At last we can know who 'king' Arthur was, when he lived and what he did. This is the first work on the legendary hero started without any axe to grind. Here it is demonstrated that Arthur was a Coeling - a prince directly descended from Old King Cole - selected as a very young age by the kings of the 'Hen Ogled' (The Old north, which had been a magor subdivision of Roman Britannia) to be 'Pendragon' (Army Commander in Chief) of the alliance of forces tasked to put an end to raids into their lands by Picts and Scots once and for all. The sites of the 12 famous battles are identified, Arthur's pedigree is specified and the circumstances of his death examined. Such well know elements of Arthurian legend as 'Excalibur', Camelot, Karduel and the 'Isle of Avalon' are all identified, explained and put in context. This book then goes on to suggest where the boundary between history and legend lies, identifying the relationship between the two and showing how the legend developed in the first place. Finally Arthur's legacy is assessed.

'A litany of fresh heroes to make the embattled heart sing' Caitlin Moran 'Newman is a brilliant writer' Observer A fresh, opinionated history of all the brilliant women you should have learned about in school but didn't. For hundreds of years we have heard about the great men of history, but what about herstory? In this freewheeling history of modern Britain, Cathy Newman writes about the pioneering women who defied the odds to make careers for themselves and alter the course of modern history; women who achieved what they achieved while dismantling hostile, entrenched views about their place in society. Their role in transforming Britain is fundamental, far greater than has generally been acknowledged, and not just in the arts or education but in fields like medicine, politics, law, engineering and the military. While a few of the women in this book are now household names, many have faded into oblivion, their personal and collective achievements mere footnotes in history. We know of Emmeline Pankhurst, Vera Brittain, Marie Stopes and Beatrice Webb. But who remembers engineer and motorbike racer Beatrice Shilling, whose ingenious device for the Spitfires' Rolls-Royce Merlin fixed an often-fatal flaw, allowing the RAF's planes to beat the German in the Battle of Britain? Or Dorothy Lawrence, the journalist who achieved her ambition to become a WW1 correspondent by pretending to be a man? And developmental biologist Anne McLaren, whose work in genetics paved the way for in vitro fertilisation? Blending meticulous research with information gleaned from memoirs, diaries, letters, novels and other secondary sources, Bloody Brilliant Women uses the stories of some extraordinary lives to tell the tale of 20th and 21st century Britain. It is a history for women and men. A history for our times.

Hermann Giliomee, top-historikus, is die aanbieder van die 26-episode kykNET- reeks Die Afrikaners in beeld, in samehang waarmee dié boek gepubliseer word. Hy het talle toekennings ontvang vir die oorspronklike boek waarop die reeks gebaseer is, die topverkoper The Afrikaners, en word gesien as die wêreldkenner van dié onderwerp. Die Afrikaners in beeld bied die kern van die langer akademiese werk in leesbare Afrikaans aan vir 'n moderne leserskap. Talle omstrede aspekte van Suid-Afrika se verlede en die rol daarin van die groep mense wat mettertyd na hulself as "Afrikaners" sou verwys word in kleur en geur in storievorm vertel, sodat lesers met 'n vars, soms uitdagende perspektief op ons verlede gelaat word.

Begin 08 April 2018 20:00 op kykNET

At last we can know who 'king' Arthur was, when he lived and what he did. This is the first work on the legendary hero started without any axe to grind. Here it is demonstrated that Arthur was a Coeling - a prince directly descended from Old King Cole - selected as a very young age by the kings of the 'Hen Ogled' (The Old north, which had been a magor subdivision of Roman Britannia) to be 'Pendragon' (Army Commander in Chief) of the alliance of forces tasked to put an end to raids into their lands by Picts and Scots once and for all. The sites of the 12 famous battles are identified, Arthur's pedigree is specified and the circumstances of his death examined. Such well know elements of Arthurian legend as 'Excalibur', Camelot, Karduel and the 'Isle of Avalon' are all identified, explained and put in context. This book then goes on to suggest where the boundary between history and legend lies, identifying the relationship between the two and showing how the legend developed in the first place. Finally Arthur's legacy is assessed.

