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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        2014

        History of Ukraine from KGB Secret Files

        by Volodymyr Viatrovych

        The unknown and classified KGB history of the largest country in Europe - Ukraine is the history of people, events, documents and files. The files have answers to many questions. The most important of which - why did a war begin again in Europe? Why is it so important for Russia to conquer Ukraine? Why are Ukrainians putting up such a powerful resistance? Historian Volodymyr Viatrovych, who declassified the secret archives of the Soviet special services from the Cheka to the KGB, talks about the history of Ukraine, the USSR and Eastern Europe from 1918 to 1991. The reader, is offered, along with various heroes and traitors, those who thought they were in control of events, and those who thought they had no power over them, to recreate the nearly century-old chess game between the Ukrainian liberation movement and the creators of the "prison of nations." Described in reports and recreated by a historian, this work looks at the cunning “special operations”, deadly moves, information wars and complex games among several players that are all an attempt to find an answer to the question: what creates our destiny - human will or circumstances?

      • Trusted Partner
        August 2015

        Tujia Ethnic Group: Basking Dragon Robe on the Sixth Day of the Sixth Month

        by Wang Yimei, Cai Gao

        Festivals of Chinese Ethnic Groups was co-authored by China's well-beloved authors of children's literature including Fang Suzhen, Tang Sulan, Wang Yimei, and was illustrated by celebrated Chinese illustrators such as Cai Gao, Chen Yadan and Zhu Xunde. This series covers intriguing, outstanding and poetic folk tales on festivals and customs from China's ten most representative ethnic groups. Showcasing their courage, gentleness and indomitable will, these delightful stories allow readers to learn more about the distinct and charming characteristics of these ethnic groups. Recommended as parent-child reading by CCTV during the Dragon Boat Festival, this series has won the Most Beautiful Picture Book 2025 prize given by China Library Journal. It was also nominated for the top picture books prize in China for the Chinese Government Award.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        January 2014

        Court and civic society in the Burgundian Low Countries c.1420–1530

        by Andrew Brown, Graeme Small

        This volume is the first ever attempt to unite and translate some of the key texts which informed Johan Huizinga's famous study of the Burgundian court, The Waning of the Middle Ages, a work which has never gone out of print. It combines these texts with sources that Huizinga did not consider, those that illuminate the wider civic world that the Burgundian court inhabited and the dynamic interaction between court and city. Through these sources, and an introduction offering new perspectives on recent historiography, the book tests whether Huizinga's controversial vision of the period still stands. Covering subjects including ceremonial events, such as the spectacles and gargantuan banquets that made the Burgundian dukes the talk of Europe, the workings of the court, and jousting, archery and rhetoric competitions, the book will appeal to students of late medieval and early modern Europe and to those with wider interests in court culture, ritual and ceremony.

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2017

        Science and society in southern Africa

        by Saul Dubow

        This collection, dealing with case studies drawn from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Mauritius, examines the relationship between scientific claims and practices, and the exercise of colonial power. It challenges conventional views that portray science as a detached mode of reasoning with the capacity to confer benefits in a more or less even-handed manner. That science has the potential to further the collective good is not fundamentally at issue, but science can also be seen as complicit in processes of colonial domination. Not only did science assist in bolstering aspects of colonial power and exploitation, it also possessed a significant ideological component: it offered a means of legitimating colonial authority by counter-poising Western rationality to native superstition and it served to enhance the self-image of colonial or settler elites in important respects. This innovative volume ranges broadly through topics such as statistics, medicine, eugenics, agriculture, entomology and botany.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        January 2013

        The English manor c.1200–c.1500

        by Mark Bailey

        Provides a comprehensive introduction and essential guide to one of the most important institutions in medieval England and to its substantial archive. This is the first book to offer a detailed explanation of the form, structure and evolution of the manor and its records. Offers translations of, and commentaries upon, each category of document to illustrate their main features. Examples of each category of record are provided in translation, followed by shorter extracts selected to illustrate interesting, commonly occurring, or complex features. A valuable source of reference for undergraduates wishing to understand the sources which underpin the majority of research on the medieval economy and society.

