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Cartea prezintă perioada anilor 1918-1948, în care România a parcurs o evoluţie extrem de rapidă, de importantă şi contradictorie, care merită să fie cunoscută de toţi cei interesaţi de propriul trecut, de înţelegerea locului şi a rolului românilor în istoria Europei şi în cea universală. În 1918 s-a realizat România Mare, în 1940 s-a produs o prăbușire teritorială, ameliorată, parțial, în 1945. De la votul cenzitar s-a trecut la cel universal; regimul democratic a sucombat după 20 de ani, când s-a instaurat un regim de autoritate monarhică, urmat de altele, de esență totalitară. În România s-a realizat cea mai cuprinzătoare reformă agrară din Europa în 1921, iar în 1945 o alta, cu puternice conotații politice. Viața de zi cu zi și mentalitatea oamenilor s-au modificat substanțial comparativ cu secolul anterior. Au apărut noi probleme, între care cea a raporturilor între minoritari și majoritari, între individ și autoritatea publică. Toate acestea și multe altele sunt adresate cu claritate și luciditate. Din fiecare pagină transpare o preocupare constantă pentru adevărul istoric deoarece autorul nu prezintă numai părțile luminoase ale trecutului nostru, ci și pe cele problematice. Cartea cuprinde fotografii de epocă și portrete a personalităților importante ale perioadei prezentate. De asemenea, cuprinde o valoroasă anexă cu documente de epocă reprezentative și un index. „Viața trecută a poporului român este plină de întâmplări de toate felurile, de la munca de fiecare zi la petreceri pline de fast, de la războaie nimicitoare la înălțarea de impresionante biserici, de la scrierea cărților la horele cântate și jucate de fete și flăcăi, de la iubiri și doruri la uri și plângeri, de la dărnicie la egoism etc. Românii și-au trăit viata așa cum au putut, nici mai bine și nici mai rău decât alții. Nu există popoare cu istorii bune și altele cu istorii rele, nici popoare cu trecut curat ca lacrima și plin numai de fapte bune, față în față cu altele, condamnate să facă numai rele și să fie urâte, ci există pur și simplu popoare egale, care trebuie respectate. Ca sa putem întelege și face acest lucru, trebuie să cunoaștem trecutul nostru și al celor din jur. Faptul nu ne va ajuta prea mult să prevedem viitorul – cum mai cred unii –, dar ne va face mai înțelepți și ne va pregăti să înțelegem mai bine și să prețuim viața pe care o trăim.” Ion Aurel-Pop, președintele Academiei Române

Ireland, slavery and the Caribbean is a complex and ground-breaking collection of essays. Grounded in history, it integrates perspectives from art historians, architectural and landscape historians, and literary scholars to produce a genuinely interdisciplinary collection that spans from 1620-1830: the high point of European colonialism. By exploring imperial, national and familial relationships from their building blocks of plantation, migration, property and trade, it finds new ways to re-create and question how slavery made the Atlantic world.

The volume consists of fifteen papers discussing a vast array of issues and aspects relating to the concept of cultural memory. Taking as a standpoint the Halbwachs/Assman critical tradition, the individual contributions trace the relevance of the concept in the context of a wide range of areas, from medieval studies, through Victorian culture, up to multifold examples from the contemporary literary scene, especially speculative fiction. The collection of papers is designed as an informative and exhaustive overview tracing the relevance of the notion of cultural memory as a reference point in the discussion of cultural continuity and transformations in the diachronic context of the evolution of European culture.

