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Prime Ministers in Power
by Mark BennisterTony Blair and John Howard appear to be incongruous choices for comparative analysis. Howard was from the ideological right of Australian politics, with a leadership style based on experience and an uncharismatic, cautious, bureaucratic persona. Blair was the charismatic, new progressive centre-left leader with an emotional, thespian style, stressing vision and moral imperatives. Yet, it is possible to identify both personal and institutional similarities. This book argues that both leaders stretched the institutional resources available to them and enhanced their own personal capital. Over time, the political capital generated by each inevitably fell away to the extent that they both (although for contrasting reasons) left office in 2007. Prime Ministers in Powerinvestigates prime ministerial predominance in Britain and Australia. It is a timely addition to the scholarly material on political leadership, adding a comparative dimension by using case study analysis of two prime ministers in similar political systems. How did these two prime ministers establish such predominant positions? How far can prime ministers stretch the institutions within which they work and how much of an impact does the office-holder have on the office? What conclusions can be drawn from the comparison of the two prime ministers? What are the consequences and costs of such predominance? This book addresses these questions, offering a comparative perspective on the nature of prime ministerial leadership.
Prime Ministers of the 20th Century (Images of the The National Archives)
by Mark DuntonA concise history of each of the UK’s twentieth-century Prime Ministers, from Robert Gascoyne-Cecil to Tony Blair, featuring archival images and documents.This book gives an overview of each of the British Prime Ministers of the twentieth century, summarising their premierships, their policies, and the key events. It is lavishly illustrated with images of documents from The National Archives which give a fresh dimension to the study of the Prime Minister’s role, providing insights into their personalities and the pressures that Prime Ministers are subject to. Handwritten comments by Prime Ministers enable the reader to connect with the individual and how they felt at the time. There are dramatic episodes and examples of forthright reactions, but flashes of humour too.
Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics
by John DerbyshireIn August 1859 Bernhard Riemann, a little-known 32-year old mathematician, presented a paper to the Berlin Academy titled: "On the Number of Prime Numbers Less Than a Given Quantity." In the middle of that paper, Riemann made an incidental remark -- a guess, a hypothesis. What he tossed out to the assembled mathematicians that day has proven to be almost cruelly compelling to countless scholars in the ensuing years. Today, after 150 years of careful research and exhaustive study, the question remains. Is the hypothesis true or false? Riemann's basic inquiry, the primary topic of his paper, concerned a straightforward but nevertheless important matter of arithmetic -- defining a precise formula to track and identify the occurrence of prime numbers. But it is that incidental remark -- the Riemann Hypothesis -- that is the truly astonishing legacy of his 1859 paper. Because Riemann was able to see beyond the pattern of the primes to discern traces of something mysterious and mathematically elegant shrouded in the shadows -- subtle variations in the distribution of those prime numbers. Brilliant for its clarity, astounding for its potential consequences, the Hypothesis took on enormous importance in mathematics. Indeed, the successful solution to this puzzle would herald a revolution in prime number theory. Proving or disproving it became the greatest challenge of the age.--It has become clear that the Riemann Hypothesis, whose resolution seems to hang tantalizingly just beyond our grasp, holds the key to a variety of scientific and mathematical investigations. The making and breaking of modern codes, which depend on the properties of the prime numbers, have roots in the Hypothesis. In a series of extraordinary developments during the 1970s, it emerged that even the physics of the atomic nucleus is connected in ways not yet fully understood to this strange conundrum. Hunting down the solution to the Riemann Hypothesis has become an obsession for many -- the veritable "great white whale" of mathematical research. Yet despite determined efforts by generations of mathematicians, the Riemann Hypothesis defies resolution. Alternating passages of extraordinarily lucid mathematical exposition with chapters of elegantly composed biography and history, Prime Obsession is a fascinating and fluent account of an epic mathematical mystery that continues to challenge and excite the world. Posited a century and a half ago, the Riemann Hypothesis is an intellectual feast for the cognoscenti and the curious alike. Not just a story of numbers and calculations, Prime Obsession is the engrossing tale of a relentless hunt for an elusive proof -- and those who have been consumed by it.
