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A wholly original history of France, filled with a lifetime’s knowledge and passion—by the author of the New York Times…
bestseller Parisians. Beginning with the Roman army’s first recorded encounter with the Gauls and ending in the era of Emmanuel Macron, France takes readers on an endlessly entertaining journey through French history. Frequently hilarious, always surprising, Graham Robb’s France combines the stylistic versatility of a novelist with the deep understanding of a scholar. Robb’s own adventures and discoveries while living, working, and traveling in France connect this tour through space and time with on-the-ground experience. There are scenes of wars and revolutions from the plains of Provence to the slums and boulevards of Paris. Robb conveys with wit and precision what it felt like to look over the shoulder of a young Louis XIV as he planned the vast garden of Versailles, and the dangerous thrill of having a ringside seat at the French revolution. Some of the protagonists may be familiar, but appear here in a very different light—Caesar, Charlemagne, Louis XIV, Napoleon Bonaparte, General Charles de Gaulle. This extraordinary narrative is the fruit of decades of research and thirty thousand miles on a self-propelled, two-wheeled time machine (a bicycle). Even seasoned Francophiles will wonder if they really know that terra incognita on the edge of Europe that is currently referred to as “France.”
Drawing upon newly released archives, bestselling biographer Andrew Lownie tells the story of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's glittering lives…
after Edward abdicated the throne—a world that was riddled with treachery and betrayal.11 December 1936. The King of England, Edward VIII, has given up his crown, foregoing his duty for the love of Wallis Simpson, an American divorcée. Their courtship has been dogged by controversy and scandal, but with Edward's abdication, they can live happily ever after. But do they? Beginning this astonishing dual biography at the moment that most biographers turn away, bestselling historian Andrew Lownie reveals the dramatic lives of the Windsors post-abdication. This is a story of a royal shut out by his family and forced into exile; of the Nazi attempts to recruit the duke to their cause; and of why the duke, as Governor of the Bahamas, tried to shut down the investigation into the murder of a close friend. It is a story of a couple obsessed with their status, financially exploiting their position, all the while manipulating the media to portray themselves as victims. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were, in their day, the most glamorous exiles in the world, flitting from sumptuously appointed mansions in the south of France to luxurious residences in Palm Beach. But they were spoiled, selfish people, obsessed with their image, and revelling in adulterous affairs. Drawing upon previously unexplored archives, Lownie shows in dramatic fashion how their glittering world was riddled with treachery and betrayal—and why the royal family never forgave the duke for choosing love over duty
South Korean historian Jie-Hyun Lim, raised under an anticommunist dictatorship, turned to Marxian thought to explain his country’s development, even…
as he came to struggle with its Eurocentrism. As a transnational scholar working in postcommunist Poland, Lim recognized striking similarities between Korean and Polish history and politics. One realization stood out: Both Korea and Poland—at once the “West” for Asia yet “Eastern” Europe—had been assigned the role of “East.”This book explores entangled Easts to reconsider global history from the margins. Examining the politics of history and memory, Lim reveals the affinities linking Eastern Europe and East Asia. He draws out commonalities in their experiences of modernity, in their transitions from dictatorship to democracy, and in the shaping of collective memory. Ranging across Poland, Germany, Israel, Japan, and Korea, Lim traces the global history of how notions of victimhood have become central to nationalism. He criticizes mass dictatorships of right and left in the Global Easts, considering Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt’s notion of sovereign dictatorship and the concept of decisionist democracy. Lim argues that nationalism is inherently transnational, critiquing how the nationalist imagination of the Global East has influenced countries across borders. Theoretically sophisticated and conceptually innovative, this book sheds new light on the transnational complexity of historical memory and imagination, the boundaries between democracy and mass dictatorship, and the fluidity of East and West.
