Penguin Books strana 174 z 485

Russia is an exceptional country, the biggest in the world. It is both European and exotic, powerful and weak, brilliant and flawed. Why are we so afraid of it? Time and again, we judge Russia by unique standards. We have usually assumed that it possesses higher levels of cunning, malevolence and brutality. Yet the country has more often than not been a crucial ally, not least against Napoleon and in the two world wars. We admire its music and its writers. We lavish praise on the Russian soul. And still we think of Russia as a unique menace. What is it about this extraordinary country that consistently provokes such excessive responses? And why is this so dangerous? Ranging from the earliest times to the present, Mark B. Smith's remarkable new book is a history of this 'Russia Anxiety'. Whether ally or enemy, superpower or failing state, Russia grips our imagination and fuels our fears unlike any other country. This book shows how history itself offers a clearer view and a better future.

Introducing the interactive Little World series from Ladybird that makes our big world little. Little World is designed for curious toddlers, allowing them to explore familiar landscapes and faraway places, from cities and jungles to outer space and the depths of the ocean. The gentle narrative is perfect for reading aloud and guiding children on their city adventure, and a novelty slide, push or pull on every spread also helps them to engage and explore. Allison Black's bright artwork and charming characters encourage interaction and play, with lots to spot, see and enjoy at on every spread. This series has been created in collaboration with subject experts to produce accurate representations of the world around us and to provide a perfectly designed Little World. Look out for the other titles in the Little World series: To the Moon, Jungle Journey and Under the Sea ... with many more to come!

The New York Times bestselling book which examines how humans experience music and unravels the mystery of our perennial love affair with it Using musical examples from Bach to the Beatles, Levitin reveals the role of music in human evolution, shows how our musical preferences begin to form even before we are born and explains why music can offer such an emotional experience. Music is an obsession at the heart of human nature, even more fundamental to our species than language. In This Is Your Brain On Music Levitin offers nothing less than a new way to understand it, and its role in human life.

'The most comprehensive narrative of intelligence compiled ... unrivalled' Max Hastings, Sunday Times 'Captivating, insightful and masterly' Edward Lucas, The Times The history of espionage is far older than any of today's intelligence agencies, yet the long history of intelligence operations has been largely forgotten. The first mention of espionage in world literature is in the Book of Exodus.'God sent out spies into the land of Canaan'. From there, Christopher Andrew traces the shift in the ancient world from divination to what we would recognize as attempts to gather real intelligence in the conduct of military operations, and considers how far ahead of the West - at that time - China and India were. He charts the development of intelligence and security operations and capacity through, amongst others, Renaissance Venice, Elizabethan England, Revolutionary America, Napoleonic France, right up to sophisticated modern activities of which he is the world's best-informed interpreter. What difference have security and intelligence operations made to course of history? Why have they so often forgotten by later practitioners? This fascinating book provides the answers.

The woman's place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep The revolutionary writings of Audre Lorde gave voice to those 'outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women'. Uncompromising, angry and yet full of hope, this collection of her essential prose - essays, speeches, letters, interviews - explores race, sexuality, poetry, friendship, the erotic and the need for female solidarity, and includes her landmark piece 'The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House'.

Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot. Call if what you like, it matters now more than ever. In The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson shows that financial history is the back-story to all history. From the banking dynasty who funded the Italian Renaissance to the stock market bubble that caused the French Revolution, this is the story of booms and busts as it's never been told before. With the world in the grip of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, there's never been a better time to understand the ascent - and descent - of money. 'Beautifully written ... Breathtakingly clever' Sunday Telegraph 'A lucid and racy account of financial history' New Statesman 'A fine, readable and entertaining history' Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year 'The tales he tells of boom and bust, of triumph and disaster, of bubbles that inflate ... are the very essence of financial history' Bill Emmott, Financial Times 'An often enlightening and enjoyable tour through the underside of great events, a lesson in how the most successful great powers have always been underpinned by smart money' Robert Skidelsky, New York Review of Books

