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HISTORY, HISTORICAL FICTION
and POLITICS -1- |
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Desire of the Kingdom - Paula Simonds Zabka
Large paperback in excellent condition. Bosworth (2002). 310pp. NZD: 6.50 / P & P: B Was Richard III of Shakespeare fame an evil hunchback? Did Richard III forcibly usurp the throne of England? What part did Richard III's Queen, Anne of Warwick, play in the assumption of the throne by Richard Plantagenet? Why did Richard III have his brother, the Duke of Clarence, drowned in a vat of wine? Did Richard III kill the princes in the tower? Why did Richard III make his fatal charge at Bosworth? These are some of the questions still being asked about the last Plantagenet King, Richard III, and answered in a unique historical novel, "Desire the Kingdom" by Paula Simonds Zabka. Richard III, whose name is synonymous with villainy as depicted by Shakespeare, is presented in a different light. Holding to high principles of loyalty, he strives to support his king as he pursues his love for Anne. While confronting betrayals, insurrections and family strife, he continually fights his conscience after taking the throne, following the death of his brother and King, Edward IV. For Richard's Queen, Anne Neville, daughter of Warwick the Kingmaker, life becomes one of survival. As she struggles in her love for Richard, she becomes caught up in the desire of others to claim the throne of England by treachery, deceit and murder in the war between the Houses of York and Lancaster. Using charts, tables, maps, and straightforward descriptions, this book makes the complex story of the Wars of the Roses understandable and enjoyable to learn. 
Bulfinch's Mythology - Edmund Fuller
Paperback in excellent, NEW condition. Dell Books. 448pp. Bulfinch's Mythology - A Modern Abridgement NZD: 5.00 / P & P: A The justly famous Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch contains three volumes the major contents of which are retained in this abridgment for the student and general reader. - The Age Of Fable: The gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome, as well as the mythology of the Germanic tribes, England and the Near East. - The Legend Of Charlemagne: Accounts of the reign of the first great French Emperor, his wars and conquests. - The Age Of Chivalry: King Arthur and his court, Lancelot and Guinevere, and the death of Arthur. Bulfinch does a great job of retelling the classic Greek/Roman myths of antiquity as well as the myths of Old Europe including, among others, Arthur, Charlemagne, Orlando, and Thor. This book includes a comprehensive index. 
The Real Mackay - Essays by Ian Mackay
Red card covers. Book Condition: VG. Dust Jacket Condition: Good but slightly faded. Illustrated by Vicky and with a Profile by R.J.Cruikshank. "News Chronicle" Publications Dept. London. 1st Edition (1953). NZD: 5.00 / P & P: A When Ian Mackay died on October 3rd 1952, at the age of 54, he had made an unusual hat-trick; three reputations in the same profession. The first as a labour correspondent, the second as a diarist, the third as an essayist. Common to all of them were an acutely observant eye for the significant and the absurd in our human story, an encyclopedic memory, an immense range of acquaintanceship and warmth, style and humour of expression that made him the friend of all who knew and read him. His Diary in the "News Chronicle" became one of its best known features. The 72 pieces here reprinted are the cream of more than 1000 diary articles and essays which first appeared there.. The News Chronicle was a British daily newspaper broadly supporting the British Liberal Party. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the paper took an anti-Franco stance and sent two correspondents, Arthur Koestler and, later, Geoffrey (to Madrid) in 1936. In 1956, the News Chronicle opposed the UK's military support of Israel in invading the Suez canal zone, a decision which cost it circulation. It was one of British journalism's prime casualties of the Suez crisis. In October 1960, the News Chronicle finally folded and was absorbed into the right-wing Daily Mail newspaper. In its heydays, the News Chronicle had numerous famous contributors : Stephen G. Barber, Vernon Bartlett, Stanley Bishop, Ritchie Calder, James Cameron, G. K. Chesterton, Norman Clark, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Geoffrey Cox, E. S. Dallas, Thomas Kettle, Arthur Koestler, C. W. A. Scott, H. G. Wells, and Patrick Maitland. 
