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An Armenian Sketchbook
by Vasily GrossmanFew writers had to confront so many of the last century's mass tragedies as Vasily Grossman. He is likely to be remembered, above all, for the terrifying clarity with which he writes about the Shoah, the Battle of Stalingrad and the Terror Famine in the Ukraine. An Armenian Sketchbook, however, shows us a very different Grossman; it is notable for its warmth, its sense of fun and for the benign humility that is always to be found in his writing. After the 'arrest' - as Grossman always put it - of Life and Fate, Grossman took on the task of editing a literal Russian translation of a lengthy Armenian novel. The novel was of little interest to him, but he was glad of an excuse to travel to Armenia. This is his account of the two months he spent there. It is by far the most personal and intimate of Grossman's works, with an air of absolute spontaneity, as though Grossman is simply chatting to the reader about his impressions of Armenia - its mountains, its ancient churches and its people.
An Army At Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 (Liberation Trilogy #1)
by Rick AtkinsonThe liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of courage and enduring triumph, of calamity and miscalculation. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern reader can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943.Beginning with the daring amphibious invasion in November 1942, An Army at Dawn follows the British and American armies as they fight the French in Morocco and Algeria, and then take on the Germans and Italians in Tunisia. Battle by battle, an inexperienced and sometimes poorly led army gradually becomes a superb fighting force. Central to the tale are the extraordinary but fallible commanders who come to dominate the battlefield: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery and Rommel.
An Army Doctor on the Western Frontier: Journals and Letters of John Vance Lauderdale, 1864-1890
by Robert M. UtleyAssigned to the District of Utah during the Civil War, physician John Vance Lauderdale spent the next twenty-five years on army posts in the American West, serving in California, Arizona, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Texas. Throughout his career he kept a detailed journal and sent long letters home to his sister in upstate New York. This selection of Lauderdale&’s writings, edited and annotated by a premier historian of the American West, offers an insightful account of army life that will teach readers much about the settlement and growth of the West in a time of rapid change.Lauderdale&’s observations are keen and critical. He writes about fellow officers, his army superiors, the civilians and American Indians he encountered, life on officers&’ row, and the day-to-day functioning of the army medical service. Particularly valuable are his insights into military interactions with local communities of Mormons, American Indians, and Hispanos.
An Army Doctor's American Revolution Journal, 1775–1783 (Dover Military History, Weapons, Armor)
by James ThacherAt the age of 21, James Thacher (1754–1844) joined the newly formed American army as a surgeon's mate, eventually advancing to the role of surgeon for the Massachusetts 16th Regiment. In 1823, he published his Journal, reporting both wartime events he witnessed and those he heard about during his service. One of the most valuable and entertaining accounts to have survived the Revolution, Thacher's diary vividly conveys the tumultuous spirit of the era.Thacher's eyewitness reports include the siege of Boston, the hanging of British major John André, and the momentous defeats of the British Army at Saratoga and Yorktown. His direct and vivid observations range from parties where he and his fellow officers were handsomely entertained by supporters of the new nation's army to hardscrabble days when there was little to eat and nowhere to keep warm. With its cogent overview of the war's major campaigns and battles, its insights into the character of Revolutionary leaders, and its firsthand views of the daily life of a Continental Army officer, the Journal provides a heightened sense of the drama and excitement of the Revolution.
An Army Like No Other: How the Israel Defense Forces Made a Nation
by Haim Bresheeth-ZabnerA history of the IDF that argues that Israel is a nation formed by its army.The Israeli army, officially named the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), was established in 1948 by David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, who believed that 'the whole nation is the army'. In his mind, the IDF was to be an army like no other. It was the instrument that might transform a diverse population into a new people. Since the foundation of Israel, therefore, the IDF has been the largest, richest and most influential institution in Israel's Jewish society and is the nursery of its social, economic and political ruling class. In this fascinating history, Bresheeth charts the evolution of the IDF from the Nakba to the continued assaults upon Gaza, and shows that the state of Israel has been formed out of its wars. He also gives an account of his own experiences as a young conscript during the 1967 war. He argues that the army is embedded in all aspects of daily life and identity. And that we should not merely see it as a fighting force enjoying an international reputation, but as the central ideological, political and financial institution of Israeli society. As a consequence, we have to reconsider our assumptions on what any kind of peace might look like.
