Novedades

Christianity is the most enduring and influential legacy of the ancient world, and its emergence the single most transformative development in Western history. Even the increasing number in the West today who have abandoned the faith of their forebears, and dismiss all religion as pointless superstition, remain recognisably its heirs. Seen close-up, the division between a sceptic and a believer may seem unbridgeable.

On November 29, 1943, as the Allies’ primary leaders met in Tehran, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt described to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin his idea for the organization that would become the United Nations. The American president suggested that the active arm of the organization be “the Four Policemen”: the U.S., USSR, UK, and China. Stalin agreed with much of the framework in principle, but asserted that China likely would not possess the strength after the war to assist.

World War II was more than just a clash of armies—it was a battle of ideologies, economies, and strategies on a global scale. It was the deadliest conflict in human history, involving more than 30 countries and resulting in the deaths of an estimated 70 to 85 million people, including both military personnel and civilians. For a time, it seemed as though Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, might succeed in reshaping the world according to its vision. Germany’s early victories stunned observers and instilled fear across Europe.

Before the Second World War, Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was one of the most famous performers in the world. She made her name dancing on the Parisian stage, but when war broke out she decided not to return to America. Instead, Baker turned spy for the French Secret Services. In this engaging, deeply researched study, Hanna Diamond tells the full story of Baker’s actions for the French and Allied powers in World War Two.

In 1919, in Newfoundland, four teams of aviators came from Britain to compete in "the Big Hop": an audacious race to be the first to fly, nonstop, across the Atlantic Ocean. One pair of competitors was forced to abandon the journey halfway, and two pairs never made it into the air. Only one team, after a death-defying sixteen-hour flight, made it to Ireland.

Christianity in England is in decline. Congregations are dwindling and ever fewer young people believe. Should we merely shrug our shoulders and accept this as inevitable and even healthy, or is something important being lost? Bijan Omrani argues that this decline is the most momentous change to occur in English history. He shows how a religion that has been part of our national story for over 1700 years was instrumental in the creation and development of the English nation, its codes of law and morality, and its structures of government and kingship.

It has been famously pointed out that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, but it was also not an empire in the sense people expect when hearing the term, but it is clear that church clergy occupied a privileged place in medieval society. Europe had inherited Christianity from the Roman Empire, and the concept of a united Christendom and empire were practically synonymous. Indeed, there was no real consciousness of the Roman Empire ever having ended.

Marking the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, What Matters in Jane Austen? solves the mysteries of Austen’s fictional world. Jane Austen’s novels have been a staple of the English canon since the nineteenth century. Yet critics of the time did not appreciate the true complexity of her work. Nothing, John Mullan argues, is accidental or coincidental in Austen. As Austen herself said, she wrote for readers who have "a great deal of ingenuity themselves."

In Penelope’s Bones, award-winning classicist and historian Emily Hauser pieces together compelling evidence from archaeological excavations and scientific discoveries to unearth the richly textured lives of women in Bronze Age Greece—the era of Homer’s heroes. Here, for the first time, we come to understand the everyday lives and experiences of the real women who stand behind the legends of Helen, Briseis, Cassandra, Aphrodite, Circe, Athena, Hera, Calypso, Penelope, and more.

One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich but had long been in decline. Still, somehow, she seemed to be hanging on. Back at home, Rebanks couldn’t stop thinking about the woman on the rocks. She was fierce and otherworldly—and yet strangely familiar.

The year was 1848 and three people, their lives previously unconnected, were about to reshape the world. Karl Marx's Manifesto rolled off London presses as women gathered at Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y. to demand equal rights. At the same time, Alfred Russel Wallace sailed to Brazil to collect specimens for something being called natural selection. This pivotal year marked the moment Western civilization began a two-century descent—not merely from tradition, but Creation itself. In this sweeping historical and cultural analysis, “The Age of Envy” traces ...

