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Books > Humanities > History > European history > General
Accompanying this wealth of detailed information are over 100 black
and white photographs, illustrations and maps, plus a list of
Azerbaijani proverbs, suggestions for further reading, a chronology
of Azerbaijani historical events, and a discography.
On 26 April 1986, the unthinkable happened near the Ukrainian town
of Pripyat: two massive steam explosions ruptured No. 4 Reactor at
the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, immediately killing 30 people
and setting off the worst nuclear accident in history. The
explosions were followed by an open-air reactor core fire that
released huge amounts of radioactive contamination into the
atmosphere for the next nine days, spreading across the Soviet
Union, parts of Europe, and especially neighbouring Belarus, where
around 70% of the waste landed. The following clean-up operation
involved more than half a million personnel at a cost of $68
billion, and a further 4,000 people were estimated to have died
from disaster-related illnesses in the following 20 years. Some
350,000 people were evacuated as a result of the accident
(including 95 villages in Belarus), and much of the area returned
to the wild, with the nearby city of Pripyat now a ghost town.
Chernobyl provides a photographic exploration of the catastrophe
and its aftermath in 180 authentic photos. See the twisted wreckage
of No. 4 Reactor, the cause of the nuclear disaster; marvel at
historic photos of the clean-up operation, with helicopters
spraying decontamination liquid and liquidators manually clearing
radioactive debris; see the huge cooling pond used to cool the
reactors, and which today is home to abundant wildlife, despite the
radiation; explore the ghost town of Pripyat, with its decaying
apartment blocks, empty basketball courts, abandoned amusement
park, wrecked schools, and deserted streets.
1930s Europe - as the Roaring Twenties wind down and the world
rumbles towards war, the great minds of the time have other
concerns. Jean-Paul Sartre waits anxiously in a Parisian cafe for
his first date with no-show Simone de Beauvoir. Marlene Dietrich
slips from her loveless marriage into the dive bars of Berlin.
Father and son Thomas and Klaus Mann clash over each other's
homosexuality. And Vladimir Nabokov lovingly places a fresh-caught
butterfly at the end of Vera's bed. Little do they all know, the
book burning will soon begin. Love in a Time of Hate skilfully
interweaves some of the greatest love stories of the 1930s with the
darkening backdrop of fascism in Europe, in an irresistible journey
into the past that brings history and its actors to vivid life.
Exam Board: Edexcel Level: A level Subject: History First teaching:
September 2015 First exams: June 2017 This book: covers the
essential content in the new specifications in a rigorous and
engaging way, using detailed narrative, sources, timelines, key
words, helpful activities and extension material helps develop
conceptual understanding of areas such as evidence,
interpretations, causation and change, through targeted activities
provides assessment support for both AS and A level with sample
answers, sources, practice questions and guidance to help you
tackle the new-style exam questions. It also comes with three
years' access to ActiveBook, an online, digital version of your
textbook to help you personalise your learning as you go through
the course - perfect for revision
For thousands of years Portugal has been the point of arrival and
departure for peoples, cultures, languages, ideas, fashions,
behaviours, beliefs, institutions and produce. While its
miscegenation and global multimodal activity enriched the world in
many ways, it also provoked violence, war, suffering and
resistance. The Global History of Portugal contains 93 chapters
grouped into five parts: Pre-history, Antiquity, Middle Ages, Early
Modern period and Modern World. Each chapter begins with an event,
interpreted in the light of global history. Each part opens with an
introduction, offering a perspective of the period in question. The
three Editors, five Scientific Coordinators (Joao Luis Cardoso,
Carlos Fabiao, Bernardo Vasconcelos e Sousa, Catia Antunes and
Antonio Costa Pinto) and ninety Contributors offer a critical and
analytical synthesis of the history that originated in Portuguese
territory or passed through it, stimulating the process of
encounter and dis-encounter in todays global world. The history
presented gives special attention to the world that moulded
Portugal and the Portuguese, and to the ways Portugal configured
the world. It seeks to identify and understand the transversal
entanglements of historic impact and the impulses these gave to the
construction of Portugal and the world. Contemporary reflection and
academic scholarship on the global history of leading nations has
stimulated a rethinking of the past and a more comprehensive
recognition of legacy. Historians can no longer overlook the wider
world with which their country of investigation has interacted.
