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Books > Humanities > History
Historians have long regarded fashion as something peculiarly Western. In this surprising, sumptuously illustrated book, Antonia Finnane challenges this view, which she argues is based on nineteenth- and twentieth-century representations of Chinese dress as traditional and unchanging. Fashions, she shows, were part of Chinese life in the late imperial era, even if a fashion industry was not then apparent. In the early twentieth century the key features of modern fashion became evident, particularly in Shanghai, and rapidly changing dress styles showed the effects. The volatility of Chinese dress throughout the twentieth century matched vicissitudes in national politics. Finnane describes in detail how the close-fitting jacket and high collar of the 1911 Revolutionary period, the skirt and jacket-blouse of the May Fourth era, and the military style popular in the Cultural Revolution gave way finally to the variegated, globalized wardrobe of today. She brilliantly connects China's modernization and global visibility with changes in dress, offering a vivid portrait of the complex, subtle, and sometimes contradictory ways the people of China have worn their nation on their backs.
How does a newsroom, made up of young journalists, change overnight into a war zone? How do you do your job as a correspondent when the conflict is literally on your doorstep? Reporting the facts as closely as possible is in itself a form of resistance, especially for this editorial staff, at least one of whose members has decided to abandon the pen and don the uniform. One was covering the business world in Ukraine, another was reporting on entertainment, a third was dealing with geopolitics, when suddenly the Russian army crossed the border. Staying is the choice they all made: to face the uncertainty of living and working in an active war zone head on. The power cuts, threat to life, concern for family members, trips to and from shelters while their city or town is subjected to lethal attacks - despite it all, they keep informing. In War Diary of the Ukrainian Resistance, written on the spot, day by day, the journalists of The Kyiv Independent share their work on the war that is ravaging their country. Combining articles published during the conflict with personal accounts, they give us an unprecedented inside look at the reality of the Russian invasion and its consequences on the lives of Ukrainians. Their names are Olga, Daryna, Illia, Jakub, Toma, Anna, Igor, Oleg, Natalia, Artur, Daria, Asami, Thaisa, Dylan, Sergiy, Alexander ... Their lives will never be the same again. Nor will ours.
This is the updated and substantially expanded second edition of Christopher Ballantine's classic Marabi Nights, which offers a fascinating view of the triumphs and tragedies of South Africa's marabi-jazz tradition. Based on conversations with legendary figures in the world of music - as well as a perceptive reading of music, the socio-political history, and social meanings - this book is one of sensitive and impassioned curatorship. New chapters extend the book's in-depth account of the birth and development of South African urban-black popular music. They include a powerful story about gender relations and music in the context of forced migrant labor in the 1950s, a critical study of the legendary Manhattan Brothers that uniquely positions their music and words in relation to the apartheid system, and an account of the musical, political, and commercial strategies of the local record industry. A new afterword looks critically at the place of jazz and popular music in South Africa since the end of apartheid, and argues for the continued relevance of the robust, questioning spirit of the marabi tradition. The book includes an illustrative CD of historic sound recordings that the author has unearthed and saved from oblivion.
Gedurende die Grensoorlog het die Spesiale Magte se 4 Verkenningsregiment tientalle klandestiene seewaartse operasies saam met die SA Vloot uitgevoer. Van Cabinda in Angola tot Dar es Salaam in Tanzanië het hulle strategiese teikens soos oliedepots, vervoerinfrastruktuur en selfs Russiese skepe aangeval. Die bestaan van 4 Recce is grootliks geheim gehou, ook in die SAW. Ystervuis uit die see beskryf 50 operasies deur 4 Recce, ander Spesmagte-eenhede en die SA Vloot. Daaronder tel Operasie Kerslig (1981), waartydens ’n operateur dood en ander beseer is in ’n aanval op ’n olieraffinadery in Luanda, en Operasie Argon (1985) toe kaptein Wynand du Toit in Angola gevange geneem is. Die skrywers, wat self aan etlike van die operasies deelgeneem het, het ook toegang gekry tot uiters geheime dokumente wat intussen gedeklassifiseer is. Hul dramatiese vertellings wys hoe veelsydig en doeltreffend hierdie elite-eenheid was. Die omvattende boek is ’n moet vir enigeen met ’n belangstelling in die Spesmagte. Dit neem jou na die hart van die aksie, die adrenalien en vrees van seewaartse operasies.
