This volume focuses on Catholic Church history in Australia by lookimg at certain figures (Archdeacon John McEencroe, Lwesi Harding, Bishop Chalres Henry Davis, Cardonal Gilroy) as well as themes: Catholc Social Justice and parliamentary politics, humanae vitae and Tridentine clericalism, and the emergence of Catholic education offices.

Dr Franklin Sonn is a struggle icon, diplomat, educationalist and business leader.

He was born in the Vosburg district of Victoria West. As a civil rights campaigner, he was arrested for leading a protest march in 1989. He later served as rector of the (Cape) Peninsula Technikon and as head of the Cape Teachers' Professional Association. He was a good friend and confidant of Nelson Mandela.

In 1995, Madiba asked him to be South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, USA. Sonn celebrated his 85th birthday on 11 October 2024.

This edition of the writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763-98), barrister, United Irishman, agent of the Catholic Committee and later an officer in the French revolutionary army, is intended to comprehend all his writings and largely to supersede the two-volume Life of Theobald Wolfe Tone. ..written by himself that was edited by his son William, and published at Washington in 1826. It consists mainly of Tone's correspondence, diaries, autobiography, pamphlets, public addresses, and miscellaneous memoranda (both personal and public); it is based on the original MSS if extant or the most reliable printed sources.
Tone's participation in Irish politics in the early 1790s and his presence on the periphery of the ruling circle in revolutionary France from February 1796 to September 1798 would be sufficient to make his writings a major historical source. The literary quality of his writings, diaries, and autobiography enhances their importance. The unique quality of Tone's writings is that they are the production of a gifted and convivial young Irishman who moved widely in intellectual and political circles.
This volume - France, the Rhine, Lough Swilly, and the Death of Tone - completes the edition, following the last part of Tone's life, until his death following the abortive Irish uprising of 1798. It includes addenda, corrigenda, an iconography, a bibliography, and a complete index to all three volumes.

David Lloyd George, was a immensely colourful, controversial and enigmatic character who dominated the political life of Britain in the opening decades of the twentieth century.Famously described by Churchill as 'the greatest Welshman that unconquerable race has produced since the age of the Tudors', Lloyd George's political legacy is considerable and includes the introduction of a 'welfare state' whilst as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and as an effective and successful Prime Minister during the Great War. He was also however, implicated in a number of personal scandals relating to his great duel loves; women and money.The Financial Affairs of David Lloyd George is the first serious and systematic study to examine, assess and analyse Lloyd George's attitude to money and finance and compellingly illustrates how he accumulated great wealth by fair and more questionable methods.The product of many year's forensic research, author and accountant Ian Ivatt tells the intriguing story of how the man, who started work at 15 as a trainee solicitor's clerk in Porthmadog, earning a mere 15 shillings (less than GBP40), died in 1945 leaving an estate valued at GBP139,855 (GBP6.5 million).

Eleanor Roosevelt's character was shaped by the history and culture of the Hudson Valley. More than that, Eleanor Roosevelt loved the Hudson Valley. A woman who knew and cared for the whole world chose this place, Val-Kill, as her home in a cottage by a stream. Eleanor Roosevelt: A Hudson Valley Remembrance reflects her unaffected simplicity and caring interest in her neighbors' concerns. Remembered by friends, colleagues, neighbors, and young people, these qualities inspired a community-based group to lead efforts to save her home in 1977 as the country's first national historic site dedicated to a First Lady. The Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill continues her work on issues that affect life today.

Composer, diplomat, bishop: Agostino Steffani (1654-1728) was one of the most remarkable figures in late-17th and early-18th century Europe. Steffani began his life as a composer, musician, and courtier, but his accomplishments brought him high-level positions in the courts of Germany and in the Catholic Church. This book is the first to discuss all the periods and facets of Agostino Steffani's extraordinary career and to examine his entire output of musical works.

Once a most unlikely candidate, Barack Obama's successful campaign for the White House made him a worldwide sensation and a transformative figure even before he was inaugurated. Elected as the Iraq War and Great Recession discouraged millions of Americans, Obama's promise of hope revived the national spirit. Had he only saved the economy, Obama would be considered a truly successful president. However he has achieved so much more, against ferocious opposition, that he can be counted as one of the most consequential presidents in history. With health care reform, he ended a crisis of escalating costs and inadequate access that threatened 50 million people. His energy policies drove down the cost of power generated by the sun, wind, and even fossil fuels. His climate change efforts produced the first treaty to address global warming in a meaningful way, and his diplomacy produced a dramatic reduction in the nuclear threat posed by Iran. Add the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, the normalisation of relations with Cuba, and the "pivot" toward Asia, and his successes abroad match those at home. In A Consequential President, Michael D'Antonio tallies Obama's long record of achievement, both his major successes and less-noticed ones that nevertheless contribute to his legacy. Obama's greatest achievement came as he restored dignity and ethics to the office of the president, proof that he delivered the hope and change he promised.

