Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
|||
Books > History > World history > From 1900
In 1944 the British War Office distributed a handbook to British soldiers informing them what to expect and how to behave in a newly-liberated France. Containing candid descriptions of this war-ravaged society (widespread malnourishment, rampant tuberculosis) as well as useful phrases and a pronunciation guide (Bonjewer, commont-allay-voo), it was an indispensable guide to everyday life. This small, unassuming publication had a deeper purpose: to bring together two allies who did not enjoy ideal relations in 1944. The book attempts to reconcile differences by stressing a shared history and the common aim - defeating Hitler. It also tried to dispel misapprehensions: 'There is a fairly widespread belief among people in Britain that the French are a particularly gay, frivolous people with no morals and few convictions.' Often unintentionally hilarious in its expression of these false impressions, the book is also a guide for avoiding social embarrassment: 'If you should happen to imagine that the first pretty French girl who smiles at you intends to dance the can-can or take you to bed, you will risk stirring up a lot of trouble for yourself - and for our relations with the French.' Many of its observations still ring true today. For example, 'The French are more polite than most of us. Remember to call them "Monsieur, Madame, Mademoiselle," not just "Oy!"' Others remind us of how we recently we have adopted French customs: 'Don't drink yourself silly. If you get the chance to drink wine, learn to "'take it".' Anyone with an interest in Britain, France or World War II will find this an irresistible insight into British attitudes towards the French and an interesting, timeless commentary on Anglo-French relations.
A thrilling insight into international geopolitics by one of the world's leading experts, examining the past, future, and present meaning of borders from the fall of the Berlin Wall to 9/11, Palestine to Pakistan, North Korea to Trump's Wall, and beyond What do the world's best-known, most dangerous, and most unexpected border conflicts mean for our changing international relationships? In The New Border Wars, border expert Klaus Dodds journeys into the geopolitical clashes of tomorrow in an eye-opening tour of border walls--literal and figurative--from the Gaza Strip to the space race. In the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, and elsewhere, the tension inherent to trying to divide the world into separate parcels has not gone away. And with climate change shifting our natural borders, from mountains to glaciers to rivers, the question of how we live in a world that's becoming warmer and wetter and growing in population looms large. Dodds answers why now more than ever we are likely to see more walls, barriers, and securitization in our daily lives. The New Border Wars discovers just what borders truly mean in the modern world: How are they built; what do they signify for citizens and governments; and how do they help us understand our political past and, most importantly, our diplomatic future?
One 'alone, but not lonely' boy's triumph over adversity, motivated by his dream of becoming a professional footballer and a longing for truth and connection. Street's childhood memoir is a sensitive and honest portrayal, through a poetic autistic lens, of growing up with learning differences and epilepsy in an unconventional family during the 1950s and 60s. A unique and vivid social document of the period, highlighting much of the discrimination still faced by minority and disabled communities today.
Remembering the rebellion narrates and commemorates the Zulu or Bhambatha rebellion of 1906 with riveting anecdotes, maps and illustrations, many of them previously unpublished. The people of KwaZulu-Natal, already suffering the material and social consequences of colonialism, were further provoked by the imposition of a poll tax and the official determination to treat all protests against the tax as defiance. The resistance that followed was put down with uncompromising violence - but the memory of rebellion became an inspiration to those who continued the struggle against racial exploitation in South Africa. This is the centenary year of the rebellion. When President Thabo Mbeki bestowed National orders on 28 South Africans recently, the order Mendi for bravery in Gold was awarded posthumously to Bhambatha Ka Mancinza Zondi for his bravery in leading a rebellion against the repressive laws of the colonialist government and for laying down his life for the cause of justice.
As seen on "NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," CNN, MSNBC, and in the "Boston Globe, New York Times," and "USA Today" It is perhaps the most memorable event of the twentieth century: the assassination of president John F. Kennedy Within seven weeks of president Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy received more than 800,000 condolence letters. Two years later, the volume of correspondence would exceed 1.5 million letters. For the next forty-six years, the letters would remain essentially untouched. Now, in her selection of 250 of these astonishing letters, historian Ellen Fitzpatrick reveals a remarkable human record of that devastating moment, of Americans across generations, regions, races, political leanings, and religions, in mourning and crisis. Reflecting on their sense of loss, their fears, and their hopes, the authors of these letters wrote an elegy for the fallen president that captured the soul of the nation.
