Najnovšie - Knihy - História strana 8 z 26

A fascinating guide to early train disasters, illustrated through contemporary postcards and explained expertly by John Hannavy. The track record of Britain’s railways in the early 20th century was not a good one – in 1909, a report titled ‘General Report to the Board of Trade upon the Accidents that have occurred on the Railway of the United Kingdom during the year 1908’, was published, concluding that over 1,000 people had died on the railways during the year, and nearly 8,000 others had been injured. With the Edwardian era marking the heyday of the photographic postcard, many of the accidents which occurred were photographed in often-graphic detail and, in the days before photographs in newspapers became commonplace, postcards disseminated those news pictures rapidly across the world. John Hannavy is a writer, photographer and historian, with a lifelong fascination for both postcards and railway history.

The 2000-plus years of Scottish history have seen a huge variety of events, from great national moments to personal achievements, each one helping to make and mould the character of the nation. This compendium takes note of the milestones – historical as well as cultural, serious as well as entertaining – but also of the many steps between them. Carefully chosen and researched for their interest and variety, they make a fascinating record: 150 vignettes form a 'family album' of the Scottish people from the Romans in Scotland in the first century CE to climate change in the 2020s. And everything in between.

Réaliser un habit néolithique complet est un défi ambitieux ; cet ouvrage en présente l’aboutissement. Il est issu de mon mémoire de master en archéologie préhistorique a l’Université de Geneve, soutenu en septembre 2025. A l’aide de sources archéologiques centrées sur le Campaniforme périalpin, ainsi que de sources historiques et ethnographiques, j’ai tenté de reproduire au mieux les pratiques textiles du passé, afin d’en proposer une vision plausible. Les motifs géométriques complexes présents sur les steles anthropomorphes du site du Petit-Chasseur (Valais, Suisse), ont servi de base visuelle pour la conception du vetement. Cette étude aborde des sujets tres variés, tels que : la place de l’artisanat textile au sein des sociétés préhistoriques, autant du point de vue des modes de production et de l’investissement de ressources que de la valeur sociale ; la diversité des possibilités techniques liées a la fabrication de textiles, immense et encore peu explorée ; l’importance de l’expérimentation archéologique au sein de la recherche, et son intéret autant scientifique que médiatique. Bien qu’ancré dans des bases scientifiques rigoureuses, ce travail est également tres personnel. Il raconte, étape par étape, le long processus d’apprentissage qui a mené a la production de cet habit, avec son lot d’échecs, d’incertitudes, et – enfin – de réussites.

Taking you through the year day by day, The Portsmouth Book of Days contains a quirky, eccentric, amusing or important event or fact from different periods of history, many of which had a major impact on, or reflect, the social and political history of England as a whole. Ideal for dipping into, this addictive little book will keep you entertained and informed. Featuring hundreds of snippets of information gleaned from the vaults of Portsmouth’s archives, it will delight residents and visitors alike.

