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Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History that Inspired Game of Thrones
by Ed WestA young pretender raises an army to take the throne. Learning of his father’s death, the adolescent, dashing and charismatic and descended from the old kings of the North, vows to avenge him. He is supported in this war by his mother, who has spirited away her two younger sons to safety. Against them is the queen, passionate, proud, and strong-willed and with more of the masculine virtues of the time than most men. She too is battling for the inheritance of her young son, not yet fully grown but already a sadist who takes delight in watching executions. Sound familiar? It may read like the plot of Game of Thrones. Yet that was also the story of the bloodiest battle in British history, fought at the culmination of the War of the Roses. George RR Martin’s bestselling novels are rife with allusions, inspirations, and flat-out copies of real-life people, events, and places of medieval and Tudor England and Europe. The Red Wedding? Based on actual events in Scottish history. The poisoning of Joffrey Baratheon? Eerily similar to the death of William the Conqueror’s grandson. The Dothraki? Also known as Huns, Magyars, Turks, and Mongols. Join Ed West, author of Skyhorse’s A Very, Very Short History of England series, as he explores all of Martin’s influences, from religion to war to powerful women. Instead of despairing while waiting for Season 8 of Game of Thrones, discover the real history behind the phenomenon and see for yourself that truth is stranger than fiction.
Iron, Steam & Money: The Making of the Industrial Revolution
by Roger OsborneIn late eighteenth-century Britain a handful of men brought about the greatest transformation in human history. Inventors, industrialists and entrepreneurs ushered in the age of powered machinery and the factory, and thereby changed the whole of human society, bringing into being new methods of social and economic organisation, new social classes, and new political forces. The Industrial Revolution also dramatically altered humanity's relation to the natural world and embedded the belief that change, not stasis, is the necessary backdrop for human existence.Iron, Steam and Money tells the thrilling story of those few decades, the moments of inspiration, the rivalries, skulduggery and death threats, and the tireless perseverance of the visionaries who made it all happen. Richard Arkwright, James Watt, Richard Trevithick and Josiah Wedgwood are among the giants whose achievements and tragedies fill these pages. In this authoritative study Roger Osborne also shows how and why the revolution happened, revealing pre-industrial Britain as a surprisingly affluent society, with wealth spread widely through the population, and with craft industries in every town, village and front parlour. The combination of disposable income, widespread demand for industrial goods, and a generation of time-served artisans created the unique conditions that propelled humanity into the modern world.The industrial revolution was arguably the most important episode in modern human history; Iron, Steam and Money reminds us of its central role, while showing the extraordinary excitement of those tumultuous decades.
Irona 700
by Dave DuncanFantasy at its most enchanting: An original and absorbing tale from a master storyteller about the profound effects of a single life on the battle against ultimate evil It is Midsummer Day, the beginning of the year 700, in the city of Benign. All the children born in the year 684 celebrate their joint sixteenth birthday by passing in front of the statue of the blind goddess Caprice--but only one will become the Chosen and join the Seventy who govern and guide the city. Much to her surprise, Irona Matrinko, one of the many children of an impoverished fisherman, is chosen. Irona 700 moves into the palace and, with the help of a new mentor, recognizes and cultivates her great talent for guiding wars: strategy and tactics, leadership and inspiration. As Irona gives her life to the city, an ancient enemy, Maleficence, attacks again and again, corrupting Irona's friends, destroying her lover, and continually defeating her grandest plans for peace and harmony. Along the way, Irona becomes a masterful politician, a shrewd judge of character, and, even at great cost to her personal happiness, a true heroine.
Ironbark
by Johanna NichollsJake Andersen is a proud Currency lad with a swagger in his step and a joke for his mates, until he discovers the wife he is besotted with has left him, and taken their young daughter with her. A prize fighter, Jake decides to take matters into his own hands and find his wife, and the mongrel she ran off with. Fuelled by revenge he starts a long search across the colony and vows to never trust 'good women' again. Few people seem to think a gypsy girl like Keziah Stanley could ever be a 'good woman'. Separated by the law from her beloved gypsy husband, Keziah decides to travel to Australia to find the love of her life. With her tarot cards and strong beliefs, Keziah boasts she can read anybody's future, but her own life is proving harder to read, let alone manage. Daniel Browne already knows what his future will be: the life of a great artist. And he is determined to follow his dream; no matter what. When this volatile trio is thrown together in Australia, they form an extraordinary, unexpected alliance that will challenge the establishment. Love, hate, survival and revenge: all will discover the truth.
