Your Search Results

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        September 2020

        The end of the small party?

        Change UK and the challenges of parliamentary politics

        by Louise Thompson

        For a brief moment in 2019 Britain's politics looked like it might be transformed. Just when it seemed that the divisions within and across British political parties over Brexit could not get any more intense, 7 Labour and 3 Conservative MPs broke away to form The Independent Group (TIG) - later Change UK. This is the first book to explore the meteoric lifespan of that party, within the wider context of the experiences of other small political groupings in the House of Commons. Ultimately, it shows why the party failed and disbanded after just a few months. Timely and thoroughly researched, Louise Thompson's book takes us deep inside the struggles facing MPs who leave behind the comforts of the large political parties. Drawing on interviews with current and former politicians, it explores the practicalities of being a small party MP in the Commons. What challenges face you? Who can you turn to? And just how can you make an impact? Crisply written for the non-specialist reader, this fascinating book opens a window onto the perilous world of parliamentary politics.

      • Trusted Partner
        Health & Personal Development
        May 2016

        How to Deal with Anxiety and Panic

        by Michael Rufer, Heike Alsleben, Angela Weiss

        Are you or a loved one suffering from anxiety and panic and you are wondering what you can do? To whom you can turn? What the options for treatment are? And how relatives can help? This self-help book gives affected people and their relatives: • clear and comprehensive information based on up-to-date research findings • concrete self-help strategies and exercises with worksheets • descriptions of recognized treatment methods • instructions on coping with stress and using relaxation techniques • detailed answers to frequently asked questions • a helpful list of useful contacts and websites • an idea of how mindfulness can be incorporated. The authors have first-hand knowledge of these problems from their extensive experience of counseling and treating people with anxiety disorders and their relatives. This book summarizes their knowledge in clear and comprehensible form. It is ideal both for self-help and to complement ongoing treatment. Target Group: affected people and their relatives and friends; psychologists, therapists, doctors, counseling centers.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2025

        The Jacobites and the Grand Tour

        Educational travel and small-states' diplomacy

        by Jérémy Filet

        In the first monograph to fully examine the intersecting networks of Jacobites and travellers to the continent, Filet considers how small states used official diplomacy and deployed soft power - embodied by educational academies - to achieve foreign policy goals. This work uses little-known archival materials to explain how and why certain small states secretly supported the Jacobite cause during the crucial years surrounding the 1715 rising, while others stayed out of Jacobite affairs.At the same time, the book demonstrates how early modern small states sought to cultivate good relations with Britain by attracting travellers as part of a wider trend of ensuring connections with future diplomats or politicians in case a Stuart restoration never came.This publication therefore brings together a study of Britain, small states, Jacobitism, and educational travel, in its nexus at continental academies.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        November 2007

        Court and civic society in the Burgundian Low Countries c.1420–1520

        by Andrew Brown, Graeme Small, Rosemary Horrox, Simon Maclean

        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. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Biography & True Stories
        November 2024

        Walking in the dark

        James Baldwin, my father and I

        by Douglas Field

        A moving exploration of the life and work of the celebrated American writer, blending biography and memoir with literary criticism. Since James Baldwin's death in 1987, his writing - including The Fire Next Time, one of the manifestoes of the Civil Rights Movement, and Giovanni's Room, a pioneering work of gay fiction - has only grown in relevance. Douglas Field was introduced to Baldwin's essays and novels by his father, who witnessed the writer's debate with William F. Buckley at Cambridge University in 1965. In Walking in the dark, he embarks on a journey to unravel his life-long fascination and to understand why Baldwin continues to enthral us decades after his death. Tracing Baldwin's footsteps in France, the US and Switzerland, and digging into archives, Field paints an intimate portrait of the writer's life and influence. At the same time, he offers a poignant account of coming to terms with his father's Alzheimer's disease. Interweaving Baldwin's writings on family, illness, memory and place, Walking in the dark is an eloquent testament to the enduring power of great literature to illuminate our paths.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2012

        The business of everyday life

        Gender, practice and social politics in England, c.1600–1900

        by Beverly Lemire, Pamela Sharpe, Penny Summerfield, Lynn Abrams, Cordelia Beattie, Kim Latham

