|
|
Books > History > World history > From 1900
Directly, with the candour of a well informed old friend, Dr Wafik
Moustafa shares an insight into the remarkable situation Egypt
finds itself in today. This authoritative commentary on Egyptian
affairs casts an eye back over Egypt's modern history, taking the
reader through the landmark events that have formed the modern
nation, and brings the reader to a close and impartial
understanding of the current political climate in Egypt.
A British Fascist in the Second World War presents the edited diary
of the British fascist Italophile, James Strachey Barnes.
Previously unpublished, the diary is a significant source for all
students of the Second World War and the history of European and
British fascism. The diary covers the period from the fall of
Mussolini in 1943 to the end of the war in 1945, two years in which
British fascist Major James Strachey Barnes lived in Italy as a
'traitor'. Like William Joyce in Germany, he was involved in
propaganda activity directed at Britain, the country of which he
was formally a citizen. Brought up by upper-class English
grandparents who had retired to Tuscany, he chose Italy as his own
country and, in 1940, applied for Italian citizenship. By then,
Barnes had become a well-known fascist writer. His diary is an
extraordinary source written during the dramatic events of the
Italian campaign. It reveals how events in Italy gradually affected
his ideas about fascism, Italy, civilisation and religion. It tells
much about Italian society under the strain of war and Allied
bombing, and about the behaviour of both prominent fascist leaders
and ordinary Italians. The diary also contains fascinating glimpses
of Barnes's relationship with Ezra Pound, with Barnes attaching
great significance to their discussion of economic issues in
particular. With a scholarly introduction and an extensive
bibliography and sources section included, this edited diary is an
invaluable resource for anyone interested in learning more about
the ideological complexities of the Second World War and fascism in
20th-century Europe.
Between 1919 and 1923, Ireland was engulfed by violence as the
Irish Republican Army (IRA) fought a guerrilla campaign against the
British state and later fellow Irishmen and women in pursuit of an
Irish Republic. Police barracks and government offices were
attacked and burned, soldiers and policemen were killed and the
economic and social life of the country was dislocated. Britain
itself was a theatre in the war too. 'In the heart of enemy lines',
as one IRA leader put it, cities such as London, Liverpool,
Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Glasgow and their environs saw the
establishment of IRA companies, Irish Republican Brotherhood
circles, Cumann na mBan branches and Na Fianna Eireann troops.
Composed of Irish emigrants and the descendants of emigrants, these
organizations worked to help their comrades across the Irish Sea.
Their most important activity was gunrunning, acquiring and
smuggling weapons to Ireland. In November 1920, setting fire to
warehouses and timber yards in Liverpool, they launched a campaign
of violence. Meanwhile, mass-membership organizations such as the
Irish Self-Determination League of Great Britain and Sinn Fein
sought to persuade the British public of Ireland's right to
independence. Republican leaders such as Michael Collins, Rory
O'Connor and Liam Mellows took a keen interest in these exploits.
Making extensive use of archival sources and memoirs, The IRA in
Britain is the first book to study this little known aspect of the
Irish Revolutionary period. Tracing the history of the Irish
Volunteers in Britain from their establishment in 1914 and
participation in the Easter Rising two years later, through the
weapons' smuggling activities and violent operations of the War of
Independence to the bitter divisions of the Civil War and the
response of the authorities, The IRA in Britain highlights the
important role played by those outside of Ireland in the
Revolution.
The successful evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from
Belgium and northern France through the port of Dunkirk and across
adjacent beaches is rightly regarded as one of the most significant
episodes in the nation's long history, although Winston Churchill
sagely cautioned in Parliament on 4th June that the country "must
be careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a
victory. Wars are not won by evacuations". Nevertheless, the
Dunkirk evacuation, Operation "Dynamo", was a victory and, like
many others before it, it was a victory of sea power. The Royal
Navy achieved what it set out to do, despite grievous losses, in
the teeth of determined opposition. It denied an aggressive and
ruthless continental power a potentially war-winning total victory
that could have changed the direction of civilization for
generations to come. The loss of the main British field army would
have enfeebled the nation militarily and psychologically, prompting
political upheaval, potentially resulting in a negotiated peace
with Nazi Germany on unfavourable terms dictated by Adolf Hitler.
