Historiske og politiske biografier

Before publishing his book How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis (1849-1914) spent his first years in the US as an immigrant and itinerant laborer, until he landed a job as a muckraking reporter. This book places Jacob Riis' images in historical context. It explores Riis' reporting and activism within the gritty specifics of Gilded Age New York.

"Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is among the most enigmatic and influential figures of the twentieth century. While his life and work are crucial to any understanding of modern history and the socialist movement, generations of writers on the left and the right have seen fit to embalm him endlessly with superficial analysis or dreary dogma. Now, after the fall of the Soviet Union and 'actually-existing' socialism, it is possible to consider Lenin afresh, with sober senses trained on his historical context and how it shaped his theoretical and political contributions. Reconstructing Lenin, four decades in the making and now available in English for the first time, is an attempt to do just that. Tamaas Krausz, an esteemed Hungarian scholar writing in the tradition of Gyeorgy Lukaacs, Ferenc Tiokei, and Istvaan Maeszaaros, makes a major contribution to a growing field of contemporary Lenin studies. This rich and penetrating account reveals Lenin busy at the work of revolution, his thought shaped by immediate political events but never straying far from a coherent theoretical perspective. Krausz balances detailed descriptions of Lenin's time and place with lucid explications of his intellectual development, covering a range of topics like war and revolution, dictatorship and democracy, socialism and utopianism. Reconstructing Lenin will change the way you look at a man and a movement; it will also introduce the English-speaking world to a profound radical scholar"--Provided by publisher.

Presents the fascinating life of the father of the New Germany. This book tells how, in an astonishing political career that spanned six decades including fourteen years as chancellor of West Germany, Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967) was instrumental in shaping the modern political landscape, both of his own country and of Europe.

A catalogue of history's greatest military leaders - from the Classical Age to the Napoleonic Era - and what drove them to victory.

';A superb biography, not to be missed either by armchair explorers or students of human naturereveals the famed missionary and explorer as he really was.'Cleveland Plain DealerDavid Livingstone is revered as one of history's greatest explorers and missionaries, the first European to cross Africa, and the first to find Victoria Falls and the source of the Congo River. In this exciting new edition of his biography, Tim Jeal, author of the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Stanley, draws on fresh sources and archival discoveries to provide the most fully rounded portrait of this complicated mandogged by failure throughout his life despite his full share of success.Using Livingstone's original field notebooks, Jeal finds that the explorer's problems with his African followers were far graver than previously understood. From recently discovered letters he elaborates on the explorer's decision to send his wife, Mary, back home to England. He also uncovers fascinating information about Livingstone's importance to the British Empire and about his relationship with the journalist-adventurer Henry Morton Stanley. In addition, Jeal here evokes the full pathos of the explorer's final journey. This masterful, updated biography also features an excellent selection of new maps and illustrations.';Fascinating.'Los Angeles Times';A thrilling and in the end moving workThe Livingstone who emerges is a man of terrifying dimensions.'Irish Press

John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough (1644-1722), was one of the greatest military commanders and statesman in the history of England. His descendant, Sir Winston Churchill wrote this work as both an act of homage, and as an historical insight into the man behind the statesman.

Arrian's account of Alexander's life and campaigns, published as the Anabasis and its companion piece the Indica, is our prime source for the history of Alexander, told with great narrative skill. This edition features a new translation of both texts, introduction, notes, guide to military systems and terminology, maps and a full index.

He is best remembered as the astute and powerful orator who inspired a battered Britain to victory against Nazi Germany during World War 2 and led the post-war, shattered nation to recovery. Richard Langworth, co-chairman and editor of The Churchill Centre, has spent over 20 years researching Churchill's written and spoken words.

The decade that followed James Stockdale's seven and a half years in a North Vietnamese prison saw his life take a number of different turns, from a stay in a navy hospital to president of a civilian college to his appointment as a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution. In these essays he offers his thoughts on his imprisonment.

Cleopatra VII (69-30 BC) is the most famous woman from classical antiquity. Yet her modern reputation is based largely on her post-antique representation in drama, art, and other media. The current study is the first to examine the queen solely from the source material from the Greco-Roman period: literary sources, Egyptian documents including those of the queen herself, her own writings, and her representations in art.

