Najnovšie - Encyklopédie populárno-náučné strana 18 z 175
História 
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The Birth of British Special Forces
This study reveals how the Household Division became the driving force behind Britain's special forces during the Second World War. Drawing on primary sources, Charles Trumpess traces the transformation from parade ground to battlefield, showing how Guards officers like Robert Laycock, David Stirling, and Frederick Browning leveraged social connections to create the Commandos, LRDG, SAS, and Parachute Regiment. Through character portraits, the book follows the evolution from No. 8 (Guards) Commando to modern G Squadron, 22 SAS. It reveals how Caterham's punishing training produced the self-reliance essential for special operations, how White's Club became an unofficial recruiting centre, and why the ‘old boys' network’ proved crucial to wartime innovation.
The Real Story of the American Revolution
The American Revolution was one of the events which shaped the modern world. It has been celebrated as a struggle for liberty and the origin of the growth of the US as a great world power. Without underplaying the achievements of the Revolution, this book takes a critical look at the myths and legends that grew up about this key event. It also gives a voice to those who suffered from opposing the Revolution and whose stories are not always remembered. It investigates the nature of what was fundamentally a civil war and looks closely at whether the ideals of the Revolution were a reality for all those caught up in what was a deadly and violent conflict. It challenges the reputation of some leading figures and the usual way that dramatic events have been portrayed, and takes a hard look at some accepted ideas about the colonial past. As well as explaining the causes and course of the war of independence, the book considers its impact on different groups, including women, Black Americans and native Americans. There are some surprising and sometimes disturbing events here, but these add to a picture of a vibrant and exciting period of history.
Castlehill Wood (re-)Dun: Reinterpreting a Stirling Oddity
This volume reinterprets Richard Feachem’s 1950s excavation of Castlehill Wood dun, Stirling via key-hole excavation of in situ baulks and re-analysis of the object assemblage, placing the results in context. The works transform our understanding of the site from a simple enclosure to a roofed structure with an awareness of architectural trends across Scotland. The site is demonstrated to have been built prior to the Roman invasion and suggests a complex settlement pattern that should not be viewed solely in the light of the Roman incursions. Finally, the structure contains a series of small cells and galleries that find parallels across Scotland and might be linked to Iron Age ritual practices. The opportunity has also been taken to publish reviews of the artefacts from two other older excavations from the Stirling area: West Plean Homestead and Gallow Hill lava quern. In each case a proposed fieldwork phase never happened due to circumstances beyond the control of the author.
America’s Favorite Warlord
Meet America’s favorite “warlord,” Abdul Raziq Achakzai (1976-2018). This book depicts the U.S. war in Afghanistan from a new perspective: that of the most dynamic and fearsome of America’s late allies. His critics castigated him as another of the corrupt strongmen who have dominated Central Asia for the past four decades. But a closer look at Raziq’s environment will allow readers from the West to understand how military leaders came to participate in Afghan governance after 2001, much as Americans have turned to charismatic authoritarians to establish justice in the face of uncertainty at home in the past. Why did foreigners continue to work with Raziq, given his grievous reputation? The short answer is that he was competent from a military perspective. But speaking of General Raziq with his former comrades revealed that competence in counterinsurgency took on many distinct connotations. Over the course of his career, Raziq not only captured and killed Taliban fighters. He provided intelligence, recruited and organized manpower, rallied lagging forces, and allowed outsiders a way into the complex tribal politics of Kandahar Province. Above all, his charisma and enthusiasm inspired hope in his military partners, along with wide swaths of the population of Kandahar. Almost everyone who met Raziq remarked on his force of personality, which took on cult status in his last years. Raziq rose to power as a hybrid figure, as he gained authority through his military skills and as part of a tribal hierarchy. This hybridity helps to explain why his leadership was flexible and inclusive rather than authoritarian in nature. Although he began his career as a narrow tribal militiaman, he ended it as a coalition-building nationalist. In our age of militarized borders, proxy wars, and insurgencies, Raziq’s career as a regional strongman offers an important case study for ongoing security dilemmas around the world.
