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The past is capricious enough to support every stance - no matter
how questionable. In 2002, the Bush administration decided that
dealing with Saddam Hussein was like appeasing Hitler or Mussolini,
and promptly invaded Iraq. Were they wrong to look to history for
guidance? No; their mistake was to exaggerate one of its lessons
while suppressing others of equal importance. History is often
hijacked through suppression, manipulation, and, sometimes, even
outright deception. MacMillan's book is packed full of examples of
the abuses of history. In response, she urges us to treat the past
with care and respect.
New York Times 10 Best Books of 2020 Sunday Times best books for
Autumn 2020 Guardian critics' pick for Autumn 2020 Wall Street
Journal notable book of 2020 The time since the Second World War
has been seen by some as the longest uninterrupted period of
harmony in human history: the 'long peace', as Stephen Pinker
called it. But despite this, there has been a military conflict
ongoing every year since 1945. The same can be said for every
century of recorded history. Is war, therefore, an essential part
of being human? In War, Professor Margaret MacMillan explores the
deep links between society and war and the questions they raise. We
learn when war began - whether among early homo sapiens or later,
as we began to organise ourselves into tribes and settle in
communities. We see the ways in which war reflects changing
societies and how war has brought change - for better and worse.
Economies, science, technology, medicine, culture: all are
instrumental in war and have been shaped by it - without conflict
it we might not have had penicillin, female emancipation, radar or
rockets. Throughout history, writers, artists, film-makers,
playwrights, and composers have been inspired by war - whether to
condemn, exalt or simply puzzle about it. If we are never to be rid
of war, how should we think about it and what does that mean for
peace?
What difference do individuals make to history? Are we all swept up
in the great forces like industrialisation or globalisation, or is
the world we inhabit shaped just as much by real people - leaders
for example - and the decisions that they make? For better or for
worse, the personalities of the powerful can affect millions of
people and the future of countries: it matters who is in the
driving seat, and who is making plans. Equally important: how is
history itself made by those who keep the records? In History's
People Margaret Macmillan explores the lives of the great and
lesser-known figures of the past: men, women, explorers, rulers,
dreamers, politicians, observers, campaigners. She looks at the
concept of leadership, from Bismarck to Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
but also at the role of observers such as Babur, first Mughal
emperor of India, and asks how explorers and visionaries such as
Fanny Parkes and Elizabeth Simcoe managed to defy or ignore the
constraints of their own societies. And, in doing so, she uncovers
the important and complex relationship between biography and
history, and between individuals and their times. Like all the best
history, this book will change the way you see the past, as well as
your own times - and perhaps introduce you to some people you
didn't know.
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Paris 1919 (Paperback)
Margaret MacMillan
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R415
R332
Discovery Miles 3 320
Save R83 (20%)
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Ships in 5 - 10 working days
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Previously published as Peacemakers Between January and July 1919,
after the war to end all wars, men and women from all over the
world converged on Paris for the Peace Conference. At its heart
were the leaders of the three great powers - Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd
George and Clemenceau. Kings, prime ministers and foreign ministers
with their crowds of advisers rubbed shoulders with journalists and
lobbyists for a hundred causes - from Armenian independence to
women's rights. Everyone had business in Paris that year - T.E.
Lawrence, Queen Marie of Romania, Maynard Keynes, Ho Chi Minh.
There had never been anything like it before, and there never has
been since. For six extraordinary months the city was effectively
the centre of world government as the peacemakers wound up bankrupt
empires and created new countries. They pushed Russia to the
sidelines, alienated China and dismissed the Arabs, struggled with
the problems of Kosovo, of the Kurds, and of a homeland for the
Jews. The peacemakers, so it has been said, failed dismally; failed
above all to prevent another war. Margaret MacMillan argues that
they have unfairly been made scapegoats for the mistakes of those
who came later. They tried to be evenhanded, but their goals - to
make defeated countries pay without destroying them, to satisfy
impossible nationalist dreams, to prevent the spread of Bolshevism
and to establish a world order based on democracy and reason -
could not be achieved by diplomacy. Paris 1919 (originally
published as Peacemakers) offers a prismatic view of the moment
when much of the modern world was first sketched out.