Eoin O'Duffy was one of the most controversial figures of modern Irish history. A guerrilla leader and protege of Michael Collins, he rose rapidly through the ranks of the republican movement. By 1922 he was chief of staff of the IRA, a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood's Supreme Council, and a Sinn Fein deputy in Dail Eireann. As chief of police, O'Duffy was the strongest defender of the Irish Free State only to become, after his emergence as leader of the Blueshirt movement in 1933, the greatest threat to its survival. Increasingly drawn to international fascism, he founded Ireland's first fascist party, and led an Irish Brigade to fight under General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. He died in wartime Dublin, a Nazi collaborator, and a broken man. This study, the first ever biography of Eoin O'Duffy, draws on unpublished archival and personal papers to trace his journey from revolutionary republicanism to fascism. It examines the importance of cultural forces, including the legacy of the Irish-Ireland movement, Catholicism, anti-communism, and O'Duffy's ideas on sports, morality, and masculinity to explain his descent into extremism. McGarry peels away the public persona to reveal a complex picture of the motives which drove this extraordinary career. A crusading moralist and advocate of teetotalism, obsessed with the need to counter public immorality, who was at the same time a closet homosexual and alcoholic, O'Duffy's remarkable life was characterised by self-aggrandisement, fantasy, and contradiction. This fascinating biography explores themes as diverse as cultural nationalism, violence, sectarianism, militarism, and masculinity to shed new light on Irish republicanism and the politics of interwar European fascist movements. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of culture, politics, and society in interwar Ireland.

Gustav Stresemann was the exceptional German political figure of his time. His early death in 1929 has long been viewed as the beginning of the end for the Weimar Republic and the opening through which Hitler was able to come to power. Stresemann's personality and talents as a politican held together the coalition that provided the only serious opposition to the Nazi party in the 1920s. On his death this opposition collapsed and along with it the only chance of establishing a stable and democratic Germany at the heart of a stable Europe.

Calvet's Web is a study of a circle of French antiquarians, naturalists, and bibliophiles in the period 1750-1810. By using the surviving correspondence of its members, Laurence Brockliss assembles a vivid picture of the French Republic of Letters in an era of rapid change, showing how the world of scholarship relates to the movement historians call the Enlightenment and how it is torn apart, then reconstructed, in the social and political turmoil of the French Revolution.

This is the first complete biography of one of the most brilliant fifteenth-century monarchs, Alfonso V of Aragon. Ryder traces Alfonso's life from his childhood in the chivalric world of Castile to the newly-acquired states of Aragon and his subsequent accession to the Aragonese throne. In addition to being a shrewd politician, Alfonso is revealed to have been an accomplished diplomat, acutely aware of the power of commerce, and one of the greatest patrons of the early Renaissance. He brought humanism to life in Southern Italy and made his court the most brilliant in Europe. Offering not only an insightful look at Alfonso's life but a vivid portrait of political and cultural life during his reign, this volume will hold special appeal for scholars and students of early modern European history, fifteenth-century Italian and Spanish history, and Renaissance studies.

Riad El-Taher arrived in England to study engineering just in time to hear Tony Benn railing against Anthony Eden's 1956 Suez policy. He was rarely far from politics thereafter. When the UN imposed crippling sanctions on his native land, he took Tam Dalyell, George Galloway and ex-BBC reporter, Tim Llewellyn, to Iraq to see their effect. At Dalyell's suggestion he formed a widely supported organisation to campaign for a reversal of this policy; after the Second Gulf War this redirected its fire at the occupation. He made enemies too, and believed he landed in Wandsworth jail as a result. Dalyell, who considered Riad to be motivated by `an un-self-seeking desire to protect the well-being of people in Iraq,' called his treatment `a process of nasty, political vengeance.' Neither a Ba'athist, nor an emigre oppositionist, Riad's patriotic voice is arguably unique and deserves to be heard. Though polemical, and posing uncomfortable questions, this is also the story of a remarkably varied life and the wide range of people encountered in it, not least among them Saddam Hussein.

"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"

How the three independent asset managers Coronation, Allan Gray and Investec (later Ninety One) , dubbed the CIA, came to dominate and continue to dominate the South African asset management industry, particularly the pension fund market.

There are plenty of colourful big ego personalities such as Hendrik du Toit at Ninety One, Leon Campher at Coronation and the late Allan Gray plus kingmakers reshaping thr industry such as Patrice Motsepe.

Concise: Goes straight to the heart of the subject

This first comprehensive biography of Cecil Rhodes in a generation illuminates Rhodes’s vision for the expansion of imperialism in southern Africa, connecting politics and industry to internal development, and examines how this fueled a lasting white-dominated colonial society.

Rhodes was one of the most influential people in the history of the British Empire. He made a fortune by leading the world’s most important diamond mining company, De Beers, as well as gold-mining concern Consolidated Gold Fields. He was a member of the Cape Colony’s legislature and served as prime minister from 1890 to 1896, a key period for the development of racial discrimination. His British South Africa Company was given a charter to govern what is today Zambia and Zimbabwe.

A complex figure, admired and detested in his own time, Rhodes dreamt to unite Southern Africa’s colonies and republics into one state, dominated by white settlers, with labour provided by Black people who were constrained and pressured by discriminatory laws. In 1895 and 1896, he encouraged a failed plot to overthrow the independent Boer republic in the Transvaal.

Rhodes’ coup helped to precipitate the South African War, which started in 1899 and ended in 1902, the year of Rhodes' death.

This authoritative biography focuses on the relationship between Rhodes’ well-known activities in business and politics and the development of Southern Africa's infrastructure, most famously his plan for a Cape-to-Cairo railway. Rhodes envisioned a region where racism became embedded in the mining, farming, communication, and transportation industries. He pursued this vision in the face of opposition from many quarters.

Understanding the extent of Rhodes’ activities helps us to understand the challenges of modern Africa and the recent Rhodes Must Fall movement. A critical analysis of this contested figure, The Colonialist offers an original portrait of a crucial figure of his era.