Introducing the interactive Little World series from Ladybird that makes our big world little. Little World is designed for curious toddlers, allowing them to explore familiar landscapes and faraway places, from cities and jungles to outer space and the depths of the ocean. The gentle narrative is perfect for reading aloud and guiding children on their adventure, following in the footsteps of the first lunar astronauts. A novelty slide, push or pull on every spread also helps children to engage and explore. Allison Black's bright artwork and charming characters encourage interaction and play, with lots to spot, see and enjoy on every spread. This series has been created in collaboration with subject experts, to produce an accurate representation of the world around us and provide a perfectly designed Little World. Look out for the other titles in the Little World series: In the City, Jungle Journey and Under the Sea ... with many more to come!

A major work by one of our greatest living historians. . . an immense achievement' - Jane Graham, Big Issue 'Astonishing. . . Like the great Russian novels, these testimonials ring with emotional truth' - Caroline Moorehead, Guardian Extraordinary stories about what it was like to be a Soviet child during the upheaval and horror of the Second World War, from Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich What did it mean to grow up in the Soviet Union during the Second World War? In the late 1970s, Svetlana Alexievich started interviewing people who had experienced war as children, the generation that survived and had to live with the trauma that would forever change the course of the Russian nation. With remarkable care and empathy, Alexievich gives voice to those whose stories are lost in the official narratives, uncovering a powerful, hidden history of one of the most important events of the twentieth century. Published to great acclaim in the USSR in 1985 and now available in English for the first time, this masterpiece offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of the human consequences of the war - and an extraordinary chronicle of the Russian soul.

The first short narrative history of the continent, from the author of the bestselling A Short History of England Europe is an astonishingly successful place. In this dazzling new history, bestselling author Simon Jenkins grippingly tells the story of its evolution from warring peoples to peace, wealth and freedom - a story that twists and turns from Greece and Rome, through the Dark Ages, the Reformation and the French Revolution, to the Second World War and up to the present day. Jenkins takes in leaders from Julius Caesar and Joan of Arc, to Wellington and Angela Merkel, as well as cultural figures from Aristotle to Shakespeare and Picasso. He brings together the transformative forces and dominant eras into one chronological tale - all with his usual insight, colour and authority. Despite the importance of Europe's politics, economy and culture, there has not been - until now - a concise book to tell this story. Covering the key events, themes and individuals, Jenkins' portrait of the continent could not be more timely - or masterful.

The long-awaited magnum opus of one of Britain's most wide-ranging historians Capitalist enterprise has existed in some form since ancient times, but the globalization and dominance of capitalism as a system began in the 1860s when, in different forms and supported by different political forces, states all over the world developed their modern political frameworks: the unifications of Italy and Germany, the establishment of a republic in France, the elimination of slavery in the American south, the Meiji Restoration in Japan, the emancipation of the serfs in Tsarist Russia. This book magnificently explores how, after the upheavals of industrialisation, a truly global capitalism followed. For the first time in the history of humanity, there was a social system able to provide a high level of consumption for the majority of those who lived within its bounds. Today, capitalism dominates the world. With wide-ranging scholarship, Donald Sassoon analyses the impact of capitalism on the histories of many different states, and how it creates winners and losers by constantly innovating. This chronic instability, he writes, 'is the foundation of its advance, not a fault in the system or an incidental by-product'. And it is this instability, this constant churn, which produces the anxious triumph of his title. To control or alleviate such anxieties it was necessary to create a national community, if necessary with colonial adventures, to develop a welfare state, to intervene in the market economy, and to protect it from foreign competition. Capitalists needed a state to discipline them, to nurture them, and to sacrifice a few to save the rest: a state overseeing the war of all against all. Vigorous, argumentative, surprising and constantly stimulating, The Anxious Triumph gives a fresh perspective on all these questions and on its era. It is a masterpiece by one of Britain's most engaging and wide-ranging historians.

For readers of George Monbiot, Mark Cocker and Robert Macfarlane - an urgent and lyrical account of endangered places around the globe and the people fighting to save them.

