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Tauris
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One of the most charismatic feature films of the New Wave, A Bout de souffle (1960) has retained its appeal not only as the emphatic statement of a generational break with tradition, but also as Godard's earliest rendition of a set of thematic and stylistic motifs that would become his trademark. A Bout de souffle is now a cult film, propelled in part by the memorable coupling of its leading actors, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, whose story on screen seemed to portray the troubled love affair between French cinema and Hollywood. In this original guide to the film, Ramona Fotiade analyses in depth its production and reception, as well as its mise-en-scene and editing. She situates A Bout de souffle in relation to Godard's filmography and critical writings up to 1960, focusing on a narrative and visual discourse that is now identified with a distinctive strand in postmodern French cinema. She also explores the impact of Godard's early counter-narrative and visual strategies on the independent American filmmakers and the French Cinema du Look during the 1980s and 1990s. |
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This is the true story of a remarkable man who pulled off a seemingly impossible espionage mission in Tokyo, before and during World War II. Richard Sorge, born to a Russian mother and a German father, ran a network of Japanese and Europeans under the noses of Japan's dreaded secret police. From 1933 until he was caught in late 1941, he transmitted priceless secrets to Red Army intelligence. Sorge's espionage group — perhaps the most successful operating in this critical period — kept the Russians informed about Japanese and German intentions, and also helped influence decisions made by these governments.; Sorge's biggest coup was to inform Stalin of the German attack on Russia in 1941, weeks before it occurred — with details of troop deployments, movement of armaments and the actual date of the attack. Abandoned to his fate by Stalin, Sorge became the first European sentenced to death by a Japanese court. After a prolonged ordeal, he was executed in Sugamo prison in 1944. |
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'This victory', exulted Peter the Great, 'has laid the final stone in the foundations of St Petersburg!' The Battle of Poltava, 1709, marks the birth of the Tsar's vast Russian Empire. In 1700, seeking to open Russian trade routes to the West, the Tsar combined with Denmark, Saxony and Poland to attack Swedish hegemony in the North. Against the odds, King Charles XII of Sweden subdued the hostile coalition for nearly a decade, but in 1708 took his fatal decision to march for Moscow. His defeat at Poltava, in the Ukraine, proved the turning-point of the Great Northern War, heralding the collapse of the Swedish Empire and the rise of Russia, the effects of which would be felt for almost three hundred years. Swedish historian Peter Englund's vivid account of the three violent days of battle is an internationally acclaimed classic of military history, admired by scholars and the lay reader alike. |
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It is impossible to understand the history of modern Europe without some knowledge of the Weimar Republic. The brief fourteen-year period of democracy between the Treaty of Versailles and the advent of the Third Reich was marked by unstable government, economic crisis and hyperinflation and the rise of extremist political movements. At the same time, however, a vibrant cultural scene flourished, which continues to influence the international art world through the aesthetics of Expressionism and the Bauhaus movement. In the fields of art, literature, theatre, cinema, music and architecture — not to mention science — Germany became a world leader during the 1920s, while her perilous political and economic position ensured that no US or European statesman could afford to ignore her. Incorporating original research and a synthesis of the existing historiography, this book will provide students and a general readership with a clear and concise introduction to the history of the first German Republic. |
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The University of Oxford was a medieval wonder. After its foundation in the late 12th century it designed one of Europe's most admired syllabuses for the study of the liberal arts (the trivium and the quadrivium) and theology, and attracted teachers of international calibre and fame. The ideas of brilliant thinkers like Robert Grosseteste (who in the early 13th century mastered and taught Greek when almost no-one else was doing so), pioneering Franciscan philosopher Roger Bacon (zealous proponent of experimental science) and reforming Christian humanist John Colet redirected traditional scholasticism and helped usher in the Renaissance. In this latest instalment of her major two-volume history of the great rival institutions of Oxford and Cambridge, G R Evans turns to the elder university and reveals a powerhouse of learning and culture. Over a span of more than 800 years Oxford has nurtured some of the greatest minds, while right across the globe its name is synonymous with educational excellence. From dangerous political upheavals caused by the radical and inflammatory ideas of John Wyclif to the bloody 1555 martyrdoms of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley; and from John Ruskin's innovative lectures on art and explosive public debate between Charles Darwin and his opponents to gentler meetings of the Inklings in the 'Bird and Baby', Evans brings Oxford's revolutionary events, as well as its remarkable intellectual journey, to vivid and sparkling life. |
