Ibn Saud grew to manhood first through living the harsh traditional life of the desert nomad, a life that had changed little since the days of Abraham, and then, through a careful study during his adolescence in Kuwait, of the ways of the great imperial powers such as Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire. Thus equipped, and endowed with immense physical courage, between 1902 and 1930 he fought and won, often with weapons and tactics not unlike those employed by the ancient Assyrians, a series of astonishing military victories over a succession of enemies much more powerful than himself. Over the same period, he transformed himself from a minor sheikh into a revered king and elder statesman, courted by world leaders such as Churchill and Roosevelt.

This is the first full scholarly study of British anticolonialism, an offshoot of a massive global upsurge of sentiment which has dominated much of the history of this century. In this wide-ranging and important book, Stephen Howe surveys the attitudes and activities relating to colonial issues of British critics of Empire during the years of decolonisation. He also evaluates the changing ways in which, arising out of the experience of Empire and decolonisation, more general ideas about imperialism, nationalism, and underdevelopment were developed during these years. His discussion encompasses both the left wing of the Labour Party and groups outside it: in the Communist Party, other independent left-wing groups, and single-issue campaigns. The book has considerable contemporary relevance, for British reactions to more recent events - the Falklands and Gulf Wars, race relations, South African apartheid - cannot fully be understood except in the context of the experience of decolonisation and the legacy of Empire.

In 1899, Carrie Chapman Catt, who succeeded Susan B. Anthony as head of the National American Women Suffrage Association, argued that it was the "duty" of U.S. women to help lift the inhabitants of its new island possessions up from "barbarism" to "civilization," a project that would presumably demonstrate the capacity of U.S. women for full citizenship and political rights. Catt, like many suffragists in her day, was well-versed in the language of empire, and infused the cause of suffrage with imperialist zeal in public debate. Unlike their predecessors, who were working for votes for women within the context of slavery and abolition, the next generation of suffragists argued their case against the backdrop of the U.S. expansionism into Indian and Mormon territory at home as well as overseas in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. In this book, Allison L. Sneider carefully examines these simultaneous political movements--woman suffrage and American imperialism--as inextricably intertwined phenomena, instructively complicating the histories of both.

This authentic account is a tribute to the courage and resolve with which soldiers and their loved ones confront uncertainty, fear, hardship and the loss of their comrades. Subjected to continual changes of affiliation as the Falklands campaign unfolds, 2 Troop has to create its own identity and sense of belonging drawing on its professional belief, strength of leadership, and intrinsic camaraderie. This is the story of how they did it, and the contribution they made, in one of the toughest campaigns since World War 2. A 'must read' for aspiring junior commanders and students of the realities of war. -- General Sir Peter Wall GCB, CBE, DL, FREng

Few people have courted as much controversy or evoked such strong and divergent emotions as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Adored by some, abhorred by others, she bears a name famous throughout the world, yet not many people know the woman behind the headlines, myths and controversies, or the details of the fascinating story that is her life. This biography reveals the enigma that is Winnie Mandela, by exploring both her personal and political life.

The reader is given a rare glimpse into Winnie's strict yet happy rural upbringing, where the foundations were laid for her faith, compassion and indomitable resolve. As a young social worker in 1950s Johannesburg, her beauty, style and character captivated the political activist and Tembu prince, Nelson Mandela. Together, they personified the rising aspirations and political awakening of their people, and, in so doing, inspired a nation. Through her fierce determination and dauntless courage, she survived her husband's imprisonment, continuous harassment by the security police, banishment to a small Free State town, betrayal by friends and allies, and more than a year in solitary confinement – all the while keeping the struggle flame alight and the name of Nelson Mandela alive.

A sensitive and balanced portrayal, the title nevertheless thoroughly investigates and honestly examines the controversies that have dogged Winnie Mandela in recent years - the allegations of kidnapping and murder, her divorce from Mandela, and the current charges of fraud.

