History - Books

Sticklers, Sideburns and Bikinis

History

Did you know they started 'hearing through the grapevine' during the American Civil War, that 'ghettos' originated in Venice or that 'deadline' has a very sinister origin? Jam-packed with many amazing facts, Fighting Talk is a fascinating trip through the words and phrases that came to us from the military but nowadays are used by soldier and civilian alike. The sources of many are surprising and their original use is often far removed from that of today. From 'duds' to 'freelancers' and 'morris dancing' to 'bikini' this enthralling book describes the military origins of words and phrases that we use on a daily basis.

United States Army Armored Divisions of the Second World War

History

The routing of the British and French Armies in May and June 1940 by the Wehrmachts armored divisions caused a major rethink by the US Armys senior leadership. The result was the formation of the two armored divisions in July 1940; the first named Old Ironside and second designated Hell on Wheels.In 1941, a further three armored divisions were created; the third (Spearhead), the fourth (remained unnamed) and the fifth called Victory. The following year seven more were created, the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth. The final two armored divisions formed in 1943 numbered the sixteenth and twentieth. All but one of these powerful formations went on to see service in the European Theatre of Operation (ETO); the exception being the 1st armored Division that served in North Africa, Sicily and Italy.These fourteen divisions proved their effectiveness against the Axis forces. In this carefully researched book military historian and much published author Michael Green explains their operational and fighting doctrine. Equipment enthusiasts will appreciate the lavish images and informed captions of the armored fighting vehicles and other equipment employed.

Washington's Farewell Address

History

Originally published as one letter to the American people, George Washington’s Farewell Address circulated in newspapers across the country and was printed in pamphlet form for years after he retired to his Mount Vernon home. Touted as a classic statement of republicanism, Washington’s farewell warned against “entangling alliances” and encouraged the people to remain true to their values. Washington’s address was prepared in 1792 after he was planning to retire after just one term in office, but following the division between the newly formed Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, Washington decided to stay another term in office and work to strengthen the unity of the people. After Washington’s retirement, people feared what the country would be like without his leadership. With the popularity of his final address and the wisdom it provided, future politicians would look back at the first President’s paper and heed his advice.

Abschottung

History

Warum gibt es im 21. Jahrhundert mehr Mauern und Grenzen als je zuvor?Wir leben in einem neuen Zeitalter des Isolationismus und Nationalismus, in dem Mauern wieder Konjunktur haben, von der amerikanischen Mauer an der Grenze zu Mexiko bis hin zu der Firewall, mit der China sich gegen den Westen abschottet. Europa errichtet Zäune gegen Flüchtlinge, Mauern und Zäune ziehen sich durch den Nahen Osten, den Sudan, Korea, Indien. Mindestens 65 Länder der Welt, mehr als je zuvor, haben stark befestigte Grenzen. Es gibt viele Gründe dafür: Reichtum und Armut, Rasse, Religion, Politik, Angst. Tim Marshall zeigt in seiner fesselnden und scharfsinnigen Analyse, wie Abschottung unsere Gegenwart prägt. Sie steht für ein Versagen von Politik und ist eine Gefahr für die Zukunft.

L'Eglise et la pilule

History

Comment l'Eglise catholique a failli approuver la contraception Rome, 29 juillet 1968. Via della Conciliazione.Le texte que vient présenter solennellement Mgr Lambruschini à la presse du monde entier est une encyclique que le pape Paul VI a signée quatre jours plus tôt. Elle commence, en latin, par les mots Humanae vitae qui, comme le veut l'usage, en deviendront l'intitulé. En français : De la vie humaine. Le document porte sur la régulation des naissances. Voilà près de cinq années qu'on attend de l'Eglise qu'elle précise sa doctrine en matière de contraception. Combien de débats, de tribunes, de polémiques ont eu lieu sur ce thème brûlant, y compris à l'intérieur de l'institution ! Cette fois, le pape a tranché. Mais que dit exactement ce texte ?

