Blom's hypothesis is forceful, and has the potential to be both frightening and, if you hold it up to the light at just the right angle, a little optimistic. The idea can be put like this: climate change changes everything' John Lanchester, New Yorker In this innovative and compelling work of environmental history, Philipp Blom chronicles the great climate crisis of the 1600s, a crisis that would transform the entire social and political fabric of Europe. While hints of a crisis appeared as early as the 1570s, by the end of the sixteenth century the temperature plummeted so drastically that Mediterranean harbours were covered with ice, birds literally dropped out of the sky, and 'frost fairs' were erected on a frozen Thames - with kiosks, taverns, and even brothels that become a semi-permanent part of the city. Recounting the deep legacy and sweeping consequences of this 'Little Ice Age', acclaimed historian Philipp Blom reveals how the European landscape had ineradicably changed by the mid-seventeenth century. While apocalyptic weather patterns destroyed entire harvests and incited mass migrations, Blom brilliantly shows how they also gave rise to the growth of European cities, the appearance of early capitalism, and the vigorous stirrings of the Enlightenment. A sweeping examination of how a society responds to profound and unexpected change, Nature's Mutiny will transform the way we think about climate change in the twenty-first century and beyond.

The epic mission to destroy the flagship of Hitler's navy.'Bismarck was now loose in the Atlantic ... we had to find and sink her.' May, 1941. The most powerful battleship the world has ever seen, the German Navy's Bismarck, breaks out into the Atlantic to ravage Allied convoys. Together with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, the Bismarck will seek to deliver a killer blow to Britain's war effort. The British launch an all-or-nothing bid to sink her, with the Home Fleet and other naval units steaming hard from all points of the compass, straining every sinew to trap and destroy Bismarck. HMS Hood, the battlecruiser pride of the Royal Navy, is destroyed within eight minutes of engaging Bismarck on 24 May. However, the brand new battleship HMS Prince of Wales lands a pivotal blow on Bismarck, puncturing a fuel tank, forcing the German battleship to make for refuge in a friendly port. Reeling from the loss of the Hood, the Royal Navy redoubles its efforts, intent on avenging lost shipmates. Aircraft carrier Ark Royal, along with battleships King George V and Rodney, plus cruisers and destroyers, are among those who hunt and pursue the foe over more than 1,700 miles. This is the story of Bismarck's fateful final twenty-four hours on 26/27 May 1941: the finale of the hunt and the culminating brutal close-quarters battle as Bismarck makes a desperate bid to escape the enemy. Using eyewitness accounts of Royal Navy sailors, Royal Marines and Swordfish torpedo-bomber aviators - including searing testimony gleaned by the author during unique interviews with a 'band of brothers' who were in the thick of the action - Ballantyne brings one of the Second World War's most dramatic events thundering to life. He also draws on new research in museum archives and other accounts from both the British and German side, to present a multi-dimensional, cinematic telling of a legendary episode in naval combat history. An epic story, told with compelling immediacy, it takes readers aboard warships in unforgiving seas, into the cockpits of warplanes in shrapnel-lashed skies and even inside a U-boat under a cruel ocean. Perfect for readers of Richard Hough and Saul David.

The evacuation of Kabul in August 2021 will go down in military history as one of the most unexpected events in modern times. In an eerie replay of the disastrous British retreat from Kabul in 1842, coalition troops withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years of military campaigning. The subsequent collapse of the Afghan government and its army shocked the world, as a resurgent Taliban gathered its forces and swept across the country. Thousands of Afghans who had worked with the allies were left to the meagre mercy of the Taliban. As the Taliban went door to door to execute 'collaborators', a small international task force set out on a daring mission to evacuate as many Afghans and their families as possible. Drawing on a wide range of first-hand accounts - the politicians and officers who planned the trans-continental rescue, the young soldiers who were faced with the unenviable task of keeping a crowd of thousands of desperate people at bay, former interpreters and soldiers of the Afghan Special Forces who made it out - Escape from Kabul is the harrowing true story of Operation Pitting and the Kabul airlift.

Shortlisted for the Palestine Book Awards 2017

From the author of the bestselling study of the 1948 War of Independence comes an incisive look at the Occupied Territories, picking up the story where The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine left off.

In this comprehensive exploration of one of the world’s most prolonged and tragic conflicts, Pappe uses recently declassified archival material to analyse the motivations and strategies of the generals and politicians – and the decision-making process itself – that laid the foundation of the occupation. From a survey of the legal and bureaucratic infrastructures that were put in place to control the population of over one million Palestinians, to the security mechanisms that vigorously enforced that control, Pappe paints a picture of what is to all intents and purposes the world’s largest ‘open prison’.