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 (Liberation Trilogy #1)
by Rick AtkinsonThe liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of courage and enduring triumph, of calamity and miscalculation. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern reader can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943. That first year of the Allied war was a pivotal point in American history, the moment when the United States began to act like a great power.<P><P> Beginning with the daring amphibious invasion in November 1942, An Army at Dawn follows the American and British armies as they fight the French in Morocco and Algeria, and then take on the Germans and Italians in Tunisia. Battle by battle, an inexperienced and sometimes poorly led army gradually becomes a superb fighting force. Central to the tale are the extraordinary but fallible commanders who come to dominate the battlefield: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, and Rommel.<P> Brilliantly researched, rich with new material and vivid insights, Atkinson's narrative provides the definitive history of the war in North Africa.<P> Pulitzer Prize Winner
An Army in Crisis: Social Conflict and the U.S. Army in Germany, 1968–1975
by Alexander VazanskyFollowing the decision to maintain 250,000 U.S. troops in Germany after the Allied victory in 1945, the U.S. Army had, for the most part, been a model of what a peacetime occupying army stationed in an ally’s country should be. The army had initially benefited from the positive results of U.S. foreign policy toward West Germany and the deference of the Federal Republic toward it, establishing cordial and even friendly relations with German society. By 1968, however, the disciplined military of the Allies had been replaced with rundown barracks and shabby-looking GIs, and U.S. bases in Germany had become a symbol of the army’s greatest crisis, a crisis that threatened the army’s very existence. In An Army in Crisis Alexander Vazansky analyzes the social crisis that developed among the U.S. Army forces stationed in Germany between 1968 and 1975. This crisis was the result of shifting deployment patterns across the world during the Vietnam War; changing social and political realities of life in postwar Germany and Europe; and racial tensions, drug use, dissent, and insubordination within the U.S. Army itself, influenced by the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and the youth movement in the States. With particular attention to 1968, An Army in Crisis examines the changing relationships between American and German soldiers, from German deference to familiarity and fraternization, and the effects that a prolonged military presence in Germany had on American military personnel, their dependents, and the lives of Germans. Vazansky presents an innovative study of opposition and resistance within the ranks, affected by the Vietnam War and the limitations of personal freedom among the military during this era.
An Army of Amateurs
by Philippe De VomécourtThis book is the fascinating firsthand account of SOE agent Philippe Vomécourt's wartime experiences and records the heroic efforts in the French resistance in Nazi-dominated France."Many books dealing with the work of the French Resistance have been published on this side of the Channel. Most of them have been the personal stories of gallant men and women, illuminating that corner of the picture that they saw. Here in Monsieur de Vomécourt's book is a wider frame of reference which enables us to see how the spirit and forces of Resistance grew in France first into a gadfly nuisance and ultimately into a serious threat to German security. It shows, too, what it meant to be a member of the Resistance, and what it cost in blood and tears.Monsieur de Vomécourt is in a good position to tell this story. He was in at the beginning in June 1940 with his brothers. Indeed, they can fairly claim to have been the first organizers and leaders, and Monsieur de Vomécourt tells a truly remarkable story.
An Army of Influence: Eighty Years of Regional Engagement
by Peter Dennis Craig StockingsThe importance of regional cooperation is becoming more apparent as the world moves into the third decade of the 21st century. An Army of Influence is a thought-provoking analysis of the Australian Army's capacity to change, with a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region. Written by highly regarded historians, strategists and practitioners, this book examines the Australian Army's influence abroad and the lessons it has learnt from its engagement across the Asia-Pacific region. It also explores the challenges facing the Australian Army in the future and provides principles to guide operational, administrative and modernisation planning. Containing full-colour maps and images, An Army of Influence will be of interest to both the wider defence community and general readers. It underscores the importance of maintaining an ongoing presence in the region and engages with history to address the issues facing the Army both now and into the future.
