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The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women in Space
The remarkable true story of America’s first women astronauts
‘Lifts the curtain on the moment when Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for man” expanded to encompass the talent, ambition and perseverance of America’s first female astronauts’ MARGOT LEE SHETTERLY, bestselling author of Hidden Figures
‘Strap yourself in for a thrilling ride with genuine American heroes – six women who proved you don’t need the right plumbing to have the right stuff!’ LYNN SHERR, author of Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space
When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s the agency excluded women from the corps, arguing that only military test pilots – a group then made up exclusively of men – had the right stuff. It was an era in which women were steered away from jobs in science and deemed too fragile for space flight. Eventually, though, NASA relented and opened the application process to everyone, regardless of race or gender. From a 1977 candidate pool of 8,000 six elite women were selected – Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon.
In The Six, acclaimed journalist Loren Grush shows these brilliant and courageous women enduring claustrophobic – and sometimes deeply sexist – media attention, undergoing rigorous survival training, and preparing for years to take multi-million-dollar payloads into orbit. Together, the Six helped build the tools that made the space program run. One of the group, Judy Resnik, sacrificed her life when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded at 46,000 feet. Everyone knows of Sally Ride’s history-making first space ride, but each of the Six would make their mark.
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£10.11£10.99 -
The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge
UPDATED EDITION
A rousing and full-blooded account of the Spanish Civil War and the rise to prominence of General Franco.No modern conflict has inflamed the passions of both civilians and intellectuals as much as the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39. Burned into our collective historical consciousness, it not only prefigured the imminent Second World War but also ushered in a new and horrific form of warfare that would come to define the twentieth century. At the same time it echoed the revolutionary aspirations of millions of Europeans and Americans after the painful years of the Great Depression.
In this authoritative history, Paul Preston vividly recounts the political ideals and military horrors of the Spanish Civil War – including the controversial bombing of Guernica – and tracks the emergence of General Franco’s brutal but extraordinarily durable fascist dictatorship.
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£11.40£12.30 -
The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain
Selected as the Sunday Times History Book of the Year for 2012, this is a meticulous work of scholarship from the foremost historian of 20th-century Spain.
The culmination of more than a decade of research, ‘The Spanish Holocaust’ seeks to reflect the intense horrors visited upon Spain during its ferocious civil war, the consequences of which still reverberate bitterly today.
The brutal, murderous persecution of Spaniards between 1936 and 1945 is a truth that should have been told long ago. Paul Preston here offers the first comprehensive picture of what he terms “the Spanish Holocaust”: mass extra-judicial murder of some 200,000 victims, cursory military trials, torture, the systematic abuse of women and children, sweeping imprisonment, the horrors of exile. Those culpable for crimes committed on both sides of the Civil War are named; their victims identified.
‘The Spanish Holocaust’ illuminates one of the darkest, least-known eras of modern European history.
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£3.70£12.30 -
The Strange Survival of Liberal Britain: Politics and Power Before the First World War
“Masterly … A fascinating tour d’horizon of the Edwardian political scene. This must be a definitive account.” – Professor Jane Ridley, author of George V: Never a Dull Moment
“A tour de force, sympathetic in its treatment of the subject, eminently wise in its judgement and invariably fair in its verdicts. It purrs along like a Rolls-Royce engine.” – Professor T. G. Otte, author of Statesman of Europe: A Life of Sir Edward Grey
“This brilliant book from Britain’s most important constitutional historian upends the orthodoxy about the decadent Edwardians. A masterpiece of intelligent history, both forceful and subtle, which transforms how we view not just those most complex Edwardians but also our own equally complex times.” – Professor Richard Aldous, author of The Lion and the Unicorn: Gladstone vs Disraeli
“Brilliant. Instantly the leading history of this turbulent and critical period in Britain’s transition towards a modern democracy.” – Professor Robert Blackburn, King’s College London
“Vernon Bogdanor has the habit of unearthing gems that have been missed by others. He does it again in this magisterial work on post-Gladstonian Britain by challenging some of the long-established myths about this period that deserve to be cast aside.” – Professor Malcolm Murfett, King’s College London
“Professor Bogdanor argues with conviction and sometimes passion but always with judiciousness and in the light of deep reflection. The result is a masterly work which speaks to the politics of our own time.” – Alvin Jackson, Richard Lodge Professor of History, University of Edinburgh
“An extraordinary exploration of a political world whose dynamics continue to shape the future of liberal constitutionalism.” – Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University
“Crisp, authoritative and lucid.” – Nicholas Owen, associate professor of politics, University of Oxford
The turbulent years of 1895 to 1914 changed Britain’s political landscape for ever. They saw a transition from aristocratic rule to mass politics and heralded a new agenda which still dominates today. The issues of the period – economic modernisation, social welfare and equality, secondary and technical education, a new role for Britain in the world – were complex and difficult. Indeed, they proved so thorny that despite the efforts of the Edwardians they remain among the most pressing problems we face in the twenty-first century.
The period has often been seen as one of decadence, of the strange death of liberal Britain. In contrast, Vernon Bogdanor believes that the robustness of Britain’s parliamentary and political institutions and her liberal political culture, with the commitment to rational debate and argument, were powerful enough to carry her through one of the most trying periods of her history and so make possible the remarkable survival of liberal Britain.
In this wide-ranging and sometimes controversial survey, one of our pre-eminent political historians dispels the popular myths that have grown up about this critical period in Britain’s story and argues that it set the scene for much that is laudable about our nation today.
