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Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire
by Andrew J. NewmanThe Safavid dynasty, which reigned from the late fifteenth to the eighteenth century, links medieval with modern Iran. The Safavids witnessed wide-ranging developments in politics, warfare, science, philosophy, religion, art and architecture. But how did this dynasty manage to produce the longest lasting and most glorious of Iran's Islamic-period eras?Andrew Newman offers a complete re-evaluation of the Safavid place in history as they presided over these extraordinary developments and the wondrous flowering of Iranian culture. In the process, he dissects the Safavid story, from before the 1501 capture of Tabriz by Shah Ismail (1488-1524), the point at which Shiism became the realm's established faith; on to the sixteenth and early seventeenth century dominated by Shah Abbas (1587-1629), whose patronage of art and architecture from his capital of Isfahan embodied the Safavid spirit; and culminating with the reign of Sultan Husayn (reg. 1694-1722).Based on meticulous scholarship, Newman offers a valuable new interpretation of the rise of the Safavids and their eventual demise in the eighteenth century. "Safavid Iran," with its fresh insights and new research, is the definitive single volume work on the subject.
Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
by Touraj DaryaeeI.B.Tauris in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation
In Their Mother's Footsteps (The Generation War)
by Mary WoodIn Their Mother's Footsteps is a moving saga set at the eve of the Second World War, by the author of the Breckton series, Mary Wood.Two girls. One horrendous war. The chance to unite a family . . .Edith and Ada run Jimmy's Hope House where they care for unmarried mothers, and where Edith, a doctor, offers free medical help to the poor of London's East End.Both are struggling to overcome trauma from their past. For Edith there is the constant ache and yearning for her twin girls Elka and Ania, from whom she was separated in 1918. For Ada there is the threat of her sister returning . . .As the Nazis strengthen their grip on Poland, sisters Elka and Ania are forced to make a difficult decision: travel to England to find their birth mother or stay and fight against an increasingly desperate regime?In times of war, no choices are ever easy to make. But making the right choice could keep you alive . . .
Among the Ottomans: Diaries from Turkey in World War I
by Ian LysterDuring World War One, the Ottoman Empire, one of the largest and longest-lasting empires in history, faced severe challenges to its structure and existence, which eventually resulted in its dissolution. "Among The Ottomans" introduces two unique diary accounts written by two generations of the same family in the declining years of the Ottoman Empire. Written in the heart of the crumbling Ottoman Empire, Marie Lyster's World War One diaries describe the political and social climate of Constantinople as Allied troops swept through Turkey, wreaking havoc on the country's infrastructure and forcing residents, regardless of their national affiliations, to endure the hardships of war. Just 200 miles away in the Dardanelles, her son Henry was fighting with the Allies against the Turks. Following the Allied retreat in 1915, he was posted to Salonika in northern Greece, where he worked with the 'Comitajis' as they fought the Bulgarians. Later, as the Military Governor of Eastern Thrace, he witnessed the rise of Turkish Nationalism and the struggle for control of the fragmented pieces of the fallen empire.Published for the first time, these two diaries provide an unprecedented account of the Great War's impact across generations and geographical borders and a unique insight into the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
Brighter Days Ahead
by Mary WoodBrighter Days Ahead is a moving story set against the backdrop of the Second World War, from Mary Wood, the author of In Their Mother’s Footsteps. War pulled them apart, but can it bring them back together? Molly lives with her repugnant father, who has betrayed her many times. From a young age, living on the streets of London’s East End, she has seen the harsh realities of life . . . When she’s kidnapped by a gang and forced into their underworld, her future seems bleak. Flo spent her early years in an orphanage, and is about to turn her hand to teacher training. When a kindly teacher at her school approaches her about a job at Bletchley Park, it could be everything she never knew she wanted.Will the girls' friendship be enough to weather the hard times ahead?