Born out of a desire to commemorate those men from King's Road, St Albans, who lost their lives in the Great War, the road's current residents suggested the idea of a lasting memorial. Then came the task of researching the lives and the families of those men. It involved many hours of leafing through old newspapers and archives, obtaining advice from local and national bodies and seeking help from relatives of the deceased. A further memorial - this book, which includes a brief history of this street - is the result. The book was compiled by Compiled by Judy Sutton & Helen Little with help and support from many others.

This authentic account is a tribute to the courage and resolve with which soldiers and their loved ones confront uncertainty, fear, hardship and the loss of their comrades. Subjected to continual changes of affiliation as the Falklands campaign unfolds, 2 Troop has to create its own identity and sense of belonging drawing on its professional belief, strength of leadership, and intrinsic camaraderie. This is the story of how they did it, and the contribution they made, in one of the toughest campaigns since World War 2. A 'must read' for aspiring junior commanders and students of the realities of war. -- General Sir Peter Wall GCB, CBE, DL, FREng

The complexity of the American economy and polity has grown at an explosive rate in our era of globalization. Yet as the 2008 financial crisis revealed, the evolution of the American state has not proceeded apace. The crisis exposed the system's manifold political and economic dysfunctionalities.
Featuring a cast of leading scholars working at the intersection of political science and American history, The Unsustainable American State is a historically informed account of the American state's development from the nineteenth century to the present. It focuses in particular on the state-produced inequalities and administrative incoherence that became so apparent in the post-1970s era. Collectively, the book offers an unsettling account of the growth of racial and economic inequality, the ossification of the state, the gradual erosion of democracy, and the problems deriving from imperial overreach. Utilizing the framework of sustainability, a concept that is currently informing some of the best work on governance and development, the contributors show how the USA's current trajectory does not imply an impending collapse, but rather a gradual erosion of capacity and legitimacy. That is a more appropriate theoretical framework, they contend, because for all of its manifest flaws, the American state is durable. That durability, however, does not preclude a long relative decline.

The gripping, vividly told story of the largest POW escape in the Second World War - organized by an Australian bank clerk, a British jazz pianist and an American spy. In August 1944 the most successful POW escape of the Second World War took place - 106 Allied prisoners were freed from a camp in Maribor, in present-day Slovenia. The escape was organized not by officers, but by two ordinary soldiers: Australian Ralph Churches (a bank clerk before the war) and Londoner Les Laws (a jazz pianist by profession), with the help of intelligence officer Franklin Lindsay. The American was on a mission to work with the partisans who moved like ghosts through the Alps, ambushing and evading Nazi forces. How these three men came together - along with the partisans - to plan and execute the escape is told here for the first time. The Greatest Escape, written by Ralph Churches' son Neil, takes us from Ralph and Les's capture in Greece in 1941 and their brutal journey to Maribor, with many POWs dying along the way, to the horror of seeing Russian prisoners starved to death in the camp. The book uncovers the hidden story of Allied intelligence operations in Slovenia, and shows how Ralph became involved. We follow the escapees on a nail-biting 160-mile journey across the Alps, pursued by German soldiers, ambushed and betrayed. And yet, of the 106 men who escaped, 100 made it to safety. Thanks to research across seven countries, The Greatest Escape is no longer a secret. It is one of the most remarkable adventure stories of the last century.

On 2 September 1944, a German Wehrmacht Liaison Officer was captured by the Russians in Bucharest. His name was Lieutenant-Colonel Heinz-Helmut von Hinckeldey and he was to remain a "war convict" of the Soviets until 1955. For 11 years, Heinz-Helmut von Hinckeldey had to endure the deprivation - both physical and psychological - of imprisonment; the filth and squalor of the cells, in which he was kept; the agony of isolation and repeated self-examination; and the pain of ignorance, of not knowing if his motherland (Germany) still existed or whether those he loved, ever realized that he was alive. The personal Story that, like countless others, would never have been told, had it not been for the admiration and fascination built up over time by the Author, Charles Wood

