Najnovšie - Encyklopédie populárno-náučné strana 143 z 183
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The Magic Books
A fascinating and highly original history of medieval magic told through twenty key illuminated manuscripts Medieval Europe was preoccupied with magic. From the Carolingian Empire to Renaissance Italy and Tudor England, great rulers, religious figures, and scholars sought to harness supernatural power. They tried to summon spirits, predict the future, and even prolong life. Alongside science and religion, magic lay at the very heart of culture. In this beautifully illustrated account, Anne Lawrence-Mathers explores the medieval fascination with magic through twenty extraordinary illuminated manuscripts. These books were highly sought after, commissioned by kings and stored in great libraries. They include an astronomical compendium made for Charlemagne’s son; The Sworn Book of Honorius, used by a secret society of trained magicians; and the highly influential Picatrix. This vivid new history shows how attitudes to magic and science changed over the medieval period—and produced great works of art as they did so.
The Celts
A new history of the Celts that reveals how this once-forgotten people became a pillar of modern national identity in Britain, Ireland, and FranceBefore the Greeks and Romans, the Celts ruled the ancient world. They sacked Rome, invaded Greece, and conquered much of Europe, from Ireland to Turkey. Celts registered deeply on the classical imagination for a thousand years and were variously described by writers like Caesar and Livy as unruly barbarians, fearless warriors, and gracious hosts. But then, in the early Middle Ages, they vanished. In The Celts, Ian Stewart tells the story of their rediscovery during the Renaissance and their transformation over the next few centuries into one of the most popular European ancestral peoples. The Celts shows how the idea of this ancient people was recovered by scholars, honed by intellectuals, politicians, and other thinkers of various stripes, and adopted by cultural revivalists and activists as they tried to build European nations and nationalisms during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Long-forgotten, the Celts improbably came to be seen as the ancestors of most western Europeans—and as a pillar of modern national identity in Britain, Ireland, and France. Based on new research conducted across Europe and in the United States, The Celts reveals when and how we came to call much of Europe “Celtic,” why this idea mattered in the past, and why it still matters today, as the tide of nationalism is once again on the rise.
Unstable Ground
Winner, 2025 Columbia University Press Distinguished Book AwardWinner, 2026 Lionel Trilling Book Award, Columbia CollegeWhat has gold done to people? What has it made them do? The Witwatersrand in South Africa, once home to the world’s richest goldfields, is today scattered with abandoned mines into which informal miners known as zama zamas venture in an illicit—often deadly—search for ore. Based on field research conducted across more than twenty-five years around these mines, Unstable Ground reveals the worlds that gold made possible—and gold’s profound costs for those who have lived in its shadow and dreamt of its transformative power. From the vantage point of the closure of South Africa’s gold mines, Rosalind C. Morris reconsiders their histories, beginning in the present and descending into the pasts that shaped them. Anchored in evocative descriptions of mining in the ruins, this book explores the social worlds built on gold and the lives that were remade and sometimes undone by the industry over a century and a half. Viewing this industry from its margins, against the backdrop of the cyanide revolution, the gold standard’s demise, and recurrent sinkholes, as well as the insurrectionary protests and violence that continue to this day, it recasts the history of South Africa and the incomplete effort to overcome apartheid amid the transformations of the global economy. In writing that is by turns immersive, incisive, and poetic, Morris unearths a history that was born of imperial aspiration and that persists as a speculative mirage. Interweaving ethnography, history, personal testimony, and political thought with striking readings of South African literary texts, Unstable Ground is a work of extraordinary ambition and depth.
The Principality of Antioch and its Frontiers in the Twelfth Century
An investigation into how Antioch maintained itself as an independent principality during a period of considerable challenges. Situated in northern Syria, on the eastern-most frontier of Latin Christendom, the principality of Antioch was a medieval polity bordered by a host of rival powers, including the Byzantine Empire, the Armenian Christians of Cilicia, the rulers of the neighbouring Islamic world and even the other crusader states, the kingdom of Jerusalem and the counties of Edessa and Tripoli. Coupled with the numerous Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities who populated the region, Antioch's Frankish settlers - initially installed into power by the military successes of the First Crusade - thus faced numerous challenges to their survival. This book examines how the ruling elites of the principality sought to manage these competing interests in order to maintain Antioch's existence during the troubled twelfth century, particularly following the death of Prince Bohemond II in 1130. His demise helped to spark renewed interest from Byzantium and the kingdom of Jerusalem, and came at a time of both Islamic resurgence under the Zengids of Aleppo and Mosul, as well as Armenian power growth under the Rupenids. An examination of Antioch's diplomatic and military endeavours, its internal power structures and its interaction with indigenous peoples can therefore help to reveal a great deal about how medieval Latins adapted to the demands of their frontiers.