The story of the Goths - Henry Bradley
Hardback with attractive decorated green cloth boards in VG condition apart from a few bumps on some corners and base of spine (See scan). Front fep missing and light foxing on edge of early and late pages. Overall, a nice clean tight copy 125 years of age... Publisher: New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons & London, T. Fisher Unwin (1888). First Edition. 376pp. incl. front., ill., folded map. NZD: 9.50 / P & P: B The Goths : From the earliest times to the end of the Gothic dominion in Spain. In the collection: Story of the Nations (volume 12). A popular history of the Goths. Bradley's volume is the first History of the Goths that has appeared in the English language. The blank in our historical literature is a visible sign of the oblivion which has befallen a name which at one time promised to be more far. sounding than the name of Frank. In the fourth century the Goths were the most powerful people in Europe. One Gothic King ruled over Spain and the richest part of Gaul, and another was the ruler of the whole of Italy. Nor was it the . extent of their dominions alone that pointed out the Goths as the people of the future. They were the most gifted of the barbarian races, acquired the Roman civilisation with marvellous rapidity, and produced rulers with an unusual capacity for government. The Letters of Cassiodoras bear witness to the wisdom with which the great Gothic King Theodoric governed from Ravenna the mixed population of his Italian Kingdom. Far less promising for the future were the political beginnings of the Franks, who, according to Gregory of Tours, were repulsive barbarians—Ottoman Turks of the West more likely to destroy the still existing civilisation, than to found a new one. The respective fate of Frank and Goth cannot be regarded as satisfactory by those who believe that the history of the world is the judgment of the world. The Goths were overthrown when they were governed and led by a King who is justly described as having a passion for justice and a lofty ideal of kingship. 
The Story of Holland - James E. Thorold Rogers
Hardback with attractive decorated green cloth boards in VG+ condition. A few minor bumps on some corners and base of spine. Light foxing on both feps only. Overall, a very nice clean tight copy 120 years of age... Publisher: New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons & London, T. Fisher Unwin (1893). Third Edition. 388pp. incl. front., illus. (incl. ports.) fold. map. NZD: 9.50 / P & P: B From the Preface: "The story which is contained in the following pages is, of necessity, brief, for I cannot go beyond the limits of the series. But it need not be given in great detail. It is possible by a short narrative to recount the principal facts in the greatest and most important of all European wars, that in which the seven provinces of Holland secured their independence against the monarch who was supposed to possess, the mightiest powers of the age. Holland was won by its people acre by acre, field by field, against the best European troops of the time, the most practised generals, and what seemed to be boundless resources. The interest in their story lies in the spirit and resolution of the Hollanders, in the tenacity with which they clung to their purposes, and the great results which followed from the victory which they won, after a war of unparalleled duration. The Spanish king, their foe, represented the two principles of sixteenth-century despotism, entire authority over the lives and fortunes of his subjects, entire authority over their consciences. The Hollanders resisted him, defeated him, and gave the first precedent for civil and religious liberty. It was the stimulant to similar efforts in other countries. These efforts were not always successful; sometimes, indeed, they were defeated, and governments were apparently all the stronger by reason of the failure in the attempt to control them. But the example of the Dutch was never forgotten, and the prosperity of free Holland was always a stimulant to those other races which struggled for freedom..." 
The Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia to 1786 - Sidney Bradshaw Fay
Small format hardback, blue cloth covers, in excellent used condition. 157pp. Published by Henry Holt & Co. (1937). NZD: 4.50 / P & P: A A reference book for the students of European History, with time line charts etc... 