Desde Balaclava en la guerra de Crimea, las Navas de Tolosa o Cao Bang en Indochina, pasando por la batalla de Trasimeno en las guerras Púnicas, Castillón en la guerra de los Cien Años o el Bosque de Hürtgen en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Gilles Haberey y Hugues Perot analizan las causas de los grandes desastres tácticos. Este ensayo nos permite comprender cómo jefes inteligentes acaban adoptando decisiones erróneas que les conducen a la catástrofe. Estudiadas a través de los filtros sociales, políticos e históricos, las derrotas son casi siempre caricaturizadas, dando una explicación simplista de los hechos. Sin embargo, los errores cometidos por el líder militar acostumbran a ser complejos y son numerosos los factores que están en el origen de los grandes desastres tácticos. Entablar batalla careciendo de información; permitir que el enemigo imponga el campo de batalla; seguir el ritmo del adversario; subestimar al enemigo; carecer de audacia; obstinarse inútilmente; y dejarse llevar por el pánico, son «los siete pecados capitales» que el jefe militar no debe cometer si no se quiere arriesgar a una grave derrota. Son siete errores que se han repetido en multitud de batallas a lo largo de la historia y que, por su reiteración y sus efectos en el resultado del choque militar, merecen ser denominados como «pecados».

Virtue Capitalists explores the rise of the professional middle class across the Anglophone world from c. 1870 to 2008. With a focus on British settler colonies – Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States – Hannah Forsyth argues that the British middle class structured old forms of virtue into rapidly expanding white-collar professional work, needed to drive both economic and civilizational expansion across their settler colonies. They invested that virtue to produce social and economic profit. This virtue became embedded in the networked Anglophone economy so that, by the mid twentieth century, the professional class ruled the world in alliance with managers whose resources enabled the implementation of virtuous strategies. Since morality and capital had become materially entangled, the 1970s economic crisis also presented a moral crisis for all professions, beginning a process whereby the interests of expert and managerial workers separated and began to actively compete.

As a versatile and undemanding aircraft, the Jet Provost established itself as the basic trainer for the RAF from the late 1950s until its retirement in September 1993. In Jet Provost Boys, David Watkins explores the history of this magnificent flying machine through the vivid memories of former air crew from the RAF and foreign air forces. Alongside operating as a basic training aircraft, the Jet Provost had relative success within the civilian and military display flying circuit of the 1960s and 1970s. It was also part of the prestige Golden Eagle Flight at RAF Cranwell which taught the then-Prince of Wales how to fly. When the Jet Provost Mk. 5 model became the BAC 167 Strikemaster after some modifications, it became a counter-insurgency and light-attack aircraft. This capability allowed the aircraft to be sold to air forces around the world including Ceylon, Nigeria, New Zealand, Sudan and Venezuela where it played a reliable and effective role in multiple border disputes and internal warfare. It was crucial to the Sultan of Oman Air Force during the Dhofar War as the intervention of Strikemasters assisted in a significant turning point in the conflict. This book includes a foreword by Squadron Leader Terry Lloyd who was the leader of the 1964–1965 Pelicans display team as well as being illustrated throughout with black and white and color photos. This latest addition to the Boys series is not to be missed and will appeal to all aviation fans.

The Brigade of Guards was the elite force of the British Army in the Crimea. William Scarlett, a captain in the Scots Fusilier Guard and one of the most active junior officers in the regiment, fought throughout the entire campaign. After the Allied landing at Kalamita Bay, Scarlett rallied his regiment at a critical moment during the battle of the Alma, supported by his company sergeant, who was awarded the VC.William Scarlett's life may well have been saved after the battle of Balaklava by becoming an aide de camp to his uncle, General James Scarlett, the commander of the Heavy Brigade. This meant that he did not fight at Inkerman, which took a heavy toll on the officers of the Guards Brigade. Returning to the trenches early in 1855, William Scarlett was involved in all the phases of the siege of Sebastopol until its fall in September 1855.The survival of 139 previously unpublished letters record Scarlett's deeds and thoughts. Written to nineteen different correspondents, and deliberately intended by him to form a personal account of his rôle in the war, his letters provide a forceful commentary on the successes and failures of the British army in the East. His life before and after the war is well recorded. Becoming the third Lord Abinger in 1861, Scarlett was the second English peer to marry an American. He built a castle in Scotland, where Queen Victoria stayed in 1873, and two of his daughters became notable suffragettes.

