Новинки Роджера А. Экерча

No saga of personal hardship so captivated the British public in the eighteenth century as that of James Annesley, the presumptive heir of five aristocratic titles and scion of the mighty house of Annesley. Kidnapped at twelve years of age by his uncle and sold into indentured servitude in America, James would ultimately escape after toiling for twelve years in Delaware, returning to Ireland to bring his blood rival, the Earl of Anglesea, to justice in one of the epic trials of the century.

Set against the volatile backdrop of Georgian Ireland, historian A. Roger Ekirch recounts the extraordinary family drama that inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel Kidnapped “with dash and clarity” (Kirkus Reviews).

No saga of personal hardship so captivated the British public in the eighteenth century as the turbulent life of James Annesley, the presumptive heir of five aristocratic titles and scion of the mighty house of Annesley. Kidnapped at twelve years of age by his uncle, Jemmy was shipped from Dublin to America in 1728 as an indentured servant. Only after twelve more years did he at last escape, returning to Ireland to bring his blood rival, the Earl of Anglesea, to justice in one of the epic trials of the century. How, in an age without DNA laboratories or fingerprint records, could a prodigal hope to prove his identity, let alone his legitimacy, after such a long absence all the while defying accusations of being a pretender, the bastard son of a maidservant, plus repeated attempts on his life? Bursting with an improbable cast of characters, from a brave Dublin butcher and a wily Scot to the king of England, Birthright evokes in vivid detail the volatile world of Georgian Ireland complete with its violence, debauchery, ancient rituals, and tenacious loyalties. Drawing on exhaustive research in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and America including an intensive investigation of court transcripts and innumerable, rarely seen legal depositions A. Roger Ekirch brilliantly resurrects an extraordinary family drama of betrayal and loss, but also resilience, survival, and redemption.

Книга известного американского ученого А.Роджера Экерча "На исходе дня. История ночи" перевернула представления человека о темном времени суток. Казалось бы, что может случиться с людьми после заката солнца, когда они отдыхают или спят? Но по убеждению автора, именно ночью происходит много интересного, таинственного и забавного. Ночь - это убежище от обыденности, пора влюбленных, время действий добрых и злых сил. Кто-то отправляется развлекаться на балы и маскарады, кто-то спешит в таверну или кабачок, а кое-кто предпочитает посвящать ночные часы усердной молитве. Под покровом тьмы совершаются и различные преступления - от мелких краж до…

Bringing light to the shadows of history through a "rich weave of citation and archival evidence" (Publishers Weekly), scholar A. Roger Ekirch illuminates the aspects of life most often overlooked by other historians—those that unfold at night. In this "triumph of social history" (Mail on Sunday), Ekirch's "enthralling anthropology" (Harper's) exposes the nightlife that spawned a distinct culture and a refuge from daily life.

Fear of crime, of fire, and of the supernatural; the importance of moonlight; the increased incidence of sickness and death at night; evening gatherings to spin wool and stories; masqued balls; inns, taverns, and brothels; the strategies of thieves, assassins, and conspirators; the protective uses of incantations, meditations, and prayers; the nature of our predecessors' sleep and dreams—Ekirch reveals all these and more in his "monumental study" (The Nation) of sociocultural history, "maintaining throughout an infectious sense of wonder" (Booklist).

A portrait of how people lived in the pre-industrial age describes how a lack of electric lighting separated daytime and evening into more contrasting worlds, explaining how superstition, work, fire, crime, religion, slavery, and other factors were different before the advent of electric lighting.