Alternatives to Appeasement: Neville Chamberlain and Hitler's Germany
by Andrew David StedmanNeville Chamberlain's policy of appeasing Hitler's Germany has been widely condemned. However, historians (and politicians) have been divided about the viability of alternative courses of action. Andrew David Stedman here charts the origins, development and viability of the various alternatives to Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. Using a wide range of sources, many previously unpublished, he provides a fascinating study of British foreign policy before World War II, surveying the main advocates of the other strategies available and outlining the complexities of each rival option. Providing a valuable new contribution to appeasement historiography, this is the first work to offer a comprehensive synthesis of all the alternatives available to Chamberlain, as well as to illuminate the policy debate within Government itself. Stedman provides a unique analysis of how realistic Chamberlain deemed each policy to be, as well as a bold assessment of strengths and weaknesses.Stedman asserts that it was understandable that Chamberlain rejected the other policies he had available to him and that, contrary to popular belief, Chamberlain did in fact consider and explore each alternative as part of his wider strategy and his foreign policy often contained elements of the rival options. Ultimately, this book shows that none of the alternatives would have maintained a lasting peace in the troubled conditions of the 1930s. Although some might have affected the favourability, timing and circumstances of conflict, war could not have been avoided given the rapid rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany. Also contributing to debates on the use of appeasement in the modern world, this book will be essential reading for historians of World War II and the twentieth century, as well as scholars of International Relations.
Channels of Resistance in Lebanon: Liberation Propaganda, Hezbollah and the Media
by Zahera HarbThe South Lebanon conflict saw two decades of sustained resistance by the Lebanese to the Israeli occupation. The Lebanese media's role in achieving liberation over this period is significant, through campaigns conducted to unify the Lebanese people against their foreign occupier and in support of the Lebanese resistance in South Lebanon. This book investigates the culture and performance of Lebanese journalism in this setting. It is a story about journalism told by a journalist who is also using tools of scholarship and research to narrate her story and the story of her fellow journalists. Zahera Harb is also presenting here an alternative interpretation of propaganda under conditions of foreign occupation and the struggle against that occupation. She identifies the characteristics of 'liberation propaganda' through the coverage and experience of the two Lebanese TV stations Tele Liban and Al Manar within the historical, cultural, organisational and religious contexts in which they operated, and how these elements shaped their professional practice and their news values.
Revolution: A History of England Volume IV (The History of England #4)
by Peter AckroydRevolution, the fourth volume of Peter Ackroyd's enthralling History of England begins in 1688 with a revolution and ends in 1815 with a famous victory. In it, Ackroyd takes readers from William of Orange's accession following the Glorious Revolution to the Regency, when the flamboyant Prince of Wales ruled in the stead of his mad father, George III, and England was – again –at war with France, a war that would end with the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.Late Stuart and Georgian England marked the creation of the great pillars of the English state. The Bank of England was founded, as was the stock exchange, the Church of England was fully established as the guardian of the spiritual life of the nation and parliament became the sovereign body of the nation with responsibilities and duties far beyond those of the monarch. It was a revolutionary era in English letters, too, a time in which newspapers first flourished and the English novel was born. It was an era in which coffee houses and playhouses boomed, gin flowed freely and in which shops, as we know them today, began to proliferate in our towns and villages. But it was also a time of extraordinary and unprecedented technological innovation, which saw England utterly and irrevocably transformed from a country of blue skies and farmland to one of soot and steel and coal.