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£8.50£33.30 -
The Tank War: The British Band of Brothers – One Tank Regiment’s World War II
From the evacuation of France in 1940 to the final dash to Hamburg in 1945, the 5th Royal Tank Regiment were on the front line throughout the Second World War. Theirs was a war that saw them serve in Africa as part of the Desert Rats, before returning to Europe for the Normandy landings. Wherever they went, the notoriety of the ‘Filthy Fifth’ grew – they revelled in their reputation for fighting by their own rules.
The Tank War explains how Britain, having lost its advantage in tank warfare by 1939, regained ground through shifts in tactics and leadership methods, as well as the daring and bravery of the crews themselves. Overturning the received wisdom of much Second World War history, Mark Urban shows how the tank regiments’ advances were the equal of the feats of the German Panzer divisions.
Drawing on a wealth of new material, from interviews with surviving soldiers to rarely seen archive material, this is an unflinchingly honest, unsentimental and often brutal account of the 5th RTR’s wartime experiences. Capturing the characters in the crews and exploring the strategy behind their success, The Tank War is not just the story of an battle hardened unit, but something more extraordinary: the triumph of ordinary men, against long odds, in the darkest of times.
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The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century (Ian Mortimer’s Time Traveller’s Guides)
Discover an original, entertaining and illuminating guide to a completely different world: England in the Middle Ages.
Imagine you could travel back to the fourteenth century. What would you see, and hear, and smell? Where would you stay? What are you going to eat? And how are you going to test to see if you are going down with the plague?
In The Time Traveller’s Guide Ian Mortimer’s radical new approach turns our entire understanding of history upside down. History is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived, whether that’s the life of a peasant or a lord. The result is perhaps the most astonishing history book you are ever likely to read; as revolutionary as it is informative, as entertaining as it is startling.
‘Ian Mortimer is the most remarkable medieval historian of our time’ The Times
‘After The Canterbury Tales this has to be the most entertaining book ever written about the middle ages’ Guardian
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The Times Second World War: The history of the global conflict from 1939 to 1945
The perfect gift for history fans.
Follow the conflict of World War 2 from 1939 to 1945 through a unique collection of historical maps, expert commentary and photographs. Published in association and including material from the archives of the Imperial War Museum, London.
Over 200 photographs and maps from the archives of The Imperial War Museum tell the story of how this global war was fought.
Descriptions of key historical events accompany the illustrations, giving a fascinating history of the war from an expert historian.
Key topics covered include
• 1939: Invasion of Poland
• 1940: German invasion of Low Countries & France
• 1940: Battle of Britain & German invasion threat
• Dec 1941: Pearl Harbor
• 1942: Turning points: Midway, Alamein, Stalingrad
• 1941-45: Barbarossa and the Eastern Front
• The War at Sea
• The advances to Jerusalem, Damascus and Baghdad
• The War in the Air
• 1944: Neptune & Overlord; D-Day & liberation of FranceRead more
£19.00£23.80 -
The Tommy of the First World War
‘Tommy Atkins’ has been the nickname given to soldiers of the British Army since the eighteenth century. The origin of the name is shrouded in mystery, but it has stuck. By 1914, the Tommy had changed dramatically since the days of Queen Victoria’s redcoats. Edwardian army reforms had improved recruitment and training and had re-organised the regular forces and reserves.When the First World War broke out, the system went smoothly into action and the BEF was carried across the Channel to France. But the British Army was relatively small and the First World War required a rapid expansion of the ranks. Lord Kitchener’s call for men raised the so-called New Army, half a million strong, but more were needed and conscription came into force. Many of those who volunteered together were also trained together and fought side by side in battle. In the fire of machine guns and amid the shell-fire, large numbers of men from city parishes, towns and villages fell together. Neil Storey takes us through the recruitment, equipment, training and experiences of these soldiers in the First World War: the Tommies, ‘the poor bloody infantry’.
This book is part of the Britain’s Heritage series, which provides definitive introductions to the riches of Britain’s past, and is the perfect way to get acquainted with the Tommy of the First World War.
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The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World
How did Christianity become the dominant religion in the West?In the early first century, a small group of peasants from the backwaters of the Roman Empire proclaimed that an executed enemy of the state was God’s messiah. Less than four hundred years later it had become the official religion of Rome with some thirty million followers.
It could so easily have been a forgotten sect of Judaism.
Through meticulous research, Bart Ehrman, an expert on Christian history, texts and traditions, explores the way we think about one of the most important cultural transformations the world has ever seen, one that has shaped the art, music, literature, philosophy, ethics and economics of modern Western civilisation.
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The Twelve Dels of Christmas: My Festive Tales from Life and Only Fools
“What a brilliant Christmas gift” Chris Moyles
“Like sitting down by the fire with [Sir David] and hearing your stories … Full of surprises” Lorraine Kelly
Think of this memoir as a Christmas special in book form, from someone who has been involved in a few of those and understands a bit about the concept. But a Christmas special very much like Only Fools and Horses, in the sense that the stories will be always heading outwards, ranging far and wide and well beyond the traditional festive gags involving giblets left in turkeys.
As I sift through various festive-related episodes in my career, loosening the ribbons, parting the wrapping paper, I’ll be doing my best to reach any relevant conclusions about life, work and the meaning of it all that I can usefully pass on to you – baubles of wisdom if you like. Or certainly baubles. You’ll learn why I have the perfect face to play Scrooge. And if you’re lucky I’ll also share what it’s like to fly in a helicopter with my old mucker Tom Cruise. Merry Christmas, you plonkers.