Ironbridge in the Great War (Your Towns & Cities in the Great War)
by Christopher W. OwenFamed as the birthplace of modern industry and the first cast iron metal single span bridge, Ironbridge is venerated the world over yet its social history is at times unfamiliar.One hundred years ago this sleepy town, set by the river Severn, willingly volunteered its lifeblood to a war that everyone confidently believed would be a short-lived, adventurous romp. Misled by government propaganda, they soon discovered through fighting relative's letters and various official news reports, many of which are unearthed for the first time throughout this book, that it had rapidly degenerated into an endless morass of bloody violence with the probability of their men meeting a painful death on a daily basis thrown in for good measure.The town's wartime heritage is one of enterprise and hard work as the majority of the Great War gun-fodder comprised working-class men drawn from prestigious local companies. Maw & Co, the world-famous ceramic tile maker, raised its own company of enlisted fighting men, in common with other businesses nationwide, that were known as Pals Battalions. As in most instances across the land, it subsequently paid a heavy price for this mass act of patriotism. Ironbridge also became a cradle of the fledgling women's wartime workforce, who helped produce vital heavy munitions components at another famous local company's works.Ironbridge in the Great War is the story of the town's great sacrifice, as evidenced by the numerous and diverse war monuments that populate the town and its surrounding hamlets. This is detailed work that includes fascinating facts about the town, which, despite being constantly under the world spotlight, remained, until now, a part of its hidden wartime social history.
Ironfire: An Epic Novel of Love and War
by David BallFrom the acclaimed author of Empires of Sand comes a mesmerizing new adventure that Jean Auel cites as “crowded with events that both forecast and mirror the conflicts of today. ” Sweeping from the drawing rooms of Paris to the palace of Suleiman the Magnificent to the dark hold of a slave ship racing across the sea, here is a dazzling story of love and valor, innocence and identity, an epic novel of the clash of civilizations on a barren island where the future was forged. The Mediterranean, the sixteenth century: Lying squarely in the midst of the vital sea lanes between the Christian West and the Ottoman Empire in the East, and ruled by the ancient Order of the Knights of St. John, Malta will become the stage upon which the fate of the world turns. For one of its sons, the hand of violence strikes swiftly, when young Nicolo Borg is seized by Barbary slavers and launched on a remarkable journey to the court of the supreme ruler of the Muslim world. Renamed Asha, plotting his escape even as he swears allegiance to the god of his masters and is schooled in the arts of culture and war, the innocent boy will be transformed into one of the Sultan’s deadliest commanders. For Nico’s beloved sister, Maria, his loss fires her hatred for the knights who did nothing to save him and her dreams of escape from her stifling home. As the headstrong girl grows into a fierce beauty, she will capture the attention of one man in particular, Christien de Vries, a surgeon-knight torn between duty and desire, caught up in Malta’s frantic preparations against the coming Ottoman storm. Around Nico and Maria are men and women who will share their destinies: Dragut Raïs, a brilliant corsair, arch-rival of the knights…Giulio Salvago, a priest in full flight from his carnal nature…Alisa, a young beauty hidden away in a harem…Jean de La Valette, the master knight who is Malta’s only hope for survival. As the mighty Ottoman fleet bears down on the tiny island, as Nico Borg makes his way back to his homeland at the helm of a warship, Ironfire moves inexorably to a shattering climax where all will face ultimate justice in the murderous cauldron of siege warfare. Brilliantly capturing the crosscurrents of a storied age, Ironfire is historical fiction in the grand tradition, a stirring realization of a pivotal moment in time that irrevocably shaped the world we inhabit today. From the Hardcover edition.
Ironfoot: The Enchanter General, Book One
by Dave DuncanMedieval magic, murder, and mayhem! It is 1164, and for a hundred years England has been ruled by the Normans. A young Saxon boy named Durwin, crippled by a childhood accident, had caught the eye of a Norman sage teaching at a rural school of magic. Realizing that the boy had promise, Durwin was made stable boy, and eventually allowed to attend classes. Now twenty, Durwin is proficient enough that he is assigned to teach, but the other sages refuse to promote him and he is hassled by the Norman juniors for his disability. But those troubles turn out to be the least of his worries when he manages to corrects errors in an ancient corrupted spell, which promptly prophesies murder. Sure enough, word soon reaches the school that one of the local count’s house sage has died, perhaps slain by black magic. Durwin is whisked away to the family’s castle, only to find that one death was only the beginning. The young sage quickly learns of a dizzying plot to assassinate King Henry. Dropped into the middle of the complex politics of England’s royal courts, can Durwin stop them in time?
