The Goodman of Paris - A treatise on moral and domestic economy by a citizen of Paris c.1393 by Eileen Power (ed.)

$15.00 NZD

Category: Europe | Reading Level: good-very good

The Evolution of Diplomatic Method being the Chicele Lectures delivered at The University of Oxford in November 1953 by Harold Nicolson

$20.00 NZD

Category: Europe | Reading Level: very good

The Eastern Schism - A study of the papacy and the eastern churches during the XIth and XIIth centuries by Steven Runciman

$18.00 NZD

Category: Religion | Reading Level: very good

Encyclopedia of the Third Reich by Louis L. Snyder

$16.00 NZD

Category: Europe | Series: Wordsworth Military Library | Reading Level: very good

This reference book covers the rise of National Socialism to the fall of the Third Reich in May 1945, and also carries selected entries on the Weimar Republic which proceeded Hitler and on the Bonn Republic which succeeded him.

Hitler - Volume I - Ascent 1889-1939 by Volker Ullrich

$15.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Series: Hitler Biographies Ser. | Reading Level: very good

Selected as a Book of the Year by the New York Times, Times Literary Supplement and The TimesDespite his status as the most despised political figure in history, there have only been four serious biographies of Hitler since the 1930s. Even more surprisingly, his biographers have been more interested in his rise to power and his methods of leadership than in Hitler the person- some have even declared that the F3hrer had no private life. Yet to render Hitler as a political animal with no personality to speak of, as a man of limited intelligence and poor social skills, fails to explain the spell that he cast not only on those close to him but on the German people as a whole. In the first volume of this monumental biography, Volker Ullrich sets out to correct our perception of the F3hrer. While charting in detail Hitler's life from his childhood to the eve of the Second World War against the politics of the times, Ullrich unveils the man behind the public persona- his charming and repulsive traits, his talents and weaknesses, his deep-seated insecurities and murderous passions.Drawing on a wealth of previously neglected or unavailable sources, this magisterial study provides the most rounded portrait of Hitler to date. Ullrich renders the F3hrer not as a psychopath but as a master of seduction and guile - and it is perhaps the complexity of his character that explains his enigmatic grip on the German people more convincingly than the clichUd image of the monster. This definitive biography will forever change the way we look at the man who took the world into the abyss. ...Show more

Greater France - A History of French Overseas Expansion by Robert Aldrich

$10.00 NZD

Category: Europe | Series: European Studies Ser. | Reading Level: good

Greater France provides a comprehensive account of French overseas expansion from 1830 to 1962. After a prologue on the overseas empire of the old regime, chapters examine the conquest of a second empire in Africa, Asia and the islands of the South Seas in the era of the 'new imperialism'. Subsequent ch apters explore the ideology behind expansion and the culture of colonialism in France, the migration of French men and women to overseas possessions, the economic history of the colonies, and the phenomenon of decolonisation. An epilogue surveys France's continued links with its former colonies and remaining outposts. ...Show more

The Scarlet and the Black - The True Story of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, Hero of the Vatican Underground by J P Gallagher

$12.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

It has all the hallmarks of a best-selling fictional thriller: espionage, conspiracy, a struggle against evil powers, undercover work by dark of night... but it's all true. The Scarlet and the Black tells the astonishing and heroic true story of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, the man dubbed "The Scarlet Pim pernel of the Vatican" during World War II. Born in Killarney, Ireland, Hugh O’Flaherty was an avid athlete, becoming a formidable boxer, handball player, hurler, and golfer. From an early age, however, he knew his calling was to the priesthood. After his ordination, he served first as an Apostolic Delegate in Egypt, Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Czechoslovakia, then in Rome at the Holy Office (now the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith). It was here in Rome that his greatest work began. After the surrender of Italy in 1943, Rome came under the command of Nazi Colonel Herbert Kappler of the dreaded SS, who began the deportation of Italian Jews to Auschwitz. Kappler was a notorious hater of the Jews, persecuting them at every turn. As a top man in the Vatican Holy Office, Msgr. O’Flaherty sprang into action, organizing a sophisticated team that included men and women of many nationalities, religions, and political views. There was one goal: to save Jews and POWs from the Nazi machine. Despite Kappler’s numerous attempts to assassinate him, O’Flaherty persisted, and his efforts saved thousands of Jews and POWs. Using private homes and apartments, churches and monasteries, the effort was all orchestrated by Msgr. O’Flaherty. Each day his familiar figure would stand on the steps of St. Peter’s - neutral ground that even the Nazis wouldn’t violate - to welcome any fugitives who might be sent his way. All told, of 9,700 Roman Jews, most were saved, with 1,007 shipped to Auschwitz. The rest were hidden, 5,000 of them by the official Church - 3,000 at the Pope’s Castel Gandolfo, 200 or 400 (estimates vary) as "members" of the Palatine Guard, and some 1,500 in monasteries, convents and colleges. The remaining 3,700 were hidden in private homes, including Msgr. O'Flaherty's network of apartments. After the war, O’Flaherty was honored by various Allied countries with awards and decorations for his heroic acts to save Jews and POWs. ...Show more