Prime Time (with Bonus Content)
by Jane FondaBONUS: This eBook includes the full text of the book plus 50 photographs not found in the print version.In this inspiring and candid book, Jane Fonda, #1 bestselling author, actress, and workout pioneer, gives us a blueprint for living well and for making the most of life, especially the second half of it. Covering sex, love, food, fitness, self-understanding, spiritual and social growth, and your brain. In Prime Time, she offers a vision for successful living and maturing, A to Z.Highlighting new research and stories from her own life and from the lives of others, Jane Fonda explores how the critical years from 45 and 50, and especially from 60 and beyond, can be times when we truly become the energetic, loving, fulfilled people we were meant to be. Covering the 11 key ingredients for vital living, Fonda invites you to consider with her how to live a more insightful, healthy, and fully integrated life, a life lived more profoundly in touch with ourselves, our bodies, minds, and spirits, and with our talents, friends, and communities. In her research, Fonda discovered two metaphors, the arch and the staircase, that became for her two visions of life. She shows how to see your life the "staircase" way, as one of continual ascent. She explains how she came to understand the earlier decades of her life by performing a life review, and she shows how you can do a life review too. She reveals how her own life review enabled her to let go of old patterns, to see what means the most to her, and then to cultivate new goals and dreams, to make the most of the mature years. For there has been a "longevity revolution," and the average human life expectancy has jumped by years. Fonda asks, what we are meant to do with this precious gift of time? And she writes about how we can navigate the "fertile voids" that life periodically presents to us. She makes suggestions about exercise (including three key movements for optimal health), diet (how to eat by color), meditation, and how learning new things and creating fresh pathways in your brain can add quality to your life. Fonda writes of positivity, and why many people are happier in the second half of their lives than they have ever been before.In her #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, My Life So Far, Jane Fonda focused on the first half of her extraordinary life--what she called Acts I and II--with an eye toward preparing for a vibrant Act III. Now we have a thoughtfully articulated memoir and guide for how to make all of your life, and especially Act III, Prime Time.
Prime Time (with Bonus Content): Love, health, sex, fitness, friendship, spirit; Making the most of all of your life
by Jane FondaBONUS: This eBook includes the full text of the book plus 50 photographs not found in the print version.In this inspiring and candid book, Jane Fonda, #1 bestselling author, actress, and workout pioneer, gives us a blueprint for living well and for making the most of life, especially the second half of it. Covering sex, love, food, fitness, self-understanding, spiritual and social growth, and your brain. In Prime Time, she offers a vision for successful living and maturing, A to Z.Highlighting new research and stories from her own life and from the lives of others, Jane Fonda explores how the critical years from 45 and 50, and especially from 60 and beyond, can be times when we truly become the energetic, loving, fulfilled people we were meant to be. Covering the 11 key ingredients for vital living, Fonda invites you to consider with her how to live a more insightful, healthy, and fully integrated life, a life lived more profoundly in touch with ourselves, our bodies, minds, and spirits, and with our talents, friends, and communities. In her research, Fonda discovered two metaphors, the arch and the staircase, that became for her two visions of life. She shows how to see your life the "staircase" way, as one of continual ascent. She explains how she came to understand the earlier decades of her life by performing a life review, and she shows how you can do a life review too. She reveals how her own life review enabled her to let go of old patterns, to see what means the most to her, and then to cultivate new goals and dreams, to make the most of the mature years. For there has been a "longevity revolution," and the average human life expectancy has jumped by years. Fonda asks, what we are meant to do with this precious gift of time? And she writes about how we can navigate the "fertile voids" that life periodically presents to us. She makes suggestions about exercise (including three key movements for optimal health), diet (how to eat by color), meditation, and how learning new things and creating fresh pathways in your brain can add quality to your life. Fonda writes of positivity, and why many people are happier in the second half of their lives than they have ever been before.In her #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, My Life So Far, Jane Fonda focused on the first half of her extraordinary life--what she called Acts I and II--with an eye toward preparing for a vibrant Act III. Now we have a thoughtfully articulated memoir and guide for how to make all of your life, and especially Act III, Prime Time.
