Najnovšie - Encyklopédie populárno-náučné strana 93 z 152
História 
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The Little Book of Essex
Did you know? In the eleventh century, Edward the Confessor banished nightingales from the royal palace at Havering-atte-Bower because their singing disturbed his devotions. In 1913, Benny Hucks of Stansted Mountfitchet was the first person to perform a loop-the-loop in an aircraft. On Boxing Day 1946, Hatfield Heath villagers challenged local German and Italian POWs to a football match – and lost 11–0. Brentwood was the first town in Britain to install CCTV. A compendium of frivolity, a reference book of little-known facts and a wacky guide to one of England’s most colourful counties, The Little Book of Essex is packed full of entertaining, bite-sized pieces of historic and contemporary trivia that come together to make essential reading for visitors and locals alike.Dip in randomly, or read consecutively – there are no rules. Be amused and amazed at the stories and history of Essex’s landscape, heritage, buildings and, above all, its people.
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
Bestselling historian Peter Moore traces how Enlightenment ideas were exported from Britain and put into practice in America - where they became the most successful export of all time, the American Dream''Absorbing... fascinating... eloquent'' THE TIMES''Engaging and thoroughly reader-friendly'' TELEGRAPH''Wonderfully absorbing and stimulating'' SARAH BAKEWELLLife, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is frequently evoked today as shorthand for the American Dream. But this is a line with a surprising history. Rather than being uniquely American, the vision it encapsulates – of a free and happy world – owes a great deal to British thinkers too.Centred on the life of Benjamin Franklin, featuring figures like the cultural giant Samuel Johnson, the groundbreaking historian Catharine Macaulay, the firebrand politician and revolutionary activist Thomas Paine, this book looks at the generation that preceded the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It takes us back to a vital moment in the foundation of the West and tells a whole new story about the birth of the United States of America – and some of the key principles by which we live to this day.''Deft insights and in clear prose'' ALAN TAYLOR''A gripping account'' STELLA TILLYARD''Rollicking...compulsive readability'' WASHINGTON POST''A great read'' LADY HALE
The Spy in the Archive
LONGLISTED for the CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction 2026 The compulsively readable new book from The Rest is Classified host Gordon Corera. About how one man – Vasili Mitrokhin – turned first disaffected dissident and then traitor to the KGB, stealing the most secret Soviet archives and smuggling them to the West. How do you steal a library? Not just any library but the most secret, heavily guarded archive in the world. The answer is to be a librarian. To be so quiet, that no-one knows what you are up to as you toil undercover and deep amongst the files. The work goes on for decades but remains so low key, that even after your escape, aided by MI6, no-one even notices you are gone. The Spy in the Archive tells the remarkable story of how Vasili Mitrokhin – an introverted archivist who loved nothing more than dusty files – ended up changing the world. As the in-house archivist for the KGB, the secrets he was exposed to inside its walls turned him first into a dissident and then a spy, a traitor to his country but a man determined to expose the truth about the dark forces that had subverted Russia, forces still at work in the country today. Bestselling writer and historian Gordon Corera tells of the operation to extract this prized asset from Russia for the first time. It is an edge-of-the-seat thriller, with vivid flashbacks to Mitrokhin’s earlier time as a KGB idealist prepared to do what it took to serve the Soviet Union and his growing realisation that the communist state was imprisoning its own people. It is the story of what it was like to live in the Soviet Union, to raise a family and then of one man’s journey from the heart of the Soviet state to disillusion, betrayal and defection. At its heart is Mitrokhin’s determination to take on the most powerful institution in the world by revealing its darkest secrets. This is narrative non-fiction at its absolute best.
The Playbook
‘Tremendous.’ DAVID HARE‘An absorbing, necessary book.’ AHAD AKHTAR‘Fascinating and energising.’ FINANCIAL TIMESFrom the ''Winner of Winners'' of the Baillie Gifford Prize, a timely and dramatic story of a utopian American experiment, and the self-serving politicians that engineered its downfall.In 1935 the American public was presented with a radical opportunity. Established under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Federal Theatre Project would employ 12,000 artists, writers, and actors; stage more than 1,000 productions; and reach over 30 million people. Its output included Orson Welles’ directorial debut, a landmark modern dance programme, and shows that sought to shed light on the reality of racism, inequality and the dangers of fascism.But within three years, an opportunistic Texas congressman had embarked on a campaign to destroy it, inventing a playbook that echoes into the culture wars of today.From one of the world’s great storytellers, The Playbook is an illuminating account of a terrifyingly prescient moment in twentieth-century American cultural history.