Science in History - J.D. Bernal
The Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. Large paperback, with pictorial covers in excellent condition. Numerous period illustrations throughout. Published by Pelican Books (1969).694pp + xxv. NZD: 8.50 / P & P: B Volume 2 : The Scientific and Industrial Revolutions J. D. Bernal's monumental work Science in History is the first full-scale attempt to analyse the relationship between science and society throughout history, from the perfection of the first flint hand-axe to the construction of the hydrogen bomb. This remarkable study illustrates the impetus given to and the limitations placed upon discovery and invention by pastoral, agricultural, feudal, capitalist, and socialist systems, and conversely the ways in which science has altered economic, social, and political beliefs and practices. This second volume focuses on the period of development and the establishment of modern science. It begins with work of the Renaissance and continues with a discussion of the stimulus given to scientific development by emerging seventeenth-century capitalism. A final section takes up the industrial revolution and the manner in which science and technology transformed the whole nature of human society. A very serious and fascinating reference book for both budding historians or scientists out there... 
The Magic Army - Leslie Thomas
Paperback in excellent condition . Some age fading of pages. Published by Penguin Books (1982). 474pp. NZD: 5.50 / P & P: A World War II, they said, would be over by Christmas. That was in 1939, and it is now January 1944. An exhausted Britain faces another year of conflict. Meanwhile, small coastal villages in Devon are facing an invasion from an army just as foreign as that of the Germans. The Americans are smart, well-fed and well-equipped, and they have swept the bewildered citizens of South Devon from their homes in deadly earnest rehearsal for D-Day. As the beaches echo to the sound of bullets and the local church to the strains of Glenn Miller, Americans and English are thrown together with sometimes hilarious, sometimes painful and puzzling results. "World War 2. New Years Eve, 1943. The tiny village of Slapton is told that it has to be evacuated - American troops are occupying the wide district of South Devon. Over three thousand inhabitants must uproot themselves from their homes in less than a fortnight. The Americans are performing advanced manoeuvres with real bullets - a good reason for civilians to be evacuated. They're prepared for animosity, but they're not prepared for the harsh conditions the Second World War in Europe has imposed upon the civilian population of England; the short supply of almost everything is a far cry from the luxuries of home..." The Magic Army is vintage Leslie Thomas. Charming, funny and imbued with warmth, he writes about the World War Two events leading up to that fateful day with his trademark compassion. 
Do Not Pass Go - Tim Moore
Paperback in very good used condition. Minor fading on pages edge. Vintage (2003). 342pp. NZD: 6.50 / P & P: A A book that tells the story of London since the thirties through the 28 streets, stations and utilities of the Monopoly board. In the wonderful world of Monopoly it still only cost £50 to buy a house in Islington, you can move around London with the shake of a dice and even park your car for free. In Do Not Pass Go Tim Moore, belying his reputation as a player who always paid that £10 fine rather than take a Chance, fearlessly tackles the real thing and along the way tells the story of a game and the city that frames it. Sampling the rags and the riches he stays in a hotel in Mayfair and one in the Old Kent Road, enjoys quality time with Dr Crippen in Pentonville Prison and even winds up at the wrong end of the Water Works pipe. And, solving all the mysteries you'll have pondered whilst languishing in jail and many other you certainly wouldn't, Tim Moore reveals how Pall Mall got its name, which three addresses you won't find in your A-Z and why the sorry cul-de-sac that is Vine Street has a special place in the heart of Britain's most successful Monopoly champion. This is the stirring travelogue of one man's erratic progress around those 28 streets, stations and utilities, Do Not Pass Go is also an epic and lovingly researched history of London's wayward progress in the 66 years since the launch of the world's most popular board game. A must read for all gamers passionate about Monopoly. 
Robbery Under Arms - Rolf Boldrewood
A Story Of Life And Adventure In The Bush And In The Australian Goldfields Large paperback in excellent used condition. Some writing on front endpaper as it was a gift. Axiom (2001). 346pp. NZD: 7.50 / P & P: B Robbery Under Arms is a classic Australian novel by Rolf Boldrewood (a pseudonym for Thomas Alexander Browne). Over a century after its first publication, this book remains as fresh and enthralling as when it originally appeared in serial form in the Sydney Mail in 1882/3. Along with "The Fortunes of Richard Mahony", this is one of the two pivotal historical novels which are essential reading for anyone who would understand the Australian people. Set in the central ranges of New South Wales around the first gold rushes of the 1850s, it centres on the gradual disintegration of Richard Maston and his brother during their turbulent years into cattle duffing, bushranging and bank robbery. Their father incorporates them into his own long criminal life and soon they are friends of the fallen English aristocrat known only as "Captain Starlight". Robbery Under Arms is a morality tale. It rails against criminality and exalts the virtuous life, contrasting the fate of the Mastons to that of their neighbour George Storefield who achieves riches and authority by steady and honest hard work. But it is complex enough to keep the reader very interested and there is plenty of action, suspense and a final twist as Richard Marston prepares for the gallows. 