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South Yemen has come to be seen as a potential Al-Qaeda stronghold and at the heart of a separatist movement threatening to rip apart southern Arabia. How has this country of forbidding mountains and arid deserts gone from British colony to communist state and then to 'terrorist base' in just half a century? In 'Yemen Divided', author and Middle East expert Noel Brehony tells for the first time the comprehensive history of the People s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY). He explains the power politics that came to form a communist republic a few hundred miles from the holiest site in Islam, and the process and conflicts that led to Yemeni unification in 1990. The impact of PDRY is still felt today as unrest continues to escalate across the south.'Yemen Divided' is an important book for anyone wanting to understand why Yemen, sensitive neighbour of Saudi Arabia and strategically vital to Middle East security, has veered towards massive instability. |
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From Cairo to Damascus and from Tunisia to Bahrain, Layla Al-Zubaidi and Matthew Cassel have brought together some of the most exciting new writing born out of revolution in the Arab world. This is a remarkable collection of testimony, entirely composed by participants in, and witnesses to, the profound changes shaking their region. Situated between past, present and future — in a space where the personal and the political collide — these voices are part of an ongoing process, one that is at once hopeful and heartbreaking. Unique amongst material emanating from and about the convulsions in the Arab Middle East, these creative and original writers speak of history, determination and struggle, as well as of political and poetic engagement with questions of identity and activism.This book gives a moving and inspiring insight into the Arab revolutions and uprisings: why they are happening and what might come next. |
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«Mirror» — Andrei Tarkovsky's most complex autobiographical film--is the subject of this critical companion. The film reconstructs and records ironic memories and emotional impressions in the life of an individual, nation, and era. The critical acclaim was overwhelming, and «Mirror» is still the favorite Tarkovsky film of most Russians. This book provides a production history, critical analysis, and overview of the film's initial reception.» |
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Far from Moscow and St Petersburg, there lies another Russia. Overlooked by the new urban elites and almost unknown to the West, in the great provincial hinterlands of the Volga River and Siberia, Russians struggle to reconcile their old traditions with the new ways of living. Returning again and again to the deep heartland of this rapidly evolving country from 1992 to the present, Susan Richards struck up some extraordinary friendships. With Anna, a questing journalist struggling to express her passionate spirituality within the rules of the new society. And Natasha, a restless spirit, transplanted from Siberia in a bid to escape the demands of her upper class family and her own demons. And Tatiana and Misha, whose business empire has blossomed from the ashes of the Soviet Union but who, despite all their luxury, seem uneasy in this new world. Through their stories and her own experiences Susan Richards demonstrates how in Russia the past and the present cannot be separated. 'Lost and Found in Russia' is a magical and unforgettable portrait of a society in transition. 'Once again, Susan Richards gives a rare and wonderful evocation of ordinary lives in Russia. People fall in love, fall ill, make money, lose money; some are nobly defeated, some shamelessly successful. Each one tells us more about the lethal tides of recent Russian history than years of newspaper reports.' — Philip Marsden; 'Russia exerts a peculiar pull for English travellers...Susan Richards's version shines because she knows her subjects very well. These are stories of friendships across the miles, not just brief encounters plundered for material...This traveller's tale, with all the absorption and detail of the genre, is also the story of an entire country.' — Anne McElvoy, Evening Standard; 'Lost and Found in Russia is intense reading...bursting with good material...For a rich portrait of the new Russia, grab this off the shelf and skip all those biographies of Vladimir Putin.' — Thomas de Waal, Sunday Times; 'wonderful...Lost and Found in Russia is beautifully written, with arresting images on almost every page... It is a travelogue as rich and compelling as a novel' — Lesley Chamberlain, Independent; 'fascinating...You should buy the book to find out how [the] story ended, as well as what happened when Richards hopped on a cruise down the Volga organised by a mafia boss she had never met.. there is a human optimism that shines out of these hard lives and this loving account of them — an optimism that defies the rational. But then if there is one thing you learn from this book, it is that we must all live beyond the rational.' — Angus MacQueen, Guardian; 'moving, sometimes perplexing, even distressing...Susan Richards combines fluency in Russian with great tact, curiosity and a capacity for friendship which overcomes the barriers that defeat most foreign attempts to chronicle post-Soviet Russia...her book, being a bottom-to-top account, is perhaps equally important (as Anna Politkovskaya's Putin's Russia)...as admirable as it is honest'. — Donald Rayfield, Literary Review |
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In the dark twilight of fifteenth-century Europe, the overriding question was how to survive the misery and suffering and violence that seemed to be rushing the world to its end. The answer that came was the conquest of Paradise. 'Christopher Columbus' arrival on a small Bahamian island in 1492 is often judged to be a defining moment in the history of mankind, changing forever the map of the world. The discovery of the Americas opened up horizons and previously unimagined possibilities for the dark and troubled Old World, which greedily plundered its natural wealth and decimated its indigenous populations. Columbus has been both venerated as the great Discoverer and despised as the progenitor of centuries of aggressive colonisation and the destruction of fragile cultures. Now, 500 years after his death in the heart of Castille, comes a fresh reassessment of the man and his legacy. Kirkpatrick Sale uniquely examines the global consequences of the Discovery, revealing the colossal impact this brief moment in history had on a continent and on the world. |