Humans
"Surekha Davies invites readers to imagine the lives of historical monsters and to empathize with their often-wretched treatment." - Science MagazineA history of how humans have created monsters out of one another—from our deepest fears—and what these monsters tell us about humanity's present and future. Monsters are central to how we think about the human condition. Join award-winning historian of science Dr. Surekha Davies as she reveals how people have defined the human in relation to everything from apes to zombies, and how they invented race, gender, and nations along the way. With rich, evocative storytelling that braids together ancient gods and generative AI, Frankenstein's monster and E.T., Humans: A Monstrous History shows how monster-making is about control: it defines who gets to count as normal. In an age when corporations increasingly see people as obstacles to profits, this book traces the long, volatile history of monster-making and charts a better path for the future. The result is a profound, effervescent, empowering retelling of the history of the world for anyone who wants to reverse rising inequality and polarization. This is not a history of monsters, but a history through monsters.
Burying the Enemy
A fascinating and moving history of the British and German war dead buried on enemy soil in the two world wars Why do societies only remember their own national war dead? Today, the enemy dead might be largely hidden from view, but this wasn’t always the case. During both world wars, Germans and Britons died in their thousands in enemy territory. From Berlin to Bath, London to Leipzig, civilian communities buried the enemy in the closest parish churchyard. Perhaps surprisingly, local people embraced these graves, often caring for them with considerable tenderness. Tim Grady explores the history of this curious aspect of postwar community. He reveals how, as the two states moved bodies to new military cemeteries, local people protested at the disturbance of the dead, and ties between the bereaved families and those who cared for the graves were severed forever. With the enemy out of sight and mind, the British and Germans concentrated solely on commemorating their own war dead, and their own sacrifices. Today’s insular public memory of the world wars was only made possible by clearing away signs of the enemy—allowing people to tell themselves much simpler narratives of the recent past as a result.
Walking the Hamster to the Fountain
'Walking the Hamster to the Fountain' is an extremelyentertaining, well-researched book which chronicles, in lively andunforgettable detail, some of the thousand-year history of the English villageof Hempstead, Essex, from the Norman Conquest to the Kray twins. Firmlygrounded in English history, the book is packed with stories of country life,parsons, celebrities, arson, political and intrigue. It will appeal to allthose who enjoy disappearing down historical 'rabbit holes'. The title comes from an interview with a former resident,recalling hot summers between the wars when the wells dried up and people hadto 'walk into Hempstead to the fountain' for water. When the interview wastranscribed, the computer produced the titular hamster. 'Greedy vicars, a school bullyturned merchant, child brides, hellfire preachers, eccentric generals, familycurses and dynamic women. Thiswide-ranging and thoroughly researched work weaves vibrant personal storiesinto a national and sometimes international narrative. This is local social history at its finest.'---Dr Elizabeth Goodwin, SeniorLecturer, Late Medieval and Early Modern Studies, York St. John University
Red Star over the Black Sea
Nâzim Hikmet (1902-1963) is best known as a poet and communist whose daring flight by motorboat from Turkey to the Eastern Bloc captured international headlines in 1951. One of the most important poets to have written in the Turkish language, Nâzim Hikmet''s dramatic life story is fascinating in its own right, but also intersects with the story of the broader twentieth century. James H. Meyer situates Nâzim Hikmet within the broader context of Turkish communist "border-crossers", individuals whose lives would go on to be shaped significantly by their ability, inability, or need to traverse the frontier. Born at the turn of the twentieth century and coming of age in the early 1920s, the women and men from Nâzim Hikmet''s generation were the last of the Ottomans. Children of empire, they had grown up in an era of porous frontiers, but by the time they reached their third decade, these borders had begun to close.Drawing upon an enormous amount of previously untapped archival materials and personal papers from Moscow, Istanbul, Amsterdam, and Washington, DC, Meyer has written a biography of Nâzim Hikmet unlike any other. A book of world history wrapped inside a life story, Red Star over the Black Sea shows how changing attitudes toward borders and the people who cross them impacted a late imperial generation all the way up to the final years of the Cold War.