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The Unforgettable Army: Slim’s XIVth Army in Burma
A gripping chronicle of the monumental fight against the Japanese in Burma during World War Two.The ideal book for people enthralled by the works of James Holland, Anthony Beevor and Max Hastings.
In mid-December 1941 the Japanese invaded Burma. Within just a few months British forces were driven from their defences and forced to retreat hundreds of miles to the Indian border.
How did the Allies under the leadership of William Slim, Orde Wingate and Louis Mountbatten overcome one of the gravest defeats the British Army ever suffered and drive back the Japanese?
Michael Hickey’s meticulously researched and brilliantly written book charts the course of the Burma campaign, exploring how the British, Asian and African troops fighting under Slim were able to engage and resist the enemy onslaught while simultaneously keeping lines of communication open with China and divert attention from the American attacks in the Pacific.
Despite the fact that it was often referred to as ‘The Forgotten Army’, because its operations were overlooked by the contemporary press and even subsequent historians, Michael Hickey demonstrates just how brilliant and extraordinary this united multi-racial British Fourteenth Army was with soldiers, sailors and airmen from Britain, India, Nepal, Africa, Burma, America, China and many other countries.
‘Michael Hickey, a soldier and a historian in his own right, has been to war and knows what it means. With his sure touch he describes the essential overall picture, while at the same time he deftly targets the significant battles and incidents, bringing the reader close to events as they happened from day to day. His informative book is welcome for the way it highlights the feel and tensions of battle in jungle and scrub plain, together with the personalities of the people involved.’ Field Marshal William Slim
‘captivating tactical-level war stories — useful descriptions of the Japanese soldier and his army, a detailed account of “The ‘Sacking’ of Slim,” and a wonderful “Postlude” describing the post-war fates of key campaign leaders. The Unforgettable Army belongs in the library of anyone interested in miliary leadership and World War II campaigns.’ Col. William Mendel, U.S. Army, Military Review
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The Unknown 1930s: An Alternative History of the British Cinema 1929-1939 (Cinema and Society)
A group of film historians chart a map of 1930s British cinema. They reassess the films, stars, genres, and directors omitted from accounts of the decade, and they evaluate its forgotten and recently discovered films. The book includes assessments of the British shocker and the British musical, popular 1930s genres, and views of cinema and national identity.Read more
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The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas (Unofficial Guides)
Save time and money with in-depth reviews, ratings, and details from the trusted source for a successful Las Vegas vacation.
How do some guests always seem to find the best restaurants, the best shows, the best hotels—and still come home with winnings in their pockets? Why do some guests pay full price for their visit when others can save hundreds of dollars? In Las Vegas, every minute and every dollar count. Your vacation is too important to be left to chance, so put the independent guide to Las Vegas in your hands and take control of your trip.
The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas explains how Sin City works and how to use that knowledge to stay ahead of the crowd. Authors Bob Sehlinger and Seth Kubersky know that you want your vacation to be anything but average, so they employ an expert team of researchers to find the secrets, the shortcuts, and the bargains that are sure to make your vacation exceptional! Find out what’s available in every category, ranked from best to worst, and get detailed plans to make the most of your time in Las Vegas. Stay at a top-rated hotel, eat at the most acclaimed restaurants, and experience all the most popular attractions.
Inside You’ll Find:
- Nearly 100 hotels and casinos described, rated, and ranked―the most offered by any guidebook―plus strategies for scoring the best room rate
- Reviews of more than 100 restaurants―a complete dining guide within the guide, plus the best buffets and brunches
- The best places to play for every casino game
- Almost 50 pages of gambling tips, including how to play, recognizing sucker games, and cutting the house advantage to the bone
- Critical reviews of more than 70 of Las Vegas’s best shows
- Complete coverage of the Las Vegas nightclub, bar, and lounge scene, with surefire advice on how to get into the most exclusive venues
- Detailed instructions for avoiding Strip and I-15 traffic gridlock
- In-depth descriptions and consumer tips on shopping and experiencing attractions
Make the right choices to create a vacation you’ll never forget. The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas is your key to planning a perfect stay. Whether you’re putting together your annual trip or preparing for your first visit, this book gives you the insider scoop on hotels, restaurants, entertainment, and more.
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£14.20£16.10 -
The Very British Problems Quiz Book
What does ‘custard and jelly’ mean in cockney rhyming slang?
Which biscuit has half of its name on top of the cooker and the other half on the door?
And 25 million of what drink are served by British Airways each year?
We Brits can’t get enough of a quiz. Stumped for office party chit-chat? Quiz. Midweek visit to the pub? Quiz. Stuck inside in pyjamas on a rainy night and in the mood to cause a big family argument? You got it – quiz.
This book is correspondingly filled with questions on all things wonderfully and unequivocally British – you’ll find all sorts of tickly teasers, complex conundrums, worrisome word searches and much more on topics ranging from our iconic weather to types of cake. Best enjoyed with a cup of tea and your favourite biscuit(s).
***
ANSWERS: Telly, Hobnob, buy the book and find out!
***
Praise for Very British Problems
‘Had us guffawing into our Earl Grey tea’ Bella
‘My favourite twitter account at the moment is Very British Problems (@soverybritish) . . . it makes me laugh out loud’ Tom Hiddleston
‘Hilarious’ Daily Express
‘Temple pays affectionate and comic homage to the sheer quirkiness of being British’ Good Book GuideRead more
£8.70£9.50The Very British Problems Quiz Book
£8.70£9.50 -
The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ London
The nineteenth century was a time of unprecedented transformation, and nowhere was this more apparent than on the streets of London. In only a few decades, London grew from a Regency town to the biggest city the world had ever seen, with more than 6.5 million people and railways, street-lighting and new buildings at every turn.
