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The enemy at the gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe
By Alex Wheatle. 2009
In 1683, two empires - the Ottoman, based in Constantinople, and the Habsburg dynasty in Vienna - came face to…
face in the culmination of a 250-year power struggle: the Great Siege of Vienna. Within the city walls the choice of resistance over surrender to the largest army ever assembled by the Turks created an all-or-nothing scenario: every last survivor would be enslaved or ruthlessly slaughtered. Both sides remained resolute, sustained by hatred of their age-old enemy, certain that their victory would be won by the grace of God. 2009.The end of elsewhere: travels among the tourists
By Taras Grescoe. 2003
Taras Grescoe plunges into the ruts where the tourists are thickest, starting at the tip of Spain's Land's End and…
finishing, nine months later, on the soldier-patrolled beaches of China's End of the Earth. Along the way, he crosses the entire Eurasian landmass, experiencing all sorts of travel such as all-inclusive resorts, pilgrimages, and bus tours. Some descriptions of sex and violence, some strong language. 2003.Ranging from the late-eighteenth century to the present, a narrative history reveals how the boundaries and borders that formed both…
states and the nation as a whole created a sense of identity that is central to defining American character. 2007.The Enlightenment: reason, tolerance, and humanity (The modern scholar)
By James Schmidt. 2005
In this course, Boston University professor James Schmidt offers a balanced assessment of the Enlightenment, considering both its achievements and…
its shortcomings and focusing not only on its most important intellectual achievements but also on the strange and often colourful characters that populated it. 2005.The enchanted islands: the Galapagos discovered
By John Hickman. 1991
The author chronicles the fitful history of the Galapagos Islands from Inca times and presents an intriguing cast of conquistadors,…
buccaneers, pirates, as well as eccentric explorers, hopeful colonists and naturalists - including Charles Darwin. 1991.The English and the Norman conquest
By Ann Williams. 1995
This text escapes the traditional view of the Norman Conquest by examining the more truly representative experience of the lesser…
lords and landowners among the English, who survived the Conquest and settlement, adapted to foreign customs and preserved much of the native tradition and culture. 1995.The end of Hong Kong: the secret diplomacy of imperial retreat
By Robert Cottrell. 1993
On June 30, 1997, Britain ended its colonial rule over Hong Kong, the wealthy city state with six million people.…
The terms of the handover to China were to be those set out in a Joint Declaration initialled by Britain and China in 1984. This is an account of the diplomacy behind that settlement, and the prospects that lay ahead for Hong Kong. 1993.The Etruscans
By Michael Grant. 1980
Author reviews the latest scholarly thinking about the Bronze Age origins and subsequent development of civilization in Etruria. A major…
section of the book deals with the geographical and cultural history of the major Etruscan city-states and their territories at the height of their power. 1980.The Faber book of reportage
By John Carey. 1987
John Carey has selected accounts of some of the most extraordinary events in history. Events range from the plague in…
Athens in 430 BC to the fall of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. Exploration and discovery, historical figures, and great battles are all described by eyewitnesses. 1987.The face of the Third Reich (Pelican Ser.)