An Army of Lions
by Shawn Leigh AlexanderIn January 1890, journalist T. Thomas Fortune stood before a delegation of African American activists in Chicago and declared, "We know our rights and have the courage to defend them," as together they formed the Afro-American League, the nation's first national civil rights organization. Over the next two decades, Fortune and his fellow activists organized, agitated, and, in the process, created the foundation for the modern civil rights movement.An Army of Lions: The Civil Rights Struggle Before the NAACP traces the history of this first generation of activists and the organizations they formed to give the most comprehensive account of black America's struggle for civil rights from the end of Reconstruction to the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909. Here a host of leaders neglected by posterity--Bishop Alexander Walters, Mary Church Terrell, Jesse Lawson, Lewis G. Jordan, Kelly Miller, George H. White, Frederick McGhee, Archibald Grimké--worked alongside the more familiar figures of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington, who are viewed through a fresh lens.As Jim Crow curtailed modes of political protest and legal redress, members of the Afro-American League and the organizations that formed in its wake--including the Afro-American Council, the Niagara Movement, the Constitution League, and the Committee of Twelve--used propaganda, moral suasion, boycotts, lobbying, electoral office, and the courts, as well as the call for self-defense, to end disfranchisement, segregation, and racial violence. In the process, the League and the organizations it spawned provided the ideological and strategic blueprint of the NAACP and the struggle for civil rights in the twentieth century, demonstrating that there was significant and effective agitation during "the age of accommodation."
An Army of One: A John Rossett Novel (The John Rossett Novels)
by Tony SchumacherIn this enthralling historical thriller set in post—World War II London, detective John Henry Rossett must stop a murderous ex—SS officer as the German occupation of England begins to falter.Working with the SS in German-occupied Britain was never easy for John Rossett. Though he’s returned to his former job, the police inspector has been tainted by his Nazi associations. His suspicious colleagues see him as a collaborator, and he’s unwelcome at his old haunts. But the Germans aren’t done with Rossett. When decorated SS Captain Karl Bauer kills the US consul in Liverpool, then goes on the run, Generalmajor Neumann orders Rossett to find the missing killer—a swift, cunning, and ruthless man known as "the Bear."While the Nazis still maintain control over London, Liverpool is run by criminal networks and the British resistance. A wasteland of burned-out buildings and mountains of rubble, the northern port city is the perfect place for a clever warrior like Bauer to hide. Neumann and Rossett’s search also turns up damning new information: Bauer’s superior, Major Theo Dannecker, has been colluding with the US consul and the British resistance to smuggle large amounts of gold out of the country. As for the Bear, the fervent SS officer has repudiated his allegiance to the crumbling Reich and is now focused on destroying Rossett, the famed "British Lion," one innocent victim at a time.To prevent more deaths and protect Britain, Rossett must trap the Bear and uncover a diabolical conspiracy that has brought Nazi officers and the British resistance together. Vivid and energetic, full of Schumacher’s trademark action and rich, conflicted characters, An Army of One reveals how the strength of one man can turn the tide in an uncertain world.
An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War
by J. HobermanThe film critic&’s sweeping analysis of American cinema in the Cold War era is both &“utterly compulsive reading [and] majestic&” in its &“breadth and rigor&” (Film Comment). An Army of Phantoms is a major work of film history and cultural criticism by leading film critic J. Hoberman. Tracing the dynamic interplay between politics and popular culture, Hoberman offers &“the most detailed year-by-year look at Hollywood during the first decade of the Cold War ever published, one that takes film analysis beyond the screen and sets it in its larger political context&” (Los Angeles Review of Books). By &“tell[ing] the story not just of what&’s on the screen but of what played out behind it,&” Hoberman demonstrates how the nation&’s deep-seated fears and wishes were projected onto the big screen. In this far-reaching work of historical synthesis, Cecil B. DeMille rubs shoulders with Douglas MacArthur, atomic tests are shown on live TV, God talks on the radio, and Joe McCarthy is bracketed with Marilyn Monroe (The American Scholar). From cavalry Westerns to apocalyptic sci-fi flicks, and biblical spectaculars; from movies to media events, congressional hearings and political campaigns, An Army of Phantoms &“remind[s] you what criticism is supposed to be: revelatory, reflective and as rapturous as the artwork itself&” (Time Out New York). &“An epic . . . alternately fevered and measured account of what might be called the primal scene of American cinema.&” —Cineaste &“There&’s something majestic about the reach of Hoberman&’s ambitions, the breadth and rigor of his research, and especially the curatorial vision brought to historical data.&” —Film Comment
An Army of Smiles
by Grace ThompsonThree girls go to war and find true friendship in this Second World War saga from the popular author of the Holidays at Home and Pendragon Island series. Ethel runs away from a violent father, a man so fierce he beat her fiancé senseless. Gorgeous Kate leaves her doting parents and their grocery store. Shy and sheltered Rosie, who has grown up with her grandmother, decides to escape her sleepy hometown. All three join the NAAFI, determined to do their bit against Hitler. Through the travails of war, they become each other&’s new family. Through desperate love affairs, charming pilots, unplanned pregnancies and postings around war-torn Europe, they resolve to stick together. But will the war tear them apart? And when the fighting draws to an end they realize the world—and their lives—can never be the same again . . .
