In this compelling, powerful book, highly respected writer and commentator Jack Holland sets out to answer a daunting question: how do you explain the oppression and brutalization of half the world’s population by the other half, throughout history?
The result takes the reader on an eye-opening journey through centuries, continents and civilizations as it looks at both historical and contemporary attitudes to women. Encompassing the Church, witch hunts, sexual theory, Nazism and pro-life campaigners, we arrive at today’s developing world, where women are increasingly and disproportionately at risk because of radicalised religious belief, famine, war and disease. Well-informed and researched, highly readable and thought-provoking, this is a refreshingly straightforward investigation into an ancient, pervasive and enduring injustice. It deals with the fundamentals of human existence — sex, love, violence — that have shaped the lives of humans throughout history.
The answer? It’s time to recognize that the treatment of women amounts to nothing less than an abuse of human rights on an unthinkable scale. A Brief History of Misogyny is an important and timely book that will make a long-lasting contribution to the efforts to improve those rights throughout the world.
With a foreword by Dr John Nunn, Grandmaster and four times Olypic gold medallist
‘The Mammoth Book of Chess is a cracker . . . nobody will fail to find something new here’
British Chess Magazine
WINNER OF THE BRITISH CHESS FEDERATION BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD, 1997
Comprehensive, up to date and clear, this latest edition of Graham Burgess’s chess classic is an invaluable guide to help even less experienced players to progress to good club level and better. It offers a complete guide to the main opening gambits along with hundreds of test positions for players at every level. Graham Burgess, FIDE Master, shows you all you need to know, from entering the world of chess, through Internet games, to major international tournaments.
Expanded sections on online chess, computers and openings.
A complete guide to all the main opening gambits.
Hundreds of test positions for players of all standards.
Courses in tactics and attacking strategy.
Analysis of some of the greatest games ever played.
Information and advice on club, national, and international tournaments.
Glossary of terminology.
Practical advice and information for further study.
Twenty-three spellbinding tales of sorcery, wizardry and witchcraft, of the ceaseless battle between good and evil. From dark lords and epic clashes between the forces of good and evil to a child's struggle to control magical powers for the first time this wonderfully varied collection comprises stories by the most outstanding writers of fantasy: A. C. Benson, James Bibby, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Louise Cooper, Ralph Adams Cram, Peter Crowther, Esther M. Friesner, Tom Holt, Doug Hornig, Diana Wynne Jones, Michael Kurland, Tim Lebbon, Ursula K. Le Guin, Richard A.
Lupoff, Michael Moorcock, John Morressy, Tim Pratt, David Sandner, Lawrence Schimel and Mike Resnick, Darrell Schweitzer, Clark Ashton Smith, Steve Rasnic Tem and Robert Weinberg.
Humanity has always used symbols-material objects used to denote difficult, abstract concepts-to describe thoughts and feelings, or to protect secret truths from common knowledge. This concise A-Z guide is a fascinating work of reference that brings to light all the symbols and symbolisms of the world, many aspects of which have been lost to time, including Freemasonry, the Kabbalah, the tarot, astrology, alchemy, Zoroastrianism, and ancient cultures from Egypt to Japan.
The true story of the famous female warriors, long thought to be mythical
'Golden-shielded, silver-sworded, man-loving, male-child slaughtering Amazons,' is how the fifth-century Greek historian Hellanicus described the Amazons, and they have fascinated humanity ever since. Did they really exist? For centuries, scholars consigned them to the world of myth, but Lyn Webster Wilde journeyed into the homeland of the Amazons and uncovered astonishing evidence of their historic reality.
North of the Black Sea she found archaeological excavations of graves of Iron Age women buried with arrows, swords and armour. In the hidden world of the Hittites, near the Amazons' ancient capital of Thermiscyra in Anatolia, she unearthed traces of powerful priestesses, women-only religious cults, and an armed, bisexual goddess - all possible sources for the ferocious women.
Combining scholarly penetration with a sense of adventure, Webster Wilde has produced a coherent and absorbing book that challenges preconceived notions, still disturbingly widespread, of what men and women can do.
The testament to a tragedy.
