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The little band of Puritan emigres that left Southampton in 1620 to
found a godly colony in Virginia (as the eastern seaboard of the
North American continent was known at the time) carried with them
the ideological seed-corn of a new nation. They were leaving
England so that they could worship God in the way their conscience
told them was right, but they were the forerunners of the greatest
feat of nation building in the early modern world. The vibrant
self-determination of these Protestant exiles would play an
important part in precipitating the imperial conflict with Britain
after 1763 and would later stand at the core of the American ideal
during the centuries after Independence, providing a powerful pull
factor for aspirant migrants around the world. Mayflower is the
story of their voyage, their settlement in New England and the
influence they had on the forging of a nation.
Here, for the first time, the Oval Test match of 1882 - every bit
as dramatic as anything in the 2005 season - is recreated ball by
ball all the way to the agonising climax when Australia won by 7
runs. Here, too, is the social context of that match, from the
founding of Australia, spiced with a host of insights into how
cricket was born and how it grew in a vast, rugged land. The story
of The Ashes is more, much more. When the Hon. Ivo Bligh took an
England team to Australia in 1882 - 83 he said he was going to
reclaim the Ashes of English cricket, lost at the Oval. That led to
a meeting with a property baron near Melbourne, an invitation for
the team to stay at his mansion for Christmas - a knock-about match
against the staff - and the baron's wife, who had a little urn on
her mantelpiece. We know what went in it!
This is a work of 11 self-contained chapters, one for each day of
September before the attack on the World Trade Center in New York,
each containing one woman's story. The chapters reflect the
broadest spectrum of women in order to reflect, by their
differences, the worlds they inhabited and how the attack on 11
September affected their lives. Despite national and international
policies aimed at securing equality for women, the sad fact is that
throughout the world women have achieved at best an uneven and
insecure equality, and in the case of Afghanistan no equality at
all. With a new political and social order promised in Afghanistan,
dare we hope that the situation will improve? Christopher Hilton
has interviewed 11 very different women, some from the West, some
from Afghanistan, to find out what the lives of women involved in
the dramatic events of 11 September 2001 were like and how the
attack changed their lives. In the stories that emerge we hear the
voices of women whose ordinary loves were suddenly changed and who
became actors in some of the most far-reaching events of the modern
world.
THE BERLIN WALL, one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of
the Cold War, fell on 9 November1989. It would be another year
before East and West Germany were officially reunified, but on this
momentous day Germans from both sides flocked to the wall in
celebration. Once the euphoria had died down, the unimaginable task
of putting East and West back together began. For almost three
decades the country and its capital had been divided between
France, the UK and the USA in the west and the USSR in the east.
How did one go about marrying a totalitarian, atheist, communist
system with a democratic, Christian one? And how did this marriage
affect the everyday life of ordinary Germans? There had been no
warning of this marriage and no preparation for it - and no country
had ever tried putting two completely opposite systems together
before. This is the story of what happened, in the words of the
people it happened to: the story of an incredible unification.
Christopher Hilton documents the race that caused the worst crash
in motor racing history in this new and full study of the fateful
day. Through a host of interviews - with drivers, team members,
journalists and spectators - and original research at Le Mans,
Hilton examines the aftermath of the crash that has affected what
we see of motorsport on our television screens today. The worst
crash in motor racing history - killing more than 80 people - was
produced by a ferocious and haunting combination of circumstances:
nationalism, raw speed, the nature of a 24-hour race, and chance.
The crash drew in Mike Hawthorn, the blond playboy from Farnham, in
a Jaguar, and Juan-Manuel Fangio, one of the greatest drivers of
all, in a Mercedes. A crowd of 250,000 watched hypnotised as
Hawthorn set out to break Fangio, the two cars going faster and
faster...and faster. Another English playboy, Lance Macklin, was
caught up in the crash in his Austin-Healey, along with a
50-year-old Frenchman driving under the assumed name of Pierre
Levegh. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It cost him
his life, even as his car was torn to pieces that scythed into the
dense crowd. After 6.2 7pm on 11 June 1955 nothing would ever be
the same again and the consequences of the momentous crash are
still being felt. In this new and full study of the fateful day,
Christopher Hilton sets the race itself in the context of the
1950s. Through a host of interviews - with drivers, team members,
journalists and spectators - and original research at Le Mans and
in the Mercedes archive in Stuttgart, he recreates every aspect of
the race and the crash. Much of the material has never been seen
before. He examines the aftermath - the bitter blame game, the
conflicting testimonies, the direct threat to motorsport in Europe
- and chronicles the beginning of the culture of safety that has
affected what we see of motorsport on our television screens today.