South African poet and political activist Dennis Brutus (1924-2009) wrote poetry of the most exquisite lyrical beauty and intense power. And through his various political activities, he played a uniquely significant role in mobilising and intensifying opposition to injustice and oppression - initially in South Africa, but later throughout the rest of the world as well. This book focuses on the life of Dennis Brutus in South Africa from his childhood until he went into exile on an exit permit in 1966. It is also an attempt to acknowledge Brutus' literary and political work and, in a sense, to reintroduce Brutus to South Africa. This book places his own voice at the centre of his life story. It is told primarily in his own words - through newspaper and journal articles, tape recordings, interviews, speeches, court records and correspondence. It draws extensively on archival material not yet available in the public domain, as well as on interviews with several people who interacted with Brutus during his early years in South Africa. In particular, it examines his participation in some of the most influential organisations of his time, including the Teachers' League of South Africa, the Anti-Coloured Affairs Department movement and the Coloured National Convention, the Co-ordinating Committee for International Recognition in Sport, the South African Sports Association and the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee, which all campaigned against racism in South African sport. Brutus left behind an important legacy in literature involvement, in community affairs and politics in as well.
This book is the first coherent quantified assessment of the economy of the Roman Empire. George Maher argues inventively and rigorously for a much higher level of growth and prosperity than has hitherto been imagined, and also explains why, nonetheless, the Roman Empire did not achieve the transition which began in Georgian Britain. This book will have an enormous impact on Roman history and be required reading for all teachers and students in the field. It will also interest and provoke historians of the medieval and early modern periods into wondering why their economies failed to match the Roman level. Part of the problem in assessing the Roman economy is that we do not have much in the way of numerical data, but Roman historians, who rarely have much statistical expertise, have not always recognised the potential of the data we do have. Dr Maher's reassessment of the economy of the Roman Empire has to use the same data as everyone else, but he is able to draw strikingly novel conclusions in two ways: first, by more statistically sophisticated use of a few crucial datasets and, second, by correlating and drawing a coherent picture across the whole economy. On grain yields, firstly, instead of getting bogged down in details of individual cases, George Maher shows how there is a remarkably consistent pattern from which outliers can be excluded, showing yields were much higher than normally assumed. He then demonstrates that high yields are in fact necessary to explain the exceptional urbanization of the Empire. Urbanization at this level in turn, as George Maher shows, has implications for consumption and commerce. He takes this further to show how high levels of trade imply high levels of sophistication in economic practices and mentality. In one of his most methodologically novel chapters, George Maher develops a new and simpler way of assessing average life expectancy and argues for a life expectancy almost double the traditional view. This book, Dr George Maher's doctoral thesis, is the theoretical underpinning of his book Pugnare: Economic Success and Failure.
Trace the history of the world in over 500 easy-to-follow maps, from the dawn of humanity to the present day. Organized chronologically, A History of the World in 500 Maps tells a clear, linear story, bringing together themes as diverse as religion, capitalism, warfare, geopolitics, popular culture and climate change. Meticulously rendered maps chart the sequence of broad historical trends, from the dispersal of our species across the globe to the colonizing efforts of imperial European powers in the 18th century, as well as exploring moments of particular significance in rich detail. • Visualizes 7 million years of human history. • Analyses cities and kingdoms as well as countries and continents. • Features major technical developments, from the invention of farming in the Fertile Crescent to the Industrial Revolution. • Charts the spread of major global religions, including Christianity and Islam. • Explores the increasing interconnectivity of our world through exploration and trade. • Investigates warfare and battles from across the ages, from Alexander the Great’s conquests to the D-Day offensive.
The astonishing true story of Heinrich Himmler's personal physical therapist who used his influence over the S.S. commander to save the lives of thousands. Felix Kersten, an exceptional masseur, was the only person able to relieve Himmler's crippling and chronic abdominal pain. Although he was resolutely anti-Nazi, he continued to work for Himmler throughout the war, trading his services for that of prisoners' lives. François Kersaudy's meticulously researched Kersten's Lists, explores how by the end of the war, Felix Kersten had helped to obtain the liberation of some 100,000 people, including 60,000 Jews. It is a vital and too little known chapter of the Second World War and one worthy of greater recognition.
This comprehensive overview traces the evolution of modern Mozambique, from its early modern origins in the Indian Ocean trading system and the Portuguese maritime empire to the fifteen-year civil war that followed independence and its continued after-effects. Though peace was achieved in 1992 through international mediation, Mozambique's remarkable recovery has shown signs of stalling. Malyn Newitt explores the historical roots of Mozambican disunity and hampered development, beginning with the divisive effects of the slave trade, the drawing of colonial frontiers in the 1890s and the lasting particularities of the north, centre and south, inherited from the compartmentalised approach of concession companies. Following the nationalist guerrillas' victory against the Portuguese in 1975, these regional divisions resurfaced in a civil war pitting the south against the north and centre, over attempts at far-reaching socioeconomic change. The settlement of the early 1990s is now under threat from a revived insurgency, and the ghosts of the past remain. This book seeks to distill this complex history, and to understand why, twenty-five years after the Peace Accord, Mozambicans still remain among the poorest people in the world.