Primera Memoria
by Ana Maria MatuteCon la guerra civil, «lejana y próxima a un tiempo, quizás más temida por invisible», como telón de fondo, Primera memoria, Premio Nadal 1959, narra el paso de la niñez a la adolescencia de Matia ―la protagonista― y de su primo Borja. Los dos viven en casa de su abuela en un mundo insular ingenuo y misterioso a la vez. A través de la visión particularísima de la muchacha ―sin madre y con padre desaparecido― asistimos a su despertar a la adolescencia, cuando, roto el caparazón de la niñez, ciega y asombra y hasta a veces duele el fuerte resplandor de la realidad. Una intensa galería de personajes constituye el contrapunto de su vertiginosa sucesión de sensaciones. Y es que en unos meses, Matia descubrirá muchas cosas sobre «la oscura vida de las personas mayores». Melancólica elegía de la perversión de la inocencia, Primera memoria es, sin lugar a dudas, una de las mejores novelas de Ana María Matute.
Primera página: Vida de un periodista 1944-1988
by Juan Luis CebriánPrimera página son las memorias de Juan Luis Cebrián, primer director de El País, pero también el apasionante relato de los convulsos años que llevaron a España de una sangrienta y rancia dictadura a la democracia, contado por un testigo imprescindible. Nacido en Madrid en 1944, en una familia de periodistas, Juan Luis Cebrían pronto empezó a pisar las principales redacciones de la prensa de la época, primero la de Pueblo, luego la de Informaciones, donde fue subdirector con apenas 20 años, y también la de Cuadernos para el diálogo, cuyo espíritu fue un ensayo de la convivencia que haría posible la transición. Tras un fugaz paso por la dirección de informativos de RTVE, fue el primer director de El País, que pronto se convirtió en el periódico de referencia de España y símbolo de la reconquista de las libertades y la aspiración a una sociedad moderna y europea. Fueron años muy intensos que Cebrián vivió en primera línea, con secuestros de empresarios, atentados contra las redacciones, tensión en las calles, guerras soterradas por el control de un medio de comunicación que se hacía cada vez más poderoso, y hasta un golpe de Estado que amenazó con descarrilar el tren de la democracia. «Naturalmente, los hechos aquí relatados son todos ciertos, lo que no quiere decir que la versión de los mismos sea la única posible. He descrito mis relaciones con el poder, mis visiones profesionales, mis convicciones intelectuales. No pretendo que este sea un documento histórico, tampoco un ditirambo autocomplaciente ni emprender una saga de pequeñas venganzas contra nadie. Tampoco voy ahora a establecer verdades absolutas en las que no creo. Trato solo de explicar mis sentimientos, mis reacciones, mis apegos y desapegos en las vicisitudes varias en las que la vida me ha puesto.»Juan Luis Cebrián Primera página, que se lee con la tensión de una novela de aventuras, es un testimonio imprescindible de un periodo crucial de la historia reciente de España.
Primeras personas
by Juan Cruz RuizUna memoria personal y apasionante del mundo cultural de las últimas décadas. Por el ganador de los premios Canarias de Literatura, Benito Pérez Armas, Azorín de Novela y Nacional de Periodismo Cultural. «Entre los cristales rotos de mi memoria hay fulgores, estrellas con las que a veces alumbro y alivio los desastres y otras despedidas. Y con frecuencia acuden a ella, por su cuenta, algunos personajes y se instalan ahí.» «La materia de la que está hecha mi memoria es mi manera de ver la realidad», dijo en una ocasión Juan Cruz Ruiz, figura puente entre distintas generaciones de escritores, artistas, editores y periodistas. Desde la experiencia vivida junto a algunos de los principales protagonistas de la cultura contemporánea, llena de anécdotas, de momentos únicos que forjaron amistades, en cada capítulo de este libro el autor ofrece la semblanza personal de uno de ellos, que ahonda en su personalidad íntima y dibuja también su alma, instantes de sus vidas y de sus sentimientos. Günter Grass, Patti Smith, José Saramago, Dulce Chacón, José Manuel Caballero Bonald, J. K. Rowling, Carlos Fuentes, Carmen Balcells, Mario Vargas Llosa, Leonard Cohen, Gabriel García Márquez, Ingmar Bergman... La literatura, la música, el cine y el arte emanados de este libro rompen las fronteras y atraviesan décadas para ofrecernos un relato evocador y brillante sobre el mundo cultural de los últimos cincuenta años. La crítica ha dicho sobre el autor y su obra:«Los libros de Juan Cruz Ruiz son una alianza de géneros, en los que el lirismo, el relato, la introspección y la nostalgia juntan poesía y prosa.»Mario Vargas Llosa «Tiene un estilo cálido y brillante.»José Saramago «La pasión por la vida y la escritura y el deslumbramiento ante la belleza son aspectos muy presentes en el universo narrativo de Juan Cruz.»Qué Leer «Geografía lírica de la memoria. La fabulación novelesca, el fragmento poético, el relato de los sueños, la reflexión y el retrato. El periodista y escritor Juan Cruz ha recurrido a los más diversos géneros literarios a la hora de repasar fragmentariamente sus propios recuerdos.»Jordi Gracia, Babelia «Juan Cruz es el descendiente directo de Ramón Gómez de la Serna: el ribeteador de las palabras. Un hombre que se la pasa preguntando, como García Márquez.»Jorge F. Hernández