Poplar Forest is one of two personal residences that Thomas Jefferson designed for himself, the other being Monticello. Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, inherited the land—originally a 6,861-acre parcel—at her father's death in 1773, but Jefferson did not begin construction on the house until 1806, and at his death in 1826, he was still working on his little'getaway.'Despite its audacious design—it was the first documented octagonal residence in America—and the fact that it is one of the very few extant Jeffersonian structures, Poplar Forest is not nearly so well-known today as its sibling seventy miles to the northeast. Undoubtedly, this is due in large part to its more remote location in Bedford County. Additionally, the house remained in private hands until 1984. Travis McDonald situates the site in its rightful position as a historically important Virginia house, and he documents its story as central to Jefferson's life and approach to architecture, including details of the enslaved community at his western retreat. This new, informed account will appeal to architectural historians and visitors to the villa retreat, as well as to those interested in Jefferson's work and legacy.

Although recently more studies have been devoted to the representations of Biblical heroines in modern European art, less is known about the contribution to the portrayals of Biblical women by modern Jewish artists. This monograph explores why and how heroines of the Scripture: Judith, Esther and the Shulamite received a particular meaning for acculturated Jewish artists originating from the Polish lands in the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth century. It convincingly proves that artworks by Maurycy Gottlieb, Wilhem Wachtel, Ephraim Moses Lilien, Maurycy Minkowski, Samuel Hirszenberg and Boris Schatz significantly differed from renderings of contemporary non-Jewish artists, adopting a “Jewish perspective”, creating complex and psychological portrayals of the heroines inspired by Jewish literature and as well as by historical and cultural phenomena of Jewish revival and the cultural Zionism movement.

Hawker Aircraft Ltd at Kingston was arguably the most successful and long-lasting manufacturer of military aircraft in Great Britain and Europe. In its various evolved manifestations – Hawker Aircraft, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, British Aerospace – its output of war winning aircraft, mainly fighters, was unsurpassed. From the Hart and Hurricane through the Hunter, Harrier and Hawk, the company consistently produced aircraft that the UK fighting services wanted. But some designs, for whatever reason, failed to reach flight or were declined by the services.With their sometimes advanced aerodynamics and technology, these aircraft could have had successful service careers but instead were abandoned, their stories failing to reach mainstream consciousness. Having not received their just dues, the present book seeks to redress this omission. The reasons for failure are many and varied, often financial or political, but in each case the reasons behind the failure of the design are examined.In a wide-ranging investigation that documents the origins of Hawker Aircraft Ltd and its famous Project Office, this work, the third in Christopher Budgen's investigation of the inner workings of Hawker Aircraft, is a fitting tribute to the many who made the company the success it was.

The captivating story of WWII Airman Frank Murphy, who features in new TV miniseries Masters of the Air. THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'In the pursuit of authenticity, of accurate history and undeniable courage, no words matter more than,'I was there.'Read Luck of the Draw and the life of Frank Murphy and ponder this: how did those boys do such things?'Tom Hanks The epic true story of an American hero who flew during WWII, featured in the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks TV Series, Masters of the Air. Beginning on August 17, 1942, American heavy bomber crews of the Eighth Air Force took off for combat in the hostile skies over occupied Europe. The final price was staggering. 4,300 B-17s and B-24s failed to return; nearly 28,000 men were taken prisoner or interned in a neutral country, and a further 26,000 made the ultimate sacrifice. Luck of the Draw is more than a war story. It's the incredible, inspiring story of Frank Murphy, one of the few survivors from the 100th Bombardment Group, who cheated death for months in a German POW camp after being shot out of his B-17 Flying Fortress. Now with a new foreword written by his granddaughter Chloe Melas, of NBC, and daughter Elizabeth Murphy.

2024 Jon Gjerde Prize Winner for best book in Midwestern History After the War of 1812 and the removal of the region's Indigenous peoples, the American Midwest became a paradoxical land for settlers. Even as many settlers found that the region provided the bountiful life of their dreams, others found disappointment, even failure—and still others suffered social and racial prejudice. In this broad and authoritative survey of midwestern agriculture from the War of 1812 to the turn of the twentieth century, R. Douglas Hurt contends that this region proved to be the country's garden spot and the nation's heart of agricultural production. During these eighty-five years the region transformed from a sparsely settled area to the home of large industrial and commercial cities, including Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Detroit. Still, it remained primarily an agricultural region that promised a better life for many of the people who acquired land, raised crops and livestock, provided for their families, adopted new technologies, and sought political reform to benefit their economic interests. Focusing on the history of midwestern agriculture during wartime, utopian isolation, and colonization as well as political unrest, Hurt contextualizes myriad facets of the region's past to show how agricultural life developed for midwestern farmers—and to reflect on what that meant for the region and nation.

