Many writers have written about the delights of the former kingdom of the South Saxons, its Downs, villages, countryside, people and their ways but Visitors' Historic Britain - West Sussex_ is the first book to take readers on a tour of discovery of each of the county's historic eras in turn.Starting with prehistoric Sussex, we explore West Sussex from west to east, investigating both little-known and well-visited sites that tell the story of our ancestors' past. We encounter wild warriors, formidable founders of the county, indefatigable industrialists, excitable eccentrics and the lives of Sussex inhabitants and invaders.Sussex is a country celebrated by writers, painters, royalty, artists and the millions who have enjoyed its changing coastline and verdant villages. Visitors' Historic Britain provides a unique series of journeys for those who are inquisitive about this quirky and history-changing part of the Southeast.
The ancient counties surrounding the Weald in the SE corner of England have a strongly marked character of their own that has survived remarkably well in the face of ever-increasing population pressure. The area is, however, comparatively neglected in discussion of Roman Britain, where it is often subsumed into a generalised treatment of the ‘civilian’ part of Britannia that is based largely on other parts of the country. This book aims to redress the balance. The focus is particularly on Kent, Surrey and Sussex account is taken of information from neighboring counties, particularly when the difficult subsoils affect the availability of evidence. An overview of the environment and a consideration of themes relevant to the South-East as a whole accompany 14 papers covering the topics of rural settlement in each county, crops, querns and millstones, animal exploitation, salt production, leatherworking, the working of bone and similar materials, the production of iron and iron objects, non-ferrous metalworking, pottery production and the supply of tile to Roman London. Agriculture and industry provides an up-to-date assessment of our knowledge of the southern hinterland of Roman London and an area that was particularly open to influences from the Continent.
An analysis of twenty-nine of the most famous theories, featuring assassinations, military operations, aliens, secret societies, and government conspiracies. Conspiracies. They happen every day. All it takes is a couple of people and a secret, nefarious plan. But then there are big conspiracy theories—the assassinations, cover-ups, and shadow governments that are endlessly debated on talk radio and the Internet. Are they real? Are they even possible? Or are they just plain paranoid? Paul Simpson has researched a wide variety of conspiracies, from those historically accepted to those that spark accusations of “being a part of it” if you disagree with their supporters. In reviewing these famous (and, in some cases, infamous) theories, That’s What They Want You to Think does not start from the position of a believer or a debunker. In each case, Simpson makes up his own mind based on the evidence of primary documents—and some of his conclusions may surprise even the most dedicated conspiracy researcher. Straightforward and engaging, That’s What They Want You to Think provides food for thought for both conspiracy buffs and skeptics. Novices and veteran researchers alike will debate the latest evidence and fresh takes on long-standing theories. Covering topics as diverse as the JFK assassination and faked moon landings, from the bombing of Pearl Harbor to Area 51 and the New World Order, Simpson makes you wonder if what you believe is real, possible, or paranoid. Praise for That’s What They Want You to Think “This lively book looks at a variety of conspiracy theories—many well-known, others not so much—from a historical, investigative point of view. . . . Well worthwhile.” —Booklist
On the Eve is the portrait of a world on the brink of annihilation. In this provocative book, Bernard Wasserstein presents a new and disturbing interpretation of the collapse of European Jewish civilization even before the Nazi onslaught. In the 1930s, as Europe spiraled toward the Second World War, the continent’s Jews faced an existential crisis. The harsh realities of the age—anti-Semitic persecution, economic discrimination, and an ominous climate of violence—devastated Jewish communities and shattered the lives of individuals. The Jewish crisis was as much the result of internal decay as of external attack. Demographic collapse, social disintegration, and cultural dissolution were all taking their toll. The problem was not just Nazism: In the summer of 1939 more Jews were behind barbed wire outside the Third Reich than within it, and not only in police states but even in the liberal democracies of the West. The greater part of Europe was being transformed into a giant concentration camp for Jews. Unlike most previous accounts, On the Eve focuses not on the anti-Semites but on the Jews. Wasserstein refutes the common misconception that they were unaware of the gathering forces of their enemies. He demonstrates that there was a growing and widespread recognition among Jews that they stood on the edge of an abyss. On the Eve recaptures the agonizing sorrows and the effervescent cultural glories of this last phase in the history of the European Jews. It explores their hopes, anxieties, and ambitions, their family ties, social relations, and intellectual creativity—everything that made life meaningful and bearable for them. Wasserstein introduces a diverse array of characters: holy men and hucksters, beggars and bankers, politicians and poets, housewives and harlots, and, in an especially poignant chapter, children without a future. The geographical range also is vast: from Vilna (the “Jerusalem of the North”) to Amsterdam, Vienna, Warsaw, and Paris, from the Judeo-Espagnol-speaking stevedores of Salonica to the Yiddish-language collective farms of Soviet Ukraine and Crimea. Wasserstein’s aim is to “breathe life into dry bones.” Based on comprehensive research, rendered with compassion and empathy, and brought alive by telling anecdotes and dry wit, On the Eve offers a vivid and enlightening picture of the European Jews in their final hour.