“Each of us has his tastes inscribed in his brain and heart; whether he fulfills his urges with regret or…
with joy, he must fulfill them. He should let others act according to their own nature. It’s fate that creates us and guides us throughout our lives: to fight against it would be little more than fruitless, foolish, and reckless!”In the late 1880s, a dashing young Italian aristocrat made an astonishing confession to the novelist Émile Zola. In a series of revealing letters, he frankly described his sexual experiences with other men—including his seduction as a teenager by one of his father’s friends and his first love affair, with a sergeant during his military service—as well as his “extraordinary” personality. Judging it too controversial, Zola gave it to a young doctor, who in 1896 published a censored version in a medical study on sexual inversion, as homosexuality was then known. When the Italian came across this book, he was shocked to discover how his life story had been distorted. In protest, he wrote a long, daring, and unapologetic letter to the doctor defending his right to love and to live as he wished.This book is the first complete, unexpurgated version in English of this remarkable queer autobiography. Its text is based on the recently discovered manuscript of the Italian’s letter to the doctor. It also features an introduction tracing the textual history of the documents, analytical essays, and additional materials that help place the work in its historical context. Offering a striking glimpse of gay life in Europe in the late nineteenth century, The Italian Invert brings to light the powerful voice of a young man who forthrightly expressed his desires and eloquently affirmed his right to pleasure.
In the aftermath of World War I, international organizations descended upon the destitute children living in the rubble of Budapest…
and the city became a testing ground for how the West would handle the most vulnerable residents of a former enemy state.Budapest's Children reconstructs how Budapest turned into a laboratory of transnational humanitarian intervention. Friederike Kind-Kovács explores the ways in which migration, hunger, and destitution affected children's lives, casting light on children's particular vulnerability in times of distress. Drawing on extensive archival research, Kind-Kovács reveals how Budapest's children, as iconic victims of the war's aftermath, were used to mobilize humanitarian sentiments and practices throughout Europe and the United States. With this research, Budapest's Children investigates the dynamic interplay between local Hungarian organizations, international humanitarian donors, and the child relief recipients. In tracing transnational relief encounters, Budapest's Children reveals how intertwined postwar internationalism and nationalism were and how child relief reinforced revisionist claims and global inequalities that still reverberate today.
How did the Second World War come about? Nazi Foreign Policy, 1933-1941 provides lucid answers to this complex question. Focusing…
on the different regions of Nazi policy such as Italy, France and Britain, Christian Leitz explores the diplomatic and political developments that led to the outbreak of war in 1939 and its transformation into a global conflict in 1941.Nazi Foreign Policy, 1933-1941 details the history of Nazi Germany's foreign policy from Hitler's inauguration as Reich Chancellor to the declaration of war by America in 1941. Christian Leitz gives equal weight to the attitude and actions of the Nazi regime and the perspectives and reactions of the world both before and during the war.
'In this fascinating, panoramic account, Levi Roach brings an expert eye and page-turning energy to the telling of their extraordinary…
story' Helen Castor, bestselling author of She Wolves'A fresh retelling of the story of the Normans . . . written with enthusiasm and brio' Marc Morris, bestselling author of The Anglo-SaxonsHow did descendants of Viking marauders come to dominate Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East? It is a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce freebooters, of fortunes made and fortunes lost. The Normans made their influence felt across all of western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to North Africa, and Lisbon to the Holy Land. In Empires of the Normans we discover how they combined military might and political savvy with deeply held religious beliefs and a profound sense of their own destiny. For a century and a half, they remade Europe in their own image, and yet their heritage was quickly forgotten - until now.
British author's biography of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's mistress Eva Braun (1912-1945), a Catholic, middle-class woman who met Hitler when…
she was seventeen. Examines the cultural history of Germany during Braun's lifetime and attempts to decipher the enigma of the couple's mutual attraction. Includes interviews with Braun's cousin. 2006
Author of A Short History of Byzantium (DB 47025) chronicles a millennium of power politics along the littoral lands of…
the Mediterranean Sea. Details the succession of empires from antiquity to World War I that have risen and fallen. Highlights the Mediterranean's major battles and rulers. 2006
University of Cambridge history fellow reexamines the life of Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587), using original documents and archives. Guy…
lets Mary speak through her letters, details reasons her versions of events differ from the accounts of others, and presents her as an innocent victim. Whitbread Award. 2004
Turkish sociologist and historian documents the systematic, state-sponsored genocide of some one million Armenians in 1915. Analyzes the nationalistic and…
psychological factors behind what he calls Turkey's "policy of denial" and the international community's failure to bring the perpetrators to justice. 2006
Accessible to students, tourists, and general listeners alike, this book provides a broad overview of Russian history since the ninth…
century. Paul Bushkovitch emphasizes the enormous changes in the understanding of Russian history resulting from the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then, new material has come to light on the history of the Soviet era, providing new conceptions of Russia's pre-revolutionary past. The book traces not only the political history of Russia, but also developments in its literature, art, and science. Bushkovitch describes well-known cultural figures, such as Chekhov, Tolstoy, and Mendeleev in their institutional and historical contexts. Though the 1917 revolution, the resulting Soviet system, and the Cold War were a crucial part of Russian and world history, Bushkovitch presents earlier developments as more than just a prelude to Bolshevik power.