Charles Dickens obsessively walked London’s streets, recording its pleasures, curiosities and cruelties. Now, Judith Flanders follows in his footsteps, leading us through the markets, transport systems, sewers, slums, cemeteries, gin palaces and entertainment emporia of Dickens’ London. The Victorian City is a revelatory portrait of everyday life on the streets, bringing to life the Victorian capital in all its variety, vibrancy, and squalor. No one who reads it will view London in the same light again.
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£12.60£14.20The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ London
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The Victorian Garden: 691 (Shire Library)
Gardening became a popular pastime in Victorian Britain with the rise of suburban gardens, and improvements in technology made gardening more accessible to amateurs. New introductions from abroad brought a greater variety of plants, leading to fashions for massed bedding, exotic glasshouse displays, rock gardens and rhododendrons. The large and prestigious gardens of country houses were emulated in suburban settings as gardening spread to the masses, and the creation of public parks introduced green spaces to grey cities. Caroline Ikin here explores the many aspects of Victorian gardens and gardening and introduces some of the most influential people of the age, including Joseph Paxton, John Loudon and Gertrude Jekyll.Read more
£9.20£9.50The Victorian Garden: 691 (Shire Library)
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The Victorians
People, not abstract ideas, make history, and nowhere is this more revealed than in A. N. Wilson’s superb portrait of the Victorians, in which hundreds of different lives have been pieced together to tell a story – one which is still unfinished in our own day. The ‘global village’ is a Victorian village and many of the ideas we take for granted, for good or ill, originated with these extraordinary, self-confident people. What really animated their spirit, and how did they remake the world in their view? In an entertaining and often dramatic narrative, A. N. Wilson shows us remarkable people in the very act of creating the Victorian age.Read more
£7.60The Victorians
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The Victorians: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
bVery Short Introductionsb: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring /bThe Victorian period may have come to an end over 120 years ago, but the Victorians continue to be a vital presence in the modern world. Contemporary Britain is still in large part Victorian in its transport networks, sewage systems, streets, and houses. Victorian cultural legacies, especially in art, science, and literature, are still celebrated. The first to have to grapple with many of the challenges of modern urban society, we continue to look to the Victorians for inspiration and solace. And we are increasingly aware of the ways their global actions shaped, often for ill, the world around us. Much mythologised, inexhaustibly controversial, the Victorians are an inescapable reference point for understanding the modern histories not just of Britain and its empire, but of the world.
In The Victorians: A Very Short Introduction Martin Hewitt offers a guide through the thickets of judgement and debate which have grown around the period and its people, to offer a historical overview of the Victorians and their legacies. He seeks to answer five crucial questions. Why have the Victorians continued occupy such a prominent place in the cultures of not just the anglophone world? How far does it make sense to think of a 64-year period arbitrarily given an identity by the longevity of the Queen as an identifiable historical period in a general sense? How justified are the value-laden versions of the Victorians which argue for the existence of a particular world view called ‘Victorianism’? Beyond ideology, what was Victorian Britain actually like – and in particular, what was distinctive about it? Who were the Victorians – not just the eminent few, but the population as a whole? And finally, how far and with what results did the Victorians and their culture spread across the globe?
In answering these questions, Hewitt cautions against some long-held orthodoxies, throws a light on some less well-known aspects of the period, and urges the importance of understanding the Victorians on their own terms if we are to effectively engage with their legacies.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
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£7.10£8.50 -
The Vietnam War: 1956–75 (Essential Histories)
In this fully illustrated introduction, leading Vietnam War historian Dr Andrew Wiest provides a concise overview of America’s most divisive war.America entered the Vietnam War certain of its Cold War doctrines and convinced of its moral mission to save the world from the advance of communism. However, the war was not at all what the United States expected. Dr Andrew Wiest examines how, outnumbered and outgunned, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces resorted to a guerrilla war based on the theories of Mao Zedong of China, while the US responded with firepower and overwhelming force. Drawing on the latest research for this new edition, Wiest examines the brutal and prolonged resultant conflict, and how its consequences would change America forever, leaving the country battered and unsure as it sought to face the challenges of the final acts of the Cold War. As for Vietnam, the conflict would continue long after the US had exited its military adventure in Southeast Asia.
Updated and revised, with full-colour maps and new images throughout, this is an accessible introduction to the most important event of the “American Century.”
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The Vietnam War: An Intimate History
**The New York Times Bestseller**
**The book of the landmark documentary, The Vietnam War, by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick**The definitive work on the Vietnam War, the conflict that came to define a generation, told from all sides by those who were there.
More than forty years after the Vietnam War ended, its legacy continues to fascinate, horrify and inform us. As the first war to be fought in front of TV cameras and beamed around the world, it has been immortalised on film and on the page, and forever changed the way we think about war.
Drawing on hundreds of brand new interviews, Ken Burns and Geoffrey C. Ward have created the definitive work on Vietnam. It is the first book to show us the war from every perspective: from idealistic US Marines and the families they left behind to the Vietnamese civilians, both North and South, whose homeland was changed for ever; politicians, POWs and anti-war protesters; and the photographers and journalists who risked their lives to tell the truth. The book sends us into the grit and chaos of combat, while also expertly outlining the complex chain of political events that led America to Vietnam.
Beautifully written, this essential work tells the full story without taking sides and reminds us that there is no single truth in war. It is set to redefine our understanding of a brutal conflict, to launch provocative new debates and to shed fresh light on the price paid in ‘blood and bone’ by Vietnamese and Americans alike.
