This impressive study of the life of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was first published in 1913 when it achieved instant recognition as a brilliant appraisal of Pitt's career. It is a book with many outstanding merits to commend it to students of eighteenth century English history. Based on thorough and extensive researches, it traces Pitt's career from his election as a Member of Parliament for Old Sarum in 1735 and gives a well balanced account of his part in home and foriegn politics and colonial affairs during the next 30 years. The book contains many good maps and an excellent index, and a very valuable appendix gives a list of all Pitt's extant speeches, with references to where reports of them may be found. These two substantial volumes are invaluable as a portrait of one of the most outstanding historical figures of the eighteenth century.
This impressive study of the life of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was first published in 1913 when it achieved instant recognition as a brilliant appraisal of Pitt's career. It is a book with many outstanding merits to commend it to students of eighteenth century English history. Based on thorough and extensive researches, it traces Pitt's career from his election as a Member of Parliament for Old Sarum in 1735 and gives a well balanced account of his part in home and foriegn politics and colonial affairs during the next 30 years. The book contains many good maps and an excellent index, and a very valuable appendix gives a list of all Pitt's extant speeches, with references to where reports of them may be found. These two substantial volumes are invaluable as a portrait of one of the most outstanding historical figures of the eighteenth century.
The candid autobiography of one of the world's leading and most popular three-day eventers William Fox-Pitt has been one of the most successful three-day event riders for many years. He began eventing at the age of fifteen and decided to pursue this passion as a career after graduating from university. In 2004, he had a year of extremes, going from winning Badminton to having the agony of seeing his horse get injured during the Olympics, which destroyed his chances of an individual medal and prevented the team from winning gold. The following year, he won Burghley, Gatcombe and Bramham to confirm himself as Britain's top rider. In his eagerly awaited autobiography, he talks about the issues confronting the sport and reveals much about the vital partnerships with team-mates and, above all, the horses that help him to gain such success.
This remarkable book opens at the dawn of the British Empire - with the great sea battle at Quiberon Bay where French ships, intended for the 1759 invasion of Britain, are chased, caught and defeated by a fleet commanded by Admiral Sir Edward Hawke. In this momentous victory Britain effectively settled the outcome of the Seven Years' War and established itself as the world's dominant imperial power. At the heart of the conflict with France was William Pitt, the first Earl of Chatham and Britain's future Prime Minister. Weaving together military history and political biography Edward Pearce provides a portrait of the man 'with an eye like a diamond' - a man who had close ties with the slave trade and who preached war and British supremacy on a world stage. Alongside detailed descriptions of battles in Europe and North America we follow Pitt's career as a politician - one that was closely intertwined with General James Wolfe at Quebec; American independence; the slow mind of George III and the quick one of the rake and outsider John Wilkes. Edward Pearce scrutinises the real man at the heart of the historical events and mystique surrounding the legacy of Pitt the Elder, to present a rounded and masterful portrait of arguably the most powerful minister ever to guide Britain's foreign policy and of an age which marked a new epoch in history, when the balance of power in Europe and the world was set for almost two centuries.
The Younger Pitt was a phenomenon: dead at 46, he was not only Britain's youngest but also the second longest-serving Prime Minister to date, acting as premier for 19 of his 25 years in Parliament. In examining this astonishing career, this incisive Profile focuses on the means by which Pitt gained and maintained his hold on power. It provides new information on Pitt's relations with the strong-willed George III; on the nature of his ascendancy over his cabinet colleagues; his management of Parliament; his skill as a manipulator of public opinion; his role in Britain's international resurgence after the loss of America; and, of course, on the long struggle against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.
