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Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: The American war against British imperial rule (1775-1783) was the world's first great popular revolution. Ideologically defined by the colonists' formal Declaration of Independence in 1776, the struggle has taken on something a mythic character, especially in the United States. From the Boston Tea Party to Paul Revere's ride to raise the countryside of New England against the march of the…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 952 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 384) Аннотация: Presented here is a comprehensive list of Van Gogh's paintings executed between 1886 and 1890 in Paris, Arles, Saint-Remy and Auvers-sur-Oise. The works are reproduced in full colour and appear in related scale to their original size. All owners are registered, beginning with Theo van Gogh or receivers of gifts, and ending with the present owners, if known and willing to be mentioned. For the…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 789 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 352) Аннотация: The former BBC Moscow correspondent offers an insider account of the enigmatic Putin, with ground-breaking material on the complex inner workings and private world of Putin's circle. This is a highly topical portrait of a tense struggle for power, ahead of Russia's presidential elections.

Скачать книгу (размер 2 278 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 448) Аннотация: Lytton Strachey's acclaimed portrayal of Queen Victoria revolutionized the art of biography by using elements of romantic fiction and melodrama to create a warm, humorous, and very human portrait of this iconic figure. We see Victoria as a strong-willed child with a famous temper, as the 18-year-old girl queen, as a monarch, wife, mother, and widow. Equally fascinating are the depictions of her…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 462 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 288) Аннотация: Alexander Sokurov's 'Russian Ark' is generally acclaimed as a milestone in cinematography. In this film Sokurov reversed the idea of montage, creating instead the sensation of an uninterrupted flow of time encompassing three centuries of Russia's cultural history through a single, 90-minute take. Yet this film is but one milestone in the work of this versatile director. Since the 1990s, Sokurov's…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 381 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 272) Аннотация: The Hollywood family film is one of the most popular, commercially-successful and culturally significant forms of mass entertainment. This book is the first in-depth history of the Hollywood family film, tracing its development from its beginnings in the 1930s to its global box-office dominance today. Noel Brown shows how, far from being an innocuous amusement for children, the family film has…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 462 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 288) Аннотация: 'Even the smallest person can change the course of the future'. The prophetic words of Galadriel, addressed to Frodo as he prepared to travel from Lothlorien to Mordor to destroy the One Ring, are just as pertinent to J R R Tolkien's own fiction. For decades, hobbits and the other fantastical creatures of Middle-earth have captured the imaginations of a fiercely loyal tribe of readers, all…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 381 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 272) Аннотация: The Ionian islands are a hugely popular holiday destination, attracting thousands of visitors each year. Corfu, Kefalonia, Zakynthos and the other Ionian islands are home to one of the finest cuisines of the Mediterranean. The stamping-ground of Captain Corelli and Lawrence Durrell, the Ionians have always held a particular, almost mystical, fascination for visitors, and, for many of the…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 625 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 320) Аннотация: Oil and natural gas are now acknowledged to be the driving forces of international politics. What has not yet been fully explored is how their delivery affects the geopolitics of the world. Pipelines, once built, create new diplomatic realities — some states are newly connected, others isolated. Some states benefit economically, others lose out. Often new energy supply routes fall across…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 789 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 352) Аннотация: Churchill continues to dominate the history of the 20th century and this stimulating and original new work by David Dilks, the eminent historian of modern Britain and Churchill scholar, is a fascinating source of new discoveries and insights. Dilks shows Churchill, not only as a war leader and international statesman, but also as a private person — with a rich variety of interests, enthusiasms,…

Скачать книгу (размер 4 400 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 864) Аннотация: The squares of London are amongst its most famous and best loved features. Berkeley Square, Eaton Square, St James' Square — the names are inextricably linked with the history of London itself. And the great houses of the capital — Buckingham House, Apsley House, Spencer House, to mention but a few — are intimately bound with the story not just of London but of the great families of the land.…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 544 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 304) Аннотация: One of the most famous and tortured romances in history — between Elizabeth I, Queen of England, and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex — began in 1587, when she was 53 and he was 19. Their passionate affair continued for five years, until Essex was beheaded for treason in 1601. In a fast-paced succession of brilliantly-rendered scenes, Lytton Strachey portrays Elizabeth and Essex's compelling…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 544 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 304) Аннотация: In 2012, Britain and the Commonwealth celebrate the 60th anniversary of Elizabeth II's accession to the throne. The royal family have overcome a number of obstacles in its recent history, yet today it appears to be riding on a wave of popular affection. But has Elizabeth II's reign been a good thing for the UK? Or have the style, rituals and underlying culture of the modern monarchy held Britain…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 381 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 272) Аннотация: Shakespeare is a towering presence in English and indeed global culture. Most readers in the English-speaking world, and many beyond, know his name and have at least a passing familiarity with his work. Yet considered alongside his contemporaries he was not an isolated phenomenon, but the product of a period of astonishing creative fertility. This was an age when new media — popular drama, and…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: The Wars of the Roses (c. 1450-85) are renowned as an infamously savage and tangled slice of English history. A bloody thirty-year struggle between the dynastic houses of Lancaster and York, they embraced localised vendetta (such as the bitter northern feud between the Percies and Nevilles) as well as the formal clash of royalist and rebel armies at St Albans, Ludford Bridge, Mortimer's Cross,…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: The years of the Spanish Civil War filled twentieth-century Spain with hope, frustration and drama. Not only did it pit countryman against countryman, and neighbour against neighbour, but from 1936-39 this bitterly contended struggle sucked in competing and seemingly atavistic forces that were soon to rage across the face of Europe, and then the rest of the world: nationalism and republicanism;…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 381 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 272) Аннотация: This book provides an original perspective on the West's most enduring social and cultural institution. The author covers all the vital themes contributing to the modern Christmas: its Anglo-German origins and the idea of the bourgeois Christmas expressing family virtues; the need for a touchstone with the past in an age of rapid expansion and thus the myth of Merrie England; and the revival of…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 299 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 256) Аннотация: Practical Aesthetics brings a pursuit, long seen as rarefied and indulgent, out of the ivory tower and down to Ground Zero. Theoretically ambitious, fiercely original, it is a radical new account of art's rootedness in the social world and of the value of aesthetics to contemporary society. Beginning with the cultural watershed of 9/11, internationally-renowned scholar Jill Bennett explores…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 217 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 240) Аннотация: Nigeria is a country where petroleum prices and polio are both booming, where small villages challenge giant oil companies, and scooter drivers run their own mini-state. The oil-rich Delta region at the heart of it all is, as Peel shows us, a troublespot as hot as the local pepper soup. Through a host of characters, from the prostitutes of Port Harcourt to the Area Boys of Lagos, from the…

Скачать книгу (размер 1 136 Kb , формат fb2, страниц 224) Аннотация: 'Spring was already in the air, in the town; there was no rain but there was still less sun — one wondered what had become of it, on this side of the world — and the grey mildness, shading away into black at any pretext, appeared in itself a promise.' Henry James left America for England in 1876 and remained in his adopted country for the next three decades. Arriving in Liverpool, he made his way…