The Sunday Times number one bestseller

The Strange Death of Europe is a highly personal account of a continent and culture caught in the act of suicide. Declining birth-rates, mass immigration and cultivated self-distrust and self-hatred have come together to make Europeans unable to argue for themselves and incapable of resisting their own comprehensive change as a society. This book is not only an analysis of demographic and political realities, but also an eyewitness account of a continent in self-destruct mode. It includes reporting from across the entire continent, from the places where migrants land to the places they end up, from the people who appear to welcome them in to the places which cannot accept them.

Told from this first-hand perspective, and backed with impressive research and evidence, the book addresses the disappointing failure of multiculturalism, Angela Merkel's U-turn on migration, the lack of repatriation and the Western fixation on guilt. Murray travels to Berlin, Paris, Scandinavia, Lampedusa and Greece to uncover the malaise at the very heart of the European culture, and to hear the stories of those who have arrived in Europe from far away. In each chapter he also takes a step back to look at the bigger issues which lie behind a continent's death-wish, answering the question of why anyone, let alone an entire civilisation, would do this to themselves? He ends with two visions of Europe – one hopeful, one pessimistic – which paint a picture of Europe in crisis and offer a choice as to what, if anything, we can do next.

Gathers photographers of children, shop windows, street vendors, bicyclists, artists, circus performers, political protestors, cafes, and animals.

With the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War looming, this new edition of the Wartime Scrapbook revives memories of this evocative time in Britain's history. Life on the home front revolved around rationing, blackouts, and air raid precautions, bringing out that British spirit - humour coupled with making-do and determination. Poster propaganda kept the population digging for victory during the years of the Home Guard, Women's Land Army and austerity with dried eggs. Drawn from Robert Opie's unrivalled collection, this new edition of The Wartime Scrapbook profusely illustrates a unique period in history - the song sheets, magazine covers, comic postcards, fashion and food, games, propaganda posters and a wealth of wartime ephemera whose very survival is remarkable.

This four-volume set of handbooks offers comprehensive survey of the history of a region that went from domination by various Empires before the First World War to membership of the EU in the late twentieth century. Challenges of Modernity offers a broad account of the social and economic history of Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century and asks critical questions about the structure and experience of modernity in different contexts and periods. Statehood examines the extending lines of development of nation-state systems in Eastern Europe, in particular considering why certain tendencies in state development found a different expression in this region compared to other parts of the continent. Intellectual Horizons offers a pioneering, transnational and comparative treatment of key thematic areas in the intellectual and cultural history of Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century. Violence analyses both the violence exerted on the societies of Central and Eastern Europe during the twentieth century by belligerent powers and authoritarian and/or totalitarian regimes and armed conflicts between ethnic, social and national groups, as well as the interaction between these two phenomena. Transnational and comparative in approach, key lines of development are synthesised leading to a complex understanding of the region. Written by a range of international contributors, many from the region itself, this is the go-to resource on Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe in the twentieth century.

One we've learned it as children few of us think much of the alphabet and its familiar sing-song order. And yet the order if the alphabet, that simple knowledge that we take for granted, plays a major role in our adult lives. From the school register to the telephone book, from dictionaries and encyclopaedias to library shelves, our lives are ordered from A to Z. Long before Google searches, this magical system of organization gave us the ability to sift through centuries of thought, knowledge and literature, allowing us to sort, to file, and to find the information we have, and to locate the information we need.

In A Place for Everything, acclaimed historian Judith Flanders draws our attention to both the neglected ubiquity of the alphabet and the long, complex history of its rise to prominence. For, while the order of the alphabet itself became fixed very soon after letters were first invented, their ability to sort and store and organize proved far less obvious. To many of our forebears, the idea of of organizing things by the random chance of the alphabet rather than by established systems of hierarchy or typology lay somewhere between unthinkable and disrespectful.

A Place for Everything fascinatingly lays out the gradual triumph of alphabetical order, from its possible earliest days as a sorting tool in the Great Library of Alexandria in the third century BCE, to its current decline in prominence in our digital age of Wikipedia and Google. Along the way, the reader is enlightened and entertained with a wonderful cast of unknown facts, characters and stories from the great collector Robert Cotton, who denominated his manuscripts with the names of the busts of the Roman emperors surmounting his book cases, to the unassuming sixteenth- century London bookseller who ushered in a revolution by listing his authors by 'sirname' first.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.