From the award-winning author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia comes a new journey, following four 19th century elephants marched from the East African coast towards Congo to tell a heartbreaking story of folly and colonial greed. INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE STANFORD'S TRAVEL WRITING BOOK OF THE YEAR 2026WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR WRITING ON CONSERVATION 2025 SHORTLISTEDBest Summer Books of 2025: An illuminating tale of imperial ambition and ineptitude.' FINANCIAL TIMES'A beautiful, intelligent and heartfelt book, a brilliantly researched account of an imperial fever dream alongside a no less feverish contemporary journey' THE SUNDAY TIMES'History and travelogue combine wonderfully in this tale of colonial plunder and hubris.' GUARDIANIn 1879, King Leopold II of Belgium launched an ambitious plan to plunder Africa’s resources. The key to cracking open the continent, or so he thought, was its elephants ? if only he could train them. And so he commissioned the charismatic Irish adventurer Frederick Carter to ship four tamed Asian elephants from India to the East African coast, where they were marched inland towards Congo. The ultimate aim was to establish a training school for African elephants. Following in the footsteps of the four elephants, Roberts pieces together the incredible true story of this long-forgotten expedition, in travels that take her to Belgium, Iraq, India, Tanzania and Congo. The storytelling brings to life a compelling cast of historic characters and modern voices, from ivory dealers to Catholic nuns, set against rich descriptions of the landscapes travelled. Digging deep into historic records to reckon with our broken relationship with animals, Training School for Elephants reveals an extraordinary and enduring story of colonial greed, ineptitude, hypocrisy and folly. Praise for Training School for Elephants:'This is a marvellous book, an important footnote to history - of Sophy Roberts' intrepid travel with a real purpose, shining a light on colonialism, Belgian and British, and their peculiar obsessions.’' - Paul Theroux, author of The Great Railway Bazaar ‘Masterfully weaving adventure, intrigue and the darker truths of colonial ambition into a story as gripping as it is eye-opening.’ - Levison Wood, author of Walking the Nile'Deeply researched. Brings to life a bizarre and long-forgotten story of Africa with empathy, intriguing encounters and memorable characters, not least the elephants themselves.’ - Luke Pepera, author of Motherland: A Journey through 500,000 Years of African Culture and Identity‘Sophy Roberts brings history to life, tackling difficult, sensitive subjects with careful, exquisite prose. Unputdownable.’ - Mary Harper, author of Getting Somalia Wrong?'A brave and searching book, rich in history and fierce in spirit. The best sort of travel writing: handsome prose, teeming with humanity and an unwavering sense of wonder.' - Justin Marozzi, author of Baghdad, City of Peace, City of Blood ‘A cautionary tale from the early days of the Scramble for Africa, but poignant and scholarly too. Roberts writes beautifully.’ - Thomas Pakenham, author of The Scramble for Africa‘A rich, engrossing tapestry of greed and disregard for life … Few write as compellingly as Roberts, this is her as only she can write.’ - Amal Chatterjee, author of Across the Lakes

The Little Book of Lincolnshire is a compendium of fascinating information about this historic county, past and present. Contained within is a plethora of entertaining facts about Lincolnshire’s famous and occasionally infamous men and women, its towns and countryside, history, natural history, literary, artistic and sporting achievements, customs ancient and modern, transport, battles and ghostly inhabitants. A reliable reference book and quirky guide, this can be dipped in to time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage, the secrets and the enduring fascination of the county. A remarkably engaging little book, this is essential reading for visitors and locals alike.

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ONE OF THE OLDEST UNSOLVED CASES ON THE FBI'S BOOKS, SPANNING SIX DECADES AND THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 1967. ROCHESTER, NEW YORK. At his son's fifth birthday party, Joseph Maloney was alleged to have poisoned his wife. While awaiting trial in the psychiatric wing of a Rochester hospital, he escaped and vanished. Years later, a charming stranger calling himself Michael O'Shea surfaced in Dublin. Claiming roots in the west of Ireland, he married a local woman and sold his garage business to buy a grand country estate. For years he lived as a country gentleman and worked at the pinnacle of Ireland's film industry - until a US extradition treaty exposed his true identity. Arrested in 1985, Maloney escaped justice again when his trial collapsed on a technicality. He fled Ireland, leaving US and Irish investigators clueless as to his whereabouts - until an RTÉ Documentary on One podcast picked up his trail decades later. Runaway Joe is the story of a man who reinvented himself with chilling ease - a portrait of a remorseless manipulator whose acts left devastation across continents.

Archaeological excavation of almost the entirety of Broxy Kennels Fort to the north of Perth, was undertaken in advance of a new road development. It revealed a multivallate fortified settlement on a hill overlooking the River Tay. The fort constructed in the 6th century BC initially comprised two ditches that encircled the hill with a north-east entranceway that led to the interior. Around the late 5th-early 4th centuries BC, parts of the settlement’s defences were altered to accommodate a souterrain constructed into one of the silted-up ditches. The alteration necessitated a further short ditch either side of the entrance, followed by a final outer ditch that encircled the hill. Other changes within the enclosure may also have occurred at this time with material from clearance of structures being dumped in the ditches. After a short hiatus, an unenclosed settlement within the interior of the fort persisted from the 4th century BC until around the late 1st century AD. Other than traces of sporadic activity from the early medieval period to the post-medieval era, the site was to all intents and purposes lost to the plough.

