Thorpe's rapid rise and spectacular fall from grace is one of the most remarkable in British politics. When he became leader of the Liberal Party in 1967 at the age of just thirty-seven, he seemed destined for truly great things. But as his star steadily rose so his nemesis drew ever nearer: a time-bomb in the form of Norman Scott, a homosexual wastrel and sometime male model with whom Jeremy had formed an ill-advised relationship in the early 1960s. Scott's incessant boasts about their 'affair' became increasingly embarrassing, and eventually led to a bizarre murder plot to shut him up for good. Jeremy was acquitted of involvement but his career was in ruins.Michael Bloch's magisterial biography is not just a brilliant retelling of this amazing story; ten years in the making, it is also the definitive character study of one of the most fascinating figures in post-war British politics.And the Heart Says Whatever
By Emily Gould. 2010
In her searing collection of essays, Emily Gould - writer, journalist and former editor at Gawker.com - tells the truth…
about becoming an adult in New York City in the twenty-first century, surrounded by bartenders, bloggers, socialites and bankers. Touching on failure, success, love, lust, work, and what it's like to leave one life behind to begin another one, these essays are for everyone who ever had a job she wished she didn't, felt inchoate ambition sour into resentment, ended a relationship, regretted a decision, or told a secret to exactly the wrong person. In piercing, candid, witty prose, Gould decodes the new challenges of our post-private lives and the age-old intricacies of the human heart.Ill Met By Moonlight (Cassell Military Paperbacks Ser.)
By W. Stanley Moss. 2010
NOW WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY W. STANLEY MOSS'S DAUGHTER GABRIELLA BULLOCK AND AN AFTERWORD BY PATRICK LEIGH FERMORIll Met By…
Moonlight is the true story of one of the most hazardous missions of the Second World War. W. Stanley Moss is a young British officer who, along with Major Patrick Leigh Fermor, sets out in Nazi-occupied Crete to kidnap General Kreipe, Commander of the Sevastopool Division, and narrowly escaping the German manhunt, bring him off the island - a vital prisoner for British intelligence.As an account of derring-do and wartime adventure, made into a classic film starring Dirk Bogarde, Ill Met By Moonlight is one of the most brilliantly written, exciting and compelling stories to come out of the Second World War.The Renaissance
By Paul Johnson. 2000
A fresh and vigorous appreciation of the intellectual liberation and artistic triumphs of the Italian Renaissance.The development of the first…
universities from the 12th century onwards, growing wealth and patronage in certain cities, and above all the invention of printing and cheap paper, provided essential conditions for the Renaissance. And it was in literature and scholarship that it began, in the rebirth of classical culture that loosened the Church's iron grip on visual art. Paul Johnson tells the story, in turn, of Renaissance literature, sculpture, building and painting. Despite the critical importance of inventions outside Italy - printing in Germany and oil painting in Holland - he locates the Renaissance firmly in Italy and in Florence above all, between 1400 and 1560. There are memorable sketches of the key figures - the frugal and shockingly original Donatello, the awesome Michelangelo, the delicacy of Giovanni Bellini. The final part of the book charts the spread and decline of the Renaissance, as the Catholic Church repositioned itself to counter the Reformation which the Renaissance had itself helped to produce.Massacre At Montsegur: A History Of The Albigensian Crusade
By Zoe Oldenbourg. 1959
A best-selling history of the Third Crusade, when the Catholic Church waged war against heretics in its own ranksIn 1208…
Pope Innocent III called for a Crusade against a country of fellow-Christians. The new enemy was Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, one of the greatest princes in Western Christendom, premier baron of all the territories in southern France where the langue d'oc was spoken. So began the Albigensian Crusade (named after the French town of Albi), which was to culminate in 1244 with the massacre of Cathars at the mountain fortress of Montségur.This Crusade was the Catholic Church's response to the rapid growth of a rival Christian religion in the very heart of Christendom - the religion of the Cathars (or 'pure ones'). These heretics drew their strength from the consciousness of belonging to a faith that had never seen eye to eye with Catholicism and was more ancient than the Church itself. From the beginning this religious war was to show all the characteristics of a national resistance movement, so that in the end it was not just the survival of the Cathar faith that was at stake but also that of the Languedoc itself as an autonomous and independent region of France.Tu mundo y el mío: Postales del Antropoceno
By John Green. 2021
Una ingeniosa, emocionante y personal colección de textos del aclamado autor de Bajo la misma estrella y Buscando a Alaska.…