As the snow fell on the face it froze, and my hair was matted with ice, and icicles formed on my eyelashes. So intense was the cold that whenever I was compelled in visiting the sentries or otherwise to face the blast, my nose burst out bleeding, which with the exposure exhausted one so much, that it was only the certainty of never rising again that prevented me throwing myself down in the snow.'This is just one of many lurid passages from the letters of William John Rous, who arrived in the Crimea in December 1854 with his regiment, the 90th (Perthshire) Regiment. Throughout the following months Rous wrote a series of letters describing the ordeal of life in the trenches before Sevastopol in graphic detail. These letters have remained unpublished ever since. Now though Ian Fletcher, one of the leading authorities on the Crimean War, has edited and illustrated Rous's work for republication. The letters were written during what was the most controversial period of the Crimean War for the British army, for it was during this period that the shortcomings in the army were cruelly exposed during a bitter winter which saw more British soldiers die of cold, disease and overwork than were killed through enemy action. Rous's words bring home the terrible conditions in the trenches, the lack of sleep, the endless overwork, the constant fear and threat of a Russian sortie, not to mention the ever-present dangers posed by the Russian guns inside the city. Rous's experience sheds new light on one of the most famous but tragic campaigns ever fought by the British army.

“Lord Chelmsford is not a bad man. He is industrious and conscientious so far as his lights guide him. But nature has refused to him the qualities of a great captain. He has suffered much and is entitled to certain commiseration.” – Thomas Gibson Bowles, Vanity FairGeneral Lord Chelmsford's military career took him around the world; he served in the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny and the Abyssinian Expedition, before commanding the British invasion of the Zulu Kingdom in South Africa.In January 1879, disaster struck when Chelmsford divided his forces at Isandlwana in the face of the enemy and the Zulu overwhelmed his camp, killing more than 1,300 of its defenders. Such a defeat was almost unprecedented in a Victorian colonial campaign. Despite Chelmsford's later victories at Gingindlovu and Ulundi, he was humiliatingly relieved of his command. His responsibility for Isandlwana dogged him for the rest of his days, and he would forever be associated with this historic defeat.In this comprehensive new biography, Anglo-Zulu War specialist John Laband, explores the personal character and military career of Lord Chelmsford, providing a well-rounded, well-balanced and well-informed picture of this complex military figure.

It is no coincidence that many of Alistair MacLean's most successful novels were sea stories. In 1941, he was called up after volunteering for the Royal Navy and served as Ordinary Seaman, Able Seaman, and Leading Torpedo Operator. For the majority of his service, he was on HMS Royalist, a modified Dido-class light cruiser, seeing action in the Arctic, and operations against the German battleship Tirpitz. The ship then deployed to the Mediterranean taking part in Operation Dragoon the invasion of the South of France and later in operations against German occupied Greek Islands in the Aegean. After which MacLean and Royalist were deployed to the Indian Ocean and operations against the Japanese in Malaya, Burma, and Sumatra. His wartime experiences coupled with exceptional literary skill resulted in the runaway success of his first novel HMS Ulysses (1955) followed by The Guns of Navarone (1957) and South by Java Head (1958). These three blockbusters cemented his position as one of the most successful and highly paid authors of the era. While not a whole life biography, Mark Simmon's book provides a fascinating insight into Maclean's war service and subsequent works, which deserve enduring popularity.