Europe's Intellectuals and the Cold War: The European Society of Culture, Post-War Politics and International Relations
by Nancy JachecIn 1950, nearly 300 of Europe's leading artists, philosophers and writers formed an international society intended to end the Cold War. The European Society of Culture was composed of many of Western Europe's best-known intellectuals, including Theodor Adorno, Julien Benda, Albert Camus, Benedetto Croce, Andre Gide, J. B. Haldane, Karl Jaspers, Carl Jung, Thomas Mann, Henri Matisse, Francois Mauriac, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Albert Schweitzer, among many others; over the next twenty years it would also include many luminaries from the East, such as Bertolt Brecht, Ernst Bloch, Ilya Ehrenburg and Georg Lukacs. Pioneering the earliest political discussions between intellectuals in Eastern and Western Europe that would serve as a model for the activities of the better-known CCF in its efforts to end communism, the ESC went on to create an informal but powerful, 1,600 member-strong cultural and political network across the world in pursuit of dialogue between the Marxist East and the liberal West, and in pursuit of peace and shared cultural values.Here, in this first, comprehensive history of the SEC's early years, Nancy Jachec demonstrates the influence its members had not only on preventing the isolation of Europe's eastern states, but on enabling the flow of people, publications and ideas from the West into the East, thus playing a vital role in introducing the ideals of human rights and cultural rights in the East in the run-up to the signing of the Helsinki Accords of 1975. She also shows the profound impact that the SEC had on the development of post-colonial theory through the exchanges it organised between European and African intellectuals, directly shaping the expectations statesmen like Leopold Sedar Senghor, revolutionaries like Frantz Fanon, and institutions such as Unesco would have of culture in newly emerging countries.
Yugoslavia and Macedonia Before Tito: Between Repression and Integration
by Nada BoskovskaHeld together by apparatchiks and, later, Tito's charisma, Yugoslavia never really incorporated separate Balkan nationalisms into the Pan-Slavic ideal. Macedonia - frequently ignored by Belgrade - had survived centuries of Turkish domination, Bulgarian invasion and Serbian assimilation before it became part of the Yugoslav project in the aftermath of the First World War. Drawing on an extensive analysis of archival material, private correspondence, and newspaper articles, Nada Boskovska provides an arresting account of the Macedonian experience of the interwar years, charting the growth of political consciousness and the often violent state-driven attempts to curb autonomy. Sketching the complex picture of nationalism within a multi-ethnic, but unitarist state through a comprehensive analysis of policy, economy, and education, Yugoslavia and Macedonia before Tito is the first book to describe the uneasy and often turbulent relationship between a Serbian-dominated government and an increasingly politically aware Macedonian people.Concerned with the question of integration and political manipulation, Boskovska gives credence to voices critical of Royal Yugoslavia and offers a fresh insight into domestic policy and the Macedonian question, going beyond traditional high politics. Broadening the spectrum of discussion and protest, she reveals the voices of a people protesting constitutional and electoral fraud, the neglect of local needs and state machinations designed to create a satellite province.
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Burma: Jungle Warfare and Intelligence Gathering in WW2
by Richard DuckettIn the mountains and jungles of occupied Burma during World War II, British special forces launched a series of secret operations, assisted by parts of the Burmese population. The men of the SOE, trained in sabotage and guerrilla warfare, worked in the jungle, deep behind enemy lines, to frustrate the puppet Burmese government of Ba Maw and continue the fight against Hirohito's Japan in a theatre starved of resources. Here, Richard Duckett uses newly declassified documents from the National Archives to reveal for the first time the extent of British special forces' involvement - from the 1941 operations until beyond Burma's independence from the British Empire in 1948. Duckett argues convincingly that `Operation Character' and `Operation Billet' - large SOE missions launched in support of General Slim's XIV Army offensive to liberate Burma - rank among the most militarily significant of the SOE's secret missions. Featuring a wealth of photographs and accompanying material never before published, including direct testimony recorded by veterans of the campaign and maps from the SOE files, The SOE in Burma tells a compelling story of courage and struggle in during World War II
State-Building in Kosovo: Democracy, Corruption and the EU in the Balkans
by Andrea Lorenzo CapusselaThe history of Kosovo is a complicated one which typifies the darker side of modern Balkan history. Milosevic s Serbia withdrew from Kosovo in 1999 and the province was handed over to a special UN body who governed until 2008, when the West allowed Kosovo to become independent. The aim was to erect a stable and well governed democracy, but the outcome was a fragile state, which still threatens the stability of the Balkans and Europe s internal security. How did this happen? Here, Andrea Lorenzo Capussela offers an inside look at the process of building democracy in Kosovo. As head of the economics unit of Kosovo s international supervisor, Capussela has had access to previously unknown sources and information regarding the roles of the EU and the US in the crisis. This will be an essential reading for those studying the Kosovo crisis.