El Antropoceno es la era geológica actual, una época caracterizada por el profundo impacto que el ser humano está teniendo sobre el planeta. Con su especial sensibilidad para lo extraño, lo importante y lo sorprendente, John Green reúne en esta extraordinaria colección de textos distintas facetas de nuestro presente y las puntúa en una particular escala del uno al cinco. Deteniendo su mirada en temas tan variados como el teclado QWERTY, internet, Super Mario Kart, los susurros, los ositos de peluche o las puestas de sol, sus originales y muy personales hallazgos abren los horizontes de la imaginación mientras nos hablan de las maravillas de lo cotidiano. El excepcional don de John Green para contar historias y su inagotable curiosidad brillan en estos ensayos llenos de belleza, humor y empatía que ponen a la humanidad frente al espejo de sus contradicciones y son, a la vez, una celebración del amor por nuestro mundo. La crítica ha dicho:«El libro perfecto para este momento.»People «Convierte en pequeño lo asombroso... y en asombroso lo pequeño.»San Francisco Chronicle «Green mezcla curiosidad y erudición con confesión, compasión e ingenio, buscando lecciones de vida iluminadoras entre el oscuro caos de la vida. Su particular mezcla de ironía y sinceridad le permite abrazar lo sublime a la vez que lo ridículo.»Booklist «Cada uno de los textos de este libro es una pequeña joya pulida hasta casi la perfección.»Shelf Awareness «Poético y hermoso, divertido y esperanzador, complejo y entretenido todo a la vez... Puede que Green se haya hecho un nombre escribiendo ficción (y con motivo), pero su primera incursión en la no ficción es su libro más maduro, fascinante y mejor escrito hasta la fecha.»Shondaland.com «Lo que Green en realidad nos está contando en estas sorprendentes historias sobre los sicomoros, los gansos de Canadá o el Dr Pepper es cuántas cosas hay en el mundo que merecen ser amadas y por qué el esfuerzo vale la pena.»NPR.com «Cada ensayo está lleno de significado y repleto de sorpresas, y juntos se convierten en un resonante himno a la esperanza.»Publishers WeeklyThis book examines public discussions around France's four most prominent royal women during the first and second Restoration and July Monarchy:…
the duchesse d’Angoulême, the duchesse de Berry, Queen of the French Marie-Amélie, and Adélaïde d’Orléans. These were the most powerful women of the last decades of the French monarchy, but the new roles women were assigned in post-revolutionary France did not permit them to openly exercise political influence. This book explores continuities and variations in narratives of royal legitimacy, and how historians, authors, and politicians used national history - particularly medieval and early modern history - to either legitimize or undermine the French monarchy, and to define women's social and political roles.A journey along the seemingly endless Russian border - from North Korea in the Far East through Russia's bordering states…
in Asia and the Caucasus, crossing the Caspian Ocean and the Black Sea along the way."Erika Fatland [is] shaping up to be one of the Nordics' most exciting new travel writers" National Geographic**SHORTLISTED FOR THE STANFORDS DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020**"A hauntingly lyrical meditation to the contingencies of history" Wall Street Journal"[An] impressive mix of history, reportage and travel memoir" Washington PostThe Border is a book about Russia and Russian history without its author ever entering Russia itself; a book about being the neighbour of that mighty, expanding empire throughout history. It is a chronicle of the colourful, exciting, tragic and often unbelievable histories of these bordering nations, their cultures, their people, their landscapes.Through her last three documentary books - one about terrorism in Beslan, one about the 2011 terror attacks in Norway and one about post-Soviet Central Asia - social anthropologist Erika Fatland has established herself as a sharp observer and an outstanding interviewer at the forefront of Nordic non-fiction.Translated from the Norwegian by Kari DicksonBlitz Spirit: Voices of Britain Living Through Crisis, 1939-1945
By Becky Brown. 2020
'Finally, a book that is proving very therapeutic in these difficult times... Full of doubt, fear, anger and rueful comedy,…
they give the lie to the idea that the Brits maintained a stiff upper lip, but it's immensely consoling to know that our forebears sometimes thought that they were living through the end times but survived to enjoy better and brighter days.' Jonathan Coe, The Times'With 34 million of us in Tier 3, these Mass Observation diaries have an added fascination: it's impossible to read them without coming across parallels on almost every page, people's characters revealing themselves under wartime restrictions just as they do under Covid ones.' The Times'A great book - such a good read.' Jeremy Vine'Brown's book features an eclectic selection from the wartime years and is full of fascinating and sometimes surprising insights.' Mail on Sunday'Moving and unexpectedly funny, it's these words that may offer comfort.' Woman's Weekly'What extraordinary voices of Britain living through crisis! A brilliant testament to resilience.' Anne Glenconner'A stirring and evocative account of life on the home front. Full of surprises that bring a fascinating perspective on the blitz spirit.' - Deborah Cadbury, author of Chocolate Wars and