Ironheart
by Emily FrenchDestiny Wore Many Disguisesbut Lady Brenna, pledged as bride in a match more alliance than love affair, saw true when Caer Llion rode up to her castle gates. This valiant knight was surely her mysterious betrothed, for he was her past-and Fate decreed he be her future...!An elfin girl upon the high battlements had once given him her favor-and eased his aching soul. Now Leon FitzWarren, famed as Caer Llion-the Ironheart, had returned to Wales, to those very battlements, and faced again the bewitching Brenna-the elfin sprite become woman-and holder of his heart...!
Irons in the Fire
by John McpheeAnother of McPhee's anthologies of well-written, highly informed, and very enjoyable essays that originally appeared in the New Yorker magazine. Joihn McPhee has a talent for making any subject interesting, and the diversity of the subjects he shares with his readers just in this book is astounding - from branding cattle to mountains made of tires to forensic geology to Plymouth Rock, and more.
Ironside: The Authorised Biography of Field Marshal Lord Ironside
by Richards Edmund Ironside General Lord RichardsThe Field Marshal was a born commander and, besides being a gifted linguist, was mobilised as a Subaltern for the Boer War to act as a secret agent and to streamline the peace process. With an appetite for battle, in WW1 he became the Allied C-in-C of the Expeditionary Force in North Russia and, being ranked as a knighted Major General at the age of 39, he then modernised the Staff training to deal with armoured and aerial warfare. His Generalship was tested out in the Raj and, in 1939, on the day war was declared, the British Army leadership as CIGS was placed in his hands, so that he was able to defend Calais and free-up the BEF escape route to Dunkirk. Back in business as C-in-C Home Forces he was given his baton. Ironside surely had one of the most varied and long military careers of any military leader in the 20th century.
Ironsides
by Graham Turner John TinceyThe Ironside is symbolic of the one occasion when the army took an active role in British politics. He represents a unique period when ordinary people displaced the established order to take political control into their own hands. In the nineteenth century a rash of historical publications, paintings and statues with a civil war theme reflected the political divisions of Victorian society and Royalist and Parliamentarian causes were argued over again, reflecting the sub text of contemporary political struggles. This book attempts to take a wider view of the Ironside as a warrior who evolved from the experiments of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries to combine firepower with the armoured cavalryman.
Ironskin (Ironskin Ser. #1)
by Tina ConnollyIronskin is Tina Connolly's enchanting historical fantasy, a loose reimagining of Jane Eyre set in an alternate version of England in the early 1900s, in the aftermath of a war between humans and the fey.Jane Eliot wears an iron mask.It's the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin.When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a "delicate situation"—a child born during the Great War—Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help.Teaching the unruly Dorie to suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn't expect to fall for the girl's father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her scars and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio...and come out as beautiful as the fey.Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things are true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of a new life—and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Ironweed
by William KennedyWinner of The Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for FictionIn this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the third in Kennedy's Albany cycle, Francis Phelan, ex-ballplayer, part-time gravedigger, and full-time bum with the gift of gab, has hit bottom. Years earlier he'd left Albany after he dropped his infant son accidentally, and the boy died. Now, in 1938, Francis is back in town, roaming the old familiar streets with his hobo pal, Helen, trying to make peace with the ghosts of the past and present.
Ironweed (Albany Cycle #3)
by William KennedyIronweed, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is the best-known of William Kennedy's three Albany-based novels. Francis Phelan, ex-ballplayer, part-time gravedigger, full-time drunk, has hit bottom. Years ago he left Albany in a hurry after killing a scab during a trolley workers' strike; he ran away again after accidentally - and fatally - dropping his infant son. Now, in 1938, Francis is back in town, roaming the old familiar streets with his hobo pal, Helen, trying to make peace with the ghosts of the past and the present. . .
Ironwood, Hurley, and the Gogebic Range
by Matthew Liesch Ironwood Area Historical SocietySituated on the south shore of Lake Superior, the Gogebic Iron Range of Michigan and Wisconsin exudes a strong sense of place. During the 1880s, a mining boom lured settlers, investment, and controversy. Investors from Milwaukee, Chicago, and Cleveland hoped to become rich, but many were pulled into scams or poorly managed mines and ended up losing their money. After iron stocks crashed, mining investors were more cautious. Many mining locations were abandoned, but towns such as Ironwood, Bessemer, Wakefield, and Hurley grew. For over 80 years, iron mining gave the Gogebic Range distinctive ethnicity and settlement patterns resulting in its unique cultural landscapes. The physical setting enhances the drama of the Gogebic. Lake-effect snowfall results in picturesque yet harsh winters, and thundering waterfalls have long attracted visitors.
