England Books - Page 12

Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: The Dire Warning: Churchill’s First Speech as Prime Minister

JOHN R LUKACS

Amazon Price: $17.24 List Price: $24.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Basic Books Amazon Marketplace: 55 new & used starting at $10.80

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> England -> 19th Century

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A best-selling historian considers Churchill's first speech before Parliament--a speech that transformed both Churchill and the nation he had come to lead.

On May 13, 1940, Winston Churchill stood before the House of Commons to deliver his first speech as Prime Minister. Europe was in crisis: Three days earlier, Germany had invaded France and the Low Countries. Facing only feeble resistance, Hitler's armies were rapidly sweeping westward. Accused of mishandling the war, Neville Chamberlain's government collapsed, and Churchill was chosen to succeed him.

Churchill had little support within the new government when he rose to address it on May 13. "I have never believed in him," wrote one MP. Another described Churchill as a "disaster." In fact, Churchill lacked confidence, both in himself and in his ability to lead his nation to victory, for he recognized far earlier than most the military genius of Adolph Hitler, and the potency of the German military. "I hope it is not too late," Churchill had confided to his bodyguard on May 10. "I am very much afraid that it is."

In Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat, the eminent historian and master storyteller John Lukacs recreates this pivotal moment in world history, and reveals Churchill as he has rarely been seen before: as a man both unsure of himself and deeply fearful of his nation's defeat. Churchill made no promises to his country in his speech, because he knew he had none to make. And yet he rallied England onward in the face of a vicious enemy. For Churchill--and Churchill alone--understood what was at stake: the fate not only of nations, but of civilization itself.

The Autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882

Charles Darwin

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: W. W. Norton & Company Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $5.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Professionals & Academics -> Scientists
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Begun in 1876 and published posthumously in 1887, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin contains the life and experiences of the man, not only in his own words, but also in the words of his son, Sir Francis Darwin. "My father's autobiographical recollections, given in the present chapter, were written for his children,--and written without any thought that they would ever be published. To many this may seem an impossibility; but those who knew my father will understand how it was not only possible, but natural. The autobiography bears the heading, 'Recollections of the Development of my Mind and Character,' and end with the following note:--'Aug. 3, 1876. This sketch of my life was begun about May 28th at Hopedene (Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood's house in Surrey.), and since then I have written for nearly an hour on most afternoons.' It will easily be understood that, in a narrative of a personal and intimate kind written for his wife and children, passages should occur which must here be omitted; and I have not thought it necessary to indicate where such omissions are made. It has been found necessary to make a few corrections of obvious verbal slips, but the number of such alterations has been kept down to the minimum.--F.D."

God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible (P.S.)

Adam Nicolson

Amazon Price: $11.86 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Perennial Amazon Marketplace: 61 new & used starting at $1.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> England -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 76 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Lies, and poor scholarship 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Any God fearing man should not read this book. This book belongs in the trash. Move along, nothing to see here...

for Jesus' sake,
Stephen

Editorial Review:

A network of complex currents flowed across Jacobean England. This was the England of Shakespeare, Jonson, and Bacon; the era of the Gunpowder Plot and the worst outbreak of the plague. Jacobean England was both more godly and less godly than the country had ever been, and the entire culture was drawn taut between these polarities. This was the world that created the King James Bible. It is the greatest work of English prose ever written, and it is no coincidence that the translation was made at the moment "Englishness," specifically the English language itself, had come into its first passionate maturity. The English of Jacobean England has a more encompassing idea of its own scope than any form of the language before or since. It drips with potency and sensitivity. The age, with all its conflicts, explains the book.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

British Forts in the Age of Arthur (Fortress)

Angus Konstam

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Osprey Publishing - Model: OSPFOR080 Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $12.03

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> England -> General
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> England -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Military -> General

Editorial Review:

When the Romans left Britain around AD 410 the island had not been fully subjugated. In the Celtic fringes the unconquered native peoples were presented with the opportunity to pillage what remained of Roman Britain. By way of response the Post-Roman Britons did their best to defend themselves from attack, and to preserve what they could of the systems left behind by the Romans. The best way to defend their territory was to create fortifications. While some old Roman forts were maintained, the Post-Roman Britons also created new strongholds, or re-occupied some of the long-abandoned hill-forts first built by their ancestors before the coming of the Romans.