1941, le monde prend feu

History

Après 1940, de l’abîme à l’espérance, Max Gallo continue de nous faire revivre les années terribles où s’est joué le destin de la France et du monde, dans un livre numérique exceptionnel enrichi de films d’archives. Ce premier ebook+ a été élaboré avec le concours de Max Gallo, après des heures de visionnage des archives du fonds Gaumont Pathé. Les séquences de films, volontairement courtes et fortes, ont été insérées dans le texte dans le seul but d’appuyer la puissance du récit par celle de l’image, tout en veillant à ne pas interrompre l’expérience de lecture de l’ouvrage qui reste un « livre ». En appui de la lecture du remarquable ouvrage et grand succès de Max Gallo, vous allez ainsi pouvoir découvrir des séquences d’images, pour certaines inédites, illustrant les grands moments de cette année 1941 : l’offensive allemande contre l’URSS le 22 juin 1941, Roosevelt et Churchill sur le Prince of Wales, Staline sur la place Rouge, la Rencontre entre Pétain et Goering à Saint-Florentin, l’attaque de Pearl Harbour, des images d’Adolf Hitler et Eva Braun de la collection privée d’Hitler,etc. Faites l’expérience de cette nouvelle forme de lecture en découvrant l’extrait disponible ! « Un livre furieux et haletant, un roman vrai [...] emporté par une verve impitoyable et douloureuse. » Alain Duhamel, Le Point « Une science historique sûre, servie par un art inné de la narration et la passion de faire comprendre aux Français leur passé. » Le Figaro littéraire « Avec la verve et le souffle épique dont il est coutumier, l’auteur nous fait revivre les douze mois les plus terribles de l’Histoire de France. » Ouest France

The Winning of the West, Volume 2

History

Roosevelt's second volume further illustrates his contention that no regular army could have prevailed in the border fighting, only toughened individual frontiersmen. Here Boone is seen again, as well as George Rogers Clark, the conqueror of the Illinois country. Roosevelt shows how the American Revolution helped the newly independent peoples take over the West.

The Winning of the West, Volume 3

History

This volume continues with the westward immigration via wilderness trails and keelboats on the Ohio. Roosevelt gives the whole unsettled picture after the Revolution, describing the separatist movement, the threat posed by the Spanish possessions, skirmishes with Indians incited by the British operating fur posts on the Great Lakes, the differences in the struggles for the Northwest and the Southwest and in their pioneering stock.

The Winning of the West, Volume 4

History

With regular references to original documents and the author's opinions on the trustworthiness of many of the documents, given that most of historical information was drawn from the memories of the participants or near participant several decades after the events.

Italy With Sketches of Spain and Portugal

History

Most of these Letters were written in the bloom and heyday of youthful spirits and youthful confidence, at a period when the old order of things existed with all its picturesque pomps and absurdities; when Venice enjoyed her piombi and submarine dungeons; France her bastile; the Peninsula her holy Inquisition. To look back upon what is beginning to appear almost a fabulous era in the eyes of the modern children of light, is not unamusing or uninstructive; for, still better to appreciate the present, we should be led not unfrequently to recall the intellectual muzziness of the past.

The Souls of Black Folk

History

In honor of the 150th anniversary of W.E. B. Du Bois’s birth in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, the University of Massachusetts Library has prepared a new edition of Du Bois’s classic, The Souls of Black Folk. Originally published in 1903, Souls introduced a number of now-canonical terms into the American conversation about race, among them double-consciousness, and it sounded the ominous warning that “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." In a new introduction, Shawn Leigh Alexander outlines the historical context of this critical work and provides rare documents from the special collections archive at the Du Bois Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.Unlike Du Bois’s more scholarly work, Souls blends narrative and autobiographical essays, and it continues to reach a wide domestic and international readership. This moving homage to black life and culture and its sharp economic and historical critique are more important than ever, resonating with today’s unequivocal demand that Black Lives Matter in the twenty-first century.

