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Articles 14301 à 14320 sur 17211
This collection of speeches from 1906 to 1909 documents Churchill&’s early years as a Member of the Liberal Party in…
the House of Commons. Sir Winston Churchill is admired as a brilliant Conservative politician and statesman—but he wasn't always a Conservative. In 1904, he crossed over to join the Liberal party, becoming Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies and later joining the Liberal Cabinet. This collection of his speeches reveals Churchill's dramatic shift toward a more progressive governing philosophy. Here, the young MP&’s fervently argues his positions on some of the most important issues of the time, including the "People's Budget," a highly controversial new wealth distribution initiative. The resulting conflict between the House of Lords and the House of Commons led to the passage of the Parliament Act of 1911, asserting the House of Commons' legislative powers. This compilation of speeches is both an enlightening historical document and a fascinating display of the future Prime Minister&’s political insights and oratory skill.Par Winston S. Churchill. 2012
A collection of speeches given by Churchill in the 1930s, fiercely opposing the India Bill and India home rule. …
In 1931, Britain's Conservative Party proposed the India Bill, a piece of legislation that would make significant changes to the way India governed itself under British rule. Winston Churchill was against the bill and defended his position with characteristic conviction and oratory brilliance. This book contains seven speeches and three important addresses Churchill gave on the subject, printed originally to generate popular support for Churchill's opinion. Churchill's opposition to Indian home rule is one of his more controversial political positions and led to a period of political isolation for him. Despite the strength of his oration, the India Bill was approved by Parliament in 1935. Documenting a rare loss for Churchill, these speeches provide an important insight into his mind and strategy as a political leader.Par Winston S. Churchill. 2013
This collection of addresses to the House of Commons during WWII provides unique insight into the British Prime Minister&’s wartime…
leadership. During World War II, security was so precarious that the House of Commons was at times forced to meet in secret in order to keep its counsel from reaching the enemy. On five separate occasions between 1940 and 1942, Winston Churchill addressed the secret assembly. Those fateful speeches are reproduced in this collection. Here, Churchill delivers his immediate reactions to the fall of France, the discovery of a vast enemy armada in the English Channel, and the fall of Singapore, which may have been the most heartbreaking and costly military failure of Churchill's career. These speeches offer intimate insight into Churchill's thinking in this highly consequential period. Originally published in 1945, Secret Sessions Speeches provides fascinating context to some of World War II's most significant events—and continue to carry great weight and meaning today.A World War II memoir by the renowned German fighter pilot—from his Hitler Youth glider training to combat missions against…
the Soviet Air Force. Herr Norbert Hanning&’s wartime career makes for fascinating and highly informative reading on an aspect of the 1939-45 air war not often covered in the English language; primarily that of the campaign against the Soviet Union. He was one of the midwar-generation Luftwaffe fighter pilots and began operations with JG 54 on the eastern (Leningrad) front in early 1943; initially flying Messerschmitt Bf 109s before transitioning to the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. He became a Staffel CO and was credited with 42 victories, also serving with JV 44 (whose CO was Adolf Galland); he then returned to Germany towards the closing stages of the war to convert to Me 262 jet fighters. Many and varied were his experiences in action against the rejuvenated Soviet Air Force in the east, and the powerful western Allies over the homeland during the final chaotic months of hostilities, which culminated in his captivity. John Weal&’s skillful translation ensures that the fluid and descriptive style of the author is preserved. Thankfully, also, Norbert was a keen photographer who shot a profusion of images, all previously unpublished, many of which appear in this important book.Par Cecil Hunt. 1945
This A-to-Z etymology guide reveals the people and characters whose names have evolved into common English words.Have you ever wondered…
about the origins of words like &“Bowdlerize&”? In 1818 Thomas Bowdler published and abridged set of Shakespeare's plays which &“omitted those passages which might offend family propriety&”—thereby making his name literally synonymous with the practice of distorting someone&’s words. In Word Origins, Cecil Hunt provides fascinating profiles of hundreds of people whose names we use in everyday conversation. Discover historical personalities such as Sir Benjamin Hall, for whom Big Ben is named; the mythic figure of Tantalus, who was doomed by Zeus to forever be tantalized, and who continues to be tantalizing; as well as the Morse of Morse Code, Sax of Saxophones, and many others.The great Enlightenment thinker shares his views on the nature and practice of history in this fascinating critique of historical…