Tombstones of Roman Britain
Discover the men, women, and children who called the Roman province of Britannia home through the most final ? and often only ? evidence they left behind: their tombstones. What can we learn from these lasting monuments to the dead? This book brings together a selection of surviving tombstones from Roman Britain for the first time in an easy-to-access collection, accompanied by useful contextual information on ancient burial practices, funerary symbolism, and afterlife beliefs. Explore the lives and deaths of people from every walk of life who came from all over the vast Roman Empire: from the devoted wives and playful children living along Hadrian's Wall, to the experienced soldiers stationed at forts across the province, and even the enslaved as they are commemorated for all eternity on these ancient inscribed stones. New clear translations of the inscriptions introduce these memorials to modern readers, and a handy guide at the end also equips readers with the tools for decoding common Latin funerary abbreviations for themselves. Each tombstone is accompanied by background information on the deceased, while accompanying illustrations and photographs of the tombstones bring these ancients back to life. AUTHOR: Dr Stephanie Holton is Staff Tutor and Lecturer in Classical Studies at the Open University. Her teaching and research explore ancient ideas about death, the body, and the soul across the Greek and Roman worlds. She was previously Senior Lecturer in Classics at Newcastle University, where she led several outreach projects based on ancient languages including the award-winning 'Romans on the Tyne' for schools in the North East. She is dedicated to making the ancient world accessible to modern audiences of all ages and frequently collaborates with museums, schools, and charities on a wide variety of projects. 30 b/w illustrations
Tank Battles of the Cold War, 1948–1991
As Anthony Tucker-Jones shows in this highly illustrated, wide-ranging history, for most of the Cold War the tank retained its pre-eminence on the battlefield. The Arab-Israeli wars witnessed some of the biggest tank battles of all time, and tanks played key roles in conflicts in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan as well as in the Iran-Iraq War and the wars fought between India and Pakistan. But then in the mid-1960s anti-tank weapons became ever deadlier and the Mechanised Infantry Fighting Vehicle (MIFV), which was designed to support infantry and fight tanks, emerged and the heyday of the tank was over.Chapters cover each major phase in the evolution of the tank and of tank warfare during the period, from the battles fought in the late 1940s and 1950s with Second World War armoured vehicles like the T-34 and the Sherman, through to the designs common in the 1960s and 1970s like the T-55, Centurion, Challenger and M60 Patton, to the confrontation between the M1 Abrams and the T-72 during the Gulf War in 1991. Technical and design developments are important elements throughout the story, but so are dramatic changes in tactics and armaments which mean the tank has an increasingly uncertain role in modern warfare.
