Najnovšie - História strana 131 z 161
zobraziť:
The Dhofar Conflict
COIN - counterinsurgency - is a major element in international relations - both historical and ''IR theory'' - and in military history. It was a vital component in the Cold War and decolonisation. COIN is now widely contrasted with ''Big War'' theory in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war and proxy-war with NATO, but is still a global phenomenon.Dhofar as a mis-ruled province of ''medieval'' Oman, saw insurgency initiated by the Dhofar Liberation Front (DLF) and its successors organizations including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arabian Gulf (PFLOAG). These were supported variously by China, the USSR and other Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt and Iraq, but the insurgency was defeated by a combination Omani, British, Iranian and Jordanian forces. The COIN win in Dhofar prevented the spread of Communism on the Arabian Peninsula, thereby protecting British Middle Eastern influence and the vital Gulf oil supply to both the UK and wider Western economic bloc. The war and associated counterinsurgency (COIN) campaign can be considered a unique or ''sui generis'' military ''success'', with revolutionary forces overcome in a difficult and often brutal campaign involving British forces including its elite SAS Regiment, along with Jordanian and Iranian military aid.The study covers much more than the Dhofar campaign and contrasts the Omani example with other British COIN operations in major decolonising territories and ''Emergencies'' (1945-1999). These include the campaigns undertaken in Palestine, Malaya, Kenya, Cyprus, Brunei/Borneo, Aden and Northern Ireland; which highlight the many similar aspects of these examples shared with the Dhofar War, but also that its unique status in the British COIN historiography should be acknowledged.
Great Generals of the Ancient World
Of the thousands of commanders who served in historys armies, why is it that only a few are remembered as great leaders of men in battle? What combination of personal and circumstantial influences conspire to produce great commanders? What makes a great leader great? Richard A Gabriel analyses the biographies of ten great generals who lived between 1481 BC and AD 632 in an attempt to identify the characteristics of intellect, psychology, personality, and experience that allowed them to tread the path to greatness. Professor Richard Gabriel has selected the ten whom he believes to be the greatest of them all. Those included, and more so those omitted, will surprise many readers. Conspicuous by their absence, for example, are Alexander the Great and Attila the Hun. Richard Gabriel, himself a retired soldier and professor at the Canadian Defence College, uses his selected exemplars to distil the timeless essence of military leadership.
Imperial General
Petilius Cerealis is one of the few Imperial Roman officers, below the level of Emperor, whose career it is possible to follow in sufficient detail to write a coherent biography. Fortunately his career was a remarkably eventful and colourful one. With a knack for being caught up in big events and emerging unscathed despite some hairy adventures (and scandal, usually involving some local wench) he appears to have been a Roman version of Blackadder and Flashman combined.Cerealis was in Britain when Boudicca''s revolt erupted (60 or 61 AD) and marched to confront her. He lost most of his force but narrowly escaped with his own skin intact. In 69 AD, the infamously tumultuous '' year of the four emperors'', he was in Rome, the seat of conspiracy. When his uncle, none other than Vespasian, decided to make his own bid for the imperial purple (he was to become the fourth emperor that year), Cerealis'' life was at risk of being killed as a traitor and had to escape from the city to join his uncle who was marching to force his way in. A short while later he was commanding a force on the Rhine when the Batavian mutiny broke out. This time he only escaped death because he was in bed with a local girl rather than in his own tent. And so it goes on…''Imperial General is both a fascinating insight into the life of an imperial Roman officer during the period of the Principate, and a rollicking good tale told in Philip Matyszak''s trademark lively style.
The Polish 'Few'
They came to fight for freedom and their country. They came to fight Germans. They were men of the Polish Air Force who had escaped first to France and then to Britain to fly alongside the Royal Air Force just as Fighter Command faced its greatest challenge – the Battle of Britain.Many of the Polish airmen joined existing RAF squadrons. The Poles also formed their own squadrons, but only four were operational during the Battle of Britain. Two, Nos. 300 and 301, were bomber squadrons, with the remaining pair, Nos. 302 and 303, were fighter squadrons. Flying Hawker Hurricanes, both 302 and 303 squadrons were active by the middle of August 1940, just when they were needed most with Fighter Command stretched to its limit at the height of the Battle of Britain.The Polish squadrons, many of the pilots battle-hardened from their encounters with the Luftwaffe during the invasion of Poland and Battle of France, soon made their mark. In particular, 303 Squadron become the highest-scoring unit of Fighter Command.In total, 145 Polish pilots, the largest non-British contingent in Fighter Command at the time, fought in the Battle of Britain. While Winston Churchill praised the contribution of the ‘Few’, the pilots of many nationalities who had defended Britain, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding was more specific: ‘Had it not been for the magnificent material contributed by the Polish squadrons and their unsurpassed gallantry, I hesitate to say that the outcome of the Battle would have been the same.’