Portugals role in the dynamic circulation of peoples and ideas
makes it global history not only unique by way of what took place
but also in terms of a potential academic template for better
understanding of how the past shapes the present, and more
particularly the importance of acknowledging a countrys past
historic mis-steps and how these are dealt with by contemporary
populations.
Riche de ses editeurs scolaires et de ses collections enfantines,
le dix-neuvieme siecle a-t-il invente le marche du livre pour
enfants? Dans la France du dix-huitieme siecle, de nombreux acteurs
s'efforcent deja de separer, au sein de la librairie, les lectures
adaptees aux enfants et aux jeunes gens. Les rituels pedagogiques
des colleges et des petites ecoles, les strategies commerciales des
libraires, les preoccupations des Eglises, les projets et les
politiques de reforme scolaire, tous pousses par la fievre
educative de la noblesse et de la bourgeoisie, produisent alors
d'innombrables bibliotheques enfantines, plurielles et plastiques,
avec ou sans murs. Cet ouvrage montre comment, a un ordre des
livres domine par les logiques des institutions scolaires et des
metiers du livre, se surimpose a partir des annees 1760 une
nouvelle categorie, celle du " livre d'education ", qui ne
s'identifie plus a un lieu, mais a un projet de lecture, et
s'accompagne de l'emergence de nouvelles figures d'auteurs. Alors
que les etudes sur la litterature de jeunesse poursuivent partout
leur developpement et leur structuration, ce livre dialogue avec
les dernieres recherches europeennes sur la question. A l'inverse
des travaux litteraires, il part, non des auteurs et des textes,
mais des objets et de leurs manipulations. Son originalite est
d'apporter un regard historien sur ces questions, en articulant
histoire du livre et de la librairie, histoire de l'education,
histoire des milieux litteraires et de la condition d'auteur. ---
With its wealth of educational publishers and children's
collections, did the nineteenth century invent the children's book
market? In eighteenth-century France, many people were already
trying to separate the literature suitable for children and young
people within the bookstore. The pedagogical rituals of colleges
and small schools, the commercial strategies of booksellers, the
concerns of the churches, the projects and policies of school
reform, all driven by the educational fever of the nobility and the
bourgeoisie, produced countless children's libraries, plural and
plastic, with or without walls. At the beginning of the century,
the ordering of books was dominated by the rationale of educational
institutions and the book trade: this book shows how a new category
emerged from the 1760s onwards, that of the "educational book",
which was no longer identified with a place, but with a literacy
project, and which was accompanied by the emergence of new authors.
As studies on children's literature continue to be developed and
shaped in many areas, this book is in dialogue with the latest
European research on the subject. In contrast to literary studies,
this research does not start from authors and texts, but from
objects and their uses. Its originality lies in the fact that it
provides a historical perspective on these issues, articulating the
history of books and bookshops, the history of education, the
history of literary circles and the status of the author.
As early as the third century, St Maurice-an Egyptian-became leader
of the legendary Roman Theban Legion. Ever since, there have been
richly varied encounters between those defined as 'Africans' and
those called 'Europeans'. Yet Africans and African Europeans are
still widely believed to be only a recent presence in Europe.
Olivette Otele traces a long African European heritage through the
lives of individuals both ordinary and extraordinary. She uncovers
a forgotten past, from Emperor Septimius Severus, to enslaved
Africans living in Europe during the Renaissance, and all the way
to present-day migrants moving to Europe's cities. By exploring a
history that has been long overlooked, she sheds light on questions
very much alive today-on racism, identity, citizenship, power and
resilience. African Europeans is a landmark account of a crucial
thread in Europe's complex history.
LONGLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS' ASSOCIATION NON-FICTION
CROWN A SUNDAY TIMES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Timely ... a
long and engrossing survey of the library' FT 'A sweeping,
absorbing history, deeply researched' Richard Ovenden, author of
Burning the Books Famed across the known world, jealously guarded
by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a
single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes or filled with
bean bags and children's drawings - the history of the library is
rich, varied and stuffed full of incident. In this, the first major
history of its kind, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen
explore the contested and dramatic history of the library, from the
famous collections of the ancient world to the embattled public
resources we cherish today. Along the way, they introduce us to the
antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world's great
collections, trace the rise and fall of fashions and tastes, and
reveal the high crimes and misdemeanours committed in pursuit of
rare and valuable manuscripts.
