Najnovšie - Encyklopédie populárno-náučné - História strana 7 z 161

Patrice Lumumba had been prime minister of the newly liberated Congo for only seven months at the time of his assassination in 1961. As news of his execution spread, his image was brandished in demonstrations around the world along with those of Che Guevara and Mao Zedong. He would go on to become an icon of anti-imperialist struggle and perhaps the most famous leader of the African independence movement. Lumumba’s life and the freedom that he sought for the Congo exposed ongoing Western colonialism and the problematic nature of the independence granted to huge swathes of the globe after 1945. Leo Zeilig’s concise, direct biography tells the story of the Congo in the dying days of colonialism; of Lumumba’s transition from nationalist, to revolutionary, to international symbol of African liberation; and of the role of Western powers in his murder.

A comprehensive evaluation of generalship on the most important front in World War II. The war on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 was the largest sustained air-ground conflict in military history and played the decisive role in the defeat of the Third Reich. This new study seeks to analyse the command and generalship of the combatants. The scale of the conflict was immense. Lasting over 46 months it involved over 10 million combatants at its peak, and resulted in roughly 15 million military deaths, as well as about 20 million civilian deaths. More than 50 percent of all German military fatalities in 1941–45 occurred there, and by the time the Western Allies invaded France in June 1944, the Wehrmacht was already decimated. Who were the generals who led these campaigns on the Eastern Front? The standard historiography of World War II tends to focus on a few prominent leaders while ignoring the mass of commanders and operational-level military staffs who actually fought most of the war and this new study by renowned Eastern Front historian Robert Forczyk seeks to redress the balance. Generalship on the Eastern Front offers an objective analytic framework for assessing the senior German and Soviet commanders on the Eastern Front through the lens of generalship and battle command, examining a total of 54 German and 140 Soviet officers.

A powerful and important reckoning with Britain's imperial legacy and contemporary systemic racism'A richly told history of Empire from which we cannot turn away' AFUA HIRSCH'I’d have loved to have read such a book when I was a schoolboy' COLIN GRANTFrom the 1500s to the mid-twentieth century, the events that took place in the Caribbean – from conquest, colonisation and capitalism to racial slavery, revolution and migration – and the people who forged them played a seminal role in creating modern Britain and the Anglophone Caribbean. By the 1960s, Western global empires had begun to crumble. Yet the British Empire in the Caribbean did not end. Instead, colonialism was replaced with a new type of power whose impact can still be felt: neo-colonialism. Empire Without End offers a new interpretation of the British Empire, its enduring entanglement with the Anglophone Caribbean and the longevity of systemic racism. Taking a longer historical perspective starting in the period of European contact with the Caribbean and ending today, Imaobong Umoren looks at the impact and legacies of racial slavery to explore how later linked histories relating to capitalism, class, labour, war, political economy, poverty, gender and culture are crucial to telling the full story. In doing so, she sets out a compelling strategy to define our roles and responsibilities in challenging the legacy of colonialism and hierarchy – a legacy that continues to blight our society and our politics.

'Impressive... Glancey has written an engaging and affectionate account of the V-bombers, not least the figures who made it all possible.' TelegraphTHE THREE VERY DIFFERENT models of V class bomber comprising Britain's strategic nuclear strike force - Vickers Valiant, Avro Vulcan and Handley Page Victor - marked a radical change in post-war bomber design. From the time they first entered service between 1955 and 1957, these charismatic, high-flying jets stole the public imagination. Theirs, though, was a terrible beauty. In 1956, over the South Australian desert, Valiant WZ366 was the first British aircraft to drop an operational atomic bomb. The V-bombers were Britain's premier Cold War aircraft. But frictions in Anglo-American relations alongsidedevelopments in radar and surface-to-air missiles led to the Royal Navy taking over Britain's nuclear deterrent role in 1968. Despite this, the V-bombers enjoyed a second life in conventional roles, most notably when Vulcans undertook the longest bombing raids in history in the 1982 Falklands War. V-Force sets these formidable, haunting aircraft in the story of the development of twentieth-century weapons of mass destruction, military rivalries and international politics. It is both an extraordinary ode to the V-bombers and a unique lens through which to view Britain's Cold War experience.