'I get enormously impressed when she walks into a room,' Princess Margaret once said of her sister. 'It's a kind of magic.' Prince William recalled, 'As I learned growing up, you don't mess with your grandmother. What she says goes.' In the year of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, royal biographer Ian Lloyd reveals the woman behind the legend over 70 themed chapters. Drawing on interviews with relatives, friends and courtiers, he explores her relationship with seven generations of the royal family, from the children of Queen Victoria to Elizabeth's own great-grandchildren. He also sheds light on some lesser-known aspects of her character, such as her frugality and her gift for mimicry. In addition, we see her encounters with A-listers, from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna, and her adept handling of several of the twentieth century's most difficult leaders. Above all, Lloyd examines how the Queen has stayed true to the promise she made to the nation at the age of 21, 'that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service'.
IN 1936, Adolf Hitler welcomed the world to Berlin to attend the Olympic Games. It promised to be not only a magnificent sporting event but also a grand showcase for the rebuilt Germany. No effort was spared to present the Third Reich as the newest global power. But beneath the glittering surface, the Games of the Eleventh Olympiad of the Modern Era came to act as a crucible for the dark political forces that were gathering, foreshadowing the bloody conflict to come. The 1936 Olympics were nothing less than the most political sporting event of the last century--an epic clash between proponents of barbarism and those of civilization, both of whom tried to use the Games to promote their own values. Berlin Games is the complete history of those fateful two weeks in August. It is a story of the athletes and their accomplishments, an eye-opening account of the Nazi machine's brazen attempt to use the Games as a model of Aryan superiority and fascist efficiency, and a devastating indictment of the manipulative power games of politicians, diplomats, and Olympic officials that would ultimately have profound consequences for the entire world.
The German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, began a
war that lasted nearly four years and created by far the bloodiest
theater in World War II. In the conventional narrative of this war,
Hitler was defeated by Stalin because, like Napoleon, he
underestimated the size and resources of his enemy. In fact, says
historian John Mosier, Hitler came very close to winning and lost
only because of the intervention of the western Allies. Stalin's
great triumph was not winning the war, but establishing the
prevailing interpretation of the war. The Great Patriotic War, as
it is known in Russia, would eventually prove fatal, setting in
motion events that would culminate in the collapse of the Soviet
Union.
Few stories in the annals of American counterculture are as intriguing or dramatic as that of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love. Dubbed the "Hippie Mafia," the Brotherhood began in the mid-1960s as a small band of peace-loving, adventure-seeking surfers in Southern California. After discovering LSD, they took to Timothy Leary's mantra of "Turn on, tune in, and drop out" and resolved to make that vision a reality by becoming the biggest group of acid dealers and hashish smugglers in the nation, and literally providing the fuel for the psychedelic revolution in the process. Just days after California became the first state in the union to ban LSD, the Brotherhood formed a legally registered church in its headquarters at Mystic Arts World on Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach, where they sold blankets and other countercultural paraphernalia retrieved through surfing safaris and road trips to exotic locales in Asia and South America. Before long, they also began to sell Afghan hashish, Hawaiian pot (the storied "Maui Wowie"), and eventually Colombian cocaine, much of which the Brotherhood smuggled to California in secret compartments inside surfboards and Volkswagen minibuses driven across the border. They also befriended Leary himself, enlisting him in the goal of buying a tropical island where they could install the former Harvard philosophy professor and acid prophet as the high priest of an experimental utopia. The Brotherhood's most legendary contribution to the drug scene was homemade: Orange Sunshine, the group's nickname for their trademark orange-colored acid tablet that happened to produce an especially powerful trip. Brotherhood foot soldiers passed out handfuls of the tablets to communes, at Grateful Dead concerts, and at love-ins up and down the coast of California and beyond. The Hell's Angels, Charles Mason and his followers, and the unruly crowd at the infamous Altamont music festival all tripped out on this acid. Jimi Hendrix even appeared in a film starring Brotherhood members and performed a private show for the fugitive band of outlaws on the slope of a Hawaiian volcano. Journalist Nicholas Schou takes us deep inside the Brotherhood, combining exclusive interviews with both the group's surviving members as well as the cops who chased them. A wide-sweeping narrative of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll (and more drugs) that runs from Laguna Beach to Maui to Afghanistan, "Orange Sunshine" explores how America moved from the era of peace and free love into a darker time of hard drugs and paranoia.