A Time To Die - Robert Moore
The Untold Story of the Kursk Tragedy Large paperback in excellent, NEW condition. Numerous colour photographs. Published by Bantam Books (2003). 320pp. NZD: 8.50 / P & P: B At 10.30am on Saturday August 12, 2000, two massive explosions in rapid succession shook the icy Arctic waters of the Barents Sea. The Kursk, one of the largest and most technologically advanced nuclear subs in the world carrying a crew of 118 Russian sailors, had suffered a major, unexplained accident, and rapidly crashed to the ocean floor. Many can still remember how the news of this terrible accident was reported around the world, and the tension of the days when the doomed crew waited for rescue, while the Russians seemed to be turning away all international offers of help, until it was too late. Robert Moore, the former Moscow Correspondent of ITN, and now their Foreign Affairs editor, has written an authoritative investigative book on this tragedy. He interviewed families of the crew, Russian officials, the international rescue teams, and the US submarine crews who were monitoring the Kursk's movements to produce a book to not only recreate the final moments of the submarine and its crew, but also explore the events leading up to it, and the political, social and environmental issues raised by the catastrophe. This is a story of how the Kursk crew were doomed, how their surviving families fought to learn the truth about their fate and about the British civilian North Sea divers who tried to assist in the rescue mission. 
Good Girls, Good Food, Good Fun - M. K. Winchell
The Story of USO Hostesses Hardback with pictorial d/j in excellent condition. Numerous B&W illustrations. This is a former library book which was protected by a thick vinyl cover, was obviously rarely borrowed, and consequently remained virtually pristine. The usual discreet library stamp on the front end paper. University of Nth Carolina (2008). 256pp. NZD: 8.00/ P & P: C Throughout World War 2, when Saturday nights came around, servicemen and hostesses happily forgot the war for a little while as they danced together in USO clubs, which served as havens of stability in a time of social, moral, and geographic upheaval. Meghan Winchell demonstrates that in addition to boosting soldier morale, the USO acted as an architect of the gender roles and sexual codes that shaped the "greatest generation." Combining archival research with extensive first hand accounts from among the hundreds of thousands of female USO volunteers, Winchell shows how the organization both reflected and shaped 1940s American society at large. The USO had hoped that respectable feminine companionship would limit venereal disease rates in the military. To that end, Winchell explains, USO recruitment practices characterized white middle-class women as sexually respectable, thus implying that the sexual behaviour of working-class women and women of colour was suspicious. In response, women of colour sought to redefine the USO's definition of beauty and respectability, challenging the USO's vision of a home front that was free of racial, gender, and sexual conflict. Despite clashes over class and racial ideologies of sex and respectability, Winchell finds that most hostesses benefited from the USO's chaste image. In exploring the USO's treatment of female volunteers, Winchell not only brings the hostesses' stories to light but also supplies a crucial missing piece for understanding the complex ways in which the war both destabilized and restored certain versions of social order. 
