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Books > History > General
The barbarian nomads of the Eurasian steppes have played a decisive
role in world history, but their achievements have gone largely
unnoticed. These nomadic tribes have produced some of the world’s
greatest conquerors: Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane,
among others. And their deeds still resonate today. Indeed, these
nomads built long-lasting empires, facilitated the first global
trade of the Silk Road and disseminated religions, technology,
knowledge and goods of every description that enriched and changed
the lives of so many across Europe, China and the Middle East. From
a single region emerged a great many peoples – the Huns, the
Mongols, the Magyars, the Turks, the Xiongnu, the Scythians, the
Goths – all of whom went on to profoundly and irrevocably shape
the modern world. In this enthralling new history, Professor
Kenneth W. Harl draws on a lifetime of scholarship to vividly
recreate the lives and world of these often-forgotten peoples from
their beginnings to the early modern age. Their brutal struggle to
survive on the steppes bred a resilient, pragmatic people ever
ready to learn from their more advanced neighbours. In warfare,
they dominated the battlefield for over fifteen hundred years.
Under charismatic rulers, they could topple empires and win their
own.
A definitive reframing of the economic, institutional, and
intellectual history of the managerial era The twentieth century
was the managerial century in the United States. An organizational
transformation, from entrepreneurial to managerial capitalism,
brought forth what became a dominant narrative: that administrative
coordination by trained professional managers is essential to the
efficient running of organizations both public and private. And yet
if managerialism was the apotheosis of administrative efficiency,
why did both its practice and the accompanying narrative lie in
ruins by the end of the century? In The Corporation and the
Twentieth Century, Richard Langlois offers an alternative version:
a comprehensive and nuanced reframing and reassessment of the
economic, institutional, and intellectual history of the managerial
era. Langlois argues that managerialism rose to prominence not
because of its inherent superiority but because of its contingent
value in a young and rapidly developing American economy. The
structures of managerialism solidified their dominance only because
the century’s great catastrophes of war, depression, and war
again superseded markets, scrambled relative prices, and weakened
market-supporting institutions. By the end of the twentieth
century, Langlois writes, these market-supporting institutions had
reemerged to shift advantage toward entrepreneurial and
market-driven modes of organization. This magisterial new account
of the rise and fall of managerialism holds significant
implications for contemporary debates about industrial and
antitrust policies and the role of the corporation in the
twenty-first century.
Featuring a new introduction for this new edition, The Conjure
Woman is probably Chesnutt's most powerful work, a collection of
stories set in post-war North Carolina. The main character is Uncle
Julius, a former slave, who entertains a white couple from the
North with fantastic tales of antebellum plantation life. Julius
tells of supernatural phenomenon, hauntings, transfiguration, and
conjuring, which were typical of Southern African-American folk
tales at the time. Uncle Julius tells the stories in a way that
speaks beyond his immediate audience, offering stories of slavery
and inequality that are, to the enlightened reader, obviously
wrong. The tales are fabulistic, like those of Uncle Remus or
Aesop, with carefully crafted allegories on the psychological and
social effects of slavery and racial injustice. FLAME TREE 451:
From mystery to crime, supernatural to horror and myth, fantasy and
science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves
and robots, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and
escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales, ancient and
modern gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic. The
Foundations titles also explore the roots of modern fiction and
brings together neglected works which deserve a wider readership as
part of a series of classic, essential books.
The day of 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794) is universally acknowledged
as a major turning-point in the history of the French Revolution.
At 12.00 midnight, Maximilien Robespierre, the most prominent
member of the Committee of Public Safety which had for more than a
year directed the Reign of Terror, was planning to destroy one of
the most dangerous plots that the Revolution had faced. By 12.00
midnight at the close of the day, following a day of uncertainty,
surprises, upsets and reverses, his world had been turned upside
down. He was an outlaw, on the run, and himself wanted for
conspiracy against the Republic. He felt that his whole life and
his Revolutionary career were drawing to an end. As indeed they
were. He shot himself shortly afterwards. Half-dead, the guillotine
finished him off in grisly fashion the next day. The Fall of
Robespierre provides an hour-by-hour analysis of these 24 hours.
