History of Military Cartography


Book Description

This volume gathers 19 papers first presented at the 5th International Symposium of the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography, which took place at the University of Ghent, Belgium on 2-5 December 2014. The overall conference theme was 'Cartography in Times of War and Peace', but preference was given to papers dealing with the military cartography of the First World War (1914-1918). The papers are classified by period and regional sub-theme, i.e. Military Cartography from the 18th to the 20th century; WW I Cartography in Belgium, Central Europe, etc.




The System Of The World


Book Description

Neal Stephenson follows his highly-praised historical novels, Quicksilver and The Confusion, with the extraordinary third and final volume of the Baroque Cycle. The year is 1714. Daniel Waterhouse has returned to England, where he joins forces with his friend Isaac Newton to hunt down a shadowy group attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers with 'Infernal Devices' - time bombs. As Daniel and Newton conspire, an increasingly vicious struggle is waged for England's Crown: who will take control when the ailing queen dies? Tories and Whigs clash as one faction jockeys to replace Queen Anne with 'The Pretender' James Stuart, and the other promotes the Hanoverian dynasty of Princess Caroline. Meanwhile, a long-simmering dispute between Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz comes to a head, with potentially cataclysmic consequences. Wildly inventive, brilliantly conceived, The System of the World is the final volume in Neal Stephenson's hugely ambitious and compelling saga. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters in a time of genius, discovery and change, the Baroque Cycle is a magnificent and unique achievement.




History of Cartography


Book Description

This volume comprises the proceedings of the 2010 International Symposium of the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography. The nineteen papers reflect the research interests of the Commission which span the period from the Enlightenment to the evolution of Geographical Information Science. Apart from studies on general cartography, the volume, which reflects some co-operation with the ICA Commission on Maps and Society and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), contains regional studies on cartographic endeavours in Northern America, Brazil, and Southern Africa. The ICA Commission on Maps and Society participated as its field of study often overlaps with that of the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography. The USGS which is the official USA mapping organisation, was invited to emphasise that the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography is not only interested in historical maps, but also has as mandate the research and document the history of Geographical Information Science. The ICA Commission on Maps and Society participated as its field of study often overlaps with that of the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography. The USGS which is the official USA mapping organisation, was invited to emphasise that the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography is not only interested in historical maps, but also has as mandate the research and document the history of Geographical Information Science.







Yvain


Book Description

The twelfth-century French poet Chrétien de Troyes is a major figure in European literature. His courtly romances fathered the Arthurian tradition and influenced countless other poets in England as well as on the continent. Yet because of the difficulty of capturing his swift-moving style in translation, English-speaking audiences are largely unfamiliar with the pleasures of reading his poems. Now, for the first time, an experienced translator of medieval verse who is himself a poet provides a translation of Chrétien’s major poem, Yvain, in verse that fully and satisfyingly captures the movement, the sense, and the spirit of the Old French original. Yvain is a courtly romance with a moral tenor; it is ironic and sometimes bawdy; the poetry is crisp and vivid. In addition, the psychological and the socio-historical perceptions of the poem are of profound literary and historical importance, for it evokes the emotions and the values of a flourishing, vibrant medieval past.




Clubland Heroes


Book Description

"This evocative study brings us back to the world of Buchan, 'Sapper' and Dornford Yates: the world of the British Empire, in which leisured London clubmen waged a peacetime Great Game of war against cads, crooks and beastly foreigners. The rules of the game were those of the public school, the stakes usually high--often Civilization itself. In these pages we can follow Hannay from Portland Place to Galloway and to the Black Sea, Bulldog Drummond from Mayfair to his last round, in the airship, with Carl Peterson, and Berry & Co from White Ladies in Hampshire to the Pyrenees and beyond. When it was first published, Clubland Heroes was recognized as a classic of its kind. This reissue--freshly revised and corrected in 1983--gives a new generation of readers the chance to meet the stift-upper-lip officer-class heroes of a bygone world."--Back cover.




Go Spy the Land


Book Description

Before espionage entered the era of modern technology, there was the age of George Alexander Hill: a time of swashbuckling secret agents, swordsticks and secret assignations with deadly female spies. The daring escapades of some of the first members of Britain's secret service are revealed in this account of perilous adventure and audacious missions in Imperial and revolutionary Russia. First published in 1932, Hill's rip-roaring narrative recounts tales of his fellow operatives Arthur Ransome - author of Swallows and Amazons and one of the most effective British spies in Russia - and Sidney Reilly - so-called 'Ace of Spies' and architect of a thwarted plot to assassinate the Bolshevik leadership. Unavailable for decades, this lost classic offers fascinating portraits of a world unfathomable to those growing up against a backdrop of WikiLeaks and cyber espionage, and of true-life characters whose exploits were so extraordinary that they have entered the realm of legend.




The Invasion of 1910


Book Description

The Invasion of 1910 is a 1906 novel written mainly by William Le Queux (with H. W. Wilson providing the naval chapters). It is one of the more famous examples of Invasion literature. It is viewed by some as an example of pre-World War I Germanophobia. It can also be viewed as prescient, as it preached the need to prepare for war with Germany. The novel was originally commissioned by Alfred Harmsworth as a serial which appeared in the Daily Mail from 19 March 1906. The story rewritten to feature towns and villages with high Daily Mail readership, greatly increased the newspaper's circulation and made a small fortune for Le Queux; it was translated into twenty-seven languages, and over one million copies of the book edition were sold. The idea for the novel is alleged to have originated from Field Marshal Earl Roberts, who regularly lectured English schoolboys on the need to prepare for war. The book takes the form of a military history. William Tufnell Le Queux (1864-1927) was an Anglo-French journalist and writer. He was also a diplomat, a traveller, a flying buff who officiated at the first British air meeting at Doncaster in 1909, and a wireless pioneer who broadcast music from his own station long before radio was generally available.




Secret Service


Book Description