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The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History (DK Definitive Visual Histories)
The definitive telling of one of the longest and most controversial wars in US history.Delve into the compelling history and impact of the Vietnam War in reverting detail. This authoritative visual guide unpacks accounts of struggle, sacrifice, and bravery, making this a perfect read for any military history enthusiast.
Inside the pages of this retelling of America’s bloodiest conflict, you’ll discover:
– A vivid, moving, and informative read written in an engaging style.
– A clear and compelling account of the conflict, in short, self-contained events from the Battle of Ia Drang to the Tet Offensive and The Khmer Rouge.
– Biography pages highlight major military and political figures such as Henry Kissinger, President Nixon, General Thieu, and Ho Chi Minh.
– Features on everyday life in the war offering additional context.
– Stunning image double page features display weapons, spy gear, and other equipment that defined the war.
– Maps and feature boxes provide additional information on significant events during the conflict.Created in association with the Smithsonian Institution, this history book for adults is an authoritative history of both the first televised war and its lasting impact through the lenses of both sides of the conflict. The Vietnam War explores all aspects of the conflict and the wider political landscape using compelling text, maps, and archive photography of collections of weapons, aircraft, and armored vehicles.
The military techniques and conduct employed against the inferior technologies of the Viet Cong remain controversial and intriguing to date. Eyewitness accounts and iconic photographs bring events to life – from the background of the conflict to the incidents that drew America into Vietnam, the chronological event
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£28.70£30.40 -
The Viking Spirit: An Introduction to Norse Mythology and Religion
The Viking Spirit is an introduction to Norse mythology like no other. As you’d expect from Daniel McCoy, the creator of the enduringly popular website Norse Mythology for Smart People, it’s written to scholarly standards, but in a simple, clear, and entertaining style that’s easy to understand and a pleasure to read. It includes gripping retellings of no less than 34 epic Norse myths – more than any other book in the field – while also providing an equally comprehensive overview of the fascinating Viking religion of which Norse mythology was a part. You’ll learn about the Vikings’ gods and goddesses, their concept of fate, their views on the afterlife, their moral code, how they thought the universe was structured, how they practiced their religion, the role that magic played in their lives, and much more. With its inclusion of the latest groundbreaking research in the field, The Viking Spirit is the ultimate introduction to the timeless splendor of Norse mythology and religion for the 21st Century.Read more
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The Wager
‘The beauty of The Wager unfurls like a great sail… one of the finest nonfiction books I’ve ever read’ Guardian‘The greatest sea story ever told’ Spectator
‘A cracking yarn… Grann’s taste for desperate predicaments finds its fullest expression here’ Observer
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER
From the international bestselling author of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and THE LOST CITY OF Z, a mesmerising story of shipwreck, mutiny and murder, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth.
On 28th January 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon, the Wager was wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The crew, marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2,500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.
Then, six months later, another, even more decrepit, craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways and they had a very different story to tell. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with counter-charges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. While stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.
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£9.60£10.40The Wager
£9.60£10.40 -
The Wager
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 BALLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION*‘The beauty of The Wager unfurls like a great sail… one of the finest nonfiction books I’ve ever read’ Guardian
‘The greatest sea story ever told’ Spectator
‘A cracking yarn… Grann’s taste for desperate predicaments finds its fullest expression here’ Observer
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER
From the international bestselling author of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and THE LOST CITY OF Z, a mesmerising story of shipwreck, mutiny and murder, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth.
On 28th January 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon, the Wager was wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The crew, marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2,500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.
Then, six months later, another, even more decrepit, craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways and they had a very different story to tell. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with counter-charges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. While stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.
Read more
£14.30£19.00The Wager
£14.30£19.00 -
The Wall and the Gate: Israel, Palestine, and the Legal Battle for Human Rights
From renowned human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, an unprecedented exploration of the struggle for human rights in Israel’s courts
A farmer from a village in the occupied West Bank, cut off from his olive groves by the construction of Israel’s controversial separation wall, asked Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard to petition the courts to allow a gate to be built in the wall. While the gate would provide immediate relief for the farmer, would it not also confer legitimacy on the wall and on the court that deems it legal? The defense of human rights is often marked by such ethical dilemmas, which are especially acute in Israel, where lawyers have for decades sought redress for the abuse of Palestinian rights in the country’s High Court—that is, in the court of the abuser.
In The Wall and the Gate, Michael Sfard chronicles this struggle—a story that has never before been fully told— and in the process engages the core principles of human rights legal ethics. Sfard recounts the unfolding of key cases and issues, ranging from confiscation of land, deportations, the creation of settlements, punitive home demolitions, torture, and targeted killings—all actions considered violations of international law. In the process, he lays bare the reality of the occupation and the lives of the people who must contend with that reality. He also exposes the surreal legal structures that have been erected to put a stamp of lawfulness on an extensive program of dispossession. Finally, he weighs the success of the legal effort, reaching conclusions that are no less paradoxical than the fight itself.
Writing with emotional force, vivid storytelling, and penetrating analysis, Michael Sfard offers a radically new perspective on a much-covered conflict and a subtle, painful reckoning with the moral ambiguities inherent in the pursuit of justice. The Wall and the Gate is a signal contribution to everyone concerned with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and human rights everywhere.
