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Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900
The Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, dazzled with its
new rainbow-colored electric lights. It showcased an array of
wonders, like daredevils attempting to go over Niagara Falls in a
barrel, or the "Animal King" putting the smallest woman in the
world and also terrifying animals on display. But the
thrill-seeking spectators little suspected that an assassin walked
the fairgrounds, waiting for President William McKinley to arrive.
In Margaret Creighton's hands, the result is "a persuasive case
that the fair was a microcosm of some momentous facets of the
United States, good and bad, at the onset of the American Century"
(Howard Schneider, Wall Street Journal).
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World War II Rhode Island
(Paperback)
Christian McBurney, Brian L Wallin, Patrick T. Conley, John W. Kennedy, Maureen A. Taylor
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R591
R494
Discovery Miles 4 940
Save R97 (16%)
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Today, 1913 is inevitably viewed through the lens of 1914: as the
last year before a war that would shatter the global economic order
and tear Europe apart, undermining its global pre-eminence. Our
perspectives narrowed by hindsight, the world of that year is
reduced to its most frivolous features--last summers in grand
aristocratic residences--or its most destructive ones: the
unresolved rivalries of the great European powers, the fear of
revolution, violence in the Balkans.
In this illuminating history, Charles Emmerson liberates the world
of 1913 from this "prelude to war" narrative, and explores it as it
was, in all its richness and complexity. Traveling from Europe's
capitals, then at the height of their global reach, to the emerging
metropolises of Canada and the United States, the imperial cities
of Asia and Africa, and the boomtowns of Australia and South
America, he provides a panoramic view of a world crackling with
possibilities, its future still undecided, its outlook still open.
The world in 1913 was more modern than we remember, more similar to
our own times than we expect, more globalized than ever before. The
Gold Standard underpinned global flows of goods and money, while
mass migration reshaped the world's human geography. Steamships and
sub-sea cables encircled the earth, along with new technologies and
new ideas. Ford's first assembly line cranked to life in 1913 in
Detroit. The Woolworth Building went up in New York. While Mexico
was in the midst of bloody revolution, Winnipeg and Buenos Aires
boomed. An era of petro-geopolitics opened in Iran. China appeared
to be awaking from its imperial slumber. Paris celebrated itself as
the city of light--Berlin as the city of electricity.
Full of fascinating characters, stories, and insights, "1913: In
Search of the World before the Great War" brings a lost world
vividly back to life, with provocative implications for how we
understand our past and how we think about our future.
Oil and Nation places petroleum at the center of Bolivia's
contentious twentieth-century history. Bolivia's oil, Cote argues,
instigated the largest war in Latin America in the 1900s, provoked
the first nationalization of a major foreign company by a Latin
American state, and shaped both the course and the consequences of
Bolivia's transformative National Revolution of 1952. Oil and
natural gas continue to steer the country under the government of
Evo Morales, who renationalized hydrocarbons in 2006 and has used
revenues from the sector to reduce poverty and increase
infrastructure development in South America's poorest country. The
book advances chronologically from Bolivia's earliest petroleum
pioneers in the nineteenth century until the present, inserting oil
into historical debates about Bolivian ethnic, racial, and
environmental issues, and within development strategies by
different administrations. While Bolivia is best known for its tin
mining, Oil and Nation makes the case that nationalist reformers
viewed hydrocarbons and the state oil company as a way to modernize
the country away from the tin monoculture and its powerful backers
and toward an oil-powered future.
Between 1962 and 1965 Britain engaged in covert operations in
support of Royalist forces fighting the Egyptian backed Republican
regime that had seized power in the Yemeni capital Sana'a in
September 1962. Covert action was regarded as a legitimate tool of
foreign policy as Britain attempted to secure the future of the
newly formed South Arabian Federation against the animus of Nasser.
The use of covert action, as well as the quasi approval given to
the use of mercenaries to support the Royalist cause, was the
inevitable result of policy differences within Whitehall (most
notably between the 'mandarins' of the Colonial Office and the
Foreign Office) as well as international constraints imposed upon
the UK in the aftermath of the Suez crisis. The book examines the
extent to which British policy, while successful in imposing a war
of attrition upon Nasser in the Yemen, contributed to the political
demise of the very objective covert action was designed to secure:
the future stability of the Federation of South Arabia.