The Fallen
When the gates of the last Magdalene Laundry closed in 1996, Ireland moved on. Or so it seemed. 'Enraging ... superb' JOHN BANVILLE, Guardian'Remarkable' Sunday Times 'An extraordinary gift ... both an education and a page-turner' DOIREANN NÍ GHRÍOFA'Highly readable and intelligently engaging' FINTAN O'TOOLE, TLS'Indispensable' ANNE ENRIGHT'A terrific unearthing of Ireland's shadowland. A landmark book' RORY CARROLL'Vivid, fluent ... a serious contribution to a subject that has still not been laid to rest' Irish Times'Powerful ... authoritative, passionate' Mail on SundayPublished to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the last Laundry’s closure, The Fallen is the forgotten story of the Magdalene Laundries, told through the voices of the women who endured them, the nuns who presided over them and the communities that lived alongside them. Unflinching and compassionate, Louise Brangan draws on archives and survivors’ testimonies to dismantle long-held myths about what the Laundries were, who was sent to these places of violence and secrecy, and why. As we move from the past into the present, Brangan compels us not only to confront this shameful history, but to ask a deeper question: what do we choose to remember?'Engrossing … it feels part novel' MARY McCARTHY, Irish Independent'Critical, informed and beautifully written' MÁIRÉAD ENRIGHT'A forensic ... detailed and haunting history' SEÁN O’HAGAN, ObserverWinner of the 2024 Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award
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The Battle for Brittany
In a swift campaign the Third US Army conquered the Brittany peninsula in August 1944. The German forces in Brittany had been herded into Lorient, St Nazaire, and Brest, where they could only await American siege operations. Despite these achievements, the Brittany campaign had not yet secured the basic strategic objectives that had motivated it: the capture of harbours. St Malo was destroyed beyond hope of immediate repair and Nantes was demolished as well. At the end of the month, as the VIII Corps gathered its forces for a mighty effort to take Brest, the development of the breakout in Normandy and the pursuit beyond the Seine made the logistical planners start to look elsewhere for major ports of entry. The VIII Corps faced a dogged defence at Brest and it took six weeks of fighting to obtain the final surrender of Generalleutnant Ramcke on September 19. American casualties in the Battle of Brittany totalled 9,831; prisoners and the taken numbered 38,000, of whom more than 20,000 were combat troops. On September 13, after the extent of the reconstruction and works necessary to rehabilitate the harbour at Brest had been looked at, it was decided to abandon all repair work there. The serious Allied problem of port capacity persisted until November, when the Antwerp facilities became available. The charge was later made that the employment of three divisions and valuable transports and supplies to defeat the German garrison at Brest adversely affected pursuit operations beyond the Seine. However, it should be noted that the resources used at Brest were quite small compared to the main effort and could hardly have changed the development of the advance towards the Seine and beyond. Told through more than a hundred ‘Then and Now’ comparison photographs that bring history to life, this book tells the story of the long siege of Festung Brest. By pinpointing for the first time, the locations where so many photographs were taken, this book will allow the reader to walk in the footsteps of the heroes of this great moment in history.
Bridgerton Revisited
Bridgerton Revisited is the first book to place the hugely successful Netflix production Bridgerton in its historical context, the Regency Period of English history which ran from around 17295 until 1837. This eagerly anticipated book is in three parts: Part One examines in detail the social history of the Regency, and is obviously the most recognizable to viewers of the series released so far by Netflix. As such it takes in all aspects of Regency society as enjoyed by the landowning and titled aristocracy in their opulent houses, with their lavish fashions and impeccably prescribed conduct and manners. We learn of the affairs, adultery, sport, leisure and the ardent pursuit of illicit sex in brothels, gambling houses and taverns, of Regency LGBTQ and the endless scramble for the best marriage match as played out in the extravagant balls and at the endless visits and soirées. Part Two takes a close look at the production itself and discusses its historical accuracy in relation to what we discovered in Part One, and the divergences from that history. Using first-hand evidence from the creators and writers of the production we explore the ‘alternate history’ underscoring the series, not least the controversial issue of racial diversity in the casting. Part Three looks at the other side of the coin: the plight of the vast majority living and just surviving in Regency England, amidst the routine squalor, poverty, vagrancy, prostitution and occupational disease, workhouses and domestic and sexual abuse navigated daily, particularly by the women of the day.
The Throne
From the crowning of Charles III, thirty-nine coronations have been held in Westminster Abbey since the Norman Conquest. Only two monarchs – Edward V and Edward VIII – were uncrowned, and a further twenty or so Scottish monarchs were crowned elsewhere, usually at either Scone Abbey or Holyrood Abbey. In The Throne, Ian Lloyd turns his inimitable, quick-witted style to these key events in British royal history, providing fascinating anecdotes and interesting facts: William the Conqueror’s Christmas Day crowning, during which jubilant shouts were mistaken by his guards as an assassination attempt; the dual coronation of William and Mary in 1689; the pared-back ‘Half Crown-ation’ of William IV; the televised spectacle of Elizabeth II’s 1953 ceremony; and how Charles III’s ceremony brought the British monarchy into modern times. Detailing everything from the famous Coronation Chair made for Edward I and the Crown Jewels to the infamously uncomfortable Gold State Coach – this is a truly spectacular celebration of British culture and the ultimate pomp of royalty.