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Nuvolari (Paperback)
Christopher Hilton
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This is a biography about Tazio Nuvolari (1892-1953) who is widely
regarded as the greatest racing driver of all time. In this
fascinating assessment of Nuvolari's life, Christopher Hilton seeks
to understand Nuvolari the man - and the Nuvolari legend as it
unfolded. This new biography is an invaluable addition to motor
racing history and essential reading for anyone interested in the
sport. During the 1930s into the 1940s his reputation for skill and
bravery eclipsed a whole generation of rivals. Even today his name
alone evokes a classic era in the history of road and Grand Prix
racing. Yet there is no current affordable biography of him in the
English language. Using original documentary material, race reports
of the time from several countries and the recollections of
Nuvolari's contemporaries, the author recreates the excitement
generated by his driving and the impact it made on motorsport.
Nuvolari's virtuosity at the wheel came with a competitive instinct
so fierce that he repeatedly broke cars and his own body. The
author captures many aspects of Nuvolari's strong personality - a
personality which, in the days before intrusive journalism, was
virtually unknown. The extraordinary performances that decorated
Nuvolari's long career form the backbone of the narrative - the
1930 Mille Miglia, the 1935 German GP, the 1938 British GP at
Donington, the 1948 Mille Miglia. Marking the half century after
Nuvolari's death, this new biography is an invaluable addition to
motor racing history and essential reading for anyone interested in
the sport - even if they are followers of modern Formula 1 heroes
like the Schumachers, Coulthard and Montoya.
Adolf Hitler understood the importance of sport, and exercised his
malign and dangerous influence to try to co-opt it for the Nazi
cause. He intended to own the Olympic movement, housing it
permanently in Berlin from 1940 in a stadium seating 450,000
people. His hijack of the 1936 Games remains one of sport's most
controversial events, using it as he did to promote Aryan supremacy
and showcase the Nazi state. Austria was forced to withdraw from
the 1938 football World Cup just days before it started because the
country no longer existed. The boxing matches between Joe Louis and
Max Schmeling in 1936 and 1938 came to represent democracy versus
fascism. German technology crushed all comers in Grand Prix racing,
as well as the Isle of Man TT. A government ministry was even set
up to use physical fitness to prepare the population for war.
Hitler understood that sport has many uses: this is how he used it.
On 7 May 1945, Grand Admiral Donitz, named in Hitler's will as head
of state, authorised the unconditional surrender of all German
forces to the Allies on the following day. World War II in Europe
was at an end. But many of the German people would continue to
endure hardships, as both the country and the capital were to be
divided between France, the UK and the USA in the west and the USSR
in the east. East and West Germany, and East and West Berlin, would
remain divided until 1989. By October 1990, however, the two
countries were reunited, and the Berlin Reichstag was once again
the seat of government. Here, politicians would put East and West
back together again, marrying a totalitarian, atheist, communist
system with a democratic, Christian, capitalist one. How did this
marriage affect the everyday life of ordinary Germans? How did
combining two telephone systems, two postal services, hospitals,
farm land, property, industry, railways and roads work? How were
women's rights, welfare, pensions, trades unions, arts, rents and
housing affected? There had been no warning of this marriage and no
preparation for it - and no country had ever tried putting two
completely opposite systems together before. This is the story of
what happened, in the words of the people it happened to - the
people's story of an incredible unification.
The Berlin Olympic Games, more than 70 years on, remain the most
controversial ever held. This book creates a vivid account of the
disputes, the personalities, and the events which made these Games
so memorable. Ironically, the choice of Germany as the host nation
for the 1936 Olympics was intended to signal its return to the
world community after defeat in World War I. In actuality, Hitler
intended the Berlin Games to be an advertisement for Germany as he
was creating it, and they became one of the largest propaganda
exercises in history. Two Germans Jews competed in the Games while
the most memorable achievement was that of black American Jesse
Owens, who won four gold medals. Ultimately, however, Germany was
the overall biggest medal winner. The popular success of Owens
allowed the Nazis to claim that their policies had no racial
element and charges of antisemitism that did arise were leveled at
the Americans.
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