Emperor Haile Selassie was an iconic figure of the twentieth century, a progressive monarch who ruled Ethiopia from 1916 to 1974. This book, written by a former state official who served in a number of important positions in Selassie's government, tells both the story of the emperor's life and the story of modern Ethiopia. After a struggle for the throne in 1916, the young Selassie emerged first as regent and then as supreme leader of Ethiopia. Over the course of his nearly six-decade rule, the emperor abolished slavery, introduced constitutional reform, and expanded educational opportunity. The Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s led to a five-year exile in England, from which he returned in time to lead his country through World War II. Selassie was also instrumental in the founding of the Organization of African Unity in 1963, but he fell short of the ultimate goal of a promised democracy in Ethiopia. The corruption that grew under his absolute rule, as well as his seeming indifference to the famine that gripped Ethiopia in the 1970s, led finally to his overthrow by the armed forces that he had created. Haile Selassie was an enlightened monarch in many ways, but also a man with flaws like any other. This short biography is a sensitive portrayal of Selassie as both emperor and man, by one who knew him well.

Take a journey with Force Recon Marine and Pro MMA Champion Chad Robichaux as he shares glimpses into the life of special operations, professional fighting, and deep insight into this world's spiritual battles. Chad shares successes and failures experienced in Afghanistan, the MMA cage, and his biggest fights: coming home and struggling with PTSD, a near divorce, and almost becoming another veteran suicide statistic. Each chapter shares parallel stories of biblical warriors who faced similar struggles and reveals the unfair advantage that led them to victory in the midst of those battles. Discover that same advantage for the battles you face, and unlock the warrior spirit sewn in your heart by God himself.

Now available in paperback for the first time, with a new introduction, the poignant and insightful memoir from Yossi Klein Halevi, the award-winning journalist and author of the acclaimed Like Dreamers--a coming-of-age story about a traumatic family history, radical politics, and spiritual transformation that speaks to a new generation struggling to understand what it means to be Jewish in America.

The child of a Holocaust survivor, Yossi Klein Halevi grew up in 1960s Brooklyn perceiving reality through the lens of his family's brutal past. Increasingly identifying with their history of suffering, he regarded the non-Jewish world with fear and loathing. Determined to take action--and seek retribution--he became a disciple of the late rabbi Meir Kahane and a member of the radical fringe of the American Jewish community.

In this wry and moving account, Halevi explores the deep-rooted anger of his adolescence and early adulthood that fueled his increasingly aggressive activism. He reveals how he started to question his beliefs--and his self-inflicted suffering as a hostage of history--and see the world from his own clear perspective.

As a journalist and author, Halevi has dedicated himself to fostering interfaith reconciliation. Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist explains how such a transformation can happen--giving hope that peaceful coexistence between faiths is possible.

Patrice Lumumba was a leader of the independence struggle in what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the country's first democratically elected prime minister. After a meteoric rise in the colonial civil service and the African political elite, he became a major figure in the decolonisation movement of the 1950s. Lumumba's short tenure as prime minister (1960-1) was marked by an uncompromising defence of Congolese national interests against pressure from international mining companies and the Western governments that orchestrated his eventual demise. Cold war geopolitical manoeuvring and well-coordinated efforts by Lumumba's domestic adversaries culminated in his assassination at the age of thirty-five, with the support or at least the tacit complicity of the U.S. and Belgian governments, the CIA, and the UN Secretariat. Even decades after Lumumba's death, his personal integrity and unyielding dedication to the ideals of self-determination, self-reliance, and pan-African solidarity assure him a prominent place among the heroes of the twentieth-century African independence movement and the worldwide African diaspora. Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja's short and concise book provides a contemporary analysis of Lumumba's life and work, examining both his strengths and his weaknesses as a political leader. It also surveys the national, continental, and international contexts of Lumumba's political ascent and his swift elimination by the interests threatened by his ideas and practical reforms.