An epic account of the House of Orange-Nassau over one hundred and fifty years of European history. Three rulers from the House of Orange-Nassau reigned over the Netherlands from 1813 to 1890: King William I from 1813 to 1840, King William II from 1840 to 1849, and King William III from 1849 to 1890. Theirs is an epic tale of joy and tragedy, progress and catastrophe, disappointment and glory—all set against the backdrop of a Europe plagued by war and revolution. The House of Orange in Revolution and War relates one and a half centuries of House of Orange history in a gripping narrative, leading the reader from the last stadholders of the Dutch Republic to the modern monarchy of the early twentieth century, from the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars to World War I and the European Revolutions that came after it.

In December 1922 General Nevil Macready sailed away from Dublin for the last time, marking the end of British rule in most of Ireland. Macready was the last in a long line of commanders of the British army in Ireland. The contribution of these men to Irish history has been overlooked. This book seeks to highlight the significant impact made by these generals who were household names in their time. Detailed for the first time are the commanders'duties, which included suppressing rebellion, guarding against enemy invasion, maintaining discipline and promoting the welfare of the army. In addition, their wider role in Irish society is revealed, highlighting their significant influence on the artistic, cultural, and economic life of the country. There is also a focus on the challenges faced by the commanders in managing relations with Dublin Castle, which resulted in crises such as the'Abercromby affair'on the eve of the 1798 rebellion and the Curragh'mutiny'in March 1914. A key theme throughout the book is the gradual shift in attitude towards the commanders due to the growth in Irish nationalism, which would eventually culminate in the evacuation of British Forces in December 1922.

Travel narratives and historical works shaped the perception of Muslims and the East in the Victorian and post-Victorian periods. Analyzing the discourses on Muslims which originated in the European Middle Ages, the first part of the book discusses the troubled legacy of the encounters between the East and the West and locates the nineteenth-century texts concerning the Saracens and their lands in the liminal space between history and fiction. Drawing on the nineteenth-century models, the second part of the book looks at fictional and non-fictional works of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century which re-established the'Oriental obsession,'stimulating dread and resentment, and even more strongly setting the Civilized West against the Barbaric East. Here medieval metaphorical enemies of Mankind – the World, the Flesh and the Devil – reappear in different contexts: the world of immigration, of white women desiring Muslim men, and the present-day'freedom fighters.'

The mid-nineteenth century's Crimean War is frequently dismissed as an embarrassment, an event marred by blunders and an occasion better forgotten. In The Crimean War and its Afterlife Lara Kriegel sets out to rescue the Crimean War from the shadows. Kriegel offers a fresh account of the conflict and its afterlife: revisiting beloved figures like Florence Nightingale and hallowed events like the Charge of the Light Brigade, while also turning attention to newer worthies, including Mary Seacole. In this book a series of six case studies transport us from the mid-Victorian moment to the current day, focusing on the heroes, institutions, and values wrought out of the crucible of the war. Time and again, ordinary Britons looked to the war as a template for social formation and a lodestone for national belonging. With lucid prose and rich illustrations, this book vividly demonstrates the uncanny persistence of a Victorian war in the making of modern Britain.

This book explores the process by which defence policy is made in contemporary Britain and the institutions, actors and conflicting interests which interact in its inception and continuous reformulation.Rather than dealing with the substance of defence policy, this study focuses upon the institutional actors involved in this process. This is a subject which has commanded far more interest from public, Parliament, government and the armed forces since the protracted, bloody and ultimately unsuccessful British military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The work begins with a discussion of two contextual factors shaping policy. The first relates to the impact of Britain's ‘special relationship'with the United States over defence and intelligence matters, while the second considers the impact of Britain's relatively disappointing economic performance upon the funding of British defence since 1945. It then goes on to explore the role and impact of all the key policy actors, from the Prime Minister, Cabinet and core executive, to the Ministry of Defence and its relations with the broader ‘Whitehall village', and the Foreign Office and Treasury in particular. The work concludes by examining the increasing influence of external policy actors and forces, such as Parliament, the courts, political parties, pressure groups and public opinion.This book will be of much interest to students of British defence policy, security studies, and contemporary military history.