The Battle of Britain from July to September 1940 is one of the
finest moments in our Nation's history. While credit rightly goes
to The Few', victory could never have happened without the
inspirational command and leadership of New Zealander Keith Park.
He and Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding ensured that Fighter
Command was prepared for the Nazi onslaught. Promoted to Air Vice
Marshal, Park took over No 11 Group, responsible for the defence of
London and South East England in April 1940\. A shrewd tactician
and hands-on commander, Park carefully husbanded his limited
resources and famously wore down Goering's Luftwaffe, thus forcing
Hitler to abandon his invasion plans. Shamefully Dowding and Park
were dismissed from their commands in the aftermath of victory due
to internal RAF politics. Fortunately, Park's career was far from
over and his management of the defence of Malta made significant
contribution to victory in the Mediterranean. This balanced and
well overdue account hopefully ensures that Air Chief Marshal Sir
Keith Park receives the credit for victory that he so richly
deserves.
Middle Tennessee State University was founded in 1911 as a two-year
training school for teachers and has since evolved through myriad
changesain name, in size, in administration, and in academic and
athletic resources. Change has also swept through the campus with
the ebb and tide of the American climate during some of the
twentieth centuryas most turbulent eras, including World Wars I and
II, the New Deal period, and the Civil Rights Movement. What has
remained steadfast through the years at this revered Tennessee
institution is a commitment to excellence, and a faculty, staff,
and student body in constant pursuit of the rewards of higher
education. Located on a 500-acre campus in Murfreesboro, Middle
Tennessee State University boasts a wide array of opportunities for
a student population of nearly 20,000. Courses in everything from
agriscience to aerospace, from criminal justice to the recording
industry offer budding scholars a chance to explore a wide variety
of disciplines, while they also enjoy participating in team sports,
academic societies, and social organizations. Within
these pages, students, alumni, and friends of the university will
travel down memory lane through a unique photographic tribute to
the Blue Raiders. Images of dormitories in the 1920s, World War II
campus drills, the first Greek organizations, General MacArthuras
visit, homecoming floats, band performances, and early sports teams
illuminate the schoolas colorful history.
When Geronimo and his warriors surrendered to the US Army, General
Miles made a number of promises for the surrender terms that were
in fact false. Geromino: Prisoner of Lies provides insights into
how Chiricahua prisoners of war lived while held in captivity by
the United States Army in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries as seen through the eyes of their war leader Geronimo.
The indignities and lies they suffered, and how they maintained
their tribal culture in the face of great pressure to change or
vanish entirely, are brought to life and provided new context
through this book.
A timely history of the interplay between politics and military
operations, 'Command is the history of our time' (Guardian)
Military command has been reconstructed and revolutionized since
the Second World War by nuclear warfare, small-scale guerrilla land
operations and cyber interference. Freedman takes a global
perspective, systematically investigating its practice and politics
since 1945 through a wide range of conflicts from the French
Colonial Wars, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bangladesh
Liberation War to North Vietnam's Easter Offensive of 1972, the
Falklands War, the Iraq War and Russia's wars in Chechnya and
Ukraine. By highlighting the political nature of strategy, Freedman
shows that military decision-making cannot be separated from
civilian priorities and that commanders must now have the
sensibility to navigate politics as well as warfare.
Sweden, as many other prosperous nations, is presently reassessing
its national goals, political culture and collective identity.
Newer groups in society are demanding equal treatment, and others
whose struggles for recognition are older and unwon, are
successfully mobilizing support for political change. Social
democratic political hegemony has been eroded and other new
political forces are now reinterpreting past political ideas and
methods of action and a need for historical perspective. This book
analyses the history of Swedish civil society. Social movements and
interest organizations have played crucial roles in Sweden. Their
history is also Swedish history and concerns struggles for
political recognition and welfare state development and cutbacks.
