Najnovšie - Encyklopédie populárno-náučné - História strana 155 z 168

A detailed account of the siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453, a watershed year that closed the book, once and for all, on the Roman Empire and confirmed for Europeans their worst fears about an expanding Ottoman Empire.Anthony Kaldellis offers a new narrative of the siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453, a watershed year that closed the book, once and for all, on the Roman Empire and confirmed for Europeans their worst fears about an expanding Ottoman Empire. By the fifteenth century, Constantinople had seen better days, but it was still a vibrant center of learning, worship, commerce, and information. 1453 sketches the tense but exciting shared world of Italians, Turks, and Romans that was thrown into crisis by Mehmed II''s decision to conquer the city. Kaldellis showcases a detailed reconstruction following events on a day-by-day basis, pulling from gripping eye-witness testimonies in Latin, Italian, Greek, Russian, and Turkish. He weighs the strategies of both the attackers and defenders, and proves that, contrary to the fatalism that marks almost all narratives written with hindsight, in reality the defense was hardly a lost cause. The defenders knew exactly what they were doing. They were willing to risk their lives, but it was not their intention to become martyrs. Instead, it was the sultan who was scrambling to neutralize a seemingly impregnable defense. That he did so was a testament to his ingenuity and tenacity.The final chapters of 1453 trace the fate of the vanquished and their captivity. It also weighs the impact of the city''s fall on the conquerors, the conquered, and on world history. 1453 was not merely a symbol for the passing of the Middle Ages and the onset of early modernity: it changed the very nature of the Ottoman empire and redirected the transmission of cultural legacies, especially those of Greek classical scholarship. The fall of Constantinople is therefore a nexus of converging pathways between east and west, medieval and modern, ends and beginnings.

Ye olde wasteman getting on your last nerve? Your new man is more interested in scrolling on OnlyWenches than spending time with you? Or your last date spent the whole-time mansplaining? Hark, fear not, for I have some trusted solution to end a man''s antics . . . permanently.In today''s world, if you don''t want a man anymore, you have the option to walk away. Get the ick? End it. He''s won''t ever text back? Block him. He listens to those types of podcasts? Dump him.But women haven''t always had it this easy. Transport yourself back to medieval times, when divorce wasn''t exactly an option. Maybe you had to get a little creative.In Off With His Head, explore 100 hilarious ways to get rid of a man, taking inspiration from the unusual and whacky methods throughout medieval history. Featuring advice on how best to dispose someone inconspicuously, this book depicts the funniest and outrageous deaths that are a product of the time.In the face of limited options, women have always found ways to persevere. This is no different. Buy it for your bestie whose boyfriend you hate or buy it for yourself for a laugh. Either way, you''ve got 100 options to choose from. Ladies, time to silence men . . . for good.

The forgotten history of the US war against the Cherokee offers a crucial reframing of America's origin story. Americans remember 1776 as the year liberty was declared, the moment they cast off tyranny and proclaimed the self-evident truths of equality and freedom. But that same summer, as patriots celebrated their defiant new nation, American armies launched another campaign—this one aimed at destroying the Cherokee nation. The Cherokee War of 1776 recasts America's founding moment by tracing the importance of westward ambition and settler violence to the origins of the Revolutionary War. In this gripping and sobering book, historian Kevin Kokomoor uncovers the rarely acknowledged war waged by the emerging United States against the Cherokee people just days after the Declaration of Independence was signed. Far from a spontaneous frontier skirmish, this war was a coordinated, state-backed campaign with a clear aim: seize Indigenous land and crush Native resistance. Many of the very men who championed liberty on parchment simultaneously advocated for the wholesale destruction of a sovereign Native nation. At the heart of this story is Cherokee resistance, which was strategic, determined, and deeply rooted in community dynamics. Figures like Dragging Canoe emerged to lead a movement that endured long after American armies had burned Cherokee towns to the ground. Kokomoor foregrounds Cherokee voices, motivations, and resilience, challenging the notion that they were merely pawns in a colonial struggle and forcing us to reckon with the real costs of independence and the long fight for Indigenous sovereignty.

Modern Spain has developed from a complex history, a diverse population, and continual contact with outside influences. This updated and revised volume moves from prehistoric times to the present, incorporating recent scholarship and focusing on politics, society, economy, culture, and personalities. Written in an engaging style, it introduces key themes that have shaped Spanish history. These include its varied landscapes and climate zones; the impact of waves of human migrations; and Spain's importance as a bridge between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, between Europe and Africa, and between Europe and Latin America. Another key theme is religion, particularly militant Catholic Christianity, its centuries of conflict with Islam and Protestantism, and debates over the place of religion in modern Spanish life. Illustrations, maps, and a guide to further information about major cultural figures, books to read, and places of interest make the history of this fascinating country come alive.