The Tigers of Bastogne

History

This chronicle of an armored division’s bravery during the Battle of the Bulge sheds new light on the legendary Siege of Bastogne in WWII. Before the 101st Airborne Division’s famous Siege of Bastogne, there was already a US unit holding the town when they arrived. This unit—the 10th Armored Division—continued to play a major role in its defense through the German onslaught. The Tigers of Bastogne offers a detailed chronicle of the young armored division that withstood the full brunt of Manteuffel’s Fifth Panzer Army in the Ardennes. The 10th Armored had only arrived in Europe that September as part of Patton’s Third Army. They soon faced the onslaught of Nazi panzers bursting across no-man’s-land on December 16. But they earned their nickname, “The Tiger Division,” as they went on the defensive at Bastogne, surrounded by an entire German army. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe of the 101st Airborne said, “It seems regrettable to me that Combat Command B of the 10th Armored Division didn’t get the credit it deserved at the Battle of Bastogne. All the newspaper and radio talk was about the paratroopers. Actually the 10th Armored Division was in there a day before we were and had some very hard fighting before we ever got into it.” Fortunately, in this book, the historical record is finally corrected.

The Great Explorers of North America: Complete Biographies, Historical Documents, Journals & Letters

History

European colonization of America occurred as a result of the bravery and discoveries of great navigators, visionaries and adventurers. This carefully edited collection presents the lives of the most influential explorers of North America: Eric the Red, Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, Amerigo Vespucci, Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Jacques Cartier, Henry Hudson and Samuel de Champlain. Sale with these remarkable seamen through the vivid biographies and writings of their contemporaries. Table of Contents: Eric the Red and the Northmen: The Saga of Eric the Red The Vinland History of the Flat Island Book From Adam of Bremen's DescriptioInsularumAquilonis From the Icelandic Annals Papal Letters Concerning the Bishopric of Gardar in Greenland During the Fifteenth Century Christopher Columbus The life of John Cabot Original Narratives of the Voyages of John Cabot Letter of Lorenzo Pasqualigo to His Brothers Alvise and Francesco, Merchants in Venice Despatch to Ferdinand and Isabella From Pedro De Ayala Junior Ambassador at the Court of England, July 25, 1498 Amerigo Vespucci Vasco Núñez de Balboa Jacques Cartier Henry Hudson Samuel de Champlain

L'affaire Lefebvre

History

15mn d'Histoire : une collection numérique de textes courts pour apprendre et comprendre l'Histoire en 15 minutes !Mgr Marcel Lefebvre, celui qu'on nomma l'évêque rebel faillit provoquer un schisme au sein de l'église catholique. Découvrez l'histoire de celui qui dédia sa vie à la lutte contre le progressisme, terminant sa carrière en étant excommunié pour avoir consacré ses successeurs sans l'aval de l'église.

Black AF History

History

From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot, a searingly smart and bitingly hilarious retelling of American history that corrects the record and showcases the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans.America’s backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory. It is the story of the pilgrims on the Mayflower building a new nation. It is George Washington’s cherry tree and Abraham Lincoln’s log cabin. It is the fantastic tale of slaves that spontaneously teleported themselves here with nothing but strong backs and negro spirituals. It is a sugarcoated legend based on an almost true story.It should come as no surprise that the dominant narrative of American history is blighted with errors and oversights—after all, history books were written by white men with their perspectives at the forefront. It could even be said that the devaluation and erasure of the Black experience is as American as apple pie.In Black AF History, Michael Harriot presents a more accurate version of American history. Combining unapologetically provocative storytelling with meticulous research based on primary sources as well as the work of pioneering Black historians, scholars, and journalists, Harriot removes the white sugarcoating from the American story, placing Black people squarely at the center. With incisive wit, Harriot speaks hilarious truth to oppressive power, subverting conventional historical narratives with little-known stories about the experiences of Black Americans. From the African Americans who arrived before 1619 to the unenslavable bandit who inspired America’s first police force, this long overdue corrective provides a revealing look into our past that is as urgent as it is necessary. For too long, we have refused to acknowledge that American history is white history. Not this one. This history is Black AF.