narratives. In The Philosophy of History, Voltaire present a radical reinterpretation of the moral, aesthetic, and religious views and the customs and practices that prevailed in ancient civilizations. His critique touches on a range of topics, from cultures across the globe to legislators who spoke in the name of the gods. This enthralling essay is an essential read for scholars and students of the Enlightenment. This ebook is derived from the original edition published in 1776, with a preface by Thomas Kiernan.Par George MacKay Brown. 2021
First published in 1969, An Orkney Tapestry, George Mackay Brown's seminal work, is a unique look at Orkney through the…
eye of a poet. Originally commissioned by his publisher as an introduction to the Orkney Islands, Brown approached the writing from a unique perspective and went on to produce a rich fusion of ballad, folk tale, short story, drama, and environmental writing. The book, written at an early stage in the author’s career, explores themes that appear in his later work and was a landmark in Brown’s development as a writer. Above all, it is a celebration of Orkney's people, language and history. This edition reproduces Sylvia Wishart’s beautiful illustrations, commissioned for the original hardback. Made available again for the first time in over 40 years, this new edition sits alongside Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain as an important precursor of environmental writing by the likes of Kathleen Jamie, Robert Macfarlane, Malachy Tallack and, most recently, Amy Liptrot.Par John McCallum. 2012
The first-hand account of three Scotsmen and their dramatic escape from Nazi Germany&’s Stalag VIIIB prison camp during World War…
II. At the age of nineteen, Glasgow-born John McCallum signed up as a Supplementary Reservist in the Signal Corps. A little over a year later, he was in France, working frantically to set up communication lines as Europe once more hurtled towards war. Wounded and captured at Boulogne, he was sent to the notorious Stalag VIIIB prison camp, together with his brother, Jimmy, and friend Joe Harkin. Ingenious and resourceful, the three men set about planning their escape. With the help of Traudl, a local girl whom John had met while working in nearby Bad Karlsbrunn, they put their plan into action. In an astonishing coincidence, they passed through the town of Sagan, around which the seventy-six airmen of the Great Escape were being pursued and caught. However, unlike most of these other escapees, John, Jimmy and Joe eventually made it to freedom. Now, due to the declassification of documents under the Official Secrets Act, John McCallum is finally able to tell the thrilling story of his adventure, in which he recaptures all the danger, audacity and romance of one of the most daring escapes of the Second World War.&“A dashed good read. Especially as his escape was successful.&” —The Herald&“I couldn&’t stop turning the pages . . . a great tale—with a deep message.&” —George RobertsonPar Walter Reid, Paul Birch, Gordon Masterton. 2016
A unique book that follows the story of World War I through the lives and deaths of seventy-two soldiers in…
one small Scottish village. The war memorial in the Scottish village of Bridge of Weir lists seventy-two men who died during the First World War. Their deaths occurred in almost every theater of the war. They were awarded very few medals, and their military careers were not remarkable—except in the important respect that they, like countless other peaceful civilians, answered their country&’s call in its time of need. This book follows the lives of these sons of Bridge of Weir, not just as soldiers, sailors, and airmen, but as husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, and members of a small community that felt their loss intensely. At the same time, it also paints a larger picture of the war, of the politicians and generals and military campaigns that shaped it. The brave men of Bridge of Weir knew little of the wider context—their experience was of the smaller histories in which they fought and died. Readers of this book will understand what the seventy-two never knew: why and how the war that claimed their lives was fought.Par Alistair Moffat. 2010
Dive into Northern Britain&’s Dark Ages in &“a book which gives a satisfying and convincing account of this little-known part…
of Scotland&’s history&” (Undiscovered Scotland). Modern communications have driven motorways and pylons through the countryside, dwarfed us with TV and telephone masts, and drastically altered the way in which we move around, see, and understand Scotland. Recent politics and logistics have established borders and jurisdictions which now seem permanent and impervious. The Faded Map looks beyond these to remember a land that was once quiet and green. Alistair Moffat&’s &“tireless research . . . and commanding knowledge&” bring to vivid life the half-forgotten kings and kingdoms of two thousand years ago, from the time of the Romans into the early medieval period (Scottish Field). In this &“fascinating&” account, Moffat describes the landscape these men and women moved through and writes of a Celtic society which spoke to itself in Old Welsh, where the Sons of Prophesy ruled, and the time when the English kings of Bernicia held sway over vast swathes of what is now Scotland (Alexander McCall Smith, author of Dream Angus). Heroes rode out of the mists to challenge them and then join with them, and the faint echo of the din of ancient battles can be heard as he takes the reader on a remarkable journey around a lost Scotland.Par David R. Higgins. 2010