Blue Helmet
Blue Helmet: My Year as a UN Peacekeeper in South Sudan tells the story of a country, a conflict, and the institution of peacekeeping through the eyes of a senior American military officer working on the ground in one of the most dangerous countries on the planet. South Sudan is rich in natural resources, and its fertile soil could make it the breadbasket of East Africa. Yet it remains the poorest and most corrupt country in the region, plagued by disease, famine, and ethnic strife. Abductions, sexual violence, death, and displacement affect tens of thousands of people each year. Edward H. Carpenter pulls readers into his world, allowing them to experience the powerful, poignant realities of being a peacekeeper in South Sudan. In the process, the author reveals how the United Nations really conducts its missions: what it tolerates and how it often falls short of achieving the aims of its charter-equal rights, justice, and economic advancement for all people-with the use of armed forces limited to serving those common interests by keeping the peace and preventing the scourge of war. It is a story that is eye-opening, unsettling, and always compelling. Global leaders may fairly claim that they have done everything they can to help South Sudan help itself: they’ve dispatched thousands of peacekeepers and provided billions of dollars in aid. So why is the UN still struggling to fulfill its mandate to protect civilians and safeguard the delivery of humanitarian assistance? What could be done better? Bringing the reader to the forefront of action, Blue Helmet answers these questions and raises others about how modern peacekeeping missions are organized and overseen, shedding light on some of the contradictions at the heart of peacekeeping.
The Belgian RAF Pilot Who Defied the Gestapo
In a breathtaking moment lasting less than ten seconds, skimming the rooftops of Brussels, Jean de Selys Longchamps would etch his name into the annals of history. On 20 January 1943, piloting his Hawker Typhoon, he daringly strafed the Gestapo''s headquarters in Brussels, sparking an unprecedented wave of enthusiasm among the occupied Belgian populace. In that instant, a legend was forged.While the story of this audacious raid has captivated audiences worldwide, it has also been mired in a myriad of exaggerated tales and obscured by myths. This biography aims to clear the mist, leveraging an array of sources from the de Selys Longchamps family''s private archives, including the pilot''s flying logbook, personal journals, correspondence, and photo albums. Augmented by previously unreleased archives, testimonials from fellow pilots and family members, and an exhaustive bibliography, this work meticulously illuminates one of the Second World War''s most remarkable narratives.With a keen eye for detail and an unwavering commitment to accuracy, the book delves deep into the life of a man who transcended the turmoil of his times. From his early days to the pivotal raid and beyond, it paints a vivid picture of a figure who, in the face of overwhelming adversity, showcased the indomitable spirit of resistance. Richly illustrated and thoroughly researched, this biography not only honours the memory of Jean de Selys Longchamps but also provides an invaluable insight into the era that shaped his character.More than a historical account, this biography is a tribute to the endurance of the human spirit and to the bravery that compels individuals to resist oppression, offering unparalleled insights into the intricacies of wartime aviation.
Mission, Race and Colonialism in Malawi
Mission, race and colonialism were three forces shaping Malawi?s history during the early years of the twentieth century. These three found a concentrated meeting point in the life of Scottish missionary Alexander Hetherwick, who led Blantyre Mission from 1898 to 1928. This book presents a fresh assessment of this towering figure in Malawi?s history, contesting the scholarly consensus that Hetherwick betrayed the early ideals of Blantyre Mission by compromising too much with the colonial system that was in force during his leadership. The book assesses the pervasive influence of colonialism, from which Hetherwick was not exempt, and traces the ways in which he resisted such influence through his relentless commitment to the interests of the African community and the inspiration he found in the emergence of the African church.
The Gorodomlya Island Project
When 20-year old RAF recruit Neville Cox, or ‘Cocky’, joins up in 1946, he is dismayed that the end of the war means he will never get to fly. Instead, he will be doing more of the technical drawing he is trained for. On a mission to a former Nazi-supported laboratory in Austria, he meets pilot and scientific intelligence expert Eric Ackermann, forming a friendship that lasts for years.They encounter Russians who are, like them, combing out ‘scientific institutes’ in a search for remnants and instruments connected with the V2; the ‘wonder weapon’ that devastated London in the Blitz.Shockingly, Cocky is abducted from an airfield on his return from a trip to the UK and taken to Gorodomlya Island, where German rocket scientists have been supporting Soviet efforts to recreate and develop the V2 rocket. Utilising the expertise of their captives on the island and in several other ‘design bureaus’ around Moscow, the Soviets aim is a powerful rocket with a nuclear warhead, four times more deadly than the atomic bomb the Americans dropped on Hiroshima.When a colleague is ‘disappeared’ to a remote closed city for using a self-made radio to pass on technical secrets, Cocky is convinced he will be next. An opportunity to escape arises through a visiting string quartet, but his eventual escape is not the planned diplomatic intervention, but a risky and hair-raising effort to outwit the KGB.Following a career in signals intelligence, Cocky struggles to adjust to civilian life, and to having a civilian wife. Three children and ten years later, he escapes again with a new partner, this time to Nova Scotia in Canada, where he still lives to this day.