10 Mistakes That Changed History
From breakups that ended empires to naps that sank ships, 10 Mistakes That Changed History reveals how overlooked historical errors are responsible for some of the most era-defining events of the past.Featuring many of the most recognisable characters and episodes in history, from Cleopatra to the sinking of the Titanic, comedian and historian Paul Coulter reframes our understanding of these pivotal moments, revealing how human errors and their unintended outcomes have governed our world – and will likely determine our future.Packed full of surprising facts and funny stories, 10 Mistakes That Changed History is a greatest hits of bad leadership decisions, misguided acts of heroism and mankind’s most catastrophic lapses of judgement. These are the very human stories that have shaped our world, all with monumental consequences.**************Praise for the hit live show:Top pick of the Edinburgh Fringe 2024, credited as one of the best shows by Scottish Herald, Mervyn Stutter and the Edinburgh Reporter.Theatre Weekly “So engaging and entertaining that forgot I was there to review it”Edinburgh Reporter “Entertaining and informative”Corr Blimey “The perfect balance between entertaining and educating"Glam Adelaide “Coulter cleverly weaves the well-researched facts with modern day parallels; turning historical figures into relatable misfits”Edinburgh Fringe Review “Coulter’s storytelling unmatched, and his references to current pop culture relevant and hilarious”LondonTheatre1 “Infectiously charming”On the Record “A hilarious blend of storytelling, facts and comedy”
Arnhem: Black Tuesday
Discover the Sunday Times bestseller and incredible true story behind the most catastrophic 24-hours the British military faced in World War II from the bestselling author.‘Utterly brilliant... this book really is the last word on the Battle of Arnhem’ James Holland’Superb... A military historian of originality and insight to compare with the best’ Saul David_________The Battle of Arnhem is one of the best-known stories in British military history: a daring but doomed attempt to secure a vital bridgehead across the Rhine in order to end the war before Christmas 1944.It is always written about, with the benefit of unerring 20/20 hindsight, as being destined to fail, but the men who fought there, men of military legend, didn''t know that that was to be their fate.Now, in Arnhem: Black Tuesday, Al Murray focuses on the events of one day as they happened through the eyes of the British participants, without bringing any knowledge of what would happen tomorrow to bear, offering a very different perspective on a familiar narrative.Some things went right and a great many more went wrong, but recounting them in this way allows the reader to understand for the first time how certain decisions were taken in the moment and how opportunities were squandered.Al Murray has always been obsessed by this legendary battle, and in Arnhem: Black Tuesday he showcases all of his knowledge, interpretation and enthusiasm to bear to tell the story of one of history’s great heroic failures differently for the first time._________Praise for Arnhem: Black Tuesday:‘Original and insightful’ Telegraph''A revelation.. This is Arnhem unplugged. By confining himself to men in and around Arnhem on that Tuesday, Murray achieves something special'' The Times
Embers of the Hands
A Times best History Book of the Year 2024''Every page glittering with insight... [a] wonderful book'' Dominic Sandbrook''Brilliantly written... evokes the wonder of an entire civilisation.'' Tom Holland''Takes us beyond the familiar into a real, visceral, far more satisfying Viking world.'' Dan Snow''A fascinating tour ... Barraclough looks beyond the soap-opera sagas to those lost in the cracks of history'' The New York TimesIt''s time to meet the real Vikings. A comb, preserved in a bog, engraved with the earliest traces of a new writing system. A pagan shrine deep beneath a lava field. A note from an angry wife to a husband too long at the tavern. Doodles on birch-bark, made by an imaginative child.From these tiny embers, Eleanor Barraclough blows back to life the vast, rich and complex world of the Vikings. These are not just the stories of kings, raiders and saga heroes. Here are the lives of ordinary people: the merchants, children, artisans, enslaved people, seers, travellers and storytellers who shaped the medieval Nordic world.Immerse yourself in the day-to-day lives of an extraordinary culture that spanned centuries and spread from its Scandinavian heartlands to the remote fjords of Greenland, the Arctic wastelands, the waterways and steppes of Eurasia, all the way to the Byzantine Empire and Islamic Caliphate.