The 9th Battalion The Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby) was part
of Lord Kitchener's "New Army" made up initially of men from the
north midlands This is their story complete with pictures of many
of the men The 9th Battalion was not an elite force, but a group of
ordinary working men who felt compelled to serve their country but
found themselves in the most extra-ordinary military conflagration
Bletchley Park was where one of the war's most famous - and crucial
- achievements was made: the cracking of Germany's "Enigma" code in
which its most important military communications were couched. This
country house in the Buckinghamshire countryside was home to
Britain's most brilliant mathematical brains, like Alan Turing, and
the scene of immense advances in technology - indeed, the birth of
modern computing. The military codes deciphered there were
instrumental in turning both the Battle of the Atlantic and the war
in North Africa. But, though plenty has been written about the
boffins, and the codebreaking, fictional and non-fiction - from
Robert Harris and Ian McEwan to Andrew Hodges' biography of Turing
- what of the thousands of men and women who lived and worked there
during the war? What was life like for them - an odd, secret
territory between the civilian and the military? Sinclair McKay's
book is the first history for the general reader of life at
Bletchley Park, and an amazing compendium of memories from people
now in their eighties - of skating on the frozen lake in the
grounds (a depressed Angus Wilson, the novelist, once threw himself
in) - of a youthful Roy Jenkins, useless at codebreaking, of the
high jinks at nearby accommodation hostels - and of the implacable
secrecy that meant girlfriend and boyfriend working in adjacent
huts knew nothing about each other's work.
"Fascinating and alarmingly true."-Time Magazine. The true story of
a plot to overthrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the nearly
forgotten Marine who saved American Democracy. Many simply don't
know that in 1933, a group of wealthy industrialists-working
closely with groups like the K.K.K. and the American Liberty
League-planned to overthrow the U.S. government and run F.D.R. out
of office in a fascist coup. Americans may be shocked to learn of
the plan to turn unhappy war veterans into American "brown shirts,"
depose F.D.R., and stop the New Deal. They asked Medal of Honor
recipient and Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler to
work with them and become the "first American Caesar." Fortunately,
Butler was a true patriot. Instead of working for the fascist coup,
he revealed the plot to journalists and to Congress. Historian
Julies Archer here offers a compelling account of a plot that would
have turned FDR into fascist puppet, threatened American democracy
and changed the course of history. This book not only reveals the
truth behind this shocking episode in history, but also tells the
story of the man whose courage and bravery prevented it from
happening. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are
proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in
history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his
henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil
War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome,
medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title
we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national
bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are
sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise
find a home.
'A fine and deeply affecting work of history and memoir' Philippe
Sands Decades ago, the historian Bernard Wasserstein set out to
uncover the hidden past of the town forty miles west of Lviv where
his family originated: Krakowiec (Krah-KOV-yets). In this book he
recounts its dramatic and traumatic history. 'I want to observe and
understand how some of the great forces that determined the shape
of our times affected ordinary people.' The result is an
exceptional, often moving book. Wasserstein traces the arc of
history across centuries of religious and political conflict, as
armies of Cossacks, Turks, Swedes and Muscovites rampaged through
the region. In the Age of Enlightenment, the Polish magnate Ignacy
Cetner built his palace at Krakowiec and, with his vivacious
daughter, Princess Anna, created an arcadia of refinement and
serenity. Under the Habsburg emperors after 1772, Krakowiec
developed into a typical shtetl, with a jostling population of
Poles, Ukrainians and Jews. In 1914, disaster struck. 'Seven years
of terror and carnage' left a legacy of ferocious national
antagonisms. During the Second World War the Jews were murdered in
circumstances harrowingly described by Wasserstein. After the war
the Poles were expelled and the town dwindled into a border
outpost. Today, the storm of history once again rains down on
Krakowiec as hordes of refugees flee for their lives from Ukraine
to Poland. At the beginning and end of the book we encounter
Wasserstein's own family, especially his grandfather Berl. In their
lives and the many others Wasserstein has rediscovered, the people
of Krakowiec become a prism through which we can feel the shocking
immediacy of history. Original in conception and brilliantly
achieved, A Small Town in Ukraine is a masterpiece of recovery and
insight.