The Russian Civil War of 1917-1920, out of which the Soviet Union was born, was one of the most significant events of the twentieth century. The collapse of the Tsarist regime and the failure of the Kerensky Provisional Government nearly led to the complete disintegration of the Russian state. This book, however, is not simply the story of that collapse and the rebellion that accompanied it, but of the painful and costly reconstruction of Russian power under a Soviet regime. Evan Mawdsley's lucid account of this vast and complex subject explains in detail the power struggles and political manoeuvres of the war, providing a balanced analysis of why the Communists were victors. This edition includes illustrations, a new preface and an extensively updated bibliography.

The text contains stories of some of the more remarkable persons in the early history of the Cape Town - a beer brewer who was brought down by his fatal passion for a young slave woman, as well as an assortment of runaway slaves and company deserters.

'Outstanding. Heartstopping. Brilliant. A story that scorches the page, searing in its honesty and profoundly moving in its emotional impact. The characters reach out to you and challenge your preconceptions in this testament to a tragic chapter of history that moved me to tears. It holds up a dark and shocking mirror to our world, yet ultimately it is a triumphant tale of light within darkness. This is an important, powerful novel that everyone should read' KATE FURNIVALL SHE CAN'T HAVE A FUTURE UNTIL SHE HAS A PAST. 1944 LEO STERN arrives at the Nazi camp at Borek with his wife Irena and his two daughters. The Sterns are spared from the gas chamber when they witness a murder. But in a place that humanity has deserted, Leo is forced to make unimaginable choices to try to keep his family alive. 1961 For seventeen years, Hanna has been unable to remember her identity and how she was separated from her family at the end of the war, until the discovery of a letter among her late uncle's possessions reveals her real name - HANNA STERN - and leads her to Berlin in search of her lost past. Helped by former lover Peter, Hanna begins to piece together the shocking final days of Borek. But Hanna isn't the only one with an interest in the camp, and lurking in the shadows is someone who would prefer Hanna's history to remain silent. Based on in-depth research and beautifully written, this a novel of memory and identity, and the long shadow of war. 'Taking the reader from the atmospheric Fenlands of Cambridgeshire to the ghost-filled forests of wartime Poland and finally into Cold War-era Berlin, The Silent Child is a thought-provoking and compelling novel about the long-lasting aftershocks of war. This is great storytelling, full of mysteries and twists, epic in its sweep, but precise and respectful in its historical details. J. G. Kelly's vividly evoked scenes will stay with me for a long time' CAROLINE SCOTT 'This book was such a beautifully written book that will stay with me for a long time. The storyline was emotive and heart wrenching and the characters were well developed and have a special place in my heart. I didn't want this book to end. Nothing I could say would do this book justice, I cannot recommend this book enough' Reader review 'It's beautifully written with a story that draws you in so quickly, it's very well researched and heartbreakingly realistic. A book I wanted and needed to finish. The sort of book everyone should read. The most compelling book I've read this year' Reader review 'Utterly impossible for me to put down. A heartbreaking story... I found I had devoured the entire book in just one sitting... I have loved this book so much, I wish I could give it five hundred stars. All I can say is "WOW - read it. You won't be disappointed' Reader review 'I was engrossed in the story. The author has done tremendous research about the war and did a good job of drawing the reader into the story' Reader review

This The Tudors: England 1485-1603 Revision Guide is part of the bestselling Oxford AQA History for A Level series. Written to match the new AQA specification, this series helps you deepen your historical knowledge and develop vital analytical and evaluation skills. This revision guide offers the clearly structured revision approach of Recap, Apply, and Review to prepare you for exam success. Step-by-step exam practice strategies for all AQA question types are provided (including Extract Analysis and essays linked to Key Questions), as well as well-researched, targeted guidance based on what we now know from the new AQA examiner's reports on The Tudors England. Our original author team is back, offering expert advice, AS and A Level exam-style questions and Examiner Tips. Contents checklists help monitor revision progress; example student answers and suggested activity answers help you review your own work. This guide is perfect for use alongside the Student Books or as a stand-alone resource for independent revision.

