This collection of essays sets out to present a sample of the rich diversity of writings on naval history in this period. The collection covers subjects ranging from strategy, operations and tactics, to administration, technology and the maritime economy. Within this volume the reader will be able to see essays that influenced the development of modern naval history through to samples of some of the latest research.
Train your brain with the secrets behind the world's toughest feat of memory: the London Knowledge The Knowledge is a unique book: a guide to getting more out of your brain and your city. A fully illustrated, lovingly detailed look at London's best kept secrets, it will also take you down the pathways of your mind and teach you how to keep your memory sharp. Written by a licensed London cab driver and tour guide, The Knowledge is the first ever book to take readers inside the legendarily difficult - and fast-vanishing - set of skills that all licensed cab drivers must have: a perfect, thoroughly tested knowledge of every street, alley, turning and landmark of London. The black cab is an iconic symbol of London, but to drive it, prospective cabbies must take what is often considered the world's hardest exam, involving learning every street, turning and waypoint along 320 different routes across London, along with every landmark within 1/4 of a mile of the start and end of each route: altogether 25,000 streets and 2,000 places of interest. Learning the Knowledge takes years, and dozens of appearances at gruelling oral exams, but those who pass become part of a unique partnership, with no parallel anywhere in the world. Scientific studies have consistently shown that London cabbies who have passed the Knowledge have enlarged brains and near-superhuman memory capacities. The Knowledge is the first book to take readers inside the extraordinary mind of the cabbie, with 50 real Knowledge routes across London, beautifully mapped and illustrated to show the streets and landmarks, with notes on their hidden histories and popular associations, and sections allowing the reader to test their memory on these routes, accompanied with an introduction discussing the history and science of the Knowledge and guides to memory-training techniques used by cabbies and memory champions around the world.
The "Maratha period" of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when an independent Maratha state successfully resisted the Mughals, is a defining era in the history of the region of Maharashtra in western India. In this book, Prachi Deshpande considers the importance of this period for a variety of political projects including anticolonial/Hindu nationalism and the non-Brahman movement, as well as popular debates throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries concerning the meaning of tradition, culture, and the experience of colonialism and modernity. Sampling from a rich body of literary and cultural sources, Deshpande highlights shifts in history writing in early modern and modern India and the deep connections between historical and literary narratives. She traces the reproduction of the Maratha period in various genres and public arenas, its incorporation into regional political symbolism, and its centrality to the making of a modern Marathi regional consciousness. She also shows how historical memory provided a space for Indians to negotiate among their national, religious, and regional identities, pointing to history's deeper potential in shaping politics within thoroughly diverse societies. A truly unique study, Creative Pasts examines the practices of historiography and popular memory within a particular colonial context, and illuminates the impact of colonialism on colonized societies and cultures. Furthermore, it shows how modern history and historical memory are jointly created through the interplay of cultural activities, power structures, and political rhetoric.