We often think of medieval medicine as strange, unhygienic and unscientific, but The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living reveals a far richer story. Long before modern wellness trends, people in the Middle Ages were actively thinking about how to live well. They followed detailed health regimens, balanced diet with exercise, considered the effects of emotions and sought to avoid illness through environmental awareness and routine care. This book sheds light on the practical and surprisingly relatable ways medieval individuals cared for body and mind. Drawing from historical sources that echo today’s wellness concerns, it offers a fresh, thoughtful view of a misunderstood era. In understanding their world, we might see our own in a new, more connected light.

From haunted barrows to ruined castles, Britain’s landscape is rich with tales of hidden treasure – stories not just of gold, but of ghosts, curses and forbidden knowledge. Treasures on Earth gathers hundreds of these traditions for the first time, showing how folklore, shaped by local memory and longing, has imagined wealth not merely as currency, but as power, danger and loss. These legends tell of dragons, demons and seekers armed with spells, but also of real hopes stirred by poverty, war and the mysteries of place. Through vivid storytelling and careful insight, this book reveals how treasure lore carries the emotional weight of history. In the end, these are stories not just about what is buried, but about why we still yearn to uncover it.

Voices Beyond the Grave uncovers critically understudied histories of Japanese internment and labor diasporas in the French Pacific. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, French colonial authorities, following Charles de Gaulle’s orders, detained over a thousand Japanese civilians residing across French-Pacific island territories and deported them to Australian internment camps. France’s logics of colonial racial capitalism maintained far-reaching impacts on wartime Japanese emigrant communities in the francophone territories of Tahiti, New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), and New Caledonia. In this book, New Caledonia, a strategic outpost in de Gaulle’s Free French empire and a U.S. stronghold during World War II, is a focal point for exploring the complex structures of power and resistance that arose from settler colonialism, Native dispossession, and the mass incarceration of Japanese civilians. Through rare letters from Japanese internees and interviews with their descendants, this book unveils the emotional and political struggles of mixed-race, Japanese-Melanesian children and families caught in the crossfire of racial settler coloniality. Drawing from military archives in Japanese, French, and English languages, this work also connects the internment of the French-Pacific Japanese to broader, global economies of racialized incarceration and labor, extending to Japanese American internees in the United States. Finally, the author delves into the fate of Japanese detainees sent to Australia, tracing their harrowing experiences from being perceived as enemy aliens during the war to displaced strangers in their postwar lives in Japan. This book goes beyond history—it is a call for racial justice. At the heart of Voices Beyond the Grave is the author’s global humanitarian project that has reunited descendants of Japanese internees living in Japan with their long-lost families in New Caledonia, resolving eighty-year-old historical enigmas while healing the wounds of wartime injustice. Voices Beyond the Grave sits at the interdisciplinary nexus of empire history and decolonial activism, charting new directions in transpacific studies. With insights into the lives of the Melanesian, Japanese, and French children and families that the vicissitudes of World War II irrevocably shaped, this book reveals the Indigenous and Japanese afterlives that have haunted the French Pacific.

The Khalili Anis al-Hujjaj (Pilgrims’ Companion) presents a ground-breaking new exploration of Safi ibn Vali Qazwini''s richly illustrated manuscript dating from 1676-77. This beautifully produced volume, with a scholarly introduction by Qaisra M. Khan and translation by Michael Burns, documents the author''s year-long journey to Mecca and Medina from Mughal India via the Indian Ocean and Red Sea.Commissioned by Zeb un-Nisa, the daughter of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, this delightfully vivid account belongs to a long-established tradition of guides to the Holy Sanctuaries. It gives comprehensive advice to prospective pilgrims on every aspect of the maritime journey, such as which ships to select, the best foods to consume, rituals to observe, significant places to visit and the people one might encounter.This volume extensively explores the original manuscript''s detailed illustrations and text, providing an invaluable window into 17th-century religious practices, maritime travel, and the cultural landscape of the Indian Ocean world.