WINNER of the International Affairs Book of the Year at the
Political Book Awards 2014Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize
2013 The First World War followed a period of sustained peace in
Europe during which people talked with confidence of prosperity,
progress and hope. But in 1914, Europe walked into a catastrophic
conflict which killed millions of its men, bled its economies dry,
shook empires and societies to pieces, and fatally undermined
Europe's dominance of the world. It was a war which could have been
avoided up to the last moment-so why did it happen? Beginning in
the early nineteenth century, and ending with the assassination of
Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand, award-winning historian Margaret
MacMillan uncovers the huge political and technological changes,
national decisions and -- just as important-the small moments of
human muddle and weakness that led Europe from peace to disaster.
This masterful exploration of how Europe chose its path towards war
will change and enrich how we see this defining moment in our
history.
Celebrated for her pioneering work to improve the education, health
and welfare of slum children, Margaret McMillan (1860 1931) was an
active socialist campaigner and member of the Independent Labour
Party. Her involvement with Bradford school boards drew her
attention to the poor state of health of the pupils - rickets,
scurvy, anaemia and malnutrition were commonplace. Working with her
sister Rachel (1859 1917), as well as lobbying for improved
standards, Margaret opened the country's first school clinic in Bow
in 1908. The sisters' most famous enterprise, the Deptford Camp
School, soon followed, and the Rachel McMillan College for training
nurses and teachers was founded in 1930. One of her many
influential books on pre-school and primary education, this work of
1907 considers the vital role of the school doctor and argues that
the practice of poor schoolchildren engaging in part-time labour is
detrimental to their well-being.
National Bestseller
New York Times Editors’ Choice
Winner of the PEN Hessell Tiltman Prize
Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize
Silver Medalist for the Arthur Ross Book Award of the Council on Foreign Relations
Finalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award
For six months in 1919, after the end of “the war to end all wars,” the Big Three—President Woodrow Wilson, British prime minister David Lloyd George, and French premier Georges Clemenceau—met in Paris to shape a lasting peace. In this landmark work of narrative history, Margaret MacMillan gives a dramatic and intimate view of those fateful days, which saw new political entities—Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Palestine, among them—born out of the ruins of bankrupt empires, and the borders of the modern world redrawn.
14-18 NOW: Contemporary arts commissions for the First World War centenary presents a detailed look at the extensive 14-18 NOW programme, which was set up to bring a creative response to the centenary of the First World War. The richly illustrated hardback includes an introduction by Margaret MacMillan and essays by David Olusoga, Danny Boyle, Akram Khan, Helen Marriage, Charlotte Higgins, Mark Kermode, William Kentridge and Rachel Whiteread.
Spread over five years, 14-18 NOW created a new way of marking major national moments through the arts, commissioning artists to create works that respond to different aspects of the war through film, visual arts, literature, dance, theatre and music. With a vast number of images from the entire season, this fully-illustrated book is a reminder of the transformative power of the arts to bring the stories of the First World War to life, through projects such as Jeremy Deller's Somme tribute We're here because we're here, Peter Jackson's colourised film They Shall Not Grow Old, and Danny Boyle's Armistice beach memorial Pages of the Sea.
The 14-18 NOW programme is one of the largest public art commissions of all time, creating over 100 artworks which have been seen by more than 35 million people. Artists include Rachel Whiteread, John Akomfrah, Gillian Wearing, Peter Jackson, Danny Boyle, Vivienne Westwood, Jeremy Deller, Shobana Jeyasingh, Sir Peter Blake, Anna Meredith, William Kentridge, Akram Khan, Susan Philipsz and Yinka Shonibare CBE.
Perceptions of the war have been shaped by the artists of the time, including poets, painters, photographers and film-makers - many of whom served and who reflected on the war and its effects. One hundred years later, today's artists are opening up new perspectives on the present as well as the past.
