United Kingdom Books

This is a great first book on the Battle of Britain. I have enjoyed many Max Hastings and Len Deighton history books because of their ability to make these subjects very readable. The book includes sections on the equipment of both sides of the Battle and keeps the book personal and interesting. The die hard history buffs will probably not care for this book as much as some because it lacks the thoroughness of an in-depth account. This book is excellent as an introduction to the Battle or military history in general.

This book provides an excellent overview of the the Battle of Britain. One gets the impression that this book was intended to be the pictorial compliment to the author's more in depth account of the battle 'Fighter'. Included are many photographs, drawings, charts and maps which help explain the battle on a day by day basis. The book also looks at air power and technology from 1918-1939, the rise of the Luftwaffe, aircraft designs and radar and some of the personalities involved with the battle. Included are many personal accounts from the combatants themselves that along with the pictorial content bring the battle to life. Some brief analysis is provided on where the RAF got it right and where the Luftwaffe got it wrong. Overall a delightful book which is an easy read and an excellent starting point of reference.

This book is lean and mean.Very little is devoted to the battle itself,because apparently there wasn't much to it,except in intensity.It seems the English didn't have much cavalry and not enough archers either,the Normans had plenty of well trained experts in both.In addition it seems that during this period Angleland was very politically unstable and had only recently repelled 2 invasions from Norway and the Danes as well.With all the chaos maybe the Normans were a positive addition to the English gene pool.This book also explains well the history of English territorial claims on the European continent.The claims of Henry the fifth were the reassertions of territorial rights in existence since the rule of William the Conqueror.There are some excellent interpretations of the Bayeux Tapestry as well.You'll be an expert without doing the original 3 volume 2000 page set and it will cost you about 3 or 4 hours and 3 or 4 cups of coffee(or tea?).The famous English Longbowman at Agincourt is an original French(Norman) invention.

The Battle of Hastings was a key turning point in the history of Northern Europe. Together with the Battles of Fulford and Stamford Bridge, this trilogy of battles enabled the great civilization that was coming into being in Western Europe penetrate into the British Isles, when at that time were culturally and economically part of Scandanavia. Bradbury's account is the best that I have read - it is clear, concise but detailed enough to satisfy anyone who wants to find out more about the climactic battle of 1066. I loved the way he used the Bayeux Tapestry right through as a reference document. Many accounts (and I would include Frank McLynn's recent '1066 - Year of Three Battles'), use the tapestry as a secondary source only, a sure sign of the tyranny of the written word! Yet the Tapestry was made within at least twenty years of the battle on the order of one of the major participants (Bishop Odo of Bayeux, the Conqueror's half-brother). It is therefore perhaps the prime source for the battle. It is also a significant document on the weapons and tactics used, besides being a prime work of art! You feel that Bradbury is judicious and discerning on the major puzzles - Did Harold swear an oath to William? Did Edward support William's succession? What use did the English make of horses? How did Harold die? Did the Normans win the battle with a 'feigned flight'? How did the Normans use their archers? Where were the English archers? Anyone with an interest in medieval politics and military history should have this book on their shelves.

My wife and I used this book as a guide on travels to the West Country. We had a very enjoyable time. Very unique experience.

This book is highly informative and accurate. It is well written and descriptive. We have yet to be disappointed.

However, it may need to be updated since now over five years old.

This book sits rather oddly with others in the Institute of Economic Affairs Choice in Welfare Series. Whilst the sub-title 'Welfare before the Welfare State' suggests that this is an account of self-help swept away by the state the content is more contested arguing that the self-help which was available was confined to the skilled and semi-skilled working class rather than to all of the working classes at the time. This point of view is not particularly challenged, a fact which, given the genesis of the project, is surprising to say the least.

Before Beveridge is a welcome addition to the literature about welfare before the state intervened in Britain. Contrary to the establishment history books which used to argue that the benevolent state stepped into a welfare vacuum, a number of studies have challenged this claim with books and scholarly articles demonstrating that the working classes were more than capable of providing education and welfare for their families by themselves as individuals and in groups long before the administrative machine moved in.

In this slim volume it seems that the editor and the staff at the IEA Health and Welfare Unit have rather abdicated the case for individual enterprise in welfare provision to those authors who put forward the view that in reality this provision was available to a select number of the working classes and the unorganised and the poor were not able to avail themselves of the opportunity. The so-called liberals appear to stand aside in the face of the attack and do not attempt to join battle with those propositions. I find the papers of Whiteside, Harris, Vincent and Thane to be particularly well researched and argued as well as persuasive given the paucity of David Green's paper especially.