For nearly 2,000 years, London has been a breeding ground for radical ideas, home to thinkers, heretics and rebels. A People's History of London presents fascinating portraits of the heroic idealists who made the city their home. Lindsey German and John Rees bring to life the dissident priest John Wycliff and the Levellers' Civil War struggle. They delve into the travails of the silk weavers, match girls and dockers who crusaded for workers' rights. And they recount the Battle of Cable Street, where East Enders took on Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts. This updated edition recounts the battles of recent years: the Grenfell disaster, the inspiring Palestine movement, and the fight for a city fit for its people, not one hobbled by developers and landlords.

It was once assumed that the sophisticated ancient Greeks rejected Roman gladiators as the most barbaric cultural import possible. Surely Greeks who loved philosophy and theatre wouldn’t approve of men fighting to the death? The Romans must have forced Greeks to watch against their will, surely? As Alexandra Sills demonstrates in this groundbreaking new study, the truth could not be more different; Greeks across the eastern Mediterranean adored gladiators on an unprecedented scale. Having first explained the political and ideological function of gladiators in Rome, the author reveals why the Greeks ditched all of the boring imperialism for their own, very Greek take on gladiatorial entertainment.The Greeks saw gladiators as the perfect amalgamation of everything they loved best: the drama of mythical duels, the brutal contact sports of the Olympic Games, and the visual perfection of a honed physique. Readers will discover how a very famous Roman was beaten to introducing gladiators to the Greeks by a whole century, by a Hellenistic king once held hostage in Rome, and how another famous Roman kept a troop of gladiators in Turkey to impress his Egyptian girlfriend. There are more commemorative monuments to Greek gladiators than the rest of Europe combined, and they provide a fascinating glimpse into the lives and deaths of these ancient combatants. Gladiators in Greece, unlike anywhere else in the Empire, tell us their stories in their own words. The Greeks under Roman rule took a foreign sport and moulded it into the ultimate celebration of Greekness, with more drama and flair than Rome could ever imagine.

What if the legends of submerged cities, land-making witches and sea-crossing bishops are not mere inventions but echoes of real events? Whispers from Celtic Seas revisits coastal traditions from the Celtic fringes of northwest Europe, showing how they preserve memories of dramatic environmental change – floods, land loss and shifting shorelines – carried forward through oral storytelling for generations. Drawing on cutting-edge geological and archaeological research, this book recasts these tales not as fantasy, but as historical testimony grounded in lived experience. With clarity and insight, it also brings to life the tellers and collectors of these stories, tracing how oral knowledge endured even as literacy spread. A compelling invitation to listen again to old stories, and to hear what the land and sea remember.

The rise to power and eventual fall from grace of the Oxbridge intellectualAfter World War II, the academics of Oxford and Cambridge—the dons—formed an unusual kind of university-based, establishment-connected intelligentsia. Unlike intellectuals in other countries, often anti-establishment outsiders, the dons of Oxbridge enjoyed secure and even cosy connections with those in power. In Twilight of the Dons, Colin Kidd examines the golden age of Britain’s Oxford- and Cambridge-based intellectual elites—and how their influence waned when Oxbridge’s links to the establishment began to fray. Kidd explores a series of episodes and themes that range from the dons’ confrontations with student protesters in the 1960s to their reaction to the rise of Thatcherism in the 1980s. The cast of characters includes many of twentieth-century Britain’s most famous intellectuals—Elizabeth Anscombe, Isaiah Berlin, Edmund Leach, J. H. Plumb and Hugh Trevor-Roper, to name just a few. Kidd describes the multiple important roles played by dons in World War II, the countercultural force of convert Catholicism and the strange phenomenon of Tory Marxism. He examines the dons’ attitudes towards America and France—as seen in their engagement in the debates over the Kennedy assassination and the awkward reception of Lévi-Strauss’s anthropology. When Oxbridge came under assault, it was first by a modernising, technocratic Left in the early 1960s, then by student radicals in the late 1960s and finally by the Thatcherite Right—in whose rise, Kidd shows, some dons were complicit. As deference to Oxbridge intelligentsia declined, a reassessment of the place of dons in British public life began.

Libya and the West: What Everyone Needs to Know® is a welcome update to the literature on Western diplomatic relations with Libya. It specifically analyzes the complicated relationships that Italy, Britain, the United States, and France developed with Libya beginning in the 1910s. On the basis of a wide range of primary and secondary sources, it offers insights into the political and socio-economic conditions within Libya that concerned Western leaders and shaped their policies. Among the crucial episodes that this book embraces are fascist Italy''s military conquest and colonization of Libya; the expulsion of Axis armies from Libya and other north African states during World War II; the enthronement of King Idris in 1951; the discovery of oil in Libya in 1959. It explains the seizure of power by Muammar Qaddafi in 1969; the low-intensity military conflict between the United States and Libya in the 1980s; the Western response to Libyan acts of terrorism, including the murder of a British police officer in London in 1984 and the downing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988; the enduring turmoil sparked by the Arab Spring in 2011; the decision by NATO powers to intervene militarily in the Libyan civil war to ensure the downfall of the Qaddafi regime; and the murder of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens at Benghazi in 2012.