'Charming, hilarious, and guaranteed to make you the most interesting person at any party. Or the most annoying' - Adam Rutherford‘Weird and wonderful facts you didn’t know you needed. Full of quirky nuggets of information and trivia’ - Sun‘Joyously bizarre facts in a new book from a QI brainbox’ - Daily MailDrawn from a former BBC QI Elf's lifetime’s search for the weird and the wonderful, The Most Interesting Book in The World is a miscellany of things too strange to be true, yet somehow are.   This remarkable treasury of tales and trivia will whisk you on a jaw-dropping journey through time and space, stopping off to marvel at only the obscure, the startling and the straight-up weird.   In it, Edward Brooke-Hitching considers questions such as:   Why is a cat technically a liquid and a solid? How did nineteenth-century scientists attempt to signal aliens? Why did the Dutch once eat their prime minister?     Nowhere else will you find woven together the stories of the religious leader who attempted to build a robot messiah from a dining table, the anti-gravity ‘air-walkers’ of Victorian London, and the pirates who rode sheep; or practical advice for correctly exorcising a house and casting ancient love spells, along with recent scientific discoveries like the mould that can navigate a maze and that humans can glow in the dark.   A unique hybrid of encyclopaedia, trivia and drunken-bar raconteur, all stitched together in one colossal Frankenstein volume packed full of images and photographs - this is the ultimate must-read for anyone looking to tickle the cortex of their curiosity.

'A rollicking, brilliant book' GARETH RUSSELL 'Hugely enjoyable' SUNDAY TIMES A rollicking narrative history set during the extraordinary summer of 1726 when Jonathan Swift arrived in London from Dublin, with a draft of Gulliver’s Travels in his bag. Jonathan Swift settled into his great friend Alexander Pope’s new house on the river at Twickenham (or Twitnam as they liked to call it), and joined by John Gay, the trio of Scriblerus Club writers spent a delightful and creative summer, pushing each other to new satirical heights (The Dunciad and The Beggar’s Opera also ensued), exploring the gardens and houses of their aristocratic friends and thinking up ways to torment Robert Walpole’s corrupt Whig administration without going to jail. An unlikely threesome in many ways – Swift was 20 years older, and Gay was as large and indolent as Pope was tiny and restless – “the three Yahoos of Twittenham” were unmarried and took great emotional and intellectual succour from their friendship. The three of them added up to more than the sum of their considerable parts and, as well as being a brilliant evocation of the radical rage, the joy and stench of early eighteenth century life, The Twitnam Summer is also a very moving portrait of male friendship.

'Brilliant. A fresh and highly engaging look at how Rome still shapes the world today.' Jonn Elledge'This book will change the way you think about world history.'  Raphael Cormack'Authoritative and engaging.' Subhadra Das'A fascinating and entertaining analysis of how Rome’s propaganda has colonized our collective imaginations.'Eleanor Janega'Eloquent, well-researched and witty.' David M. PerryHow many times a day do you think about the Roman Empire? The general consensus seems to be an awful lot. All Roads Lead to Rome explains why. Rome is more than just a city; it’s an enduring idea, a symbol of identity, power and legitimacy that has shaped the course of history for over 1,500 years. From ancient emperors to modern world leaders, Rome’s influence in building the world we know today is undeniable. In All Roads Lead to Rome, author and historian Rhiannon Garth Jones embarks on a fascinating exploration of how the idea of Rome has been seized by emperors, modern governments, religious leaders and even pop-culture icons.  Each chapter examines how Rome’s famous history, politics and mythology have been reimagined through the centuries, and explores how these interpretations continue to shape our modern world. Whether you’re interested in history, contemporary global issues or simply curious about why Rome remains relevant, this book offers a fresh perspective on the lasting significance of one of history’s most famous civilisations. Dive into the history of Rome and its pervasive influence and gain a deeper understanding of the forces shaping the global landscape today.

'Brilliant, unpredictable and endlessly fascinating' IAN MORTIMER'I love this book' TRACY BORMAN'Gunn and Gromelski cast a brilliant light into a lost world' SUSAN BRIGDENA unique new window onto Tudor life, told through ordinary people's untimely deaths. How did ordinary people live in Tudor England? This unique history unearths the ways they died to find out. Uncovering thousands of coroners' reports, An Accidental History of Tudor England explores the history of everyday life, and everyday death, in a world far from the intrigues of Hampton Court Palace, Shakespeare's plots and the Spanish Armada. Here, farming, building and travel were dangerous. Fruit trees killed more people than guns, and sheep killed about the same number as coalmines. Men stabbed themselves playing football and women drowned in hundreds fetching water. Going to church had its dangers, especially when it came to bell-ringing, archery practice was perilous and haystacks claimed numerous victims. Restless animals roamed the roads which contained some potholes so deep men could drown, and drown they did. From bear attacks in north Oxford to a bowls-on-ice-incident on the Thames, this book uses a remarkable trove of sources and stories to put common folk back into the big picture of Tudor England, bringing the reality of their world to life as never before.