In May 2022 Bradford was awarded the honour of being UK City of Culture 2025. Bradford is one of the most fascinating places in the country. This history provides a unique reference of what Bradford has already achieved and how it can now build on that foundation. It grew in the 19th century from a small market town to one of the UK's largest cities. It built its new wealth on factory production of woollen goods, a classic case study of the Industrial Revolution. This book is no conventional narrative of Bradford's history. It celebrates each day in the year with some important story from 1212 to 2020 - the impact of a strong-minded or talented individual, a critical event of success or disaster, or an important moment in the development of the city, its buildings or its institutions. Bradford has experienced good and bad times, periods of growth, decline and regeneration, and several waves of immigration. Often rising above adversity and strife, many individuals have made outstanding contributions to the city and the nation. They feature businessmen such as Sir Titus Salt and Samuel Lister, who made large fortunes through hard work and innovation, and creative giants with international reputations such as JB Priestley and David Hockney. Many mill-owners became very wealthy, but many more workers suffered from poverty and ill-health. Not for nothing did Friedrich Engels describe Bradford as a 'stinking hole' or TS Eliot refer to silk hats on Bradford millionaires in his most famous poem. The stories cover a wide range of topics - industry, commerce, politics, arts, leisure, sport, education, health etc. They include social issues such as the extreme poverty and squalor in the 19th century and women's rights and multi-culturalism in the 20th. The accent, however, is on the positive - the unusual, the brave, the eccentric and the amazing. Never before have such stories about everyday life in and around Bradford across the centuries been brought together in one volume. Martin Greenwood has built a remarkable kaleidoscope of life in his home city from medieval times to the current day.

When American troops arrived in Paris to help maintain order at the end of the Second World War they were, at first, received by the local population with a sense of euphoria. However, the French soon began to resent the Americans for their display of wealth and brashness, while the US soldiers found the French and their habits irritating and incomprehensible. To bridge the cultural divide, the American generals came up with an innovative solution. They commissioned a surprisingly candid book which collated the GIs' 'gripes' and reproduced them with answers aimed at promoting understanding of the French and their country. The 'gripes' reveal much about American preconceptions: 'The French drink too much', 'French women are immoral', 'The French drive like lunatics ', 'The French don't bathe', 'The French aren't friendly' are just some of the many complaints. Putting the record straight, the answers cover topics as diverse as night-clubs, fashion, agriculture and sanitation. They also offer an unusual insight into the reality of daily life immediately after the war, evoking the shortage of food and supplies, the acute poverty and the scale of the casualties and destruction suffered by France during six years of conflict. Illustrated with delightfully evocative cartoons and written in a direct, colloquial style, this gem from 1945 is by turns amusing, shocking and thought-provoking in its valiant stand against prejudice and stereotype.

Timothy Snyder opens a new path in the understanding of modern nationalism and twentieth-century socialism by presenting the often overlooked life of Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz, an important Polish thinker at the beginning of the twentieth century. During his brief life in Poland, Paris, and Vienna, Kelles-Krauz influenced or infuriated most of the leaders of the various socialist movements of Central Europe and France. His central ideas ultimately were not accepted by the socialist mainstream at the time of his death. However, a century later, we see that they anticipated late twentieth-century understanding on the importance of nationalism as a social force and the parameters of socialism in political theory and praxis. Kelles-Krauz was one of the only theoreticians of his age to advocate Jewish national rights as being equivalent to, for example, Polish national rights, and he correctly saw the struggle for national sovereignty as being central to future events in Europe. This was the first major monograph in English devoted to Kelles-Krauz, and it includes maps and personal photographs of Kelles-Krauz, his colleagues, and his family.