Opening the Gates of Hell
A unique account of the opening weeks of history’s largest, most brutal conflict, told through the eyes of those who were there and based on original source material from across Europe.Opening the Gates of Hell is based on over a decade’s research in archives and sites across Europe. It is a ground-breaking examination of the start of the Nazi–Soviet conflict, a narrative history not just of the fighting, but also the impact on civilians, the atrocities committed by both sides and ethnic cleansing carried out by the inhabitants of the regions invaded. This fascinating history tells the stories of bravery, cowardice, misery and horror through the eyes of those who were there including ordinary soldiers, generals, leaders, politicians and civilians on both sides. The book draws on published and unpublished sources from across Germany and Eastern Europe with the majority of the material never having appeared in English-language accounts of the conflict before. The combination of combat accounts, analysis of high-level diplomacy and leadership and the visceral accounts of the atrocities committed by both sides gives this book a unique approach to the war on the Eastern Front and will ensure that it is regarded as the definitive work on the subject for many years to come.
Esther Simpson
Many of the academic refugees Esther Simpson helped rescue are well remembered. But who was she and why has history forgotten he? his is the story of Esther Simpson, a woman whose dedication to the cause of freedom in science and learning left an indelible mark on the cultural and intellectual landscape of the modern world. Esther Simpson - Tess to her friends - devoted her life to resettling academic refugees, whom she thought of as her family. By the end of her life, Simpson could count among her 'children' sixteen Nobel Prize winners, eighteen Knights, seventy-four fellows of the Royal Society, thirty-four fellows of the British Academy. Her 'children' made a major contribution to Allied victory in World War Two. From a humble upbringing in Leeds to Russian immigrant parents, Simpson took on secretarial roles that saw her move to Paris, Vienna and Geneva. But when Hitler assumed power in 1933, she took a job in London at the Academic Assistance Council, newly set up to rescue displaced German scholars, and found her lifelong calling. For a woman who befriended so many and such eminent 'children', surprisingly little is known of her. This book is a study of Esther Simpson: who she was and how she lived, what moved her to take up and never to relinquish her calling, her impact on the world, and the historical context that helped shape her achievements.
On Silver Wings
In July 1940, Desmond Ibbotson joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve hoping to fly Spitfires. He achieved his dream aged just 19, eventually completing 650 flying hours in seven types of Spitfire. He did two tours of operations with three of the RAF’s elite squadrons in the skies over France, North Africa and Italy, was credited with eleven confirmed victories and awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar.After a dramatic active service that saw him shot down during the Battle of El Alamein, captured by Rommel’s forces and making a daring escape, in 1944 he was promoted and moved to instructor duties at Perugia, Italy, where he trained experienced pilots returning to the front line or converting to a new fighter type.Tragically, just over three months later, Desmond was killed during a routine test flight that November. He was buried in a military cemetery, but serious questions would remain about his death. How had such an experienced pilot crashed while undertaking such a simple flight? And, given that he had a marked grave, when a Spitfire was excavated from an Italian field sixty-two years later, why were Desmond’s remains still inside?The product of over twenty years of meticulous research, On Silver Wings is a detailed study that respectfully relays the events of Desmond’s short but eventful life, investigating what happened on his tragic final flight and exactly how he came to have two graves.
A Lesson on Race
Stephen C. Russell tells the story of the Bible's role in Jamaica's 1865 Morant Bay rebellion and the international debates about race relations then occupying the Atlantic world. With the conclusion of the American Civil War and arguments about reconstruction underway, the Morant Bay rebellion seemed to serve as a cautionary tale about race relations. Through an interdisciplinary lens, the book demonstrates how those participating in the rebellion, and those who discussed it afterward, conceptualized events that transpired in a small town in rural Jamaica as a crucial instance that laid bare universal truths about race that could be applied to America. Russell argues that biblical slogans were used to encode competing claims about race relations. Letters, sermons, newspaper editorials, and legal depositions reveal a world in the grips of racial upheaval as everyone turned their attention to Jamaica. Intimately and accessibly told, the story draws readers into the private and public lives of the rebellion's heroes and villains.
