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Books > Humanities > History > British & Irish history
From its vantage point overlooking Loch Ness, Urquhart Castle
dominated the region for centuries. The probable site of a Pictish
hill-fort, it may have been the scene for St Columba's reported
encounter with a Pictish chief in the 6th century. Around 1230, the
Durward family was granted the lordship of Urquhart, and soon built
the first castle. Over the next three centuries it was repeatedly
remodelled, soon becoming a royal residence. But its strategic
position meant it was frequently under attack. Both Edward I of
England and Robert the Bruce ravaged it during the Wars of
Independence; the MacDonald Islesmen were frequent raiders in the
1400s and 1500s; and the Jacobites laid siege during the Rising of
1689-90. It stands today as a gaunt but handsome ruin in the heart
of the Highlands.
In a Reformation kingdom ill-used to queens, Elizabeth I needed a
very particular image to hold her divided country together. The
'Cult of Gloriana' would elevate the queen to the status of a
virgin goddess, aided by authors, musicians, and artists such as
Spenser, Shakespeare, Hilliard, Tallis and Byrd. Her image was
widely owned and distributed, thanks to the expansion of printing,
and the English came to surpass their European counterparts in
miniature painting, allowing courtiers to carry a likeness of their
sovereign close to their hearts. Sumptuously illustrated, Gloriana:
Elizabeth I and the Art of Queenship tells the story of Elizabethan
art as a powerful device for royal magnificence and propaganda,
illuminating several key artworks of Elizabeth's reign to create a
portrait of the Tudor monarch as she has never been seen before.
Opens up a hidden aspect of women's history, imperial history and
social history Includes contemporary illustrations, vividly
bringing the subject to life Based on important new archival
research
This book, first published in 1971, is a close analysis of some of
the typical peasant uprisings of the seventeenth century. The goal
of the movements in France and China was a return to an older and
more traditional society, rather than a profound transformation of
the social structure. In Russia, however, the peasants attempted to
overturn the rigid order of a two-class structure and replace it
with a more democratic society.
This book, first published in 1969, examines the achievement of
Montgomery and the 21st Army Group in the campaign in Northwest
Europe in 1944-45. The author observed the campaign first-hand, and
has spent twenty years poring over war diaries and regimental
papers to provide an in-depth analysis of Montgomery's generalship,
personality, complex relations with his American allies, and his
own subordinates. Looking at Montgomery's performance as a morale
builder both for troops and civilians, this books also examines his
difficulties with the diplomatic niceties of coalition warfare.
The contributors to this book, first published in 1971, analyse as
International Socialists the economic and social issues of modern
society. Their findings were controversial, as was the alternative
they proposed - the overthrow of the British system and its
replacement by a society based on workers' control. A central theme
of the book is the need for socialists to have a scientific view of
the modern world - a socialist theory.
This book, first published in 1980, is an invaluable assessment of
SOE's contribution to the Allied victory. From both first-hand
knowledge (Howarth served with SOE for 4 years) and in-depth
research, this book traces the development of the organisation and
its successes and failures. By bringing to life some of the
outstanding men and women who served in SOE, this book pays tribute
to their bravery and examines their role in fomenting and
supporting clandestine resistance against the Nazi regime.
This book, first published in 1978, examines the independent
political action by the thousands of working people in the town of
Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. After a mass rally on the hills above the
town, thousands of workers under a reg flag broke into insurrection
- a detachment of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders marched into
the town to restore order. The rebels repulsed the soldiers and
held the town, with at least two dozen workers killed. Within weeks
of the Rising, trade unions began to appear in South Wales, and
this book argues that these events were central to the emergence of
a Welsh working class.
This book, first published in 1946, analyses the state of the world
at the close of the Second World War. Global power was passing from
Britain to the United States and the Soviet Union, with the US
being involved in every part of the world, Russia dominant in
eastern Europe and the world looked a very uncertain place. This
survey of the main three powers examines their changing conditions
and foreign policies.
This book, first published in 1942, examines the economic
necessities, defensive and offensive, basic and strategic, involved
in waging war. Written with total global war raging, it analyses
the unprecedented demands placed on the economic system of a
nation, and looks at the great shifts of productive effort and
limits on consumption that were needed.
