Книги

It is history on an epic yet human scale. Vast in scope, exhaustive in original research, written with passion, narrative skill, and human sympathy, A People's Tragedy is a profound account of the Russian Revolution for a new generation. Many consider the Russian Revolution to be the most significant event of the twentieth century. Distinguished scholar Orlando Figes presents a panorama of Russian society on the eve of that revolution, and then narrates the story of how these social forces were violently erased. Within the broad stokes of war and revolution are miniature histories of individuals, in which Figes follows the main players' fortunes as they saw their hopes die and their world crash into ruins. Unlike previous accounts that trace the origins of the revolution to overreaching political forces and ideals, Figes argues that the failure of democracy in 1917 was deeply rooted in Russian culture and social history and that what had started as a people's revolution contained the seeds of its degeneration into violence and dictatorship. A People's Tragedy is a masterful and original synthesis by a mature scholar, presented in a compelling and accessibly human narrative.

It is history on an epic yet human scale. Vast in scope, exhaustive in original research, written with passion, narrative skill, and human sympathy, A People's Tragedy is a…

This is the story of innocence betrayed, of passion and curiosity about the world of machines turned nightmarish and punished by the cruelty of which only humans are capable. It is also a story of survival and courage. Eric Lomax was tortured by the Japanese on the Burma-Siam Railway. Fifty years later he met one of his tormentors.

This is the story of innocence betrayed, of passion and curiosity about the world of machines turned nightmarish and punished by the cruelty of which only humans are capable. It…

A few years ago Mark Hudson went to live in Horden, a mining village on the bleak east coast of Durham. Horden had been the biggest colliery in Britain and among the men who had worked there were Mark Hudson's great grandfather and grandfather. The pit has now closed and Horden remains alive only in the memories of its old people. In search of his forebears Mark Hudson listens to tales of how it was of the hardships and traditions of the miner's life, of the struggles and triumphs of the union. And tales too of his ancestors, but these are curiously fickle: they flicker and fluctuate; the only certainty is the pit

A few years ago Mark Hudson went to live in Horden, a mining village on the bleak east coast of Durham. Horden had been the biggest colliery in Britain and among the men who had…

The son of a carpenter, Heath broke the mould of upper-class Tory leaders and suffered years of snobbish mockery. With accomplishments outside politics, in music and international sailing, he is a veritable Renaissance Man. Yet his period premiership collapsed in chaos and humiliation after only three-and-a-half years. Eclipsed by the Thatcherite economic miracle, his achievements were easily overlooked. Now that Thatcherism itself has given way to a punishing recession, perhaps Heath can emerge in terms of Shakespearean tragedy - as a man of remarkable qualities cursed with a blight that turned all to ashes.

The son of a carpenter, Heath broke the mould of upper-class Tory leaders and suffered years of snobbish mockery. With accomplishments outside politics, in music and international…

Authoritative, powerfully engaging, and highly readable - winner of England's most prestigious prize for nonfiction, the NCR Award - Never Again is the definitive history of a crucial moment in twentieth-century England: the years 1945 to 1951, when Britain established a welfare state even as it withdrew from the Empire.

After the ordeal of World War II, world-class historian Peter Hennessy notes, the British "were driven not merely by the pressing need to turn rubble into factories and homes and roads, but...to ensure that never again would slump and economic depression be allowed to distil the social poison that made fascism possible." With this mandate, the Labour administration under Clement Attlee established the National Health Service; nationalized the Bank of England, the railroad, and the steel, coal, gas and electric industries; and constructed the welfare state - an ambitious undertaking of social change "on a scale and a duration never surpassed in the nation's history."

Yet successive financial crises, the Cold War threat and the need for rearmament, new foreign competition for its industries, the country's ambivalence toward union with Europe and its refusal to acknowledge its diminished status as a world power - all sent Britain's economy into decline, with many of the goals of social reform left unrealized. Hennessy provides a comprehensive account of life in Britain during this pivotal era, from the highest levels of government - with intimate portraits of the major figures of the time, such as Attlee, Nye Bevan, Ernest Bevin, Lord Franks, and Lord Plowden - to the experiences of ordinary people; from bread rationing to "welfare" orange juice; from the jitterbug to the "Goon Show"; from the "New Look" in fashion to the comedies of Ealing Studios. Lucid, engrossing, and elegantly written, Never Again is a tour de force of narrative history.

Authoritative, powerfully engaging, and highly readable - winner of England's most prestigious prize for nonfiction, the NCR Award - Never Again is the definitive history of a…

Through the lives of three different women - grandmother, mother and daughter - this book tells the story of 20th-century China. At times scarcely credible in the details it reveals of the suffering of millions of ordinary Chinese people, it is an unforgettable record of tyranny, hope and ultimate survival under conditions of extreme harshness. In 1924, at the age of 15, the author's grandmother became the concubine of a powerful warlord, whom she was seldom to see during the 10 years of their "marriage". Her daughter, born in 1931, experienced the horrors of Japanese occupation in Manchuria as a schoolgirl, and after their surrender joined the Communist-led underground fighting Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang. She rose to be a senior Communist official, but was imprisoned three times. Her husband, also a high official and one of the very first to join the Communists, was relentlessly persecuted, imprisoned and finally sent to a labour camp where, physically broken and disillusioned, he lost his sanity. The author herself grew up during the Cultural Revolution, at the time of the personality cult of Mao and the worst excesses of the Gang of Four. She joined the Red Guard but after Mao's death she was to become one of the first Chinese students to study abroad.

Through the lives of three different women - grandmother, mother and daughter - this book tells the story of 20th-century China. At times scarcely credible in the details it…

This is the story of someone who - almost - wasn't there; who vanished into thin air. Her names, dates, family and experiences very nearly disappeared from the record for good ...

Claire Tomalin's multi-award-winning story of the life of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens is a remarkable work of biography and historical revisionism that returns the neglected actress to her rightful place in history as well as providing a compelling and truthful portrait of the great Victorian novelist.

'A biography of high scholarship and compelling detective work' - Melvyn Bragg, 'Independent'.

This is the story of someone who - almost - wasn't there; who vanished into thin air. Her names, dates, family and experiences very nearly disappeared from the record for good ...…

Instead of a dying Old Regime, Schama presents an ebullient country, vital & inventive, infatuated with novelty & technology. A fresh view of Louis XVI's France. A NY Times cloth bestseller.

Instead of a dying Old Regime, Schama presents an ebullient country, vital & inventive, infatuated with novelty & technology. A fresh view of Louis XVI's France. A NY Times cloth…

I knew that i was going to die and i just wanted everything to be finished. The wind swung me round in a gentle circle. I looked down at the black hole of the crevasse beneath me. It was very big - more than six metres wide - and it stretched all the way along the base of the ice cliff. It lay there, waiting for me to fall into it.

The true story of Joe Simpson's terrifying climb of the mountain Siula Grande. Touching the Void is a gripping story of human courage and one man's will to survive.

I knew that i was going to die and i just wanted everything to be finished. The wind swung me round in a gentle circle. I looked down at the black hole of the crevasse beneath me.…

Set in the 1920s, this memoir of David Thomson's childhood in Scotland recreates the varied community of Nairn, charts the author's formative years and recalls the town's involvement in many significant events of Scottish history.

Set in the 1920s, this memoir of David Thomson's childhood in Scotland recreates the varied community of Nairn, charts the author's formative years and recalls the town's…