Bridges are one of the most important artefacts constructed by man, the structures having had an incalculable effect on the development of trade and civilisation throughout the world. Their construction has led to continuing advances in civil engineering technology, leading to bigger spans and the use of new materials. Their failures, too, whether from an inadequate understanding of engineering principles or as a result of natural catastrophes or warfare, have often caused immense hardship as a result of lost lives or broken communications. In this book, a sister publication to his earlier An Encyclopaedia of British Bridges (Pen & Sword 2019), David McFetrich gives brief descriptions of some 1200 bridges from more than 170 countries around the world. They represent a wide range of different types of structure (such as beam, cantilever, stayed and suspension bridges). Although some of the pictures are of extremely well-known structures, many are not so widely recognisable and a separate section of the book includes more than seventy lists of bridges with distinctly unusual characteristics in their design, usage and history.

The morning of the Battle of Balaklava, on 25 October 1854, saw a desperate charge against a greatly superior Russian force. Epitomised by the reckless courage of the British cavalry in the face of heavy odds, the charge was a complete success, putting the Russians to flight. This charge was not that of the Light Brigade, which took place later the same day, but that of the Heavy Brigade, under the command of General James Scarlett. Caught by surprise, Scarlett dressed the three hundred men nearest to him, placed himself well ahead of them and charged uphill to an extraordinary and unlikely victory. The Charge of the Heavy Brigade, a resounding success, has unjustly been overshadowed by the blunders that led to the heroic defeat of the Charge of the Light Brigade. James Scarlett himself has also been unfairly ignored due the focus on the enmity between the Earls of Cardigan and Lucan. The strategic significance of the Heavy Brigade's victory, preventing the Russians capturing the key British base, the port of Balaklava, has been overlooked, as has General Scarlett's decisive part in thwarting Russia's best chance of winning the Crimean War. Although his heroic leadership at Balaklava was undoubtedly the most important event in James Scarlett's life, he had a long and distinguished military career before and after the Crimean War. Based on his own previously unpublished letters, including a long description of his day at Balaklava, General Sir James Scarlett is the first book focused on a remarkable soldier.

Operation Chastise, the audacious attack on the dams in the Ruhr valley, is arguably one of the most famous airborne attacks in history. During the night of 16/17 May 1943, 133 men in nineteen specially-adapted Lancasters – the famous Dambusters – set off to attack six dams deep in the heart of Germany. Eight of the bombers, and 56 of the aircrew, did not come home. Three of the aircrew who took part were from the High Peak region of Derbyshire. Flight Lieutenant Bill Astell, the pilot of ED864 who hailed from Coombs near Chapel-en-le-Frith, was killed after flying into electricity pylons on the way to the dams. The navigator in ED924, Sergeant John Nugent, from Stoney Middleton, survived the Dambusters Raid but was killed later in the war. The third High Peak Dambuster, on whom this biography concentrates, is the little-known Sergeant Jack Marriott from Chinley, the flight engineer on Lancaster ED937 during the attack. Marriott's Lancaster, Z-Zebra, reached the Möhne Dam, only to discover that it had been breached, some five bouncing bombs already having been released at it. The crew, led by Squadron Leader Henry Maudslay DFC, then flew on to the Eder Dam where their ‘bouncing bomb'exploded beneath the Lancaster after hitting the parapet of the structure. The damaged Lancaster struggled homeward, but was shot down on the Dutch border; Jack, together with his crew, was killed in the crash. In this autobiography, Frank Pleszak explores Jack's life, his RAF service prior to joining 617 Squadron, and then the events leading up to and during Operation Chastise itself. But for Jack, one the immortal Dambusters, his story continued on after that historic night – particularly during the filming of the 1955 epic Dam Busters in which his aircraft features.