Theoretical developments within sociology, social psychology,
public choice and political science are combined to enrich the
analysis. Some of the theoretical elements used in this book are
organizational waves of development, organizational life cycles,
political opportunity structure, and topologies of collective
action organizations. The book analyzes Swedish civil society
history from the Midas to the 1990s. Swedish civil society history
is divided into six periods. The role played by collective action
organizations in the important developments in politics, society
and economy in this one hundred and fifty year period are
described, compared and analyzed. The primary focus is the impact
of change brought about by these developments on collective action
organizations.
 An explosive romantasy YA, perfect for fans of The Hunger
Games and Lore. "A thrilling, fast-paced, and brutal tale of
revenge, loyalty, courage, and friendship. Avery has created a
world that is merciless in its cruelty and trickery, and a cast of
gods who revel in causing chaos, but Ara, a heroine full of heart,
is more than a match for even the wickedest of them." - Melinda
Salisbury, bestselling author of Her Dark Wings Every Lunar Eclipse
signifies the beginning of The Immortal Games: an epic set of games
played by the Gods of Olympus, with randomly-selected humans as
their Tokens. The stakes are high; the Gods covet entertainment and
glory above all else, for the Tokens, it's about survival.
17-year-old Ara wants revenge. Revenge on the Gods for allowing her
older sister to die in the Games. She's determined to be selected
as a Token and find a weapon powerful enough to kill a God. But
when she's plucked from the clutches of death by Hades, God of the
Underworld, the odds are stacked against her. Hades is the outcast
of the Gods, and the only one who has never won the games. But he
soon realises that Ara does not fear death, just as she does not
fear him, and when a wager with Zeus and Poseidon puts both their
futures at stake, the games take on a new meaning. With each
challenge, the games become more brutal. Can Ara put aside her rage
and survive? For fans of Circe, Ariadne and The Silence of the
Girls. Perfectly plotted Greek Mythology and Astrology makes this
the perfect YA for BookTok. Cover stunningly illustrated by
Instagram star, Tom Roberts.
This is the most detailed and comprehensive study to date of early
Latin language, literary and non-literary, featuring twenty-nine
chapters by an international team of scholars. 'Early Latin' is
interpreted liberally as extending from the period of early
inscriptions through to the first quarter of the first century BC.
Classical Latin features significantly in the volume, although in a
restricted sense. In the classical period there were writers who
imitated the Latin of an earlier age, and there were also
interpreters of early Latin. Later authors and views on early Latin
language are also examined as some of these are relevant to the
establishment of the text of earlier writers. A major aim of the
book is to define linguistic features of different literary genres,
and to address problems such as the limits of periodisation and the
definition of the very concept of 'early Latin'.
Historians have previously glazed over the mafia's formative years.
In this first volume, Ferrante explores its Sicilian roots, before
following a cast of larger-than-life characters who arrived as
fugitives on American shores. Through these and other lives -
including legendary mobsters Lucky Luciano, Vito Genovese, Meyer
Lansky and Bugsy Seigel - Ferrante tells the extraordinary story of
the mafia's rise in America, as they provided alcohol during
Prohibition, created the gambling mecca Las Vegas and practically
took over the island of Cuba.
A visually stunning and beautifully written celebration of park
life around the world. The pandemic brought into sharp relief what
city dwellers already realised: parks are an absolutely essential
part of modern life. From the author who brought you Lido, here are
50 of the world's greatest parks – but not just a list of the
examples we already know. Yes, we'll tell you about those storied
greats such as Central Park in New York and Phoenix Park in Dublin,
but we'll also take you to the Philippines, to Australia, to
provincial Britain and around the world to show you the most
historic and the most interesting, the newest and most cutting-edge
that mix the best of nature and architecture. We'll explore what
you can find there, who goes there, why they are important, and how
parks respond to their environments, including ones over a road, on
old rail lines or in Berlin's former airport. Examples include: •
Freeway Park, Seattle, USA: a bizarre and brilliant brutalist park
over a motorway. • Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo, Brazil: this one
contains amazing galleries and theatres. • Holyrood Park,
Edinburgh, UK: mountains within a city. • Adelaide's parks,
Australia: unique in that the entire city centre is enclosed by
parks. and many, many more. Illustrated with glorious photographs
throughout, this book is a fascinating record of the world's most
interesting and innovative parks, and the people who use them –
you'll want to visit them all.