Emperor of the Eight Islands: Books 1 And 2 In The Tale Of Shikanoko Series (The Tale of Shikanoko #1)
by Lian HearnAn ambitious warlord leaves his nephew for dead and seizes his lands.A stubborn father forces his younger son to surrender his wife to his older brother.A mysterious woman seeks five fathers for her children.A powerful priest meddles in the succession to the Lotus Throne.These are the threads of an intricate tapestry in which the laws of destiny play out against a backdrop of wild forest, elegant court, and savage battlefield. Set in a mythical medieval Japan inhabited by warriors and assassins, ghosts and guardian spirits, Emperor of the Eight Islands by Lian Hearn is a brilliantly imagined novel, full of drama and intrigue – the beginning of an enthralling, epic adventure: The Tale of Shikanoko.
Lord of the Darkwood: The Tale of Shikanoko (The Tale of Shikanoko #2)
by Lian HearnAgainst a background of wild forest, elegant castles, hidden temples and savage battlefields, the adventure that began with Emperor of the Eight Islands draws to its thrilling conclusion, in Lian Hearn's Lord of the Darkwood.The rightful emperor is lost. Shikanoko is condemned to live, half-man and half-deer, an outlaw in the Darkwood. Yet the mighty lords who now rule the Eight Islands are prey to suspicion and illness, and drought and famine choke the realm. Only Shikanoko can bring healing, by restoring the preordained ruler to the Lotus Throne. And only one person can bring him back from the Darkwood . . .
To Die in Spring
by Ralf Rothmann'[To Die in Spring] holds its own against [Günter] Grass and [Erich Maria] Remarque; it is an excellent work, and one deserving of its wide readership.' GuardianWalter Urban and Friedrich 'Fiete' Caroli work side by side as hands on a dairy farm in northern Germany. By 1945, it seems the War's worst atrocities are over. When they are forced to 'volunteer' for the SS, they find themselves embroiled in a conflict which is drawing to a desperate, bloody close. Walter is put to work as a driver for a supply unit of the Waffen-SS, while Fiete is sent to the front. When the senseless bloodshed leads Fiete to desert, only to be captured and sentenced to death, the friends are reunited under catastrophic circumstances. In a few days the war will be over, millions of innocents will be dead, and the survivors must find a way to live with its legacy.An international bestseller, To Die in Spring is a beautiful and devastating novel by German author Ralf Rothmann.
The World of Poldark
by Emma MarriottEmma Marriott's The World of Poldark explores the characters, the compelling stories and the era that Winston Graham - and the television series - set out to recreate, the England that Ross Poldark returned to from the American War of Independence. England, and especially Cornwall, was then marked by social unrest and a deep division between rich and poor. It was a place of tin mines and shipwrecks, of new money versus old, of harsh justice and great kindness. And, above all, it was a place that inspired Winston Graham's beloved novels. Amid the turmoil of eighteenth-century Cornwall, Ross comes back to a home in ruins, his father dead and his childhood sweetheart engaged to another - his own heart as battered as the country around him. Experience the great houses and the glorious landscapes and follow the cast of characters as their stories play out against the backdrop of Cornwall's wild beauty, through interviews with the actors, behind the scenes insights and in-depth information on costumes, props and locations. Packed full of behind the scenes photographs, The World of Poldark is the ultimate guide to the popular series.