'What a brilliant book this is… a terrific narrative of Hitler's Ardennes offensive of December 1944 – superb storytelling that achieves a skilful balance between drama and detail.'- James HollandThe Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive in the West. Launched in the depths of winter to neutralize the overwhelming Allied air superiority, three German armies attacked through the Ardennes, the weakest part of the American lines, with the aim of splitting the Allied armies and seizing the vital port of Antwerp within a week.It was a tall order, as the Panzers had to get across the Our, Amblève, Ourthe and Meuse rivers, and the desperate battle became a race against time and the elements, which the Germans would eventually lose. But Hitler's dramatic counterattack did succeed in catching the Allies off guard in what became the largest and bloodiest battle fought by US forces during the war. In this book, Anthony Tucker-Jones tells the story of the battle from the German point of view, from the experiences of the infantrymen and panzer crewmen fighting on the ground in the Ardennes to the operational decisions of senior commanders such as SS-Oberstgruppenführer Josef'Sepp'Dietrich and General Hasso von Manteuffel that did so much to decide the fate of the offensive.Drawing on new research, Hitler's Winter provides a fresh perspective on one of the most famous battles of World War II.

Horses and horsemen played central roles in modern European warfare from the Renaissance to the Great War of 1914-1918, not only determining victory in battle, but also affecting the rise and fall of kingdoms and nations. When Shakespeare's Richard III cried,'A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!'he attested to the importance of the warhorse in history and embedded the image of the warhorse in the cultural memory of the West.In Riding to Arms: A History of Horsemanship and Mounted Warfare, Charles Caramello examines the evolution of horsemanship—the training of horses and riders—and its relationship to the evolution of mounted warfare over four centuries. He explains how theories of horsemanship, navigating between art and utility, eventually settled on formal manège equitation merged with outdoor hunting equitation as the ideal combination for modern cavalry. He also addresses how the evolution of firepower and the advent of mechanized warfare eventually led to the end of horse cavalry. Riding to Arms tracks the history of horsemanship and cavalry through scores of primary texts ranging from Federico Grisone's Rules of Riding (1550) to Lt.-Colonel E.G. French's Good-Bye to Boot and Saddle (1951). It offers not only a history of horsemen, horse soldiers, and horses, but also a survey of the seminal texts that shaped that history.

How can shadows determine the date and time of a painting by Johannes Vermeer? How did the Moon and tides cause the loss of King John's crown jewels? In his newest book, Professor Olson, author of Celestial Sleuth and Further Adventures of the Celestial Sleuth, explores how astronomical clues can uncover fascinating new details about art, history, and literature. He begins with an accessible introduction to amateur “celestial sleuthing,” showing how to use your astronomical knowledge, software, archives, vintage maps, historical letters and diaries, military records, and other resources to investigate the past. Follow along as Professor Olson then explores twenty real-world cases where astronomy has helped answer unresolved questions or correct longstanding interpretations about an event. Examples involve artists such as Vermeer, Monet, and O'Keeffe; the historical exploits of Alexander the Great, the desert travels of the Death Valley'49ers, and ameeting between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in Marrakech; and literary works by Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Longfellow. Packed with dozens of full-color illustrations, this book will enrich your knowledge of the past and equip you with all the tools you'll need to become a celestial sleuth yourself. “Many people have a passion for art, or world history, or great literature, or even astronomy — but seldom in all these things at once. This remarkable book by Donald Olson of Texas State University will put you in touch with such seemingly unrelated endeavors. It will open your eyes and broaden your mind as little else could.” Roger W. Sinnott, Sky & Telescope

Explore the Eastern Front battle that resulted in one of the greatest defeats of World War I, in which an entire Russian army was annihilated by German arms.Tannenberg is a major battle that deserves a fully illustrated treatment all of its own, and for the first time this book brings the epic Eastern Front clash to life in visual detail. No other book on this topic walks you through the action like this one, using detailed maps to provide unit locations and movements and help explain key command decisions, while period photographs and colour battlescenes put soldiering back at the core of the events by revealing the military material culture of the opposing sides. Michael McNally guides you through the initial border engagements and the battles of Gumbinnen and Stallupönen, before moving on to explore the massive, often confused running battle of Tannenberg in easy to follow and concise detail. This work helps you understand how the Germans managed to maul Samsonov's Second Army and all but destroyed the Russians as a fighting force. The Russian war plan of using overwhelming numbers to gain a quick victory before conducting further operations would soon lie in pieces on the ground. It also assesses the contribution modern technology – such as railways, aerial reconnaissance, radio and telegraphy – made to the emphatic German victory.