Total War is an illustrated account of the most pivotal historical
episode of the 20th century: the Second World War. It was not one
single event, but rather the confluence of many simultaneous
conflicts across the globe - on land, in the air, across the sea
and beneath it. The state of 'total war' revealed nations in
turmoil, destroying the boundaries between civilians and combatants
and unleashing violence, death and destruction on a scale never
previously experienced. This authoritative, immersive account of a
conflict that forever reshaped the geopolitical landscape is told
not only through compelling photographs of wartime events and
detailed maps, but also through a series of artefacts that convey
the real-life stories of those involved, from Europe, Asia, the
United States and beyond. Published to coincide with the
much-anticipated opening of the new Second World War and Holocaust
galleries at the Imperial War Museums, London, in 2021, Total War
is an essential volume for anyone with an interest in the everyday
realities of one of the most brutal and significant wars in modern
history. Many unique images from the IWM's Second World War and
Holocaust collection are included, some being published for the
first time. From German-Jewish passports and dolls made by Latvian
war refugees, to Molotov cocktails and US bomber squadron flying
gear, the book delves into the significance behind the deeply
moving objects reproduced. With precision, sensitivity and a truly
global approach, Total War offers a strikingly original visual
perspective on an emotive and often controversial subject. With 390
illustrations
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger
Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain
imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed
pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we
have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting,
preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger
Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and
hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
"The New York Times Book Review - The Economist - The Christian
Science Monitor - Bloomberg Businessweek - The Globe and
Mail"
From the bestselling and award-winning author of "Paris 1919" comes
a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, a fascinating portrait of
Europe from 1900 up to the outbreak of World War I.
The century since the end of the Napoleonic wars had been the most
peaceful era Europe had known since the fall of the Roman Empire.
In the first years of the twentieth century, Europe believed it was
marching to a golden, happy, and prosperous future. But instead,
complex personalities and rivalries, colonialism and ethnic
nationalisms, and shifting alliances helped to bring about the
failure of the long peace and the outbreak of a war that
transformed Europe and the world.
" "
"The War That Ended Peace "brings vividly to life the military
leaders, politicians, diplomats, bankers, and the extended,
interrelated family of crowned headsacross Europe who failed to
stop the descent into war: in Germany, the mercurial Kaiser Wilhelm
II and the chief of the German general staff, Von Moltke the
Younger; in Austria-Hungary, Emperor Franz Joseph, a man who tried,
through sheer hard work, to stave off the coming chaos in his
empire; in Russia, Tsar Nicholas II and his wife; in Britain, King
Edward VII, Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, and British admiral
Jacky Fisher, the fierce advocate of naval reform who entered into
the arms race with Germany that pushed the continent toward
confrontation on land and sea.
There are the would-be peacemakers as well, among them prophets of
the horrors of future wars whose warnings went unheeded: Alfred
Nobel, who donated his fortune to the cause of international
understanding, and Bertha von Suttner, a writer and activist who
was the first woman awarded Nobel's new Peace Prize. Here too we
meet the urbane and cosmopolitan Count Harry Kessler, who noticed
many of the early signs that something was stirring in Europe; the
young Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty and a
rising figure in British politics; Madame Caillaux, who shot a man
who might have been a force for peace; and more. With indelible
portraits, MacMillan shows how the fateful decisions of a few
powerful people changed the course of history.
Taut, suspenseful, and impossible to put down, "The War That Ended
Peace" is also a wise cautionary reminder of how wars happen in
spite of the near-universal desire to keep the peace. Destined to
become a classic in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of
August," "The War That Ended Peace" enriches our understanding of
one of the defining periods and events of the twentieth
century.
Praise for "The War That Ended Peace"
"Magnificent . . . "The War That Ended Peace" will certainly rank
among the best books of the centennial crop."--"The
Economist"
"Superb."--"The New York Times Book Review"
" "
"Masterly . . . marvelous . . . Those looking to understand why
World War I happened will have a hard time finding a better place
to start."--"The Christian Science Monitor"
" "
"The debate over the war's origins has raged for years. Ms.
MacMillan's explanation goes straight to the heart of political
fallibility. . . . Elegantly written, with wonderful character
sketches of the key players, this is a book to be treasured."--The
Wall Street Journal
"A magisterial 600-page panorama."--Christopher Clark, "London
Review of Books"
"From the Hardcover edition."
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