To many, the word 'Viking' invites visions of violence. But plunder, rape and pillage do not tell the full story. In this fresh narrative history, Thomas Williams, a curator of the British Museum exhibition Vikings: Life and Legend, reframes the story of the Vikings. Weaving new academic research with an exploration of the physical remains and landscapes that the Vikings fashioned and walked, this book offers a vital evocation of a forgotten world, its influence on British language, literature, place names and folklore, its echoes in later history and its implications for the present.
1789 Руб.
London was reborn in the fires of the Viking Age, transformed by immigrants and natives, kings and commoners, warriors and saints. In this short history, bestselling historian Thomas Williams explores the profound impact of the Vikings on London. Under the hammer of their assaults the city emerged as a hub of trade, a financial centre, a political prize, and a cauldron of voices and perspectives – a place that, a thousand years ago, already embodied much of what London is today.
1685 Руб.
When Thomas Roe arrived in India in 1616 as James I's first ambassador to the Mughal Empire, the English barely had a toehold in the subcontinent. Their understanding of South Asian trade and India was sketchy at best, and, to the Mughals, they were minor players on a very large stage. Roe was representing a kingdom that was beset by financial woes and deeply conflicted about its identity as a unified 'Great Britain' under the Stuart monarchy. Meanwhile, the court he entered in India was wealthy and cultured, its dominion widely considered to be one of the greatest and richest empires of the world. In Nandini Das's fascinating history of Roe's four years in India, she offers an insider's view of a Britain in the making, a country whose imperial seeds were just being sown. It is a story of palace intrigue and scandal, lotteries and wagers that unfolds as global trade begins to stretch from Russia to Virginia, from West Africa to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. A major debut that explores the art, literature, sights and sounds of Jacobean London and Imperial India, Courting India reveals Thomas Roe's time in the Mughal Empire to be a turning point in history – and offers a rich and radical challenge to our understanding of Britain and its early empire.
7023 Руб.
An Illustrated History of Britain traces the development of the nation from prehistoric times to the present day. It looks at British history not merely in terms of kings, queens and battles, but also emphasises economic, social and intellectual forces and how these affected the everyday lives of people from different sections of society. An Illustrated History of Britain is a history of Britain, not just of England. It looks at major developments within Scotland, Wales and Ireland as well as their relations with England.
6980 Руб.
Britain is a small country but it has a long history. Two thousand years ago it was part of the Roman Empire. In the 1930s the British Empire was the biggest empire in world history. In the past, kings and queens fought to rule Britain. Discover how wars, revolutions and religion have changed its history. Read about the different countries of the United Kingdom – and the great men and women who have shaped the British nation.
2749 Руб.
An authoritative and radical rethinking of the history of Ancient Britain and Ancient Ireland, based on remarkable new archaeological finds. British history is traditionally regarded as having started with the Roman Conquest. But this is to ignore half a million years of prehistory that still exert a profound influence. Here Francis Pryor examines the great ceremonial landscapes of Ancient Britain and Ireland – Stonehenge, Seahenge, Avebury and the Bend of the Boyne – as well as the discarded artefacts of day-to-day life, to create an astonishing portrait of our ancestors. This major re-revaluation of pre-Roman Britain, made possible in part by aerial photography and coastal erosion, reveals a much more sophisticated life in Ancient Britain and Ireland than has previously been supposed.
2326 Руб.
Cornwall, 1900s. Plyn Boat Yard is a hive of activity, and Janet Coombe longs to share in the excitement of seafaring: to travel, to have adventures, to know freedom. But constrained by the times, instead she marries her cousin Thomas, a boat builder, and settles down to raise a family. Janet's loving spirit - the passionate yearning for adventure and for love - is passed down to her son, and through him to his children's children. As generations of the family struggle against hardship and loss, their intricately plotted history is set against the greater backdrop of war and social change in Britain. Her debut novel, The Loving Spirit established du Maurier's reputation and style with an inimitable blend of romance, history and adventure.
3814 Руб.
Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime's experience to the tradition of travel writing as a businessman, soldier, economic journalist and spy, and his Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain is an invaluable source of social and economic history. This book is not only a beautifully written guide to Britain just before the industrial revolution. It is his deeply imaginative response to a brave new economic world.
881 Руб.
Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime's experience to the tradition of travel writing as a businessman, soldier, economic journalist and spy, and his Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain is an invaluable source of social and economic history. This book is not only a beautifully written guide to Britain just before the industrial revolution. It is his deeply imaginative response to a brave new economic world.
931 Руб.
Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime's experience to the tradition of travel writing as a businessman, soldier, economic journalist and spy, and his Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain is an invaluable source of social and economic history. This book is not only a beautifully written guide to Britain just before the industrial revolution. It is his deeply imaginative response to a brave new economic world.
881 Руб.
Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime's experience to the tradition of travel writing as a businessman, soldier, economic journalist and spy, and his Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain is an invaluable source of social and economic history. This book is not only a beautifully written guide to Britain just before the industrial revolution. It is his deeply imaginative response to a brave new economic world.
1556 Руб.
Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime's experience to the tradition of travel writing as a businessman, soldier, economic journalist and spy, and his Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain is an invaluable source of social and economic history. This book is not only a beautifully written guide to Britain just before the industrial revolution. It is his deeply imaginative response to a brave new economic world.
199 Руб.
Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime's experience to the tradition of travel writing as a businessman, soldier, economic journalist and spy, and his Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain is an invaluable source of social and economic history. This book is not only a beautifully written guide to Britain just before the industrial revolution. It is his deeply imaginative response to a brave new economic world.
199 Руб.
Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime's experience to the tradition of travel writing as a businessman, soldier, economic journalist and spy, and his Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain is an invaluable source of social and economic history. This book is not only a beautifully written guide to Britain just before the industrial revolution. It is his deeply imaginative response to a brave new economic world.
199 Руб.
Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime's experience to the tradition of travel writing as a businessman, soldier, economic journalist and spy, and his Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain is an invaluable source of social and economic history. This book is not only a beautifully written guide to Britain just before the industrial revolution. It is his deeply imaginative response to a brave new economic world.
199 Руб.
'A litany of fresh heroes to make the embattled heart sing' Caitlin Moran 'Newman is a brilliant writer' Observer A fresh, opinionated history of all the brilliant women you should have learned about in school but didn't. For hundreds of years we have heard about the great men of history, but what about her story? In this freewheeling history of modern Britain, Cathy Newman writes about the pioneering women who defied the odds to make careers for themselves and alter the course of modern history; women who achieved what they achieved while dismantling hostile, entrenched views about their place in society. Their role in transforming Britain is fundamental, far greater than has generally been acknowledged, and not just in the arts or education but in fields like medicine, politics, law, engineering and the military. While a few of the women in this book are now household names, many have faded into oblivion, their personal and collective achievements mere footnotes in history. We know of Emmeline Pankhurst, Vera Brittain, Marie Stopes and Beatrice Webb. But who remembers engineer and motorbike racer Beatrice Shilling, whose ingenious device for the Spitfires' Rolls-Royce Merlin fixed an often-fatal flaw, allowing the RAF's planes to beat the German in the Battle of Britain? Or Dorothy Lawrence, the journalist who achieved her ambition to become a WW1 correspondent by pretending to be a man? And developmental biologist Anne McLaren, whose work in genetics paved the way for in vitro fertilisation? Blending meticulous research with information gleaned from memoirs, diaries, letters, novels and other secondary sources, Bloody Brilliant Women uses the stories of some extraordinary lives to tell the tale of 20th and 21st century Britain. It is a history for women and men. A history for our times.
1123 Руб.