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Resistance in Nazi Germany was a brave but extreme reaction to the totalitarian regime, requiring individuals to confront evil, face torture, and risk death. In a country with no tolerance for dissent, opposition meant confronting the brutal consequences of one''s actions, often with little hope of changing the course of events.Most stories of German opposition focus on the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on 20 July 1944 by Oberst Claus von Stauffenberg. However, this was just one of many plots against the Führer, involving military and political leaders who sought peace by eliminating Hitler. Many of these individuals, if they had survived, might have faced war crime charges at Nuremberg.This book explores both the military and diplomatic figures who resisted Hitler, as well as other forms of internal opposition that predated Nazi control of the Reichstag in 1933. It highlights the tens of thousands who were imprisoned, tortured, or executed for standing against the dictatorship. The elites who welcomed the end of Weimar democracy were often more willing to accommodate Hitler, but many others—motivated by religious, political, or humane beliefs—refused to compromise, showing immense courage and sacrifice. The book also examines the Gestapo’s efforts to track down and eliminate these resistance groups.

Kawasaki, eager to grab their own slice of the glory, was the last of the major Japanese manufacturers to enter the high-octane world of Grand Prix motorcycle racing. Although the company had a long history of engineering innovation, it adopted motorcycles relatively late in the day. However, Kawasaki did more than simply copy what the other Far Eastern firms were producing, and struck out on their own with some truly innovative designs. These were machines which are still regarded as classics today. This then is the story of how a previously little-known Japanese conglomerate became a household name in the West, through its trailblazing motorcycles, which were larger and faster than anything that their rivals had at that time. Kawasaki chose to showcase their machinery in the Isle of Man, at the world-famous TT races, and in the 1970s – the era of big hair, big flares and even bigger engines – they ripped up the record book time after time. The so called ‘Green Meanies’ became part of TT folklore, and the era of Kawasaki dominance was to be one of the most exciting in the history of the event.

It was in 1869 that Bradford MP Edward Miall who, standing alongside that champion of Elementary Education, William Edward Forster, proclaimed that without the influence of women, men were naught. ‘Happy will be the day throughout the whole world,’ he said, ‘when woman takes up her real and proper position.’ It was a good point. Women have influence over their offspring from the day they are born, whether that is in lessons in morality, support in adversity or counsel in decision making. Not only that – the voluntary elementary schools that were educating children at Miall’s time were mainly staffed by women. And the situation was about to improve; women’s influence was to expand further. A year after Miall’s speech, Forster’s Elementary Education Act didn’t just pave the way for compulsory and free education for all, it also gave women their first real opportunity to have their voices heard politically by being elected to school boards. And, with their significance in educating future generations from their earliest schooldays, women’s soft power was to be the bedrock of developing hearts and minds for ever.Although education management, methods and styles continue to evolve, education is always a key concern for any government. It was future prime minister Tony Blair who, almost 130 years after Forster’s Act, stated his three main priorities for government were ‘Education, Education and Education’ and restated them when campaigning for his second term in office. He wanted to make Britain a learning society, he said, to develop the talents and raising the ambitions of all young people, for them to gain the basic tools for life and work. ‘They ought also to learn the joy of life: the exhilaration of music, the excitement of sport, the beauty of art, the magic of science. And they learn the value of life: what it is to be responsible citizens who give something back to their community.’What he didn’t acknowledge was that it was women who would continue to be at the forefront of all that. Today more than 80 per cent of primary school teachers are women. Children taking their first steps on their learning journey mainly do so under the guidance of nurturing and influential women.As well as the educators, Shaping a Nation looks at the work of the women who strived for improvements in education ­– whether that be for the benefit of the children, other women, or that of the educators ­– the challenges they faced and the enormous impact they made for future generations.