An Arranged Marriage
by Sara HyltonLisa Foreshaw grows up torn between two worlds, and regarded as poor relations by her family, Lisa is never allowed to forget her place. Despite this she falls in love with her handsome and charming cousin Dominic, the Viscount Lexican and heir to Hazelmere. But Dominic has a secret his family is willing to protect at all costs. Blissfully ignorant of Dominic's true feelings, Lisa allows herself to be tempted into marriage by her mother's unscrupulous family who would rather sacrifice both Lisa and Dominic's happiness than see the family's reputation ruined. But Lisa's honeymoon provides a rude awakening, and when she discovers what her own family have done to her, she vows to take revenge . . . Discover Piatkus Entice: temptation at your fingertips - www.piatkusentice.co.uk
An Arranged Marriage
by Sara HyltonLisa Foreshaw grows up torn between two worlds, and regarded as poor relations by her family, Lisa is never allowed to forget her place. Despite this she falls in love with her handsome and charming cousin Dominic, the Viscount Lexican and heir to Hazelmere. But Dominic has a secret his family is willing to protect at all costs. Blissfully ignorant of Dominic's true feelings, Lisa allows herself to be tempted into marriage by her mother's unscrupulous family who would rather sacrifice both Lisa and Dominic's happiness than see the family's reputation ruined. But Lisa's honeymoon provides a rude awakening, and when she discovers what her own family have done to her, she vows to take revenge . . . Discover Piatkus Entice: temptation at your fingertips - www.piatkusentice.co.uk
An Arranged Marriage (Company of Rogues #1)
by Jo BeverleyFirst book of the Company of Rogues collection. A RELUCTANT BRIDE Eleanor Chivenham didn't put much past her vile brother, but even she had not anticipated his greedy scheme to dupe a rich earl into mistaking her for a lightskirt. With her reputation in shreds and her future ruined, a defeated Eleanor was forced to agree to a hasty wedding. But marriage to the mysterious Nicholas Delaney, with his casual elegance and knowing smile, was more than she'd bargained for. He doubtless thought the worst of her, but when society gossip soon told her all about his beautiful French mistress, Eleanor tried to act with the cool dignity required in a marriage of convenience. But how long could she hold out against his undeniable charm-or the secret desires of her heart? A PERSUASIVE GROOM For the sake of family honor, Nicholas Delaney agreed to wed a wronged lady. In truth, such chivalry ran counter to his carefully wrought image of a carousing, dissolute rogue-the guise so vital to his secret political mission. He hoped to keep his new wife in the background until a spy was trapped, but Eleanor's beauty and fighting wit were impossible to ignore. In fact, she presented quite a challenge to his prowess with women-and a test of his formidable will!
An Arranged Marriage: Regency Romance (The Company of Rogues Series #1)
by Jo Beverley"Jo Beverley strains the boundaries of political correctness . . . There is no denying Ms. Beverley is a master storyteller and perhaps because of this political incorrectness she delivers a powerfully fresh stage for her story." ~Tara A. GreenRuined through her vile brother's schemes, Eleanor Chivenham is offered rescue by marriage to a rake with an infamous French mistress. Eleanor accepts, determined to treat the arranged marriage with cool dignity.Then she meets Nicholas Delaney. Not only does he stir her senses, but the trouble and pain beneath his smooth exterior reaches her heart.Nicholas is indeed troubled. While serving his country by seducing secrets out of a French spy, he is persuaded to marry Eleanor to protect his family's honor. But such chivalry runs counter to his carefully wrought rogue image, and extends the life-threatening plots shadowing him to Eleanor.To assist, Nicholas re-assembles the Company of Rogues, a schoolboy group he started years before. But not even they can dampen Eleanor's fighting wit that is quickly unmasking their enemy and testing Nicholas' formidable will.From The Publisher: Author Jo Beverley is known for her consumate attention to historical detail that wisks the reader back in time to a near first-hand experience. Fans of Regency romance and historical British fiction set in the 19th century, as well as readers of Jess Michaels, Mary Balogh, Christi Caldwell, Stephanie Laurens, Madeline Hunter and Mary Jo Putney will want to read every book by Jo Beverley. Best Regency Novel, Romantic TimesBookrak BestsellerRITA, finalist"A splendid love story... a veritable feast of delight. Bravo!" ~Romantic Times
An Art Lover's Guide to Florence
by Judith TestaThe sheer number and proximity of works of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Florence can be so overwhelming that Florentine hospitals treat hundreds of visitors each year for symptoms brought on by trying to see them all, an illness famously identified with the French author Stendhal.