        From 1600 to 1900 a growing consumerism fired the English economy, shaping the priorities of individuals, and determining the allocation of resources within families. Everyday business might mean making a trip to the pawnbroker, giving a loan to a trusted friend of selling off a coat, all to make ends meet. Both women and men engaged in this daily budgeting, but women's roles were especially important in achieving some level of comfort and avoiding penury. In some communities, the daily practices in place in the seventeenth century persisted into the twentieth, whilst other groups adopted new ways, such as using numbers to chart domestic affairs and turning to the savings banks that appeared in the nineteenth century. In the material world of the past and in the changing habits of earlier generations lie crucial turning points. This book explores these previously under-researched patterns and practices that gave shape to modern consumer society. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        May 2005

        Political marketing

        A comparative perspective

        by Darren Lilleker, Jennifer Lees-Marshment

        Political marketing has become a global phenomenon as parties try to copy the market-oriented approach employed by Tony Blair to win power for New Labour in 1997. Increasingly voters choose parties like consumers choose products, and this study looks at how some political parties, such as Sinn Fein, have been able to capitalise on this to gain support. It raises fresh perspectives on the more established political marketing practices in the UK and US, such as how to incorporate political leadership within the market-oriented framework and the democratic implications when faced with the actually business of governing. This book also highlights how the market-oriented party approach has spread around the world, including Europe and the new democracies of Brazil and Peru. The chapters, in demonstrating this convergence in practices, also question whether this strategy is appropriate for political systems based on proportional representation and coalition governments such as those in Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Canada, and devolved systems in Northern Ireland and Scotland. The collection also introduces the debate on whether such practices enhance or undermine democracy, raising important questions on the future of political marketing. This book should become an established essential text for students and academics of political science and marketing. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Political parties
        May 2005

        Political marketing

        A comparative perspective

        by Edited by Darren Lilleker and Jennifer Lees-Marshment

        Political marketing has become a global phenomenon as parties try to copy the market-oriented approach employed by Tony Blair to win power for New Labour in 1997. Increasingly voters choose parties like consumers choose products, and this study looks at how some political parties, such as Sinn Fein, have been able to capitalise on this to gain support. It raises fresh perspectives on the more established political marketing practices in the UK and US, such as how to incorporate political leadership within the market-oriented framework and the democratic implications when faced with the actually business of governing. This book also highlights how the market-oriented party approach has spread around the world, including Europe and the new democracies of Brazil and Peru. The chapters, in demonstrating this convergence in practices, also question whether this strategy is appropriate for political systems based on proportional representation and coalition governments such as those in Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Canada, and devolved systems in Northern Ireland and Scotland. The collection also introduces the debate on whether such practices enhance or undermine democracy, raising important questions on the future of political marketing. This book should become an established essential text for students and academics of political science and marketing.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2017

        Silk and empire

        by Brenda King

        In this book, Brenda M. King challenges the notion that Britain always exploited its empire. Creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship were all part of the Anglo-Indian silk trade and were nurtured in the era of empire through mutually beneficial collaboration. The trade operated within and without the empire, according to its own dictates and prospered in the face of increasing competition from China and Japan. King presents a new picture of the trade, where the strong links between Indian designs, the English silk industry and prominent members of the English the arts and crafts movement led to the production of beautiful and luxurious textiles. Lavishly illustrated, this book will be of interest to those interested in the relationship between the British Empire and the Indian subcontinent, as well as by historians of textiles and fashion.

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        September 2023

        My Bank Washes Greener

        Eco lies told by the finance sector

        by Bernd Villhauer

        — By the expert in ethical business — Once you have finished this, you will never fall for green financial lies again — Global Ethic Institute (Weltethos- Institut) network And suddenly every bank is sustainable. This truly necessary "debate book" explains in a wellfounded way what green-washing means in the financial sector, and why banks, insurance companies, asset managers, stockbrokers and other financial players clothe themselves in their allegedly so green-and-friendly cloak. It provides an easy-to-understand explanation of the various forms of greenwashing, how we can recognise the different "varieties" and – above all – how we can avoid them. This is also important because the entire financial and capital system is an important part of a sustainable future – and this can only succeed if it is honest, transparent and impact-orientated.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2025