Queen Katherine and the Howards
Writings of certain nineteenth and twentieth-century historians continue to colour our perceptions of the past, but is the picture of Katherine Howard painted by some of them necessarily fair? Was she really a neglected young girl set up by an unscrupulous family to enable them to exercise control over Henry VIII, or a secure teenager brought up in the home of her illustrious step-grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, who treated her well? Ultimately, was her untimely death the fault of others or the result of Katherine’s own ill-advised choice? hrough original research and use of primary sources, Queen Katherine and the Howards: A Tudor Family on the Brink of Disaster examines the Howards’ journey from practising law in East Anglia to their elevation to the dukedom of Norfolk by Richard III and, following the Yorkist defeat at Bosworth, their decades of service and loyalty to the fledgling Tudor dynasty.The final weeks of Katherine Howard’s short life, presented as a day-to-day narrative, enables the reader to appreciate how terrifyingly quickly the old duchess and Katherine’s associates, most involved against their wishes, were rounded up and consigned to the Tower for concealing what they knew of her lively past.The last chapters examine how the third Duke of Norfolk, Katherine’s paternal uncle, although surviving the turmoil of the scandal and continuing in his roles as Lord Treasurer and Henry VIII’s leading general, remained highly vulnerable; he and his son eventually fell victim to the king’s deadly paranoia.
The Epic Women of Homer
Our earliest written sources for Greek mythology, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, feature women prominently as drivers of the narratives. Though they occupy a variety of roles and speak eloquently for themselves in every role, these women have been obscured by the assumption that each epic’s central hero, Achilles and Odysseus, respectively, is also its singular hero. And yet, the story of the Iliad is not the story of Achilles, just as the story of the Odyssey is not the story of Odysseus alone. Contrary to centuries of reception, the epics are not only about fearless yet flawed men but rather explore and develop the contours of belonging and community in times of war and peace.The Epic Women of Homer untangles the women of the Iliad and the Odyssey from centuries of narrative constraints to recover their essential meaning and importance. In the process, The Epic Women of Homer challenges the commonplace assumption that the Homeric hero is ‘an individual’ who fights for ‘personal glory’, a misconception further fuelled by a lack of understanding of the oral tradition out of which Homer’s epics emerged in which linguistic and thematic patterning exists at every level. Analysing Homer’s goddesses and heroes through the lens of these patterns, their recurrence and variation reveal them to be preeminent in a wide range of skills, all of which are necessary, and yet the essence of each is in their relationships with others.The Epic Women of Homer re-establishes these goddesses and heroines to their esteemed positions in ancient Greece and reintroduces them to the modern world.
Medieval Syria and the Onset of the Crusades
Between 1050 and 1128 the nomadic Seljuq Turks and European Crusaders subjected northern Syria to a series of invasions from the east and west. The migration of militant peoples from the Eurasian Steppe and Western Europe inserted a new set of political elites into a complex frontier zone already beset by numerous conflicts fought along several ethno-cultural and religious contours. Surveying this turbulent chapter of Syrian history from multiple perspectives, this book recalibrates the underlying power dynamics of the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Through this regional focus, it reassesses both the impact that the establishment of Turkish and Crusader lordships had upon bilad al-sham (Greater Syria) and the reactions of Syria’s established ruling elite to this unprecedented sequence of events. Providing a unique reinterpretation of the political situation in bilad al-sham during one of the most important periods in Middle Eastern history, this book proposes a new model for understanding the political dynasties of this period and questions the significance ascribed to the establishment of the Crusader States by modern historians.