Primero, los niños: Memorias de una cirujano desde las fronteras de la medicina pediátrica
by Kurt Newman«Un libro conmovedor para cualquiera que desee comprender las bellezas y los misterios de la salud infantil» WALTER ISAACSON autor de los bestseller Steve Jobs. La biografía y Einstein. Su vida y su universo Cualquiera que haya visto a un niño recuperarse de una herida o de un hueso roto sabe que están hechos para sanar. Y en esta apasionante colección de memorias, el doctor Kurt Newman, líder de la cirugía pediátrica en Estados Unidos, recupera los episodios más extraordinarios de su carrera para mostrarnos la importancia de tratar a los niños como algo más que adultos miniatura. ¿Por qué es importante la atención pediátrica especializada?, ¿cómo pueden contribuir los padres a la recuperación de sus hijos?, ¿qué lecciones debemos aprender sobre la capacidad de sanar de niños y adolescentes? Éstas son algunas de las cuestiones abordadas por el doctor Newman, quien no sólo narra los hitos de la pediatría a lo largo de treinta años de práctica médica, sino que, a través de emotivos relatos y de sus pequeños y heroicos protagonistas, ofrece lecciones de ética profesional y humildad a los futuros profesionales de la medicina. Sin lugar a dudas, Primero, los niños es un libro profundamente humano, capaz de convencernos de que todavía hay mucho que podemos aprender de nuestros niños. «Escribir este libro es una verdadera labor de amor: por la medicina pediátrica, por los valientes niños y sus familias que me inspiran cada día, y por los mentores y amigos que me han guiado a lo largo de mi carrera» DOCTOR KURT NEWMAN
Primitive: The Art and Life of Horace H. Pippin
by Janice N. HarringtonA biographical reflection on the art and life of Horace H. Pippin-the best-known African-American artist of his time-Primitive is a critique on current perceptions surrounding African-American folk art, as well as the absence of key African-American history in present-day curricula. Award-winning poet Janice Harrington connects readers with a fascinating, odds-defying artist, all while underscoring the human need for artistic expression.
Primitivism (The Critical Idiom Reissued #19)
by Michael BellFirst published in 1972, this books examines the subject of primitivism through the study of the work of a number of major writers, including D. H. Lawrence, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, T. S. Eliot and James Joyce. It looks at the variety of definitions and uses of primitivism and how the idea has changed over time as well as with each writer. In doing so, it is argued that primitivism denotes, or arises from, a sense of crisis in civilization and it is born of the interplay between the civilized self and the desire to reject or transform it. This book will be of interest to those studying modern literature.
Primo Levi
by Ariella Lang Berel LangIn 1943, twenty-four-year-old Primo Levi had just begun a career in chemistry when, after joining a partisan group, he was captured by the Italian Fascist Militia and deported to Auschwitz. Of the 650 Italian Jews in his transport, he was one of fewer than 25 who survived the eleven months before the camp's liberation. Upon returning to his native Turin, Levi resumed work as a chemist and was employed for thirty years by a company specializing in paints and other chemical coatings. Yet soon after his return to Turin, he also began writing--memoirs, essays, novels, short stories, poetry--and it is for this work that he has won international recognition. His first book, If This Is a Man, issued in 1947 after great difficulty in finding a publisher, remains a landmark document of the twentieth century. Berel Lang's groundbreaking biography shines new light on Levi's role as a major intellectual and literary figure--an important Holocaust writer and witness but also an innovative moral thinker in whom his two roles as chemist and writer converged, providing the "matter" of his life. Levi's writing combined a scientist's attentiveness to structure and detail, an ironic imagination that found in all nature an ingenuity at once inviting and evasive, and a powerful and passionate moral imagination. Lang's approach provides a philosophically acute and nuanced analysis of Levi as thinker, witness, writer, and scientific detective.
