The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature


Book Description

Traces the history of English literature from Anglo-Saxon poetry to the present day.




Black and British: An Illustrated History


Book Description

This beautiful hardback gift book is a stunning visual journey through Black British history for younger readers by award-winning historian and broadcaster David Olusoga and illustrated by Jake Alexander and Melleny Taylor. The essential starting place for anyone who wants to learn about Black British History. David Olusoga’s thought provoking text charts the forgotten histories of Black people in Britain from Roman times right through to the present day. From Roman Africans guarding Hadrian’s Wall, to an African trumpeter in the court of Henry the Eighth, Black Georgians fighting for the abolition of slavery, Black soldiers fighting for Britain in the First World War, Windrush and right up today. These are the stories that brought us all together in this country. When did Africans first come to Britain? Who are the well-dressed black children in Georgian paintings? Why did the American Civil War disrupt the Industrial Revolution? These and many other questions are answered in this essential introduction to 1800 years of the Black British history. This children's edition of the bestseller Black and British: A Forgotten History is beautifully illustrated in full-colour with maps, portrait galleries, timelines, photos and portraits.




Literature in America


Book Description

Professor Conn summarises the distinctive achievements of the American literary heritage from early 1600's to late 1980's.




Middle English Literature


Book Description

This book provides a boldly original account of Middle English literature from the Norman Conquest to the beginning of the sixteenth century. It argues that these centuries are, in fundamental ways, the momentous period in our literary history, for they are the long moment in which the category of literature itself emerged as English writing began to insist, for the first time, that it floated free of any social reality or function. This book also charts the complex mechanisms by which English writing acquired this power in a series of linked close readings of both canonical and more obscure texts. It encloses those readings in five compelling accounts of much broader cultural areas, describing, in particular, the productive relationship of Middle English writing to medieval technology, insurgency, statecraft and cultural place, concluding with an in depth account of the particular arguments, emphases and techniques English writers used to claim a wholly new jurisdiction for their work. Both this history and its readings are everywhere informed by the most exciting developments in recent Middle English scholarship as well as literary and cultural theory. It serves as an introduction to all these areas as well as a contribution, in its own right, to each of them.




The Many Not the Few


Book Description

With a mix of serious research and family jokes old union rep, Joe, and his granddaughter, Arushi, go into the complicated history, the ideological battles, the class conflict, a consideration of what unions are for, and what the future of unions may be. Starting way back with the 14th-century Peasants' Revolt, taking in the Levellers and the Luddites, the expansion of the unions in the 19th century, the height of their power in the '70s, and the great conflicts and decline of the '80s.




America


Book Description

America The Story of Us is a groundbreaking series that brings to life the epic story of our nation in a new way for a new generation. The companion book, America The Story of Us is a history that is at once penetrating and lively, elegant and authoritative; great for serious reading as it is for casual skimming. America The Story of Us brings to life the vast forces that shaped this remarkable country and the ways in which revolutions in technology and transportation altered the way Americans lived, made money, and fought one another. Explored in these pages is the struggle between settlers and Native Americans; the epic conflict of slavery, from cotton gin to Civil War; the creation of the transcontinental railroad alongside the thundering herds of buffalo across the West; and how American ingenuity and determination both carried us through the Great Depression and won the Second World War. Beginning with Jamestown and Plymouth Bay, the first successful British colonies on the mainland, the book highlights the landmark moments in political, social, economic, and military history, from the prototypical entrepreneur John Rolfe and his tobacco seeds to Barack Obama and the seeds of change, from the Model T to the moon landing. Written by novelist, historian, and journalist Kevin Baker (a key contributor to The American Century, by Harold Evans), the narrative shares the TV series- eye for the dramatic moment in U.S. history-there is danger, action, struggle-while adding new layers of detail and nuance. America The Story of Us is decisive and essential, the story of the country that every family will want to own. Foreword by President Obama A stunning companion piece for the most anticipated HISTORY broadcast of all time, includes 412 heavily illustrated pages featuring over 300 full color images and layers of information including "charticles,” graphics, photographs, and text. The adventure that became a nation - the complete history of the US has not been told for 40 years. AMERICA the Story of Us is an exuberant, unprecedented look at the invention of America focusing on how events small and large are intrinsically linked to the exploration and innovation, leading us from the frontier to 21st century cities, from the Mississippi to the moon, from Jamestown to 9/11 up to present day. Moving though time and space linking key events, people and locations, capturing the vast sweep of American history-- bringing viewers on a journey through the forces that shaped the destiny of America.




The Portrait and the Book


Book Description

Benjamin Franklin's portraits and colonial printing -- Phillis Wheatley and the durability of the author portrait -- Nationalist portraiture, magazines, and political books -- Picturing the seduction heroine in the U.S -- Gothic portraiture in Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland and Ormond




British Airways


Book Description

Lavishly illustrated full-colour history of this iconic company, in association with British Airways and full of fascinating images from the British Airways archive.




The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire


Book Description

Up to World War II and beyond, the British ruled over a vast empire. Modern western attitudes towards the imperial past tend either towards nostalgia for British power or revulsion at what seem to be the abuses of that power. The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire adopts neither of these approaches. It aims to create historical understanding about the British empire on the assumption that such understanding is important for any informed appreciation of the modern world. Through striking illustration and a text written by leading experts, this book examines the experience of colonialism in North America, India, Africa, Australia, and the Caribbean, as well as the impact of the empire on Britain itself. Emphasis is placed on social and cultural history, including slavery, trade, religion, art, and the movement of ideas. How did the British rule their empire? Who benefited economically from the empire? And who lost?




George Saunders


Book Description

This timely volume explores the signal contribution George Saunders has made to the development of the short story form in books ranging from CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (1996) to Tenth of December (2013). The book brings together a team of scholars from around the world to explore topics ranging from Saunders’s treatment of work and religion to biopolitics and the limits of the short story form. It also includes an interview with Saunders specially conducted for the volume, and a preliminary bibliography of his published works and critical responses to an expanding and always exciting creative œuvre. Coinciding with the release of the Saunders’ first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo (2017), George Saunders: Critical Essays is the first book-length consideration of a major contemporary author’s work. It is essential reading for anyone interested in twenty-first century fiction.