Packed with photographs, diagrams and full color artwork reconstructions, this book provides a unique examination of the design and development of the fortifications during the Age of Arthur, analyzing their day-to-day use and their effectiveness in battle. It closely describes the locations that are linked to the most famous warlord of the Dark Ages, the legendary Arthur - Tintagel, Cadbury and "Camelot". Although these great bastions were to eventually fall, for a few brief decades they succeeded in stemming the tide of invasion and in doing so safeguarding the culture and civilization of Post-Roman Celtic Britain.

From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany

Richard Weikart

Amazon Price: $25.15 List Price: $26.95 Usually ships in 2 to 3 weeks By: Palgrave Macmillan Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $24.93

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> England -> General
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> England -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Germany -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

History as it is! 5 out of 5 stars.
20 of 30 people found this review helpful.

As an undergrad history major I stumbled upon this book preparing for a paper. I have to admit that I found this book to be uncommonly interesting. Richard Weikart is most definitely a prolific historian. There are few things that need to be stated in correction. Some of the reviewers of this book believe that Weikart is blaming the entire holocaust on Darwin alone. In fact, Weikart is not blaming everything on Darwin. He recognizes that Darwin would have been aghast at how far his theory was taken. He is merely showing how that evolution evolved paving the way for nazi ideology. Weikart is not merely blaming Hitler's Germany on one ideology. Every historian knows that there are always numerous factors involved with every world event. Weikart accepts nationalism, economics, militarism, conservatism, etc as other things contributing to the main event. Weikart is merely concentrating on the ideological aspect of Hitler's Germany.
He traces a number of developments starting shortly after Darwin's origin of species. He draws from the major scientists and philosophers that impacted German thinking before the outbreak of WWI. Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects is Carneri's diagram that shows the skull shapes of advanced men and those who are more primitive.
The connection to Hitler is elusive because Hitler would have never have openly allied himself with this thinking. For one he liked to mouth a lot of stuff much of which was a plain contradiction. However, it is apparent that Hitler's roots lie deep into German social Darwinism. A reading of Mein Kampf and the standard rhetoric of Hitler shows his thinking is deeply rooted in the ideals of Germany's philosophers.
I do not blame Darwin for the ills of the world and neither does Weikart. Weikart merely draws the lines and allows the readers to come to their own conclusion. It is impossible to imagine that the world would not have headed to disaster without Darwinism. It is also equally hard to imagine that this ideology had no effect or consequences. This is a great book for liberal open-minded people.

Editorial Review:

From Darwin to Hitler elucidates the revolutionary impact Darwinism had on ethics and morality throughout history. This book is a provocative yet balanced work that addresses a wide range of topics, from the value of human life to sexual mortality, to racial extermination.

Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams

Lynne Withey

Amazon Price: $10.95 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Touchstone Amazon Marketplace: 99 new & used starting at $0.67

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This is a book by a woman about a woman. 5 out of 5 stars.
23 of 23 people found this review helpful.

So I was disinclined to read it for a long time. I thought it would be a book of interest for only women. I was completely wrong. I won this book at a book fair years ago. It is not one I would have puchased on my own. I picked it up soon found myself reading it avidly. It is Abigail Adams' complete life story. A faithful, constant, patriotic wife for the cranky but brillant John Adams. Every bit her husband's intellectual equal, she was his most important advisor throughout his public life. She kept the family together during his long absences first in Philadelphia during the revolution & later in Europe. During these periods apart, once, over seven years, she raised the family, saw to the education of their children (Harvard for the boys) & ran the family finances quite well. All the time she was corresponding with John & we have many of her letters to him & others. After the war she spent several years with him in Europe. Although she was always loathe to leave her beloved New England, she knew she had to be with her husband to understand what he was trying to do, that is helping to build a nation. Her observations on the years spent in Paris & London are valuable social history. As mush as she was a revolutionary during the war, in her later years she turned into an uncompromising reactionary, unwilling to change & adapt to the evolution that she had fought to create. She became what she had fought against. Most of his career John Adams was unpopular & underappreiciated. This fact bothered Abigail all her life, more that it did John. How could anyone compete with George Washington, even if you were smarter than him? Eventually in her old age she mellowed. This was in part due to the sucessful career of her one of her sons John Quincy. She could be described as a earily feminist for sure. But for all her self taught political savvy, family always came first. Yes, there were Founding Mothers & she was. I fear very few people have read this book or will ever read this review. However, for the first person who reads it & gives me a positive vote I will send my copy, free, if you will read it, p&h included.