**Selected as a Book of the Year by the Spectator and the Daily Telegraph** 'Fascinating ... carefully researched and beautifully written' DAVID DIMBLEBY 'Utterly riveting' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Robert-Sackville West writes tenderly about death and remembrance' GERARD DEGROOT, THE TIMES ______________________ By the end of the First World War, the whereabouts of more than half a million British soldiers were unknown. Most were presumed dead, lost forever under the battlefields of northern France and Flanders. In The Searchers, Robert Sackville-West brings together the extraordinary, moving accounts of those who dedicated their lives to the search for the missing. These stories reveal the remarkable lengths to which people will go to give meaning to their loss: Rudyard Kipling's quest for his son's grave; E.M. Forster's conversations with traumatised soldiers in hospital in Alexandria; desperate attempts to communicate with the spirits of the dead; the campaign to establish the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior; and the exhumation and reburial in military cemeteries of hundreds of thousands of bodies. It was a search that would span a century: from the department set up to investigate the fate of missing comrades in the war's aftermath, to the present day, when DNA profiling continues to aid efforts to recover, identify and honour these men. As the rest of the country found ways to repair and move on, countless families were consumed by this mission, undertaking arduous, often hopeless, journeys to discover what happened to their husbands, brothers and sons. Giving prominence to the deep, personal battles of those left behind, The Searchers brings the legacy of war vividly to life in a testament to the bravery, compassion and resilience of the human spirit. 'Remarkable' JOHN CAREY, SUNDAY TIMES 'This is an outstanding book' LITERARY REVIEW 'Deeply moving' DAILY MAIL

This volume highlights new research on Jewish spiritual and religious life in Poland before modern political ideas began to transform the Jewish world. It covers a range of topics. Three articles deal with rabbinic scholarship in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and a fourth presents accounts of Purim festivities at that time. The eighteenth-century studies focus on Jewish spirituality. Four articles deal with the Frankist movement, the main topics being Frankist propaganda; non-Christian Frankists; Jonathan Eibeschuetz and the Frankists; and the influence of Frankism on Polish culture. There are four articles on hasidism-on the tsadik and the ba'al shem; the childhood of tsadikim in hasidic legends; the fall of the Seer of Lublin; and the hasidism of Gur-and one about Nahman Krochmal. Of the contributors to the core section on Jewish spiritual and religious life, four are Polish. Three contributors are working in Germany, where Jewish studies is likewise re-establishing itself. Other contributors are scholars from Canada, Israel, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Some are themselves religious, others are secular; taken together, their contributions further the study of Jewish religious traditions in Poland, a topic central to an understanding of Jewish society and history in Poland but one which has long been considered marginal by the academic world. As in earlier volumes of Polin, substantial space is given to new research in other areas of Polish-Jewish studies. There is an extensive survey of the papal Holocaust papers, as well as contributions relating to education for girls, to Auschwitz as a site of memories, and to aspects of Jewish literature, politics, society, and economics. A young Polish scholar from Jedwabne has contributed a moving article on local reactions to news of the massacre of the Jews of that town. The review section include two separate essays with contrasting opinions on Yaffa Eliach's monumental study of Eishyshok.

The definitive survey of the countries and territories of Western Europe, comprising expert analysis and commentary, up-to-date economic and socio-political data and extensive directory information. General Survey Essays by leading experts on the area cover issues of regional importance. Country Surveys Individual chapters on each country, comprising: an introductory survey, containing essays on the geography, history and economy of each country, including a chronology and map. an extensive statistical survey of economic and demographic indicators, including area and population, health and welfare, agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, industry, finance, trade, transport, tourism, communications media and education. a comprehensive directory of names and contact details covering the most significant political and commercial institutions. Regional Information a directory of research institutes specializing in the region bibliographies of books and periodicals covering the region.

Scholarship on the civilization of Polish Jews has tended to focus on elite culture and canonical literature; even modern Yiddish culture has generally been approached from the perspective of 'great works'. This volume of Polin focuses on the less explored but historically vital theme of Jewish popular culture and shows how, confronted by the challenges and opportunities of modernity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it blossomed into a complex expression of Jewish life. In addition to a range of articles on the period before the Second World War there are studies of the traces of this culture in the contemporary world. The volume as a whole aims to develop a fresh understanding of Polish Jewish civilization in all its richness and variety. Subjects discussed in depth include klezmorim and Jewish recorded music; the development of Jewish theatre in Poland, theatrical parody, and the popular poet and performer Mordechai Gebirtig; Jewish postcards in Poland and Germany; the early Yiddish popular press in Galicia and cartoons in the Yiddish press; working-class libraries in inter-war Poland; the impact of the photographs of Roman Vishniac; contemporary Polish wooden figures of Jews; and the Krakow Jewish culture festival. In addition, a Polish Jewish popular song is traced to Sachsenhausen, the badkhn (wedding jester) is rediscovered in present-day Jerusalem, and Yiddish cabaret turns up in blues, rock 'n' roll, and reggae garb. There are also translations from the work of two writers previously unavailable in English: excerpts from the ethnographer A. Litvin's pioneering five-volume work Yidishe neshomes (Jewish Souls) and several chapters from the autobiography, notorious in inter-war Poland, of the writer and thief Urke Nachalnik. As in earlier volumes of Polin substantial space is also given to new research into a variety of topics in Polish Jewish studies. These include the origins of antisemitism in Poland; what is known about the presence of German forces in the vicinity of Jedwabne in the summer of 1941; and the vexed question of Jews in the communist security apparatus in Poland after 1944. The review section includes an important discussion of what should be done about the paintings in Sandomierz cathedral which represent an alleged ritual murder in the seventeenth century, and an examination of the 'anti-Zionist' campaign of 1968.