This book presents an innovative, holistic examination of the uses of the written word in early medieval England during a century of political and societal upheaval, culminating in the emergence of the kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons under Alfred the Great and his children, Athelflad and Edward the Elder. Through a diverse range of documentary, literary and material evidence, Robert Gallagher explains how literary activity during this period – particularly involving members of the laity – has often been underestimated. He focuses on several innovations in documentary culture that took place in the mid-ninth century, which in turn played a significant role in establishing the cultural conditions for Alfredian cultural renewal. The evidence makes clear that limited personal literacy did not pose a barrier to participation in literary activity. This study thus makes a major new contribution to our understanding of England's ninth- and tenth-century history.

Flying at 70,000 feet, carrying nuclear weapons at Mach 3+ for thousands of miles, the North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie was not merely going to redefine military aviation, but the very nature of warfare itself. The XB-70 flew so fast and so high it would only appear on radar screens for a fleeting moment, making it impossible for enemy controllers to direct their interceptors to the target before it flew out of range. When it was first designed in the 1950s, the enemy, meaning at the time the Soviet Union, had no aircraft that could match the XB-70’s capabilities, rendering it almost invulnerable. But, just as the US was developing its technologies, so too were the Soviets. The introduction of their first surface-to-air missiles led to the US adopting low-level missions to sneak under radar. This effectively neutralised the XB-70’s main characteristics and, ultimately, the programme, which had cost the United States a staggering $800 million, the equivalent to $8.4 billion in modern terms, was cancelled. In this book, the renowned aviation historian and author Graham M. Simons explores the full story of the development of this remarkable supersonic bomber through a unique collection of images. He reveals the many challenges that the North American engineers faced, particularly with regards to engines and fuel, all of which are fully explained. As well as the technical and operational characteristics of the XB-70, Mr Simons includes first-hand testimony and analyses the accidents and incidents the aircraft were involved in. A detailed timetable allows the reader to comprehend the XB-70’s protracted history. A beautifully elegant machine, just two of the ground-breaking XB-70s were produced, the first flight taking place on 21 September 1964. In this magnificent, full colour book this unique supersonic aircraft can be seen in all its glory.

Britain changed more in the 1980s than in almost any recent decade, as readers will recall with differing emotions. A decade dominated by the rise of the City and the fall of the Unions, the wider retreat of the left and the return of military confidence, it also featured an energy of entrepreneurialism, but with entrenched unemployment – more than twice as high in the mid-1980s boom as when Margaret Thatcher took office in 1979. Innovation and technology reigned in the decade that spawned mobile telephones and the World Wide Web: where would the younger generation be without these items in their lives toda? o many, it was more simply seen as the decade of Margaret Thatcher, yuppies, chunky mobile telephones, and BMX bikes – although in reality it featured so much more, including the little matter of not one, but two royal weddings, and the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982. With little apparent diplomatic alternative, Britain set about creating a task force to recover the islands – effectively declaring war on Argentina.During the 1980s, only a few aircraft types were completely withdrawn from the RAF, most of them hardly creating a whimper. These included the Whirlwind HAR.10 helicopter, the Devon C.1, the Pembroke C.1, and some of the earlier Jet Provost T.3, T.4 and T.5 aircraft. However, during the decade, the RAF said farewell to a pair of military icons – the Avro Vulcan in 1984, and the English Electric Lightning in 1988.Aircraft arriving into RAF service included the Tornado GR.1 in the strike/attack role, an aircraft that had been developed as the Multi-role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) by a multi-national organisation from Italy, Germany, and the UK. It was soon followed into service by the Tornado F.2 and F.3 interceptor variants in the Air Defence role. Other new aircraft and helicopters to enter service during the decade included the Chinook HC.1, the Harrier GR.5, the British Aerospace BAe 146 CC.1, and the Tucano T.1.The 1980s was something of a decade of ‘mend and make do: the RAF purchased a batch of former US Navy F-4J Phantom aircraft as an air defence stop-gap, converted six Vulcan B.2 aircraft into AAR tanker platforms, and later, converted six Hercules C.1 aircraft into single-point C.1K tankers, initially for use on the Falklands Air Bridge. Further second-hand purchases included a number of former airline Lockheed Tristar and Vickers VC10 aircraft; once converted, these aircraft would later provide the backbone of the RAF’s strategic and tactical tanking force for the foreseeable future.Keith Wilson takes up from where he left off with RAF in Camera 1970s, continuing the journey through another significant decade. All of the landmark events are covered in this thorough, well-researched and image-packed publication.Each chapter focuses on a specific year, detailing all of the highlights and events that characterised it. As with previous volumes in this series, this new addition to the In Camera series is sure to be regarded as a collector’s edition and a real enthusiast’s favourite.