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The Wars for Asia, 1911–1949
The Wars for Asia, 1911–1949 shows that the Western treatment of World War II, the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War as separate events misrepresents their overlapping connections and causes. The Chinese Civil War precipitated a long regional war between China and Japan that went global in 1941 when the Chinese found themselves fighting a civil war within a regional war within an overarching global war. The global war that consumed Western attentions resulted from Japan’s peripheral strategy to cut foreign aid to China by attacking Pearl Harbour and Western interests throughout the Pacific in 1941. S. C. M. Paine emphasizes the fears and ambitions of Japan, China and Russia, and the pivotal decisions that set them on a collision course in the 1920s and 1930s. The resulting wars together yielded a viscerally anti-Japanese and unified Communist China, the still-angry rising power of the early twenty-first century.Read more
£19.80The Wars for Asia, 1911–1949
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The Wars of the Roses: The Key Players in the Struggle for Supremacy
In the second half of the fifteenth century, for over thirty years, civil war tore England apart. However, its roots were deeper and its thorns were felt for longer than this time frame suggests. The Wars of the Roses were not a coherent period of continual warfare. There were distinct episodes of conflict, interspersed with long periods of peace. But the struggles never really ceased. Motives changed, fortunes waxed and waned, the nature of kingship was weighed and measured and the mettle of some of England’s greatest families was put to the test. Matthew Lewis examines the people behind these events, exploring the personalities of the main players, their motives, successes and failures. He uncovers some of the lesser-known tales and personal stories often lost in the broad sweep of the Wars of the Roses, in a period of famously complex loyalties and shifting fortunes.Read more
£9.30£10.40 -
The Western Front: A History of the First World War
A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
A TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR‘A tour de force of scholarship, analysis and narration . . . Lloyd is well on the way to writing a definitive history of the First World War’ Lawrence James, The Times
‘This well-researched, well-written and cogently argued new analysis . . . will undoubtedly now take its rightful place as the standard account of this vital theatre of the conflict’ Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny
_________________In the annals of military history, the Western Front stands as an enduring symbol of the folly and futility of war.
However, as bestselling military historian Nick Lloyd reveals in this highly-praised history – the first of an epic trilogy — the story is not one of pointlessness and stupidity, but rather a heroic triumph against the odds. With a cast of hundreds and a huge canvas of places and events, Lloyd tells the whole tale, revealing what happened in France and Belgium between August 1914 and November 1918 from the perspective of all the main combatants – including French, British, Belgian, US and, most importantly, German forces.
Lloyd examines the most decisive campaigns of the Great War and explains the unprecedented innovation, adaptation and tactical development that have been too long obscured by legends of mud, blood and futility, drawing upon the latest scholarship on the war, wrongly overlooked first-person accounts, and archival material from every angle. Conveying the visceral assault of the battlefield with vivid detail, Lloyd ultimately redefines our understanding of a crucial theatre in this monumental tragedy.
_________________‘Excellent on detail . . . Lloyd’s book will be cherished by military history buffs’ Max Hastings, Sunday Times
‘It is the best modern single-volume history of war on the Western Front and is likely to remain the standard account for some time’ Jonathan Boff, The Spectator
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The World War 2 Trivia Book: Interesting Stories and Random Facts from the Second World War: Volume 1 (Trivia War Books)
When was the last time someone around you brought up World War Two?It’s a pretty popular war. Maybe you heard about it yesterday. Maybe last month. But it was probably recent. And when it came up, did you wish that you could be the one to casually drop a fact that would have everyone in the room going, “Wow, I never knew that!”
With this book, you can be that person.
You can read it in just a few minutes a day.
Chapters are bite-sized and easy to read, meant for normal people instead of war historians!
Each chapter ends with a bonus helping of trivia and some quick questions to test your knowledge.
You’ll zoom through this book and be hungry for more.
Get ready to impress your friends with your knowledge – not just of the main events of World War Two, but of all the gritty details and weird true facts. By the time you finish this book, you’ll have a fact for every occasion, from the first moment someone thought about having a second World War, to the most recent blockbuster movies about it.
So get ready to meet characters from Adolf Hitler, rejected art student, to Jack Churchill, the broadsword-swinging male model. Find out why World War Two started in the first place, and why it’s never a good idea to invade Russia in winter. Learn why the United States was going to stay out of the war, how Canadians stole airplanes for the British, and what an orange soft drink has to do with the Nazis.
Some of the things you’re going to learn are sad. Some are scary. Some are sexy. And some are downright strange! It’s everything your history teacher never got around to telling you.
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£10.50£11.40 -
The World War II Collection
A wonderful gift for any military history enthusiast.
This collection not only covers notable battles but also life under the Nazi regime and the trials that bought the regime’s figureheads to justice.
This handsome box set brings together five titles which recount the major events of World War II, from Dunkirk to the Nuremberg trials. With breakdowns of skillful military manoeuvres, chilling accounts of Nazi organizations and astounding details from the fall of Berlin, this collection chronicles the defeat of Germany and the Axis powers.
These titles are:
• Great Battles of World War II by Michael Dudley
• The D-Day Landings by Nigel Cawthorne
• Hitler’s Last Day by Richard Dargie
• The Story of the SS by Al Cimino
• The Nuremberg Trials by Alexander MacdonaldA great read for both military history enthusiasts and those eager to learn more about World War II.