Editorial Review:

This is the life of Abigail Adams, wife of patriot John Adams, who became the most influential woman in Revolutionary America. Rich with excerpts from her personal letters, Dearest Friend captures the public and private sides of this fascinating woman, who was both an advocate of slave emancipation and a burgeoning feminist, urging her husband to "Remember the Ladies" as he framed the laws of their new country.

John and Abigail Adams married for love. While John traveled in America and abroad to help forge a new nation, Abigail remained at home, raising four children, managing their estate, and writing letters to her beloved husband. Chronicling their remarkable fifty-four-year marriage, her blossoming feminism, her battles with loneliness, and her friendships with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Dearest Friend paints a portrait of Abigail Adams as an intelligent, resourceful, and outspoken woman.

Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England

Judith Flanders

Amazon Price: $17.95 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: W. W. Norton Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $12.36

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> England -> General
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> England -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Historical Study -> Social History

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellent read 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This takes all the usual primary sources--the records of Beatrix Potter and Jane Carlyle, the diary of Munby's lover, Mayhew, Beeton, etc.--as well as some less well known sources and packages it in a largely accurate and very attractive whole. The book is very well written and doesn't often engage in the broad stereotypes and sensationalism that tends to predominate mass market-oriented books on the Victorian age.

Occasionally, Flanders' own inexperience in MODERN parenting and housekeeping come through. For example, she thinks that infant febrile seizures described in Beeton are sheer fantasy rather than a common side effect to high fever, and several of her other comments about children leave me wondering how much contact she's had with those under the age of 10. She also has a weirdly 1950s throwback attitude toward breastfeeding, seeming to see it as something dirty and horrible that women were forced to go through and characterizing their babies as "vampires." (As opposed to the patriarchally imposed formula that doctors invented because a male doctor can do so much better for a baby than a mere female can who has no benefit of scientific and hygienic MEDICINE. Erm. Okay, my prejudices are showing here, but sheesh, breastfeeding has been a right that women have had to fight for ever since the male medical establishment shoved a bottle of condensed cow milk into our collective hands.)

She's also no experienced hand in the kitchen--she's astonished over how MANY things are needed for a complete kitchen while any modern cook would be astonished that a kitchen was considered to be fully outfitted with so FEW. This means that her section on the kitchen and food preparation isn't nearly as insightful as some of her other chapters--she just has no frame of reference for discussing much of it. This section would have been much more helpful coming from someone who could really recognize differences.

Other times, she sensationalizes slightly, taking nontypical examples of the treatment of women (particularly those of girls) and of Victorian prudery and painting them as more mainstream than they were. I really wish that the section on children were stronger, but I feel, again, that her experience is failing her here.

Overall, however, she does an excellent job in making a broad topic digestible, fascinating, and comprehensible to any reader.

Editorial Review:

"[Flanders] knows what we want to know and is thoroughly engaging, undidactic company."—Katherine A. Powers, Boston Sunday Globe

Nineteenth-century Britain was then the world's most prosperous nation, yet Victorians would bury meat in earth and wring sheets out in boiling water with their bare hands. Such drudgery was routine for the parents of people still living, but the knowledge of it has passed as if it had never been. Following the daily life of a middle-class Victorian house from room to room—from childbirth in the master bedroom through the kitchen, scullery, dining room, and parlor, all the way to the sickroom—Judith Flanders draws on diaries, advice books, and other sources to resurrect an age so close in time yet so alien to our own. 100 illustrations, 32 pages of color.