Vikraal
by Sangeeta BahadurSet in a world that reflects post-Vedic India, Vikraal takes up where Jaal, the first book of the Kaal Trilogy, ends. The lingering bars of the six-millennia-old Prison of Dreams are disintegrating around Aushij, the Sleeping God, making him increasingly aware of Arihant, his designated Foe. Half a year after his incredible metamorphosis in the Vakrini's Mind-City, Arihant is now on an unpredictable journey that takes him further on the road to becoming the ultimate warrior. Unexpected truths assail him at every turn - the searing fact of his own identity; the soaring joy of true love; the shock of his unforeseen vulnerability and, ultimately, the discovery and acceptance of his true self and purpose in the realm of the cosmic enigma whom some call the Oracle, and who calls itself Kaal - the governor of the universe.The intricate weave of conflicts and discoveries propels the protagonists towards an explosive climax that alters the very course of the Cosmic Game. This roaring adventure blends seamlessly with India's metaphysical traditions, creating a thrilling tale of action-packed mysticism.
The Spinner's Tale
by Omar Shahid HamidSheikh Ahmed Uzair Sufi is one of the most feared men in Pakistan, a top Jihadi militant, who believes in nothing save his own limitless scope for violence.But no one had suspected this future. Back in 1994, as simple old Ausi, he graduated from school with Eddy and Sana, his two best friends.While Eddy and Sana go to college in America, Ausi's life takes dangerous and unexpected turns. Over the years, Ausi and Eddy stay in touch through letters. They pursue vastly different lives, yet their shared passion for cricket and nostalgia for their schooldays bind them together. But as Ausi treads his dark path, will the bonds of friendship hold?Omar Shahid Hamid, bestselling author of The Prisoner, takes us on another thrilling, sinister ride, stretching from Karachi to Kashmir to Afghanistan, in The Spinner's Tale.
Poldark: The Complete Scripts - Series 1
by Debbie HorsfieldCornwall, 1783. The American Revolutionary War is over. Cornishman Ross Poldark returns to his father's lands a battle-weary soul. Met by a homeland gripped in recession and the revelation of his father's death, Ross must contend with the disrepair of his property and the challenge of keeping his family tin mine in business as his sweetheart prepares to marry his cousin. Amidst the stark beauty of the Cornish landscape, Ross must fight for his livelihood, making allies, and enemies, along the way.Delve deeper into the hit BBC drama starring Aidan Turner as Ross Poldark and Eleanor Tomlinson as Demelza. Collecting together Debbie Horsfield's original scripts, Poldark: The Complete Scripts - Series 1 allows you to relive the greatest moments from the first series, from Poldark's initial homecoming to the series' dramatic close. This is the perfect accompaniment for fans of the series and gives a unique insight into how the show was visualized.
Poldark: The Complete Scripts - Series 2
by Debbie HorsfieldCornwall, 1790. Ross Poldark faces the darkest hour of his life. Accused of wrecking two ships, he is to stand trial at the Bodmin Assizes. Despite their stormy married life, Demelza has tried to rally support for her husband. But there are plenty of enemies who would be happy to see Ross convicted, not least the powerful banker George Warleggan, whose personal rivalry with Ross grows ever more intense.This second volume of Debbie Horsfield's original scripts for the acclaimed television series takes readers from Ross's trial to the dramatic final episode. Poldark: The Complete Scripts - Series 2 is the perfect companion to the television series starring Aidan Turner, and affords a fascinating insight into how Winston Graham's beloved novels are transformed for the screen.
The Grass Memorial
by Sarah HarrisonThe leaping chalk horse, carved into an English hillside in the Bronze Age, stands witness to centuries of human endeavour.To Stella it represents home - sanctuary from the adrenalin-fuelled highs and corresponding lows of her career as a singer. Stella is tough and talented, adored by every man in every audience but a loser in love.Spencer McColl is an American ex-fighter pilot making a last sentimental journey from Wyoming to the England of his mother's childhood, and the white horse, to pay tribute to the past.Harry Latimer sets off to the Crimea as a captain in the Hussars with a heart burdened by his undeclared love for his sister-in-law, Rachel. The grim reality of the battlefield provides a bitter contrast to Harry's memories of the tranquillity of home.Stella, Spencer, Harry - each marches to the tune of a different drama. Their stories are separated by many miles and generations, but profoundly connected in ways they can never fully understand.