Primo Levi's Resistance: Rebels and Collaborators in Occupied Italy
by Sergio LuzzattoA daring investigation of Primo Levi's brief career as a fighter with the Italian Resistance, and the grim secret that haunted his lifeNo other Auschwitz survivor has been as literarily powerful and historically influential as Primo Levi. Yet Levi was not only a victim or a witness. In the fall of 1943, at the very start of the Italian Resistance, he was a fighter, participating in the first attempts to launch guerrilla warfare against occupying Nazi forces. Those three months have been largely overlooked by Levi's biographers; indeed, they went strikingly unmentioned by Levi himself. For the rest of his life he barely acknowledged that autumn in the Alps. But an obscure passage in Levi's The Periodic Table hints that his deportation to Auschwitz was linked directly to an incident from that time: "an ugly secret" that had made him give up the struggle, "extinguishing all will to resist, indeed to live."What did Levi mean by those dramatic lines? Using extensive archival research, Sergio Luzzatto's groundbreaking Primo Levi's Resistance reconstructs the events of 1943 in vivid detail. Just days before Levi was captured, Luzzatto shows, his group summarily executed two teenagers who had sought to join the partisans, deciding the boys were reckless and couldn't be trusted. The brutal episode has been shrouded in silence, but its repercussions would shape Levi's life.Combining investigative flair with profound empathy, Primo Levi's Resistance offers startling insight into the origins of the moral complexity that runs through the work of Primo Levi himself.
Primo Levi's Universe: A Writer's Journey
by Sam MagavernPrimo Levi is best known as a memoirist of Auschwitz, but he was also a scientist, fiction writer, and poet: in short, a Renaissance man. Primo Levi's Universe offers a multi-faceted portrait of the heroic man who turned the concentration camp experience into beautiful yet terrifying literature. Over time, Levi developed an original world-view which he conveyed in his writing. Through careful readings of Levi's works, Sam Magavern finally does justice to his calm rationality, dark poetry, essential beliefs and wit. Levi's art and life are inextricably intertwined, and this book presents them together, allowing each to shed light on the other.
Primo Levi: A Life
by Ian ThomsonPrimo Levi, author of Survival in Auschwitz and The Periodic Table, wrote books that have been called the essential works of humankind. Yet he lived an unremarkable existence, remaining until his death in the house in which he'd been born; managing a paint and varnish factory for thirty years; and tending his invalid mother to the last. Now, in a matchless account, Ian Thomson unravels the strands of a life as improbable as it was influential, the story of the most modest of men who became a universal touchstone of conscience and humanism.Drawing on exclusive access to family members and previously unseen correspondence, Thomson reconstructs the world of Levi's youth--the rhythms of Jewish life in Turin during the Mussolini years--as well as his experience in Auschwitz and difficult reintegration into postwar Italy. Thomson presents Levi in all his facets: his fondness for Louis Armstrong and fast cars, his insomnia and many near-catastrophic work accidents. Finally, he explores the controversy and isolation of Levi's later years, along with the increasing tensions in his life--between his private anguish and gift for friendship; his severe bouts of depression and passion for life and ideas; his pervasive dread and reasoned, pragmatic ethic.Praised in Britain as "the best sort of history" and "a model of its kind," Primo Levi: A Life is certain to take its place as the standard biography and a necessary companion to the works themselves.