Irony: An Historical Introduction (Routledge Revivals)
by J.A.K. ThomsonIrony, with its old and complex history beginning with Plato and Socrates, and known by intellects from different social classes, including the ancient dramatists, philosophers, and rhetoricians, is not an easy concept to grasp. Originally published in 1926, this volume analyses the history of irony in ancient writers such as Homer and Lucian and how the use of Irony in modern literature has been shaped and coloured by the Ironical tradition. The works of Tacitus, Shakespeare, Goethe and Jane Austen are among those discussed.
Iroquoia: Haudenosaunee Life and Culture, 1630–1783
by Kelly Y. HopkinsIroquoia highlights the innovation of the Haudenosaunee peoples in retaining sovereignty over their homelands through seven generations of social and environmental change following European contact and the settler invasion. Kelly Y. Hopkins argues that Haudenosaunee men and women incorporated articles of European manufacture into their daily lives to fulfill conventional social and cultural needs. They used new trade items and alliances to enhance their lives and to pursue goals specific to their communities. In Iroquoia, Hopkins explores how engagement in the global market economy irreversibly transformed the local environment, severed Indigenous relationships and responsibilities to human and other-than human kin, and challenged longstanding social and economic relationships within Haudenosaunee communities. While settler expansion, violence, and imperial terraforming threatened Indigenous communities, food sovereignty, and water management, The People of the Longhouse produced distinctive new material cultures and new land use practices that incorporated features of the colonial settlement template into longstanding subsistence and settlement patterns. Haudenosaunee peoples employed these survivance strategies to control the scale and scope of European intrusion into their homelands.
Iroquois Crafts
by Carrie A. LyfordThere is nothing more colorful in the North American Indian history than the story of the League of the Iroquois. An Iroquois Indian crafts manual with photographs, and drawings of examples, historical background, patterns of clothing, bark utensils and decorative arts.
Iroquois Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier
by Timothy J. ShannonMore than perhaps any other Native American group, the Iroquois found it to their advantage to interact with and adapt to white settlers. Despite being known as fierce warriors, the Iroquois were just as reliant on political prowess and sophisticated diplomacy to maintain their strategic position between New France and New York.<p> Colonial observers marveled at what Benjamin Franklin called their "method of doing business" as Europeans learned to use Iroquois ceremonies and objects to remain in their good graces. Though the Iroquois negotiated with the colonial governments, they refused to be pawns of European empires, and their savvy kept them in control of much of the Northeast until the American Revolution. Iroquois Diplomacy and the Early American Frontier is a must-read for anyone fascinated by Native American history or interested in a unique perspective on the dawn of American government.
Irrational Exuberance: Revised and Expanded Third Edition
by Robert J. ShillerWhy the irrational exuberance of investors hasn't disappeared since the financial crisisIn this revised, updated, and expanded edition of his New York Times bestseller, Nobel Prize–winning economist Robert Shiller, who warned of both the tech and housing bubbles, cautions that signs of irrational exuberance among investors have only increased since the 2008–9 financial crisis. With high stock and bond prices and the rising cost of housing, the post-subprime boom may well turn out to be another illustration of Shiller's influential argument that psychologically driven volatility is an inherent characteristic of all asset markets. In other words, Irrational Exuberance is as relevant as ever. Previous editions covered the stock and housing markets—and famously predicted their crashes. This edition expands its coverage to include the bond market, so that the book now addresses all of the major investment markets. It also includes updated data throughout, as well as Shiller's 2013 Nobel Prize lecture, which places the book in broader context. In addition to diagnosing the causes of asset bubbles, Irrational Exuberance recommends urgent policy changes to lessen their likelihood and severity—and suggests ways that individuals can decrease their risk before the next bubble bursts. No one whose future depends on a retirement account, a house, or other investments can afford not to read this book.
Irrationality, Transcendence and the Circle-Squaring Problem: An Annotated Translation of J. H. Lambert’s Vorläufige Kenntnisse and Mémoire (Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science #58)
by Eduardo Dorrego López Elías Fuentes GuillénThis publication includes an unabridged and annotated translation of two works by Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728–1777) written in the 1760s: Vorläufige Kenntnisse für die, so die Quadratur und Rectification des Circuls suchen and Mémoire sur quelques propriétés remarquables des quantités transcendentes circulaires et logarithmiques. The translations are accompanied by a contextualised study of each of these works and provide an overview of Lambert’s contributions, showing both the background and the influence of his work. In addition, by adopting a biographical approach, it allows readers to better get to know the scientist himself. Lambert was a highly relevant scientist and polymath in his time, admired by the likes of Kant, who despite having made a wide variety of contributions to different branches of knowledge, later faded into an undeserved secondary place with respect to other scientists of the eighteenth century. In mathematics, in particular, he is famous for his research on non-Euclidean geometries, although he is likely best known for having been the first who proved the irrationality of pi. In his Mémoire, he conducted one of the first studies on hyperbolic functions, offered a surprisingly rigorous proof of the irrationality of pi, established for the first time the modern distinction between algebraic and transcendental numbers, and based on such distinction, he conjectured the transcendence of pi and therefore the impossibility of squaring the circle.