Most people are familiar with the use of horses and their often-heroic actions in the First World War, but what about camels, monkeys and the mighty elephant? In this wonderfully illustrated title, learn about how animals were trained and used, the role pets had to play in the war, and the plight of animals on the farm, down the mine and in the street. Although animals were used heavily on the front line and in major battles such as the Somme, they also had a role to play at home and, indeed, in almost every aspect of wartime life. From their first use to how animals were treated when the war ended, and including the involvement of the RSPCA and Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, this volume contains stories that will shock, delight and move you.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, created in 1569, covered a wide spectrum of faiths and languages. The nobility, who were the main focus of Polishness, were predominantly Catholic, particularly from the later seventeenth century; the peasantry included Catholics, Protestants, and members of the Orthodox faith, while nearly half the urban population, and some 10 per cent of the total population, was Jewish. The partition of Poland at the end of the eighteenth century and the subsequent struggle to regain Polish independence raised the question of what the boundaries of a future state should be, and who qualified as a Pole. The partitioning powers, for their part, were determined to hold on to the areas they had annexed: Prussia tried to strengthen the German element in Poland; the Habsburgs encouraged the development of a Ukrainian consciousness in Austrian Galicia to act as a counterweight to the dominant Polish nobility; and Russia, while allowing the Kingdom of Poland to enjoy substantial autonomy, treated the remaining areas it had annexed as part of the tsarist monarchy. When Poland became independent after the First World War more than a third of its population were thus Ukrainians, Belarusians, Germans, Jews, and Lithuanians, many of whom had been influenced by nationalist movements. The core articles in the volume focus especially on the triangular relationship between Poles, Jews, and Germans in western Poland, and between the different national groups in what are today Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. In addition, the New Views section investigates aspects of Jewish life in pre-partition Poland and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There are also the regular Review Essay and Book Review sections.

'Bellicose Dove' is the first English biography of the Huguenot lawyer, preacher, diplomat and martyr Claude Brousson for 150 years. It examines his life (1647-98), letters, sermons, books, and the role he played in resisting Louis XIV's persecution of the Huguenots until his death on the scaffold in 1698. Unique features of the book include a detailed examination of biographical details in his letters, analysis of the symbolism in his sermons and books (especially his anti-Catholic rhetoric), the importance of his three missionary journeys into France, and the effectiveness of his international diplomatic efforts in England, Holland, and Prussia.

The assessment of the Nazi genocide in Poland, an issue which has deeply divided Poles and Jews, lies at the core of this volume. Also included are discussions of Polish attitudes to the nearly 300,000 Jews who tried to resettle in post-war Poland; the little-known testimony of Belzec survivor Rudolf Reder; a discussion of Holocaust victims as martyrs; and a presentation of how the Auschwitz Museum sees its future.

This fascinating millitary history tells the intriguing tale of the bitter and attritional Winter War between the USSR and Finland in the midst of World War II. On 30 November 1939, Soviet bombers unloaded their bombs on Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Stalin's ultimatum, demanding the cession of huge tracts of territory as a buffer zone against Nazi Germany, had been rejected by the Finnish government, and now a small Baltic republic was at war with the giant Soviet military machine. But this forgotten war, fought under brutal, sub-arctic conditions, often with great heroism on both sides, proved one of the most astonishing in military history. Using guerrilla fighters on skis, even reindeer to haul supplies on sleds, heroic single-handed attacks on tanks, and with unfathomable endurance and the charismatic leadership of one of the 20th century's true military geniuses, Finland not only kept at bay but won an epic, if short-lived, victory over the hapless Russian conscripts. Its surreal engagements included the legendary "Sausage Battle", when starving Soviet troops who had over-run a Finnish encampment couldn't resist the cauldrons of hot sausage soup left behind by their opponents - and were ambushed as they stopped to sup. Although by sheer attritional weight of numbers Stalin eventually prevailed over the Finns, their pointed resistance enabled their country to remain free, even as other countries fell one by one. This book gives a telling insight into the military history of Russia, as once again Russian troops march on foreign soil, and a nation at Russia's borders fights to retain its independence.