Return to Zero is the electrifying end to a story ten years in the making, bringing together the Legacies, Loric, Earth Garde and even the Mogadorians for a final, deadly showdown. After the battle in Switzerland, the Fugitive Six find their loyalties torn, splitting them into two factions. Taylor, Nigel and Kopano join Nine to return to the Academy, but nothing is the same. Fear and resentment of the Human Garde has been growing and the Academy is under siege. The United Nations has decreed that all humans with Legacies must be implanted with inhibitors, a move that will take away their power and their human rights. The team have no choice but to fight back. And with the faceless Foundation still at large, Caleb, Ran and Isabela have decided to join forces with their former foes Einar and Five to hunt them down. But when a new threat is revealed, the group find themselves painfully outmatched. Fractured and facing capture or annihilation on all sides, the Human Garde have to sacrifice everything in a war that pitches them against the rest of the world. The fate of the Human Garde and the world they knew has never been more uncertain.

'An intense, courageous novel, equal to the best of Virginia Woolf and Samuel Beckett' The New York Times Part detective novel, part love story, part psychoanalytic case study, Malina is a staggering portrait of a writer trying to tell her own story in a world dominated by men. 'I was subordinate to him from the beginning, and I must have known early on that he was destined to be my doom' A woman in postwar Vienna walks a tightrope between the two men in her life. There is her lover Ivan, beautiful and unavailable, who obsesses her. And there is Malina, the civil servant with whom she shares an apartment: reserved, fastidious, exacting, chillingly calm. As the balance of power between them starts to shift, she feels her fragile identity unravelling, gradually revealing the dark, bruised heart of her past.

THE NO 1 IRISH BESTSELLER and hilarious follow-up to the smash-hit romantic comedy Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling - fans of Derry Girls will LOVE this 'Should come with a health warning. Ten pages in my face hurts from grinning' Sunday Independent ___________ Job. Flat. Boyfriend. Tick. Tick. Tick. Just when Aisling (seems) to be winning at life, she discovers it has other ideas: Fired. Homeless. Dumped. Tick. Tick. Tick. As her new life comes crashing down, Aisling is forced to move back home to Ballygobbard and her mam.

Extinction Rebellion are inspiring a whole generation to take action on climate breakdown. Now you can become part of the movement - and together, we can make history. It's time. This is our last chance to do anything about the global climate and ecological emergency. Our last chance to save the world as we know it. Now or never, we need to be radical. We need to rise up. And we need to rebel. Extinction Rebellion is a global activist movement of ordinary people, demanding action from Governments. This is a book of truth and action. It has facts to arm you, stories to empower you, pages to fill in and pages to rip out, alongside instructions on how to rebel - from organising a roadblock to facing arrest. By the time you finish this book you will have become an Extinction Rebellion activist. Act now before it's too late.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches--now a hit TV series on AMC and BBC America, and streaming on Sundance Now and Shudder--comes a novel about what it takes to become a vampire. On the battlefields of the American Revolution, Matthew de Clermont meets Marcus MacNeil, a young surgeon from Massachusetts, during a moment of political awakening when it seems that the world is on the brink of a brighter future. When Matthew offers him a chance at immortality and a new life free from the restraints of his puritanical upbringing, Marcus seizes the opportunity to become a vampire. But his transformation is not an easy one and the ancient traditions and responsibilities of the de Clermont family clash with Marcus's deeply held beliefs in liberty, equality, and brotherhood. Fast-forward to contemporary Paris, where Phoebe Taylor--the young employee at Sotheby's whom Marcus has fallen for--is about to embark on her own journey to immortality. Though the modernized version of the process at first seems uncomplicated, the couple discovers that the challenges facing a human who wishes to be a vampire are no less formidable than they were in the eighteenth century. The shadows that Marcus believed he'd escaped centuries ago may return to haunt them both--forever. A passionate love story and a fascinating exploration of the power of tradition and the possibilities not just for change but for revolution, Time's Convert channels the supernatural world-building and slow-burning romance that made the All Souls Trilogy instant bestsellers to illuminate a new and vital moment in history, and a love affair that will bridge centuries.