The English House
Beyond the front door... Britain's leading house detective reveals the stories of eight extraordinary buildings'Diverting and illuminating' Guardian'Cruickshank’s enthusiasm for England’s vernacular architecture shines through every infectious sentence of this glorious book... A triumph.' - The Times'A mine of information presented in an effortlessly accessible style. Unlike many books that merely convey stories attached to buildings, this is social and architectural history delivered with forensic insight' - Country Life----------This is the story of the superbly elegant early eighteenth-century Pallant House in Chichester. It’s the story of 19 Princelet Street in Spitafields, built for a Huguenot silk-weaver, ultimately a synagogue. It’s also the story of – among others – a row of two-up, two-downs in Toxteth, a block of flats in London’s East End, and what Ideal Home’s magazine described in 1926 as Britain’s ‘first modern house’ – in Northampton. Together these buildings reveal the ways in which English homes have developed and changed over the past few centuries. At the same time, as Dan Cruickshank shows, they have much to tell us about the lives of their first occupants: their aspirations, their struggles, their place within society and relationship with their local community. The English House brilliantly weaves these two strands together, blending architectural and social history to create a series of brilliantly observed portraits of fascinating buildings. ----------Praise for Dan Cruickshank'Genial, erudite and companionable . . . this heroic and heartfelt book caps a career devoted to [Spitalfields'] heritage.' Spectator'With beguiling erudition, TV historian and local resident Cruickshank tells the story of Spitalfields from Roman times to today . . . This is people’s history at its tastiest.' Sunday Express'A passionate, scholarly energy and involvement with every era of the district's long history come off Spitalfields' pages . . . Absorbing detail.' Times Literary Supplement'Cruickshank writes perceptively and honestly . . . As well as being a fascinating account of a unique area of London, Spitalfields is a timely warning that helps us to appreciate what the city and country risk losing.' Country Life'A delight to read . . . Teaches one how to use one's eyes more intelligently.' -- Jean Seaton, Chair of Judges, PEN Hessell-Tiltman History Prize
Partisans & Guerrillas of World War Two
The occupation of Europe by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy from 1939 met with resistance from all the peoples of Western, Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Balkans. This resistance took various forms from low level sabotage and intelligence gathering in some Western European countries to full scale Partisan resistance in other parts of Europe. In this first of two volumes on Partisans and Guerrillas between 1939 and 1945 the Partisans of Poland from 1939, the Soviet Union from 1941 and Czechoslovakia from 1939 are covered. Italian Partisans were active from the fall of Mussolini in 1943 and the French Resistance went from insurgency in 1940 until from 1942 til 1945 it developed into full scale partisan warfare in some remoter regions of the country. Using over 300 wartime photographs some of which have not been published before Philip Jowett retells the story of resistance, guerrilla and partisan warfare. This brutal chapter in World War Two annals was to greatly effect the situation at the front line while the populations of occupied countries suffered the wrath of the occupying armies. His second volume in this series will feature the occupied Balkans where some of the fiercest partisan fighting of the war took place.