‘… a model combination of scholarship and readability’ Thomas Hamm, Emeritus Professor of History, Earlham College. Author of The Quakers in America ‘… highly readable and engaging’ Robynne Rogers Healey, Professor of History, Trinity Western University ‘… a book at once both lively and authoritative’ Stephen K. Roberts, History of Parliament Trust, London ‘Ambitious in its intent, and masterful in its execution.’ Jackson van Uden, History with Jackson & BBC History Extra ’30 under 30’ ‘A vivid and groundbreaking account’ Estelle Paranque, Author of Thorns, Lust and Glory: The Betrayal of Anne Boleyn ‘Insightful and engaging, this balanced account brings their convictions and struggles to life, while revealing the bold, disruptive strategies these spiritual revolutionaries employed to achieve their ends.’ Mark Turnbull, Author of Prince Rupert of the Rhine: King Charles I''s Cavalier Commander ‘… moving perspectives not found in previous scholarship’ Professor Ronald Hutton CBE, Author of Oliver Cromwell: Commander in Chief The mid-seventeenth century was a tumultuous time, and out of the chaos, Quakerism was born. Zealous: A Darker Side of the Early Quakers tells a different side to this story. The Civil Wars touched all corners of England, Scotland and Wales; the people of the ‘poor, almost wasted Kingdom’ were war-weary, miserable and in total ruin. Years of conflict left the people in utter desperation. Communities were pillaged, torn apart and irrevocably changed. And then, in September 1651, it was over. What remained was a tattered landscape, an uncertain political future, religious upheaval and emotional trauma. Amongst the turmoil, a new religious movement started in the north of England. The early Quakers were a group of people led by charismatic preachers wholly convinced that it was their responsibility to save as many souls as possible. Their methods of convincing others ranged from failed attempts at miracles, to disruptive behaviour and infuriating local authorities by repeatedly breaking the law. The early Quakers were standing on shifting sands during a very uncertain time. Throughout history, fear has always compelled people to do just about anything to feel safe and secure. Their zeal led them to challenge what they saw as an impure world. They were willing to die for their beliefs, and on occasion, they would commit unspeakable acts in the name of God.

U.S. Marines at the Battle for Sangin is a battle-intensive and deeply personal war memoir following a small Marine infantry detachment who arrive in Afghanistan with acts of killing beginning immediately. Not a week goes by before the Marines experience the deaths of friendly forces, Marine casualties, enemy combatants killed, numerous IED strikes, air strikes, predator drone strikes and around the clock patrolling in hostile territory where death is ever present. As a regional direct response Quick Reaction Force in the northern Sangin river valley of Helmand Province, the Marines are immediately put to the test narrowly avoiding one calamity after the next. The reader feels the author''s angst, threat awareness and a growing sense of hostility toward his elusive enemy. Combat operations greatly intensify as the Marines find their battlefield rhythm. Body counts rise and so does the emotional toll on the author. The reader is regularly taken into the author''s exhilarations from persevering through intense battle scenes but also submerged with him in the turmoil that results from the deliberate harm that he and his fellow Marines inflict on their enemy. There is a sober realization of the unavoidable dichotomy of war and the inner wounds that result from one''s participation in its cruelty, whether the recipient or doer of war''s violent actions. This untold story personalizes the broader themes of America''s war in Afghanistan through the brutal experiences of a small Marine unit who volunteered to fight it.

George Churchward is regarded by many, including the towering figures of Nigel Gresley, William Stanier and Andre Chapelon, as the most inventive, ingenious and successful steam locomotive designer there has ever been. When given the opportunity to comment these three exceptional engineers made their admiration for him and his many achievements a matter of historical fact.Now, a 100 or so years since Churchward retired from the GWR, his reputation is just as revered, as is the influence he had on the work of others. But, as with other notable figures, many details of his life and work have become mythologised or forgotten. So the time for an update and re-evaluation of his story is long overdue.In this richly illustrated book the author re-appraises Churchward’s life and work and assesses this pivotal period in railway history. In so doing he considers the true extent of his achievements and effect of his work on the great railway engineers that followed and the effect his leadership had on the GWR as a whole and the organisation he controlled at a time of immense social and political change.

Often overshadowed by D-Day Operation Bagration, the code name for the Red Army''s summer offensive of 1944, broke the back of the Axis on the Eastern Front. Coincidentally beginning on the third anniversary of Hitler''s invasion of the Soviet Union, Bagration demonstrated that the Red Army had learnt the lessons of mobile warfare and was capable of putting them into ruthless practice. A series of well-coordinated attacks combined with major partisan strikes struck the defence lines of Army Group Centre in Belarus. Weak in armour and air support AGC had not been the target Hitler had anticipated that the Soviets would chose for this operation. It was only when the Red Army had almost outrun its supply lines and panzer formations had be relocated from elsewhere on the Eastern Front in early July that the Germans managed to defend effectively. However, this book only covers the fighting until the liberation of Minsk in early July. The Soviet''s summer offensive would not officially end until the last week of August by which time Finland had sued for an armistice, Romania had switched sides and the German forces had been savaged, holding a line hundreds of kilometres to the west of its original positions outside the gates of Warsaw

