Paths of Glory - The Life and Death of General James Wolfe

Biographies & Memoirs

Stephen Brumwell

Historical

Hambledon Continuum

Nazis and the Cinema

Before the rise of television, the cinema was a key medium of entertainment and information. The Nazi regime, which inherited the largest film industry outside Hollywood, realised this, with some of the most memorable images of Hitler and his party coming from Leni Riefenstahl's film Triumph of the Will. Susan Tegel has written a comprehensive account of the films made in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, including the notorious feature film, Jud Süss, and the compilation documentary Der Ewige Jude. She explores in detail how the film makers were controlled and used by the regime and examines other less well-known films featuring Jewish characters and how their image differed from film to film. She also looks at the industry itself, its reorganization, funding, the interventions of the Propaganda Ministry headed by Goebbels, the compromises which people had to make, the careerism and the dangers which some faced either of unemployment or worse.

Humor & Entertainment

Tegel, Susan

Movies

The British Empire was based on sea power and on a navy that controlled the shipping lanes of the world. To man its ships large numbers of trained seamen were needed, above all in times of war. To make up the needed complements, the press gang seized men, usually those with sailing experience, from merchant ships and from ports, tearing them instantly and forcibly from their jobs and homes, sometimes for voyages that lasted years. Nicholas Rogers examines the history of the press gang and how it operated, with the tricks used both by the gangs and those trying to escape them. Operating often on the fringes of legality, the press gang's activities were resisted both physically and in the courts. The Press Gang also paints a picture of life aboard men-of-war, showing just how well advised men were to try and avoid impressments.

The Press Gang

Nicholas Rogers

History

Warhorse: Cavalry in Ancient Warfare

Ancient Civilizations

The age of Elizabeth I continues to exercise a fascination unmatched by other periods of English history. Yet while the leading figures may seem familiar, many Elizabethan figures, including the queen herself, remain enigmatic. In Elizabethans Patrick Collinson examines the religious beliefs both of Elizabeth and of Shakespeare, as well as redrawing the main features of the political and religious structure of the reign. He understands the characters of the period as individuals but is also sensitive to the attitudes and beliefs of the day.

Elizabethans

Collinson, Patrick

Americas

Three King Richards ruled England in the Middle Ages. All had memorable reigns. Richard I was a crusading hero; Richard II was an authoritarian aesthete who was deposed and murdered; Richard III was the most famous villain in English history, locking his nephews in a tower to secure his reign. This highly readable joint biography shows how much the three kings had in common.. All were younger sons, not expected to come to the throne; all failed to produce an heir, leaving instability on their deaths; all were cultured and pious; and all died violently. For centuries, these three kings have attracted accusations but also fascination, being immortalized in theater, movies, myths, and books. In Three Richards, Nigel Saul shows why.

The Three Richards: Richard I, Richard II and Richard III

Saul, Nigel

This is the first book to relate to the literature and art of the First World War to the literature and art produced by the Second World War and by earlier wars. A Muse of Fire is also the first serious attempt to examine the whole range of war poetry and war fiction in English in its relation to the work of German, French, Italian and - to a lesser extent - Russian, Danish, and Hungarian authors.Before 1914 few authors wrote about or experienced war. War, especially its reality, was not the proper subject of literature; while writers seldom served in the armed forces and were almost never in battle.More than half this book deals with the First World War. In successive chapters A.D. Harvey discusses what sort of people, in what sort of physical and psychological conditions, wrote about the war; or painted it; how they handled the challenge of describing their experiences with complete honesty; what literary and artistic techniques they employed; how other forms of creative talent were fostered by the war; and how far memoirs of the war prepared the way for the next one.The account given of the Second World War in the final section, like the chapters on pre-1914 war literature, provides far more than simply an introduction and conclusion to the central part of the book. It is an important contribution to an understanding of how literature and art relate to the psychological and social structures of the communities within which they are produced.

Muse of Fire: Literature, Art And War

A.D. HARVEY

Europe

Ronald Hutton's latest book is the first comprehensive study of what people have thought about the ancient Druids and why. Written in a racy and accesible style it is essential reading for everyone interested in exploring our mysterious past. Most books written on the Druids hitherto have been by archaeologists specialising in the Iron Age, who have occupied a great deal of space trying to find things to say about the 'original' ancient priesthood. Most have then devoted a final section of their books to people who have called themselves Druids since 1700 - until recently with contemptuous dismissal. Hutton's contention is that the sources for the ancient Druids are so few and unreliable that almost nothing certain can be said about them. Instead he reverses the traditional balance of interest to look at the many ways in which Druids have been imagined in Britain since 1500, and what this tells us about modern and early modern society. In the process he achieves many new insights into the development of British national identities, established and 'alternative' religions, literary culture, fraternal organisation and protest movements. He also suggests new ways in which the discipline of archaeology can be perceived - which will delight some practitioners and enrage others.

The Druids

Hutton, Ronald

Empire: A History of the British Empire

For almost two hundred years, Britain dominated the world, its naval supremacy enabling it to acquire a vast empire, including India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and much of Africa. Although, it could not prevent its American colonies from becoming independent, its industrial and commercial power helped it to keep its scattered possessions under control, while a small army was sufficient to put down native rebellions in the absence of the involvement of other European states. A dwindling economy, and the cost of two world wars, saw this once-mighty empire crumble, giving in the process independence to nearly all of its dominions in the years after 1945. "Empire" is a succinct and highly readable account of this extraordinary rise and fall.

LLOYD, Trevor

The Whigs were one of the two great English political parties in the 150 years after 1700, vastly influential whether in office or in opposition. Yet the Whigs were much more than simply a group of politicians. An exclusive set, composed of the greatest and wealthiest families, the Whig world was a self-contained and small one, impervious to outside criticism. With members such as Charles James Fox, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and Lord Byron, its gambling, loose-living, drinking and wit was notorious. The Whig World is a portrait, of which politics forms only a small part, of an extraordinary group of men and women whose power, taste and intellect dominated the centre of what had become the greatest power in the world. Cosmopolitan, sceptical, urban, sophisticated, and promiscuous, the Whigs numbered many more brilliant conversationalists and controversialists amongst their number than the Bloomsbury Group.

Whig World: 1760-1837

Mitchell, Leslie

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