Primus, Over the Electric Grapevine: Insight into Primus and the World of Les Claypool
by Greg Prato PrimusAn oral history of the legendary band Primus, with a star-studded cast of interviewees (Tom Waits, Phish front man Trey Anastasio, etc.)It’s a wild ride that’s vividly captured in Greg Prato’s excellent oral history . . . . —Bass Player Magazine “A book about the highly strange San Franciscans Primus has been overdue for years, so Greg Prato’s excellent oral history of the band is welcome—doubly so, given that the key band members, Les Claypool, Larry Lalonde and Tim Alexander, are involved. . . . Great stuff.” —Record Collector MagazineUsually when the “alternative rock revolution” of the early 1990s is discussed, Nirvana’s Nevermind is credited as the recording that led the charge. Yet there were several earlier albums that helped pave the way, including the Pixies’s Doolittle, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’s Mother’s Milk, Jane’s Addiction’s Nothing’s Shocking, and especially Primus’s 1991 album Sailing the Seas of Cheese. This fascinating and beautifully curated oral history tells the tale of this truly one-of-a-kind band. Compiled from nearly fifty all-original interviews—including Primus members past and present and many more fellow musicians—conducted by journalist/author Greg Prato. This book is sure to appeal to longtime fans of the band, as well as admirers of the musicians interviewed for the book. Interviewees include: Tim Alexander, Trey Anastasio (Phish), Matthew Bellamy (Muse), Les Claypool, Stewart Copeland (The Police), Chuck D (Public Enemy), Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Larry LaLonde, Geddy Lee (Rush), Mickey Melchiondo (Ween), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Matt Stone (South Park), Tom Waits, and many more.
Prince (Lives of the Musicians)
by Jason DraperHis name was Prince, and he was funky. He was also inspiring, infuriating, visionary and otherworldly. Channelling contradictions in search of his own unique truth, he eventually changed his name to an unpronounceable glyph that merged the male and female symbols in an outward expression of his inner dualities. Gifted with the ability to play almost every instrument on his records, and shifting between musical styles as much as he switched-up his looks, he refused to acknowledge boundaries. Instead, he brought opposing forces together in a life-long quest to reconcile a dirty mind with a love for God. In doing so, the mini Minneapolis genius became a world-conquering icon whose towering legacy continues to shape pop culture.
Prince (Lives of the Musicians)
by Jason DraperHis name was Prince, and he was funky. He was also inspiring, infuriating, visionary and otherworldly. Channelling contradictions in search of his own unique truth, he eventually changed his name to an unpronounceable glyph that merged the male and female symbols in an outward expression of his inner dualities. Gifted with the ability to play almost every instrument on his records, and shifting between musical styles as much as he switched-up his looks, he refused to acknowledge boundaries. Instead, he brought opposing forces together in a life-long quest to reconcile a dirty mind with a love for God. In doing so, the mini Minneapolis genius became a world-conquering icon whose towering legacy continues to shape pop culture.
Prince Aage Of Denmark - A Royal Adventurer In The Foreign Legion
by Prince Aage of DenmarkPrince Aage could have lived a remarkably quiet, rich and privileged life as a hereditary prince to the throne of Denmark; however, none of these responsibilities seemed to sit well with the Prince. His thirst for action and danger were only sated by military and amorous adventures; his memoirs are concerned only with his service in the French Foreign Legion in the deserts of Morocco, where there were pitifully few opportunities for female companions.Prince Aage joined the elite Foreign legion in 1922 having already fought in the First World War as an artillery observer. His taste for adventure seems to be his prime motivator. At this time in the history of Morocco was a French protectorate, and was undergoing a rebellion of the Berbers and tribes of the Rif mountains. As always, the Legion was at the forefront of the fighting, including the author who amongst his numerous engagements would receive a Croix de Guerre for a leg wound sustained in the fighting.An interesting autobiography from the French Foreign Legion.