This book, first published in 1974, examines the diverse nature of
popular protest in Britain. Movements varied immensely from one
another in their objectives, their social composition, their
tactics and the geographical milieu.
In a comparative study drawing on material from the United States
and Britain, this book, first published in 1992, examines how
various types of industrial, political, urban and sectarian
disorder occur. In the early 1990s public disorder returned to the
top of the political agenda, and yet was consistently met with
confusion and misunderstanding. Public discussion was superficial
and emotive, contributing little helpful enlightenment and creating
no prospect of sensible policy change. This book presents the
'flashpoints' model, to explain that public disorder is most likely
to occur where a group perceives that its rights are being violated
or denied. The model is demonstrated in a selection of vivid case
studies which are both international and historical in scope,
covering British and American inner-city riots, sports spectator
violence, and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. In particular it
traces the growth of police powers and assesses how effective
democratic control over police behaviour actually is. It also
considers the assertion that media coverage can have an
inflammatory effect on public disorder.
This book lays bare the dialogue between Shakespeare and critics of
the stage, and positions it as part of an ongoing cultural,
ethical, and psychological debate about the effects of performance
on actors and on spectators. In so doing, the book makes a
substantial contribution both to the study of representations of
theatre in Shakespeare's plays and to the understanding of ethical
concerns about acting and spectating-then, and now. The book opens
with a comprehensive and coherent analysis of the main early modern
English anxieties about theatre and its power. These are read
against 20th- and 21st-century theories of acting, interviews with
actors, and research into the effects of media representation on
spectator behaviour, all of which demonstrate the lingering
relevance of antitheatrical claims and the personal and
philosophical implications of acting and spectating. The main part
of the book reveals Shakespeare's responses to major antitheatrical
claims about the powerful effects of poetry, music, playacting, and
playgoing. It also demonstrates the evolution of Shakespeare's view
of these claims over the course of his career: from light-hearted
parody in A Midsummer Night's Dream, through systematic
contemplation in Hamlet, to acceptance and dramatization in The
Tempest. This study will be of great interest to scholars and
students of theatre, English literature, history, and culture.
This lively collection of essays showcases recent research into the
impact of the conflict on British women during the First World War
and since. Looking outside of the familiar representations of
wartime women as nurses, munitionettes, and land girls, it
introduces the reader to lesser-known aspects of women's war
experience, including female composers' musical responses to the
war, changes in the culture of women's mourning dress, and the
complex relationships between war, motherhood, and politics.
Written during the war's centenary, the chapters also consider the
gendered nature of war memory in Britain, exploring the emotional
legacies of the conflict today, and the place of women's wartime
stories on the contemporary stage. The collection brings together
work by emerging and established scholars contributing to the
shared project of rewriting British women's history of the First
World War. It is an essential text for anyone researching or
studying this history. This book was originally published as a
special issue of Women's History Review.
The book investigates a riveting, richly documented conflict from
thirteenth-century England over church property and ecclesiastical
patronage. Oliver Sutton, the bishop of Lincoln, and John St John,
a royal household knight, both used coveted papal provisions to
bestow the valuable church of Thame to a familial clerical
candidate (a nephew and son, respectively). Between 1292 and 1294
three people died over the right to possess this church benefice
and countless others were attacked or publicly scorned during the
conflict. More broadly, religious services were paralyzed, prized
animals were mutilated, and property was destroyed. Ultimately, the
king personally brokered a settlement because he needed his knight
for combat. Employing a microhistorical approach, this book uses
abundant episcopal, royal, and judicial records to reconstruct this
complex story that exposes in vivid detail the nature and limits of
episcopal and royal power and the significance and practical
business of ecclesiastical benefaction. This volume will appeal to
undergraduate and graduate students alike, particularly students in
historical methods courses, medieval surveys, upper-division
undergraduate courses, and graduate seminars. It would also appeal
to admirers of microhistories and people interested in issues
pertaining to gender, masculinity, and identity in the Middle Ages.
Association Football did no less than reshape British and indeed
global society in its fast development as an organised sport over
the course of the second half of the nineteenth century and leading
up to the First World War. In this newly released edition of Tony
Mason's essential account of the game's rise, issues such as the
amateur professional divide, social class and mass spectatorship
are seen as fundamental to the development of what is now a
multi-trillion dollar industry. Dilwyn Porter supplements this
classic text with a brand-new introduction.