Fascinating and comprehensive in scope, the Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction is a valuable source for both students and teachers of literature, and for those interested in locating the facts behind the fiction they read. In a single, scholarly volume, it provides intriguing insight into the real identity of people and places in the novels of over 300 American and British authors published in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
"Vividly capturing a moment in history when American and British unions seemed about to join with their Soviet counterparts to create a world unified by its workers, this wide-ranging study uncovers the social, cultural, and ideological currents that generated worldwide support among workers for a union international as well as the pull of national interests that ultimately subverted it. In a striking departure from the conventional wisdom, Victor Silverman argues that the ideology of the cold war was essentially imposed from above and came into conflict with the attitudes workers developed about internationalism. This work, the first to look at internationalism from the point of view of the worker, confirms at the level of social and cultural history that the postwar tensions between the Anglo-Americans and the Soviets took several years to become a new orthodoxy. Silverman demonstrates that for millions of trade unionists in dozens of countries the Cold War began in late 1948, rather than between 1945 and 1946, as generally recorded by diplomatic historians. Tracing the faultlines between politics and ideals and between national and class allegiances, Silverman shows how the vision of an international working-class recovery was ultimately discredited and the cold war set inexorably in motion."
In the course of the fifth century, the farms and villas of lowland Britain were replaced by a new, distinctive form of rural settlement: the settlements of the Anglo-Saxons. This volume presents the first major synthesis of the evidence - which has expanded enormously in recent years - for such settlements from across England and throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, and what it reveals about the communities who built and lived in them, and whose daily lives went almost wholly unrecorded. Helena Hamerow examines the appearance, function, and 'life-cycles' of their buildings; the relationship of Anglo-Saxon settlements to the Romano-British landscape and to later medieval villages; the role of ritual in daily life; and the relationship between farming regimes and settlement forms. A central theme throughout the book is the impact on rural producers of the rise of lordship and markets, and how this impact is reflected in the remains of their settlements. Hamerow provides an introduction to the wealth of information yielded by settlement archaeology, and to the enormous contribution that it makes to our understanding of Anglo-Saxon society.
Peter A. McCue examines intriguing reports of people experiencing uncanny events in Britain's woods and forests, from mysterious lights and strange animal encounters to ghostly experiences. Much of the reported witness testimony was obtained first-hand by McCue or other researchers. While he draws sceptical conclusions about some of the alleged incidents, he takes others seriously and considers possible explanations. Fully illustrated and written in McCue's inimitable style, Britain's Paranormal Forests will make you think again about your next walk in the woods.
Ancient Chinese sayings represent the essence of Chinese language from the past to the present, with usually a few words originating from historic stories and elucidating deep wisdoms. These sayings are still widely used in the present day in modern life, though they orginated long ago. This series inherits and combines the key characters and elements of traditional paper-cuts with ancient Chinese sayings to embody visually the spirit of Chinese culture.