Prince Albert: The Man Who Saved the Monarchy
by A.N. WilsonIn this companion biography to the acclaimed Victoria, A. N. Wilson offers a deeply textured and ambitious portrait of Prince Albert, published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the royal consort’s birth.For more than six decades, Queen Victoria ruled a great Empire at the height of its power. Beside her for more than twenty of those years was the love of her life, her trusted husband and father of their nine children, Prince Albert. But while Victoria is seen as the embodiment of her time, its values, and its paradoxes, it was Prince Albert, A. N. Wilson expertly argues, who was at the vanguard of Victorian Britain’s transformation as a vibrant and extraordinary center of political, technological, scientific, and intellectual advancement. Far more than just the product of his age, Albert was one of its influencers and architects. A composer, engineer, soldier, politician, linguist, and bibliophile, Prince Albert, more than any other royal, was truly a “genius.” It is impossible to understand nineteenth century England without knowing the story of this gifted visionary leader, Wilson contends.Albert lived only forty-two years. Yet in that time, he fathered the royal dynasties of Germany, Russia, Spain, and Bulgaria. Through Victoria, Albert and her German advisers pioneered the idea of the modern constitutional monarchy. In this sweeping biography, Wilson demonstrates that there was hardly any aspect of British national life which Albert did not touch. When he was made Chancellor of the University of Cambridge in his late twenties, it was considered as purely an honorific role. But within months, Albert proposed an extensive reorganization of university life in Britain that would eventually be adopted, making it possible to study science, languages, and modern history at British universities—a revolution in education that has changed the world.Drawn from the Royal archives, including Prince Albert’s voluminous correspondence, this brilliant and ambitious book offers fascinating never-before-known details about the man and his time. A superb match of biographer and subject, Prince Albert, at last, gives this important historical figure the reverence and recognition that is long overdue.
Prince Among Slaves: The Remarkable True Story of an African Prince Enslaved in Mississippi, and His Journey Home
by N. H. SenzaiThe extraordinary and consequential biography of Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori, a Muslim West African prince turned enslaved plantation worker, and his lifelong fight to be free and return home.In 1762, Prince Abdulrahman Sori was born in West Africa&’s prosperous kingdom of Futa Jallon. His name meant &“servant of God,&” and as a child, he was fascinated by the stories of the great prophets Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Each had faced great challenges, and each had accepted their fate as determined by God, no matter how difficult.Always curious, Abdulrahman grew up to become a scholar, fluent in five languages. He was also a warrior, a husband, a father, and an instrumental leader in his father&’s court.But that happy life was cruelly ripped away the day Abdulrahman and his men were ambushed while on patrol by a rival tribe and sold to English traders. Forced aboard a ship, Abdulrahman was taken across the Atlantic to Natchez, Mississippi, and enslaved.Resistant at first, Abdulrahman ran away, but ultimately, like the prophets he revered, Abdulrahman accepted his fate as determined by God. So with a heavy heart, he began a new life helping the plantation owner prosper, and after some time, though risky, Abdulrahman found love and became a father again. Then, by virtue of an incredible coincidence, Abdulrahman&’s life changed once more, setting into motion a series of events that would not only free Abdulrahman, but return him to African shores after forty years of enslavement.Incredibly well-researched, N. H. Senzai chronicles Prince Abdulrahman&’s remarkable life and journey to freedom with extraordinary grace and care, illuminating not only the horrors of slavery, but how one Muslim man relied on his faith in God to persevere. Anna Rich&’s striking art makes each scene of Abdulrahman&’s life sing with emotion and meaning.
Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life
by Sally Bedell SmithFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Elizabeth the Queen comes the first major biography of Prince Charles in more than twenty years—perfect for fans of The Crown. Sally Bedell Smith returns once again to the British royal family to give us a new look at Prince Charles, the oldest heir to the throne in more than three hundred years. This vivid, eye-opening biography—the product of four years of research and hundreds of interviews with palace officials, former girlfriends, spiritual gurus, and more, some speaking on the record for the first time—is the first authoritative treatment of Charles’s life that sheds light on the death of Diana, his marriage to Camilla, and his preparations to take the throne one day. Prince Charles brings to life the real man, with all of his ambitions, insecurities, and convictions. It begins with his lonely childhood, in which he struggled to live up to his father’s expectations and sought companionship from the Queen Mother and his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten. It follows him through difficult years at school, his early love affairs, his intellectual quests, his entrepreneurial pursuits, and his intense search for spiritual meaning. It tells of the tragedy of his marriage to Diana; his eventual reunion with his true love, Camilla; and his relationships with William, Kate, Harry, and his grandchildren. Ranging from his glamorous palaces to his country homes, from his globe-trotting travels to his local initiatives, Smith shows how Prince Charles possesses a fiercely independent spirit and yet has spent more than six decades waiting for his destined role, living a life dictated by protocols he often struggles to obey. With keen insight and the discovery of unexpected new details, Smith lays bare the contradictions of a man who is more complicated, tragic, and compelling than we knew, until now.Advance praise for Prince Charles“Comprehensive and admirably fair . . . Until his accession to the throne, Smith’s portrait will stand as the definitive study.”