George MacDonald Fraser beloved for his series of Flashman historical novels offers an action-packed memoir of his experiences in Burma during World War II. Fraser offers a firsthand glimpse at the camaraderie, danger, and satisfactions of service. A substantial epilogue, occasioned by the fiftieth anniversary of V-J Day in 1995, adds poignancy to a volume that eminent military historian John Keegan described as "one of the great personal memoirs of the Second World War." In this rattling-good memoir, novelist, historian, and screenwriter Fraser vividly recounts the nerve-racking frontline action he saw while serving as a nineteen-year-old soldier during what turned out to be the last great land campaign of World War II the British army's ferocious campaign against the Japanese in Burma. The realism of his story, combined with the skills of a talented novelist, create a book of sentiment and excitement. This is unforgettable reading, both for fans of Fraser's novels and for anyone interested in one of the great battles of World War II. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

After dozens of books and articles by anonymous sources, here, finally, is a history of the Trump White House, with the President and his staff talking openly and on the record. In Inside Trump's White House, Doug Wead offers a sweeping, eloquent history of President Donald J. Trump's first years in the White House, covering everything from election night to the biggest political obstacles of his presidency. The book will include never-before-reported stories and scoops, including how President Trump turned around the American economy, how he "never complains and never explains", and insight into how his actions sometimes lead to misunderstandings with the media and the public. Inside Trump's White House features exclusive interviews with the Trump family about the Mueller Report, and narrates their reactions when the report was finally released. Wead successfully gained interviews with the President in the Oval Office, chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Jared and Ivanka Kushner, Donald Trump Jr, Eric and Lara Trump, and White House insiders for this illuminating history.

Terry Gardiner ran a business in the Middle East for more than 30 years, and was living and working in Baghdad when America and its allies invaded Iraq in 2003. During the months that followed he experienced the full horrors of war, and witnessed appalling abuse by certain sections of the coalition forces. A member of his staff was abducted and decapitated by the insurgents, while another died under torture at the hands of the British. Gardiner was even kidnapped himself at one point, escaping with his life only because he was able to convince his captors that he was pro-Iraqi. And he knows the truth about how, where and when Saddam Hussein was really captured. The book reveals in detail the truth about how Iraq / Syria and Libya's fate was decided in 2001 as part of Blair and Bush's Foreign Policy. It also shows how greedy Western interests have led to the rape and near destruction of a country and helped to provoke a terrible terrorist backlash

“A brilliant biography that will transform your understanding of this young, charismatic leader” — Joseph Nhini, BooksLive, Sunday Times

“Deeply thought-provoking” — Tyrone August, Cape Times

“Makes a good job of weaving together a number of strands that make the totality of the powerful persona Biko became ... Sheds new light on more than just Biko” — Sam Mkokeli, Business Day

Interest in the iconic Steve Biko has strongly revived, as the current generation of activists calls on his legacy and thoughts. Biko is cited and disputed particularly in the #RhodesMustFall and decolonisation movements. This comprehensive biography, shortlisted for the Alan Paton award, explores Biko's life, the people and ideas that shaped him, and his part in Black Consciousness and the struggle. Updated in an affordable new edition, Biko: A Biography presents a new generation with nuanced insights into the life and thought of a South African hero.

Equal parts freedom fighter and statesman, Nelson Mandela bestrode the world stage for the past three decades, building a legacy that places him in the pantheon of history's most exemplary leaders.

As a foreign correspondent based in South Africa, author John Carlin had unique access to Mandela during the post-apartheid years when Mandela faced his most daunting obstacles and achieved his greatest triumphs. Carlin witnessed history as Mandela was released from prison after twenty-seven years and ultimately ascended to the presidency of his strife-torn country.

Drawing on exclusive conversations with Mandela and countless interviews with people who were close to him, Carlin has crafted an account of a man who was neither saint nor superman. Mandela's seismic political victories were won at the cost of much personal unhappiness and disappointment.

Knowing Mandela offers an intimate understanding of one of the most towering and remarkable figures of our age.

