Историческая литература - скачать книги или читать онлайн. Страница 166

Part historical narrative, part travelogue through the wilds of the West and part environmental polemic, ‘Selling Your Father's Bones’ is a thrilling journey through the history and wilderness of the stunning area of landscape that is Continental USA.In the summer of 1877, around seven hundred members of the Nez Perce Native American tribe set out on one of the most remarkable journeys in the history of the American West, a 1,700-mile exodus through the mountains, forests, badlands and prairies of modern-day Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. They had been forced from their homes by the great wave of settlement that crashed over the West as the American nation was born.Led by their charismatic chiefs, the Nez Perce used their unerring knowledge of the landscapes they passed through to survive six battles and many more skirmishes with the pursuing United States Army, as they raced, with women, children and village elders in their care, towards the safety of the Canadian border. But all Chief Joseph, the young pastoral leader of the exodus, wanted was to return home – to his beloved Wallowa valley, which his dying father had ordered him never to abandon: 'Never sell the bones of your father and your mother.’Now, Brian Schofield retraces the steps of that epic exodus, to tell the full dramatic story of the Nez Perce's fight for survival – and to examine the forces that drove them to take flight. The white settlement of the West had been largely motivated by patriotic fervour and religious zeal, a faith that the American continent had been laid out by God to fuel the creation of a mighty empire. But as he travels through the lands that the Nez Perce knew so well, Schofield reveals that the great project of the Western Empire has gone badly awry, as the mythology of the settlers opened the door to ecological vandalism, unthinking corporations and negligent leadership, which have lest scarred landscapes, battered communities and toxic environments.

‘A glamorous read packed with period detail…strong women are centre stage’ Daily MailThe secrets of an aristocratic dynasty are about to be revealed…The year is 1949. And at Cavendon Hall, a Yorkshire stately home, the Second World War has exacted a terrible price and the estate is facing bankruptcy. The aristocratic Ingham family is at odds with its loyal retainers, the Swanns, for the first time.And when Cavendon’s secrets start to rise to the surface, young and old alike are threatened. Can the generations unite to save the family name and their future?

A timely and vivid look at Scotland’s long and difficult road to nationhood, re-exploring some cherished myths and unearthing a wealth of fascinating new detail.This edition contains a limited number of illustrations.Magnus Magnusson’s starting point is Sir Walter Scott’s classic version of Scotland’s history, ‘Tales of a Grandfather’ (1827-29), which has moulded the views of generations of Scottish schoolchildren. Like Scott, Magnus Magnusson is a master story teller. In investigating the many questions raised by the nation’s turbulent and often poignant past, he gives full weight to the living treasure of local legends and tradition which he believes has as much resonance as academic analysis.Where did the ‘Scots’ come from? What is the truth about such historical figures as Macbeth, William Wallace and Robert Bruce? What was the significance of the tragic reign of Mary Queen of Scots? What was the impact of Bonnie Prince Charlie and his brutal defeat at Culloden?Incorporating the findings of many leading modern historians, ‘Scotland: The Story of a Nation’ casts the nation’s history in a fascinating new light. It is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Scotland at this pivotal moment in its history.

Following on from his epic ‘1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow’, bestselling author Adam Zamoyski has written the dramatic story of the Congress of Vienna.In the wake of his disastrous Russian campaign of 1812, Napoleon's imperious grip on Europe began to weaken, raising the question of how the Continent was to be reconstructed after his defeat. There were many who dreamed of a peace to end all wars, in which the interests of peoples as well as those of rulers would be taken into account. But what followed was an unseemly and at times brutal scramble for territory by the most powerful states, in which countries were traded as if they had been private and their inhabitants counted like cattle.The results, fixed at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, not only laid the foundations of the European world we know; it put in place a social order and a security system that lie at the root of many of the problems which dog the world today. Although the defining moments took place in Vienna, and the principle players included Tsar Alexander I of Russia, the Austrian Chancellor Metternich, the Duke of Wellington and the French master of diplomacy Talleyrand, as well as Napoleon himself, the accepted view of the gathering of statesmen reordering the Continent in elegant salons is a false one. Many of the crucial questions were decided on the battlefield or in squalid roadside cottages amid the vagaries of war. And the proceedings in Vienna itself were not as decorous as is usually represented.Drawing on a wide range of first-hand sources in six languages, which include not only official documents, private letters, diaries and first-hand accounts, but also the reports of police spies and informers, Adam Zamoyski gets below the thin veneer of courtliness and reveals that the new Europe was forged by men in thrall to fear, greed and lust, in an atmosphere of moral depravity in which sexual favours were traded as readily as provinces and the 'souls' who inhabited them. He has created a chilling account, full of menace as well as frivolity.