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£18.00The World War II Collection
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Thirsty Work: Matt Skinner
Serious but unpretentious, inspiring and fun, Thirsty Work celebrates wine and all that goes into making it and all who are involved in sharing it. Based on the way he teaches the subject of wine to his students at Fifteen, Matt Skinner breaks down all the information you need to feel confident when choosing and drinking wine. All the key topics in wine are covered – from how to taste to the key grapes; where and how wine is made to the range of styles – and his 24 “hour faces of wine” working around the clock, feature all the people who are involved in bringing wine to your table. In everyday terms, Skinner presents his subject on a unique and personal level.Read more
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This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 2015
In the summer of 2009, the leader of the dreaded Tamil Tiger guerrillas was killed, bringing to a bloody end the stubborn and complicated civil war in Sri Lanka. For nearly thirty years, the war’s fingers had reached everywhere: into the bustle of Colombo, the Buddhist monasteries scattered across the island, the soft hills of central Sri Lanka, the curves of the eastern coast near Batticaloa and Trincomalee, and the stark, hot north. With its genius for brutality, the war left few places, and fewer people, untouched.
What happens to the texture of life in a country that endures such bitter conflict? What happens to the country’s soul? Samanth Subramanian gives us an extraordinary account of the Sri Lankan war and the lives it changed. Taking us to the ghosts of summers past, and to other battles from other times, he draws out the story of Sri Lanka today – an exhausted, disturbed society, still hot from the embers of the war. Through travels and conversations, he examines how people reconcile themselves to violence, how religion and state conspire, how the powerful become cruel, and how victory can be put to the task of reshaping memory and burying histories.
This Divided Island is a harrowing and humane investigation of a country still inflamed.
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This is Your Everest: The Lions, The Springboks and the Epic Tour of 1997
‘A rollicking read and a mighty achievement’ – Donald McRae, The Guardian
The 1997 British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa is one of the most iconic in rugby history. Written off at home and abroad, Martin Johnson’s men were given no hope of success against the world champion Springboks in their own backyard. But a combination of brilliant coaching, astute selections and outstanding players laid the foundations for the touring side’s outstanding attacking mindset and brutal stonewall defence.
On the other side was a team expected to stamp their authority on the tourists and confirm their place as the best side on the planet. But with political, racial and economic scandals swirling around the Springbok camp, plus a rookie coach parachuted into office just before the tour began, the hosts were under huge pressure.
In a Test series that will go down in legend as one of the most compelling of all time, the sides could barely be separated. This is the inside story from both camps as they battle for supremacy, lifting the lid like never before as a huge cast of characters look back on those extraordinary weeks and the impact it had on their lives and careers thereafter. Hilarious, insightful and spine-chilling, Tom English and Peter Burns provide the perfect read for all Lions fans.
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Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt’s America, Mussolini’s Italy, and Hitler’s Germany, 1933-1939
FDR’s New Deal is today regarded as the democratic ideal, the positive American response to a crisis that forced Germany and Italy toward National Socialism and Fascism.Yet in the 1930s, these regimes were not considered entirely antithetical. In this groundbreaking work, Wolfgang Schivelbusch investigates the shared elements of these three new deals – focusing on their architecture and public works projects – to offer a new explanation for the popularity of Europe’s totalitarian systems. Writing with flair and concision, Schivelbusch casts a different light on the New Deal and puts forth a provocative explanation for the still-mysterious popularity of Europe’s most tyrannical regimes.Read more
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TM 9-803 Willys-Overland MB and Ford Model GPW Jeep Technical Manual
Designated as a light truck, the Jeep was the primary four-wheel drive vehicle for the U.S. Army during WWII. The Jeep’s design owed a great deal to Karl Probst, a freelance designer employed by the American Bantam Car Co. Probst’s prototype “Blitz Buggy” was built in a mere 49 days. It clearly impressed the Army in head-to-head competition against a design submitted by Willys-Overland. However the Buggy’s engine failed to meet requirements, and the Army determined that Bantam could not produce the vehicle in quantity. As a result, the Army bought the Bantam design and asked both Willys and Ford to improve it. The Willys model MB, equipped with a L134 straight-4 “Go Devil”engine, was eventually accepted as the standard. Ford models built to Willys specifications were designated GPW (“G” for government vehicle, “P” designating the 80” wheelbase, and “W” indicating the Willys engine design). (Notably, the “GP” part of the designation is often misinterpreted to mean “General Purpose”, and some have suggested this is the reason the vehicle wasnick-named the “Jeep”. In reality it was probably named after a character in the Popeye cartoons). Roughly 640,000 Jeeps were built during WWII by Ford and Willys, and used on every front. Utilitarian, rugged, and easy to maintain, Jeeps saw service as scout cars, ambulances, firefighting vehicles, as tractors for artillery, and more. The vehicle so impressed war correspondent Ernie Pyle that he called it one of the “two most important pieces of non-combat equipment ever developed” — the other being the pocket stove. Jeeps remained in service for the U.S. military in Korea and in the Vietnam War. Created in 1944, this technical manual reveals a great deal about the Jeep’s design and capabilities. Intended as a manual for those charged with operation and maintenance, this manual shows many aspects of its engine, cooling, power, drive train and other systems. Originally labeled restricted, this manual was declassified long ago and is here reprinted in book form. Care has been taken to preserve the integrity of the text.Read more
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To Hell and Back: The Last Train from Hiroshima (Asia/Pacific/Perspectives)
Drawing on the voices of atomic bomb survivors and the new science of forensic archaeology, Charles Pellegrino describes the events and the aftermath of two days in August when nuclear devices, detonated over Japan, changed life on Earth forever. To Hell and Back offers readers a stunning, “you are there” time capsule, wrapped in elegant prose. Charles Pellegrino’s scientific authority and close relationship with the A-bomb survivors make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written. At the narrative’s core are eyewitness accounts of those who experienced the atomic explosions firsthand-the Japanese civilians on the ground. As the first city targeted, Hiroshima is the focus of most histories. Pellegrino gives equal weight to the bombing of Nagasaki, symbolized by the thirty people who are known to have fled Hiroshima for Nagasaki-where they arrived just in time to survive the second bomb. One of them, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, is the only person who experienced the full effects of both cataclysms within Ground Zero. The second time, the blast effects were diverted around the stairwell behind which Yamaguchi’s office conference was convened-placing him and few others in a shock cocoon that offered protection while the entire building disappeared around them. Pellegrino weaves spellbinding stories together within an illustrated narrative that challenges the “official report,” showing exactly what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki-and why. Also available from compatible vendors is an enhanced e-book version containing never-before-seen video clips of the survivors, their descendants, and the cities as they are today. Filmed by the author during his research in Japan, these 18 videos are placed throughout the text, taking readers beyond the page and offering an eye-opening and personal way to understand how the effects of the atomic bombs are still felt 70 years after detonation.Read more
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Too Much: How Victorian Constraints Still Bind Women Today
Lacing cultural criticism, Victorian literature, and storytelling together, Too Much explores how culture corsets women’s bodies, souls, and sexualities – and how we might finally undo the strings.