A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year A riveting account of a forgotten holocaust: the slaughter of over one hundred thousand Ukrainian Jews in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. In the Midst of Civilized Europe repositions the pogroms as a defining moment of the twentieth century. 'Exhaustive, clearly written, deeply researched' - The Times 'A meticulous, original and deeply affecting historical account' - Philippe Sands, author of East West Street Between 1918 and 1921, over a hundred thousand Jews were murdered in Ukraine by peasants, townsmen, and soldiers who blamed the Jews for the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. In hundreds of separate incidents, ordinary people robbed their Jewish neighbors with impunity, burned down their houses, ripped apart their Torah scrolls, sexually assaulted them, and killed them. Largely forgotten today, these pogroms - ethnic riots - dominated headlines and international affairs in their time. Aid workers warned that six million Jews were in danger of complete extermination. Twenty years later, these dire predictions would come true. Drawing upon long-neglected archival materials, including thousands of newly discovered witness testimonies, trial records, and official orders, acclaimed historian Jeffrey Veidlinger shows for the first time how this wave of genocidal violence created the conditions for the Holocaust. Through stories of survivors, perpetrators, aid workers, and governmental officials, he explains how so many different groups of people came to the same conclusion: that killing Jews was an acceptable response to their various problems.

In May 2022 Bradford was awarded the honour of being UK City of Culture 2025. Bradford is one of the most fascinating places in the country. This history provides a unique reference of what Bradford has already achieved and how it can now build on that foundation. It grew in the 19th century from a small market town to one of the UK's largest cities. It built its new wealth on factory production of woollen goods, a classic case study of the Industrial Revolution. This book is no conventional narrative of Bradford's history. It celebrates each day in the year with some important story from 1212 to 2020 - the impact of a strong-minded or talented individual, a critical event of success or disaster, or an important moment in the development of the city, its buildings or its institutions. Bradford has experienced good and bad times, periods of growth, decline and regeneration, and several waves of immigration. Often rising above adversity and strife, many individuals have made outstanding contributions to the city and the nation. They feature businessmen such as Sir Titus Salt and Samuel Lister, who made large fortunes through hard work and innovation, and creative giants with international reputations such as JB Priestley and David Hockney. Many mill-owners became very wealthy, but many more workers suffered from poverty and ill-health. Not for nothing did Friedrich Engels describe Bradford as a 'stinking hole' or TS Eliot refer to silk hats on Bradford millionaires in his most famous poem. The stories cover a wide range of topics - industry, commerce, politics, arts, leisure, sport, education, health etc. They include social issues such as the extreme poverty and squalor in the 19th century and women's rights and multi-culturalism in the 20th. The accent, however, is on the positive - the unusual, the brave, the eccentric and the amazing. Never before have such stories about everyday life in and around Bradford across the centuries been brought together in one volume. Martin Greenwood has built a remarkable kaleidoscope of life in his home city from medieval times to the current day.

The tour guide is designed specifically for the enthusiast wanting to explore and discover more about Israel's military history. But instead of simply reading about historical events this guide takes the traveller to the battle sites themselves throughout Israel. The guide is in chronological order starting with the First World War and taking you through selective events in history up to 2006. From a geographical perspective the tour will take you from southern Israel through the Jordan Valley and on to the Golan Heights in the north by the Syrian and Lebanese border.

At the start of his administration John F. Kennedy launched a personal policy initiative to court African nationalist leaders. This policy was designed to improve U.S.-African relations and constituted a dramatic change in the direction of U.S. foreign relations. The Kennedy administration believed that the Cold War could be won or lost depending upon whether Washington or Moscow won the hearts and minds of the Third World. Africa was particularly important because a wave of independence saw nineteen newly independent African states admitted into the United Nations during 1960-61. By 1962, 31 of the UN's 110 member states were from the African continent, and both Washington and Moscow sought to add these countries to their respective voting bloc. For Kennedy, the Cold War only amplified the need for a strong U.S. policy towards Africa-but did not create it. The Kennedy administration feared that American neglect of the newly decolonized countries of the world would result in the rise of anti-Americanism and for this reason needed to be addressed irrespective of the Cold War. For this reason, Kennedy devoted more time and effort toward relations with Africa than any other American president. By making an in-depth examination of Kennedy's attempt to court African nationalist leaders, Betting on the Africans adds an important chapter to the historiography of John F. Kennedy's Cold War strategy by showing how through the use of personal diplomacy JFK realigned United States policy towards Africa and to a large extent won the sympathies of its people while at the same time alienating more traditional allies.