On a hillside near Ballachulish in the Scottish Highlands in May
1752 a rider is assassinated by a gunman. The murdered man is Colin
Campbell, a government agent travelling to nearby Duror where he's
evicting farm tenants to make way for his relatives. Campbell's
killer evades capture, but Britain's rulers insist this challenge
to their authority must result in a hanging. The sacrificial victim
is James Stewart, who is organising resistance to Campbell's
takeover of lands long held by his clan, the Appin Stewarts. James
is a veteran of the Highland uprising crushed in April 1746 at
Culloden. In Duror he sees homes torched by troops using terror
tactics against rebel Highlanders. The same brutal response to
dissent means that James's corpse will for years hang from a
towering gibbet and leave a community utterly ravaged. Introducing
this new and updated edition of his account of what came to be
called the Appin Murder, historian James Hunter tells how his own
Duror upbringing introduced him to the tragic story of James
Stewart.
Sing As We Go is an astonishingly ambitious overview of the
political, social and cultural history of the country from 1919 to
1939. It explores and explains the politics of the period, and puts
such moments of national turmoil as the General Strike of 1926 and
the Abdication Crisis of 1936 under the microscope. It offers pen
portraits of the era's most significant figures. It traces the
changing face of Britain as cars made their first mass appearance,
the suburbs sprawled, and radio and cinema became the means of mass
entertainment. And it probes the deep divisions that split the
nation: between the haves and have-nots, between warring
ideological factions, and between those who promoted accommodation
with fascism in Europe and those who bitterly opposed it.
__________________________________________ Praise for the series:
'Scholarly, objective and extremely well written. A masterclass . .
. Heffer's eye for the telling detail is evident on almost every
page.' Andrew Roberts, 5*, Telegraph 'Gloriously rich and spirited
. . . colourful, character driven history.' Dominic Sandbrook,
Sunday Times 'Enlightening . . . Robust opinion, an eye for telling
detail and a gift for bringing historical figures alive.' History
Books of the Year, Daily Mail
THE #2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A gripping story of human frailty,
love, loss, sadness, and tragedy' Daily Mail She is the most public
and least understood woman in Britain. Diana called her a
Rottweiler. But spend two minutes with Camilla and you understand
why Charles fell for her. The relationship between King Charles III
and Camilla, Queen Consort, is one of the most remarkable love
stories of the age. It has endured against all the odds, and in the
process nearly destroyed the British monarchy. It is a rich and
remarkable story that has never been properly told - indeed, it is
one of the most extraordinary, star-crossed love stories of the
past fifty years. Junor argues that although Camilla played a
central role in the darkest days of the modern monarchy, Charles
and Diana's acrimonious and scandalous split, she also played a
central role in restoring the royal family's reputation, especially
that of King Charles. A woman with no ambition to be a princess, a
duchess, or a queen, Camilla simply wanted to be with, and support,
the man who has always been the love of her life. Junor contends
that their marriage has reinvigorated Charles, allowing him to
finally become comfortable as the heir to the British throne. In
this compelling biography, Britain's top royal author paints an
intimate portrait of the Queen Consort, revealing for the first
time why the King went against his mother and risked everything,
even the stability of the monarchy, to have Camilla by his side.
The Duchess was in the Sunday Times Bestseller Chart from the 26th
to 33rd week of 2017.
1. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the
Falkland/Malvinas War. 2. It is written by both Argentinian and
Australian (one British born Australian) Scholars and rich in
archival resources. 3. With the 40th Anniversary of the
Falkland/Malvinas War in 2022 this book will be of interest to
departments of Military history and British and Latin American
History across UK.
Connects the impact of the early modern period with the procedures
of present-day maritime law Uses maps and historical documents to
provide a rich history of piracy in the 16th and 17th centuries
Explores how ideas and people circulated across boundaries of
empires and nations
In the year that marks the 50th anniversary of Labour's 1945
landslide victory and the development of a new invigorated Labour
Party under Tony Blair, this collection of essays looks at how the
policies of the 1945 government and the following Labour
administrations affected cultural life in Britain. The contributors
cover a wide range of issues: British cinema of the period,
working-class consumer culture, the founding of the NHS, Labour's
attempts to house and educate the heroes, literary and artistic
culture, post-war feminist activism and the response of the right
to their crushing defeat.
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