Trooping the Colour
Today Trooping the Colour gathers crowds of tourists; along with the pomp and ceremony it is an event filled with tradition that spans many hundreds of years. In that history lies duty, a call to arms, and a rallying in battle. The regimental colours were presented to the soldiers daily so that they would recognize it in the melee of battle and rally toward it. In 1748 the Grenadier Guards began this tradition, also called the Kings Birthday Parade, which is now held annually at Horse Guards Parade in London.Boots, buckles and busbies gleaming, formations perfect and eyes right, Trooping the Colour is the culmination of months of hard work by the staff of the London District and the Royal Household, without whom state ceremonial and public duties would not exist. From regimental bands and gun salutes to Lord Lieutenants and Yeoman, it is the personalities and traditions that make the history of ceremonial duties so colourful.Trooping the Colour describes the histories of the key personalities and units of the London District, the Royal Household. Their histories are intertwined in one of the most complex narratives of the modern age. It describes the numerous moments, stories and traditions behind the many appointments that produce some of the most awe-inspiring displays now taken for granted. The book examines those defining moments in contemporary British history when planning and experience have delivered breathtaking spectacles of grandeur enjoyed by billions of people around the globe. Though it''s not all parades and pomp though, these fine regiments have served with distinction in battles across the world and through time. This book explores London''s Ceremonial Regiments at war and on parade.
Hitler’s War Against the Partisans During The Stalingrad Offensive
From the start of the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler’s Ostheer, his Eastern Army, and its associated forces would wage a vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in the East. Never before had such a wide-reaching campaign been fought.The preparations for the war against the partisans began before the launch of Operation Barbarossa, during which the Axis forces immediately put their plans into effect. The effects upon the newly conquered territories were soon being felt.The end of the initial phase of the German invasion of the Soviet Union was met by a Red Army winter offensive which began on 5 December 1941. As the author shows, this had repercussions behind the German lines, where the nascent Soviet partisan movement was attempting to grow and gain a foothold. By the spring of 1942 those early Soviet partisan units were ready to expand. The Germans, aware of the military situation both on the frontlines and in the rear of their armies, also prepared to counter the growing partisan threat. The partisans undoubtedly made a significant contribution to Stalin’s war effort by countering Axis plans to exploit occupied Soviet territories economically, as well as providing valuable assistance to the Red Army by conducting systematic attacks against Hitler''s rear communication network.As the German military planned to continue the Russian campaign into the summer of 1942, new security forces were gathered together and sent to the Soviet Union, and a new headquarters specifically organized to fight the guerrilla menace, was established. In this follow-up study, author Antonio Munoz picks up the partisan and anti-partisan struggle in the East, where Hitler’s War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa left off.The struggle behind the frontlines in Russia proved to be as grand and epic as the fight along the front lines. Dr. Munoz describes this war of attrition along the entire breath of the USSR. In 1942 the Ostheer, acting on Adolf Hitler’s orders, launched their 1942 summer offensive which was aimed at capturing the Caucasus Mountains and the Russian oil fields that lay there.Dr. Munoz not only covers the war behind the lines in every region of the occupied USSR, but also describes the German anti-partisan effort behind the lines of Army Group South, as its forces drove into the Caucasus Mountains, the Volga River bend and Stalingrad. No other work has included the guerrilla and anti-partisan struggle specific to the Stalingrad campaign. Munoz manages to accomplish this, but also to convey the story of the rest of the partisan and anti-guerrilla war in the rest of the USSR from the spring of 1942 to the spring of 1943.
Crucibles of Power
An illuminating new history of World War II–era Smolensk, a region at the crossroads of the two great dictatorships of the twentieth century. During the Cold War, the Smolensk Archive held the only collection of Communist Party documents available to Western scholars, becoming the foundation for generations of scholarship on Soviet history. Crucibles of Power returns to the Smolensk Region with fresh eyes and fresh sources. Prizewinning historian Michael David-Fox traces the experiences of Smolensk residents between the interwar years and the end of World War II, a period during which the city and region passed from Stalinist rule to Nazi occupation and back. The result is a revelatory examination of choice and power under dueling forms of murderous totalitarianism. Exploring the life-and-death decisions of a fascinating cast of characters—from young women in the Communist Youth League to a defense lawyer during Stalin’s Great Terror who became Smolensk’s collaborationist mayor during the German occupation—David-Fox shows how deeply the Stalinist and Nazi regimes relied on the cooptation of average citizens motivated by greed and need, but always within the orbit of ideology. Challenging today’s Russian nationalist narrative of heroic WWII resistance, he finds that large numbers of Russians aided the Nazi occupation of Smolensk in order to protect themselves, secure their own self-interest, or pursue vendettas against a Soviet state they found no less corrupt or oppressive than its German foe. At a time when much of the world is tilting away from liberal democracy and toward authoritarianism, Crucibles of Power masterfully unravels the threads of dictatorial rule. Smolensk emerges as a laboratory for understanding the mechanics of both outright coercion and subtler forms of power, as well as the enabling behavior of ordinary citizens acquiescing to extraordinary crimes.