An account of the ups and downs of a six-month-long WWII campaign with &“a well detailed chronological order of the…
battles [and] interesting photographs&” (Armorama). A selection of the Military Book Club. Following the Allied breakout from the Normandy beachhead in July 1944, the vaunted German Army seemed on the verge of collapse. As British and US forces fanned out across northwestern France, enemy resistance unexpectedly dissolved into a headlong retreat to the German and Belgian borders. In early September, an elated Allied High Command had every expectation of continuing their momentum to cripple the enemy&’s warmaking capability by capturing the Ruhr industrial complex and plunging into the heart of Germany. After a brief pause to allow for resupply, Courtney Hodge&’s First Army prepared to punch through the ominous but largely outdated Westwall, the Siegfried Line, surrounding Aachen. But during the lull, German commanders such as the &“lion of defense,&” Walter Model, reorganized depleted units and mounted an increasingly potent defense. Though the German Replacement Army funneled considerable numbers to the front, they too often strained an overburdened supply system and didn&’t greatly enhance existing combat formations. More importantly, the panzer divisions, once thought irretrievably destroyed, were resupplied and reinvigorated. When the Allied offensive resumed, it ran into a veritable brick wall—gains measured in yards, not miles, if any were made at all. While both sides suffered equally in an urbanized environment of pillbox-infested hills, impenetrable forests, and freezing rain, the Germans were on the defensive and better able to inflict casualties out of proportion to their own. For the US First Army, what was originally to be a walk-through turned into a frustrating six-month campaign that decimated infantry and tank forces alike. The &“broad front,&” as opposed to a &“Schwerpunkt&” strategy, led to the demise of many a citizen-soldier. Drawing on primary Wehrmacht and US sources, including battle analysis and daily situation and after-action reports, The Roer River Battles provides insight into the desperate German efforts to keep a conquering enemy at the borders of their homeland. Tactical maps down to battalion-level help clarify the very fluid nature of the combat. Combined, they serve to explain not just how, but why decisions were made and events unfolded, and how reality often differed from doctrine in one of the longest US campaigns of World War II.Par Alistair Moffat. 2020
“This account of four west coast journeys in search of the remnants of the earliest Christian missionaries is intriguing . . .…
Moffat is an engaging guide.” —The ScotsmanFourteen centuries ago, Irish saints brought the Word of God to the Hebrides and Scotland’s Atlantic shore. These “white martyrs” sought solitude, remoteness, even harshness, in places apart from the world where they could fast, pray and move closer to an understanding of God: places where they could see angels. Columba, who founded the famous monastery at Iona, was the most well-known of these courageous men who rowed their curraghs towards danger and uncertainty in a pagan land, but the many others are now largely forgotten by history. In this book, Alistair Moffat journeys from the island of Eileach an Naoimh at the mouth of the Firth of Lorne to Lismore, Iona and then north to Applecross, searching for traces of these extraordinary men. He finds them not often in any tangible remains, but in the spirit of the islands and remote places where they passed their exemplary lives. Brendan, Moluag, Columba, Maelrubha and others brought the Gaelic language and echoes of how the saints saw their world can still be heard in its cadences. And the tradition of great piety endures.“This account of four journeys to three small islands and a remote peninsula in the Scottish north-west has an air of exotic adventure.” —The Times Literary Supplement“I was drawn to Moffat’s personal response to pilgrimage as he retraced the spiritual journeys of the early monks . . . This delightful book is part history, part pilgrimage.” —Church TimesPar Desmond Seward. 2021
&“An engaging look at the violent struggle of the surprisingly diverse Jacobites... Swift and cinematic with neatly sketched character portraits.&”…