Making the Enfield Pattern 1853 Rifle-Musket
The Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle Musket embodies a number of revolutionary milestones for Britain; it, and the carbines and short rifles derived from it, were the first rifled firearms to be issued universally to all troops; its design owed more to the French 1777 musket than to its English forbears; it was the first firearm to be produced en masse extensively by machinery; in 1857 it became the first firearm in Britain to be made fully interchangeable.The nature of this new rifle presented a number of challenges for the private contractors who traditionally had supplied military firearms and some unique contract documents specifying standards are shown. Their failure to meet contractual obligations led to the formation of the Select Committee on Small Arms in 1854 to examine its manufacture and procurement. However, its outcome was pre-empted - in that same year the Committee on the Machinery of the United States, was sent to America to examine the machinery used in gun manufacture and given authority to purchase appropriate machines for use at Enfield.Aspects of its manufacture at Enfield are covered in a small number of contemporary accounts. These vary in the detail provided and contain errors which have been noted and corrected.Access to a wealth of specimens, drawings and documents not previously studied or published, has allowed the manufacture of this iconic rifle using these new technologies to be presented in unprecedented detail.
The Brookwood Killers
Nestled deep in the Surrey countryside stands the Brookwood 1939-1945 Memorial. Maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, its panels contain the names of nearly 3,500 men and women of the land forces of Britain and the Commonwealth who died in the Second World War and who have no known grave.Among the men and women who names are carved on the memorial are Special Operations Executive agents who died as prisoners or while working with Allied underground movements, servicemen killed in the various raids on enemy occupied territory in Europe, such as Dieppe and Saint-Nazaire, men and women who died at sea in hospital ships and troop transports, British Army parachutists, and even pilots and aircrew who lost their lives in flying accidents or in aerial combat.But the panels also hide a dark secret. Entwined within the names of heroes and heroines are those of nineteen men whose last resting place is known, and whose deaths were less than glorious. All were murderers who, following a civil or military trial, were executed for the heinous offence they had committed. The bodies of these individuals, with the exception of one, lay buried in un-consecrated ground.As Paul Johnson reveals, the cases of the ‘Brookwood Killers’ are violent, disturbing and often brutal in their content. They are not war crimes, but crimes committed in a time of war, for which the offender has their name recorded and maintained in perpetuity. Something that is not always applied in the case of the victim.
Mary Tudor
Mary Tudor, Henry VIII''s sister, lived a remarkable life. A princess, duchess and queen, she was known as the English Rose for her beauty. Mary Tudor, Queen of France, aims to explore the life of one of the few who stood up to Henry VIII and lived to tell the tale.Henry VIII is well known, but his larger-than-life character often overshadows that of his sisters. Mary Tudor was born a princess, married a king and then a duke, and lived an extraordinary life. This book focuses on Mary’s life, her childhood, her relationship with Henry, her marriages and her relationship with her husbands.Mary grew up in close proximity to Henry, becoming his favourite sister, and later, after her marriage to the French king, she married his best friend, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. The events impacting the siblings will be reviewed to examine how they may have changed and shaped their relationship.
The Wars Between Greeks and Carthaginians
Before the rise of Rome, the Greeks and Carthaginians were, for centuries, the two most powerful nations of the Western Mediterranean. From the Pillars of Hercules to Sicily and Cyrenaica, the Greeks and the Carthaginians founded cities, created trade routes, interacted with each other as competitors and collaborators, and often went to war. However, the long conflict between the Western Greeks and the Carthaginians has been neglected by modern historians, even though the wars between them are definitely among the greatest, longest, and most dramatic clashes of great powers in history when it comes to the historical breadth and the forces involved. Sotirios Drokalos gives these epic events the attention they deserve.The competition and conflicts between Greeks and Phoenicians in the West began by the time of the first colonizations during the eighth century BCE and the development of the cultural and economic activity of the two cultures. They intensified after the Greek colonies'' consolidation and Carthage''s rise as the most significant Phoenician city and a commercial empire during the sixth century BCE. Especially from the beginning of the fifth century BCE and for the next roughly 200 years, the Western Mediterranean was the field of a ruthless bipolar confrontation between the Greeks of the West and the Carthaginians, marked by the actions of remarkable personalities of the ancient world. This historical clash, apart from the vast and bloody battles, the invasions of one side by the other, the sieges and the mass slaughters, also included elements of cultural interaction and exchange, consisting essentially of a practical test of constitutions, social systems, and political views. Under this prism, studying that tumultuous era could be necessary today to better understand Mediterranean and European historical evolution.
V kategórii populárno - náučné encyklopédie nájdete široký výber kníh, ktoré vám poskytnú poznatky z rôznych oblastí zaujímavým a zrozumiteľným spôsobom. Encyklopédie vám pomôžu získať komplexný prehľad o rôznych témach, ako ľudské telo a človek, príroda, vesmír, veda a technika a história.
Naša ponuka encyklopédií populárno-náučného charakteru vám umožní objaviť fascinujúci svet poznania a rozšíriť svoje vedomosti o rôznych témach.