        Beyond the Pale and Highland Line

        The Irish and Scottish Gaelic world

        by Simon Egan

        This book offers important new insights into the history and culture of the Gaelic-speaking world from the mid-fifteenth century through to the reign of James VI and I. Throughout this period, the reach of the English and Scottish crowns within these western regions was limited. The initiative lay with local communities and royal power was contingent upon negotiating with well-established and largely autonomous aristocratic lineages. Moreover, events within this western world could exert a powerful, often unpredictable, influence upon the affairs of the wider archipelago. Using a series of case studies, this collection examines the evolving relationship between Ireland and Scotland in rich detail. It demonstrates how this world interacted with the encroaching English and Scottish states and underlines the importance of paying closer attention to this neglected area of Irish and British history.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2021

        The Irish tower house

        Society, economy and environment, c. 1300–1650

        by Victoria L. McAlister

        The Irish tower house examines the social role of castles in late-medieval and early modern Ireland. It uses a multidisciplinary methodology to uncover the lived experience of this historic culture, demonstrating the interconnectedness of society, economics and the environment. Of particular interest is the revelation of how concerned pre-modern people were with participation in the economy and the exploitation of the natural environment for economic gain. Material culture can shed light on how individuals shaped spaces around themselves, and tower houses, thanks to their pervasiveness in medieval and modern landscapes, represent a unique resource. Castles are the definitive building of the European Middle Ages, meaning that this book will be of great interest to scholars of both history and archaeology.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2025

        The four dimensions of power

        Understanding domination, empowerment and democracy

        by Mark Haugaard

        In this accessible and sophisticated exploration of the nature and workings of social and political power, Haugaard examines the interrelation between domination and empowerment. Building upon the perspectives of Steven Lukes, Michel Foucault, Amy Allen, Hannah Arendt, Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu and others, he offers a clear theoretical framework, delineating power in four interrelated dimensions. The first and second dimensions of power entail two different types of social conflict. The third dimension concerns tacit knowledge, uses of truth and reification. Drawing upon genealogical theory and accounts of slavery as social death, the fourth dimension of power concerns the power to create social subjects. The book concludes with an original normative pragmatist power-based account of democracy. Offering lucid and entertaining illustrations of complex theoretical perspectives, this book is essential reading for scholars and activists.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2023

        Who governs Britain?

        Trade unions, the Conservative Party and the failure of the Industrial Relations Act 1971

        by Sam Warner

        Providing fresh insights from the archival record, Who governs Britain? revisits the 1970-74 Conservative government to explain why the Party tried - and failed - to reform the system of industrial relations. Designed to tackle Britain's strike problem and perceived disorder in collective bargaining, the Industrial Relations Act 1971 established a formal legal framework to counteract trade union power. As the state attempted to disengage from and 'depoliticise' collective bargaining practices, trade union leaders and employers were instructed to discipline industry. In just three-and-a-half years, the Act contributed to a crisis of the British state as industrial unrest engulfed industry and risked undermining the rule of law. Warner explores the power dynamics, strategic errors and industrial battles that destroyed this attempt to tame trade unions and ultimately brought down a government, and that shape Conservative attitudes towards trade unions to this day.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        Hamster Humboldt. Small and Steady Wins the Race

        by Meike Betz

        This intrepid hamster plunges into every adventure with full cheeks! Humboldt is a detective, adventurer and – a hamster. His size doesn’t stop him from helping the people of Villy Village out of all sorts of fixes whenever he’s not helping his owner Babs and her daughter Elli in the post office. No problem is too big for him! Only his owner’s money worries leave him flummoxed. But then Babs and Elli win the lottery and are over the moon – until they receive an anonymous postcard. Humboldt’s life is suddenly in dire straits because the unknown blackmailer wants Babs and Elli’s lottery ticket – or he’s going to hurt Humboldt. When the police refuses to get to the bottom of the case, Humboldt decides to take matters into his own paws. He’s keen to put a stop to this lottery villain’s antics! HAMSTER HUMBOLDT. SMALL AND STEADY WINS THE RACE is a detective and adventure story full of animal-entertainment for girls and boys aged 8+.

      Subscribe to our

      newsletter