An Art Lover's Guide to Paris and Murder (A Countess of Harleigh Mystery #7)
by Dianne FreemanFilled with Victorian-era intrigue for readers of Rhys Bowen, Deanna Raybourn, Tasha Alexander, and Julia Seales, Dianne Freeman&’s Agatha Award-winning series takes a delightful jaunt to the City of Light as Frances Wynn, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, encounters a murder scene at the Paris Exposition.Former Countess of Harleigh, Frances Hazelton, is among a throng of pleasure seekers and art lovers in the City of Lights. But what catches her eye most is the art of murder . . . Frances and her husband, George, have two points of interest in Paris. One is an impromptu holiday to visit the Paris Exposition. The other is personal. George&’s Aunt Julia has requested her nephew&’s help in looking into the suspicious death of renowned artist Paul Ducasse. Though Julia is not entirely forthcoming about her reasons, she is clearly a woman mourning a lost love. At the exposition, swarming with tourists, tragedy casts a pall on the festivities. A footbridge collapses. Julia is among the casualties. However, she was not just another fateful victim. Julia was stabbed to death amid the chaos. With an official investigation at a standstill, George and Frances realize that to solve the case they must dig into Julia&’s life—as well as Paul&’s—and question everything and everyone in Julia&’s coterie of artists and secrets. They have no shortage of suspects. There is Paul&’s inscrutable widow, Gabrielle. Paul&’s art dealer and manager, Lucien. Julia&’s friend Martine, a sculptress with a jealous streak. And art jurist, Monsieur Beaufoy. The investigation takes a turn when it&’s revealed that George has inherited control of Julia&’s estate—and another of her secrets. While George investigates, Frances safeguards their new legacy, and is drawn further into danger by a killer determined to keep the past buried.
An Artful Corpse (Art of Murder Mysteries #3)
by Helen A. HarrisonOne artist. One student. One deadly mystery.When Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton's corpse is discovered behind the easels of Manhattan's famed art school, whispers in the art community say he had it coming. As Benton's list of enemies lengthens to include League instructors, Vietnam War protesters, and members of Andy Warhol's entourage, one art student is ultimately pinned for the crime. The only problem: the suspect has vanished.Why would an art student murder Benton? And if he were innocent, why would he run? When TJ Fitzgerald, son of Detective Juanita Diaz and Captain Brian Fitzgerald of the NYPD, discovers his classmate is the prime suspect, he uses his investigative skills to try and clear his name. But as TJ and his girlfriend work to unravel the clues, he begins to wonder if the police got it wrong and one secret may be the key to it all...
An Artful Relic: The Shroud of Turin in Baroque Italy
by Andrew R. CasperIn 1578, a fourteen-foot linen sheet bearing the faint bloodstained imprint of a human corpse was presented to tens of thousands of worshippers in Turin, Italy, as one of the original shrouds used to prepare Jesus Christ’s body for entombment. From that year into the next century, the Shroud of Turin emerged as Christianity’s preeminent religious artifact. In an unprecedented new look, Andrew R. Casper sheds new light on one of the world’s most famous and controversial religious objects.Since the early twentieth century, scores of scientists and forensic investigators have attributed the Shroud’s mysterious images to painterly, natural, or even supernatural forces. Casper, however, shows that this modern opposition of artifice and authenticity does not align with the cloth’s historical conception as an object of religious devotion. Examining the period of the Shroud’s most enthusiastic following, from the late 1500s through the 1600s, he reveals how it came to be considered an artful relic—a divine painting attributed to God’s artistry that contains traces of Christ’s body. Through probing analyses of materials created to perpetuate the Shroud’s cult following—including devotional, historical, and theological treatises as well as printed and painted reproductions—Casper uncovers historicized connections to late Renaissance and Baroque artistic cultures that frame an understanding of the Shroud’s bloodied corporeal impressions as an alloy of material authenticity and divine artifice. This groundbreaking book introduces rich, new material about the Shroud’s emergence as a sacred artifact. It will appeal to art historians specializing in religious and material studies, historians of religion, and to general readers interested in the Shroud of Turin.
