United Kingdom Books

This book was created almost a decade ago as part of an oral history project in Britain to interview the remaining survivors - soldiers and civilians alike - who lived through the First World War. Many of these people were well into their 90s and a few were older than 100. Their stories described a Britain which went through wrenching, profound changes in terms of its economy, attitudes, social mores, and daily life.

Through reading this book, it became painfully clear that not a city or village in Britain was left untouched by the war. People went hungry. Some died from malnutrition. Women (as well as children) contributed in a big way to the war effort by working in munition factories and in the countryside, planting and harvesting crops to help offset the effects of the U-Boat blockade, which nearly strangled Britain in 1917.

The following statement by Emily Galbraith, whose brother Peter was killed during the Somme battles in 1916, speaks volumes as to the war's lingering effects on people who lived through and after it:

`My father wrote every week to the War Office to know what had happened and all we heard was that he had been at a place called High Wood, but what happened we never knew.

`After the war, a memorial at Hornchurch was dedicated to local men who'd died, including Peter's name. And we discovered a young man used to go on every anniversary of my brother's death and lay flowers on the memorial. We never knew the reason. Anyway, in the 1930s, after my parents were dead, this boy's mother and sister asked me to their house at Manor Park in London. While I was there I decided to visit the memorial at Hornchurch, which was some twelve miles away. I had my dog with me and thought I would take him for a walk, and the man insisted that he walked with me all twelve miles --- he said he would go by bus on the way back but we never did.

`We walked twelve miles to put flowers on the memorial and then walked eleven and a half miles back before he said anything about my brother. My brother had been killed helping someone else --- him. A machine gun had started firing and Peter and three friends were in a bunch together. They all got into shell holes, and this man in the shell hole on Peter's right went into a panic. He screamed for my brother to come and my brother got out of his safe shell hole to help but as he did so a sniper shot my brother and he fell, dead.

`How could I react to this revelation? I just took it calmly, you couldn't alter anything.'

Peter Brears intersperses a thorough examination of Henry VIII's kitchens at Hampton Court with recipes drawn from period sources.

The palace kitchens at Hampton Court were a large-scale industrial enterprise that fed 600-1200 people every day - everyone from the lowliest servant to the King himself. The author does a grand job of describing how the system procured, stored, and prepared immense amounts of raw materials each day.

Interspersed with the description are recipes drawn from contemporary sources that are similiar to what might have been served at the palace. The author also covers Tudor table manners, etiquette, and the ceremony involved in feeding the monarch.

How did the Victorian woman cope with the image of herself as a writer?
What were the constraints on female friendships in a world centered on the preeminence of the husband?
How significant for an ambitious woman were her politics about men?
At the heart of the book is a friendship between two women: Jane Carlyle, and the novelist Geraldine Jewsbury. But it was a difficult friendship; and in its difficulty lies much that is illuminating: about 19th century domestic ideology: about writing for a market, and female fame and about the complex ambivalences between women.
Examining aspects of their lives, writing, and relationships, alongside those two other writers...Felicia Hermans and Geraldine's sister, Maria Jane...Norma Clarke provides a subtle and illuminating discussion of the possibilities that were open to women in the Victorian age.

I was honored by having Bob Vitalis teach me a class while I was at the University of Pennsylvania, and was always struck by his engaging ideas and unconventional teaching style. Overcoming several obstacles to actually get the information to write this book in the first place, Vitalis has finally achieved what many would consider an impossible feat: An honest look at the history of the American-Saudi relationship. Here's to the hope that future students of his will be as inspired by his ideas as I was.

very enjoyable boo

The editors are well known scholars specializing in the intelligence history of the period since 1940 with additional forays into the earlier periods. This is a gathering of essays by various specialist academics in the period. Thus assuming one has an interest in the subjects the editors assume that the general background of the subjects discussed are already known to the reader. Anglo American SIGINT, the OSS/SOE connection, the Venona intercepts and the unmasking of Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter White, and the defection of Igor Gouzenko are just some of the subjects analyzed in depth herein. This is a book for the specialist, not for the general reader, as are most of the publisher's works.

Based on extensive excavations in the 1980s and 1990s, this is a vivid reconstruction of a medieval siege. More than that, it relates the special problems involved when siege warfare involves the digging of mines underneath castle walls in an attempt to bring them down. In this example, the Irish rebels sought (eventually with success) to undermine the castle walls while the English defenders dug numerous counter-mines in an attempt to stop the besieging miners. Wiggins demonstrates with photos, clear diagrams, and vivid text what the excavation record today tells us of these military methods of more than four centuries ago. We learn that even a siege of mere weeks, such as this one, usually cost many lives. He shows how military engineers relied on the available technology of the time (siege miners were often miners in real life and used the same techniques) as each side sought to bring the siege to a successful conclusion---naturally differing on what that meant!

When I last visited Ireland in 1990, none of this excavation work had been done. You could only see the outside walls of the castle by the river, and could not get inside. The work described here was done as part of a long process of clearing modern buildings to make the Limerick castle an educational tourist site. Based on this volume, I very much want to go back and see the remains of the siege mines and counter-mines which only rarely survive into modern times. After reading this interesting study, you will want to go see the site as well.

An Anatomy Of The Marprelate Controversy 1588-1596 is an amazing study by historian and biographer Elizabeth Appleton of a famous controversy in history concerning a Puritan writer who called himself Martin Marprelate. Marprelate used words to attack the episcopacy and the Anglican divines. Writing from a secret press and sparing no effort to criticize, Marprelate incited such uproar that he had to disappear; two writers took his place and continued to attack the Anglican bishops verbally. Then others entered the fray, creating a singularly spectacular war of words. An Anatomy Of The Marprelate Controversy 1588-1596 deftly recounts events of history, their interrelation with the classic works of Shakespeare, and the indelible imprint they left upon political events for future generations. An Anatomy Of The Marprelate Controversy 1588-1596 is a very highly recommended, meticulously presented, informed and informative scholarly analysis.

I found this book to be a real eye-opener with respect to all the facets of the this truly magnificent species.

Extremely well written and thought provoking - especially the references to ancient saint cells.

First rate account of the history of Anglo Saxon origin.