Hoewel Drienie Joubert geen bang haar op haar kop gehad het nie en met haar selfstandige optrede en gedetermineerde houding gewis haar tyd vooruit was, was sy allermins die kil amasone wat party bronne in die geskiedenis van haar maak. Agter die strak foto’s skuil ’n liefdevolle eggenoot, toegewyde ma, empatieke versorger en vriendin van vele, wat met reg ’n ereplek in die Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis verdien. Vir die kultuurhistorikus dr. Celestine Pretorius is die daaglikse lief en leed van mense in vergange tye ’n fassinerende studiegebied. Sy is ’n bekende naam in kultuurhistoriese kringe en ’n gerekende skrywer van navorsingsartikels, onder meer in Tydskrif vir Kultuurgeskiedenis. Die lewensverhaal Drienie Joubert (1830–1916) is nie net 'n boeiende stuk geskiedenis nie, maar ook 'n interessante blik op 'n figuur wat waarskynlik as een van die eerste Boere-feministe beskou kan word.
A leader in the field presents a cohesive narrative of world history that effectively addresses the main challenge of the introductory survey: how to navigate beginning students through the vast detail of the subject. McNeill uses connective webs-along which trade, religious beliefs, technologies, pathogens and much more travelled-to organise details and keep the big picture in view. Students emerge with clear takeaways and a strong sense of the basic dynamics of world history. Together with digital resources that amplify the webs approach and highlight diverse types of evidence, John McNeill's The Webs of Humankind offers a clear and effective teaching tool for the world history survey course.
The laws of rugby are as extensive as they are confusing, their nuances and interpretations argued over relentlessly by rugby fans around the world and virtually impenetrable to those who are new to the game. In an effort to provide some much-needed clarity, Paul Williams takes an irreverent, hilarious, p*ss-taking tour through the labyrinth that is rugby's rule book - or, for the pedantic, rugby's law book. Hilarious, off-beat and (surprisingly) insightful, this is the perfect gift for rugby fans all around the world.
'Eject! Eject!' When the call is made to abandon an aircraft, it's only the beginning of the story... From the Sunday Times bestselling writer John Nichol, author of Spitfire, Lancaster and Tornado, comes a brilliant new book that reveals the astonishing story of an invention that has saved many thousands of lives around the world, including his own: the ejection seat. Nichol tells the remarkable tale of how the ejection seat was first conceived during the Second World War as countless lives were lost in accidents and in battle. In the wake of the war, that technological race to save aircrew lives using explosive seats continued at an incredible pace. Nichol tells the story of the brave men who risked their lives testing those early devices, and interviewed the first British pilot to eject back in 1949, when ejection, from pulling the handle to being under the parachute, took thirty seconds. Today, that figure is down to around one second. Packed with interviews with aircrew who know exactly how it feels to 'Bang Out' from an aircraft at high speed, both in peace and in war, the book gives the reader a vivid sense of what that life-saving experience feels like, but also features the moving accounts of what happens next, from the viewpoint of both the crews and their families, who often have little or no information about whether or not their loved ones have survived. Because ejecting is just the start of a journey..... Packed with dramatic action, incredible science and moving recollections, Eject! Eject! is an essential read.
'n Verversingstasie is in 1652 in Tafelbaai aangele om skepe te bedien op die roete tussen Europa en Oos-Indie. Die diens is deur 'n netwerk van bemande buiteposte aan die Kaapse kus en op die nabygelee eilande moontlik gemaak. Die Buiteposte is die resultaat van 30 jaar van navorsing in Suid-Afrika en in Europa, waar die VOC sy ontstaan gehad het. Dr. Sleigh is een van slegs 'n klein aantal geskiedkundiges wat die sewentiende-eeuse skrif van die VOC-dokumente met gemak lees. Hy is lid van verskeie plaaslike en internasionale geskiedenisverenigings en bewaringsorganisasies en word landswyd erken as adviseur rakende sake wat op die VOC betrekking het.