'Richard Kerbaj tells a gripping story of Lyalin's role in helping turn the tables in a spying game that the West had been losing.' The Economist'The Defector flows effortlessly from page to page and chapter to chapter. It is genuinely unputdownable; a terrific read.' The Cipher Brief'It looks and reads like a novel . . . all queuing up to lavish praise upon [this] book." James O'Brien'An absolutely thrilling read based on deep research which brings this MI5 asset's importance to life.' Gordon Corera, co-host of The Rest is Classified'Kerbaj is well-placed to recount the facts of this forgotten story . . . one of the most sensational episodes of the Cold War.' Sunday Times'A truly gripping, untold story... The Defector reads like Le Carre but uncovers important truths that are being played out in Putin's Russia today'. Robert Verkaik'Extraordinary' - Hugo Rifkind, TimesRadio'Inspired . . . seamless, and a thrill to read.' The Scotsman'Compelling', Evening Standard'Highly entertaining . . . Certainly the stuff of thrillers.' Sydney Morning Herald'This magnificent book reads like a thriller but it's all true. It has big lessons for today and tomorrow.' The Australian'Reads like a spy novel', ExpressThe Defector is the untold account of how, in 1971, the defection of a KGB saboteur in London led to the expulsion of more than a hundred Soviet 'diplomats' from the UK. Drawing on newly declassified intelligence documents and dozens of interviews with spymasters, The Defector tells a startling story of a Soviet mission to plant fake Kremlin agents within British and American intelligence services, the paranoia that ensued, and how the actions of a genuine turncoat, the former KGB officer Oleg Lyalin, and the secrets he revealed resulted to one of the most dramatic and pivotal moments in the Cold War. Lyalin led MI5 to rethink its relationship with the CIA. And his defection discredited a previous KGB defector, Anatoly Golitsyn, the darling of the CIA, and ultimately destroyed the reputation of the US agency's head of counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton. As Richard Kerbaj writes: 'There was a poetic irony in Golitsyn's loss of credibility. It came, as he had previously feared, at the hands of a KGB defector. Except Oleg Lyalin had not been sent by the KGB - he was running away from it.'At the heart of Lyalin's story is a narrative entwined with lies, disinformation, Kremlin deception campaigns, intelligence failures by the CIA and MI5, and a tangled love life. Told in full here, for the first time, by one of this country's leading commentators on national security, it reveals how during the darkest moments of the Cold War one of the West's greatest achievements transpired as a result of MI5's break with the CIA. The disclosure of the inside story of this historic event also comes at a time when there is a renewed interest in the relationship between transatlantic spy services - from the intelligence they share or hold back, to the way they respond to their political masters and stand up to threats from Russia.

'Mead significantly expands our understanding of Montgomery himself, his motivation and his genius' GENERAL LORD RICHARD DANNATT'Deeply researched, highly insightful... Contains all anyone needs to know about Britain's most consequential soldier of the Second World War' ANDREW ROBERTSKnown to all as ‘Monty’, Bernard Law Montgomery’s greatest achievement was to give the British Army self-belief after Dunkirk, ensuring that his troops were inspired to embark on the long struggle to defeat Nazi Germany and its allies. The self-proclaimed ‘cad’ of the army would regularly tour his forces to talk to them in person, but employed disastrously outdated tactics in the Second World War. Yet he still secured famous wins in North Africa, most notably in the second Battle of El-Alamein. He followed that by leading his troops into Europe, first by invading Italy in September 1943 and then commanding the D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944. However, his strategy for the Battle of Arnhem proved a costly failure. No other general was so hated by his peers; no other general was held in such affection by the ordinary ranks and by the public. Now, fifty years since his death, Montgomery remains a highly controversial figure. This balanced, accessible and fresh account of one of Britain’s most complex war heroes looks beyond the battlefield. Delving into Montgomery’s belligerent Victorian boyhood, his family’s legacy of financial precariousness, his love-hate relationship with Winston Churchill and his dubious romances, Gary Mead asks what life experiences and personal secrets influenced this man’s volcanic emotional life and, ultimately, his multifaceted and disputed legacy. Definitive and profound, Montgomery: Unbeatable, Unbearable captures the motives, spirit and psychological complexities of the man dubbed Britain’s last great soldier.