"I have decided to prepare for, and if necessary to carry out, an
invasion against England."--Adolph Hitler, July 16, 1940
How did one man's critique of capitalism guide the course of modern history? When he died in 1883, Karl Marx left behind an intellectual legacy of formidable proportions and revolutionary potential, yet one that exerted limited actual political, social, or economic influence. The full force of his ideas did not come into play for another generation, and only after they had been appropriated and applied by some of Marxism's earliest proponents. The history of Marxism, in other words, is the story of those who brought Marx's ideas into play, transforming a sweeping but fractious and occasionally abstruse view of historical and social forces into a coherent plan of action. Christina Morina's illuminating book focuses on the first generation of Marxist who turned the work and ideas of one social theorist, one among many, into one of the most powerful transnational political movements in modern history. The Invention Of Marxism is therefore a group portrait, featuring such figures as Rosa Luxemburg, Max Adler, Jean Jaures, Eduard Bernstein, Karl Kautsky, and Vladimir Lenin-German, French, Russian, Czech-whose lives became dedicated to interpreting and applying Marxist thought. They were the vehicles by which his ideas were read, debated, and gradually adopted in socialist movements across Europe. Morina's fascinating book therefore reconstructs the beginnings of Marxism through the individual politicization of a group of intellectuals who made it their purpose in life to solve the "social question," exploring the nexus between their intellectual constructs and social and political reality. The Invention of Marxism shows how what started as a theory of capitalism grew into a fully-fledged political philosophy and platform, one that shaped the century that followed Marx's death. In short, it reveals how an idea first conquered these individuals and then the world.
It was a crime that shocked the nation: the brutal murder in Chicago in 1924 of a child by two wealthy college students who killed solely for the thrill of the experience. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were intellectuals--too smart, they believed, for the police to catch them. When they were apprehended, state's attorney Robert Crowe was certain that no defense could save the ruthless killers from the gallows. But the families of the confessed murderers hired Clarence Darrow, entrusting the lives of their sons to the most famous lawyer in America in what would be one of the most sensational criminal trials in the history of American justice. Set against the backdrop of the 1920s--a time of prosperity, self-indulgence, and hedonistic excess in a lawless city on the brink of anarchy--For the Thrill of It draws the reader into a world of speakeasies and flappers, of gangsters and gin parties, with a spellbinding narrative of Jazz Age murder and mystery.
From Spain to Syria, the thrilling, untold history of Nazi fugitives turned postwar agents-for America, the Soviets, the Third World, or themselves. After the Second World War, the Allies vowed to hunt Nazi war criminals "to the ends of the earth." Yet many slipped away-or were shielded by the West, in exchange for cooperation in the unfolding confrontation with Communism. Reinhard Gehlen, founder of West German foreign intelligence, welcomed SS operatives into the fold, overestimating their supposed capabilities. This shortsighted decision nearly brought down his cherished service, as the KGB found his Nazi operatives easy to turn or expose. However, Gehlen was hardly alone in this cynical strategy; the American, Soviet, French and Israeli secret services-and nationalist organisations and independence movements-all used former Nazi operatives in the early Cold War. Nazi fugitives became freelance arms traffickers, spies, and assassins, playing crucial roles in the clandestine contest between the superpowers. From posh German restaurants, smuggler-infested Yugoslav ports, and fascist holdouts in Franco's Spain to Damascene safehouses and Egyptian country clubs, these spies created a busy network of influence and information, a uniquely combustible ingredient in the covert struggles of the postwar decades. Unearthing newly declassified revelations from Mossad and other archives, historian Danny Orbach reveals this long-forgotten arena of the Cold War, and its colourful cast of characters. Shrouded in official secrecy, clouded by myth and propaganda, the extraordinary tale of these Nazi agents has never been properly told-until now.