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The treacherous mountain passes and blasted desert plains of Afghanistan have been the graveyard of every would-be conquering army since the days of Alexander the Great. With America, Britain and NATO committed to a long-term political and military engagement there, it is imperative to understand the country's complex and bloody history. Afghanistan emerged in the mid-eighteenth century from the collapse of the Persian Safavid Empire and the decline of the Mughal dynasty in India. The nineteenth century saw the country ravaged by the rivalry of warring elites, and their great power supporters. In recent times, Afghanistan has experienced the Soviet invasion of 1979, the Pakistan-backed internal conflict of the 1990s, the Taliban regime and then the US invasion after the catastrophe of 9/11. Today, whilst the US-backed government is struggling to expand its control beyond Kabul, narco-warlords, jihadists and Western troops fight out the battle for control of this strategically vital country. Why has Afghanistan's course of development been so turbulent? Why does it remain so vulnerable to domestic instability, foreign intervention and ideological extremism? In reconstructing the tempestuous narrative of modern Afghanistan, Amin Saikal provides a sweeping new understanding of its troubled past. He identifies the country's inability to develop stable political structures as stemming from the inter-dynastic rivalry (exacerbated by polygamy) that scarred successive royal families from the end of the eighteenth century until the pro-Communist coup of April 1978. Outside interventions further weakened the country internally, preventing socio-economic development and leaving the country ripe for the politics of ideological extremism. Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival is the definitive study of Afghanistan and its troubles. It will be vital reading for all those who are interested in the changing politics of the Middle East and Central Asia. |
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Queen Victoria fell in love with the Riviera when she discovered it on her first visit to Menton in 1882 and her enchantment with this 'paradise of nature' endured for almost twenty years. Victoria's visits helped to transform the French Riviera by paving the way for other European royalty, the aristocracy and the very rich, who were to turn it into their pleasure garden. Michael Nelson paints a fascinating portrait of Victoria and her dealings with local people of all classes, statesmen and the constant stream of visiting crown heads. In the process, we see an unexpected side to Victoria: not the imperious, petulant, mourning widow but rather an exuberant girlish old lady thrilled by her surroundings. Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the Riviera is an absorbing and revealing account that makes an important contribution to both our understanding of Victoria's character and personality and our view of the late Victorian period. |
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At its height, the Napoleonic Empire spanned much of mainland Europe. Feted and feared by millions of citizens, Napoleon was the most powerful and famous man of his age. But following his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo the future of the one-time Emperor of France and master of Europe seemed irredeemably bleak. How did the brilliant tactician cope with being at the mercy of his captors? How did he react to a life in exile on St Helena — and how did the other inhabitants of that isolated and impregnable island respond to his presence there? And what tactics did he develop to preserve his legacy in such drastically reduced circumstances? Tracing events from the dramatic defeat at Waterloo to his death six years later, this is the first modern comprehensive account of the last phase of Napoleon's life. Drawing on many previously overlooked journals and letters, Brian Unwin has pieced together a remarkably vivid account of Napoleon's final years which also offers fresh insights into the character of this giant of European history. Terrible Exile brilliantly evokes the claustrophobic atmosphere of life on St Helena, offering a colourful and original history of the period as well as a persuasive psychological portrait of a great man in reduced circumstances. It will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in Napoleonic history and is an important addition to our understanding of the subject. |
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Russia under Vladimir Putin has proved a prickly partner for the West, a far cry from the democratic ally many hoped for when the Soviet Union collapsed. Abroad, he has used Russia's energy might as a foreign policy weapon, while at home he has cracked down on opponents, adamant that only he has the right vision for his country's future. Former BBC Moscow correspondent Angus Roxburgh charts the dramatic fight for Russia's future under Vladimir Putin — how the former KGB man changed from reformer to autocrat, how he sought the West's respect but earned its fear, how he cracked down on his rivals at home and burnished a flamboyant personality cult, one day saving snow leopards or horse-back riding bare-chested, the next tongue-lashing Western audiences. Drawing on dozens of exclusive interviews in Russia, where he worked for a time as a Kremlin insider advising Putin on press relations, as well as in the US and Europe, Roxburgh also argues that the West threw away chances to bring Russia in from the cold, by failing to understand its fears and aspirations following the collapse of communism. |
