The story of the struggle over slavery in the British empire -- as told through the rich, expressive, and frequently shocking letters of one of the wealthiest British slaveholders ever to have lived.
On October 21, 1805, in the midst of the Battle of Trafalgar, Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson and the H.M.S. Victory are enveloped by an unknown force which render Nelson and his entire crew unconscious in a moment and transport them through time to the year 793. When they awake, they find themselves adrift, not off Cape Trafalgar, but in the North Sea, off the coast of Lindisfarne Island. In the distance, they can see the flames from the burning monastery there, which, unknown to the men of the Victory, had been put to the torch by brutal Viking raiders earlier that day.Faced with this bizarre situation, Nelson must make some hard choices. Lost in a hostile world, with no friends, no home port, and no supplies, can he and his crew survive amid the violence and intrigue of the Viking Age?
Presents the battle of Trafalgar in it's historical scope and context. Quotes extensively from journals and sources and brings to life the whole story of the British-French conflict, at sea and on land, at the dawn of the nineteenth century.
Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson was a colourful and complex character, whose supremely successful naval career quickly attained legendary status. By 1803 he was Britain's paramount hero and already maimed with the loss of an arm and blind in one eye. He returned to war when called back in May and spent a further two years at sea before dying at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Today, two centuries after his death, the 'immortal memory' of Nelson endures. In this book, leading historians provide a radical reappraisal of his life and times.
THE READER'S COMPANION TO MILITARY HISTORY is the first major reference work on military history to represent a global perspective. More than 150 distinguished military historians, biographers, and journalists contributed nearly 600 articles to this remarkable chronicle of warfare that combines compelling historical narrative with the latest in contemporary scholarship. Here is essential information on major events and battles, commanders, weaponry and technology, and strategy and tactics. Other topics include courage, discipline, the effects of weather on warfare, military justice, the role of propaganda, the evolution of uniforms, psychological warfare, and morale. Filled with surprising anecdotes and little-known facts, THE READER'S COMPANION TO MILITARY HISTORY
A beautifully observed history of the British home front during the Napoleonic Wars by a celebrated historian We know the thrilling, terrible stories of the battles of the Napoleonic Wars—but what of those left behind? The people on a Norfolk farm, in a Yorkshire mill, a Welsh iron foundry, an Irish village, a London bank, a Scottish mountain? The aristocrats and paupers, old and young, butchers and bakers and candlestick makers—how did the war touch their lives? Jenny Uglow, the prizewinning author of The Lunar Men and Nature's Engraver, follows the gripping back-and-forth of the first global war but turns the news upside down, seeing how it reached the people. Illustrated by the satires of Gillray and Rowlandson and the paintings of Turner and Constable, and combining the familiar voices of Austen, Wordsworth, Scott, and Byron with others lost in the crowd, In These Times delves into the archives to tell the moving story of how people lived and loved and sang and wrote, struggling through hard times and opening new horizons that would change their country for a century.
Napoleonic-era accounts of life aboard Royal Navy warships: “Readers of Patrick O’Brian and C. S. Forester will enjoy this collection” (Library Journal). At the dawn of the nineteenth century, the British Navy was the mightiest instrument of war the world had ever known. The Royal Navy patrolled the seas from India to the Caribbean, connecting an empire with footholds in every corner of the earth. Such a massive Navy required the service of more than 100,000 men—from officers to deckhands to surgeons. These are their stories. The inspiration for the bestselling novels by Patrick O’Brian and C. S. Forester, these memoirs and diaries, edited by Dean King, provide a true portrait of life aboard British warships during one of the most significant eras of world history. Their tellers are officers and ordinary sailors, and their subjects range from barroom brawls to the legendary heroics of Lord Horatio Nelson himself. Though these “iron men on wooden ships” are long gone, their deeds echo through the centuries.