The Perfect Storm - Sebastian Junger
Paperback in excellent condition. Numerous B & W photographs. Published by HarperTorch (2000). 302pp. NZD: 5.00/ P & P: A The worst storm in history seen from the wheelhouse of a doomed fishing trawler; a mesmerisingly vivid account of a natural hell from a perspective that offers no escape. The 'perfect storm' is a once-in-a-hundred-years combination: a high pressure system from the Great Lakes, running into storm winds over an Atlantic island - Sable Island - and colliding with a weather system from the Caribbean: Hurricane Grace. This is the story of that 1991 storm, told through the accounts of individual fishing boats caught up in the maelstrom, their families waiting anxiously for news of their return, the rescue services scrambled to save them. It is the story of the old battle between the fisherman and the sea, between man and Nature, but here Nature is an awesome and capricious power that transforms the surface of the Atlantic into an impossible tumult of water walls and gaping voids, with the capacity to break an oil tanker in two, let alone the 72ft sword fishing boat Andrea Gail with her crew of eight. A typical Hurricane encompasses a million cubic miles of atmosphere and can contain enough energy to, in theory, meet the electric power needs of the UK for a decade. Except that a hurricane will not be controlled. In spare, lyrical prose 'The Perfect Storm' describes what happened when the Andrea Gail looked into the wrathful face of the perfect storm. 
The Vagabond - George Walker Edited by W.M. Verhoeven
Paperback in excellent, as NEW condition. Broadview (2004). 390pp. NZD: 11.50/ P & P: B The Vagabond is a vibrant counterrevolutionary polemic that illuminates a wide range of political controversy in the 1790s—the French Revolution crisis, domestic reform, transatlantic emigration, and the era's heated debates on human nature and its troubling propensity for violence. First published in 1799, it was an immediate popular success. Offering a vitriolic critique of post-Bastille Jacobinism and sans-culotte-style mob rule, its true-to-life satirical portraits of many of the radical men and women who fought in the forefront of the "British Revolution" are nonetheless full of playful banter and farce. With swipes at Hume, Rousseau, Godwin, Wollstonecraft, and Paine; the French Revolution; and the ideas of the noble savage, natural virtue, liberty, equality, and romantic primitivism, The Vagabond offers a unique cross-section of 1790s radicalism. This Broadview edition contains a critical introduction and a wide selection of primary source materials that situate the novel in the context of the revolutionary debate of the 1790s. Appendices include contemporary reviews of the novel and excerpts from the writings of a variety of radicals and reactionaries engaged in the debate, such as Hume, Rousseau, Paine, Thelwall, Wollstonecraft, Godwin, Burke, Playfair, Malthus, and Cobbett, among many others. 
English Costume in the Age of Elizabeth - 16th Century Text & Illustrations by Iris Brooke
Hardback in very good used condition. Orange cloth boards clean. Randomly scattered foxing on pages throughout the book. Binding tight. No inscriptions. D/w showing signs of wear with tears/rips/rubs and with a discoloured spine. Published by Adam & Charles Black (1950). 90pp. NZD: 9.50/ P & P: B This book is a history of the English costume at the time of the Tudors including Queen Elizabeth I. The text and illustrations (of which there are many, both colour and b&w) are by Iris Brooke herself. Besides the different clothes through the decades the book also shows the variety in head wear for men and women at that time. A nicely illustrated reference book. 
The Commandants - The Tyrants Who Ruled Norfolk Island
by M.G. Britts Large paperback in very good condition. Numerous B&W illustrations. Published by Kapak - Norfolk Island (1980). 160pp. NZD: 7.50/ P & P: B This book tells the often horrific story of Norfolk Island in the days when it was a penal settlement; the commandants of the title were the unchallenged rulers, most of whom were 'men whose cruelty was not to be matched until the days of the concentration camps'. Descriptions of these commandants of Norfolk Island from 1790 - 1859. Includes: Philip Gidley King; Robert Ross; John Thomson & Thomas Rowley; Joseph Foveaux; John Piper; Tankerville Alexander Crane; Richard Turton; Vance Young Donaldson; Thomas Edward Wright; Robert Hunt; Joseph Wakefield; James Thomas Morriset; Joseph Anderson; Thomas Bunbury; Thomas Ryan; Alexander Maconochie; Joseph Childs; John Giles Price; H. B. Deering; J. H. Day. M. G. Britts graphically depicts the impressions made by the succession of brutal Commandants who made the name of Norfolk Island notorious around the world. 
