history / europe / great britain

"Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is a captivating examination of twelve illuminated manuscripts from the medieval period. Noted authority Christopher de Hamel invites the reader into intimate conversations with these texts to explore what they tell us about nearly a thousand years of medieval history--and about the modern world, too. In so doing, de Hamel introduces us to kings, queens, saints, scribes, artists, librarians, thieves, dealers, and collectors. He traces the elaborate journeys that these exceptionally precious artifacts have made through time and shows us how they have been copied, how they have been embroiled in politics, how they have been regarded as objects of supreme beauty and as symbols of national identity, and who has owned them or lusted after them (and how we can tell). From the earliest book in medieval England to the incomparable Book of Kells to the oldest manuscript of the Canterbury Tales, these encounters tell a narrative of intellectual culture and art over the course of a millennium. Two of the manuscripts visited are now in libraries of North America, the Morgan Library in New York and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Part travel book, part detective story, part conversation with the reader, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts allows us to experience some of the greatest works of art in our culture to give us a different perspective on history and on how we come by knowledge"--.

Explores the inspiration behind Lewis Carroll's story "Alice in Wonderland," discussing how his love of photography influenced his visions of Wonderland and revealing the circumstances surrounding the photograph that shaped his vision of Alice.

"The English and Their History presents the momentous story of England "first as an idea, and then as a kingdom, as a country, a people and a culture." Here, in a single volume, is a fresh and comprehensive account of the English and their history. With extraordinary insight, Robert Tombs examines language, literature, law, religion, politics, and more while investigating the sources of England's collective memory and belief. The English and Their History spans 700,000 years, from the island's very first inhabitants to the present day, stopping along the way to recount the tales of conquerors, kings, and queens; a nation's myths and legends, facts and extraordinary truths. No history of England has come close to matching the scale and scope of this historical masterwork--with an eye for detail to rival his ambition, Tombs has managed to cover every significant happening and development over hundreds of thousands of years while accessibly explaining how they connect. But The English and Their History is more a work of narrative nonfiction than one of reference or record, expertly guiding the reader from footprints in the mud of early Homo sapiens through Shakespeare, Reformation, revolution, and industrialization in a narrative stretching all the way to the present"--.

After the Ninth Duke of Rutland, one of the wealthiest men in Britain, died alone in a cramped room in the servants' quarters of Belvoir Castle on April 21, 1940, his son and heir ordered the room, which contained the Rutland family archives, sealed. Sixty years later, Catherine Bailey became the first historian to be given access. What she discovered was a mystery: the Duke had painstakingly erased three periods of his life from all family records--- why? As Bailey uncovers the answers, she also provides an intimate portrait of the very top of British society in the turbulent days leading up to World War I.

A biography of Britain's King George III, the king from whom Americans won their independence and known as "the mad king," discussing his family and their flaws, and his aspirations to be a moral example by staying faithful to his wife, Queen Charlotte, and raising loving, educated children.

"This...dual biography brings to life a pioneering English feminist and the daughter she never knew. Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley have each been the subject of numerous biographies, yet no one has ever examined their lives in one book - until now. In 'Romantic Outlaws,' Charlotte Gordon reunites the...author who wrote 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' and the Romantic visionary who gave the world 'Frankenstein'- two courageous women who should have shared their lives, but instead shared a powerful literary and feminist legacy" --amazon.com.

Explains that William Shakespeare lived during the first phase of the Scientific Revolution, discusses the Renaissance thinkers who lived near Shakespeare, and how these new ideas impacted his works.

The extraordinary true story of the downfall of one of England's wealthiest families. The Fitzwilliam family founded a coal-mining dynasty and lived in the breathtaking Wentworth estate, the largest private home in England. When the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam died in 1902, he left behind the second largest estate in twentieth-century England, valued at billions of pounds. It was a lifeline to the tens of thousands of people who worked either in the family's coal mines or on their expansive estate. The earl also left behind four sons, and the family line seemed assured. But was it? As Bailey retraces the Fitzwilliam family history, she uncovers a legacy riddled with bitter feuds, scandals, (including Peter Fitzwilliam's ill-fated affair with American Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, one of President John F. Kennedy's sisters), and civil unrest as the conflict between the coal industry and its miners came to a head.

Born in Jamaica, Francis Barber was brought to London by his owner in 1750 and became a servant in the household of the renowned Dr. Samuel Johnson. Although Barber left London for a time and served in the British navy during the Seven Years' War, he later returned to Johnson's employ. A fascinating reversal took place in the relationship between the two men as Johnson's health declined and the older man came to rely more and more upon his now educated and devoted companion. When Johnson died he left the bulk of his estate to Barber, a generous (and at the time scandalous) legacy, and a testament to the depth of their friendship. There were thousands of black Britons in the eighteenth century, but few accounts of their lives exist. In uncovering Francis Barber's story, this book not only provides insights into his life and Samuel Johnson's but also opens a window onto London when slaves had yet to win their freedom.