Ecocide in Ukraine
Winner of the 2025 Kovaliv Prize in Nonfiction/HistoryWinner of the Arizona State University Humanities Institute 2026 Book AwardRussia's war on Ukraine has not only destroyed millions of human lives, it has also been catastrophic for the environment. Forests and fields have been burned to the ground, animal and plant species pushed to the brink of extinction, soil and water contaminated with oil products, debris, and mines. On a single day in June 2023, the breached Kakhovka Dam flooded thousands of kilometres of protected natural habitat, as well as villages, towns, and agricultural land. The devastation of biodiversity and ecosystems across Ukraine has been immeasurable, long-lasting and its consequences stretch beyond national borders. In this poignant book, Ukrainian researcher Darya Tsymbalyuk offers an intimate portrait of her beloved homeland against the backdrop of Russia's war and ecocide. In elegant and moving prose, she describes the damage to the country's rivers, the grasslands of the steppes, animals, insects, and colonies of birds, as a result of Russia's ground and air operations. Alongside the everyday experiences of people in Ukraine living with the environmental consequences of the war, we share Tsymbalyuk's own reckoning with the changing nature of cherished places and the loss of familiar worlds caused by the ongoing Russian invasion.
F-4 Phantom II
A concise pictorial guide to the F-4 Phantom, featuring over 200 images. The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II first flew in the 1950s, entered US military service in the 1960s, and remained on duty into the 1990s. The plane gained a reputation for tremendous lethality during the Vietnam War and remains one of the most celebrated American fighter designs of the jet age. This is a visual guide to the type. Chapters are dedicated to each model designation (C, D, E, etc.), including both US Navy and Air Force variants. There are more than 200 photographs, mostly in color, which show the F-4 both in combat and in the details of its interior and exterior design features, markings, and weaponry.
Kaga and Akagi
A pictorial guide to Akagi and Kaga, two early Japanese aircraft carriers that were sunk at the Battle of Midway. Akagi and Kaga were the second and third aircraft carriers to enter service with the Imperial Japanese Navy. Akagi was initially laid down as a battle cruiser, and Kaga as a battleship; both hulls were converted into aircraft carriers during the 1920s. The two ships played key roles in most of the early engagements of the Pacific War, and both were sunk at the Battle of Midway. This is the illustrated history of both ships, including a historical synopsis, full technical description, and more than 100 photographs and diagrams. Naval historians Lars Ahlberg and Hans Lengerer have established themselves as experts on and specialists in the warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy during WWII. Their work is differentiated by being primarily driven by the utilization of Japanese-language primary source material.
Dinosaurs
An illustrated guide to our astonishing new understanding of dinosaurs, with the latest science and the most accurate and visually stunning palaeoart.
Dinosaurs are not what you thought they were – or at least, they didn’t look like you thought they did. The world-leading palaeontologist Michael J. Benton brings us a new visual guide to the world of the dinosaurs, showing how rapid advances in technology and amazing new fossil finds have changed the way we see dinosaurs forever. Stunning new illustrations from palaeoartist Bob Nicholls display the latest and most exciting scientific discoveries in vibrant colour.
No book before this has been so rigorous in its use of new data that finally tell us how dinosaurs actually looked. From Sinosauropteryx, the first dinosaur to have its colour patterns identified – a ginger and white striped tail – by Benton’s team at Bristol University in 2010, to the recent research on the mixed feathers and scales of Kulindadromeus, this is the first book to be based on cutting-edge scientific research.
dostupné aj ako:
Lost Dundee
Lost Dundee brings the second city of renaissance Scotland back to life showing, through previously undiscovered photographs and drawings, the life and the maritime quarter of this great port. It illustrates Dundee''s transformation into a major Georgian town at the centre of the flax trade between St Petersburg and the USA, with the development of major public buildings a result of the influx of wealth into the region. This book goes on to examine Dundee''s next transformation into the jute capital of the world. Its identity was transformed by the arrival of railways, which separated the town from the sea, and by the great mills and factories which engulfed it on both sides. The pressures upon medieval Dundee proved so great that in 1871 the process of replacing it with grandiose Victorian boulevards began.The final section illustrates the changes wrought in the twentieth century with the death of jute and its replacement as the city''s major employer by tertiary education.This book draws particularly upon the rich visual history sources of Charles Lawson''s drawings of old Dundee in the Central Library, the DC Thomson photographic collection, and the University of Dundee Archives. Essential to the understanding of this constantly re-generating city, this book contains 150 drawings, photographs and plans of Dundee.
