This unique book presents the story of the pioneering manufacturing company Ferranti Ltd. – producer of the first commercially-available computers – and of the nine end-user organisations who purchased these machines with government help in the period 1951 to 1957. The text presents personal reminiscences from many of the...
Located at the intersection of Asia and the Middle East, Afghanistan has been strategically important for thousands of years. Its ancient routes and strategic position between India, Inner Asia, China, Persia, and beyond has meant the region has been subject to frequent invasions, both peaceful and military. As a result, modern...
In twentieth-century Germany, Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer rose to prominence as a brilliant physical chemist, even as several of his relatives?Dietrich Bonhoeffer among them?became involved in the resistance to Hitler, leading to their executions. This book traces the entanglement of science, religion, and politics in the Third Reich and in...
In this kids' biography, discover the fascinating story of Florence Nightingale, who cared for British soldiers during wartime as the "Lady of the Lamp" and changed the field of nursing.
Florence Nightingale was a pioneer of nursing at a time when women were discouraged from working outside the home,...
"A wise and thorough investigation." - Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower and The Terror Years
Starting in late 2012, Westerners working in Syria -- journalists and aid workers -- began disappearing without a trace. A year later the world learned they had been taken hostage by the...
How did the Reformation, which initially promoted decidedly illiberal positions, end up laying the groundwork for Western liberalism?
The English Reformation began as an evangelical movement driven by an unyielding belief in predestination, intolerance, stringent literalism, political quietism, and...
In Munjed Al Muderis's memoir Walking Free, he described his experience as a refugee fleeing Saddam Hussein's Iraq, his terrifying sea journey to Australia, and the brutal mandatory detention he faced in the remote north of Western Australia. The book also detailed his early work as a pioneering orthopedic surgeon at...
From his arrival in Britain in the 1950s and involvement in the New Left, to founding the field of cultural studies and examining race and identity in the 1990s and early 2000s, Stuart Hall has been central to shaping many of the cultural and political debates of our time. Essential Essays—a landmark two-volume...
The wickedly funny sequel to the MI5 and Me, described by Tatler as 'a stone cold comic classic', following the irrepressible Lottie's adventures in 1950s London London in the 1950s. Lottie is a reluctant typist at MI5 and the even more reluctant daughter of the organisation's most illustrious spy. Now she has had the bad luck to...
A short and entertaining introduction to thermodynamics that uses real-world examples to explain accessibly an important but subtle scientific theory
A romantic description of the second law of thermodynamics is that the universe becomes increasingly disordered. But what does that actually mean? Starting with...