Linear A is a Middle and Late Bronze Age script principally used on Crete. Dated to 1800 - 1450 BC, it was discovered by archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans in 1900 and for over 120 years it has – until now – defied decipherment.In his book, author Mark Cook, a forensic accountant, demonstrates how he deciphered Linear A. His work describes how he first approached decipherment by setting aside commonly held misconceptions. Previous decipherment attempts typically incorrectly assumed the underlying language was an unknown Minoan language (Crete being the heart of the Minoan Empire), or misconstrued its relationship with Linear B (the earliest written form of Greek, which replaced it).Linear A is found mainly on clay tablets recording ephemeral accounting information, and Mark Cook tackled the decipherment as an accountant, focussing on the numbers, noting the mathematical relationships between the items recorded (which relationships were evident in the later Linear B script where the same things were being recorded), and analysing the characters used to record them.Mark Cook demonstrates that Linear A is Middle Egyptian, written in a form of shorthand used by the later Greeks and Romans, using hieroglyphs that were modified and simplified to be incised quickly and easily in wet clay. Many of the tablets, he reveals, are Egyptian taxation records.Based on the tablets he translates, and the reinterpretation of Egyptian evidence, Mark Cook concludes that New Kingdom Egypt ultimately came to rule Crete for a brief period, rewriting what we know of the end of the Minoan Empire.

On 3 July 1944, a train of cattle wagons set out from Toulouse, heading for Germany. Crammed inside eventually were 724 souls of various nationalities and backgrounds, all of whom the German occupiers had held captive in concentration camps and prisons across south-western France. Among them was Francesco Fausto Nitti, an Italian antifascist activist who had survived Mussolini’s gaols and the Spanish Civil War.The journey to Dachau was expected to take three days. Instead – bombed, re-routed and often immobilised – it lasted for two months, making it the longest of all deportation journeys out of France during the Second World War. Nitti kept a daily log of the odyssey of the Phantom Train, as it has become known, and the document was in his pocket when, on 25 August, he and some fellow captives made a perilous last-minute escape by removing some of their wagon’s floorboards and lowering themselves onto the track as the train sped through the night.Once back with his family and the Resistance, Nitti turned his log into a book, which was published at the end of 1944 by a small press run by a Resistance member. Now, with this first English translation of The Phantom Train and an extended introduction, a whole new readership can learn about that never-ending journey to Dachau and everything that led up to it, and marvel at the determination and endurance of some courageous people, notably the remarkable Francesco Fausto Nitti.

The third volume of a series on a glossary of codebreaking, WW2 Codebreaking Systems and Equipment, brings to the reader an easily understandable account and listing, of those methods, systems, and equipment collecting and analysing military intelligence principally during the second world war and beyond. A listing is provided which outlines the development of codebreaking and gathering of enemy intelligence.Whilst Bletchley Park was the HQ of codebreaking activities in wartime, numerous organisations became involved in a support role, and this became critical when more advanced enemy encoding machines were introduced by the Nazis. The evolution of certain organisations over time, can be tracked to a degree, by reading the glossary in depth.The text outlines the systems, equipment, and deception relevant to intelligence and codebreaking in some detail, which also complements the first two volumes in the series. The author has taken time to ensure the reader can more easily understand how the various systems and equipment used during WW2 enabled the gathering of military and other intelligence, and was used to apply codebreaking of enemy messages. Also, in some cases, the use of specialist deception techniques to attempt to fool the enemy.

By the summer of 1943, the Soviet partisan forces had grown from small, disorganized groups into a formidable fighting force. Hitler, still holding some advantages, hoped to crush a Red Army salient near Kursk and shorten the front lines with a localized offensive. However, the Soviets anticipated the attack and built extensive defense lines to thwart it, employing large numbers of partisans to disrupt German preparations.The critical period of 1943 saw intense fighting behind German lines, particularly during the "Battle for the Rails" in July and August. Stalin''s partisans worked relentlessly to block the flow of German supplies and troops, forcing the Germans to contend with a growing insurgency. Dr. Antonio J. Munoz’s book examines these guerrilla operations, using German maps to detail partisan movements and the German response, which included increasing anti-partisan operations.The year 1943 marked a turning point in the war on the Eastern Front. While Stalingrad in 1942 revealed Germany''s inability to win in Russia, the failed Battle of Kursk in 1943 demonstrated the inevitable loss of the war. The partisan efforts were so successful that, by August 1943, only 80% of the trains carrying supplies reached Army Group Centre’s front lines.