From the acclaimed author of Michelangelo, God’s Architect, a dual biography of two towering artists of the Renaissance, whose decades-long rivalry spurred both to greater heightsIn 1529, Michelangelo was in Venice when he first met Titian, Venice’s famed painter of princes, gods, and goddesses. Coming face-to-face with Titian’s drama-infused, richly colored works, the creator of David and the Sistine Chapel ceiling realized he had met a worthy opponent. Twenty-five years later, Titian came to Rome to paint the pope, and the two met again. Painting in the Vatican, Titian experienced the full power of Michelangelo’s work and vowed to surpass the achievements of his older contemporary. Michelangelo and Titian is the untold story of history’s greatest artistic rivalry, a competition between two monumental figures more admiring of one another than either would ever admit. William Wallace brings the world of the sixteenth century to life, and in particular its culture of gossip and intrigue. Wallace challenges the established narrative of this relationship as mostly one-sided, with the younger artist in competition with the reigning master. He shows how the artists moved in overlapping courtly and papal circles, sharing the patronage, power, and sometimes friendship of the most important people of their era, including members of the Medici, Este, and Farnese families. Wallace traces how, over the span of some forty years, this unspoken rivalry was reciprocal and mutually beneficial, with each learning from the other’s brilliance, quietly seeking to best the other’s work and secure his own legacy. An extraordinary achievement, Michelangelo and Titian is a compelling account of two supremely gifted rivals who inspired each other to test the limits of their creative genius, and in doing so created some of the most astonishing works of art the world has ever known.

In 1950, France experienced two parallel but different outcomes in its Indochina war. While the conflict in the north ended with a disastrous defeat for the French at Dien Bien Phu, in southern Vietnam, or Cochinchina, France emerged victorious in a series of violent but now largely forgotten actions. In the Year of the Tiger tells the story of this critical southern campaign, revealing in dramatic detail how the French war for Cochinchina set the stage for the American war in Vietnam. In northern Vietnam, the French troops had focused on destroying Viet Minh main force units. A dearth of resources in the south dictated a different strategy. William M. Waddell III describes how, by avoiding costly attempts to defeat the Viet Minh in the traditional military sense, the southern French command was able to secure key economic and political strongholds. Consulting both French and Vietnamese sources, Waddell examines the principal commanders on both sides, their competing strategies, and the hard-fought military campaign that they waged for control of the south. The author’s deft analysis suggests that counter to widely accepted views, the Viet Minh were not invincible, and the outcome of the conflict in Indochina was not inevitable. A challenge to historical orthodoxy, In the Year of the Tiger presents a more balanced interpretation of the French war for Indochina. At the same time, the book alters and expands our understanding of the precedents and the dynamics of America’s Vietnam War.

The Empire of Japan formally surrendered to the Allies on 2 September 1945, following the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While the fighting had ended, a new weapon had been unleashed onto the world stage that nations rushed frantically to develop and master. The USA needed somewhere extremely remote to conduct its experimental nuclear weapons testing. They chose Bikini Atoll – a beautiful Pacific coral atoll in the Marshall Islands in the middle of the Pacific and perhaps the most remote group of islands on the planet. The initial nuclear experiments were assigned the codename Operation Crossroads. The 167 local islanders were moved out of their once tranquil tropical paradise whilst American, and captured German and Japanese, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and aircraft carriers were moved to the lagoon and moored strategically around the test area so that the effects of a nuclear blast on them could be studied. In total, the US conducted twenty-five nuclear tests on the atoll between 1946 and 1957. Unsurprisingly, Bikini was closed to all visitors until the 1990s. But with radiation in the waters of the lagoon at safe levels, Bikini was able to open its lagoon to divers - and hosting wrecks of some of the most famous shipwrecks of the Second World War, Bikini soon became a magnet for technical divers. Today, diving the Bikini Atoll wrecks is seen as the ultimate diving experience. A renowned diver, Rod Macdonald is famous for his books about the Second World War shipwrecks of Truk Lagoon and Palau. He has now investigated the Bikini wrecks and presents a detailed analysis of the ABLE and BAKER nuclear tests, alongside a stunning collection of unique images of the wrecks, which graphically portray the effects of the most devastating weapons known to mankind.