 The Anatomist's Library is a fascinating chronological
collection of the best anatomical books from six centuries,
charting the evolution of both medical knowledge and illustrated
publishing. There is a rich history of medical publishing across
Europe with outstanding publications from Germany, France, Italy,
Netherlands, Spain, UK, and also many from Persia and Japan.
 Because of the high value of accurate medical textbooks, it
was these works that pushed the boundaries of illustrated
publishing. They commanded the expert illustrators and skilled
engravers and hence didn’t come cheaply. They were treasured by
libraries and their intrinsic worth has meant that there is an
incredible wealth of beautifully preserved historic examples from
the 15th century onwards  The enduring popularity of
Gray’s Anatomyhas shown that there is a long-term interest in the
subject beyond the necessity of medical students to learn the
modern equivalent – the 42nd edition (2020) – from cover to
cover. But Englishman Henry Gray was late in the field and never
saw the enduring success of his famous work. Having first published
the surgeon’s reference book in 1858, he died in 1861 after
contracting smallpox from his nephew (who survived). He was just
34. Â Gray was following on from a long tradition of
anatomists starting with Aristotle and Galen whose competing
theories about the human body dominated early medicine. However
they did not have the illustrative skills of Leonardo da Vinci who
was trained in anatomy by Andrea del Verrocchio. In 1489 Leonardo
began a series of anatomical drawings depicting the human form. His
surviving 750 drawings (from two decades) represent groundbreaking
studies in anatomy. However none of Leonardo's Notebooks were
published during his lifetime, they only appeared in print
centuries after his death. Â Brussels-born Andries van Wesel
(Andreas Vesalius) professor at the University of Padua is deemed
to be the founder of modern anatomical reference with his 1543 work
De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem ("On the fabric of the
human body in seven books"). An Italian contemporary was Bartolomeo
Eustachi who supported Galen’s medical theories. Among other
discoveries he correctly identified the Eustachian tube and the
arrangement of bones in the inner ear. His Anatomical Engravings
were completed in 1552, nine years after Vesalius’s great work,
but remained unpublished until 1714. Â These are just two
entries in a book brimming with an abundance of important
illustrated works – with some more primitive examples from the
15th century, up to the 42nd edition of Gray’s in the 21st.
Â
Throughout the world there exists an enduring fascination with our
ancestry - who we are and where we come from. Nowhere is this more
evident than with the generations of Scots who over the centuries
have left their native Scotland to create a new life in the New
World - North America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe.
The Scots are a remarkable race with a justifiably proud history
and culture which they have successfully passed on through
generations. This compact book sets out to identify the larger
Scottish clan and family names, their tartans, septs (dependent
family names), heraldic crests, mottos, ancestral lands and
allegiances. This book features full colour photographs of each
tartan as opposed to digital reproductions, allowing readers to see
both the textures and patterns.
Photography - A Queer History examines how photography has been
used by artists to capture, create and expand the category 'Queer'.
It bookmarks different thematic concerns central to queer
photography, forging unexpected connections to showcase the diverse
ways the medium has been used to fashion queer identities and
communities. How has photography advanced fights against LGBTQ+
discrimination? How have artists used photography to develop a
queer aesthetic? How has the production and circulation of
photography served to satisfy the queer desire for images, and
created transnational solidarities? Photography - A Queer History
includes the work of 84 artists. It spans different historical and
national contexts, and through a mix of thematic essays and
artist-centred texts brings young photographers into conversation
with canonical images.