At 12.08pm on Friday 31 January 1919, Margaret Buchanan drives her tram into George Square in Glasgow’s city centre. She slows down to avoid the youths and men holding their arms up to stop her; some even jump onto the front of her tram. Swirling around her tram is a sea of heavy-coated men who have been on strike since Monday, demanding a reduction to a forty-hour working week. Crucially, the tram workers have not joined the strike; they are being abused as ‘scabs’. Constables and officers of Glasgow’s police force use their hands to try to part the crowd to allow the tram to proceed, but their efforts fail and batons are drawn.Within minutes, the violence will have spread across and beyond the Square; men will have been injured; the Sheriff will have read the Riot Act; strike leaders will lie stunned and bleeding inside the City Chambers; policemen and protestors will lie beaten in the streets.The violence and destruction in the Square, the streets to the north and south, in Glasgow Green and even south of the River Clyde, involves thousands of men. The city authorities believe the situation is beyond the control of the outnumbered police; the Sheriff sends a message to the local army commander requesting assistance.For the first time in history, tanks will be despatched as ‘military aid to the civil power’. They will be accompanied by 10,000 soldiers. At approximately 12.30pm on Friday 31 January 1919, a century of myth-making commences. Using thousands of pages of court papers, memoirs and news reports, this book is the first attempt to tell the story of what happened in day-by-day detail.

Prisons, as you know, have been my hobby wrote the prominent suffragette Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton. An influential British activist as well as a writer, speaker and campaigner for votes for women - and not forgetting prison reform - Constance Lytton was born in Vienna and spent the first eleven years of her life in India (her father was the Viceroy). After meeting a number of suffragettes, particularly at the Esperance Club and including Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Constance took on the 'hobby' of prison reform. She later demonstrated at the House of Commons, along with fellow suffragettes and was arrested, imprisoned, but subsequently released due to her social position and health. Whilst in Holloway Prison in March 1909, she carved the outline of a V on her chest. Outraged by the treatment of fellow suffragettes of a lower class, in January 1910 she took on the pseudonym of Jane Warton to avoid release and suffered much mistreatment, including forcible feeding, at the hands of the prison warders. She was to include these experiences in her book, Prisons and Prisoners. Constance Lytton died in 1923 after many health complications, but with the knowledge that (some) women over the age of 30 had finally been given the right to vote.

Constantine V, was the second East Roman (Byzantine) emperor of the Isaurian Dynasty. A masterful general, who halted the Arab Umayyad advance and went on the counter attack, he was loved by the fighting men of the East till well after his death. He was also an active ruler in other spheres, continuing the legal, social and governmental reforms of his father. His reign effectively strengthened the Empire, which was on the brink of collapse at the end of the Heraclian dynasty and he is generally regarded as one of the most capable men to rule from Constantinople. A ruthless persecutor and iconoclast, he was, however, reviled and maligned by the monastic historians of the church. His true brilliance and accomplishments would always be overshadowed by the name they bestowed upon him after his death: Copronymos (‘the dung-named’). He was compared to a summoner of demons, a magician or even a precursor to the Antichrist.Married three times to women who themselves are worthy of books, he was shrewd in his choice of wives and poltically savvy. As a shrewd ruler and administrator, and for his influence upon the theological debates of his day, he bears comparison with the much-better-known Justinian I, some 200 years before. However, unlike Justinian, his military leadership was more personal and he met his death on campaign in Bulgaria.

Catherine of Aragon was the first wife and queen of England''s most married King, Henry VIII. She did not know it, but she would be immortalised as the first in a line of six queens still hotly debated and discussed today. Catherine and Henry were married for over twenty years, longer than his other five marriages combined, but she knew him even longer. Arriving in England in 1501 to marry Henry''s elder brother, Arthur, she was widowed shortly after and was forced to endure seven years of uncertainty and hardship before marrying her second husband. Henry and Catherine were happy and indeed in love on their wedding day in 1509, and they had a lot of shared interests and ambitions.Setbacks and losses would tear apart this once-happy couple. As one of three parties involved in the King''s Great Matter, which changed the face of England forever, Catherine refused to back down and fought for what she believed to be right until the very end. This book gives us a glimpse of Catherine''s world: her family, her friends, her enemies, and her legacy, which still inspires us with her loyalty and courage to this day.

Queen Victoria famously presided over an empire upon which the sun never set. Extending, defending and policing Britain’s global territories required the British Army to fight a bewildering array of foes, in equally varied terrain and climates. From the subarctic mountains of Canada to the Sahara Desert and the South African veldt, from the jungles of West Africa and central India to China, the British forces flew the flag. The task was only made possible by the recruitment of troops from throughout the colonies, some of which then served far from home (such as the Australians used in the Boer Wars). Colonial troops not only boosted the numbers available to the Empire’s forces but their local knowledge of climate and terrain, as well as their differing fighting styles, offered vital variety and flexibility. This allowed the ‘British’ armies to adapt to the wide range of enemies and environments encountered.Gabriele Esposito offers an excellent overview of the troops raised from every corner of the British Empire, discussing their organization, weapons, uniform and equipment as well as how and where they were employed. The informative text is lavishly illustrated with colour artworks.