This is an extraordinary account of courage, survival, and sacrifice in the aftermath of one of the Second World War’s most daring missions. While the Doolittle Raid on Japan is often celebrated for its audacity and strategic importance, this book focuses on the tortuous journey of the Raiders once their mission was complete, as they descended – quite literally – into the unknown. After striking targets in Japan on 18 April 1942, the Raiders, flying their North American B-25 bombers, faced an impossible challenge: reaching safety with dwindling fuel reserves. While one crew landed in the Soviet Union, the remaining fifteen crash-landed or baled out over Japanese-occupied China, initiating a desperate struggle for survival. Spread across rugged terrain, the Raiders battled severe weather, injuries, starvation, and the constant threat of capture or death at the hand of the Japanese forces. This book delves deeply into the human stories of the Doolittle Raiders during their escape through hostile territory. It highlights the critical role played by Chinese villagers and resistance fighters who risked – and often lost – their lives to protect the stranded Americans. Through their heroic efforts, many Raiders made it to safety, but not without significant losses. The Japanese retaliated mercilessly against the Chinese in one of the largest manhunts the Japanese ever mounted, killing tens of thousands in the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign, underscoring the devastating costs of the mission. With its rich blend of action, human drama, and historical depth, and drawing on declassified military records, personal diaries, and interviews with descendants of the Raiders and their Chinese allies, The Doolittle Raiders’ Battle of Survival vividly reconstructs the Raiders’ perilous journey to safety – or not. From parachute landings into dense forests and dangerous mountain crossings to encounters with guerrilla fighters and near-capture by Japanese troops, the narrative is both suspenseful and deeply moving.

Dispersed throughout the centuries and across the globe – a sleepy Devonshire village, a 1950s Hollywood film set, a horse hurtling on a Victorian racecourse, the Beatles meditating in India, a border dispute in South America, and a storm raging in the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 1993… they all lead back to Sir Walter Raleigh. He is the man of paradoxes: the outsider who wanted access to the royal court, a monarchist who later became a republican hero, a lover and a fighter, a pirate and a poet, the last great Elizabethan superstar and the first victim of the Stuart dynasty. Let’s chart his rise, his fall, and his legacy.

When you pick up the latest Emily Henry novel, or settle in for an evening with the newest volume of your favorite romantasy, you are taking part in a process stretching back two millennia. The ancient Greeks considered it a highlight of one's life to hear with one's own ears the words of the great romantic poets of their day. The Romans enjoyed sprawling romantic epics that only reunited their lovers after continent-spanning struggles against foreign armies, pirates, and treacherous monarchs. The Middle Ages sung hushed stories of lust far from the ears of the Church, while its great poets probed the darker boundaries of courtly love, and the writers of the seventeenth century delighted in giving young women ten-volume romances, delivered over the course of a decade, to fill their bookshelves and lonely hours. Writing about love, its complexities, and resolutions, has been a part of the literary tradition since its inception, but it is only in the last three centuries that the format has grown into the publishing juggernaut we know today. From the intensely observed novels of Jane Austen, through the great Sensation Novels of the 1860s that fused romance and mystery, and into the great industrial and marketing machine that was Mills & Boon and Harlequin at their height, new developments in publishing have linked up with new ideas about womanhood, sex, and romance, to produce an ever-evolving approach to the romance novel, culminating in our own modern Golden Age, where more people from more backgrounds are writing more types of romance than ever before for a readership than is larger than it has ever been, and is consuming its favourite literary form in convenient new formats. A History of Romance Novels: From Trembling Innocents to Hunky Werewolves explores the long story of our love affair with love stories, during both its eras of creative flourishing, and the long periods of industrially motivated stagnation, to give even the most dedicated romance reader a few new veins to mine, and a few more characters to fall in love with.

In the shadow of a failed international intervention in Somalia, Gareth Owen lands in war-torn Angola, thrust into a besieged city teetering on the brink. Malanje, encircled by UNITA rebels deploying medieval tactics, becomes ground zero for a crack team of Irish aid workers fighting to stave off starvation for tens of thousands of children. Amid mortar fire and minefields, Owen bears witness to haunting violence and unwavering human spirit. His eight-month emotional descent unfolds as a complex tapestry of deep camaraderie, visceral fear, and the painful reckoning of his own privilege. At the heart lies a brutal legacy —colonial plunder and Cold War complicity – tempered with the inspirational humanitarian ethics of a bygone era. Three decades later, Owen’s story resurfaces—raw and unflinching. Unhealed Wounds interrogates the mythology of white saviourism, sheds light on forgotten lives and demands remembrance in an age of eroding global solidarity. Powerful and evocative, this memoir invites readers to urgently contemplate what has been lost from the true embodiment of humanity’s collective cause: connection between and respect for all peoples. Far more than a personal account, it is a searing moral reckoning for our divisive contemporary times of eroding internationalism and encroaching global catastrophe.