A relationship takes work, compromise and trust in one another. But in order to make it a special relationship, a little more diplomacy may be required…When it came to Charles and Mary Bagot, the gossips of Regency England had more than their fill. The marriage, initially the toast of high society, was one marked with scandal and adultery. And when rumours of a particularly salacious affair broke through London, the couple were banished to the New World. Having sailed across the ocean, Charles and Mary settled into their new home among the mudflows of Washington. It was here that they would serve their penance as the first British Ambassadors to America, at a pivotal moment in the new nation's history. But against the odds and in spite of their misfortune, the Bagots would emerge as the leading diplomats of their day. Their innate gift for politics, culture and social affairs was a tonic to the Anglo-American tensions and would lay the groundwork for modern global diplomacy. Their trailblazing work, first in the United States and then later in Russia and Canada that would forever change the power dynamics on the world stage. Meticulously researched, The Rebel and The Peacemaker is the untold story of romance, scandal and the art of diplomacy.

From the hellish skies over Europe to the unforgiving terrain of the Himalayas, this is the first complete history of the C-47 aircrew who helped turn the tide of war. One of the most perilous combat roles of World War II was that of the Allied aircrews who flew unarmed transport planes into enemy territory, often just hundreds of feet above the battlefield. Tasked with delivering paratroopers and towing combat gliders packed with troops and equipment, the crews braved anti-aircraft fire and enemy fighters without the means to shoot back. Drawing on after-action reports, letters, and personal diaries, Into the Firestorm takes readers into the cockpit of the C-47, revealing the extraordinary courage of these crews in the first complete history of their experiences. Aircrews of the C-47 were ordered to fly straight, low, take no evasive action, and arrive “on time and on target.” On every single mission they were, quite simply, sitting ducks. Readers are introduced to the college students, farmhands, and store clerks who were thrust into service, many of whom would never return. Yet their contribution to the war was crucial. Without resupplies from C-47s, Patton would have lost the Battle of the Bulge. Without the willingness of these aircrews to fly directly over the Himalayas, Japan’s war in the east may well have prevailed. Award-winning author Scott McGaugh restores these unsung heroes to their rightful place in the legacy of the Greatest Generation.

'Riveting, timely and truly revelatory. The Organisation Todt is the Nazi-era secret that still needs to emerge from the shadows' DAMIEN LEWIS, author of SAS Brothers in Arms and The Nazi Hunters'Charles Dick has done a major service to the history of the Third Reich. The Organisation Todt exploited camp prisoners and forced labourers as ruthlessly and murderously as the better-known SS, but its responsibility has never been properly explored' RICHARD OVERY, author of Blood and RuinsDiscover for the first time the story of the Organisation Todt, a hidden and brutal organisation overseen by Hitler at the heart of the Nazi machine. Adolf Hitler described the Organisation Todt as ‘the greatest construction organisation of all time’. It was from this organisation, headed by Albert Speer, that Hitler enlisted the nation’s leading engineers and architects to build his empire of dreams. In time, it became a key partner to the SS and the Wehrmacht and led to the deaths of millions. Unknown Enemy reveals the full extent of the OT and its long arm across Europe and the Reich. In wartime, its operations relied mainly on Germany’s slave labour system, the largest exploitation of foreign labour since the end of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Charles Dick takes us inside the OT’s vast building projects throughout German-occupied Europe, from the Arctic circle to the Balkans, to tell the story of how engineers and builders – so-called ‘ordinary men’ – perpetrated some of the gravest war crimes under its banner. Despite its extensive network, the Organisation Todt largely managed to slip under the radar of war prosecutors after Germany’s defeat. Drawing on extensive new research, first-person accounts and survivor testimony, Unknown Enemy finally unearths its dark story.

This is the first full-length biography of Sulpicia, the earliest extant female author of classical Latin poetry. Unmentioned by her contemporaries, Sulpicia belonged to the pinnacle of the Roman aristocracy and wrote openly about her life and love affair in the same literary forms as Ovid, Propertius, and Tibullus. This study investigates Sulpicia''s family background, the societal expectations for a woman of her aristocratic rank, and the literary ferment that swept Rome in her day and to which she contributed.In Sulpicia: Life, Love, and Literature in Ancient Rome, Alison Keith takes the discovery of Sulpicia''s poetry as a point of departure, before turning to in-depth exploration of her aristocratic family background and her literary achievement in the heyday of Latin love poetry. She also probes the difficulty many male critics have had in believing that an aristocratic Roman woman could write poetry about love and sex.