Few people have played a more important role in the history of Texas than William Pitt Ballinger. Though not as well known as legendary figures Stephen F. Austin or Sam Houston, Ballinger is one of those individuals whose behind-the-scenes life had a major impact on the events of his time. This thoroughly researched and engagingly written biography brings Ballinger to life as one of the most complete men of his time: lawyer, soldier, public servant, civic leader, author, editorialist, naturalist, education reformer, and bibliophile. In his long and illustrious career as a lawyer, Ballinger was usually the picture of calm and confidence, but on the morning of April 21, 1881, he found it difficult to maintain his composure as he awaited a conference with Jay Gould, the legendary "robber baron" of the Gilded Age, who had written Ballinger just six days earlier "to obtain the best legal advice I can." After four hours of consultation, Gould left Ballinger's office with the legal opinion he sought and a bill for $2,500. Gould was looking for "a lawyer with great ability and nerve," and he later remarked dryly that Ballinger's insightful opinion convinced him of his ability, and that the size of the bill convinced him that Ballinger had the nerve. Jay Gould was just one of the many significant figures who befriended or worked with Ballinger: Daniel Webster, William Seward, Albert Sidney Johnston, Jefferson Davis, Samuel Colgate, and William Tecumseh Sherman, to name but a few. Within Texas, Ballinger's list of friends and acquaintances read like a "Who's Who" of the mid-nineteenth century: Sam Houston, Michel Menard, Samuel May Williams, William Marsh Rice, and Francis Lubbock, among others. His brothers-in-law, Guy Bryan and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Miller, were both instrumental in getting Ballinger nominated to the Texas Supreme Court and to the Supreme Court of the United States. The reserved Ballinger declined both opportunities. Ballinger served Texas in a number of areas, from helping make Galveston the state's premier antebellum city to devoting his service to the Confederacy (although he had been a staunch Unionist). After the war, he helped negotiate Texas' surrender and played a key role in the drafting of the state's 1876 constitution. But Ballinger's life was not just about the law; it was about living life to the fullest. He was an intense, driven man, devoted to his family, his law practice, his nation, and his beloved state. In Ballinger's fascinating life and career we see reflected some of the most important issues of his era, including secession, slavery, corporations, and the law. The social, political, and cultural climate of Texas, the South, and the nation are revealed through the life, eyes, and mind of this remarkable, articulate man whose life spanned much of the nineteenth century. JOHN MORETTA received his Ph.D. in history from Rice University. He is professor of history at Central College, Houston Community College, and teaches at the University of Houston.
The Seven Years' War (1754–1763) was a pivotal event in the history of the Atlantic world. Perspectives on the significance of the war and its aftermath varied considerably from different cultural vantage points. Northern and western Indians, European imperial authorities, and their colonial counterparts understood and experienced the war (known in the United States as the French and Indian War) in various ways. In many instances the progress of the conflict was charted by cultural differences and the implications participants drew from cultural encounters. It is these cultural encounters, their meaning in the context of the Seven Years' War, and their impact on the war and its diplomatic settlement that are the subjects of this volume. Cultures in Conflict: The Seven Years' War in North America addresses the broad pattern of events that framed this conflict's causes, the intercultural dynamics of its conduct, and its profound impact on subsequent events—most notably the American Revolution and a protracted Anglo-Indian struggle for continental control. Warren R. Hofstra has gathered the best of contemporary scholarship on the war and its social and cultural history. The authors examine the viewpoints of British and French imperial authorities, the issues motivating Indian nations in the Ohio Valley, the matter of why and how French colonists fought, the diplomatic and social world of Iroquois Indians, and the responses of British colonists to the conflict. The result of these efforts is a dynamic historical approach in which cultural context provides a rationale for the well-established military and political narrative of the Seven Years' War. These synthetic and interpretive essays mark out new territory in our understanding of the Seven Years' War as we recognize its 250th anniversary.
The Seven Years War has been described as the first global conflict in history. It engulfed the Euro-Atlantic world from 1756 to 1763, and engaged the energies of European cabinets as never before. More than previous conflicts, the Seven Years War involved a variety of approaches to war, and taxed the military, material and moral resources of the powers involved. Drawing on a diverse array of archival, printed primary and secondary sources, The Seven Years War: A Transatlantic Historycovers the war’s origins, its conduct on land and at sea, its effects on logistics and finance, its interactions with domestic politics, its influence on international relations and its approach to peace. The book highlights the role of personality, alongside the enduring importance of communication, misperception and understanding. In so doing, it endeavours not merely to chronicle the war’s events, but to situate them in the context of mid-eighteenth century warfare, finance, politics and diplomacy. The Seven Years Warwill be of great interest to students of the European history, American history, maritime history, diplomatic and military history.