The Hiroshima Men
''Really outstanding'' Jonathan DimblebyAt 8:15 a.m. on August 6th, 1945, the Japanese port city of Hiroshima was struck by the world''s first atomic bomb. Built in the US by the top-secret Manhattan Project and delivered by a B-29 Superfortress, a revolutionary long-range bomber, the weapon destroyed large swaths of the city, instantly killing tens of thousands. The world would never be the same again.The Hiroshima Men''s unique narrative recounts the decade-long journey towards this first atomic attack. It charts the race for nuclear technology before, and during the Second World War, as the allies fought the axis powers in Europe, North Africa, China, and across the vastness of the Pacific, and is seen through the experiences of several key characters: General Leslie Groves, leader of the Manhattan Project alongside Robert Oppenheimer; pioneering Army Air Force bomber pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets II; the mayor of Hiroshima, Senkichi Awaya, who would die alongside over eighty-thousand of his fellow citizens; and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist John Hersey, who travelled to post-war Japan to expose the devastation the bomb had inflicted upon the city, and in a historic New Yorker article, described in unflinching detail the dangers posed by its deadly after-effect, radiation poisoning.This thrilling account takes the reader from the corridors of the White House to the laboratories and test sites of New Mexico; from the air war above Nazi Germany and the savage reconquest of the Pacific to the deadly firebombing air raids across the Japanese Home Islands. The Hiroshima Men also includes Japanese perspectives - a vital aspect often missing from Western narratives - to complete MacGregor''s nuanced, deeply human account of the bombing''s meaning and aftermath.
The Stalin Affair
''Delivered with flamboyance, it features a sparkling cast of chancers'' KATJA HOYER, Daily Telegraph 5* review''Page-turning . . . a sizzling high-stakes tale'' JAMES HOLLAND''This book might read like the screenplay of a gripping movie, yet every word is accurate and verified'' ANDREW ROBERTS''Giles Milton is a phenomenon'' DAN SNOW''Another rollercoaster ride from Giles Milton. Endlessly surprising'' ANTHONY HOROWITZFrom internationally bestselling historian Giles Milton comes the remarkable true story of the Allies'' secret mission to wartime Moscow.In the summer of 1941, as Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, Stalin''s forces faced a catastrophic defeat which would make the Allies'' liberation of Europe virtually impossible. To avert this disaster, Britain and America mobilized an elite team of remarkable diplomats with the mission of keeping the Red Army in the war.Into to the heart of Stalin''s Moscow Roosevelt sent Averell Harriman, the fourth richest man in America and his brilliant young daughter Kathy. Churchill dispatched the reckless but brilliant bon vivant Archie Clark Kerr - and occasionally himself - to negotiate with the Kremlin''s wiliest operators. Together, this improbable group grappled with the ingenious, mercurial Stalin to make victory possible. But they also discovered that the Soviet dictator had a terrifying masterplan for the post-war world.Based on astonishing unpublished diaries, letters and secret reports, The Stalin Affair reveals troves of new material about the most unlikely coalition in history.*Giles Milton''s The Stalin Affair was a Radio 4 Book of the Week in the week of 17th June 2024.*
SAS Daggers Drawn
THE REAL STORY OF BLAIR ''PADDY'' MAYNE, ENDORSED BY THE MAYNE FAMILY Summer 1944: the SAS were charged with the most crucial D-Day missions, taking on the might of the Nazi Reich deep behind enemy lines.Facing Hitler''s fearsome Panzer divisions with little more than raw courage and their nimble Willys jeeps, it would take maverick thinking and unconventional warfare to survive and overcome. Hunted at every turn, Blair ''Paddy'' Mayne''s SAS would face a bitter and bloody struggle to topple the enemy. Drawing on never-before-seen archive material, bestselling military historian Damien Lewis brings to life the incredible efforts of the SAS as they dared all to bring the war to its close. Praise for Damien Lewis'' books: ''A convincing insight into the terror and adrenaline rush of war'' - Mail on Sunday ''Damien Lewis is both a meticulous historian and a born storyteller'' - Lee Child''One of the most remarkable stories in the history of Special Forces'' operations'' - Daily Express''A howitzer of a tale'' - Daily Mail''Absolutely gripping'' - Times Radio''Riveting. Extraordinary'' - Dan Snow''An incredible story, and so well told'' - Bear Grylls''Honesty, integrity and real experience that puts you in the thick of the action'' - Billy Billingham
Immaculate Forms
''Illuminating, thoughtful and scholarly'' FINANCIAL TIMES''Does a fascinating job of exploring the history of women''s bodies'' GREG JENNER''Mind-blowing, fascinating stuff'' BBC WOMAN''S HOUR''Authoritative, rich and wide-ranging, this is an immensely impressive work of scholarship'' GUARDIANThroughout history, religious scholars, medical men and - occasionally - women themselves, have moulded thought on what ''makes'' a woman. She has been called the weaker sex, the fairer sex, the purer sex, among many other monikers. Often, she has been defined simply as ''Not A Man''. Today, we are more aware than ever of the complex relationship between our bodies and our identities. But contrary to what some may believe, what makes a woman is a question that has always been open-ended. Immaculate Forms examines all the ways in which medicine and religion have played a gatekeeping role over women''s organs. It explores how the womb was seen as both the most miraculous organ in the body and as a sewer; uncovers breasts'' legacies as maternal or sexual organs - or both; probes the mystery of the disappearing hymen, and asks, did the clitoris need to be discovered at all?