—Financial Times This is the first modern history for general readers of the entire Jacobite movement in Scotland, England and Ireland, from the &‘Glorious Revolution&’ of 1688 that drove James II into exile to the death of his grandson, Cardinal Henry, Duke of York, in 1807. The Battle of Culloden and Bonnie Prince Charlie&’s flight through the heather are well known, but not the other risings and plots that involved half of Europe and even revolutionary America. Based on the latest research, The King over the Water weaves together all the strands of this gripping saga into a vivid, sweeping narrative, full of insight, analysis and anecdote. &“Few causes have aroused a more gallant response from the peoples of these islands than the Honest Cause,&” writes Desmond Seward, &“whether they were fighting for it at Killiecrankie, Prestonpans or Culloden, at the Boyne, Aughrim or Fontenoy, or dying for it on the scaffold.&” &“Highly readable, with brilliantly rendered characters, and thrilling tales of deceit and espionage.&”—Military History Monthly &“A bracingly revisionist history.&” —Telegraph &“Seward's detailed descriptions of the Princes, Princesses, Kings, and Queens create a sense of theatre and allow the reader to fully immerse themselves into the dramatic events of the period . . . an engaging and easy read.&” —Scottish Field &“A rollickingly, splendidly chronological history.&” –Herald &“Seward's clear-sighted examination of the Jacobite movement shows how close it came to succeeding.&” —Scotsman &“This lively book is a welcome addition.&” —BBC HistoryPar Thorbjorn Campbell. 2013
A Scottish historian provides an original, fascinating, and comprehensive account of the Isle of Arran from the prehistoric era to…
the 20th-century. Arran is an archaeological and geological treasure trove of stunning scenic beauty. Its history stretches back more than five thousand years to the great stone circles, whose remnants still decorate the plains of Machrie. Runic inscriptions tell of a Viking occupation lasting centuries. Later, in 1307, King Robert the Bruce began his triumphant comeback from Arran. Subsequently, the island was repeatedly caught up and devastated in the savage dynastic struggles of medieval Scotland. After the 1707 Parliamentary Union, came a new and strange upheaval: Arran became a testing ground for the Industrial Revolution. The ancient &‘runrig&’ style of farming gave way to enclosed fields and labor-saving methods, which eventually lead to the socially disastrous Highland Clearances. The misfortune of the times was culminated by the Great Irish Potato Famine of 1845. At last, the area settled into a stable mixture of agriculture and tourism in the 19th and 20th centuries.Par Polly Pullar. 2014
&“A lively and entertaining account of the highs and lows of life on this small windswept island . . . A must…
read for people interested in Scottish history.&” —Scottish Field Lawrence MacEwen&’s family has owned Muck, a small island in the Scottish Hebrides, since 1896. A wonderfully benevolent, eccentric character, he is passionate about the island and its continuing success, and has kept diaries all his life. Wildlife writer Polly Pullar paints a portrait of a man and a community, unveiling a uniquely human story punctuated with liberal amounts of humor as well as heart-rending tragedy, always dominated by the vagaries of the sea. Filled with extraordinary tales and priceless observations, this is not only an entertaining read but an important part of Scottish social history. Tracing Lawrence&’s story from the time his mother brought him home from the hospital on the mainland up to the present day, it offers tales of coal puffers and livestock transportation on steamers and small boats, extraordinary chance meetings and adventures that eventually led him to finding his wife, Jenny, on the island of Soay. It&’s also a book about the small hard-working community of thirty souls on this fertile island of just fifteen hundred acres. Residents work closely with the MacEwen family, in a thriving farm, a market garden, a modern school, a busy tearoom, a craft shop, and a winter shoot. It&’s a fascinating journey to a place that opened a guesthouse in 2013—just a few months after Muck, one of the last places in the UK to receive twenty-four hour power, left its unreliable generator behind for solar panels and wind turbines.Par Terry J. Williams. 2017
&“In careful prose, and with black and white photographs, [Williams] makes a fascinating way of life both grounded and heroic.&”…
—TheScotsman Droving was once the lifeblood of Scotland&’s rural economy, and for centuries Scotland&’s glens and mountain passes were alive with thousands of cattle making their way to the market trysts of Crieff and Falkirk. With the Industrial Revolution, ships, railways, and eventually lorries took over the drovers&’ trade, and by the early twentieth century, the age-old droving tradition was all but dead. Except, however, in the Western Isles, where droving on foot continued until the mid-1960s, when MacBrayne&’s introduced a new generation of ferries capable of bringing livestock lorries to the islands. In this book, Terry J. Williams follows the route of the drovers and their cattle from the remote Atlantic coast of Uist to the Highland marts. Travelling by campervan and armed with a voice recorder, a collection of archive photographs, and a set of maps marked with the old market stances, she seeks out the last surviving drovers. The resulting narrative is an extraordinary insight into a lost world, told through the voices of the few remaining individuals who remember the days of walking with cattle.Par James Hunter. 2015
This true story of a mass eviction in nineteenth-century Scotland is &“a moving, gripping, definitive account of a struggle for…
