The Shoemaker's Daughter (The Cordwainers: 1)


Book Description

Perfect for fans of Dilly Court and Rosie Goodwin, this is the powerful beginning of The Cordwainers, a series from bestselling author Iris Gower. READERS ARE LOVING THE CORDWAINERS! "I loved this book from start to finish..." - 5 STARS. "Seriously recommend..." - 5 STARS. "I have really enjoyed reading this whole series...I would recommend the reading of any of the books by this author." - 5 STARS "Loved these books [-] definitely recommend this series: once you start you will want to read them all" - 5 STARS "You finish one book and you just have to start the next one." - 5 STARS "A perfectly marvellous book!" - 5 STARS ******************************************************** WILL SHE LET MATTERS OF THE HEART CLOUD HER JUDGEMENT? When her father dies, Hari Morgan has no choice to but make a life for herself and her ailing mother and carry on the family shoemaking business. Her talent leads her to an unlikely friendship with Emily Grenfell, the daughter of one of the richest men in Swansea. But friendship is fickle. As their respective fortunes change and they both fall in love with Craig Grenfell, Emily's cousin, Hari must decide whether to follow her heart or her head... The Shoemaker's Daughter is the first title in Iris Gower's The Cordwainers series. The story continues in The Oyster Catchers.




The Shoemaker's Holiday


Book Description

Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday is one of the most popular of Elizabethan plays--entertaining, racy and vivid in its characterization. Revealing a vital portrait of Elizabethan London and the interaction of social classes within the city, its social commentary is on the whole optimistic, though darker tones are discernible. The play has had a lively history of performance on both the professional and amateur stage.




The Oyster Catchers


Book Description

Her marriage to Jo Harries, an oyster catcher, takes Emmeline Powell into a community which resents and rejects her. Her life becomes more isolated, more unhappy, until she meets Will Davies, who is to open a new world for her.




Sea Mistress


Book Description

Bridie Marchant had been brought up with every advantage, a wealthy background, a convent education, and a father who eventually willed her a fleet of merchant sailing ships. When she married Paul Marchant it seemed a perfect match, for Paul, owner of a much smaller fleet of ships, could take care both of Bridie and of her business interests. But slowly Bridie began to have her doubts about Paul, about his love, and about his business dealings. When he tried to inflict upon her the greatest insult of all, and also attempted to seize her fortune, Bridie decided she must fight back. With the help of Ellie Hopkins, she sought to trap Paul in a web of his own making. In the dramatic events that followed, both Ellie and Bridie were nearly destroyed before they finally found happiness with the men they loved.




The Western Antiquary


Book Description

"Reprinted after revision and correction from the 'Weekly Mercury, '" Mar. 1881-May 1884.




The Making of the English Working Class


Book Description

A history of the common people and the Industrial Revolution: “A true masterpiece” and one of the Modern Library’s 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the twentieth century (Tribune). During the formative years of the Industrial Revolution, English workers and artisans claimed a place in society that would shape the following centuries. But the capitalist elite did not form the working class—the workers shaped their own creations, developing a shared identity in the process. Despite their lack of power and the indignity forced upon them by the upper classes, the working class emerged as England’s greatest cultural and political force. Crucial to contemporary trends in all aspects of society, at the turn of the nineteenth century, these workers united into the class that we recognize all across the Western world today. E. P. Thompson’s magnum opus, The Making of the English Working Class defined early twentieth-century English social and economic history, leading many to consider him Britain’s greatest postwar historian. Its publication in 1963 was highly controversial in academia, but the work has become a seminal text on the history of the working class. It remains incredibly relevant to the social and economic issues of current times, with the Guardian saying upon the book’s fiftieth anniversary that it “continues to delight and inspire new readers.”




Arian (The Cordwainers: 4)


Book Description

Perfect for fans of Dilly Court and Rosie Goodwin, this is the powerful next instalment of the Cordwainers series from bestselling author Iris Gower. READERS ARE LOVING THE CORDWAINERS! "I have really enjoyed reading this whole series...I would recommend the reading of any of the books by this author." - 5 STARS "Loved these books [-] definitely recommend this series: once you start you will want to read them all" - 5 STARS "You finish one book and you just have to start the next one." - 5 STARS "The best book I've read in a long time..."-Reader review "A great read - hard to put down" - 5 STARS ************************************************ WILL SHE CHOOSE PRISON OR A LOVELESS MARRIAGE? Arian - spirited and unconventional - had always shocked the residents of World's End with her wild behaviour. As she begins to make a name for herself in the leather and shoe-making trade, she is overjoyed when the intriguing and charismatic Calvin Temple decides to back her. Yet this backing proves disastrous when her venture with a French company fails and it looks as though all their money will be lost. When Arian sets out for France in desperation to try to salvage their investment, she falls foul of the law and is given a grim alternative to prison - a loveless marriage with a man she despises. Will she ever be able to find fulfilment with the man she loves, or will she be forced to face a life sentence of unhappiness? Arian is the fourth title in Iris Gower's Cordwainers series. Have you read The Shoemaker's Daughter, The Oyster Catchers and Honey's Farm, the previous three titles?







When Scotland Was Jewish


Book Description

The popular image of Scotland is dominated by widely recognized elements of Celtic culture. But a significant non-Celtic influence on Scotland's history has been largely ignored for centuries? This book argues that much of Scotland's history and culture from 1100 forward is Jewish. The authors provide evidence that many of the national heroes, villains, rulers, nobles, traders, merchants, bishops, guild members, burgesses, and ministers of Scotland were of Jewish descent, their ancestors originating in France and Spain. Much of the traditional historical account of Scotland, it is proposed, rests on fundamental interpretive errors, perpetuated in order to affirm Scotland's identity as a Celtic, Christian society. A more accurate and profound understanding of Scottish history has thus been buried. The authors' wide-ranging research includes examination of census records, archaeological artifacts, castle carvings, cemetery inscriptions, religious seals, coinage, burgess and guild member rolls, noble genealogies, family crests, portraiture, and geographic place names.




The Wages of Whiteness


Book Description

An enduring history of how race and class came together to mark the course of the antebellum US and our present crisis. Roediger shows that in a nation pledged to independence, but less and less able to avoid the harsh realities of wage labor, the identity of "white" came to allow many Northern workers to see themselves as having something in common with their bosses. Projecting onto enslaved people and free Blacks the preindustrial closeness to pleasure that regimented labor denied them, "white workers" consumed blackface popular culture, reshaped languages of class, and embraced racist practices on and off the job. Far from simply preserving economic advantage, white working-class racism derived its terrible force from a complex series of psychological and ideological mechanisms that reinforced stereotypes and helped to forge the very identities of white workers in opposition to Blacks. Full of insight regarding the precarious positions of not-quite-white Irish immigrants to the US and the fate of working class abolitionism, Wages of Whiteness contributes mightily and soberly to debates over the 1619 Project and critical race theory.