(This edition includes a limited number of illustrations.)‘Redcoat is a wonderful book. It is not just a work of history – but one of enthusiasm and unparalleled knowledge.' BERNARD CORNWELL‘Redcoat is a wonderful book. It is not just a work of history – but one of enthusiasm and unparalleled knowledge.' BERNARD CORNWELLRedcoat is the story of the British soldier from c.1760 until c.1860 – surely one of the most enduring and magnetic subjects of the British past. Solidly based on the letters and diaries of the men who served and the women who followed them, the book is rich in the history of the period. It charts Wolfe's victory and death at Quebec, the American War of Independence, the Duke of York's campaign in Flanders, Wellington's Peninsular War, Waterloo,the retreat from Kabul, the Sikh wars in 1845-9, the Crimean war and the Indian Mutiny.The focus of Redcoat, however, is the individual recollection and experience of the ordinary soldiers serving in the wars fought by Georgian and early Victorian England.Through their stories and anecdotes – of uniforms, equipment,'taking the King's shilling', flogging, wounds, food, barrack life, courage, comradeship, death, love and loss – Richard Holmes provides a comprehensive portrait of a fallible but extraordinarily successful fighting force.'Such a scene of mortal strife from the fire of fifty men was never witnessed…' writes Harry Smith of the 95th Rifles, recounting the death of a brother officer in Spain in 1813. 'I wept over his remains with a bursting heart as, with his company who adored him, I consigned to the grave the last external appearance of Daniel Cadoux. His fame can never die.' Smith's account is typical of the emotions and experiences of the men who appear on every page of this book, sporting their red uniforms to fight for King and country.

From Sunday Times bestseller Anne O’Brien . . .To those around her she was a loyal subject. In her heart she was a traitor.1399: England’s crown is under threat. King Richard II holds onto his power by an ever-weakening thread, with exiled Henry of Lancaster back to reclaim his place on the throne.For Elizabeth Mortimer, there is only one rightful King – her eight-year-old nephew, Edmund. Only he can guarantee her fortunes, and protect her family’s rule over the precious Northern lands bordering Scotland.But many, including Elizabeth’s husband, do not want another child-King. Elizabeth must hide her true ambitions in Court, and go against her husband’s wishes to help build a rebel army.To question her loyalty to the King places Elizabeth in the shadow of the axe.To concede would curdle her Plantagenet blood.This is one woman’s quest to turn history on its head.‘O’Brien is now approaching Philippa Gregory status’ Reader’s Digest‘O’Brien is a terrific storyteller’ Daily Telegraph‘O’Brien cleverly intertwines the personal and political’ The Times