Princes at War***Throughout the Second World War hundreds of people kept diaries of their private daily lives as part of a groundbreaking national experiment. They were warehousemen and WRENs, soldiers and farmhands, housewives and journalists, united only by a desire to record the history they were living through.For decades their words have been held in the Mass-Observation Archive, a time capsule of ordinary voices that might otherwise have been forgotten. These voices tell the human story behind the iconic events of those six years, of the individuals grappling with a world turned upside down. From panic-buying and competitively digging for victory to extraordinary acts of bravery, Blitz Spirit is a remarkable collection of real wartime experiences that represent the best and worst of human nature in the face of adversity. Resonant, darkly funny and deeply moving, this new collection will reveal what it was like to live through a crisis of unprecedented proportions. A cacophony of hope, cynicism and resilience, Blitz Spirit celebrates ordinary lives - however small - and shines a light on the people we were, and the people we are now.Sunburn: The unofficial history of the Sun newspaper in 99 headlines
By James Felton. 2020
'An astonishing piece of work' James O'Brien'This book was a delight. Funny, scathing and witty' Ian Dunt You should buy…
this book if: a) you dislike the Sun, but have never actually read it to know why and/or b) you're still not sure how we got into this mess. Using his famed on-the-nose commentary, Twitter legend James Felton has dissected 99 of the most outlandish stories the Sun (for a long time the biggest-selling British newspaper) has run since it became a tabloid in 1969, hoping to answer once and for all whether the press has reflected - or manipulated - the British people over the last 50 years. Included: joke-riddled and illustrated analyses of the Sun's most infamous stories about celebrities, war, royals, crime, the LGBTQ+ community, migrants, the EU, politics, bacon sandwiches and page 3.Not included: A blindfold. We suggest reading through your fingers instead. 'James Felton makes me laugh like a bellend' Robert Webb'James Felton makes me laugh every day' Marina Hyde'James never fails to make me laugh and then think, then laugh some more' Dermot O'LearyKafka: The Decisive Years
By Reiner Stach. 2013
This is the acclaimed central volume of the definitive biography of Franz Kafka. Reiner Stach spent more than a decade…
working with over four thousand pages of journals, letters, and literary fragments, many never before available, to re-create the atmosphere in which Kafka lived and worked from 1910 to 1915, the most important and best-documented years of his life. This period, which would prove crucial to Kafka's writing and set the course for the rest of his life, saw him working with astonishing intensity on his most seminal writings--The Trial, The Metamorphosis, The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika), and The Judgment. These are also the years of Kafka's fascination with Zionism; of his tumultuous engagement to Felice Bauer; and of the outbreak of World War I. Kafka: The Decisive Years is at once an extraordinary portrait of the writer and a startlingly original contribution to the art of literary biography.Age of the Democratic Revolution: The Struggle (Princeton Classics Ser. #90)
By R. R. Palmer. 1970
For the Western world as a whole, the period from about 1760 to 1800 was the great revolutionary era in…
which the outlines of the modern democratic state came into being. It is the thesis of this major work that the American, French, and Polish revolutions, and the movements for political change in Britain, Ireland, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, and other countries, although each distinctive in its way, were all manifestations of recognizably similar political ideas, needs, and conflicts.Volume 1 of this distinguished two-volume work, "The Challenge," received critical accolades throughout the world. It was the winner of the Bancroft Prize in 1960 and was called "one of the classic works of American historical scholarship" (Key Reporter) and a book which "will enlarge and clarify our understanding of modern Western history. It will re-emphasize the strength and vitality of the roots that supported the growth of democracy in the Old and New Worlds" (New York Times). "Occasionally a historical work appears which, by synthesis of much previous specialized work and by intelligent reflection upon the whole, makes events of the past click into a new pattern and assume fresh meaning. Professor Palmer's book is such a work" (American Historical Review)."The Challenge" took the story to the eve of the French Revolutionary wars; Volume 2, "The Struggle" continues the account to 1800.Rhineland Radicals: The Democratic Movement and the Revolution of 1848-1849
By Jonathan Sperber. 1991
This major interpretation of the Revolution of 1848-1849 in Germany stresses its character as a mass political phenomenon. Building skillfully…
on the theme of the interaction of self-conscious radicalism and spontaneous popular movements, Jonathan Sperber analyzes the social and religious antagonisms of pre-1848 German society and shows how they were politicized by the democratic political opposition.The Invention of Sicily: A Mediterranean History