The Cleveland Street Scandal
‘A fascinating and meticulously researched look at the biggest gay scandal to hit the headlines until Oscar Wilde. Absolutely a must-read.’ – Paul Donnelley, author of 501 Most Notorious CrimesIt’s the summer of 1889, and the royal family is in crisis.It is well known in polite society that the Prince of Wales’s eldest son and his aristocratic acolytes are regulars at 19 Cleveland Street – a male brothel in London’s West End. Bad behaviour by the gentry is accepted, but it must stay behind closed doors; they can do what they wish, but the rule that rules all is silence. The Establishment has always closed ranks – a word here and there from powerful people will put rumours swiftly to bed.But not this time.Onto this stage walks Detective Inspector Frederick Abberline of Scotland Yard, fresh from leading the disastrous Jack the Ripper investigation the previous year. Now the reputations of men who rule half the world are under threat from a scandal that stretches all the way to the corridors of Buckingham Palace.
English Battlefields
''Fascinating'' - The Sunday TelegraphEngland has been fought over for centuries, by invaders and in civil wars. The sites of these desperate struggles are as varied as the reasons they were fought over, be they fields, towns or fortresses, by land, sea or air. These haunted acres are places of commemoration, memory and, above all, history. These are the places where history was made, and as such they form a crucial part of the historic environment.By ‘reading’ them like any other form of historical evidence, much can be learned about the events which took place there. Through stripping away later features and land use with an eye for the ground, the battlefield historian can, with the use of contemporary accounts, archaeology and military history, reconstruct the events which have shaped the present.In this fully updated, ground-breaking volume, covering over 500 battlefields, Michael Rayner unravels these various strands and weaves them back together to give clear, concise accounts of the battles that shaped England.
SAS: My Trial By Fire: True Stories and Life Lessons from SAS Selection
Des Powell left school with no qualifications and little in the way of formal education. At nineteen he signed up to join the Parachute Regiment.Famously, the Paras is home to the UK military''s second-toughest training regime after the SAS. Des Powell knows all about both. In fact, Des knows SAS selection better than anyone because he''s done it twice. In SAS: Trial by Fire he tells the story of those gruelling tests: how Para training turned him into a soldier but, more crucially, how the SAS process turned him into a member of the elite.Des describes exactly what it takes to be an elite special forces operator. From raw recruit to trained fighting machine - including the heart-breaking moment he was forced to withdraw, only to begin the process again - Des shares the details of his personal journey, itself a tale of prevailing against almost overwhelming odd. He teaches us valuable life skills by taking us deep into the training regime itself: fitness, navigation, endurance, weapons and combat training, survival techniques in hostile climates, the terrifying jungle phase, the dark arts of escape and evasion, the secret of surviving interrogation.No one''s lifted the lid on what it takes to join the SAS and become the best of the best. Until now.Praise for Bravo Three Zero''A must read. Honesty, integrity and real experience that puts you in the thick of the action.'' Billy Billingham''The story that needed to be told'' Jason Fox''The attention to detail is unbelievable'' Tim Lovejoy''Thrilling'' Express
Republic
‘An enthralling narrative of the rise and fall of Britain’s republican experiment.’DOMINIC SANDBROOK, The Times ‘Best History Books of 2024’''A gripping tale of political and cultural crisis but also one of joy and hopeful innovation, told with eloquence and passion.''MALCOLM GASKILL''Magisterial, compelling and eye-opening.''SUZANNAH LIPSCOMBEvents moved with giddying speed in the 1650s. After the execution of Charles I, ‘dangerous’ monarchy was abolished and the House of Lords was dismissed, sending shock waves across the kingdom. These revolutionary acts set in motion a decade of bewildering change and instability, under the leadership of the soldier-statesman Oliver Cromwell.England’s unique and distinctive republican experiment may have been short-lived, but it changed the course of British history. It transformed the relationship between England, Scotland and Ireland, reset the compact between the monarch and the people, and re-fashioned the story the British told — and continue to tell — about themselves.REPUBLIC is a richly engrossing year-by-year account of this exhilarating and daring period. It tells the story of what Britain’s republic was really like: why it failed, but also, what it got right.
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.