When the Troubles broke out in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s, Fianna Fáil was hopelessly ill-prepared for the ensuing crisis. Between the emotive years of 1969 to 1971 Fianna Fáil was brought face to face with one of its most blatant contradictions – the gap between the party’s habitual pronouncements of its desire for a united Ireland and the reality that the party could offer no practical solutions to deliver this objective. Why had this gap developed? This book answers this question and many more, tracing the historical reasons for why Fianna Fáil failed to devise a realistic...

'Irish Days, Indian Memories' offers a unique insight into an unexpectedly momentous facet of Dublin’s political and student life from 1913 to the end of the turbulent year that was 1916. V.V. Giri, fourth President of India (1969-74), who would later say of himself ‘when I am not an Indian, I am an Irishman’, and a group of twelve Indian law students at King’s Inns and University College Dublin, witnessed and participated in the events of these dramatic years. Drawn from diaries, letters, military and university records, their memories of the Dublin Lockout, the Irish Volunteers, ...

County Louth and the Irish Revolution, 1912–1923 explores the local activism of the IRA and how revolution was experienced by rural and urban labourers, RIC men, republican women, cultural activists, and Big House families. Events were increasingly shaped for all these groups by the developing reality of partition, transforming a marginal county into a borderland and creating a zone of new violence and banditry. The expert contributors to the first-ever local history of the county during this period bring to light a wealth of fascinating stories that will appeal to the general public and ...

Originally published in 1960 and edited by Conor Cruise O’Brien, The Shaping of Modern Ireland was a seminal work surveying the lives of prominent early twentieth-century figures who influenced Irish affairs in the years between the death of Charles Stewart Parnell in 1891 and the Easter Rising of 1916. The chapters were written by leading historians and commentators from the Ireland of the 1950s, some of whom personally knew the subjects of their essays. This volume draws its inspiration from that seminal work. Written by some of today’s leading figures from the world of Irish history,...

In this captivating new history, Tipperary native John Dennehy explores the profound political, economic, military and social impact of the Great War on one Irish county: Tipperary. Little has been written on the impact of the war on everyday life – food prices, the role of women, soldier suicide, foreign refugees. It was a time of contested loyalties at home and unparalleled brutality abroad, and while the ordinary citizens were well aware of the bloody toll, thousands continued to enlist. And if men moved to fight, women mobilised to help, playing a central role in all aspects of the ...

The Prison Letters of Countess Markievicz were first published in 1932 as a classic of feminist literature. Now restored to their original form by leading Markievicz expert, Lindie Naughton, this new edition features previously unpublished letters that Markievicz sent to family members and friends, offering a unique insight into her extraordinary life. After escaping the firing squad for her part in the 1916 Easter Rising, she was sentenced to life imprisonment and transferred to Mountjoy Jail and later sent to other prisons including Holloway in London and Cork Jail. Through these letters,...

Discover the architectural soul of one of the world's greatest cities through this passionate and provocative guide to London's most significant structures. London is a living museum of architecture, where Roman walls stand beside glass skyscrapers, where medieval churches neighbor modernist towers, and where each era has left its distinctive mark on the urban landscape. In this comprehensive and beautifully crafted guide, Anglotopia takes you on an extraordinary journey through nearly 2,000 years of building, revealing the stories, innovations, and cultural significance behind 101 of ...

'Liffey Green, Danube Blue' is the remarkable account of László Gede, a Hungarian musician who made Ireland his home in 1969. His story begins in Hungary during the First World War, enduring poverty and hardship, and charts his rise to clarinettist in the State Opera House Orchestra. Between the wars Budapest was an exhilarating place for László, thrilling audiences with his Goldwin Gede swing band in its celebrated café society. The Second World War saw him playing in military bands and miraculously avoided being sent to the Front in 1944, while also involved in resistance work. The ...

Since Roman days the Rhine valley has always had great strategic importance as one of the main arteries in Europe. During the Middle Ages more castles were built within its narrow confines than in any other valley in the world, and today the remains of these once proud structures form an integral part of the Rhine landscape, adding greatly to the romantic atmosphere which has made it famous. "Castles on the Rhine" is the perfect book for both the traveler and the historian. It not only contains tons of photos, but the book goes through a brief historical summary of the area, then gives an ...