By Joachim C Fest, Michael Bullock. 1972
This text is a psychological profile of both individual Nazi leaders and various sections of German society at the time.…
Through this approach though, the main causes of the rise of Hitler and the Nazis are explained. Among other things, Fest illustrates the essential nihilism of the Nazi movement, whose ideology was based on the acquisition of power as an end rather than a means. The vacuous adoration of and devotion to Hitler was in itself a cornerstone of Nazi philosophy, the Fuhrer cult providing the basis for Fest's religious analogies. He also discusses how initially vague assertions of Aryan superiority and Semitic evil were later focused after the seizure of power, developed and expanded on by Himmler and the SS. 1972. Uniform title: Das Gesicht des Dritten Reiches.The European dictatorships 1918-1945
By Stephen J Lee. 1987
"European Dictatorships 1918–1945" surveys the extraordinary circumstances leading to, and arising from, the transformation of over half of Europe’s states…
to dictatorships between the first and the second World Wars. It describes the course of dictatorship in Europe before and during the Second World War, and examines the phenomenon of dictatorship itself and the widely different forms it can take. 1987.The curse of Akkad: climate upheavals that rocked human history
By Peter Christie. 2008
The world's first empire, Akkad, was toppled 4,000 years ago by a disastrous drought in Mesopotamia, Ancient Rome experienced 18…
months of darkness, possibly from a volcanic eruption half a world away, and Mayan society in Mexico began to crumble when fresh water became scarce. Christie explores climate shifts of the past, from ice ages to a World War II El Niño that frustrated the battle plans of Hitler. Grades 4-7. 2008.Before Owen Wister's publication of "The Virginian" in 1902, the image of the cowboy was essentially that of the dime…
novel. This book details the evidence that Everett Johnson, a cowboy from Virginia who had been a friend of Wister's in Wyoming in the 1880s, was the initial and prime inspiration for Wister's cowboy. 2015.The devil and the disappearing sea: a true story about the Aral Sea catastrophe
By Robert W Ferguson. 2003
The Aral Sea, once the fourth-largest inland body of water, has lost over half its surface area and 80 percent…
of its volume since 1960, due to poorly planned irrigation systems. In January 2000, Canadian Rob Ferguson went to Uzbekistan to work on an environmental project to save the Aral Sea. After a year of dealing with corrupt officials, not only had the project gone nowhere, but Ferguson was under suspicion of murder. Some strong language. 2003.The China mission: George Marshall's unfinished war, 1945–1947
By Daniel Kurtz-Phelan. 2018
As World War II came to an end, General George Marshall was renowned as the architect of Allied victory. Set…
to retire, he instead accepted what he thought was a final mission--this time not to win a war, but to stop one. Conflict between Chinese Nationalists and Communists threatened to suck in the United States and escalate into revolution. His assignment was to broker a peace, build a Chinese democracy, and prevent a Communist takeover, all while staving off World War III. 2018.The Emperor: downfall of an autocrat (Vintage International)
By Ryszard Kapuscinski. 1984
Haile Selassie, His Most Puissant Majesty and Distinguished Highness the Emperor of Ethiopia, enjoyed a 44-year reign until his own…
army gave him the boot in 1974. In the days following the coup, Polish journalist Kapuscinski travelled to Ethiopia and sought out members of the imperial court for interviews. Some descriptions of violence. 1984, c1978. Uniform title: Cesarz.The emergence of modern Japan: an introductory history since 1853
By Janet Hunter. 1989
Understanding Japan's recent history is essential to form an efficient working relationship with the country. The author concentrates on the…
years from 1853, when the outer world broke through Japan's isolation, to 1952 when the postwar settlement and economic recovery set her on the road to becoming an economic superpower. 1989.The Harvey girls: women who opened the West
By Lesley Poling-Kempes. 1989
From the 1880s to the 1950s, the Harvey Girls went west to work in Fred Harvey's restaurants along the Santa…
Fe railway. At a time when there were "no ladies west of Dodge City and no women west of Albuquerque," they came as waitresses, but many stayed and settled, founding the struggling cattle and mining towns that dotted the region. Interviews, historical research, and photographs help re-create the Harvey Girl experience. The accounts are personal, but laced with the history the women lived: the dust bowl, the depression, and anecdotes about some of the many famous people who ate at the restaurants--Teddy Roosevelt, Shirley Temple, Bob Hope, to name a few. Winner of the 1991 New Mexico PressWomen's ZIA award. 1989.The history of the future
By David A Wilson. 2000
A look at the way in which people in the past imagined their own future: prophets, self-proclaimed Christs, astrologers, witches,…
utopians and economists - all of whom predicted the future, and almost always got it wrong. The author argues that prophecies tell us little or nothing about what will actually happen, but reveal a great deal about the changing hopes, fears, dreams and aspirations that informed the imagination of the past. 2000.The home that was our country: a memoir of Syria
By Alia Malek. 2018
A deeply researched, personal journey that shines a delicate but piercing light on Syrian history, society, and politics. Alia Malek…
weaves political analysis with a century of family history, delivering an unforgettable portrait of the Syria that is being erased. 2018.