      • Trusted Partner
        Science & Mathematics
        March 2022

        Encyclopedia of Scale Insect Pests

        by Takumasa Kondo, Gillian Watson

        Scale insects feed on plant juices and can easily be transported to new countries on live plants. They sometimes become invasive pests, costing billions of dollars in damage to crops worldwide annually, and farmers try to control them with toxic pesticides, risking environmental damage. Fortunately, scale insects are highly susceptible to control by natural enemies so biological control is possible. They have unique genetic systems, unusual metamorphosis, a broad spectrum of essential symbionts, and some are sources of commercial products like red dyes, shellac and wax. There is, therefore, wide interest in these unusual, destructive, beneficial, and abundant insects. The Encyclopedia of Scale Insect Pests is the most comprehensive work on worldwide scale insect pests, providing detailed coverage of the most important species (230 species in 26 families, 36% of the species known). Advice is provided on collection, preservation, slide-mounting, vouchering, and labelling of specimens, fully illustrated with colour photographs, diagrams and drawings. Pest species are presented in two informal groups of families, the 'primitive' Archaeococcids followed by the more 'advanced' Neococcids, covered in phylogenetic order. Each family is illustrated and diagnosed based on features of live and slide-mounted specimens, with information on numbers of genera and species, main hosts, distribution, and biology. For the important pest species, coverage includes information on the morphology of live and slide-mounted specimens, common names, principal synonyms, geographical distribution, plant hosts, plant damage and economic impact, reproductive biology, dispersal, and management strategies including biological, cultural and chemical control, sterile insect techniques, regulatory control, early warning systems and field monitoring. An additional complete list of scale insect pests worldwide is provided, comprising 642 species in 28 scale insect families (about 8% of the 8396 species of living scales known), with information on plant hosts, geographical distribution and validation sources. Beneficial uses of scale insects as sources of red dyes, natural resins and waxes, as agents for invasive weed control. The importance of their honeydew to bees for making honey, and as a food source to other animals, are included. Academic researchers, students, entomologists, pest management officials in agribusiness or government including plant quarantine identifiers, extensionists, farmers, field scientists and ecologists will all benefit from this book.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2018

        Noble society

        Five lives from twelfth-century Germany

        by Jonathan R. Lyon

        This book provides scholars and students alike with a set of texts that can deepen their understanding of the culture and society of the twelfth-century German kingdom. The sources translated here bring to life the activities of five noblemen and noblewomen from Rome to the Baltic coast and from the Rhine River to the Alpine valleys of Austria. To read these five sources together is to appreciate how interconnected political, military, economic, religious and spiritual interests could be for some of the leading members of medieval German society-and for the authors who wrote about them. Whether fighting for the emperor in Italy, bringing Christianity to pagans in what is today northern Poland, or founding, reforming and governing monastic communities in the heartland of the German kingdom, the subjects of these texts call attention to some of the many ways that noble life shaped the world of central medieval Europe.

      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        January 2024

        Welcome to the club

        The life and lessons of a Black woman DJ

        by DJ Paulette

        In Welcome to the club, Manchester legend DJ Paulette shares the highs, lows and lessons of a thirty-year music career, with help from some famous friends. One of the Haçienda's first female DJs, Paulette has scaled the heights of the music industry, playing to crowds of thousands all around the world, and descended to the lows of being unceremoniously benched by COVID-19, with no chance of furlough and little support from the government. Here she tells her story, offering a remarkable view of the music industry from a Black woman's perspective. Behind the core values of peace, love, unity and respect, dance music is a world of exclusion, misogyny, racism and classism. But, as Paulette reveals, it is also a space bursting at the seams with powerful women. Part personal account, part call to arms, Welcome to the club exposes the exclusivity of the music industry while seeking to do justice to the often invisible women who keep the beat going.

      • Trusted Partner
        Nature, the natural world (Children's/YA)
        March 2020

        Earth Takes a Break

        by House, Emily

        From children's book author Emily House comes a wonderful story that re-connects us with our planet. A modern fable inspired by recent events, Earth Takes a Break is a touching picture book jam-packed with fun illustrations and woven together with a message of hope. When Earth feels unwell, she goes to the doctor to ask for help. What the doctor prescribes seems impossible to Earth, until she wakes the next day to find a surprising change!

      • Trusted Partner
        2019

        History of the Throw-Away Society

        The drawback of consumption

        by Wolfgang König

        Sooner or later everything is thrown away. In the consumer society, however, usable and serviceable products that may be as good as new are also thrown away. Such behaviour is the result of a long-term process that has developed over a period of one-and-a-half centuries. The change was led by the USA, and the Federal Republic of Germany followed. It started at the turn of the last century with personal hygiene: articles such as toilet paper, sanitary towels, nappies and paper handkerchiefs. After the Second World War, a large number of other disposable articles were soon added, such as paper cups and plastic dishes, nylon stockings and pens, razor blades, beverage cans and much more besides. Wolfgang König shows how business and consumers have together made throwing things away perfectly normal – and discusses how the throwaway society may be overcome.