Voices from The Holocaust follows the whole history of the ‘Shoah’ from Hitler’s rise to power to the Nuremburg trials, but of course the exterminations and death camps of ‘The Final Solution’ take centre stage. It tells the story from the perspective of the people who were there, and were witnesses – on both sides – of the horror.
While some of the eye-witnesses are well-known, such as Anne Frank, Primo Levi and Heinrich Himmler, the book includes recollections of camp inmates, SS Totenkopf guards and the British soldiers who liberated Belsen. Shocking, powerful and personal, Voices from the Holocaust retells history, written by those who were there.
Over 700 full-colour photographs of the work of leading tattoo artists from all over the world, including: Horiyoshi III, Filip Leu, Louis Molloy, Hannah Aitchison, Jime Litwalk, Mike DeVries, Buena Vista Tattoo Club, Adam Collins, Face the Fact, Kore Flatmo, Jeff Gogue, Dan Gold, Good Times, Barba Kari, Cecil Porter, Sarah Schor, Bob Tyrrell, Motomichi Nakamura, Holy Cow and Mick from Zurich.
As jam-packed with the very best in tattoo art as the bestselling first volume, The Mammoth Book of Tattoos, this is a must-have for any fan of skin art.
Fibre plays an essential part in a healthy diet, but most people don’t get enough. Few of us know how much we should be consuming or how to increase our daily intake. This book answers these questions in detail and provides 70 delicious, fibre-rich recipes that will become favourites in your household.
The Healthy Fibre-rich Cookbook covers the most recent developments and nutritional knowledge about fibre. There’s no need to buy a whole range of specialist ingredients; it’s simply about adjusting your meals and eating habits. Here you will find a wide range of up-to-date recipes to inspire you throughout the day and show how easy it is to incorporate more fibre into your diet. This will include:
– Buttermilk banana pancakes
– Smoked paprika babaganoush
– Chicken empanadas
– Roasted vegetable and butterbean crumble
– Wholemeal spelt and honey biscuits
With this book you will get to know your gut, increase your fibre intake and feel better.
This takes readers through the basic techniques for breadmaking and provides foolproof advice on how to make the perfect loaf. From simple, straightforward loaves, costing a fraction of the shop-bought equivalent, to more elaborately flavoured and hand-shaped creations, this will get the most out of a bread machine's potential.
Most people's concept of the 'end of the world' comes from the book of Revelation. Alternative apocalypses can be found in the Zoroastrianism of ancient Persia, in ancient Hindu scriptures and Norse myths. Today, there are an estimated 25 million Christian fundamentalists in the US who believe it will come with the 'Rapture'; others point to an ecological catastrophe, the AIDS pandemic or nuclear and biological warfare.
What happens when, in the grip of apocalyptic prophesy, individuals and groups see themselves as the 'elect' and above conventional mores? As with the Ranters of the English Civil War, it can lead to comedy. But it can also lead to sinister extremism - the Nazis recast it as the Third Reich; latter-day doomsday cults such as the Waco Branch Davidians believed that they too were divinely elected - and could kill in the name of the coming apocalypse. The world today is in the grip of an apocalyptic struggle between the neo-Conservatives in America and a supposed global network of Islamic fundamentalists.
For Bush, the war is a 'crusade', for Osama Bin Laden it is a jihad; for both, it is a struggle against absolute evil. From its Biblical beginnings to suicide bombers, via the Vikings, the French Revolution, the Pilgrim Fathers, Hitler's Apocalyptic rhetoric, asteroids and Hollywood, Pearson shows that as long as human beings seek to make sense of the world in which they live, endings will continue to have a future.
The story of Christianity is one of colossal undertakings and spectacular successes as well as ferocious intolerance, greed and bloodshed. Bamber Gascoigne traces a clear path through a complicated history, exploring the motives, the passions, the fears and the achievements of the Christians. His approach is objective and he writes in a conversational style, focusing on moments of significant detail and a vast and varied cast of characters.
A thought-provoking and important book that raises essential issues crucial not only for understanding our past but also the present day.
In this panoramic history, Jeremy Black tells how slavery was first developed in the ancient world, and reaches all the way to the present in the form of contemporary crimes such as trafficking and bonded labour. He shows how slavery has taken many forms throughout history and across the world – from the uprising of Spartacus, the plantations of the West Indies, and the murderous forced labour of the gulags and concentration camps.
