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Interned in a remote country house by MI6 after the war, the German physicists who worked to make a Nazi atomic bomb were secretly recorded. This book shows just how close they came and their disbelief as the Allies attack Hiroshima.
The next UK SDSR is scheduled for 2015. We should not set our expectations too high. Whitehall, says Shaw, is locked within frameworks of language and custom that are a hindrance to clear thinking about defence requirements and their implementation. 'Unfit for Purpose' exposes the workings of Whitehall to reveal a fragmented structure and culture.
During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, an Iraqi journalist is given a tour of a military prison. He is informed by the major in charge about what is expected of him: he is to write a fabricated report about a murder that has occurred in the camp, in order to demoralise the enemy soldiers.
Unscrupulous, devilishly ambitious and undeniably charismatic, Domenico Barbaja was the most celebrated Italian impresario of the early 1800s and one of the most intriguing characters to dominate the operatic empire of the period. Dubbed the 'Viceroy of Naples', Barbaja managed both the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and La Scala in Milan.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is recognised as a giant of world literature; an exceptionally prolific and versatile writer. This heavily-illustrated biography by one of the world's foremost Goethe scholars is an ideal introduction to seminal figure in literary history.
Summer 1918. The First World War is drawing to a close when Leon Le Gall, a French teenager from Cherbourg who has dropped out of school and left home, falls in love with Louise Janvier. Both are severely wounded by German artillery fire, are separated, and believe each other to be dead.
Sir Edgar Speyer was a conspicuous figure in the financial, cultural, social and political life of Edwardian London. Head of the syndicate which financed the construction of the deep 'tube lines' and 'King of the Underground', he was also a connoisseur and active patron of the arts who rescued the 'Proms' from collapse.
This is the true story of re-building a beautiful Damascene house and a chronicle of a country where many dreams are being shattered. In My House in Damascus Diana Darke reveals the Syria that lies behind our daily headlines.
On June 28, 1919, the Peace Treaty was signed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, five years to the day after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo triggered Europe's precipitous descent into war. This war was the first conflict to be fought on a global scale. By its end in 1918, four empires had collapsed, and their minority populations, which had never before existed as independent entities, were encouraged to seek self-determination and nationhood. Following on from Haus's monumental thirty-two Volume series on the signatories of the Versailles peace treaty, The Makers of the Modern World, 28 June looks in greater depth at the smaller nations that are often ignored in general histories, and in doing so seeks to understand the conflict from a global perspective, asking not only how each of the signatories came to join the conflict but also giving an overview of the long-term consequences of their having done so.
The ancient world of fifth century Greece, an astonishing period of cultural development that helps situate the originality of Socrates, and to the city-state of Athens in particular. The social, political and cultural currents flowing through Athens are inseparable from an understanding of the events and attitudes that Socrates examined.
It's a pitch black, rainy night in a small Iranian town. Inside his house the Colonel is immersed in thought. Memories are storming in. There is a knock on the door. Two young policemen have come to summon the Colonel to collect the tortured body of his youngest daughter and bury her before sunrise.
Portugal's poor military performance in the First World War, notably in Africa, restricted Afonso Costa's (1871-1937) ability to secure his diplomatic aims which, in any case, were highly unrealistic. Nevertheless, his loyal press in Portugal described him as the leader of the small nations', and reported his every statement as a major triumph.
A biography of T S Eliot that offers a sympathetic study of his first marriage which does not attempt to blame, but to understand; it shows how Eliot's poetry can be read for its revelations about his inner world.
A biography of Gandhi, one of the most intriguing figures of the 20th century. It gives an account of Gandhi's remarkable life, which is full of contrasts and contradictions.
While Brazil declared war on Germany, in the First World War, the rest of South America held back. In the end no other South American nation joined the fighting. But four - Bolivia, Equador, Peru and Uruguay did break off diplomatic relations with Germany, in sympathy with US policy and with Allies in Europe. This title deals with this topic.
Togo Heihachiro (1848-1934) was born into a feudal society that had lived in seclusion for 250 years. Delving beyond Togo's finest hour at the Battle of Tsushima, this title portrays the life of a diffident Japanese sailor in Victorian Britain.
The First World War marked the emergence of the Dominions on the world stage as independent nations, none more so than Australia. Australia was represented at Versailles by the Prime Minister, the colourful Billy Hughes. Hughes was also the most vociferous opponent of the racial equality clause put forward by Japan.
The Great War profoundly affected both New Zealand and its Prime Minister William Massey (1856-1925). Farmer Bill oversaw the dispatch of a hundred thousand New Zealanders, including his own sons, to Middle Eastern and European battlefields. In 1919 he led the New Zealand delegation to the Paris Peace Conference.
The Italian premier Vittorio Orlando came to Paris as one of the Big Four', yet in April 1919 walked out in one of the most dramatic crises of the Peace Conferences. This book also details the clash between Italy's territorial demands in the Balkans, which had been guaranteed by the Allies in 1915 and earned through her losses in the War.
The Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos (1864-1936) was one of the stars of the Paris Peace Conference, impressing many of the Western delegates, already possessed of a romantic view of 'the grandeur that was Greece', with his charm and oratorical style.
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