Was the outcome of the First World War on a knife edge? In this
major new account of German wartime politics and strategy Holger
Afflerbach argues that the outcome of the war was actually in the
balance until relatively late in the war. Using new evidence from
diaries, letters and memoirs, he fundamentally revises our
understanding of German strategy from the decision to go to war and
the failure of the western offensive to the radicalisation of
Germany's war effort under Hindenburg and Ludendorff and the
ultimate collapse of the Central Powers. He uncovers the struggles
in wartime Germany between supporters of peace and hardliners who
wanted to fight to the finish. He suggests that Germany was not
nearly as committed to all-out conquest as previous accounts argue.
Numerous German peace advances could have offered the opportunity
to end the war before it dragged Europe into the abyss.
From the time Catterina Vizzani, a young Roman woman, began wooing
the woman she was attracted to, she did so dressed as a man.
Fleeing Rome to avoid a potential trial for sexual misdeeds, she
became Giovanni Bordoni, transitioning and becoming a male in
spirit, deed, and body, through what was the most complete physical
change possible in the eighteenth century. This volume features
Giovanni Bianchi's 1744 Italian account of Vizzani/Bordoni,
published for the first time together with a modern English
translation, making available to an English-speaking audience the
objective, scientific exploration of gender conducted by Bianchi.
John Cleland's well-known, albeit fanciful, 1751 version of the
story has also been reproduced here, shedding light on the
divergent sexual politics driving Bianchi's Italian original and
Cleland's greatly embellished English translation. Through a close
examination of Bianchi's work as anatomical practitioner and
scholar, Clorinda Donato traces the development of his advocacy for
tolerance of all sexual orientations. Several chapters address the
medical and philosophical inquiry into sexual preference,
reproduction, sexual identity, and gender fluidity which
Enlightenment anatomists from Holland to Italy engaged with in
their research concerning the relationship between the mind and the
reproductive organs. Meanwhile, it is the social implications of
gender ambiguity which may be analysed in Cleland's condemnation of
women who "pass" as men. Drawing on the biographies produced by
Bianchi and Cleland, the volume reflects on the motivation of each
author to tell the story of Vizzani/Bordoni either as a narration
of empowerment or a cautionary tale within the European context of
evolving sexual opinions, some based on scientific research, others
based on social practice and cultural norms.
HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of
best-loved, essential classics. In 1936, George Orwell volunteered
as a soldier in the Spanish Civil War. In Homage to Catalonia,
first published just before the outbreak of World War II, Orwell
documents the chaos and bloodshed of that moment in history and the
voices of those who fought against rising fascism. His experience
of the civil war would spark a significant change in his own
political views, which readers today will recognise in much of his
later literary work; a rage against the threat of totalitarianism
and control.
Iran and a French Empire of Trade examines the understudied topic
of Franco-Persian relations in the long eighteenth century to
highlight how rising tensions among Eurasian empires and
revolutions in the Atlantic world were profoundly intertwined.
Conflicts between Persia, Turkey, India and Russia, and European
weapons-dealing with these empires occurred against a backdrop of
climate change and food insecurities that destabilized markets.
Takeda shows how the French state relied on "entrepreneurial
imperialism" to extend commercial activities eastwards beyond the
Mediterranean during this time, from Louis XIV's reign to Napoleon
Bonaparte's First Empire. Organized as a collection of
microhistories, her study showcases a colourful set of
characters-rogue merchants from Marseille, a gambling house madam,
a naturalized Greek-French drogman, and a bi-cultural
Genevan-Persian consul, among others-to demonstrate how individuals
on the fringes of French society spearheaded projects to foster
ties between France and Persia. Considering the Enlightenment as a
product of a connected world, Takeda investigates how
trans-imperial adventurers, merchants, consuls, and informants
negotiated treaties, traded commodities and arms, transferred
knowledge, and introduced industrial practices from Asia to Europe.
And she shows the surprising ways in which Enlightenment debates
about regime changes from the Safavid to Qajar dynasties and
Persia's borderland wars shaped French ideas about revolution and
policies related to empire-building.