"Garry Curtis is a solider, whom some might say is of misfortune, rather that the opposite. Yet, he is a man, who has lived not one but several lives in an existence of remarkable colour and variance. His story is frank and heartfelt, expressed in a street language that he knows intimately. From his earliest childhood memories to the career direction that shaped his livelihood, he expresses his emotions with intensity and sparkling wit. He has been in the front-line. He has worked behind the scenes. However, Garry is never the less that forthright and unafraid of pertinent invective. This superbly well-expressed work is both dramatic and tragic. It deals with with life and death in equal measure and displays and energy that will fill you with laughter and hope." Garry is a rare breed of man, he is a man of high standards and for the most part a decent, caring lad who always looking out for those around him. A once promising boxer, a former Royal Marines commando, an elite firefighter in the fire rescue unit in London and for a couple of decades as close protection and a hostile environment consultant has been constantly putting himself in harms way to look after those persons he has been given the privilege to look after, as well as looking after others that have been in a bad place during some kind of attack. Many lives saved also much death around him. A family man, a father of four beautiful, adoring children and his world is his grandson Ralph Garry has been asked by so many people over the years to write a book and always pushed it to one side. However, after a breathtaking daring escape whilst held against his will in Libya 2011 by colonel Gaddaffis loyalist gunmen, not only had Garry successfully escaped with the ITN media team, he then returned to carry out what could have been a daring rescue. A chain reaction of bad luck followed and lies as well as embarrassment from an individual caused Garry's world to come crashing down around him. During a four year period the man that so many had entrusted their lives run out of fight and almost succumbed to death not only from injury in Afghanistan, which led to four huge surgeries where he contracted blood poisoning, also the darkest place he has been his own war. Surprisingly or not surprisingly, once you read what he has been through he almost died at his own hand an attempted suicide. Then the love of his life along with the dramas from a former lover in Ukraine. Garry's world comes crashing down. The pride of this man was so great and the financial ruin caused by just a very few and what he describes as his perfect storm, the culmination of all this, wreaked havoc and the trigger for Garry to step down that dark road. Garry being Garry is back stronger than ever and rebuilding his life. This is the powerful no warts brutal truth of a sometimes larger than life ordinary down to earth guy some call a hero. Garry would always say I am not a hero it's just a job, it's just me, I love my job. Gary supports mental health charities such as Rock2Recovery a charity set up to support men, women and families of the armed forces. Also the London Air Ambulance as they flew Garry to Hospital when he tried to commit suicide. Proceeds from "incoming" will go towards helping these charities help people all over the U.K.

'I would be most unhappy to think that any part of this memoir should be cut on grounds of 'decency', for those bits are essential...' So begins the lively true story of aristocrat and travel writer Roderic Fenwick-Owen. Born in 1920, Fenwick-Owen had an extraordinary life, which careered between some of the biggest moments in history and took him to the ends of the earth, meeting (and even living with) some of the 20th Century's most well-known people along the way, including Eisenhower, Jackson Pollock and Marlene Dietrich. After eye-opening schoolboy exploits with his classmates Christopher Lee and Queen Elizabeth II's cousin (whilst his father ran away with the family's nanny), Roderic spent the 1930s trying to fit in at Eton and Oxford and getting into various mischief all the while. In the summer of 1939, he witnessed Nazi Germany when he went to stay with a friend, and only managed to get home the day before war broke out. He served first in the ambulance service in the north of England and then in air raid shelters during the Blitz, before joining the RAF and being stationed in Italy. In the years afterwards he travelled far and wide, was briefly married to a Tahitian princess and became the court poet to Sheikh Shakhbut in Abu Dhabi. Dripped throughout his life are his numerous and passionate love affairs with both men and women, and the effects the decriminalisation of the former had on his happiness. A 20th Century Sort of Life is a marvellous obituary of an ever-changing and now lost world, that was frequently the best of times, and sometimes the worst.

The policy of scorched earth followed by the British forces during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902, as well as the concentration camps in which the Boer women and children were placed, led to bitter memories and trauma that haunted Afrikaners and other inhabitants of South Africa alike for many years. In this newly revised edition a group of eminent historians take a fresh and sober look, with the perspective brought about by a hundred years, at this most controversial aspect of the war.