Seventy years after the battle of Kursk, which was probably the greatest tank battle of the Second World War and perhaps of all military history, comes this new publication. Characterized by hundreds of period photos, allowing the reader to relive those tragic and terrible events. The photos of men, weapons, and vehicles taken on the battlefield before, during, and after the engagements during the rare moments of rest are a true testament to military history. An exceptional photographic documentation, which will be useful to historians, military history students and modeling enthusiasts. Some photos are already known, but we have made every effort to include wherever possible new material as well, previously unpublished, coming from the principal public and private archives, to try to offer our readers a new editorial product. The course of operations was analyzed mainly from the point of view of the Das Reich division, taking the information directly from German war diaries and from Otto Weidinger's previous historical researches on the same division. In the text, however, there is no lack of references to other formations of the SS-Panzer-Korps, whose units always acted in collaboration during the course of the offensive
An intimate history of the most important month of the Second World War - perhaps the century - as experienced by those who lived through it, completely based on their diaries, letters and memoirs. At the beginning of November 1942, it looked as if the Axis powers could win the war; at the end of that month, it was obviously just a matter of time before they would lose. In between came el-Alamein, Guadalcanal, the French North Africa landings, the Japanese retreat in New Guinea, and the Soviet encirclement of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. In this innovatively kaleidoscopic and riveting historical marvel, Peter Englund reduces these epoch-making events to their basic component: the individual experience. In thirty memorable days we meet characters including a Soviet infantryman at Stalingrad; an Italian truck driver in the North African desert; a partisan in the Belarussian forests; a machine gunner in a British bomber; a twelve-year-old girl in Shanghai; a university student in Paris; a housewife on Long Island; a prisoner in Treblinka; Albert Camus, Vasily Grossman, and Vera Brittain - forty characters in all. We also witness the launch of SS James Oglethorpe; the fate of U-604, a German submarine; the building of the first nuclear reactor; and the making of Casablanca. Not since Englund's own The Beauty and the Sorrow has a book given us one of the most dramatic periods of human history in all its immensity and emotional range.
Based on many unpublished sources, this book narrates the individual parts played by over 1,500 of those who served with the 1/5th King's Own in the Great War. First seeing action in Flanders in March 1915, they fought in almost all of the major campaigns on the Western Front. Initially recruited from Lancaster, Morecambe, Blackpool and Fleetwood, this battalion was very much a 'family' unit with many of the men closely related and no less than seven father-son relationships within the battalion. Though these relationships helped strengthen the men in times of need, when casualties were suffered they brought extra heartache to the battlefield. Often, these tragic outcomes are related in the men's own words. Using a combination of mainly unpublished sources, this volume details the deeds of this gallant battalion. Wherever possible, accurate coordinates have been given for the places men served, fought and in many cases, were wounded or died. A series of sketch maps detail the trench locations in which the battalion fought. An appendix listing nearly 3,500 officers and men who served with the 1/5th is included and is the most complete battalion roll ever published.
'David Christian's approach to understanding history can help all of us learn to prepare for the future' - Bill Gates A user's guide to the future: from the algorithms in DNA to why time is like a cocktail glass, interstellar migrations, transhumanism, the fate of the galaxy, and the last black hole... Every second of our lives - whether we're looking both ways before crossing the street, celebrating the birth of a baby, or moving to a new city - we must cope with an unknowable future. How do we do this? And how do we, like most living organisms, manage this impossible challenge quite well (at least most of the time)? David Christian, historian and bestselling author of Origin Story, is renowned for pioneering the emerging discipline of Big History, which surveys the whole of the past. But with Future Stories, he casts his sharp analytical eye forward, offering an introduction to the strange world of the future, and a guide to what we think we know about it at all scales, from the predictive mechanisms of single-celled organisms and tomato plants to the merging of colossal galaxies billions of years from now. Drawing together science, history and philosophy from a huge range of places and times, Christian explores how we prepare for uncertain futures, including the future of human evolution, artificial intelligence, interstellar travel, and more. By linking the study of the past much more closely to the study of the future, we can begin to imagine what the world will look like in the next hundred years and consider solutions to the biggest challenges facing us all.
Women's Economic Writing in the Nineteenth Century is the first comprehensive collection of women's economic writing in the long nineteenth century. The four-volume anthology includes writing from women around the world, showcases the wide variety and range of economic writing by women in the period, and establishes a tradition of women's economic writing; selections include didactic tales, fictional illustrations, poetry, economic theory, social theory, reports, letters, novels, speeches, dialogues, and self-help books. The anthology is divided into eight themed sections: political economy, feminist economics, domestic economics, labor, philanthropy and poverty, consumerism, emigration and empire, and self-help. Each section begins with an introduction that tells a story about women writers' relationship to the section theme and then provides an overview of the selections contained therein. Women's Economic Writing in the Nineteenth Century demonstrates just how common it was for women to write about economics in the nineteenth century and establishes important throughlines and trajectories within their body of work.
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