Forgotten Churches
Spending his weekends exploring historic churches across the idyllic English countryside – and sharing their beauty and unsung history across social media – Luke Sherlock is bringing English history and the heritage of our rural countryside to a new audience. England is full of incredible churches, from small stone chapels and quiet Romanesque masterpieces, to thousand-year-old Saxon stalwarts, dramatic Gothic monuments and high Victorian treasures. These special places, often under-celebrated and overlooked, dot the English landscape but collectively tell a remarkable story of our nation. Travelling to all corners of England – from the Kent marshlands to the Norfolk fens, Somerset lanes and beyond – Sherlock carefully documents these unique buildings, celebrating their histories and decoding their hidden meanings. Bringing together 70 of the most unusual, intriguing and atmospheric of England’s churches, Sherlock tells stories of craftsmanship and local community, whilst centering these buildings at the heart of our national story and revealing their forgotten secrets and cultural significance.
Lost Moray and Nairn
In Lost Moray and Nairn, Bruce Bishop traces what has been ''lost'' from the old counties of Moray and Nairn, both architecturally and socially. Packed with illustrations of places, buildings and of aspects of life which are now vanished, and containing a history of various elements of life in the area, Bishop illustrates changes in the way of life of the people of the Burghs of Nairn, Forres and Elgin, and in the smaller towns and villages. The effect of these lost elements on the coastal towns is also discussed, with particular focus placed on the demise of the ports of Findhorn, Nairn and Garmouth, and the more recent decline in the fishing industry.His journey trough the region takes him from prehistory to the present day, and examines everything from geology, architecture, agriculture, industry, to communications. Lost Moray and Nairn is an important, illuminating and compelling account and a worthy addition to the Birlinn series.
Love in a Dark Time
In Love in a Dark Time, Colm Tóibín looks at the life and work of some of the greatest and most influential artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Linked by the common thread of their sexualities, his subjects range from figures such as Oscar Wilde, born in the 1850s, to Pedro Almodóvar, born nearly a hundred years later. Tóibín studies how a changing world impacted on the lives of people who, on the whole, kept their homosexuality hidden, and reveals that the laws of desire changed everything for them, both in their private lives and in the spirit of their work. Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.
Four Shots in the Night
NOW UPDATED WITH A NEW CHAPTER HOW THE DEATH OF A SPY IN THE IRA LED TO ONE OF THE BIGGEST MURDER INVESTIGATIONS IN BRITISH HISTORY WINNER - Historical Writers'''' Association Non-Fiction Crown 2024 SHORTLISTED - CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction 2024SHORTLISTED - True Crime Awards Book of the Year 2024 Top 10 Irish Non-Fiction bestseller, April 2024 On 26th May 1986, the body of an undercover British agent was found by the side of a muddy lane, with a rope tied around its wrists and tape over each eye. Years later, it was reported that this murder might have been carried out by another undercover British agent, known as ''Stakeknife''. In 2016, a detective began to investigate this case, and would soon find himself running the largest murder investigation in British history. In a compulsive blend of investigative journalism and true crime thriller, Henry Hemming exposes the parallel worlds of the IRA and British intelligence through the lives of those inextricably bound up in both. He reveals the bravery of those who were crucial in ending the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the bloodiest and longest-running conflict in recent British history, and the determination of one detective in his dogged search for justice and the truth. ''Superb'' - Irish Times ''Compelling'' - The Times ''Gripping'' - Observer ''Exciting, at times astonishing'' - New York Times''A gripping and pacey book that reads like a thriller. I found it shocking in a world where I didn''t think I could be shocked any more. Henry Hemming wears his extensive research very lightly and manages to shape a great narrative from a complex and dark episode from our recent history. An important and skilfully crafted book.'' - JOHN O''FARRELL''The best book about the Troubles since Patrick Radden Keefe''s Say Nothing . . . outstanding reporting and an unflinching focus on the facts at hand'' - Wall Street Journal
Norway's War
In the early morning of 9 April 1940, a fleet of German battleships entered the Oslofjord.Norwegian artillery delayed them long enough for King Haakon VII and his cabinet to escape to England, but there was no stopping the Nazi Blitzkrieg. Norway stood on the cusp of a traumatic five-year occupation whose aftershocks would continue to trouble its national consciousness long after the defeated Germans departed in May 1945.Robert Ferguson tells the extraordinary – and relatively little-known – story of the occupation and its judicial aftermath. He focuses in particular on German attempts to use a Norwegian Nazi administration under Vidkun Quisling to impose a National Socialist revolution on the country, and on the many brave and ingenious ways in which the Norwegians resisted.Ferguson describes the occupation in all its aspects – from Nazi terror to non-violent resistance, from censorship to sabotage – via a series of heterogeneous but interlinked narratives. Key players in the occupation and its wider story – including the pitiless Reichskommissar Josef Terboven, the Norwegian crime writer-turned-SS-strongman Jonas Lie, the principled Lutheran bishop Eivind Berggrav and the enigmatic double agent Gunnar Waaler – are drawn in memorably vivid colours.A riveting account of the Second World War’s forgotten occupation, Norway’s War evokes in moving fashion the moral and physical courage of a people who, faced with the brutal tyranny of a totalitarian invader, refused to be cowed.