Die Britse beleid van "verskroeide aarde" en konsentrasiekampe tydens die Anglo-Boereoorlog het bitter herinneringe en trauma veroorsaak wat dekades na die oorlog steeds by Suid-Afrikaners spook. In die nuut opgedateerde uitgawe van ’n topverkoper gee vooraanstaande historici ’n vars en sober blik op hierdie hoogs omstrede aspek van die oorlog. Die vokleurboek verken die perspektiewe wat na meer as 100 jaar moontlik is, en bring nuwe insigte oor een van die mees omstrede aspekte van die oorlog.

Raised like a princess in one of the most powerful families in the American South, Henrietta Bingham was offered the helm of a publishing empire. Instead, she ripped through the Jazz Age like an F. Scott Fitzgerald character: intoxicating and intoxicated, selfish and shameless, seductive and brilliant, endearing and often terribly troubled. In New York, Louisville, and London, she drove both men and women wild with desire, and her youth blazed with sex. But her love affairs with women made her the subject of derision and caused a doctor to try to cure her queerness. After the speed and pleasure of her early decades, the toxicity of judgment from others, coupled with her own anxieties, resulted in years of addiction and breakdowns. And perhaps most painfully, she became a E source of embarrassment for her family - she was labelled "a three-dollar bill." But forebears can become fairy-tale E figures, especially when they defy tradition and are spoken of only in whispers. For the biographer and historian Emily Bingham, the secret of who her great-aunt was, and just why her story was concealed for so long, led to irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham. Henrietta rode the cultural cusp as a muse to the Bloomsbury Group, the daughter of the ambassador to the United Kingdom during the rise of Nazism, the seductress of royalty and athletic champions, and a pre-Stonewall figure who never buckled to convention. Henrietta's audacious physicality made her unforgettable in her own time, and her ecstatic and harrowing life serves as an astonishing reminder of the stories that lie buried in our own families.

Based on the powerful true story of Auschwitz prisoner Wilhelm Brasse, whose photographs helped to expose the atrocities of the Holocaust.

When Germany invaded Wilhelm Brasse's native Poland in 1939, he was asked to swear allegiance to Hitler and join the Wehrmacht. He refused. He was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp as political prisoner number 3444. A trained portrait photographer, he was ordered by the SS to record the inner workings of the camp. He began by taking identification photographs of prisoners as they entered the camp, went on to capture the criminal medical experiments of Josef Mengele, and also recorded executions. Between 1940 and 1945, Brasse took around 50,000 photographs of the horror around him. He took them because he had no choice.

Eventually, Brasse's conscience wouldn't allow him to hide behind his camera. First he risked his life by joining the camp's Resistance movement, faking documents for prisoners, trying to smuggle images to the outside world to reveal what was happening. Then, when Soviet troops finally advanced on the camp to liberate it, Brasse refused SS orders to destroy his photographs. 'Because the world must know,' he said.

For readers of The Librarian of Auschwitz and The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz, this powerful true story of hope and courage lies at the very centre of Holocaust history.

A terrorist attack with nuclear weapons is the most dangerous security issue America faces today--and we are far more vulnerable than we realize. Driven by this knowledge, five men--all members of the Cold War brain trust behind the U.S. nuclear arsenal--have come together to combat this threat, leading a movement that is shaking the nuclear establishment and challenging the United States and other nations to reconsider their strategic policies.

Illuminating and thought-provoking, The Partnership tells the little-known story of their campaign to reduce the threat of a nuclear attack and, ultimately, eliminate nuclear weapons altogether. It is an intimate look at these men--Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Sam Nunn, William Perry, and the renowned Stanford physicist Sidney Drell--the origins of their unlikely joint effort, and their dealings with President Obama and other world leaders. Award-winning journalist Philip Taubman has provided an important and timely story of science, history, and friendship--of five men who have decided the time has come to dismantle the nuclear kingdom they worked to build.

When Mark Gevisser was a little boy, growing up in a apartheid South Africa, he was obsessed with maps, and with the Holmden’s Registry, Johannesburg’s Street Guide, in particular. He played a game called “Dispatcher” with this eccentric guide, transporting himself across the city into places that would otherwise be forbidden him. It was through “Dispatcher” that he discovered apartheid, by realising that he could not find an access route to the neighbouring township of Alexandra, and later, by realising that Soweto was not mapped at all.