By Jamie Mackay. 2021
A fascinating cultural history of this most magical of islandsSicily has always acted as a gateway between Europe and the…
rest of the world. Fought over by the Phoenicians and Greeks, the Romans, Goths and Byzantines, Arabs and Normans, Germans, Spanish and the French for thousands of year, Sicily became a unique melting pot where diverse traditions merged, producing a unique heritage and singular culture.In this fascinating account of the island from the earliest times to the present day, author and journalist Jamie Mackay leads us through this most elusive of places. From its pivotal position in the development of Greek and Roman mythology, and the beautiful remnants of both the Arab and Norman invasions, through to the rise of the bandits and the Cosa Nostra, The Invention of Sicily is the perfect companion to the culture and history of Sicily.Mackay weaves the political and social development of the island in with its fascinating cultural heritage - in doing so discussing how great works including Lampedusa's masterpiece The Leopard and its film adaptation by Visconti, and the novels of Leonardo Sciascia, among many others, have both been shaped by Sicily's past, and continue to shape it into the present.Homecomings: Returning POWs and the Legacies of Defeat in Postwar Germany
By Frank Biess. 2006
This book focuses on one of the most visible and important consequences of total defeat in postwar Germany: the return…
to East and West Germany of the two million German soldiers and POWs who spent an extended period in Soviet captivity. These former prisoners made up a unique segment of German society. They were both soldiers in the war of racial annihilation on the Eastern front and then suffered extensive hardship and deprivation themselves as prisoners of war. The book examines the lingering consequences of the soldiers' return and explores returnees' own responses to a radically changed and divided homeland. Historian Frank Biess traces the origins of the postwar period to the last years of the war, when ordinary Germans began to face the prospect of impending defeat. He then demonstrates parallel East and West German efforts to overcome the German loss by transforming returning POWs into ideal post-totalitarian or antifascist citizens. By exploring returnees' troubled adjustment to the more private spheres of the workplace and the family, the book stresses the limitations of these East and West German attempts to move beyond the war. Based on a wide array of primary and secondary sources, Homecomings combines the political history of reconstruction with the social history of returnees and the cultural history of war memories and gender identities. It unearths important structural and functional similarities between German postwar societies, which remained infused with the aftereffects of unprecedented violence, loss, and mass death long after the war was over.Happiness in the Nordic World (Nordic World)
By Christian Bjørnskov. 2021
Denmark is consistently among the countries with the happiest and most satisfied populations, and it regularly places at the very…
top with the rest of the Nordic countries in international surveys. Why do the Nordic countries as a whole constitute the happiest region in the world? Many experts attribute the region's high levels of happiness to factors such as greater relative national wealth and well-functioning institutions. Yet, a number of other countries in Europe and parts of Asia share those qualities and rank far lower in life satisfaction. Others credit the region's high levels of happiness to its welfare state model, but these have changed considerably over time—and Iceland does not share this feature. Instead, economist Christian Bjørnskov argues that the most important factor to come out of international comparisons is the importance of social trust—the ability to trust other people one does not know personally. The populations in three of the five countries are also characterized by a very strong sense of personal freedom. These two key factors contribute to a fuller and richer life. Bjørnskov ends by discussing to what extent these factors can be exported to other parts of the world.Economic Performance in the Nordic World (Nordic World)
By Torben M. Andersen. 2021
The Nordic countries stand out in international comparisons for having both high living standards and low inequality. The welfare state…
and public sectors are large and the tax burden is high. How have these countries managed to achieve such favorable economic performance? Economist Torben M. Andersen shows how the Nordic model rests on two pillars: the social safety net, which offers income compensation to the majority of those unable to support themselves, and the provision of services like education, childcare, and healthcare to all. The Nordic model can be characterized as one of employment, since its financial viability rests on a high labor participation rate with few working poor. Andersen lays out the structure of the model and highlights factors important for understanding its economic performance. He then looks into specific policy areas based on Denmark's experiences regarding labor market policies (flexicurity), pension systems, and preparation for an aging population; and addresses the challenges arising from new technologies and globalization.Tuscany in the Age of Empire (I Tatti studies in Italian Renaissance history)