La Reine Hortense

History

Une vie extraordinaire, parsemée de coups de théâtre, et menacée de dangers incessants : tel est le destin de la reine Hortense. Belle-fille et belle-sœur chérie de Napoléon, fille de l'incomparable Joséphine, elle est aussi la mère de Napoléon III. Hortense, depuis sa naissance à l'ombre de la guillotine, jusqu'à son accession au trône de Hollande, et à sa retraite en Suisse, ne cesse d'être le témoin de son temps et des bouleversements politiques de la Révolution, de l'Empire et de la Restauration. La finesse de son intelligence lui permet de déjouer les situations les plus délicates. De son mariage malheureux avec Louis Bonaparte, le frère de Napoléon, elle se console avec le général de Flahaut, fils naturel de Talleyrand. Une tumultueuse et célèbre histoire d'amour, dont naît un fils, le duc de Morny, qui jouera un rôle prépondérant dans l'accession de son demi-frère Napoléon au trône impérial. Belle et passionnée, Hortense de Beauharnais méritait une biographie haute en couleur, qui rende hommage à ses multiples talents de séductrice et de femme d'esprit. Grâce à sa scrupuleuse rigueur devant la vérité historique, qui n'exclut ni l'humour ni les anecdotes pittoresques, Claude Dufresne éclaire cette personnalité très riche sous un jour nouveau. Il a puisé dans des documents peu connus, certains même inédits, et a pu consulter des archives familiales demeurées jusqu'ici inexplorées.

Lost Guildford

History

Guildford has grown from a Saxon settlement town to become a major commercial centre in Surrey today. William the Conqueror built the Norman castle that still overlooks the town, which became prosperous during the medieval period. The building of the Wey Navigation brought wealth to the town, but its real growth followed after the railway arrived in 1845. Today Guildford is a thriving commercial town with its cathedral, university and extensive redevelopment on its borders.Lost Guildford presents a portrait of a town and a way of life that has radically changed or disappeared today, showing not just the industries and buildings that have gone, but also many popular places of entertainment and much more. This fascinating photographic history of lost Guildford will appeal to all those who live in the town or know it well, as well as those who remember it from previous decades.

Hommage à Maurice Genevoix, 1890-1980

History

Cet hommage consacré à Genevoix n’est pas une étude dans le sens où l’on l’entend habituellement. On trouvera surtout ici l’expression d’une profonde et affectueuse admiration et d’une déférente gratitude envers l’homme, l’ancien des Eparges dont toute l’existence, depuis les jours de feu d’août 1914, a été marquée de l’épreuve de la mort, de la souffrance et de la fraternité inachevée par l’hécatombe de ses jeunes camarades disparus alors qu’ils étaient débordants de vie et d’énergie. « On vous a tués et c’est le plus grand des crimes » écrit-il dans Ceux de 14. De ces épreuves il a fait surgir ce qui précisément nous fait davantage homme : ce par quoi on échappe à la mort et on rejoint l’éternité de notre destin : l’œuvre d’art.

An Historical Account of the Expedition Against Sandusky in 1782

History

In 1782 during the American Revolution, Pennsylvania and Virginia militiamen under the command of Colonel William Crawford , a very close friend of General George Washington, launched a retaliatory expedition against the British allied Indians, the Wyandot and Delaware. Their villages were located along the Sandusky River in Northwestern Ohio. The account of this expedition and the graphic descriptions of the events that occurred, as told by C. W. Butterfield, renowned historian and author of the 19th Century, will leave you spellbound. Everyone with an interest in the early American frontier and the American Revolution should have this book in their library.

Drei Meister

History

Der österreichische Schriftsteller Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) hat großartige Biographien verfasst über Joseph Fouché, Marie Antoinette, Casanova, Maria Stuart und viele mehr. In seinem Klassiker „Drei Meister“ (1920) beschreibt er das Leben und Werk dreier Giganten der Weltliteratur: Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens und Fjodor Dostojewski. Bis zu seinem Tod arbeitete Stefan Zweig an einer Biographie über den humanistischen Philosophen und Begründer des modernen Essays: Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592). „Montaigne hat das schwerste Ding auf Erden versucht: sich selbst zu leben, frei zu sein und immer freier zu werden“, schreibt Zweig.

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