An Artful Relic: The Shroud of Turin in Baroque Italy
by Andrew R. CasperWinner of the 2022 Roland H. Bainton Book Prize from the Sixteenth Century Society & ConferenceIn 1578, a fourteen-foot linen sheet bearing the faint bloodstained imprint of a human corpse was presented to tens of thousands of worshippers in Turin, Italy, as one of the original shrouds used to prepare Jesus Christ’s body for entombment. From that year into the next century, the Shroud of Turin emerged as Christianity’s preeminent religious artifact. In an unprecedented new look, Andrew R. Casper sheds new light on one of the world’s most famous and controversial religious objects.Since the early twentieth century, scores of scientists and forensic investigators have attributed the Shroud’s mysterious images to painterly, natural, or even supernatural forces. Casper, however, shows that this modern opposition of artifice and authenticity does not align with the cloth’s historical conception as an object of religious devotion. Examining the period of the Shroud’s most enthusiastic following, from the late 1500s through the 1600s, he reveals how it came to be considered an artful relic—a divine painting attributed to God’s artistry that contains traces of Christ’s body. Through probing analyses of materials created to perpetuate the Shroud’s cult following—including devotional, historical, and theological treatises as well as printed and painted reproductions—Casper uncovers historicized connections to late Renaissance and Baroque artistic cultures that frame an understanding of the Shroud’s bloodied corporeal impressions as an alloy of material authenticity and divine artifice. This groundbreaking book introduces rich, new material about the Shroud’s emergence as a sacred artifact. It will appeal to art historians specializing in religious and material studies, historians of religion, and to general readers interested in the Shroud of Turin.
An Artificial History of Natural Intelligence: Thinking with Machines from Descartes to the Digital Age
by David W. BatesA new history of human intelligence that argues that humans know themselves by knowing their machines. We imagine that we are both in control of and controlled by our bodies—autonomous and yet automatic. This entanglement, according to David W. Bates, emerged in the seventeenth century when humans first built and compared themselves with machines. Reading varied thinkers from Descartes to Kant to Turing, Bates reveals how time and time again technological developments offered new ways to imagine how the body’s automaticity worked alongside the mind’s autonomy. Tracing these evolving lines of thought, An Artificial History of Natural Intelligence offers a new theorization of the human as a being that is dependent on technology and produces itself as an artificial automaton without a natural, outside origin.
An Artisan Elite in Victorian Society: Kentish London 1840-1880 (Routledge Library Editions: The Victorian World #9)
by Geoffrey CrossickFirst published in 1978. Mid-Victorian Britain was relatively stable in comparison with the turbulent period that preceded it, and that stability is in part explained by the emergence of an artisan elite with a specific relationship to the society around it. This book examines that elite: its clubs and societies, co-operatives and building societies; its values and ideology, challenging the notion that these artisans directly absorbed middle-class values; its politics, tracing the evolution from Chartism through the Reform League and on to a radical liberalism which existed in constant tension with the local liberal middle class. A careful reconstruction of the social, political and industrial life of these artisans is set within the context of the local communities, and their understanding of the mid-Victorian society in which they lived is seen as the explanation for their values and activities. This title makes a major contribution towards our understanding of the nineteenth-century working class.
An Artisan Intellectual: James Carter and the Rise of Modern Britain, 1792-1853
by Christopher FergusonIn An Artisan Intellectual, Christopher Ferguson examines the life and ideas of English tailor and writer James Carter, one of countless and largely anonymous citizens whose lives dramatically transformed during Britain’s long march to modernity. Carter began his working life at age thirteen as an apprentice and continued to work as a tailor throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, first in Colchester and then in London. As the Industrial Revolution brought innovations to every aspect of British life, Carter took advantage of opportunities to push against the boundaries of his working-class background. He supplemented his income through his writing, publishing often unsigned books, articles, and poems on subjects as diverse as religion, death, nature, aesthetics, and theories of civilization. Carter’s words give us a fascinating window into the revolutionary forces that upended the world of ordinary citizens in this era and demonstrate how the changes in daily life impacted personal experiences and intellectual pursuits as well as labor practices and living and working environments. Ferguson deftly explores a forgotten tailor’s varied responses to the many transformations that produced the world’s first modern society.