A magisterial, single-volume history of the greatest conflict the world has ever known by our foremost military historian. The Second World War began in August 1939 on the edge of Manchuria and ended there exactly six years later with the Soviet invasion of northern China. The war in Europe appeared completely divorced from the war in the Pacific and China, and yet events on opposite sides of the world had profound effects. Using the most up-to-date scholarship and research, Beevor assembles the whole picture in a gripping narrative that extends from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific and from the snowbound steppe to the North African Desert. Although filling the broadest canvas on a heroic scale, Beevor's The Second World War never loses sight of the fate of the ordinary soldiers and civilians whose lives were crushed by the titanic forces unleashed in this, the most terrible war in history.

'Brain-stretching . . . pulsating . . . irresistable' The Sunday Times 'Deeply researched and elegantly written - essential reading' Dan Jones 'Erudite, often thrilling and much-needed' Daily Telegraph How the Mongol invasions of the Near East reshaped the balance of world power in the Middle Ages. For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As The Mongol Storm reveals, during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. Amid the chaos of the Mongol onslaught, long-standing powers such as the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, and the crusaders struggled to survive, while new players such as the Ottomans arose to fight back. The Mongol conquests forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies spread across Eurasia. This is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences.

On 19 February 1942 the Japanese air force bombed Darwin. Whilst this fact is well known, very few people know exactly what happened. Timothy Hall was the first writer to be given acess to all the official reports of the time and as a result he has been able to reveal exactly what happened on that dreadful day - a day which Sir Paul Hasluck (17th Governor-General of Australia) later described as 'a day of national shame'. The sequence of events in Darwin that day certainly did not reflect the military honour that the War Cabinet wanted people to believe. On the contrary, for what really happened was a combination of chaos, panic and, in many cases, cowardice on an unprecented scale.

Nina Anisimova was born in 1909 in imperial St Petersburg. One of the most renowned character dancers of the Stalinist period, she won her way into the hearts of her audience over many decades. Yet few knew that her exemplary career was a fragile construct built atop a dark secret. In 1938, at the height of the Great Terror, Nina vanished. Only a handful of people knew that this famous dancer had not only been arrested by Secret Police as a Nazi Spy, but sentenced to forced labour in a camp in Kazakhstan. There, her art would become a salvation, giving her a reason to fight for her life when she found herself without winter clothes in temperatures of minus 40 degrees. Over the coming weeks, Nina's husband, Kostia Derzhavin, began to piece together what had happened to his wife. What he decided to do next was almost without precedent - to take on the ruthless Soviet state to prove her innocence. He would put himself in danger to save the woman he loved. Dancing for Stalin is a remarkable true story of suffering and injustice of courage, resilience and love.

The English poet John Gower (ca. 1340-1408) wrote important Latin poems witnessing the two crucial political events of his day: the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 and in 1399 the deposition of Richard II, in the Visio Anglie (A Vision of England) and Cronica tripertita (A Chronicle in Three Parts), respectively. Both poems, usually transmitted with Gower's major Latin work, Vox clamantis, are key primary sources for the historical record, as well as marking culminating points in the development of English literature. The earlier Visio Anglie is verbally derivative of numerous, varied sources, by way of its literary allusions, but is also highly original in its invention and disposition. On the other hand, the Cronica tripertita's organization, even in details, is highly derivative, and from a single source, but its verbal texture is all invented. This volume includes Latin texts of these poems of Gower, newly established from the manuscripts, with commentary on Gower's relation with the rest of the contemporary historical record and with his literary forebears and contemporaries, including Ovid, Virgil, Peter Riga, Nigel Witeker, and Godfrey of Viterbo. This volume also includes Modern English verse translations of the two poems, which are at once critically accurate and enjoyably accessible.

Intellectual traditions are commonly regarded as cultural variations, historical legacies, or path dependencies. By analyzing road junctions between different traditions of Public Administration this book contests the dominant perspective of path-dependent national silos, and highlights the ways in which they are hybrid and open to exogenous ideas. Analyzing the hybridity of administrative traditions from an historical perspective, this book provides a new approach to the history of Public Administration as a scientific discipline. Original and interdisciplinary chapters address the question of how scholars from the U.S., Germany and France mutually influenced each other, from the closing years of the 19th Century, up until the neo-liberal turn of the 1970s. Offering a thorough analysis of the transatlantic history of Public Administration, the conclusion argues that it is vital to learn from the past, in order to make Public Administration more realistic in theory, as well as more successful in practice. Advanced undergraduate and postgraduate political science scholars will find this to be a valuable tool in understanding the foundations of transatlantic Public Administration. This book will also greatly benefit researchers on comparative and transnational history with a keen interest in Public Administration.

