Скачать книгу (размер 565 Kb , формат fb2) Аннотация: From 1501, when the first slaves arrived in Hispaniola, until the nineteenth century, some twelve million people were abducted from west Africa and shipped across thousands of miles of ocean – the infamous Middle Passage – to work in the colonies of the New World. Perhaps two million Africans died at sea. Why was slavery so widely condoned, during most of this period, by leading lawyers,…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 115 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 220) Аннотация: The unfolding crisis in Ukraine has brought the world to the brink of a new Cold War. As Russia and Ukraine tussle for Crimea and the eastern regions, relations between Putin and the West have reached an all-time low. How did we get here? Richard Sakwa here unpicks the context of conflicted Ukrainian identity and of Russo-Ukrainian relations and traces the path to the recent disturbances through…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: China is the world's fastest-growing economic powerhouse. Everybody knows this. But behind the headlines a once-in-a-generation sexual and cultural revolution is taking place — all in the bars, cafes and streets of China's growing mega-cities. Welcome to this new China. Writer and journalist Jemimah Steinfeld meets the young people behind the world's fastest-moving nation to unveil their…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 054 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 208) Аннотация: The 900-day German Siege of Leningrad is the most powerful testimony to the immeasurable cruelty and horror of World War II. As the sole British correspondent to have been in the city during the blockade, Alexander Werth presents a harrowing firsthand account of the savagery and destruction wrought by the Nazis against the civilian population of the city. His writing evokes compelling images of…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 789 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 352) Аннотация: Since 1900, the Royal Navy has seen vast operational changes. This book tells the story, not just of victory and defeat, but also of how the Navy has adjusted to a century of rapid technological and social change. The extensive reforms made by Admiral Fisher at the dawn of the twentieth century saw the navy's nineteenth-century wooden fleet replaced with the latest modern technology — battleships…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: The Royal Navy's operations in World War II started on 3 September 1939 and continued until the surrender of Japan in August 1945 — there was no 'phoney war' at sea. The navy played a central role in the evacuation of the retreating British army at Dunkirk, and later orchestrated the sinking of Germany's mighty battleship and Hitler's pride, the Bismarck. Without the Royal Navy's attention to the…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: The Napoleonic Wars were the first truly global conflict. The Royal Navy was a key player in the wars and, at the cessation of hostilities, Britain emerged as the only naval power capable of sustained global hegemony. Many of the most iconic battles of this era were fought at sea — from the Battle of the Nile in 1798 to Nelson's momentous victory at Trafalgar in October 1805. This book looks at…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 462 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 288) Аннотация: Hugh Trevor-Roper's experiences working for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) during the war had a profound impact on him and he later observed the world of intelligence with particular sharpness. To him, the subject of wartime espionage was as worthy of profound investigation and reflection as events from the more distant past. Expressing his observations through some of his most ironic and…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 870 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 368) Аннотация: Russia under Vladimir Putin has proved a prickly partner for the West, a far cry from the democratic ally many hoped for when the Soviet Union collapsed. Abroad, he has used Russia's energy might as a foreign policy weapon, while at home he has cracked down on opponents, adamant that only he has the right vision for his country's future. Former BBC Moscow correspondent Angus Roxburgh charts the…
Скачать книгу (размер 718 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 142) Аннотация: One of the most charismatic feature films of the New Wave, A Bout de souffle (1960) has retained its appeal not only as the emphatic statement of a generational break with tradition, but also as Godard's earliest rendition of a set of thematic and stylistic motifs that would become his trademark. A Bout de souffle is now a cult film, propelled in part by the memorable coupling of its leading…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 462 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 288) Аннотация: South Yemen has come to be seen as a potential Al-Qaeda stronghold and at the heart of a separatist movement threatening to rip apart southern Arabia. How has this country of forbidding mountains and arid deserts gone from British colony to communist state and then to 'terrorist base' in just half a century? In 'Yemen Divided', author and Middle East expert Noel Brehony tells for the first time…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 544 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 304) Аннотация: From Cairo to Damascus and from Tunisia to Bahrain, Layla Al-Zubaidi and Matthew Cassel have brought together some of the most exciting new writing born out of revolution in the Arab world. This is a remarkable collection of testimony, entirely composed by participants in, and witnesses to, the profound changes shaking their region. Situated between past, present and future — in a space where the…
Скачать книгу (размер 605 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 120) Аннотация: «Mirror» — Andrei Tarkovsky's most complex autobiographical film--is the subject of this critical companion. The film reconstructs and records ironic memories and emotional impressions in the life of an individual, nation, and era. The critical acclaim was overwhelming, and «Mirror» is still the favorite Tarkovsky film of most Russians. This book provides a production history, critical analysis,…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: At its height, the Napoleonic Empire spanned much of mainland Europe. Feted and feared by millions of citizens, Napoleon was the most powerful and famous man of his age. But following his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo the future of the one-time Emperor of France and master of Europe seemed irredeemably bleak. How did the brilliant tactician cope with being at the mercy of his captors? How did…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 544 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 304) Аннотация: 'This victory', exulted Peter the Great, 'has laid the final stone in the foundations of St Petersburg!' The Battle of Poltava, 1709, marks the birth of the Tsar's vast Russian Empire. In 1700, seeking to open Russian trade routes to the West, the Tsar combined with Denmark, Saxony and Poland to attack Swedish hegemony in the North. Against the odds, King Charles XII of Sweden subdued the hostile…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: It is impossible to understand the history of modern Europe without some knowledge of the Weimar Republic. The brief fourteen-year period of democracy between the Treaty of Versailles and the advent of the Third Reich was marked by unstable government, economic crisis and hyperinflation and the rise of extremist political movements. At the same time, however, a vibrant cultural scene flourished,…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: The American war against British imperial rule (1775-1783) was the world's first great popular revolution. Ideologically defined by the colonists' formal Declaration of Independence in 1776, the struggle has taken on something a mythic character, especially in the United States. From the Boston Tea Party to Paul Revere's ride to raise the countryside of New England against the march of the…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 789 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 352) Аннотация: Arabs and Jews describe the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948 in completely different ways. Among Arabs, and especially Palestinians, the events of that year are known as the nakba — the catastrophe, the trauma, the disaster. For Jews, and in particular for Israelis, their victory in the war of 1948 is a veritable miracle in which, against tremendous odds and through heroic military effort, the…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 952 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 384) Аннотация: The University of Oxford was a medieval wonder. After its foundation in the late 12th century it designed one of Europe's most admired syllabuses for the study of the liberal arts (the trivium and the quadrivium) and theology, and attracted teachers of international calibre and fame. The ideas of brilliant thinkers like Robert Grosseteste (who in the early 13th century mastered and taught Greek…
Скачать книгу (размер 1 952 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 384) Аннотация: Presented here is a comprehensive list of Van Gogh's paintings executed between 1886 and 1890 in Paris, Arles, Saint-Remy and Auvers-sur-Oise. The works are reproduced in full colour and appear in related scale to their original size. All owners are registered, beginning with Theo van Gogh or receivers of gifts, and ending with the present owners, if known and willing to be mentioned. For the…