Weimar Germany
'Sebestyen reminds us once again why he is one of the best historians writing today' ANDREW ROBERTS'As gripping as a novel . . . what canny insight this book offers into the insecurity of our own times' ANNE SEBBA'Could not be more timely' TIM BOUVERIE'All our politicians should read it' CLARE MULLEYIn the years after the First World War, Berlin was - as Vladimir Nabokov described it - a place 'of dangerous glamour and worldliness, of tawdry cynicism, where art and riot flourished side by side.'The Weimar Republic was Germany's postwar experiment with democracy, and a time of unprecedented cultural, intellectual and artistic freedom. Berlin was at the cutting edge of quantum physics and psychoanalysis; its nightlife showcased grand opera and dissolute cabaret. Bauhaus architecture and modernist painting flourished, and it rivalled Hollywood as a capital of film. But beneath the glamour was a deeply polarised society of extremes plagued by economic disasters, populist leaders fuelling culture wars, and an uneasy political settlement that would soon spawn the horrors of Nazism. Covering fifteen years from the end of the First World War to Hitler's appointment as Chancellor in 1933, Weimar Germany tells the definitive story of Germany's interwar republic and descent into fascism. Featuring an extraordinary cast of characters including Vladimir Nabokov, Albert Einstein, Marlene Dietrich, Adolf Hitler, Billy Wilder, Thomas Mann, Joseph Goebbels, Christopher Isherwood and Rosa Luxemburg, Weimar Germany is a gripping and evocative account of how the fledgling German democracy died.
Princesses of the Early Middle Ages
Daughters of kings were often used to seal treaty alliances and forge peace with England’s enemies. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters from the Conquest will explore the lives of these young women, how they followed the stereotype, and how they sometimes managed to escape it. It will look at the world they lived in, and how their lives and marriages were affected by political necessity and the events of the time. Almost as interesting as the marriages these girls made are the ones that were never realised. Many English princesses were betrothed, or proposed as brides, three or more times before they were married. Their failed marriage proposals demonstrated their influence and worth on the international royal marriage market, as well as the changing allegiances between countries and the making and breaking of international friendships. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages will also examine how these girls, who were often political pawns, were able to control their own lives and fates. Whilst they were expected to obey their parents in their marriage choices, several princesses were able to exert their own influence on these choices, with some outright refusing the husbands offered to them. Their stories are touching, inspiring and, at times, heartbreaking.
Rowntree's – The Early History
The Rowntree family, especially Henry and the younger Joseph Rowntree are, along with the Fry’s, Cadbury’s, Mars and Terry’s, synonymous with the birth and growth of the chocolate industry in Britain. Between them, they were the chocolate industry in Britain. This book charts the fascinating story behind the birth and development of the chocolate empire that was Rowntrees. Background information to this astonishing business comes by way of chapters on the early history of the Rowntrees, contemporary York, the relationship between Quakers and chocolate, and the Tuke family – without whom there would have been no Rowntrees, and no Kit Kats. Henry, it is usually forgotten, was the founder of Rowntree’s – he made the momentous decision to sign the deal with the Tukes and we join him in those very early days of the fledgling company and watch how he helped it through some very dark, and sometimes humorous, times in what was then a very shambolic set up – cash strapped and making it up as the company lurched from crisis to crisis. Joseph, his elder brother, it was, who became the driving force to eventual global success, mixing his hectic business life with acts of compassion and a benevolent management model, all of which paved the way for decent wages, pensions, insurance and mutual respect in the workplace. Charity work extended beyond the factories to lift workers and others out of the slums of York to a life in a healthy model village, to provide a good social life, an extensive park, swimming pool and education for children and adults. More context is given with chapters on Joseph’s relentless industrial espionage, the advancements in chocolate production and 20th century rivals in the domestic and export markets, and mergers and acquisitions. Rowntree’s role in the two world wars is also covered along with the struggle Joseph Rowntree had accepting the importance of advertising. Altogether this book gives two fascinating biographies of two exceptional and driven brothers who came together to form one of our greatest companies - producing some of our best loved confectionery products.
The Complete Medal of Honor
The four volumes of The Complete Medal of Honor present the full citations of the 3,537 awards granted to 3,517 men (nineteen were double recipients) and one woman between the start of the Civil War in 1861 and the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021. This second volume covers the six and a half decades between the end of the Civil War and America's entry into World War Two. In that period the Medal of Honor was awarded to US combatants and non-combatants for conspicuous bravery in a series of small wars—some lasting a matter of weeks like the Korean Expedition of 1871, others drawn over decades like the Indian Wars of 1861–98—and some much larger conflicts like World War One. The full citation for every recipient of the USA's highest award for bravery during that period is listed here.