Ghosts of Iron Mountain
How did America end up trapped in a nightmare of conspiracy theories, in which millions see the government as an evil ‘deep state’?In 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, a group of New York writers concocted what appeared to be a top-secret government report into what would happen to the USA if permanent global peace broke out. Report from Iron Mountain claimed that winding down America’s vast war-making machinery would wreck the economy and tear society apart, necessitating draconian controls over the population. It was published as non-fiction – and was frighteningly convincing. Journalists tried to find out who had written it. Worried memos reached right up to the president. It became a bestselling cause celebre.Even when the hoax was revealed, many refused to believe it wasn’t real. The Report was seized on by eager figures on the far right and in the militia movement, who insisted that it revealed terrifying government conspiracies to pollute the environment, enslave Americans and even instigate eugenics. And its legacy lives on today.Ghosts of Iron Mountain traces this story through a gallery of vivid characters, from the radical academic C. Wright Mills and the writers E.L. Doctorow, Victor Navasky and Leonard Lewin in 1960s New York, to the far-right impresario Willis Carto, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, conspiracy theorist Milton William Cooper,L. Fletcher Prouty (the inspiration for ‘Mr X’ in the film JFK), and ranting broadcaster Alex Jones.This is one of the great stories of our time and reveals how nightmares about its own government drove America crazy.
The Sisterhood
Created in the aftermath of World War II, the Central Intelligence Agency relied on women even as it attempted to channel their talents and keep them down. Women sent cables, made dead drops, and maintained the agency’s secrets. Despite discrimination – even because of it – women who started as clerks, secretaries, or unpaid spouses become some of the CIA’s shrewdest operatives.They were unlikely spies – and that’s exactly what made them perfect for the role. Because women were seen as unimportant, pioneering female intelligence officers moved unnoticed around Bonn, Geneva, and Moscow, stealing secrets from under the noses of their KGB adversaries. Back at headquarters, women built the CIA’s critical archives – first by hand, then by computer. And they noticed things that the men at the top didn’t see. As the CIA faced an identity crisis after the Cold War, it was a close-knit network of female analysts who spotted the rising threat of al-Qaeda – though their warnings were repeatedly brushed aside.After the 9/11 attacks, more women joined the agency as a new job, targeter, came to prominence. They showed that data analysis would be crucial to the post-9/11 national security landscape – an effort that culminated spectacularly in the CIA’s successful effort to track down bin Laden in his Pakistani compound.Propelled by the same meticulous reporting and vivid storytelling that infused Code Girls, The Sisterhood offers a riveting new perspective on history, revealing how women at the CIA ushered in the modern intelligence age, and how their silencing made the world more dangerous.
Pridajte sa k nám na ceste časom s našou komplexnou kolekciou encyklopédií zaoberajúcich sa históriou. Táto kategória obsahuje všetko od praveku až po súčasnosť. Študujte historické udalosti, významné osobnosti, dôležité civilizácie a momenty, ktoré formovali svet, v ktorom žijeme dnes. Ideálne pre študentov, učiteľov, ako aj pre všeobecných historických nadšencov, naše encyklopédie sú zdrojom nevyčerpaných informácií a zábavného poznávania.
Mnohé encyklopédie sú bohato ilustrované, čo umožňuje čitateľom lepšie vizualizovať a porozumieť historickým udalostiam a obdobiam.





