From the bestselling author of THE WHITE QUEEN, now a hit BBC TV production – the last three novels of her Tudor Court series: THE QUEEN’S FOOL, THE VIRGIN’S LOVER and THE OTHER QUEENTHE QUEEN’S FOOL is a stunning novel set in the Tudor court, depicting the rivalry between Queen Mary and her half-sister Elizabeth, played out against a background of betrayal, conflict and passion. Elizabeth’s bitter struggle to claim the throne she believes is hers by right, and the man she desires almost more than her crown, is watched by her ‘fool’: a girl who has been forced to leave her homeland of Spain, as a Jew fleeing the Inquisition. In these dangerous times, a woman must choose between ambition… and love.THE VIRGIN’S LOVER is a sumptuous historical novel set in the court of Elizabeth I, who has acceded to the throne of England, a position she has waited and schemed for all her life. She is surrounded by advisers, all convinced that a young woman cannot form political judgements. Elizabeth feels that she can rely on just one man: her oldest friend, Robert Dudley. As the pressure grows for Elizabeth to marry, her preference is clear, but he is unavailable. But what if the unthinkable were to happen… In a blend of passion, personalities and politics, this is a stunning novel of the Tudor court and a country divided.In the final book of the Tudor Court series, THE OTHER QUEEN is a dramatic novel of passion, politics and betrayal. Mary, Queen of Scots, is fighting to regain her kingdom whilst under the guard of Queen Elizabeth’s trusted accomplice, Bess of Hardwick. Bess is a self-made woman, a shrewd survivor. She is newly married to her fourth and most distinguished husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury. But what marriage can withstand the charms of Mary? Or the threat of rebellion that she always carries?With her characteristic combination of superb storytelling and authentic historical background, Philippa Gregory brings to life this period of great change, in a riveting tale of betrayal, loyalty, politics and passion.

From the bestselling author of THE WHITE QUEEN – the first three novels of her Tudor Court series: THE CONSTANT PRINCESS, THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, THE BOLEYN INHERITANCETHE CONSTANT PRINCESS tells the story of Henry VIII’s first wife, Katherine of Aragon, the Spanish princess raised to be Queen of England and first brought to England to marry Henry’s older brother, Prince Arthur. But when her new husband dies, she must fight for her birthright – and in marrying the now heir to the throne, she must tell the greatest lie… and hold to it.THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, made famous by the film adaptation, tells the story of the less notorious Boleyn sister, Mary, who catches the wandering eye of the young King Henry VIII. But when he tires of her, she sets out to school her sister, Anne, as a replacement – and before their story is over, the course of English history has been irrevocably changed. Politics and passion are inextricably bound together in this compelling drama.In THE BOLEYN INHERITANCE, the court of Henry VIII is increasingly fearful at the moods of the ageing sick king. With only a baby in the cradle for an heir, Henry must take another wife and the dangerous prize of the crown of England is won by Anne of Cleves. Anne, although fascinated by the glamour of her new surroundings, senses a trap closing around her. Katherine Howard is confident that she can follow in the steps of her cousin Anne Boleyn to dazzle her way to the throne but her kinswoman Jane Boleyn, haunted by the past, knows that Anne’s path led to Tower Green and to an adulterer’s death.

A magnificent and timely examination of an age of fear, subversion, suppression and espionage, Adam Zamoyski explores the attempts of the governments of Europe to police the world in a struggle against obscure forces, seemingly dedicated to the overthrow of civilisation.The French Revolution and the blood-curdling violence it engendered terrified the ruling and propertied classes of Europe. Unable to grasp how such horrors could have come about, many concluded that it was the result of a devilish conspiracy hatched by Freemasons inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment with the aim of overthrowing the entire social order, along with the legal and religious principles it stood on. Others traced it back to the Reformation or the Knights Templar and ascribed even more sinister aims to it.Faced by this apparently occult threat, they resorted to repression on an unprecedented scale, expanding police and spy networks in the process. Napoleon managed to contain the revolutionary elements in France and those parts of Europe he controlled, but while many welcomed this, others saw in him no more than the spawn of the Revolution, propagating its doctrines by other means. After his defeat at Waterloo in 1815, his victors united to maintain the old order, suppress of all opposition, and ferret out of the conspirators whom they believed to be plotting mayhem and murder in the shadows.In this ground-breaking study best-selling historian Adam Zamoyski exposes their pusillanimous yet cynical recourse to the police spy and the bayonet, which only intensified their own fears and pushed ordinary people towards subversion, building up the pressure of opposition to their rule.When it came, with the revolutions of 1848, the dreaded cataclysm revealed their fears to have been groundless; the masses stirred into revolt by hunger and oppressive living conditions were leaderless and easily pacified. There never had been any conspiracy. But the police were there to stay, and the paradigm of an order threatened by dark forces is also still with us today. This compelling history, occasionally chilling and often hilarious, tells how the modern state evolved through the expansion of its organs of control, and holds urgent lessons for today.