With the invasion of France the following year taking shape, and hot on the heels of victory in Sicily, the Allies crossed into Southern Italy in September 1943. They expected to drive the Axis forces north and be in Rome by Christmas. And although Italy surrendered, the German forces resisted fiercely and the swift hoped-for victory descended into one of the most brutal battles of the war. Even though shipping and materiel were already being safeguarded for the D-Day landings, there were still huge expectations on the progress of the invading armies, but those shortages were to slow the advance with tragic consequences. As the weather closed in, the critical months leading up to Monte Cassino would inflict a heavy price for every bloody, hard fought mile the Allied troops covered. Chronicling those dark, dramatic months in unflinching and insightful detail, The Savage Storm is unlike any campaign history yet written. James Holland has always recounted the Second World War at ground level, but this version telling brings the story vividly to life like never before. Weaving together a wealth of letters, diaries, and other incredible documents, Holland traces the battles as they were fought - across plains, over mountains, through shattered villages and cities, in intense heat and, towards the end, frigid cold and relentless rain - putting readers at the heart of the action to create an entirely fresh and revealing telling of this most pivotal phase of the war.

Here is the story of Ireland's Civil War in colour - a defining moment in Irish history brought to life for the first time in hand-coloured photographs. The events of 1922-1923 are revealed using photographs painstakingly hand-coloured by John O'Byrne. His attention to detail gives a vivid authenticity that brings the events alive. Many of these photographs, carefully selected from archives and private collections, have never been published before. They carry informative captions by Michael B. Barry, based on extensive historical research. This richly illustrated book gives a fresh perspective to the conflict. If you want a better understanding of the story of the Irish Civil War, this is the book for you.

As read on BBC Radio 4's 'Book of the Week', a timely, moving and profound exploration of how writers, composers and artists have searched for solace while facing loss, tragedy and crisis, from the historian and Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist Michael Ignatieff. 'This erudite and heartfelt survey reminds us that the need for consolation is timeless, as are the inspiring words and examples of those who walked this path before us.' Toronto Star When we lose someone we love, when we suffer loss or defeat, when catastrophe strikes - war, famine, pandemic - we go in search of consolation. Once the province of priests and philosophers, the language of consolation has largely vanished from our modern vocabulary, and the places where it was offered, houses of religion, are often empty. Rejecting the solace of ancient religious texts, humanity since the sixteenth century has increasingly placed its faith in science, ideology, and the therapeutic. How do we console each other and ourselves in an age of unbelief? In a series of portraits of writers, artists, and musicians searching for consolation - from the books of Job and Psalms to Albert Camus, Anna Akhmatova, and Primo Levi - writer and historian Michael Ignatieff shows how men and women in extremity have looked to each other across time to recover hope and resilience. Recreating the moments when great figures found the courage to confront their fate and the determination to continue unafraid, On Consolation takes those stories into the present, movingly contending that we can revive these traditions of consolation to meet the anguish and uncertainties of the twenty-first century.

Armenia is the oldest Christian country in the world and there are few countries which have made, for their size, such an outstanding contribution to civilization as Armenia has, while yet remaining virtually unknown to the Western world. The volumes in this set, written and translated by an acknowledged authority on history and religion in the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Georgia, as well as Russia itself: Examine the role played by an 18th Century Russian Radical in Tsarist Russia and his subsequent political legacy. Provide a translation of a legend important for theologians and scholars of comparative religion because through this legend the life of the Buddha and the ascetic ideal he exemplified significantly influenced the Christian West. Discuss the cultural, philosophic, religious and scientific contribution Armenia has made to the world. Provide a geographic and ethnic survey of Armenia and its people.