King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World to War

Catrine Clay

Amazon Price: $11.55 List Price: $16.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Walker & Company Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $7.78

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The extraordinary family story of George V, Wilhelm II, and Nicholas II: they were tied to one another by history, and history would ultimately tear them apart.
Drawing widely on previously unpublished royal letters and diaries, made public for the first time by Queen Elizabeth II , Catrine Clay chronicles the riveting half century of the overlapping lives of royal cousins George V of England, Wilhelm II of Germany, and Nicholas II of Russia, and their slow, inexorable march into conflict in World War I. They saw themselves as royal colleagues, a trade union of kings, standing shoulder to shoulder against the rise of socialism, republicanism, and revolution, and in 1914, on the eve of war, they controlled the destiny of Europe and the fates of millions of their subjects. Clay deftly reveals how intimate family details had deep historical significance, causing the tensions that abounded between them. At every point in her remarkable book, Clay sheds new light on a watershed period in world history.

London Then and Now (Then & Now)

Diane Burstein

Amazon Price: $18.95 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 2 to 4 weeks By: Thunder Bay Press Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $3.88

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Criticism & Essays
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Travel -> Europe
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Travel -> Great Britain

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Rather disappointing: strange choice of subjects 3 out of 5 stars.
10 of 13 people found this review helpful.

This book contains some beautiful illustrations of London, together with much interesting information. The "then" photos seem to date mostly from 80-150 years ago. I learned several things from the commentaries, even though I lived in or near London for many years, and made every effort to learn about the city! However, the choice of subject for many of the comparisons seems less than ideal. Surely, in a "Then and Now" book, we want to see how much things have changed over the years, don't we? Hence, we don't really need to see locations where the comparative photos prove that very little has changed! For example, do we really need to see "then and now" pictures of Westminster Abbey, just to confirm that it really has NOT changed perceptibly during the past hundred years or so? I don't think so. In a world-class city where so much has changed, via either redevelopment or wanton destruction, there are many fascinating locations that should have been afforded priority in such a book, but which are omitted altogether. Examples: the South Kensington Imperial Institute/Imperial College site (actually mentioned in the book's Introduction), Holland Park House, etc. I can only imagine that the author was forced to draw on a limited stock of "then" photographic material.

Editorial Review:

Celebrating this beloved city, London Then and Now offers a unique combination of historic interest and contemporary beauty. This book features dozens of fascinating archival photographs contrasted with specially commissioned, full-color images of the same scene today. Each work is a visual lesson in the historic changes of one of our greatest urban landscapes.

Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan

Ronald Spector

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Vintage Amazon Marketplace: 99 new & used starting at $0.48

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Europe
Subjects -> Children's Books -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> Japan

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Best Single Volume Account of the American War in the Pacific 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I read this shortly after the first edition came out. I was taking a year off to travel around the world and I was going to spend a good six months in the South Pacific. Although I had read a lot of history on the war prior to this, I wanted a good general history to tie everything together. I wanted one as in-depth as I could get. From this volume I made again launched into a more detailed reading on individual battles and campaigns.

This book was both admirable in its sweep and it is well written and researched, with a very good attention to detail that one does not often find in general overview books.

The downfall of America and her island-hopping campaign is told with very good balance between the macro-polical objectives -- the machinations, intrigue, inter-service rivalry, and horsetrading -- is balanced nicely wiht the battles themselves and the individual sacrifice of the American soldiers.

The carrier war is a point well described with Spector taking as much time to describe the Midway Battles as he does for the later Marianas "Turkey Shoot." One area I was very pleased to read was the small bit on the American Black troops in the theatre.

The book does not cover America's very limited contribution to the mainland war in Asia, but it does give a very good overview on the discussions and different visions the Americans and British had in the Pacific as a whole. With it being over 40 years since these horrible events unfolded it is worthy to note the Spector also deals with some of the unseemly side of the American war in the Pacific, how it migrated very quickly into a racial war with its concommitent valuation of the Japanese as less than human. From the Marine penchant for killing the few prisoners that were willing to surrender, to the wholesale destruction of Japanese cities by conventional and then Nuclear bombing. All of this said while not loosing sight of the very ugly aspects of Japanese Imperial tyrrany in Pacific and its treatment of other Asians as well as Allied Prisoners of War.

A good meaty read from cover to cover and a very good jumping off point for the study of individual campaigns and battles.

Editorial Review:

Only now can the full scope of the war in the Pacific be fully understood. Historian Ronald Spector, drawing on newly declassified intelligence files, an abundance of British and American archival material. Japanese scholarship and documents, and research and memoirs of scholarly and military men, has written a stunning, complete and up-to-date history of the conflict.