      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        December 2017

        Tour Operators and Operations

        Development, Management and Responsibility

        by Jacqueline Holland, David Leslie

        With a focus on the creation and distribution of packaged holidays, this text covers the fundamentals of business and the relationship between tour operators and destinations. With particular reference to the sustainability of both parties, it reviews the impacts and influences of tour operations and practices on destinations within the overriding context of tour operator responsibility. It addresses the entirety of this key component of the tourism sector, and reflects the shift in recent years from traditional 'sun, sea and sand' holiday to more bespoke packages. Taking into account tour operators as a growing factor among the major emergent economies of the world, this book is: - The first textbook to provide such in-depth content of tour operators and operations. - Written by authors with industry, research and teaching experience. - A wealth of information regarding popular eco, nature and adventure trips, as well as myriad niche and special interest products. Full of international and highly topical case studies, exercises and discussion questions, Tour Operators and Operations: Development, Management and Responsibility is a fundamental text for students of tourism.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        December 2018

        Five Elizabethan progress entertainments

        by Leah Scragg, Paul Edmondson

        Designed to introduce the student or general reader to a largely unfamiliar area of Elizabethan theatrical activity, Five Elizabethan progress entertainments focuses on a group of entertainments mounted for the monarch in the closing years of her reign. Richly annotated, and prefaced by a substantial introduction, the texts enable an understanding of the motives underlying not only the progress itself, but the choice of locations the monarch elected to visit and the personal and political preoccupations of those with whom she determined to stay. Selected for their diversity, the entertainments exhibit the tensions underlying some royal visits, the lavish expenditure entailed for the monarch's hosts and the overlap in terms of both material and authorship between the progress entertainments and the more widely studied products of the sixteenth-century stage.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        February 2021

        Five Elizabethan progress entertainments

        by Leah Scragg

        Designed to introduce the student or general reader to a largely unfamiliar area of Elizabethan theatrical activity, Five Elizabethan progress entertainments focuses on a group of entertainments mounted for the monarch in the closing years of her reign. Richly annotated, and prefaced by a substantial introduction, the texts enable an understanding of the motives underlying not only the progress itself, but the choice of locations the monarch elected to visit and the personal and political preoccupations of those with whom she determined to stay. Selected for their diversity, the entertainments exhibit the tensions underlying some royal visits, the lavish expenditure entailed for the monarch's hosts and the overlap in terms of both material and authorship between the progress entertainments and the more widely studied products of the sixteenth-century stage.

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      • Trusted Partner
        True stories
        2020

        Chronicles of one hungerstrike. 4 and a half steps

        by Oleh Sentsov

        “Chronicles of one hunger strike” is a diary of Oleh Sentsov, the Kremlin prisoner, who had been keeping it since May 2018, the third day after he announced indefinite hunger strike with the demand to free Ukrainian political prisoners. Day by day, throughout 145 days, despite moral pressure and physical exhaustion, Oleh had been frankly and honestly writing in his notebook in small, illegible letters, extremely accurately recording his everyday life in Russian prison, his observations and thoughts. After his release the author miraculously managed to take his notes out of Russia. “4 and a half steps” is a collection of small prose by Oleh Sentsov, written in a Russian prison. What does a man feel, having gotten to prison for the first time? How do prisoners live in tight and dirty cells, behind thick walls and muddy windows with double grid? What rules and laws one should obey, having gotten there? The author tells as objectively and critically as he can about prisoners’ life and circumstances that led them to captivity—he does not justify, nor criticise, but only witnesses. Striking, sometimes horrifying facts with verified accurate details create a convincing background, where events of numerous lives unfold. The author usually does not make any conclusions—he leaves this right to the reader.

      • Trusted Partner
        January 2022

        Stem Cell Research and Society

        by Donna M. Bozzone, Ph.D.

        Scientific progress often sparks disputes about the meaning of a discovery, the research methods, the possible uses of new technology, and the effect this new technology will have on society. Stem Cell Research and Society explores many of these complex issues in cell research and technology, involving stem cell research, genetic engineering, genetic property rights, and more. Chapters include:  What are Stem Cells? Why is the Use of Stem Cells Controversial? Genetic Engineering in Plants Genetic Engineering in Humans Ethical Concerns Regarding Genetic Engineering Gene and Tissue Property Rights Forensic DNA Analysis Genetic Testing in Medicine

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        January 2013

        The Papal Reform of the Eleventh Century

        Lives of Pope Leo IX and Pope Gregory VII

        by I. Robinson

        The eleventh-century papal reform transformed western European Church and society and permanently altered the relations of Church and State in the west. The reform was inaugurated by Pope Leo IX (1048-54) and given a controversial change of direction by Pope Gregory VII (1073-85). This book contains the earliest biographies of both popes, presented here for the first time in English translation with detailed commentaries. The biographers of Leo IX were inspired by his universally acknowledged sanctity, whereas the biographers of Gregory VII wrote to defend his reputation against the hostility generated by his reforming methods and his conflict with King Henry IV. Also included is a translation of Book to a Friend, written by Bishop Bonizo of Sutri soon after the death of Gregory VII, as well as an extract from the violently anti-Gregorian polemic of Bishop Benzo of Alba (1085) and the short biography of Leo IX composed in the papal curia in the 1090s by Bishop Bruno of Segni. These fascinating narrative sources bear witness to the startling impact of the papal reform and of the 'Investiture Contest', the conflict of empire and papacy that was one of its consequences. An essential collection of translated texts for students of medieval history.

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