Slavery helped to consolidate transoceanic empires and helped mould new world societies such as America and Brazil. Black charts the long fight for abolition in the nineteenth century, looking at both the campaigners as well as the harrowing accounts of the enslaved themselves.
Slavery is still with us today, and coerced labour can be found closer to home than one might expect.
The abuse of power, genocide, the destruction of total war, unimaginable cruelty and the suffering of millions were all central features of Hitler's Nazi regime. Yet the Nazis were also highly successful in manipulating images and information: they mobilized and engaged vast numbers of people, caught the imagination of the young and appeared remarkably modern to many contemporary observers.
Was the Third Reich a throwback to a mythical past or a brutally modern and technologically advanced state? Was Hitler a strong dictator who achieved his clear goals, or was his chaotic style of government symptomatic of a weak dictator, unable to control the complex and contradictory forces that he had unleashed? Was the Third Reich ruled by terror, or largely supported by a compliant German population? Was the genocide against the Jews a peculiarly German phenomenon, or a uniquely German expression of a terrible wider trend?
Whittock explores these and other key questions, interrogating the views of different historians and drawing on a wealth of primary sources - from state-sponsored art to diaries, letters and memoirs of both perpetrators and victims - to provide an overview of the complex evidence. History should aim to put us firmly in touch with the lives of people living in the past and the issues they faced. Whittock never loses sight of the individuals whose lives were caught up in these extraordinary events, while also giving a lucid overview of the bigger picture.
This wide-ranging book explores the diversity of esoteric and occult beliefs.
Neo-Paganism is one of the fastest-growing new religions in the western world where witchcraft or Wicca, Druidry, and Urban Shamanism are thriving. Alongside this there has been an upsurge in New Age ideas of an even wider variety, including astrology, Tarot, numerology, and many others. And then there are members of various schools of occult science, practising High Magic.
Why this new interest in old beliefs? Why are millions of educated people today abandoning both the established religion of their parents and 21st century scientific rationalism and turning to magic and esoteric teachings? In their search for spirituality those who follow these paths claim to be applying ancient wisdom to the modern world. The Brief History of Secret Religions, a companion book to The Brief History of Secret Societies, looks at the history and variety of these esoteric movements, where they came from and what they tell us about the world today.
Why did the medieval Church bless William of Normandy’s invasion of Christian England in 1066 and authorise cultural genocide in Provence? How could a Christian army sack Christian Constantinople in 1204? Why did thousands of ordinary men and women, led by knights and ladies, kings and queens, embark on campaigns of fanatical conquest in the world of Islam? The word ‘Crusade’ came later, but the concept of a ‘war for the faith’ is an ancient one.
Geoffrey Hindley instructively unravels the story of the Christian military expeditions that have perturbed European history, troubled Christian consciences and embittered Muslim attitudes towards the West. He offers a lively record of the Crusades, from the Middle East to the pagan Baltic, and fascinating portraits of the major personalities, from Godfrey of Bouillon, the first Latin ruler of Jerusalem, to Etienne, the visionary French peasant boy who inspired the tragic Children’s Crusade. Addressing questions rarely considered, Hindley sheds new light on pressing issues surrounding religious division and shows how the Crusades have helped to shape the modern world and relations between Christian and Muslim countries to this day.
The birth pangs of Nazism grew out of the death agony of the Kaiser’s Germany. Defeat in World War I and a narrow escape from Communist revolution brought not peace but five chaotic years (1918-1923) of civil war, assassination, plots, putsches and murderous mayhem to Germany. The savage world of the trenches came home with the men who refused to admit defeat and ‘who could not get the war out of their system’. It was an atmosphere in which civilised values withered, and violent extremism flourished.
In this chronicle of the paramilitary Freikorps – the freebooting armies that crushed the Red revolution, then themselves attempted to take over by armed force – historian and biographer Nigel Jones draws on little-known archives in Germany and Britain to paint a portrait of a state torn between revolution and counter revolution. Astonishingly, this is the first in-depth study of the Freikorps to appear in English for 50 years. Yet the figures who flit through its shadowy world – men like Röhm, Goering and Hitler himself – were to become frighteningly familiar just ten years after the turmoil that gave Nazism its fatal chance.
'Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the street to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.' Douglas Adams, Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
We human beings have trouble with infinity - yet infinity is a surprisingly human subject. Philosophers and mathematicians have gone mad contemplating its nature and complexity - yet it is a concept routinely used by schoolchildren. Exploring the infinite is a journey into paradox. Here is a quantity that turns arithmetic on its head, making it feasible that 1 = 0. Here is a concept that enables us to cram as many extra guests as we like into an already full hotel. Most bizarrely of all, it is quite easy to show that there must be something bigger than infinity - when it surely should be the biggest thing that could possibly be.
Brian Clegg takes us on a fascinating tour of that borderland between the extremely large and the ultimate that takes us from Archimedes, counting the grains of sand that would fill the universe, to the latest theories on the physical reality of the infinite. Full of unexpected delights, whether St Augustine contemplating the nature of creation, Newton and Leibniz battling over ownership of calculus, or Cantor struggling to publicise his vision of the transfinite, infinity's fascination is in the way it brings together the everyday and the extraordinary, prosaic daily life and the esoteric.
Whether your interest in infinity is mathematical, philosophical, spiritual or just plain curious, this accessible book offers a stimulating and entertaining read.
Starting AD 400 (around the time of their invasion of England) and running through to the 1100s (the ‘Aftermath’), historian Geoffrey Hindley shows the Anglo-Saxons as formative in the history not only of England but also of Europe.
The society inspired by the warrior world of the Old English poem Beowulf saw England become the world’s first nation state and Europe’s first country to conduct affairs in its own language, and Bede and Boniface of Wessex establish the dating convention we still use today. Including all the latest research, this is a fascinating assessment of a vital historical period.
A Brief History of Secret Societies examines the significant hidden power wielded by clandestine organisations from ancient times right up to the present day. Throughout history, humankind’s search for knowledge has revealed strange truths. Barrett explores the powerful attraction of esoteric religious beliefs and reveals how such societies have gained a powerful hold on the popular imagination. He presents an unbiased and balanced history of humanity’s desire to uncover secret knowledge, and of the societies that seek to preserve such knowledge.
For more than 80 years H. P. Lovecraft has inspired writers of horror and supernatural fiction with his dark vision of humankind’s insignificant place in a vast, uncaring cosmos. At the time of his death in 1937, Lovecraft was virtually unknown, but from early cult status his readership expanded exponentially; his nightmarish visions laying down roots in the collective imagination of his readers. Now this master of the macabre is accepted as part of the literary mainstream, as an American author of note, and the impact of his work on modern popular culture – in literature, film, television, music, the graphic arts, gaming and theatre – has been profound. As Stephen King wrote in Danse Macabre, the shadow of H. P. Lovecraft ‘underlies almost all of the important horror fiction that has come since.’
Today, Lovecraft’s themes of cosmic indifference, the utter insignificance of humankind, minds invaded by the alien, and the horrors of history remain not only viable motifs for modern speculative fiction, but are more relevant than ever as we explore the mysteries of a universe in which our planet is infinitesimal.
This outstanding anthology of original stories – from both established award-winning authors and exciting new voices – collects tales of cosmic horror inspired by Lovecraft from authors who do not merely imitate, but reimagine, re-energize, and renew the best of his concepts in ways relevant to today’s readers, to create fresh new fiction that explores our modern fears and nightmares. From the depths of R’lyeh to the heights of the Mountains of Madness, some of today’s best weird fiction writers traverse terrain created by Lovecraft and create new eldritch geographies to explore . . .
With stories by: Laird Barron, Nadia Bulkin, Amanda Downum, Ruthanna Emrys, Richard Gavin, Lois H. Gresh, Lisa L. Hannett, Brian Hodge, Caitlín R. Kiernan, John Langan, Yoon Ha Lee, Usman T. Malik, Helen Marshall, Silvia Moreno, Norman Partridge, W. H. Pugmire, Veronica Schanoes, Michael Shea, John Shirley, Simon Strantzas, Sandra McDonald, Damien Angelica Walters, Don Webb, Michael Wehunt and A.C. Wise
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