A New York Review Books Original Victor Serge is one of the great men of the 20th century -and one of its great writers too. He was an anarchist, an agitator, a revolutionary, an exile, a historian of his times, as well as a brilliant novelist, and in Memoirs of a Revolutionary he devotes all his passion and genius to describing this extraordinary-and exemplary-career. Serge tells of his upbringing among exiles and conspirators, of his involvement with the notorious Bonnot Gang and his years in prison, of his role in the Russian Revolution, and of the Revolution's collapse into despotism and terror. Expelled from the Soviet Union, Serge went to Paris, where he evaded the KGB and the Nazis before fleeing to Mexico. Memoirs of a Revolutionary recounts a thrilling life on the front lines of history and includes vivid portraits not only of Trotsky, Lenin, and Stalin but of countless other figures who struggled to remake the world. Peter Sedgwick's fine translation of Memoirs of a Revolutionary was abridged when first published in 1963. This is the first edition in English to present the entirety of Serge's book.

Benjamin Franklin's account of his rise from poverty and obscurity to affluence and fame is a self-portrait of a quintessential American which has charmed every generation of readers since it first appeared in 1791.

One of America's leading biographers offers a compact, insightful biography of John F. Kennedy on the 50th anniversary of his inauguration.

6 April 1994: In the skies above Rwanda the president's plane is shot down in flames. Near Kigali, Jean-Pierre holds his family close, fearing for their lives as the violence escalates. This book sheds light on this incident.

The epic story of one of the most famous love affairs in history, by the bestselling author of CAESAR.

Mahatma Gandhi became a legend in his own time. A tireless fighter for human rights and for Indian independence, his strategy of satyagraha, or passive resistance, earned him the admiration of millions. This biography offers a definitive account of Gandhi's life. It tells the story of one man who changed the world forever.

'The remarkable story of one woman's triumph over years of appalling violence and abuse' DAILY EXPRESS

On 2 May, 1536, in an act unprecedented in English history, Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife, was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Did Cromwell, for reasons of his own, construct a case against Anne and her faction, and then present compelling evidence before the King?

Here is one of the great biographies of Alexander, in its original form, brought fully up to date with findings of modern research and criticism.

The first major biography of 18th century France's most mysterious woman, the daughter of Marie Antoinette, who vanished from public view during the tumultuous last days of the ancien regime

Henri Matisse was one of the most important and beloved artists of the twentieth century, rivalled only by his friend - and competitor - Pablo Picasso. This title reveals the origins of Matisse's astonishing talent and provides an insight into his life and work.

The Romans regarded Cleopatra as 'fatale monstrum', a tyrant to be crushed. Pascal said the shape of her nose changed the history of the world. Shakespeare and Tiepolo (and Elizabeth Taylor) portrayed her as an icon of tragic beauty. But who was Cleopatra, really? This biography discusses about Cleopatra.

In 1980, at the age of ten, Loung Ung escaped a devastated Cambodia and flew to the US as a refugee. She and her eldest brother, with whom she escaped, left behind their three surviving siblings. This book follows the parallel lives of Loung and her closest sister, Chou, during the 15 years it took for them to be reunited.

Written from the perspective of an ordinary 'Tommy' and told with dignity, candour and surprising wit, Somme Mud is a testament to the human spirit: for out of the mud that threatened to suck out a man's soul rises a compelling story of humanity and friendship.

She lived to be 82, but it was only in old age that she triumphed over the adversities and tragedies of her earlier years and became virtual ruler of England. Eleanor has exerted a fascination over writers and biographers for 800 years, but the prevailing myths and legends that attach to her name still tend to obscure the truth.

This priceless historical document features firsthand accounts from top levels of leadership in the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917, chronicling the struggle to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat.

William Wallace set an example of constancy and perseverance and became the Guardian of Scotland. Even his terrible death in London in 1305 can be seen as a victory as it provided inspiration for continuance of struggle against English domination. This book investigates various aspects of Wallace's life and character.

* Heroic attempt by US President Teddy Roosevelt to chart one of the largest and most dangerous tributaries of the Amazon - The River of Doubt.