By Brian Brege. 2021
A new history explores how one of Renaissance Italy’s leading cities maintained its influence in an era of global exploration,…
trade, and empire. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was not an imperial power, but it did harbor global ambitions. After abortive attempts at overseas colonization and direct commercial expansion, as Brian Brege shows, Tuscany followed a different path, one that allowed it to participate in Europe’s new age of empire without establishing an empire of its own. The first history of its kind, Tuscany in the Age of Empire offers a fresh appraisal of one of the foremost cities of the Italian Renaissance, as it sought knowledge, fortune, and power throughout Asia, the Americas, and beyond. How did Tuscany, which could not compete directly with the growing empires of other European states, establish a global presence? First, Brege shows, Tuscany partnered with larger European powers. The duchy sought to obtain trade rights within their empires and even manage portions of other states’ overseas territories. Second, Tuscans invested in cultural, intellectual, and commercial institutions at home, which attracted the knowledge and wealth generated by Europe’s imperial expansions. Finally, Tuscans built effective coalitions with other regional powers in the Mediterranean and the Islamic world, which secured the duchy’s access to global products and empowered the Tuscan monarchy in foreign affairs. These strategies allowed Tuscany to punch well above its weight in a world where power was equated with the sort of imperial possessions it lacked. By finding areas of common interest with stronger neighbors and forming alliances with other marginal polities, a small state was able to protect its own security while carving out a space as a diplomatic and intellectual hub in a globalizing Europe.Selected Writings of Jean Jaurès: On Socialism, Pacifism and Marxism (Marx, Engels, and Marxisms)
By Jean-Numa Ducange, Elisa Marcobelli. 2021
This book is an anthology of the writings of Jean Jaurès, a central figure of French socialism in the period…
leading up to World War I, who was born in 1859 and died in 1914, a few days before the outbreak of the conflict. Jaurès is one of the most celebrated politicians in France. His writings in this anthology touch on the subjects dear to him, which are then some of the great political themes of his time. In this book are writings on war and pacifism, on colonialism and anti-colonialism, and on the central themes of socialism of the time, such as reformism and revolution. Despite Jaurès's notoriety in France, he is not well known abroad. This book, a corpus of his emblematic writings, aims, to make Jaurès known to those who do not know him outside of France.The Antonia Fraser Collection
By Lady Antonia Fraser. 2006
Nine ebooks from the bestselling historian Antonia Fraser, shedding light on some of the most fascinating and controversial people and…
events of European history.MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTSMary, Queen of Scots passed her childhood in France and married the dauphin to become queen of France at the age of sixteen. Widowed less than two years later, she returned to Scotland as queen after an absence of thirteen years.CROMWELLNo Englishman has made more impact on the history of his nation than Oliver Cromwell; few have been so persistently maligned in the folklore of history. The central purpose of Antonia Fraser's book is the recreation of his life and character, freed from the distortions of myth and Royalist propaganda.KING CHARLES IISpanning his life both before and after the Restoration, Antonia Fraser's lively and fascinating biography captures all the vitality of the man and the expansiveness of the age.THE WEAKER VESSELAn expert on the period, Antonia Fraser brings to life the many and various women she has encountered in her considerable research: governesses, milkmaids, fishwives, nuns, defenders of castles, courtesans, countesses, witches and widows.THE WARRIOR QUEENSWarrior Queens are those women who have both ruled and led in war. It examines how Antonia Fraser's heroines have held and wrestled the reins of power from their (consistently male) adversaries.THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIIIThe six wives of Henry VIII: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr. They may have been victims of Henry's obsession with a male heir, but they were not willing victims. THE GUNPOWDER PLOTDramatically recreating the conditions and motives that surrounded the fateful night of 5 November 1605, she unravels the tangled web of religion and politics that spawned the plot.MARIE ANTOINETTEAntonia Fraser examines her influence over the king, Louis XVI, the accusations and sexual slurs made against her, her patronage of the arts which enhanced French cultural life, her imprisonment, the death threats made against her, her trial and her eventual execution by guillotine in 1793.LOVE AND LOUIS XIVAntonia Fraser brilliantly explores the relationships which existed between the Sun King and the women in his life.