The Dreaming Stones
by Sarah HarrisonIn second century AD, Claudia leaves Rome for the far northern province of Britain where her new husband is commander of a frontier garrison.In the late twentieth century, Miranda Tattersall - the iconic model 'Rags' - becomes the third wife of Lord Frederick Stratton, so beginning a love affair with the Strattons' house, Ladycross, near Northumbria's great Wall.Roberta Govan, long divorced after a brief and disastrous marriage, finally buys a place of her own, away from all past attachments and associations. Or so she thinks.Claudia, Rags, Bobby: their stories are linked by a wild and beautiful place; the events that brought them to it; and the powerful emotions that make it 'home'.
Secrets Under the Sun
by Nadia MarksSecrets Under the Sun is a stunning romantic mystery by the sea, from Nadia Marks, author of the bestselling Among the Lemon Trees.The truth will surprise you . . .On the island of Cyprus, in the small seaside town of Larnaka, three childhood friends have reunited for the funeral of Katerina, the much-loved old woman who had a profound effect on their lives.Eleni, Marianna and Adonis grew up together, as close as siblings. Although from humble beginnings – a housemaid from the age of thirteen – Katerina’s love, wisdom and guidance helped shape them all.Her loss leaves the friends bereft, but the funeral is not just a time to mourn and remember. Adonis’s mother decides that with Katerina’s death comes the time to share the family’s secrets and answer the riddles of their childhood. A story of deception, forbidden love and undying loyalty unravels. What she reveals will change everything . . .
A Commonwealth of Hope: The New Deal Response to Crisis (The American Moment)
by Alan LawsonDid the New Deal represent the true American way or was it an aberration that would last only until the old order could reassert itself? This original and thoughtful study tells the story of the New Deal, explains its origins, and assesses its legacy. Alan Lawson explores how the circumstances of the Great Depression and the distinctive leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt combined to bring about unprecedented economic and policy reform. Challenging conventional wisdom, he argues that the New Deal was not an improvised response to an unexpected crisis, but the realization of a unique opportunity to put into practice Roosevelt’s long-developed progressive thought. Lawson focuses on where the impetus and plans for the New Deal originated, how Roosevelt and those closest to him sought to fashion a cooperative commonwealth, and what happened when the impulse for collective unity was thwarted. He describes the impact of the Great Depression on the prevailing system and traces the fortunes of several major social sectors as the drive to create a cohesive plan for reconstruction unfolded. He continues the story of these main sectors through the last half of the 1930s and traces their legacy down to the present as crucial challenges to the New Deal have arisen. Drawing from a wide variety of scholarly texts, records of the Roosevelt administration, Depression-era newspapers and periodicals, and biographies and reflections of the New Dealers, Lawson offers a comprehensive conceptual base for a crucial aspect of American history.
A Dictionary of the Space Age (New Series in NASA History (PDF))
by Paul DicksonThe launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 ushered in an exciting era of scientific and technological advancement. As television news anchors, radio hosts, and journalists reported the happenings of the American and the Soviet space programs to millions of captivated citizens, words that belonged to the worlds of science, aviation, and science fiction suddenly became part of the colloquial language. What’s more, NASA used a litany of acronyms in much of its official correspondence in an effort to transmit as much information in as little time as possible. To translate this peculiar vocabulary, Paul Dickson has compiled the curious lingo and mystifying acronyms of NASA in an accessible dictionary of the names, words, and phrases of the Space Age.Aviators, fighter pilots, and test pilots coined the phrases "spam in a can" (how astronauts felt prelaunch as they sat in a tiny capsule atop a rocket booster); "tickety-boo" (things are fine), and "the Eagle has landed" (Neil Armstrong’s famous quote when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon).This dictionary captures a broader foundation for language of the Space Age based on the historic principles employed by the Oxford English Dictionary and Webster’s New Third International Dictionary. Word histories for major terms are detailed in a conversational tone, and technical terms are deciphered for the interested student and lay reader. This is a must-own reference for space history buffs.