The Berlin Wall - 13 August 1961 - 9 November 1989 by Frederick Taylor

$12.00 NZD

Category: Europe | Reading Level: very good

The appearance of a hastily-constructed barbed wire entanglement through the heart of Berlin during the night of 12-13 August 1961 was both dramatic and unexpected. Within days, it had started to metamorphose into a structure that would come to symbolise the brutal insanity of the Cold War: the Berlin W all. A city of almost four million was cut ruthlessly in two, unleashing a potentially catastrophic East-West crisis and plunging the entire world for the first time into the fear of imminent missile-borne apocalypse. This threat would vanish only when the very people the Wall had been built to imprison, breached it on the historic night of 9 November 1989. The Berlin Wall reveals the strange and chilling story of how the initial barrier system was conceived, then systematically extended, adapted and strengthened over almost thirty years. Patrolled by vicious dogs and by guards on shoot-to-kill orders, the Wall, with its more than 300 towers, became a wired and lethally booby-trapped monument to a world torn apart by fiercely antagonistic ideologies. The Wall had tragic consequences in personal and political terms, affecting the lives of Germans and non-Germans alike in a myriad of cruel, inhuman and occasionally absurd ways. The Berlin Wall is the definitive account of a divided city and its people. ...Show more

The Russian Revolution by Sheila Fitzpatrick

$10.00 NZD

Category: Europe | Reading Level: good-very good

The Russian Revolution had a decisive impact on the history of the twentieth century. In the years following the collapse of the Soviet regime and the opening of its archives, it has become possible to step back and see the full picture. This fully updated new edition of Sheila Fitzpatrick's classic sho rt history of the Russian Revolution takes into account the new archival and other evidence that has come to light since then, incorporating material that was previously inaccessible not only to Western but also to Soviet historians Starting with an overview of the roots of the revolution, Fitzpatrick takes the story from 1917, through Stalin's 'revolution from above', to the great purges of the 1930s. She tells a gripping story of a Marxist revolution that was intended to transform the world, visited enormous suffering on the Russian people, and, like the French Revolution before it, ended up by devouring its own children. ...Show more

The Italian Renaissance - Culture and Society in Italy by Peter Burke

$60.00 NZD

Category: Europe | Reading Level: near fine

France in the Enlightenment by Daniel Roche; Arthur Goldhammer (Translator)

$20.00 NZD

Category: Europe | Series: Harvard Historical Studies | Reading Level: very good

A panorama of a whole civilization, a world on the verge of cataclysm, unfolds in this magisterial work by the foremost historian of eighteenth-century France. Since Tocqueville's account of the Old Regime, historians have struggled to understand the social, cultural, and political intricacies of this e fflorescence of French society before the Revolution. France in the Enlightenment is a brilliant addition to this historical interest. France in the Enlightenment brings the Old Regime to life by showing how its institutions operated and how they were understood by the people who worked within them. Daniel Roche begins with a map of space and time, depicting France as a mosaic of overlapping geographical units, with people and goods traversing it to the rhythms of everyday life. He fills this frame with the patterns of rural life, urban culture, and government institutions. Here as never before we see the eighteenth-century French culture of appearances: the organization of social life, the diffusion of ideas, the accoutrements of ordinary people in the folkways of ordinary living--their food and clothing, living quarters, reading material. Roche shows us the eighteenth-century France of the peasant, the merchant, the noble, the King, from Paris to the provinces, from the public space to the private home. By placing politics and material culture at the heart of historical change, Roche captures the complexity and depth of the Enlightenment. From the finest detail to the widest view, from the isolated event to the sweeping trend, his masterly book offers an unparalleled picture of a society in motion, flush with the transformation that will be its own demise. ...Show more

The Last Duel - A true story of crime, scandal and trial by combat by Eric Jager

$10.00 NZD

Category: Europe | Reading Level: very good

The gripping, atmospheric true story of the duel to end all duels- a trial by combat pitting a knight against a squire accused of violating the knight's beautiful young wife. Now a major motion picture directed by Ridley Scott. In 1386, a few days after Christmas, a massive crowd gathered at a Paris mo nastery to watch two men fight a duel to the death. A trial by combat to prove which man's cause was right in God's sight. The dramatic story of the knight, the squire and the lady unfolds during the tumultuous fourteenth century. A time of war, plague and anarchy, as well as of honour, chivalry, and courtly love. The notorious quarrel appears in many histories of France, but no writer has recounted it in full, until now. ...Show more