World History

Although in a way, history is being made every day, some stand out in the memory or learning more than others. These are the days that had the most impact on the people who witnessed them and the greatest consequences for society in the months and years to follow. These are the discoveries that opened up eyes to a wider world, the decisions and acts that steered people from one possible future to another, and the disasters that shocked people into working together for support and community. Man has always recorded history, from the creation of Alexandria, the Roman empire and the ancient classical world, to the calendar, and the first newspaper.

ISBN: 9781844036158

OCTOBER 2008

The landscape of the British Isles is filled with history, much of which we miss as it flashes past the car window. Do we even realise that we're following the same path as the Tolpuddle Martyrs, or that we're driving past the exact spot where King Harold was killed, shot through the eye with an arrow? As a lover of both history and the British countryside, Charlie Connelly decided to rectify this, and set out on a series of walks that recreate famous historical journeys. En route he retells the story of the original trip while discovering who and what now inhabit these iconic routes. Walking in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, Charlie journeys alongside Boudicca's ghost in Norfolk, relives Bonnie Prince Charlie's flight to Skye disguised as Flora MacDonald's maid and takes the same 32-mile round trip as the starving Louisburgh famine walkers. He suffers broken toes, becomes trapped in the Scottish Parliament and encounters dead poets and a surprisingly high number of mad old women in woolly hats. Told with Charlie's customary charm and wit, And Did Those Feet will reveal the historical secrets hidden in the much-loved coastal, country and urban landscapes of Britain.

ISBN: 9781408700846

An insightful and gripping account of thegreatest airbornebattle in history.InSeptember 1944, the river Rhine was a serious barrier to the advancing Allied armies in the West who were intent on charging Berlin and ending the war. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery decided to utilise the First Allied Airborne Army consisting of British, American and Polish troops. Codenamed Operation Market Garden", 40,000 paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines while ground forces linked to relieve them. But, due to bad weather and German resistance, the operation failed.In March 1945, asecond attempt was planned: Operation Varsity Plunder". Again Montgomery led the assault and ground troops were employed to make the river crossing while paratroopers dropped to secure the east bank of the Rhine. This time the plan worked. Despite extremely heavy fighting the combined airborne and ground forces achieved their objectives, cracking the German line.

ISBN: 9780755336364

AUGUST 2008

In November 2008 the United States will elect a new President. But the imminent collapse of twenty years of Republican conservativism means the country is already conducting an intense self-examination about the trajectory of its history; how it came to find itself in multiple crises and how an America that began as 'the last, best hope of earth' came to be so suspected and vilified around much of the world. "The American Future: A History", written by an author who has spent half his life there, takes the long view of how the United States has come to this anguished moment of truth about its own identity as a nation and its place in the world.In each of the chapters devoted to the most compelling issues facing Americans now - the projection of power ("American war"); race, immigration and the problematic promise of e pluribus unum ("American skin"); the intensity of religious conviction in public life ("American fervour"); the mystique of American land and its battles with the imperatives of profit ('American Plenty'- Schama traces the deep history of the present crisis. Cumulatively the chapters build into a history of American exceptionalism - the 'American difference' that means so much to its people but which has led it into calamities as well as triumphs. "The American Future: A History" argues that if you want to know what is truly at stake, you need to absorb these stories and understand this history - for understanding is the condition of hope.

ISBN: 9781847920003

A spectre is haunting Europe (and the world). Not, in the twenty-first century, the spectre of communism, but the spectre of capitalism. Marx's prediction that the state would wither away of its own accord has proved inaccurate, and he did not foresee the tyrannies which have ruled large parts of the globe in his name. Indeed, he would have been appalled if he had witnessed them. But his analysis of the evils and dangers of raw capitalism is as correct now as when it was written, and some of his suggestions (progressive income tax, abolition of child labour, free education for all children) are now accepted with little question. In a world where capitalism is no longer held in check by fear of a communist alternative, The Communist Manifesto (with Socialism Utopian and Scientific, Engels's brief and clear exposition of Marxist thought) is essential reading. The Condition of the Working Class in England is Engels's first, and probably best-known, book. With Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, it was and is the outstanding study of the working class in Victorian England.

On 16 May 1943, nineteen Lancaster bomber crews gathered at a remote RAF station in Lincolnshire for a mission of extraordinary daring and high risk - a night raid on three crucial and heavily defended dams deep in the German industrial heartland. The raiders would have to fly across occupied Europe at a perilously low level and drop their bombs at a mere 60 feet above the water to destroy the dam walls. Eight planes never returned. Bestselling author Max Arthur has collected together first-hand accounts of the preparation, practise, experimentation and the raid itself, and the sense of emptiness and loss at RAF Scampton when 56 men failed to return. From RAF personnel to German civilians who witnessed the raid, this landmark oral history collection paints a moving and personal picture of one of the most famous operations of the Second World War.

ISBN: 9781905264339

OCTOBER 2008

The epic battle in Egypt between the Axis forces led by Rommel 'the Desert Fox' and Britain's 'Desert Rats'. The battle of El Alamein, which began on 23 October 1942 heralded a decisive shift in Allied fortunes, not just in the Western Desert but in relation to the whole course of the war. Churchill described the battle as 'Not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning'. Not only did the battle create the conditions which led to the final Allied victory in North Africa but it pitted the two most charismatic opposing generals Bernard Montgomery 'Monty' against Erwin Rommel 'The Desert Fox' against each other in a decisive and epic encounter. El Alamein 1942 is a day to day narrative of the fighting whilst also building up a coherent picture of the overall strategic position. John Sadler shows how the conflict unfolded from the perspective of the actual combatants, the effectiveness of weapons and tactics, and the nature and importance of ground. This was the battle that defined both the Afrika Corps and the British 8th Army, the legendary 'Desert Rats'. Hitler's fanatic insistence that his forces should not cede ground, caused the destruction of a significant part of Rommel's army. El Alamein, like Stalingrad, marks the end of the opening phase of Axis victories and sweeping gains and ushered in the slow but inexorable drive to final Allied triumph.

Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but even when he stays safely in his own study at home, he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. This book is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization.

Salmonella . . . toxins . . . additives . . . food scares . . . Have you ever wondered how our food has become so untrustworthy? Have we ever been able to trust what we eat? Via a fascinating mix of food politics, history and culinary detective work, Bee Wilson uncovers the many methods by which swindlers have tampered with our food throughout history. From the leaded wine of ancient Rome to the food piracy of the twenty-first century we see the extraordinary ways food has been padded, poisoned, spiked, coloured, substituted, faked and mislabelled everywhere it has been sold. Bee Wilson reveals the strong historical currents which enable the fraudsters to flourish; the battle of the science of deception against the science of detection; the struggle to establish reliable standards. She also suggests some small ways in which we can all protect ourselves from swindles and learn to trust what we eat again.

ISBN: 9780719567766

The haunting songs of the First World War still have a powerful emotional impact. These are the funny, bitter, sad and romantic words the soldiers actually sang on the march, in the dug-outs and trenches. Amidst the appalling carnage of the battlefield, the stoic courage and endurance of the ordinary soldiers shines through in songs like No More Soldiering for Me and It's a long, long way to Tipperary. This attractive and evocative book cannot fail to delight and move anyone with an interest in the First World War.

ISBN: 9780749923549