A History of Science in Society is a concise overview that introduces complex ideas in a non-technical fashion. Ede and Cormack trace the history of the changing place of science in society and explore the link between the pursuit of knowledge and the desire to make that knowledge useful. Volume I covers the origins of natural philosophy in the ancient world to the Scientific Revolution. New topics in this edition include astronomy and mathematics in ancient Mayan society, science and technology in ancient India and China, and Islamic cartography. New "Connections" features provide in-depth exploration of the ways science and society interconnect. The text is accompanied by 27 colour maps and diagrams, and 4 colour plates highlighting key concepts and events. Essay questions, chapter timelines, a further readings section, and an index provide additional support for students. A companion reader edited by the authors, A History of Science in Society: A Reader, is also available.

The world of the 2020s is one where instability, war and societal breakup seem close. But, surely, we have learnt the lessons of the past? Surely, peace will continue? Are you sure? Do you even know what causes wars? Mike Martin argues that we don't understand what causes violence and conflict, let alone how to go about solving these problems. But there is a way to make sense of war and society: linking the evolution of our brains with our history of social development, 'Why We Fight' shows how political dynamics, violence between individuals and, above all, war between groups are all caused by deep-seated, unconscious urges to seek status and belonging. Weaving together evolution, personal experiences of war, and more than a decade of studying conflicts around the world, 'Why We Fight' will change the way you think about society, about war, and about yourself. It is a blueprint for the turbulent 2020s.

"Compact and insightful. "--New York Times Book Review "Jack Larkin has retrieved the irretrievable; the intimate facts of everyday life that defined what people were really like."--American Heritage

With America's War on Terror and the subsequent democracy experiments in Afghanistan and Iraq having turned into geopolitical disasters, the US military campaign in alliance with the Kurdish forces in Syria is one of the few success stories. Military experts and politicians in Washington, DC, judge the intervention against ISIS in Syria as the nation's most successful campaign since WWII, based on the overwhelming military victory, the functioning Kurdish civilian governing structures that followed the fighting, the extremely light military footprint and the strong link to Kurdish partners many political analysts. However, since neither these experts nor many journalists were on the ground during the fighting, they struggle to explain exactly how this particular operation turned into a just war. The authors, however, were there. Between the three of them, they fought for over two years with the Kurdish forces. They participated in all the large Kurdish operations against the Islamic State between late 2014 and mid-2016. The endured a muddy archaic trench warfare, witnessed the first waves of decisive US and British airstrikes against ISIS, and experienced the impact America had on the battlefield. Later, when American, British and French Special Forces were deployed at the frontlines, the authors worked closely with those teams when they evacuated hundreds of wounded from the battlefield together. Based on the authors' unique insights, this book analyses America's war in Syria and structures the intervention into different phases including the secretive build up and the ultimate destruction of the ISIS Caliphate.

The seminal event of the 20th century, the origins of the First World War have always been difficult to establish and have aroused deep controversy. Annika Mombauer tracks the impassioned debates as they developed at critical points through the twentieth century. The book focuses on the controversy itself, rather than the specific events leading up to the war. Emotive and emotional from the very beginning of the conflict, the debate and the passions aroused in response to such issues as the 'war-guilt paragraph' of the treaty of Versailles, are set in the context of the times in which they were proposed. Similarly, the argument has been fuelled by concerns over the sacrifices that were made and the casualities that were suffered. Were they really justified?

For centuries, battleships provided overwhelming firepower at sea. They were not only a major instrument of warfare, but a visible emblem of a nation's power, wealth and pride. The rise of the aircraft carrier following the Japanese aerial strike on Pearl Harbor in 1941 highlighted the vulnerabilities of the battleship, bringing about its demise as a dominant class of warship. This book offers a detailed guide to the major types of battleships to fight in the two World Wars. Explore HMS Dreadnought, the first of a class of fast, big-gun battleships to be developed at the beginning of the 20th century; see the great capital ships that exchanged salvos at the battle of Jutland, including the German battlecruiser Derfflinger, which sank the British battleship Queen Mary; find out about the destruction of HMS Hood, which exploded after exchanging fire with the Bismarck, which itself was sunk after a trans-Atlantic chase by a combination of battery fire and aircraft-launched torpedoes; and be amazed at the 'super-battleship' Yamato, which despite its size and firepower, made minimal contribution to Japan's war effort and was sunk by air attack during the defence of Okinawa. Illustrated with more than 120 vivid artworks and photographs, Technical Guide: Battleships of World War I and World War II is an essential reference guide for modellers and naval warfare enthusiasts.