Few philosophers are more often referred to and more often
misunderstood than Machiavelli. He was truly a product of the
Renaissance, and he was as much a revolutionary in the field of
political philosophy as Leonardo or Michelangelo were in painting
and sculpture. He watched his native Florence lose its independence
to the French, thanks to poor leadership from the Medici successors
to the great Lorenzo (Il Magnifico). Machiavelli was a keen
observer of people, and he spent years studying events and people
before writing his famous books. Descended from minor nobility,
Machiavelli grew up in a household that was run by a vacillating
and incompetent father. He was well educated and smart, and he
entered government service as a clerk. He eventually became an
important figure in the Florentine state but was defeated by the
deposed Medici and Pope Julius II. He was tortured but eventually
freed by the restored Medici. No longer employed, he retired to his
home to write the books for which he is remembered. Machiavelli had
seen the best and the worst of human nature, and he understood how
the world operated. He drew his observations from life, and he was
appropriately cynical in his writing, given what he had personally
experienced. He was an outstanding writer, and his work remains
fascinating nearly 500 years later.
On 14 April 1912, less than a week into a transatlantic trip from
Southampton to New York, the largest luxury cruise liner in the
world struck an iceberg off the coast of Labrador, causing the hull
to buckle. The massive 50,000 ton ship hailed as 'unsinkable' was
soon slipping into the cold Atlantic Ocean, the crew and passengers
scrambling to launch lifeboats before being sucked into the deep.
Of the 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died,
making the sinking one of the deadliest for a single ship up to
that time. The sinking has captured the public imagination ever
since, in part because of the scale of the tragedy, but also
because the ship represented in microcosm Edwardian society, with
the super-rich sharing the vessel with poor migrants seeking a new
life in North America. Other factors, such as why there were only
enough lifeboats to hold half the passengers, also caused
controversy and led to changes in maritime safety. In later years
many survivors told their stories to the press, and Titanic
celebrates these accounts. A final chapter examines the shipwreck
today, which has been visited underwater by explorers, scientists
and film-makers, and many artifacts recovered as the old liner
steadily disintegrates. Titanic offers a compact, insightful
photographic history of the sinking and its aftermath in 180
authentic photographs.
SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER 'The most important book of the
year' Daily Mail The brilliant and provocative new book from one of
the world's foremost political writers 'The anti-Western
revisionists have been out in force in recent years. It is high
time that we revise them in turn...' In The War on the West,
international bestselling author Douglas Murray asks: if the
history of humankind is one of slavery, conquest, prejudice,
genocide and exploitation, why are only Western nations taking the
blame for it? It's become perfectly acceptable to celebrate the
contributions of non-Western cultures, but discussing their flaws
and crimes is called hate speech. What's more it has become
acceptable to discuss the flaws and crimes of Western culture, but
celebrating their contributions is also called hate speech. Some of
this is a much-needed reckoning; however, some is part of a larger
international attack on reason, democracy, science, progress and
the citizens of the West by dishonest scholars, hatemongers,
hostile nations and human-rights abusers hoping to distract from
their ongoing villainy. In The War on the West, Douglas Murray
shows the ways in which many well-meaning people have been lured
into polarisation by lies, and shows how far the world's most
crucial political debates have been hijacked across Europe and
America. Propelled by an incisive deconstruction of inconsistent
arguments and hypocritical activism, The War on the West is an
essential and urgent polemic that cements Murray's status as one of
the world's foremost political writers.
'Hollman combines scrupulous research with spellbinding
storytelling; The Queen and the Mistress will keep you turning the
pages.' - Sylvia Barbara Soberton, author of Ladies-In-Waiting: The
Women Who Served Anne Boleyn 'A must-read for anyone interested in
medieval women's or royal history.' - Catherine Hanley, author of
Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior 'In The Queen and the Mistress,
Gemma Hollman challenges much of the misinformation and
misconceptions which have surrounded both women for centuries ... A
triumph of historical research and interpretation.' - Sharon
Bennett Connolly, author of Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of
Influence in Thirteenth Century England 'The Queen and the Mistress
is an absorbing and masterful historical work, which you might not
even notice because it is also incredibly fun. Hollman writes with
obvious joy and sensitivity towards her subjects, bringing these
complex women and their world to glorious life. I couldn't put it
down.' - Eleanor Janega, Going Medieval Podcast IN A WORLD WHERE
MAN IS KING, CAN WOMEN REALLY HAVE IT ALL - AND KEEP IT? Philippa
of Hainault was Queen of England for forty-one years. Her marriage
to Edward III, when they were both teenagers, was more political
transaction than romantic wedding, but it would turn into a
partnership of deep affection. The mother of twelve children, she
was the perfect medieval queen: pious, unpolitical and fiercely
loyal to both her king and adopted country. Alice Perrers entered
court as a young widow and would soon catch the eye of an ageing
king whose wife was dying. Born to a family of London goldsmiths,
this charismatic and highly intelligent woman would use her
position as the king's favourite to build up her own portfolio of
land, wealth and prestige, only to see it all come crashing down as
Edward himself neared death. The Queen and the Mistress is a story
of female power and passion, and how two very different women used
their skills and charms to navigate a tumultuous royal court - and
win the heart of the same man.