The Place of the Mosque: Genealogies of Space, Knowledge, and Power extends Foucault's analysis, Of Other Spaces, and the “ideological conflicts which underlie the controversies of our day [and] take place between pious descendants of time and tenacious inhabitants of space.” This book uses Foucault's framework to illuminate how mosques have been threatened in the past, from the Cordóba Mosque in the eighth century, to the development of Moorish aesthetics in the United States in the nineteenth century, to the clashes surrounding the building of mosques in the West in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Akel Kahera uses Foucault's genealogy to elaborate on and study the subjects that are caught in the emergence of a battle—the social and political will to power, the networks of power, and the rituals of power—within the interstitial space. In going beyond individual buildings to broader geographical and genealogical dimensions of the power struggles, The Place of the Mosque reconciles the public space experience, governmentality, and micro powers, paving the way for a new philosophical language. Expanding architectural and urban regional approaches, Kahera shows the biopolitical significance of the problem of space.

The work of a super-sleuth, this book places every story and every sentence of Joyce's Dubliners under a microscope, leaving no word unturned. It investigates every bit of evidence, direct and circumstantial, and invents a whole new analytical approach to show how Joyce manipulates his readers into believing his narrators'fictions, while the reality is hidden in plain sight. The book is essential for any serious reader of Dubliners. It solves mysteries that have eluded Joycean scholars, but also contrives to be a guide for the general reader. Indeed, for anyone who reads this book, Dubliners will never be the same again.

Die Bibel birgt einen Schatz von volkstümlichen Redewendungen. Zu ihnen gehören z.B. sich ins Fäustchen lachen, die Haare zu Berge stehen, gegen den Strom schwimmen. Martin Luther und sein Team von Übersetzern haben sich ihrer mit Vorliebe bedient, um die biblischen Originalsprachen anschaulich, dem Volk aufs Maul sehend, zu übersetzen. Redewendungen sind feste Wortverbindungen einer Sprachgemeinschaft. Sie spiegeln Einstellungen und Verhaltensweisen wider, vereinfachen die Kommunikation, machen sprachliche Äußerungen attraktiv. Die vorliegende Arbeit stellt 350 Redewendungen der Lutherbibel vor. Sie erklärt ihre Bedeutung im Kontext des Bibeltextes und verdeutlicht ihren Einfluss auf die deutsche Sprache an Beispielen aus literarischen Werken (Belletristik, Lieddichtung, Philosophie, Geschichte). [A Sealed Book. The Biblical Idioms] The Bible contains a treasure trove of popular idioms. They include, for example, laughing in one's sleeve, one's hair standing on end, striving against the stream. Martin Luther and his team of translators liked to use them to vividly translate the original biblical language, looking at how people really talk. Idioms are fixed word combinations of a language community. They reflect attitudes and behaviours, simplify communication, and make linguistic expressions attractive. This work presents 350 idioms of the Luther Bible. It explains their meaning in the context of the biblical text and illustrates their influence on the German language with examples from literary works (fiction, song poetry, philosophy, history).

This book examines British collectors of so-called Persian art (a broad umbrella term then covering a large portion of Islamic art) in the late 19th century, including ceramics, metalwork, carpets, textiles and woodwork.Based on a foundational event, the very first exhibition of “Persian and Arab Art” held by a London Gentlemen's Club in 1885, this book follows one generation of men, retracing the subtle shades of difference among “amateurs,” “connoisseurs,” “experts” and “collectors,” and exploring all the mechanisms of the construction of a collective fascination for the Orient. Isabelle Gadoin uncovers some of the first “scientific” analyses of Islamic objects and of the first private notebooks or exhibition catalogues, to provide an in-depth study of the way Westerners talked about Islamic objects and began to define what would become Islamic art history. All the while, Gadoin unravels the skein of Western prejudice, Romantic fancy, sincere admiration and ruthless appropriation, in art collecting, to write a new chapter of Orientalist history.The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, history of collecting, colonialism and postcolonialism, and Orientalism.