"[White] revolutionized the art of political reporting." --William F. BuckleyA national bestseller, The Making of the President 1964 is the critically acclaimed account of the 1964 presidential campaign, from the assassination of JFK though the battle for power between Lyndon B. Johnson and Barry Goldwater. Author Theodore H. White made history with his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the President series--detailed narrative histories that revolutionized the way presidential campaigns were reported. Now back in print with a new foreword by fellow Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham, The Making of the President 1964 joins The Making of the President 1960, 1968, and 1972, as well as Theodore Sorensen's Kennedy and other classics, in the burgeoning Harper Perennial Political Classics series.
Fountain-Pens - The Super-Pen for Our Super-Men Ladies! Learn To Drive! Your Country Needs Women Drivers! Do you drink German water? When Britain declared war on Germany in 1914, companies wasted no time in seizing the commercial opportunities presented by the conflict. There was no radio or television. The only way in which the British public could get war news was through newspapers and magazines, many of which recorded rising readerships. Advertising became a new science of sales, growing increasingly sophisticated both in visual terms and in its psychological approach. This collection of pictorial advertisements from the Great War reveals how advertisers were given the opportunity to create new markets for their products and how advertising reflected social change during the course of the conflict. It covers a wide range of products, including trench coats, motor-cycles, gramophones, cigarettes and invalid carriages, all bringing an insight into the preoccupations, aspirations and necessities of life between 1914 and 1918. Many advertisements were aimed at women, be it for guard-dogs to protect them while their husbands were away, or soap and skin cream for 'beauty on duty'. At the same time, men's tailoring evolved to suit new conditions. Aquascutum advertised 'Officers' Waterproof Trench Coats' and one officer, writing in the Times in December 1914, advised others to leave their swords behind but to take their Burberry coat. Sandwiched between the formality of the Victorian era and the hedonism of the 1920s, these charged images provide unexpected sources of historical information, affording an intimate glimpse into the emotional life of the nation during the First World War.
The Sunday Times bestseller 'One of the most dramatic forgotten chapters of the war, as told in a new book by the incomparable Max Hastings' DAILY MAIL In August 1942, beleaguered Malta was within weeks of surrender to the Axis, because its 300,000 people could no longer be fed. Churchill made a personal decision that at all costs, the 'island fortress' must be saved. This was not merely a matter of strategy, but of national prestige, when Britain's fortunes and morale had fallen to their lowest ebb. The largest fleet the Royal Navy committed to any operation of the western war was assembled to escort fourteen fast merchantmen across a thousand of miles of sea defended by six hundred German and Italian aircraft, together with packs of U-boats and torpedo craft. The Mediterranean battles that ensued between 11 and 15 August were the most brutal of Britain's war at sea, embracing four aircraft-carriers, two battleships, seven cruisers, scores of destroyers and smaller craft. The losses were appalling: defeat seemed to beckon. This is the saga Max Hastings unfolds in his first full length narrative of the Royal Navy, which he believes was the most successful of Britain's wartime services. As always, he blends the 'big picture' of statesmen and admirals with human stories of German U-boat men, Italian torpedo-plane crews, Hurricane pilots, destroyer and merchant-ship captains, ordinary but extraordinary seamen. Operation Pedestal describes catastrophic ship sinkings, including that of the aircraft-carrier Eagle, together with struggles to rescue survivors and salvage stricken ships. Most moving of all is the story of the tanker Ohio, indispensable to Malta's survival, victim of countless Axis attacks. In the last days of the battle, the ravaged hulk was kept under way only by two destroyers, lashed to her sides. Max Hastings describes this as one of the most extraordinary tales he has ever recounted. Until the very last hours, no participant on either side could tell what would be the outcome of an epic of wartime suspense and courage.
In this account of the origins of World War II, Taylor provides a narrative of the years and events preceding Hitler's invasion of Poland on 1st of September 1939.