Now in paperback, the critically acclaimed "Yellow Dirt," "will
break your heart. An enormous achievement--literally, a piece of
groundbreaking investigative journalism--illustrates exactly what
reporting should do: Show us what we've become as a people, and
sharpen our vision of who we, the people, ought to become" ( "The
Christian Science Monitor" ).
From the 1930s to the 1960s, the United States knowingly used and
discarded an entire tribe of people as the Navajos worked,
unprotected, in the uranium mines that fueled the Manhattan Project
and the Cold War. Long after these mines were abandoned, Navajos in
all four corners of the Reservation (which borders Utah, New
Mexico, and Arizona) continued grazing their animals on sagebrush
flats riddled with uranium that had been blasted from the ground.
They built their houses out of chunks of uranium ore, inhaled
radioactive dust borne aloft from the waste piles the mining
companies had left behind, and their children played in the
unsealed mines themselves. Ten years after the mines closed, the
cancer rate on the reservation shot up and some babies began to be
born with crooked fingers that fused together into claws as they
grew. Government scientists filed complaints about the situation
with the government, but were told it was a mess too expensive to
clean up.
Judy Pasternak exposed this story in a prizewinning "Los Angeles
Times" series. Her work galvanized both a congressman and a famous
prosecutor to clean the sites and get reparations for the tribe.
"Yellow Dirt" is her powerful chronicle of both the scandal of
neglect and the Navajos' fight for justice.
First friends, then bitter enemies, John Kennedy and Richard Nixon
shared a rivalry that had a dramatic impact on American history.
One would become the most dashing figure of the post-World War II
era, the other would live into his eighties, haunted and consumed
by the rivalry. In Kennedy and Nixon, Christopher Matthews offers a
surprising look at these two political giants, offering a stunning
portrait that will change the way we think about both of them.
Starting as congressmen in the class of 1946, the two men developed
a friendship and admiration for each other that would last for more
than a decade. But what drove history was the enmity between these
two towering figures whose 1960 presidential contest would set the
nation's bitter course for years to come. Matthews shows how the
early fondness between the two men (Kennedy told a trusted friend
that if he didn't receive the Democratic nomination in 1960, he
would vote for Nixon) degenerated into distrust and paranoia, the
same emotions that, in the early 1970's, ravaged the nation.
Christopher Mattew's revealing book sheds light on this complicated
relationship and the role that it played in shaping America's
history.
'The Book Collectors of Daraya celebrates the political and
therapeutic power of the written word . . . defiant and cautiously
optimistic' Financial Times '[An] incredible chronicle . . . The
book tells the kind of story that often gets buried beneath images
of violence' LitHub In 2012 the rebel suburb of Daraya in Damascus
was brutally besieged by Syrian government forces. Four years of
suffering ensued, punctuated by shelling, barrel bombs and chemical
gas attacks. People's homes were destroyed and their food supplies
cut off; disease was rife. Yet in this man-made hell, forty young
Syrian revolutionaries embarked on an extraordinary project,
rescuing all the books they could find in the bombed-out ruins of
their home town. They used them to create a secret library, in a
safe place, deep underground. It became their school, their
university, their refuge. It was a place to learn, to exchange
ideas, to dream and to hope. Based on lengthy interviews with these
young men, conducted over Skype by the award-winning French
journalist Delphine Minoui, The Book Collectors of Daraya is a
powerful testament to freedom, tolerance and the power of
literature. Translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud.