—Booklist, starred review “Astute . . . a sympathetic psychological study . . . [Smith’s] portrait is enormously touching and supported by wide-ranging interviews and research. . . . A thorough, timely biography.”—Kirkus“Prince Charles is an eighteenth-century gentleman with a twenty-first-century mission. His love of tradition combines with an outlook that can be bracingly avant garde. Sally Bedell Smith captures his contradictions and his convictions in this fascinating book that is not just about a man who would be king, but also about the duties that come with privilege.”—Walter Isaacson“For all we know about Prince Charles, there is so much we didn’t know—until now. Sally Bedell Smith has given us a complete and compelling portrait of the man in the shadow of the throne. It’s all here, from the back stairs of the palaces to the front pages of the tabs. Read all about it!”—Tom Brokaw
Prince Dracula: The Bloody Legacy of Vlad the Impaler
by Paul Woods Gavin BaddeleyA war hero, a mass murderer and a Gothic legend the world has never forgottenVlad the Impaler is one of history’s most compelling and brutal characters, with a bizarre afterlife as a cult horror sensation. A hero to his countrymen, Vlad Dracula is a byword for dread. Not just for generations of Western fans of Gothic fiction and film, but also for an appalled and fascinated 15th-century readership, for whom contemporary accounts of Dracula’s atrocities became the world’s first horror bestsellers. Combining historical research and dramatic reconstruction with contemporary reference, here is Vlad the Impaler’s dramatic career, from pampered captive of the Ottoman Sultans to exterminating angel of Christian vengeance. But in reality, was he the embodiment of unbridled cruelty or model ruler of an embattled realm?Prince Dracula also examines the role of psychological warfare and black propaganda in international politics, from the medieval torture chamber to the headlines of the modern age, and shows Vlad as an unwitting pioneer of the modern world.Plying a grisly course through medieval bloodbaths and contemporary horrors, Gavin Baddeley and Paul Woods leave no tombstone unturned in this extraordinary history.
Prince Eddy: The King Britain Never Had
by Andrew CookPrince Albert Victor, King Edward VII's (r. 1901-10) first son and heir to the throne, and popularly known as Eddy, has virtually been airbrushed out of history. Eddy was as popular and charismatic a figure in his own time as Princess Diana a century later. As in her case, his sudden death in 1892 resulted in public demonstrations of grief on a scale rarely seen at the time, and it was even rumoured (as in the case of Diana) that he was murdered to save him besmirching the monarchy. Had he lived, he would have been crowned king in 1911, ushering in a profoundly different style of monarchy from that of his younger brother, who ultimately succeeded as the stodgy George V. Eddy's life was virtually ignored by historians until the 1970s, when myths began to accumulate and his character somehow grew horns and a tail. As a result, he is remembered today primarily as a suspect in the Jack the Ripper muders of 1888 and for his alleged involvement in the Cleveland Street homosexual scandal of 1889. But history has found Eddy guilty of crimes he did not commit. Now, for the first time, using modern forensic evidence combined with Eddy's previously unseen records, personal correspondence and photographs, Andrew Cook proves his innocence. Prince Eddy reveals the truth about a key royal figure, a man who would have made a fine king and changed the face of the British monarchy.
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent: Father of the Canadian Crown
by Nathan Tidridge Brigadier-General, The Hon. J.J. GrantThe story of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, is the story of early Canada. The story of Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent (1767-1820) is also a story of early Canada. An active participant in the very genesis of the country, including discussions that would eventually lead to Confederation, the Prince lived in Quebec City, undertook historic tours of Upper Canada and the United States (both firsts for a member of the Royal Family) before he was stationed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as commander-in-chief of British North America. Canada’s maps are dotted with his name (Prince Edward Island the most obvious example), making him one of the most honoured among our forgotten historical figures.Exiled from the court of his father, and accompanied by his long-time mistress Julie de St. Laurent, the 24-year-old Prince Edward Augustus arrived in Quebec City in 1791. His life became woven into the fabric of a highly-charged society and left an indelible mark on the role of the monarchy in Canada. Seventy years later the country would be united under the crown of his daughter, Victoria, Sir John A. Macdonald’s "Queen of Canada."