Three of Patrick O’Brian’s glorious adventure novels in one ebook for the first time. If you love the Aubrey-Maturin series then you’ll adore these.These three novels set the way for the Aubrey-Maturin and match the series in their rich detail, adventurous prose and comic nuance that all Patrick O’Brian readers can expect from the master of historical fiction.The Road to Samarcand finds newly orphaned Derrick thrown into the care of his gruff Uncle Sullivan, the captain of The Wanderer. Captain Sullivan, their cousin the Professor and his new ward set off for Central Asia with their sights set on treasure. Chinese warlords loom and the glint of a priceless piece of Jade send the group up into the mountains of Tibet stalked by something they do not know and cannot name.The Golden Ocean sees Peter Palafox, son of a poor Irish parson, signing up as a midshipman on Anson's 1740 circumnavigation of the globe, never before having seen a ship. Together with his life-long friend Sean, Peter sets out to seek his fortune, embarking on a journey of danger, disappointment, foreign lands and excitement.The Unknown Shore sees midshipman Jack Byron and his friend Tobias Barrow, an alarmingly naive surgeon's mate aboard The Wager. The ship is parted from Anson's squadron in the fierce storms off Cape Horn and struggles up the coast of Chile until she hits rocks and sinks. Isolated, the survivors are soon driven to drunkenness, mutiny, and bloodshed. But a handful of men make their way northward under the guidance of a band of Indians, at last finding safety in Valparaiso. This is a saga of survival and Aubrey-Maturin series fans might recognise Jack and Toby as precursors of the famed heroes of the great Aubrey-Maturin series.

In this inspiring and original book, former editor of The Times, Sir Peter Stothard, re-traces the journey taken by Spartacus and his army of rebels.In the final century of the first Roman Republic an army of slaves brought a peculiar terror to the people of Italy. Its leaders were gladiators. Its purpose was incomprehensible. Its success was something no one before had ever known.The Spartacus Road is the route along which this rebel army outfought the Roman legions between 73 and 71BC, bringing both fears and hopes that have never wholly left the modern mind. It is a road that stretches through 2,000 miles of Italian countryside and out into 2,000 years of world history.In this inspiring and original memoir, the former editor of The Times, Peter Stothard, takes us on an extraordinary journey. The result is a book like none other – at once a journalist’s notebook, a classicist’s celebration, a survivor’s record of a near fatal cancer and the history of a unique and brutal war.As he travels along the Spartacus road – through the ruins of Capua to Vesuvius and the lost Greek cities of the Italian south – Stothard’s prose illuminates conflicting memories of times ancient and modern, the simultaneously foreign and familiar, one of the greatest stories of all ages. Sweepingly erudite and strikingly personal, “On the Spartacus Road” is non-fiction writing of the highest order.

A wonderful collection on topical themes from the controversial ‘product-placement’ author of The Bulgari Connection.A superb new collection of stories: shrewd, sharp, insightful, with a cheerfully dark view of the world.The wronged wife remains a lingering presence even after the mistress has moved in to her home. Oriole, an enormously successful businesswoman married to the ineffectual Hugh, begins to re-evaluate her life, when her best crockery keeps mysteriously flying through the air. A sculptor finds love while protecting a Roman graveyard from property developers. A Christmas gathering turns murderous for one unhappy guest. A travel writer watches, horrified, as her father runs of with her best friend, but is soon planning revenge.The entire collection is shot through with Weldon's trademark mischievous deceitfulness, her hidden meanings and agendas. Rich, mad, greedy, deceitful, vulnerable her characters may be, but the stories maintain a defiantly optimistic air and sparkle with the irrepressible wit with which Weldon writes about the lives of modern men and women.