Irrationality, Transcendence and the Circle-Squaring Problem: An Annotated Translation of J. H. Lambert’s Vorläufige Kenntnisse and Mémoire (Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science #58)
by Eduardo Dorrego López Elías Fuentes GuillénThis publication, now in its second edition, includes an unabridged and annotated translation of two works by Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728–1777) written in the 1760s: Vorläufige Kenntnisse für die, so die Quadratur und Rectification des Circuls suchen and Mémoire sur quelques propriétés remarquables des quantités transcendentes circulaires et logarithmiques. The translations, as in the first edition, are accompanied by a contextualised study of each of these works and provide an overview of Lambert’s contributions, showing both the background and the influence of his work. In addition, by adopting a biographical approach, it allows readers to better get to know the scientist himself.Lambert was a highly relevant scientist and polymath in his time, admired by the likes of Kant, who despite having made a wide variety of contributions to different branches of knowledge, later faded into an undeserved secondary place with respect to other scientists of the eighteenth century. In mathematics, in particular, he is famous for his research on non-Euclidean geometries, although he is likely best known for having been the first who proved the irrationality of pi. In his Mémoire, he conducted one of the first studies on hyperbolic functions, offered a surprisingly rigorous proof of the irrationality of pi, established for the first time the modern distinction between algebraic and transcendental numbers, and based on such distinction, he conjectured the transcendence of pi and therefore the impossibility of squaring the circle.
Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason
by Justin E. SmithA fascinating history that reveals the ways in which the pursuit of rationality often leads to an explosion of irrationalityIt’s a story we can’t stop telling ourselves. Once, humans were benighted by superstition and irrationality, but then the Greeks invented reason. Later, the Enlightenment enshrined rationality as the supreme value. Discovering that reason is the defining feature of our species, we named ourselves the “rational animal.” But is this flattering story itself rational? In this sweeping account of irrationality from antiquity to today—from the fifth-century BC murder of Hippasus for revealing the existence of irrational numbers to the rise of Twitter mobs and the election of Donald Trump—Justin Smith says the evidence suggests the opposite. From sex and music to religion and war, irrationality makes up the greater part of human life and history.Rich and ambitious, Irrationality ranges across philosophy, politics, and current events. Challenging conventional thinking about logic, natural reason, dreams, art and science, pseudoscience, the Enlightenment, the internet, jokes and lies, and death, the book shows how history reveals that any triumph of reason is temporary and reversible, and that rational schemes, notably including many from Silicon Valley, often result in their polar opposite. The problem is that the rational gives birth to the irrational and vice versa in an endless cycle, and any effort to permanently set things in order sooner or later ends in an explosion of unreason. Because of this, it is irrational to try to eliminate irrationality. For better or worse, it is an ineradicable feature of life.Illuminating unreason at a moment when the world appears to have gone mad again, Irrationality is fascinating, provocative, and timely.
Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason
by Justin E. SmithFrom sex and music to religion and politics, a history of irrationality and the ways in which it has always been with us—and always will beIn this sweeping account of irrationality from antiquity to the rise of Twitter mobs and the election of Donald Trump, Justin Smith argues that irrationality makes up the greater part of human life and history. Ranging across philosophy, politics, and current events, he shows that, throughout history, every triumph of reason has been temporary and reversible, and that rational schemes often result in their polar opposite. Illuminating unreason at a moment when the world appears to have gone mad again, Irrationality is timely, provocative, and fascinating.
Irrealism in Ethics (Ratio Special Issues)
by Bart StreumerIrrealism in Ethics presents a collection of six original essays contributed by prominent moral philosophers that address various forms of the philosophical position of ethical irrealism. Addresses various forms of the philosophical position of ethical irrealism Presents arguments both for and against the two major versions of ethical irrealism—the error theory and expressivism Offers innovative new arguments on topics relating to ethical irrealism Features original contributions from internationally prominent moral philosophers