A unique homage to the fighter aircraft that won the Battle of Britain, marrying the story of how the author built a replica Spitfire in his garden with the plane's operational history. In April 2018 David Price, dedicated aviation museum volunteer and author of The Crew and Mosquito Men, decided to build a Spitfire replica in his back garden. In How to Build a Spitfire he juxtaposes the story of the ups and down of his own ambitious project to recreate an icon of British aviation with a narrative of the development of the Spitfire itself, focusing in particular on the production of the aircraft and its various component parts – including the Merlin engine. The story includes incredible testimonies from workers in the Supermarine factory in Southampton and in other Spitfire production facilities. Bringing together the sometimes light-hearted tale of a personal quest, enthusiastically pursued, with an authoritative account of the technical workings of a war-winning weapon, and the stories of the men who flew it, How to Build a Spitfire is a distinctive and affectionate homage to an enduring symbol of British engineering genius and national resilience.

From the author of the global bestseller The Secret History of the World comes an epic new history of the relationship between spiritual belief and cutting-edge science. Jonathan Black shows that from Marie Curie to today’s architects of AI, many of our greatest scientists have been guided by secret, mystical and ‘higher’ teachings towards an understanding of the universe familiar to the builders of the pyramids of Giza or the Temple at Jerusalem. He explores how these discoveries, foreshadowed and paralleled by geniuses including Carl Gustav Jung and Hilma af Klint, raise deep and urgent questions about our understanding of the universe. Is the material universe we perceive with our senses an illusio? s a higher intelligence directing i? re events in the future already fixe? ow does modern physics show we are all connected in ways old science said were impossibl? re different kinds of intelligence - divine and less benevolent - emerging around u? his is the science hardline atheists don’t want you to know about.

'Bold, vital and urgent . . . Blows the old parochial Western accounts clean away' SUZANNAH LIPSCOMB'Refreshing and astutely judged . . . immensely enjoyable' JONATHAN PHILLIPSA spectacular new panoramic history of the Crusades. From their foundation in 1097 to Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem almost a century later, the Crusader States transformed the Middle Eastern world. In an era shaped by many conflicts, this was not simply a war between Christianity and Islam, but an epic contest among multiple rival empires, dynasties and cultures. The Crusader Storm unfolds through a kaleidoscope of perspectives: a Byzantine renegade, a crusader princess, a Turkish matriarch, a young Arab nobleman, a Syriac archbishop, Saladin's leading commander and the vizier of Egypt. Between them, information, technologies and ideas - as well as weapons - crossed borders at astonishing speed as their societies fought, allied and traded. Their entangled fates reshaped not only the Middle East, but the medieval world itself. Drawing on sources from Arabic, Greek, Syriac, Armenian, Latin and Hebrew traditions, Nicholas Morton's enthralling panorama transforms our understanding of the Crusades - revealing them not as a single clash of faiths, but as a dynamic era of war, commerce, innovation and exchange that defined the course of history.

Relive the battle for a nation. As 8,000 Scottish soldiers, most of them spearmen, faced 18,000 English infantrymen, archers and mounted knights in June 1314 near the Bannock Burn, many would have thought that the result a foregone conclusion. But two days later, the English were routed, Edward II fled to the coast and took ship for home, and few English and Welsh soldiers escaped from Scotland unhurt. This emphatic victory was the moment that enabled Scotland to remain independent and pursue a different destiny. In this book, best-selling author Alistair Moffat offers fresh insights into one of the most famous battles in history, yet one which is surprisingly little understood. Where exactly was it fought; and what happened at the Scottish council of war the night before the second day to persuade the Scots to attack at daw? his book follows in detail the events of those two days that changed history, and captures all the fear, heroism, confusion and desperation as he describes the tactics and manoeuvres that led to a stunning and unexpected Scottish victory.

In June 1949, the US and British governments secretly agreed to mount a joint covert action operation to overthrow the communist government in Albania. The top-secret plan would use exiled dissidents to conduct subversive intelligence, paramilitary and propaganda operations to foment an uprising against Albania's authoritarian ruler Enver Hoxha. The Albanian operation is a vital but misunderstood part of Cold War history. A Rich Harvest of Bitter Fruit explains how the West, it its first secret attempt to subvert a communist state behind the iron curtain, ultimately backed away from trying to bring down Hoxha's regime. Instead, Albania was the test case of anti-communist covert action where the West served its apprenticeship before rolling out this capability on a global scale. Drawing on a range of material and primary sources, this is the first book to take an international look at this crucial flashpoint and incorporate the motives and actions of all four major actors - the Anglo-Americans, the Communist powers, Albania's regional neighbours, and the Albanian rebels themselves. A tale of subterfuge, secrecy and skulduggery, this is a compulsively readable and fascinating examination of one of the most important, and least examined, major flashpoints of the Cold War.