Joe Pappalardo's Inferno tells the true story of the men who flew
the deadliest missions of World War II, and an unlikely hero who
received the Medal of Honor in the midst of the bloodiest military
campaign in aviation history. There's no higher accolade in the
U.S. military than the Medal of Honor, and 472 people received it
for their action during World War II. But only one was demoted
right after: Maynard Harrison Smith. Smith is one of the most
unlikely heroes of the war, where he served in B-17s during the
early days of the bombing of France and Germany from England. From
his juvenile delinquent past in Michigan, through the war and
during the decades after, Smith's life seemed to be a series of
very public missteps. The other airmen took to calling the 5-foot,
5-inch airman "Snuffy" after an unappealing movie character. This
is also the man who, on a tragically mishandled mission over France
on May 1, 1943, single-handedly saved the crewmen in his stricken
B-17. With every other gunner injured or bailed out, Smith stood
alone in the fuselage of a shattered, nameless bomber and fought
fires, treated wounded crew and fought off fighters. His ordeal is
part of a forgotten mission that aircrews came to call the May Day
Massacre. The skies over Europe in 1943 were a charnel house for
U.S. pilots, who were being led by tacticians surprised by the
brutal effectiveness of German defenses. By May 1943 the combat
losses among bomb crews were a staggering 40 to 50 percent. The
backdrop of Smith's story intersects with some of the luminaries of
aviation history, including Curtis Lemay, Ira Eaker and "Hap"
Arnold, during critical times of their storied careers. Inferno
also examines Smith's life in a new, comprehensive light, through
the use of exclusive interviews of those who knew him (including
fellow MOH recipients and family) as well as public and archival
records. This is both a thrilling and horrifying story of the air
war over Europe during WWII and a fascinating look at one of
America's forgotten heroes.
Do you remember Pathe News? Taking the train to the seaside? The
purple stains of iodine on the knees of boys in short trousers?
Knitted bathing costumes? Then the chances are you were born in or
around 1950. To the young people of today, the 1950s seem like
another age. But for those born around then, this era of childhood
feels like yesterday. This delightful collection of photographic
memories will appeal to all who grew up in this post-war decade;
they include pictures of children enjoying life out on the streets
and bombsites, at home and at school, on holiday and at events.
These wonderful period pictures and descriptive captions will bring
back this decade of childhood, and jog memories about all aspects
of life as it was in post-war Britain.
'Invasion Rabaul' is a gut-wrenching account of courage and
sacrifice, folly and disaster, as seen through the eyes of the
Allied defenders who survived the Japanese assault on Britain
during the opening days of World War II.
In this tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, Karl-Werner
Antrack looks at her life and those that affected it. He looks in
detail at the many conspiracy theories surrounding her death, and
how it has affected those that Diana left behind, and the
'revelations' revealed by those she is said to have trusted while
alive. The state of the world post-Diana is also looked at
including the war on Iraq, and Britain's relations with the US.
Altogether, this book is a useful compilation of much of the hype
which has surrounded the death of Princess Diana, but at the heart
of it we must remember she was a loving mother who cared for all
those less fortunate than herself, and it is hopefully this memory
that shall live on...
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American s are justly proud of th e role their country played in
liberating Europe from Nazi tyranny. For many years, we have
celebrated the courage of Allied soldiers, sailors, and aircrews
who defeated Hitler's regime and restored freedom to the continent.
But in recounting the heroism of the "greatest generation,"
Americans often overlook the wartime experiences of European people
themselves -- the very people for whom the war was fought.
In this brilliant new book, historian William I. Hitchcock surveys
the European continent from D-Day to the final battles of the war
and the first few months of the peace. Based on exhaustive research
in five nations and dozens of archives, Hitchcock's groundbreaking
account shows that the liberation of Europe was both a military
triumph and a human tragedy of epic proportions.
Hitchcock gives voice to those who were on the receiving end of
liberation, moving them from the edge of the story to the center.
From France to Poland to Germany, from concentration-camp internees
to refugees, farmers to shopkeepers, husbands and wives to
children, the experience of liberation was often difficult and
dangerous. Their gratitude was mixed with guilt or resentment.
Their lives were difficult to reassemble.
This strikingly original, multinational history of liberation
brings to light the interactions of soldiers and civilians, the
experiences of noncombatants, and the trauma of displacement and
loss amid unprecedented destruction. This book recounts a
surprising story, often jarring and uncomfortable, and one that has
never been told with such richness and depth.
Ranging from the ferocious battle for Normandy (where as many
French civilians died on D-Day as U.S. servicemen) to the plains of
Poland, from the icy ravines of the Ardennes to the shattered
cities and refugee camps of occupied Germany, "The Bitter Road to
Freedom" depicts in searing detail the shocking price that
Europeans paid for their freedom.
Today, with American soldiers once again waging wars of liberation
in faraway lands, this book serves as a timely and sharp reminder
of the terrible human toll exacted by even the most righteous of
wars.
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