The Oxford academic and foreign correspondent James Pettifer has
been an international authority on and historian of modern Greece
and its Balkan neighbours for over thirty years. At the same time,
he has been an eye-witness to many of the events that led to the
ex-Yugoslav Wars. This book, bringing together some of his most
important papers and reports, explores the evolution of the
Macedonian crisis, the chaos and anarchy in Albania linked to the
war in Kosovo, and the recent debt crisis in Greece. It also
analyses the region's turbulent history with seminal papers on
historiography and the evolution of British foreign policy towards
Greece and the wider region in the twentieth century, the nature of
Montenegrin identity at the time of independence, and the changing
role of Albania in the Balkans. The key paper on the emergence of
the New Macedonian Question, which has set the parameters for all
later analysis, is also included in this collection The end of the
Cold War after 1990 was expected to herald an era of stability and
liberal democratic development, but in reality the Southern Balkans
have experienced intermittent crises during these years, from the
implosion of impoverished Albania and the gradual collapse of
Yugoslavia into fragmentation and violent conflict, to the chain of
events in Greece that led to the post-2010 financial crisis and the
ensuing imposition of international control over the economy. These
issues have emerged against the background of deteriorating
relations with Turkey and an alarming climate of militarization and
instability throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. This collection,
which includes material hitherto difficult to access, will be an
essential tool for all students of the history, international
relations and contemporary politics of an increasingly critical
region on the interface of Europe and the Middle East.
This fascinating resource teaches children about the lives of some
of the most influential thinkers throughout history. The book
combines short biographies of ten key figures from Ancient Greece
with descriptions of the life-shaping events, philosophies and
actions for which they are famous. Each biography is accompanied by
activity suggestions and worksheets which enable children to gain a
greater understanding of the philosophies and engage with the
accounts of the historical events.
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.
"A Traveller's History of Cyprus" offers a complete and
authoritative history of the island's past and also touches on the
sensitive present-day issues for both sides of the island. Although
Cyprus is a relatively small island, its position in the East
Mediterranean has always given it strategic importance beyond its
size. Well-placed for travel from all over the globe with plenty of
sunshine throughout the year, Cyprus has become a favored tourist
destination. All visitors, whether to the Greek or Turkish side of
the island, discover the immensely rich history, which has resulted
in so many civilizations making their mark upon its soil. With a
historical gazetteer, chronology of major events, index,
bibliography and historical and contemporary maps, this book is an
invaluable companion to students or visitors to the island.
Reclaiming al-Andalus focuses on the construction of the scholarly
discipline of Orientalist studies in Spain. Special attention is
paid to the impact that the elaboration of a series of historical
interpretations of the legacy left by Muslim and Jewish culture in
Spain had over the writing of national history in the period of the
Bourbon Restoration. A historiographical account of Spains
Orientalism tackles the problematized issues that both Arabist and
Hebraist scholars sought to address. Orientalist scholarship
thereby became inextricably linked to different interpretations of
the historical shaping of Spanish national identity. Political
circumstances of the day impacted on the approach these scholars
took as they engaged with the Iberian Semitic past. And this at a
critical moment in the crystallization of modern Spanish
nationalism. A common thread running through the work of these
Orientalist scholars was the tendency to nationalize or Hispanicize
cultural activity of the Semitic populations that lived on the
Iberian Peninsula in medieval times. This Hispanizication was
instrumentalized in diverse ways in order to serve nation-building
efforts. Hence Orientalist scholarship became integrated into the
national debates that were shaping Spanish cultural and political
life at the turn of the century. Reclaiming al-Andalus explains how
regenerationist projects taking form after the national crisis of
1898, and different polemical discussions around religion-state
affairs, deeply influenced the writings of academic Orientalism.
The intertwined connection between Orientalist scholarship and
nationalist debates in Spain has hitherto been understudied. This
book not only contributes to the general debate on modern
Orientalism, but most importantly presents a profound new viewpoint
to the ongoing debate on the conflictive history of Spanish
nationalism.
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