Zbysek Necas was just 18, and still a high school student, when he
escaped from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia a month before
the outbreak of war in 1939. He managed to make his way to Britain
where he had a cousin. Necas enlisted in the RAF in 1940, initially
being posted as an interpreter at the Czech Depot. Some of his
early duties involved the interrogation of captured German aircrew.
He was, however, determined to fly. That wish came not as a pilot,
but as a radar operator. In time, Necas was posted to 68 Squadron,
which throughout the war had a large number of Czech exiles on its
strength - one flight was entirely Czech-manned. In this moving
memoir, he details just what it was like to serve as part of an RAF
night fighter crew during the second half of the Second World War.
From the organisation of squadron and operations, to the directing
of night fighters in the bomber stream, problems of maintaining
contact with the target, the duration of patrols to interception
tactics, all, and more, is revealed in this book. Having trained on
the Blenheim Mk.IV, Necas' operational patrols began on Bristol
Beaufighters, the squadron subsequently converting to de Havilland
Mosquitoes. There are of course, the graphic accounts of victory in
the air. This includes combat with a Heinkel He 177 Grief over
North Sea, or the explosion of a Dornier Do 217 after another
successful interception. As well as nighttime intruder operations
over Europe, from the summer of 1944, 68 Squadron, Necas included,
found itself drawn into the battle against Hitler's V-weapons,
particularly the V1. Necas' crew ended the war with three confirmed
kills, one probable, and two damaged. After the war, Necas returned
to his homeland where he received the tragic news that that none of
his immediate family had survived the German occupation. This is
Zbysek Necas' story of his part in the defence of Britain's skies
and the final victory against the Third Reich.
A biography of the remarkable, and in her time scandalous,
seventeenth-century writer Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of
Newcastle. ‘My ambition is not only to be Empress, but Authoress
of a whole world.’ Margaret Cavendish, then Lucas, was born in
1623 to a wealthy family. In 1644, as England descended into civil
war, she joined the court of the formidable Queen Henrietta Maria
at Oxford, before following the court into exile in France. It was
there that she met her much older lifelong partner, William
Cavendish, Marquess of Newcastle- upon-Tyne. Cavendish was a
revolutionary writer. At a time when literature was dominated by
men, she wrote passionately on gender, science and philosophy,
defied convention by publishing under her own name, and advocated
for women in work that predates the feminist movement. In 1666, she
published The Blazing World, a brilliant, trail- blazing
proto-novel thought to be one of the earliest works of science
fiction. But her legacy divides opinion. And history has largely
forgotten her. In Pure Wit, Francesca Peacock shines a spotlight on
the fascinating, pioneering, yet often complex and controversial
life of Margaret Cavendish.
In May 1941, Gertrude van Tijn arrived in Lisbon on a mission of
mercy from German occupied Amsterdam. She came with Nazi approval
to the capital of neutral Portugal to negotiate the departure from
Hitler's Europe of thousands of German and Dutch Jews. Was this
middle aged Jewish woman, burdened with such a terrible
responsibility, merely a pawn of the Nazis, or was her journey a
genuine opportunity to save large numbers of Jews from the gas
chambers? In such impossible circumstances, what is just action,
and what is complicity?
A moving account of courage and of all-too-human failings in the
face of extraordinary moral challenges, Th"e Ambiguity of Virtue
"tells the story of Van Tijn's work on behalf of her fellow Jews as
the avenues that might save them were closed off. Between 1933 and
1940 Van Tijn helped organize Jewish emigration from Germany. After
the Germans occupied Holland, she worked for the Nazi appointed
Jewish Council in Amsterdam and enabled many Jews to escape. Some
later called her a heroine for the choices she made; others
denounced her as a collaborator.
Bernard Wasserstein's haunting narrative draws readers into the
twilight world of wartime Europe, to expose the wrenching dilemmas
that confronted Jews under Nazi occupation. Gertrude van Tijn's
experience raises crucial questions about German policy toward the
Jews, about the role of the Jewish Council, and about Dutch,
American, and British responses to the persecution and mass murder
of Jews on an unimaginable scale."
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