This Whispering in Our Hearts - Henry Reynolds
Paperback in excellent new condition. Published by Allen & Unwin (1998). 286pp. NZD: 7.50/ P & P: A Harry Reynolds presents a different history of Australia through the eyes of remarkable and largely forgotten people. This story begins with Australia's first punitive expedition in December 1790 and the first clash of conscience about the use of violence which took place between Governor Arthur Phillip and Lieutenant William Dawes. It ends on the eve of World War 2 with Harry Bennett still expressing deep anger about the condition of the Aborigines and the attitudes of whites Australia. This book, by the celebrated historian Henry Reynolds, describes the efforts of some of the early settlers in Australia in support of the Aborigines. At times, the book is profoundly moving. It recounts appalling atrocities committed against Australia's indigenous communities by the "civilized" British. Its main focus, though, is the efforts of a number of people who tried to ensure that the Aborigines were treated fairly and with compassion. It provides an insight into their struggles in aid of the Aborigines, their perseverance in the face of rejection and the hardships they often suffered. A moving and enlightening book about some of Australia's "forgotten" humanitarians. 
Schindler's List - Thomas Keneally (Retold by Nancy Taylor)
Paperback in excellent, NEW condition. Penguin Readers (2008). NZD: 5.00/ P & P: A Thomas Keneally's famous novel tells the true story of Oskar Schindler, a businessman who risked his life every day during the Second World War to save as many Jews as possible. Steven Spielberg's film of Schindler's List won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. A Level 6 Penguin Reader Book - "As Series Editors of both Penguin Readers and Penguin Active Reading, we strive to meet two objectives: to provide books that students really want to read and to nourish a sense of achievement and growing confidence from successful reading by presenting books, with appropriate support material, that are accurately tuned to level ". - Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter 
Queer Street - James McCourt
The Rise and Fall of an American Culture 1947-1985 Hardback with d/w, both in excellent condition. Published by Norton (2004). 578pp inc. index. Numerous B & W photos and illustrations. Ex-library book with a couple of very discreet stamps. NZD: 9.50/ P & P: C "A heroically imaginative account of gay metropolitan culture, an elegy and an apologia for a generation." New York Times Book Review A fierce critical intelligence animates every page of Queer Street. Its sentences are dizzying divagations. The post-war generation of queer New York has found a sophisticated bard singing 'the elders' history'. James McCourt's seminal Queer Street has proven unrivalled in its ability to capture the voices of a mad, bygone era. Beginning with the influx of liberated veterans into downtown New York and barrelling through four decades of crisis and triumph up to the era of the floodtide of AIDS, McCourt positions his own exhilarating experience against the whirlwind history of the era. The result is a commanding and persuasive interlocking of personal, intellectual, and social history that will be read, dissected, and honoured as the masterpiece it is for decades to come. A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2003; a Lambda Award finalist. 
Salt, Grain of Life - Pierre Laszlo
Paperback in excellent condition. Harper Collins (2002). 192pp. NZD: 8.50/ P & P: B For the sake of salt, Rome created a system of remuneration (from which we get the word "salary"), nomads domesticated the camel, the Low Countries revolted against their Spanish oppressors, and Gandhi marched against the tyranny of the British. Through the ages, salt has conferred status, preserved foods, and mingled in the blood, sweat, and tears of humanity. Today, chefs of haute cuisine covet it in its most exotic forms -- underground salt deposits, Hawaiian black lava salt, glittery African crystals, and pink Peruvian salt from the sea carried in bricks on the backs of llamas. From proverbs to technical arguments, from anecdotes to examples of folklore, chemist and philosopher Pierre Laszlo takes us through the kingdom of "white gold." With "enthusiasm and freshness" he mixes literary analysis, history, anthropology, biology, physics, economics, art history, political science, chemistry, ethnology, and linguistics to create a full body of knowledge about the everyday substance that rocked the world and brings zest to the ordinary. Laszlo explains the history behind Morton Salt's slogan "When it rains, it pours!" and looks into the plight of the salt miner, as well as spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance. Salt is a tour de force about a chemical compound that is one of the very foundations of civilization. |