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A unique and comprehensive study, One Hundred Years of Socialism traces the fortunes of the political parties on the left in Western Europe through the 20th century. From the Second International to the birth of the welfare state to the student uprisings of the 1960s and beyond, acclaimed historian Donald Sassoon charts the course of socialism across 14 countries, showing us both the origins of Western socialism and its considerable accomplishments, particularly since 1945. One Hundred Years of Socialism is an essential account of the love/hate relationship between capitalism and socialism in twentieth century Western Europe. |
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The American war against British imperial rule (1775-1783) was the world's first great popular revolution. Ideologically defined by the colonists' formal Declaration of Independence in 1776, the struggle has taken on something a mythic character, especially in the United States. From the Boston Tea Party to Paul Revere's ride to raise the countryside of New England against the march of the Redcoats; from the heroic resistance of the militia Minutemen at the battles of Lexington and Concord to the famous crossing of the Delaware by General George Washington; and from the American travails of Bunker Hill (1775) to the final humiliation of the British at Yorktown (1781), the entire contest is now emblematic of American national identity. Stephen Conway shows that, beyond mythology, this was more than just a local conflict: rather a titanic struggle between France and Britain. The thirteen colonies were merely one frontline of an extended theatre of operations, with each superpower aiming to deliver the knockout blow. This bold new history recognizes the war as the Revolution but situates it on the wider, global canvas of European warfare. |
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Churchill continues to dominate the history of the 20th century and this stimulating and original new work by David Dilks, the eminent historian of modern Britain and Churchill scholar, is a fascinating source of new discoveries and insights. Dilks shows Churchill, not only as a war leader and international statesman, but also as a private person — with a rich variety of interests, enthusiasms, friendships and rivalries. New and penetrating light is directed on Churchill in the lead-up to World War, his relations with Ramsey MacDonald and Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy. There is the dramatic and troubled relationship with de Gaulle — but here political problems are softened by Churchill's 'love affair' with France. The aftermath of World War II, relations with Stalin, the Soviet Union and the Cold War all dominated Churchill's post-war career. Whether in or out of office, Churchill's influence was felt in all areas of British politics and national life and his imperial enthusiasm, never dimmed, found expression as a British Commonwealth elder statesman. David Dilks brings Churchill to life for all those interested modern British and international history whether student, specialist or general reader. |
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Who were the men who helped Hitler establish the Third Reich and then carry out some of the worst atrocities in modern history? In fifteen chilling profiles, Joachim Fest examines the lives of the most infamous Nazi leaders. They include Hermann Goering: the self-styled 'Iron Man', who directly issued orders for the Final Solution; Joseph Goebbels: the mastermind behind Kristallnacht; Heinrich Himmler: Reichsfuhrer of the SS, responsible for the deaths of over six million Jews and the most powerful man in Nazi Germany after Hitler; Martin Bormann: Hitler's private secretary, who wielded power by controlling access to the Fuhrer; Rudolph Hess: Deputy of the Nazi Party who was tried at Nuremberg; Albert Speer: 'the Nazi who said sorry', and of course Hitler himself. In this compelling account, Joachim Fest — one of the greatest authorities on the Third Reich and an icon of post-war Germany — shows how it was these individual personalities and their vicious power struggles that combined to give form to Hitler's terrifying vision. |
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The squares of London are amongst its most famous and best loved features. Berkeley Square, Eaton Square, St James' Square — the names are inextricably linked with the history of London itself. And the great houses of the capital — Buckingham House, Apsley House, Spencer House, to mention but a few — are intimately bound with the story not just of London but of the great families of the land. Edwin Beresford Chancellor's two volumes form an absorbing and informative account of the history of two of London's defining features. First published almost a century ago, these rare volumes still provide the most comprehensive accounts of their subject in a single volume. Attractively illustrated, with a new Introduction by Simon Jenkins, and handsomely produced in large format, they will be welcomed by all those with an interest in London's architectural and cultural history. |
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The Royal Navy's operations in World War II started on 3 September 1939 and continued until the surrender of Japan in August 1945 — there was no 'phoney war' at sea. The navy played a central role in the evacuation of the retreating British army at Dunkirk, and later orchestrated the sinking of Germany's mighty battleship and Hitler's pride, the Bismarck. Without the Royal Navy's attention to the defence of Britain's seaborne trade — especially in the struggle against German U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic — there would not have been food for the country, fuel for the RAF's operations or supplies to keep the army fighting in Europe, North Africa and the Far East. Yet the outstanding naval contribution to Britain's survival and eventual victory came at a heavy cost in terms of ships and to the men who had to face not just the violence of the enemy, but also the violence of the sea. This book argues that World War II was, effectively, a maritime war; it was the Royal Navy's war. |
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