The weakness of the writers who suggest that there was indeed a need for the intervention of the state in bringing welfare provision to the neediest in British society is the determination to overlook the evidence that many of the disenfranchised working classes who did not belong to either friendly societies or trades unions were determined to provide education for their children regardless of their personal circumstances. The fact that individuals of limited means were capable of identifying, by themselves, often without any education of their own, options for the betterment of their children over the longer term and were prepared to forego current onsumption to pay for it speaks volumes which significantly undermines the position supporting the need for state involvement.

This is a very thought provoking book which adds substantially to the lierature and which colours the debate about welfare provision more vividly than before. I would heartily recommend the book to sixth form and college students of history and social policy as well as practitioners of the black arts of social policy and policy-makers in general.

This book sits rather oddly with others in the Institute of Economic Affairs Choice in Welfare Series. Whilst the sub-title 'Welfare before the Welfare State' suggests that this is an account of self-help swept away by the state the content is more contested arguing that the self-help which was available was confined to the skilled and semi-skilled working class rather than to all of the working classes at the time. This point of view is not particularly challenged, a fact which, given the genesis of the project, is surprising to say the least.

Before beveridge is a welcome addition to the literature about welfare before the state intervened in Britain. Contrary to the establishment history books which used to argue that the benevolent state stepped into a welfare vacuum, a number of studies have challenged this claim with books and scholarly articles demonstrating that the working classes were more than capable of providing education and welfare for their families by themselves as individuals and in groups long before the administrative machine moved in.

In this slim volume it seems that the editor and the staff at the IEA Health and Welfare Unit have rather abdicated the case for individual enterprise in welfare provision to those authors who put forward the view that in reality this provision was available to a select number of the working classes and the unorganised and the poor were not able to avail themselves of the opportunity. The so-called liberals appear to stand aside in the face of the attack and do not attempt to join battle with those propositions. I find the papers of Whiteside, Harris, Vincent and Thane to be particularly well researched and argued as well as persuasive given the paucity of David Green's paper especially.

The weakness of the writers who suggest that there was indeed a need for the intervention of the state in bringing welfare provision to the neediest in British society is the determination to overlook the evidence that many of the disenfranchised working classes who did not belong to either friendly societies or trades unions were determined to provide education for their children regardless of their personal circumstances. The fact that individuals of limited means were capable of identifying, by themselves, often without any education of their own, options for the betterment of their children over the longer term and were prepared to forego current onsumption to pay for it speaks volumes which significantly undermines the position supporting the need for state involvement.

This is a very thought provoking book which adds substantially to the lierature and which colours the debate about welfare provision more vividly than before. I would heartily recommend the book to sixth form and college students of history and social policy as well as practitioners of the black arts of social policy and policy-makers in general.

Being Bilingual Safder Alladina Trentham Books. UK ISBN:1 85856 051 9 As a language teacher in Montreal, I found Safder Alladina's "Being Bilingual" very readable and informative. I think every language teacher and elementary school teacher would benefit greatly by reading this book. There are some elements and points of view which can only be learned from someone who comes from a minority language experience. It is written in simple language without being patronising. As well, it is attractively laid out and has wonderful illustrations. It is a must read for professionals in this field!

I am raising my child in Poland to be bilingual in Polish and English. I found "Being Bilingual" immensely helpful and supportive. Safder Alladina talks to parents in plain English without talking down to them. There are many ideas in the book which are useful to know about a child's language development. There are many concepts which I, as an ordinary parent, was not aware of. Safder Alladina's book has encouraged me to find and read other academic books on bilingualism --something I wouldn't have done before.

There are lovely pictures and cartoons in the book so I was even able to share the book with my three year old son. Thank you Safder for a lovely and helpful book.

Both the tragic subject and the density of documentation, with graphs and statistics, make this a hard book to read. The Famine killed over a million people, even on the most conservative estimates. It virtually wiped out the Gaeltacht. The question that resonates today is whether fewer people would have died if Ireland in 1840 had been an independent country, with its boundaries at the salt water. You'd have to read this book at least, and maybe some others as well, to get an answer to that question.

This is a fraught subject, but O Grada handles it with both rigour and compassion.

We don't realize our privat property rights until we see it in the very book that helped to enact our laws . Black's Law Book clears any confusion.

George Kosmo

I just completed three years of law school, and I really wish I had bought Black's sooner. Our legal system is hundreds of years old, and courts and commentators continue to use much of the same archaic language that has been used since the middle ages!