'In this fascinating, panoramic account, Levi Roach brings an expert eye and page-turning energy to the telling of their extraordinary…
story' Helen Castor, bestselling author of She Wolves'A fresh retelling of the story of the Normans . . . written with enthusiasm and brio' Marc Morris, bestselling author of The Anglo-SaxonsHow did descendants of Viking marauders come to dominate Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East? It is a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce freebooters, of fortunes made and fortunes lost. The Normans made their influence felt across all of western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to North Africa, and Lisbon to the Holy Land. In Empires of the Normans we discover how they combined military might and political savvy with deeply held religious beliefs and a profound sense of their own destiny. For a century and a half, they remade Europe in their own image, and yet their heritage was quickly forgotten - until now.
History of the multinational military force established in 1831 and its relationship to the French army and society. Describes the…
elite troops' role in France's colonial wars--including those in Algeria and Indochina--and both world wars. Uses primary sources and historical accounts to document the legion's battles and leaders. Violence. 1991
Presents the fifty-year history of the Bellerophon, a British ship nicknamed "Billy Ruffian." Discusses the ship's role in the conflict…
between Britain and France from 1793 to 1815--including the battles of the Nile (1798), Trafalgar (1805), and Waterloo (1815), when Napoleon surrendered on the vessel's deck. 2003
Literary biography portrays the forty-year relationship between Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) and Alice B. Toklas (1877-1967). Discusses their friendships with writers…
and artists and the Jewish couple's living conditions in Paris and in a French village during the Nazi occupation of France. Examines Stein's writing. 2007
Recounts the life of Jane Parker, the sister-in-law of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife. Describes Jane's marriage to Anne's…
brother George and her loyalty to the Boleyn clan. Discusses her life in the royal court after George and Anne were executed--and Jane's own beheading years later. 2007
This is "perhaps the most trustworthy, and certainly the most interesting, account of events, politics and daily life in Germany…
during the First World War and the social revolution that followed it, it is characterized by a fairness which is a credit to the writer and to the qualities of her head and heart." [The Tablet]
Fire Mission, first published in 1957, is a fictional account of a field artillery battery beginning just before the Battle…
of the Bulge (December 1944), to the capture of the bridge at Remagen in March, 1945. As the author served in an artillery battery during the Battle of the Bulge, his writing accurately portrays the lives of the soldiers living through the cold, filth, and death of this epic battle near the end of the war. William Mulvihill would later write the best-selling novel, The Sands of Kalahari, made into a motion picture in 1965.
PRESERVED against vital change by the salt of ancient religious tradition, there exist within the modern world various communities which…
still live the authentic life of dead centuries. Of such none has been more remarkable, more continuous, and more rich in sociological interest than the celibate medieval community of Mt. Athos. Its millennial resistance to the forces of changing civilizations has led various writers to give an account of it, but no study has heretofore been made which attempts a sociological analysis of its organization and of the forces at work within it. Mr. Choukas has essayed this task. He possessed the initial combination of qualities prerequisite for the undertaking. Greek by origin and competent in the language, sympathetic in approach, discerning, sociologically trained, he equipped himself for the task by residence on the Holy Mountain. We may be grateful that before the now manifest forces of disintegration have undermined this most stubborn stronghold of an ancient order we can look on the picture he presents to us of its daily manner of life, of the relation between ideal and practice, of the problems of its celibate segregation, of the forces and schisms within it, of the impacts from without, and of the spirit in which it responds.What is perhaps most significant to the sociologist in the whole picture is the manner in which this monastic society is organized to maintain its solidarity and its tradition in face of all the impulses of human beings which were against it. ...As we read Mr. Choukas’ account we pass from the external scene of peaceful retreats on austere heights to the more intimate view of an obdurate and dubious struggle waged within themselves by men of simple childlike minds, oblivious, it may be, of the real issues of this age-old fight which they think of as that between “the flesh” and “the spirit,”...