Written in the tradition of Shrill, Dead Girls, Sex Object and other frank books about the female gaze, Too Much encourages women to reconsider the beauty of their excesses – emotional, physical, and spiritual.
Rachel Vorona Cote braids cultural criticism, theory, and storytelling together in her exploration of how culture grinds away our bodies, souls, and sexualities, forcing us into smaller lives than we desire. An erstwhile Victorian scholar, she sees many parallels between that era’s fixation on women’s ‘hysterical’ behavior and our modern policing of the same; in the space of her writing, you’re as likely to encounter Jane Eyre and Lizzie Bennet as you are Britney Spears and Lana Del Rey. This book will tell the story of how women, from then and now, have learned to draw power from their reservoirs of feeling, all that makes us ‘too much’.
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£3.70£19.00 -
Tort Law
Takes students from zero knowledge to engaged and critical thinkers.This best-selling undergraduate textbook from renowned authors Kirsty Horsey & Erika Rackley offers a lively, accessible, and thoughtful treatment of all key tort law topics, and includes carefully chosen learning features that encourage deep and critical thinking.
Key features:
– Problem questions at the beginning of chapters set the scene, immediately putting the law in context. Outline answers and an annotated version with issues and cases to consider offer students further insights
– Author videos in every chapter enliven, explain, and enrich key topics
– ‘Counterpoint’ and ‘pause for reflection’ boxes encourage students to think critically and engage with areas of controversy or reform
– Annotated statutes and judgments explain the more difficult points of law and help students develop the invaluable skills of reading, interpreting, and analysing
– Interactive decision trees provide a visual aid to understanding key torts, and cement that knowledge through direct, step-by-step engagementNew to this edition:
– Author videos and interactive decision trees
– New and updated coverage of key legal developments, including Banks v Cadwalladr [2022] EWHC 1417 (QB) on defamation, Bloomberg LP (Appellant) v ZXC (Respondent) [2022] UKSC 5 on privacy, and Paul v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust; Polmear v Royal Cornwall Hospital NHS Trust; Purchase v Ahmed [2022] EWCA Civ 12 on psychiatric harmDigital formats and resources:
This edition is available as an enhanced e-book, which offers an array of integrated resources to support learning. These include author videos, interactive decision trees, and support in tackling the problem question, as well as a mobile experience and convenient access, functionality tools, navigation features, and links: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks http://www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooksA selection of online resources is available to paperback, Law Trove, and enhanced e-book users, including:
– Outline answers to questions in the book
– Annotated links to external web resources and videos
– Downloadable annotated case judgments, statutes, and problem questions
– Guidance on answering problem and essay questions
– Additional content on elements of a claim in the tort of negligence and on product liability
– Access to the enhanced e-book’s videos and interactive decision treesRead more
£38.00Tort Law
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Transport and the Industrial City: Manchester and the Canal Age, 1750-1850
This book presents the first scholarly study of the contribution of canals to Britain’s industrial revolution. Although the achievements of canal engineers remain central to popular understandings of industrialisation, historians have been surprisingly reticent to analyse the full scope of the connections between canals, transport and the first industrial revolution. Focusing on Manchester, Britain’s major centre of both industrial and transport innovation, it shows that canals were at the heart of the self-styled Cottonopolis. Not only did canals move the key commodities of Manchester’s industrial revolution -coal, corn, and cotton – but canal banks also provided the key sites for the factories that made Manchester the ‘shock city’ of the early Victorian age. This book will become essential reading for historians and students interested in the industrial revolution, transport, and the unique history of Manchester, the world’s first industrial city.Read more
£57.80£66.50 -
Tudor England: A History
A compelling, authoritative account of the brilliant, conflicted, visionary world of Tudor England
When Henry VII landed in a secluded bay in a far corner of Wales, it seemed inconceivable that this outsider could ever be king of England. Yet he and his descendants became some of England’s most unforgettable rulers, and gave their name to an age. The story of the Tudor monarchs is as astounding as it was unexpected, but it was not the only one unfolding between 1485 and 1603.
In cities, towns, and villages, families and communities lived their lives through times of great upheaval. In this comprehensive new history, Lucy Wooding lets their voices speak, exploring not just how monarchs ruled but also how men and women thought, wrote, lived, and died. We see a monarchy under strain, religion in crisis, a population contending with war, rebellion, plague, and poverty. Remarkable in its range and depth, Tudor England explores the many tensions of these turbulent years and presents a markedly different picture from the one we thought we knew.Read more
£12.30£14.20Tudor England: A History
£12.30£14.20