This was the beginning of a lifelong obsession with maps and with photographs, and what they tell us about borders and boundaries: how we define ourselves by staying within them, or by transgressing them.

Johannesburg is a place of edges and boundaries; no place for a flaneur: this book is Gevisser's account of getting lost in his home town, and then finding himself, and then getting lost again, as a gay Jewish South African who was raised under apartheid and who became an adult and married a man of a different race as the country moved towards freedom.

Using maps and memories, photographs and stories, Lost And Found In Johannesburg presents a new way of understanding race and sexuality, heritage and otherness. If Gevisser transcended boundaries by playing “Dispatcher” as a boy, his own boundaries were brutally ruptured when he was attacked in a home invasion in January 2012, while completing this book.

Lost And Found In Johannesburg is the story of that journey.

"In this insightful, fascinating portrayal, Elizabeth Lev brings Caterina Sforza and her times very much to life."--Kathleen Turner, actress and author of "Send Yourself Roses"
A strategist to match Machiavelli; a warrior who stood toe to toe with the Borgias; a wife whose three marriages would end in bloodshed and heartbreak; and a mother determined to maintain her family's honor, Caterina Riario Sforza de' Medici was a true Renaissance celebrity, beloved and vilified in equal measure. In this dazzling biography, Elizabeth Lev illuminates her extraordinary life and accomplishments.
Raised in the court of Milan and wed at age ten to the pope's corrupt nephew, Caterina was ensnared in Italy's political intrigues early in life. After turbulent years in Rome's papal court, she moved to the Romagnol province of Forli. Following her husband's assassination, she ruled Italy's crossroads with iron will, martial strength, political savvy, and an icon's fashion sense. In finally losing her lands to the Borgia family, she put up a resistance that inspired all of Europe and set the stage for her progeny--including Cosimo de' Medici--to follow her example to greatness.
A rich evocation of Renaissance life, "The Tigress of Forli" reveals Caterina Riario Sforza as a brilliant and fearless ruler, and a tragic but unbowed figure.
"A rich, nuanced portrait of a highly controversial beauty and military leader, and her violent, albeit glittering, Italian Renaissance milieu."--"Publishers Weekly"
"Well-written and meticulously researched, The Tigress of Forli recreates the world of Renaissance Italy in all its grandeur and violence. At the center stands a remarkable woman, Caterina Riario Sforza. Mother, warrior, and icon, Caterina is unforgettable, and so is the exciting story that Elizabeth Lev tells here."--Barry Strauss, author of "Masters of Command: Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, and the Genius of Leadership"

Read the next volume in Alison Weir's magisterial history of the queens of Medieval England - including the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine. The Plantagenet queens of England played a role in some of the most dramatic events in our history. Crusading queens, queens in rebellion against their king, queen seductresses, learned queens, queens in battle, queens who enlivened England with the romantic culture of southern Europe - these determined women often broke through medieval constraints to exercise power and influence, for good and sometimes for ill. Alison Weir's ground-breaking history of the queens of medieval England now moves into a period of even higher drama, from 1154 to 1291: years of chivalry, dynastic ambition, conflict with the church, baronial wars, and the all-pervading bonds of feudalism. We see events such as the murder of Becket, Magna Carta and the birth of parliaments from a new perspective. Her narrative begins with the formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose marriage to Henry II establishes a dynasty which rules for over three hundred years and creates the most powerful empire in western Christendom - but also sows the seeds for some of the most destructive family conflicts in history and for the collapse, under her son King John, of England's power in Europe. The lives of Eleanor's successors were just as remarkable: Berengaria of Navarre, queen of Richard the Lionheart, Isabella of Angouleme, queen of John, and Alienor of Provence, queen of Henry III, and finally Eleanor of Castile, the grasping but beloved wife of Edward I. Through the story of these first five Plantagenet queens, Alison Weir provides an enthralling new perspective on a dramatic period of high romance and sometimes low politics, with determined women at its heart. 'Fascinating.' Tracy Borman, Daily Express