Julian Elfer
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The true and dramatic testimony of a German grenadier during World War II.
Erhard Steiniger joined his Wehrmacht unit on 12 October 1940 as a radio operator, a role which required his constant presence with troops at the Front, right during combat. On 22 June 1941, he accompanied his division to Lithuania where he experienced the catastrophic first day of Operation Barbarossa.
He later witnessed intense clashes during the conquest of the Baltic...
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In his widely acclaimed book Time to Start Thinking, Financial Times columnist Edward Luce charted the course of America's economic and geopolitical decline, proving to be a prescient voice on the state of the nation.
In The Retreat of Western Liberalism, Luce makes a larger statement about the weakening of western hegemony and the crisis of democratic liberalism-of which Donald Trump and his European counterparts are not the cause, but a symptom....
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A rich and illuminating history of the world capital that has transformed art, culture, and politics.
Vienna is unique amongst world capitals in its consistent international importance over the centuries. From the ascent of the Habsburgs as Europe's leading dynasty to the Congress of Vienna, which reordered Europe in the wake of Napoleon's downfall, to bridge-building summits during the Cold War, Vienna has been the scene of key moments in world...
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"One of The Guardian's Favourite Reads of 2017 as chosen by scientists" Geoff Mulgan is chief executive of Nesta, the UK's National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, and a senior visiting scholar at Harvard University's Ash Center. He was the founder of the think tank Demos and director of the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit and head of policy under Tony Blair. His books include The Locust and the Bee (Princeton) and Good and Bad Power...
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Bestselling author Michael Korda's Horse People is the story -- sometimes hilariously funny, sometimes sad and moving, always shrewdly observed -- of a lifetime love affair with horses, and of the bonds that have linked humans with horses for more than ten thousand years. It is filled with intimate portraits of the kind of people, rich or poor, Eastern or Western, famous or humble, whose lives continue to revolve around the horse.
Korda is a terrific...
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Thirty years ago, ecstasy and torment took hold of John Rivers, shocking him out of "half-baked imbecility into something more nearly resembling the human form." He had an affair with the wife of his mentor, Henry Maartens-a path breaking physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize, and a figure of blinding brilliance-bringing the couple to ruin. Now, on Christmas Eve while a small grandson sleeps upstairs, John Rivers is moved to set the record straight...
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A comprehensive, yet entertaining look at China's history through a modern lens.
For millennia, China was the largest and richest nation on earth. Two centuries ago, however, its economy sank into a depression from which it had not fully recovered-until now. China's modern resurgence as the world's largest nation in terms of population and its second-largest economy-where 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty in the space of a few decades-is...
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How the miracle on the beaches saved a nation. A gripping account of one of the most famous episodes of the Second World War
In May 1940 British and Allied troops on mainland Europe were in a perilous situation: cut off and surrounded, at the conclusion of the bloody Battle of France they faced complete annihilation. It would be a devastating blow, handing Europe to the Nazis.
But over a few frantic days, the greatest evacuation in history managed...
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We tend to think of the Cold War as a bounded conflict: a clash of two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, born out of the ashes of World War II and coming to a dramatic end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. But in this major new work, Bancroft Prize-winning scholar Odd Arne Westad argues that the Cold War must be understood as a global ideological confrontation, with early roots in the Industrial Revolution and ongoing repercussions...
30) Iron gold
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A decade ago, Darrow was the hero of the revolution he believed would break the chains of the Society, and abolish the color-coded caste system. But the Rising has shattered everything, and brought endless war. New foes emerge to threaten what has been earned, and throughout the worlds other destinies entwine with Darrow's to change his fate forever. A young Red girl flees tragedy in her refugee camp, and achieves for herself a new life she could...
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Famed as the ultimate penalty for traitors, heretics and royalty alike, being sent to the Tower is known to have been experienced by no less than 8,000 unfortunate souls. Many of those who were imprisoned in the Tower never returned to civilization and those who did, often did so without their head! It is hardly surprising that the Tower has earned itself a reputation among the most infamous buildings on the planet.
Beginning with the early tales...
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The foundations upon which our democracies stand are inherently flawed, vulnerable to corrosion from within. What is the remedy?
A. C. Grayling makes the case for a clear, consistent, principled and written constitution, and sets out the reforms necessary - among them addressing the imbalance of power between government and Parliament, imposing fixed terms for MPs, introducing proportional representation and lowering the voting age to 16 (the age...
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"In 1935, Adolf Hitler declared Munich the "Capital of the Movement." It was here that he developed his anti-Semitic beliefs and founded the Nazi party. Though Hitler's immediate milieu during the 1910s and 1920s has received ample attention, this book argues that the Munich of this period is worthy of study in its own right and that the changes the city underwent between 1918 and 1923 are absolutely crucial for understanding the rise of antisemitism...
34) Opium: A History
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Known to mankind since prehistoric times, opium is arguably the oldest and most widely used narcotic. Opium: A History traces the drug's astounding impact on world culture-from its religious use by prehistoric peoples to its influence on the imaginations of the Romantic writers; from the earliest medical science to the Sino-British opium wars. And, in the present day, as the addict population rises and penetrates every walk of life, Opium shows how...
35) Seapower States: Maritime Culture, Continental Empires, and the Conflict That Made the Modern World
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Andrew Lambert, author of The Challenge-winner of the prestigious Anderson Medal-turns his attention to Athens, Carthage, Venice, the Dutch Republic, and Britain, examining how their identities as "seapowers" informed their actions and enabled them to achieve success disproportionate to their size. Lambert demonstrates how creating maritime identities made these states more dynamic, open, and inclusive than their lumbering continental rivals. Only...
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The story of Rome's richest man, who died a humiliating desert death in search of military glory
Marcus Licinius Crassus (115-53 BCE) was a modern man in an ancient world, a pioneer disrupter of finance and politics, and the richest man of the last years of the Roman republic. Without his catastrophic ambition, this trailblazing tycoon might have quietly entered history as Rome's first modern political financier. Instead, Crassus and his son led...
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5,000 years of history-from the Bhagavad Gita to Bollywood-fill this masterful portrait of the world's most populous nation and a rising global power.
India-a cradle of civilization with five millennia of history, a country of immense consequence and contradiction-often defies ready understanding. What holds its people together-across its many cultures, races, languages, and creeds-and how has India evolved into the liberal democracy it is today?
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What is capitalism? Is capitalism the same everywhere? Is there an alternative?
The word "capitalism" is one that is heard and used frequently, but what is capitalism really all about, and what does it mean? This Very Short Introduction addresses questions such as, "what is capital?" before discussing the history and development of capitalism through several detailed case studies, ranging from the tulipomania of 17th century Holland, the Great Depression...
39) The Demon
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Award-winning poet and novelist Douglas Nicholas has captivated listeners with his stunning Something Red trilogy. In "The Demon," Sir Balthasar leads the men of Blanchefontaine against a mythical beast stalking the woods of England's wild North Country.
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Pierre Clostermann DFC was one of the outstanding Allied aces of the Second World War. A Frenchman who flew with the RAF, he survived over 420 operational sorties, shooting down scores of enemy aircraft while friends and comrades lost their lives in the deadly skies above Europe.
The Big Show, his extraordinary account of the war, has been described as the greatest pilot's memoir of WWII.