'[The Gulag Archipelago] helped to bring down an empire. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated' Doris Lessing, Sunday Telegraph WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY JORDAN B. PETERSON A vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres and secret police, of informers and spies and interrogators but also of everyday heroism, The Gulag Archipelago is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's grand masterwork. Based on the testimony of some 200 survivors, and on the recollection of Solzhenitsyn's own eleven years in labour camps and exile, it chronicles the story of those at the heart of the Soviet Union who opposed Stalin, and for whom the key to survival lay not in hope but in despair. A thoroughly researched document and a feat of literary and imaginative power, this edition of The Gulag Archipelago was abridged into one volume at the author's wish and with his full co-operation. 'Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece...The Gulag Archipelago helped create the world we live in today' Anne Applebaum THE OFFICIALLY APPROVED ABRIDGEMENT OF THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO VOLUMES I, II & III
The 100-foot promontory known as Pointe du Hoc -- where six big German guns were ensconced -- was the number one target of the heavy U.S. and British warships poised in the English Channel on D-Day morning. Facing arguably the toughest task to befall U.S. forces during the war, the brave men of the Army 2nd Ranger Battalion boldly took control of the fortified cliff and set in motion the liberation of Europe. Based upon recently released documents, here is the first in-depth, anecdotal remembrance of these fearless Army Rangers. Acclaimed author and historian Douglas Brinkley deftly moves between events four decades apart to tell two riveting stories: the making of Ronald Reagan's historic 1984 speeches about the storming of the Normandy coast and the actual heroic event that inspired them and helped to end the Second World War.
'A groundbreaking and important book that will surely reframe our understanding of the Great War' David Lammy'A genuinely groundbreaking piece of research' BBC History 'Meticulously researched and beautifully written' Military History Monthly In a sweeping narrative, David Olusoga describes how Europe's Great War became the World's War - a multi-racial, multi-national struggle, fought in Africa and Asia as well as in Europe, which pulled in men and resources from across the globe. Throughout, he exposes the complex, shocking paraphernalia of the era's racial obsessions, which dictated which men would serve, how they would serve, and to what degree they would suffer. As vivid and moving as it is revelatory and authoritative, The World's War explores the experiences and sacrifices of four million non-European, non-white people whose stories have remained too long in the shadows.
Routledge Library Editions: Germans in Australia comprises three previously out-of-print books by Jurgen Tampke and examines the experiences of Germans in Australia, as explorers, migrants and enemies. Germans made up the second-largest immigrant group in Australia, and these books look at their roles in exploring the country, helping develop the economy and society, and as the enemy in the First World War.
On October 6, 1948, a U.S. Air Force B-29 Superfortress crashed soon after takeoff, killing three civilian engineers and six crew members. In June 1949, the engineers' widows filed suit against the government, determined to find out what exactly had happened to their husbands and why the three civilians had been on board the airplane in the first place. But it was the dawn of the Cold War and the Air Force refused to hand over any documents, claiming they contained classified information. The legal battle ultimately reached the Supreme Court, which in 1953 handed down a landmark decision that would, in later years, enable the government to conceal gross negligence and misconduct, block troublesome litigation, and detain criminal suspects without due-process protections. "Claim of Privilege" is a mesmerizing true account of a shameful incident and its lasting impact on our nation--the gripping story of a courageous fight to right a past wrong and a powerful indictment of governmental abuse in the name of national security.
Learn about the rise of Adolf Hitler, Pearl Harbour and the D-Day Landings in The WWII Book. Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about World War 2 in this overview guide to the subject, brilliant for beginners looking to learn and war experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The WWII Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of World War 2, with: - More than 100 ground-breaking ideas on the Second World War - Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts - A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout - Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understanding The World War II Book is the perfect introduction to the biggest war in history, aimed at adults with an interest in the subject, and politics and history students wanting to gain more of an overview. Here you'll discover more than 90 of the key ideas and events during and surrounding the conflict, through exciting text and bold graphics. If you've ever wanted to know the crucial events of World War 2 and the people behind them, this is the perfect book for you. Your World War 2 Questions, Simply Explained Discover the key battles, tactics, technologies and turning points of the Second World War - the epic conflict that shaped the modern world. If you thought it was difficult to learn about the many events and key figures of World War 2, The WWII Book presents vital information in a clear layout. From Fascism in the 1930s to Pearl Harbour, Hitler and Nazi Germany to the bombing of Hiroshima - superb mind maps and step-by-step summaries will teach you all the main concepts. The Big Ideas Series With millions of copies sold worldwide, The WWII Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand. |
You may like...
The Death Of Democracy - Hitler's Rise…
Benjamin Carter Hett
Paperback
(1)
|