Exam board: AQA Level: AS/A-level Subject: History First teaching: September 2015 First exams: Summer 2016 (AS); Summer 2017 (A-level) Put your trust in the textbook series that has given thousands of A-level History students deeper knowledge and better grades for over 30 years. Updated to meet the demands of today's A-level specifications, this new generation of Access to History titles includes accurate exam guidance based on examiners' reports, free online activity worksheets and contextual information that underpins students' understanding of the period. - Develop strong historical knowledge: in-depth analysis of each topic is both authoritative and accessible - Build historical skills and understanding: downloadable activity worksheets can be used independently by students or edited by teachers for classwork and homework - Learn, remember and connect important events and people: an introduction to the period, summary diagrams, timelines and links to additional online resources support lessons, revision and coursework - Achieve exam success: practical advice matched to the requirements of your A-level specification incorporates the lessons learnt from previous exams - Engage with sources, interpretations and the latest historical research: students will evaluate a rich collection of visual and written materials, plus key debates that examine the views of different historians

This consolidated index to the first twelve volumes of Polin will be a vital tool for scholars and students interested in any area of Polish Jewish studies. * Table of contents by volume-each volume at a glance * Chronological table of contents-each historical period at a glance * Index of persons-more than 4,500 people * Index of subjects-almost 6,000 detailed entries * Index of books reviewed * Index of contributors-listings of scholars and their contributions * Notes on contributors * A chronological table of Polish history * Maps Over the years, Polin has attracted contributions from many disciplines-among them architecture; economic, social, and political history; literature and film studies; Holocaust studies; rabbinic; sociology; women's studies; and Yiddish studies-and from a wide variety of viewpoints. Every period of Polish-Jewish history and every area of settlement has been covered, in more or less detail. Some topics have been the subject of ongoing debate in successive volumes, and the coverage of the different towns and geographical areas has likewise often extended through several volumes. However, only since the Littman Library began to publish Polin (starting from volume 8) have any indexes been provided. This long-awaited volume will greatly facilitate serious research in the field of Polish-Jewish studies.

Photographs by Sanford Roth.

London, 1716. Revenge is a dish best served ice-cold...The city is caught in the vice-like grip of a savage winter. Even the Thames has frozen over. But for Jonas Flynt - thief, gambler, killer - the chilling elements are the least of his worries... Justice Geoffrey Dumont has been found dead at the base of St Paul's cathedral, and a young male sex-worker, Sam Yates, has been taken into custody for the murder. Yates denies all charges, claiming he had received a message to meet the judge at the exact time of death. The young man is a friend of courtesan Belle St Clair, and she asks Flynt to investigate. As Sam endures the horrors of Newgate prison, they must do everything in their power to uncover the truth and save an innocent life, before the bodies begin to pile up. But time is running out. And the gallows are beckoning... A totally enrapturing portrayal of eighteenth-century London, and a rapier-like crime thriller, perfect for fans of Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Antonia Hodgson and Ambrose Parry.

A comprehensive survey of the countries and territories of this region, incorporating the latest economic and political developments. General Survey Essays by acknowledged experts in the region cover a variety of topical issues. In addition, appendices discuss the religions of the region and the Russian Baltic territory of Kaliningrad. Country Surveys Individual chapters for each country, containing: - information on physical and social geography - a detailed chronology of political events, both recent and historical - essays on each country's political history and economy - a statistical survey - an extensive directory of contact details for political, state and commercial institutions and organizations in the region (covering national and local government, political organizations, diplomatic representation, the judicial system, religion, the media, finance, telecommunications and broadcasting, major companies, transport, tourism, culture, social welfare, the environment, defence, education and more) - and a select bibliography. Who's Who in Central and South-Eastern Europe Biographical details for more than 200 of the region's leading political figures. Regional Information Contact information and extensive details of the activities of regional and international organizations active in the region; a list of research institutes that focus on the region, together with contact details; and select bibliographies of both books and periodicals.

Party-States and their Legacies in Post-Communist Transformation is a unique investigation into the construction, operation, self-destruction and transition of Hungarian politics from the 1960s to the mid- 1990s. It presents a rich picture which draws upon an extraordinary body of data and provides not just simply a retrospective theoretical analysis of the system, but details of everyday life within the state apparatus. This remarkable book includes extensive interviews with over four hundred key individuals in the party, state and the economy from 1975 onwards. In addition, Dr Csanadi draws upon other unique empirical research including internal memos and secret state documents as well as a full range of studies by East and West European scholars to reveal the realities of the system as observed by those closest to it. She not only considers the workings of the system during the communist era, but also analyses the legacy it continues to exert on the period of the transformation. As such the book contributes to our understanding of the Hungarian transformation and sheds new light on how party states worked throughout Eastern and Central Europe during the communist era and what the consequences of their self-similar features on the transformation are. In addition the book offers comparisons with other formerly centrally planned systems to reveal the structural differences in the distribution of power in party states and the very different legacies they leave for post-communist transformation. This comprehensive book will be welcomed by researchers, academics and postgraduates interested in the politics, economics, history and political science of Hungary and other East and Central European countries in transition.