THE RISE & FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE covers the history of British expansion overseas from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Narrative & analysis are interwoven with revealing eyewitness"ation to provide keen insight into the minds of those involved in conquering settling & ruling the greatest Empire the world has seen. Throughout there are consistant themes; the search for profit & the moral misgivings it generated; domestic developments which made imperial expansion desirable; & the sense of national & personal destiny felt by the empire-builders. Spanning four centuries & six continents James' magnificent survey examines the imperial experience & its legacy with tremendous verve. Informed comprehensive & perceptive it is the essential summary of the era. ' James' epic is not only a first-rate narrative but also a penetrating portrait of the British... Having largely if often inadvertently selfishly or ham-fistedly engineered the world we live in we need the courage now to face up to our record as coolly & intelligently as Lawrence James has done'
- John Spurling TLS
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Paul Kennedy s international bestseller is a sweeping account of five hundred years of fluctuating economic muscle & military might among the great powers of the world. Kennedy begins with Europe s dramatic return to the forefront of world domination at the expense of China & the Muslim world & brings us up to modern times with both on the brink of remarkable recovery. Along the way he explores world wars & civil wars destructive ideologies the paranoia of superpowers & the inherent problems of a united Europe. He persuasively demonstrates the interdependence of economic & military power showing how imbalance between the two has historically led to spectacular political disaster. Erudite & brilliantly original The Rise & Fall of Great Powers is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the politics of power. ...

The Knights Templar a mysterious fraternity of warrior monks pledged their swords to defend pilgrims to the Holy Land from the bandits & marauders of the roads. Patronised by the aristocracy the Templars soon evolved into a formidable army & were the vanguard of the ongoing Crusades. They were widely acclaimed for their boldness & tenacity showered with gifts by Catholic nobles & granted special privileges by admiring Popes. Even after the failure of the Crusades the Templars remained one of the dominant forces in Christendom with political power to rival kings...until with shocking speed they were brought down by accusations of blasphemous crimes. With confessions tortured out of them by the Inquisition many knights were burnt as heretics & the Order was disbanded by the Pope. What really happended behind the closed doors of the Templars' preceptories? Was there truth in the rumours of secret rituals conducted in the dead of the night? Did heretical depravity & Devil-worship truly exist within the illustrious brotherhood? Why is their name associated today with the Freemasons? In this lively & authoritative account historian Gordon Napier unravels the many mysteries that surround the Knights Templar & their sudden fall from grace. Widely acclaimed for their boldness & tenacity showered with gifts by Catholic nobles & granted special privileges by admiring Popes. Even after the failure of the Crusades the Templars remained one of the dominant forces in Christendom with political power to rival kings...until with shocking speed they were brought down by accusations of blasphemous crimes. ...

The Tardis of the Doctor Who" BBC television series is all that most know about the police box. These boxes have a far more interesting history which was virtually unknown today before the publication of this book. The 1880s saw companies in America develop from earlier fire alarms police call points & kiosks before they pursued clients in Britain. Just a few police forces in this country took an interest in the idea in these early years. Although the Metropolitan Police in London experimented with systems it was the police in Glasgow & Liverpool that were particularly active before the end of the century. The hey days for the police box were the years between the 1920s & 1960s when a large proportion of the many police forces that existed at the time introduced some form of communication from the street for both police officers & the public to use. This important aspect of policing is described using the often amusing experiences of retired police officers from all areas of the United Kingdom. The dying days of the police box after 1960 show the lasting interest there has been in this abandoned method of policing with museums always keen to acquire a retired box for display. " The Rise & Fall of the Police Box" is a meticulously researched & illustrated book by a retired Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police who is well qualified to write on the subject as the boxes were an important part of his day to day duty as a young constable in London in the 1950s & 60s. Although this book is really directed at the ordinary reader with an interest in finding out more about this iconic part of police history it will also be a godsend for the researcher & academic. Libraries & museums will find it a source of unequalled reference as will police box afficionados & Doctor Who enthusiasts." ...

More than 98 percent of human genes are shared with two species of chimpanzee. The third chimpanzee is man. Jared Diamond surveys out life-cycle culture sexuality & destructive urges both towards ourselves & the planet to explore the ways in which we are uniquely human yet still influenced by our animal origins. ...

The second book in Raymond Feists super-selling quartet: The Serpentwar Saga. Triumphant but overconfident after his defeat of the reptilian Sauur army Roo must resist a beguiling seductress who threatens to undo him & all of Midkemia. Roo Avery recently returned from a harrowing brush with the armies of the Emerald Queen is now free to choose his own destiny & his ultimate ambition is to become one of the richest & most powerful merchants in Midkemia. But nothing can prepare him for the dangers of the new life he has chosen where the repayment of a debt can be as deadly as a knife in the shadows. Even those closest to him are suspect & as Roo struggles to build his financial empire betrayal is always close at h&. But while Roo works towards achieving his goal memories of the invasion haunt him still. For the war with the Emerald Queen is far from over & the inevitable confrontation will pose the biggest threat yet to his new found wealth & power. ...

The birth of the Nyphron Empire has brought war to Melengar. To save her kingdom Princess Arista runs a desperate gamble when she defies her brother & hires Royce & Hadrian to perform a dangerous mission behind the enemy's lines. As the power of the Nyphron Empire grows so does Royce's suspicion that the wizard Esrahaddon is using the thieves as pawns in his own shadowy struggle for power. To find the truth he must unravel the secret of Hadrian's past. What he discovers leads the thieves to the ends of the world on a journey amid treachery & betrayals forcing Hadrian to face a past he hoped never to see again. ...

In this book Duncan Campbell explores the course of the wars that ensued as successive emperors sought to extend the empire from Claudius' conquest of Britannia Domitian's campaigns on the Rhine & the Danube through Trajan's Dacian Wars & Parthian War to Marcus Aurelius' Marcomannic Wars as well as the Jewish Wars. The period covered in this book ends with the consolidation of the Roman frontiers along the Rhine & Danube. This book provides a summary of the strengths limitations & evolving character of the Roman army during the first two centuries AD as well as those of the forces of Rome's enemies across the Rhine & Danube in Germany & Romania & in the East in the form of the Parthian empire of Iraq/ Iran. Fully illustrated with photographs depicting the emperors their armies & enemies & the remains of Roman fortifications & public buildings plus informative full-colour maps this is the epic story of the wars waged by a succession of emperors during the period in which Imperial Rome reached its zenith. ...

This new edition covers the history of modern China since the 17th century & has been updated to examine the return of Hong Kong in 1997 & Macao in 1999. In his new concluding chapter Hsu discusses the end of the last vestiges of foreign imperialism in China as well as Chinas emergence as a regional & global superpower. US-China rivalry & the prospect of unification between China & Taiwan are also considered. In addition the further reading sections have been entirely revised. This work is intended for students & scholars of modern Chinese history. ...

IN THE BEGINNING WE WERE A GROUP OF NINE. Nine aliens who left our home planet of Lorien when it fell under attack from the deadly Mogodorians. We scattered on earth & went into hiding. We look like ordinary teenagers. We are not. Until I met John Smith Number Four I'd been on the run alone hiding & fighting to stay alive. Together we are much more powerful. But it could only last so long before we had to separate. They caught Number One in Malaysia. Number Two in Engl&. & Number Three in Kenya. They caught me in New York
- but I escaped. I am Number Six. The Mogadorians want to finish what they started. But they'll have to fight us first.
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