The undeniable success of the evacuation was certainly a crucial
naval and military achievement but its positive effect on the
nation's morale was just as important, instilling confidence in the
eventual outcome of the war, whatever the immediate future might
hold, and creating optimism in the face of adversity that added
"the Dunkirk spirit" to the English language. This edition of
Dunkirk, Operation "Dynamo" 26th May - 4th June 1940, An Epic of
Gallantry, publishes the now declassified Battle Summary No 41, a
document once classified as 'Restricted' and produced in small
numbers only for official government purposes. This Summary, The
Evacuation from Dunkirk, lodged in the archive at Britannia Royal
Naval College, Dartmouth, is one of the very few surviving copies
in existence and records events in minute detail, being written
soon after the evacuation using the words of the naval officers
involved. This makes it a unique record and a primary source for
the history of Operation "Dynamo" from mid-May 1940 until its
conclusion on 4th June. The original document has been supplemented
in this title by a Foreword written by Admiral Sir James
Burnell-Nugent, formerly the Royal Navy's Commander-in-Chief,
Fleet, whose father commanded one of the destroyers sunk off
Dunkirk when rescuing troops. In addition, there is a modern
historical introduction and commentary, putting the evacuation into
context and this edition is enhanced by the inclusion of a large
number of previously unpublished photographs of the beaches, town,
and harbour of Dunkirk taken immediately after the conclusion of
the operation, together with others illustrating many of the ships
that took part. Britannia Naval Histories of World War II - an
important source in understanding the critical naval actions of the
period.
Winner of the 2022 Ab Imperio Award Hoping to unite all of
humankind and revolutionize the world, Ludwik Zamenhof launched a
new international language called Esperanto from late imperial
Russia in 1887. Ordinary men and women in Russia and all over the
world soon transformed Esperanto into a global movement. Esperanto
and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia traces
the history and legacy of this effort: from Esperanto's roots in
the social turmoil of the pre-revolutionary Pale of Settlement; to
its links to socialist internationalism and Comintern bids for
world revolution; and, finally, to the demise of the Soviet
Esperanto movement in the increasingly xenophobic Stalinist 1930s.
In doing so, this book reveals how Esperanto - and global language
politics more broadly - shaped revolutionary and early Soviet
Russia. Based on extensive archival materials, Brigid O'Keeffe's
book provides the first in-depth exploration of Esperanto at
grassroots level and sheds new light on a hitherto overlooked area
of Russian history. As such, Esperanto and Languages of
Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia will be of immense value
to both historians of modern Russia and scholars of
internationalism, transnational networks, and sociolinguistics.
The brand-new instalment in Fenella J. Miller's bestselling
Goodwill House series.August 1940 As Autumn approaches, Lady Joanna
Harcourt is preparing for new guests at Goodwill House - land
girls, Sally, Daphne and Charlie. Sally, a feisty blonde from the
East End, has never seen a cow before, but she's desperate to
escape London and her horrible ex, Dennis. And although the hours
are long and the work hard, Sal quickly becomes good friends with
the other girls Daphne and Charlie and enjoys life at Goodwill
House. Until Dennis reappears threatening to drag her back to
London. Sal fears her life as a land girl is over, just as she
finally felt worthy. But Lady Joanna has other ideas and a plan to
keep Sal safe and doing the job she loves. Don't miss the next
heart-breaking instalment in Fenella J. Miller's beautiful Goodwill
House series. Praise for Fenella J. Miller: 'Curl up in a chair
with Fenella J Miller's characters and lose yourself in another
time and another place.' Lizzie Lane 'Engaging characters and
setting which whisks you back to the home front of wartime Britain.
A fabulous series!' Jean Fullerton
This book examines memoir-writing by many of the key political
actors in the Northern Irish 'Troubles' (1969-1998), and argues
that memoir has been a neglected dimension of the study of the
legacies of the violent conflict. It investigates these sources in
the context of ongoing disputes over how to interpret Northern
Ireland's recent past. A careful reading of these memoirs can
provide insights into the lived experience and retrospective
judgments of some of the main protagonists of the conflict. The
period of relative peace rests upon an uneasy calm in Northern
Ireland. Many people continue to inhabit contested ideological
territories, and in their strategies for shaping the narrative
'telling' of the conflict, key individuals within the Protestant
Unionist and Catholic Irish Nationalist communities can appear
locked into exclusive and self-justifying discourses. In such
circumstances, while some memoirists have been genuinely
self-critical, many others have utilised a post-conflict language
of societal reconciliation in order to mask a strategy that
actually seeks to score rhetorical victories and to discomfort
traditional enemies. Memoir-writing is only one dimension of the
current ad hoc approach to 'dealing with the past' in Northern
Ireland, but in the absence of any consensus regarding an
overarching 'truth and reconciliation' process, this is likely to
be the pattern for the foreseeable future. This study provides the
first comprehensive analysis of a major resource for understanding
the conflict.
|
You may like...
Betrayal
Lesley Pearse
Paperback
R395
R365
Discovery Miles 3 650
Birthday Girl
Penelope Douglas
Paperback
R390
R348
Discovery Miles 3 480
Melodrama
Lorde
CD
(1)
R260
Discovery Miles 2 600
|