survival (Scots Magazine).A Saltire Society History Book of the Year They would be better dead, they said, than set adrift upon the world. But set adrift they were—thousands of them, their communities destroyed, their homes demolished and burned. Such were the Sutherland Clearances, an extraordinary episode involving the deliberate depopulation of much of a Scottish Highlands county. What was done in the course of it was planned and carried out by a small group of men and one woman, seeking a more profitable use of the land. Most of those involved wrote a great deal about their actions, intentions, and feelings, and much of it has been preserved. There are no equivalent collections of material from those whose communities ceased to exist. Their feelings and fears are harder to access, but by no means irrecoverable. In this book, James Hunter tells the story of the Sutherland Clearances. His research took him to archives in Scotland, England, and Canada, to the now deserted valleys of Sutherland, to the frozen shores of Hudson Bay. The result is a story of a people&’s struggle for survival in the face of tragedy and disaster, covering experiences not featured in any previous such account. &“Detailed and unsparing . . . . [The author] is careful to present the evidence for all he records.&” —London Review of BooksPar Ann Lingard. 2020
“Beautiful, intensely visual prose, born from deep intimacy with subtle borderlands: land and sea, England and Scotland, people and environments.”…
—David Gange, author of The Frayed Atlantic EdgeFirths and estuaries are liminal places, where land meets sea and tides meet freshwater. Their unique ecosystems support a huge range of marine and other wildlife: human activity too is profoundly influenced by their waters and shores.The Solway Firth—the crooked finger of water that both unites and divides Scotland and England—is a beautiful yet unpredictable place and one of the least-industrialized natural large estuaries in Europe. Its history, geology and turbulent character have long affected the way its inhabitants, both human and non-human, have learnt to live along and within its ever-changing margins.“Lingard’s scientific knowledge of the area and its multitudinous inhabitants [is] delivered in riveting prose. This is deep and beautiful natural history writing.” —BBC Countryfile Magazine“Like a hungry gull, Ann Lingard explores her beloved Solway shoreline for every living detail that catches her eye. In so doing she has created a portrait of this nation-cleaving water that is as broad and deep as the estuary itself.” —Mark Cocker, author of Birds & People“A kaleidoscopic portrait of the borders of the land.” —Cumbria Life“Lingard writes vividly about this estuary . . . an excellent point of reference for locals, visitors and for those simply intrigued by this lesser-known corner of Scotland.” —Scottish FieldPar Ann Gray, Iby Fraser. 2012
In this memoir, the daughter of one of the first keeper&’s of Scotland&’s Shinness Estate details life in the early…
20th century Scottish Highlands. Sutherland is one of the most ruggedly beautiful and sparsely populated parts of Scotland. In the nineteenth century, the Duke of Sutherland set about improving his landholdings to make them more productive by building lodges for sporting tenants who came to enjoy the summer fishing and shooting grouse and deer. In the 1870s some 3,000 acres of land were reclaimed at Shinness. A lodge was built there in 1882 and allocated some 2,500 acres of moorland for grouse and grazing, together with the fishings on Loch Shin and its rivers. One of the first keepers at the estate was John Fraser. His daughter, Iby, became a teacher at Lairg School. In the 1970s, long after the Fletcher family had taken on Shinness Estate, Iby wrote down some recollections of her early life for Mrs. Fletcher's interest. This charming book offers insightful descriptions of everyday life—from cooking, framing, and game keeping to medicine, schooling, and childhood games—as well as of the events that had a profound effect on communities everywhere, including the emergence of the motor car and World War I. Several other local contemporaries also contribute their memories, including Ann Gray, the daughter of the farmer who took on the reclaimed land in the 1880s, and Jimmy Bain, a crofter born after the Great War.Par Roland Tanner. 2001
In this ground-breaking study of the medieval parliament, Roland Tanner gives the Scottish Parliament a human face by examining the…
actions and motives of those who attended. In the past, the Scottish Parliament was seen as a weak and ineffective institution – damned because of its failure to be more like its English counterpart. But Roland Tanner shows that the old picture of weakness is far from accurate. In its very different way, the Scottish Parliament was every bit as powerful as the English institution. The ‘Three Estates’ (the clergy, nobility and burgh representatives who attended Parliament) were able to wield a surprising degree of control over the Crown during the fifteenth century. For instance, they threatened to lock James I’s taxation in a box to which he, the king, would have no access, made James II swear not to alter acts of Parliament, and prevented him from using his own lands and wealth as patronage for his supporters, and forbade James III to leave the country. Roland Tanner has avoided a dry constitutional approach. Instead he has sought to bring Parliament to life through the people who attended, the reasons why they attended, and the complex interactions which occurred when all the most wealthy, powerful and ambitious people in the kingdom gathered in one place.