Trent Park House: A Century of Secrets
Trent Park’s fascinating story is told for the first time in one dramatic narrative, with the spotlight on its key 20th century ‘lives’ and the stand-out characters and unsung heroines who played on its stage. An inter-war salon and playground for the titled, rich and powerful, overseen by millionaire, politician and socialite Sir Philip Sassoon; a wartime prison camp with a covert mission rivalling Bletchley Park in importance for the Allied war effort; and an urgent new peacetime purpose involving generations of young people. We meet the woman who lived through all three. With a century and more of rich history, Trent Park is an important part of our national story. Its secrets, held close for decades, are now brought into the light.
Memoir of a Polish Resistance Fighter
Stanislaw Franciszek Czekaj was born on 10 August 1924. His early life was tough. His father, a veteran, died the following year, weakened by his incarceration in a Russian POW camp. His paternal grandparents had some property but when this was destroyed by arson Stan's mother took him to live with her parents. They scraped a living on a smallholding with dirt floors and no electricity. He was still only fifteen years old when the Germans invaded Poland on 1 September 1939\. He vividly recalls the war arriving with 'a terrible roar of aeroplanes and exploding bombs and machine gun fire' as the Luftwaffe attacked the airfield near his village. Under German occupation, Stan and his neighbours suffered food shortages and a reign of terror by the Gestapo. Brutality, summary arrest, deportation and executions were rife and 'everybody was afraid to talk in front of strangers in case there was an informer present and even in front of people that you knew'. When he was about seventeen, Stan joined the Polish Provisional Brigade (Brygasa Swietokrzyska) and adopted the alias Zwierz (Animal). Caught between two enemies, who then went to war with each other it was a perilous existence, fighting the Nazi occupiers, and then, once they were pushed out, resisting the returning Soviets. Stan's participation in numerous operations, including the elimination of informers (described in sometimes-graphic detail: ?How many people have you betrayed? then I pulled the trigger pointing at his head'), resulted in a "Dead or alive" price being put on his head. Eventually he was forced to escape via Germany under the assumed name of Stanislaw Wozniak. He describes these experiences as a refugee, life in the DP (displaced person) camps, a stint in a Belgium coalmine and finally to Britain, where he was to spend the rest of his life. AUTHOR: Stanislaw Franciszek Czekaj was born on 10 August 1924 in Poland. His childhood and life in the Polish resistance are the subject of this book, told in his own words as he remembered and wrote them post-war. He died in 1990, still only 66 years old. His son, Len Czekaj has added an epilogue describing Stan's post-war life. He lives in Cardiff. 16 b/w illustrations
Mary Queen of Scots' Secretary
Maitland was the most able politician and diplomat during the lifetime of Mary Queen of Scots. It was he who master-minded the Scottish Reformation by breaking the ‘Auld Alliance’ with France, which presaged Scotland’s lasting union with England. Although he gained English support to defeat French troops defending Mary’s Scottish throne, he backed her return to Scotland, as the widowed Queen of France. His attempts to gain recognition for her as heir to the English crown were thwarted by her determined adherence to Catholicism. After her re-marriage, he spearheaded the plotting to bring down her objectionable husband, Lord Darnley, leading to his murder, after concluding that English and Scottish interests were best served by creating a Protestant regency for their son, Prince James. With encouragement from Cecil in England and the Protestant Lords in Scotland, he concocted evidence to implicate her in her husband’s murder, resulting in her imprisonment and deposition from the Scottish throne. Despite her escape to England, he remained personally loyal to her and attempted to conjure Scottish support for her restoration by backing her allies holding Edinburgh Castle on her behalf. When it fell in 1573, he resorted to suicide.
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.