While this dictionary gives only a superficial treatment to legal terms, oftentimes that's all you need. Throughout law school you'll constantly be reading cases and law review articles and coming across words or phrases you've never heard of before. Black's explains them quickly and precisely. This book is really an investment in your legal future.

Stuart E. Prall's "The Bloodless Revolution" is an extensive and non-biased study of the seminal constitutional developments in 17th century England; which defined the constitutional monarchy in Britain in the age when absolutism reigned supreme elsewhere in the world. Author prepares the scene for the revolution by explaining relationship between king and the Parliament throughout Stuart dynasty starting from James I, thought Long Parliament, Civil War, Protectorate, Restoration, last years of Charles II, and the many encroachment on liberties and mistakes of James II which ultimately led to Glorious Revolution.

Emphasis is on developments in the legal system and relationship between multiple religious institutions and political parties during and after the Restoration period.

One extended quote from the book might give you a flavor of the level of scholarship and insights this book will offer.

"The medieval and Tudor view of the dispensing power was premised on the distinction between malum prohibitum (a prohibited evil) and malum per se (an evil in itself). The distinction was essentially medieval, and the foundation was divine law and/or natural law. Restrictions considered man-made (malum prohibitum) could be dispensed with. Restrictions that were thought to have been authored by God or Nature (malum per se) were not to be dispensed with. These distinctions permeated both the secular and the ecclesiastical structures of the medieval worlds. The Tudor era, especially after the English Reformation, saw the gradual secularization of the political and legal thought and the gradual erosion of the distinction , because the whole conception of divine and natural law was one of the victims of the new age of science and its concomitant mechanical laws of nature, which were coming to the fore in the seventeenth century. One result of the pre-1640 struggle for sovereignty and the constitutional struggle of the Puritan Revolution itself has bee the triumph of the principle that sovereign power was identical with the lawmaking, or legislative, power. Neither the Long Parliament or Protectorate felt any divine or natural limitation upon their ultimate freedom to exercise total legislative authority. The lesson of the Restoration had been that the supreme or sovereign legislative authority did exist in the English state, and that it existed in the triple-headed institution of the King-in-Parliament. The problem was very complex. Because if the king-in-Parliament can make or unmake any and all laws, then there is no longer any practical distinction between the malum prohibitum and malum per se. All laws are merely malum prohibitum. The state is supreme, not God or Nature. The result is that the king could now feel free, at least in theory, to dispense with any law, while those who might oppose his particular use of this power ... would be thrown back upon the old medieval distinction between the human and the divine. English constitutional development was to be unique in seventeen-century Europe in that these same intellectual tendencies on the Continent were indeed leading to just this justification for royal absolutism, while in England the struggle for power between the king and Parliament would continue unabated ..."

This is a stupendous book. It reveals the Glorious Revolution in its entirety. From the Restoration to the Act of Settlement, nothing is overlooked. In addition, the book is written without any of the historical or idealogical predispositions which have long plagued previous studies of this seminal revolution.

Anyone remotely familiar with the British blues scene of the 60s and 70s will have heard Dick Heckstall-Smith, whether you are aware of his name or not. I'm halfway through this book and...what a treat! In his own words, Dick recounts his personal history as a musician growing up in the British Jazz scene of the 50s and the blues rock period of the 60s and beyond. In the process, he writes a veritable history of the British blues. Why? Because he was present during many of the key episodes of that history. In addition to his musical insight, DHS shares some stories of the road which sound so impossible that they just have to be true. Standouts are the tale of the "homemade stew", Jack Bruce's introduction to him and Ginger Baker's attempt to drive in a blinding snowstorm. The tales of his tenure in the Graham Bond ORGANization are worth the price of admission alone. DHS was a wonderful musician, inquisitive human being and a true ambassador of the British jazz/blues scene. This is a must read book. Rest in peace Dick.

Most blues guides focus on American blues music: Dick Heckstall-Smith and Pete Grant's Blowing The Blues covers fifty years of playing British blues, includes cd with previously unreleased tracks, and provides insights into blues saxophone to accompany a blend of autobiography and British blues history. Add cartoons by Biff making comments on the life of a blues musician and you have a honest survey of the music scene of the British blues world.

This book is an excellent resource for the history of toilets. All sources are sited and the text is rich in historical facts. It also has colored graphics.

I truly liked this book. It was both interesting and informative. I am still annoying people with bits of toilet history.