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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2023

        The illusion of the Burgundian state

        by Élodie Lecuppre-Desjardin, Christopher Fletcher

        On 25 January 1474, Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, appeared before his subjects in Dijon. Robed in silk, gold and precious jewels and wearing a headpiece that gave the illusion of a crown, he made a speech in which he cryptically expressed his desire to become a king. Three years later, Charles was killed at the battle of Nancy, an event that plunged the Great Principality of Burgundy into chaos. This book, innovative and essential, not only explores Burgundian history and historiography but offers a complete synthesis about the nature of politics in this region, considered both from the north and the south. Focusing on political ideologies, a number of important issues are raised relating to the medieval state, the signification of the nation under the 'Ancien Regime', the role of warfare in the creation of political power and the impact of political loyalties in the exercise of government. In doing so, the book challenges a number of existing ideas about the Burgundian state.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2023

        The imperial Commonwealth

        Australia and the project of empire, 1867-1914

        by Wm. Matthew Kennedy

        From the late 1800s to the early 1900s, Australian settler colonists mobilised their unique settler experiences to develop their own vision of what 'empire' was and could be. Reinterpreting their histories and attempting to divine their futures with a much heavier concentration on racialized visions of humanity, white Australian settlers came to believe that their whiteness as well as their Britishness qualified them for an equal voice in the running of Britain's imperial project. Through asserting their case, many soon claimed that, as newly minted citizens of a progressive and exemplary Australian Commonwealth, white settlers such as themselves were actually better suited to the modern task of empire. Such a settler political cosmology with empire at its center ultimately led Australians to claim an empire of their own in the Pacific Islands, complete with its own, unique imperial governmentality.

      • Trusted Partner
        March 2020

        Im Alten Land

        by Birgit Haustedt

        Apfelbäume, so weit das Auge reicht, idyllische Fachwerkdörfer hinter dem Deich und am Horizont die Elbe: Das Alte Land ist eine uralte Kulturlandschaft am Wasser, die ihren eigenen Charakter bewahrt hat. Prächtige Bauernhöfe und Backsteinkirchen mit kostbaren Barockorgeln zeugen noch heute vom frühen Wohlstand der Altländer. Birgit Haustedt erzählt von den Anfängen im Mittelalter, von Deichbau und Sturmfluten, vom Alltag der kleinen Leute und von großer Handwerkskunst, von stolzen Bauern und mutigen Schiffern. Dazu ein Exkurs, welche Rolle das Alte Land in Lessings Leben und Goethes Faust spielte.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2025

        Straight nation

        Heteronormativity and other exigencies of postcolonial nationalism

        by Pavan Mano

        In Straight Nation, Pavan Mano reveals the logic of straightness that sits at the heart of postcolonial nationalism in Singapore. Mano rejects the romantic notion of the nation as a haven of belonging, showing it to be a relentless force that is allied with heteronormativity to create a host of minoritized and xenologized figures. Through meticulous exploration and close reading of a swathe of texts, Mano unveils the instrumental role of sexuality in structuring the national imaginary. The book adroitly demonstrates how queerness is rendered foreign in postcolonial Singapore and functions alongside technologies of "race", gender, and class. A provocative critique of narrow contemporary identity politics and its concomitant stymying of a more ambitious political critique, Straight Nation sets out an argument that moves beyond the negativity of traditional critique into a space of (re)thinking, (re)building and (re)imagining.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2021

        Independent Kashmir

        by Christopher Snedden

      • Trusted Partner
        March 2024

        Today Is a Good Day to Abolish the Patriarchy

        by Bettina Schulte (ed.)

        Do we still need feminism in Europe? Equality or difference feminism? A new generation of feminists has now broken away from the feminism of the 1960s. The old white Cis man has been discredited, by the "#MeToo" movement at the latest. Sexualised violence against women has been outlawed, perpetrators taken to court. So everything’s good? No, of course not. Men still dominate public discourse; men are unchallenged in leadership positions in politics, society and business; male power still prevails in the domestic environment as well. The extent to which men fight back when they feel threatened by feminism is also evident in the revival of authoritarian nationalist politicians in Europe and around the world. The seven authors shed light on feminist struggles in different areas of life, and illustrate the range of feminism today.

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        November 2022

        I want to break free

        by Matt Qvortrup

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2017

        Country houses and the British Empire, 1700–1930

        by Stephanie Barczewski

        Country houses and the British empire, 1700-1930 assesses the economic and cultural links between country houses and the Empire between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Using sources from over fifty British and Irish archives, it enables readers to better understand the impact of the empire upon the British metropolis by showing both the geographical variations and its different cultural manifestations. Barczewski offers a rare scholarly analysis of the history of country houses that goes beyond an architectural or biographical study, and recognises their importance as the physical embodiments of imperial wealth and reflectors of imperial cultural influences. In so doing, she restores them to their true place of centrality in British culture over the last three centuries, and provides fresh insights into the role of the Empire in the British metropolis.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2017

        Child, nation, race and empire

        Child rescue discourse, England, Canada and Australia, 1850–1915

        by Margot Hillel, Shurlee Swain, Andrew Thompson, John M. MacKenzie

        Child, nation, race and empire is an innovative, inter-disciplinary, cross cultural study that contributes to understandings of both contemporary child welfare practices and the complex dynamics of empire. It analyses the construction and transmission of nineteenth-century British child rescue ideology. Locating the origins of contemporary practice in the publications of the prominent English Child rescuers, Dr Barnardo, Thomas Bowman Stephenson, Benjamin Waugh, Edward de Montjoie Rudolf and their colonial disciples and literature written for children, it shows how the vulnerable body of the child at risk came to be reconstituted as central to the survival of nation, race and empire. Yet, as the shocking testimony before the many official enquiries into the past treatment of children in out-of-home 'care' held in Britain, Ireland, Australia and Canada make clear, there was no guarantee that the rescued child would be protected from further harm.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2026

        Arctic state identity

        by Ingrid A. Medby

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2023

        Monarchies and decolonisation in Asia

        by Robert Aldrich, Cindy McCreery

        With original case studies of a more than a dozen countries, Monarchies and decolonisation in Asia offers new perspectives on how both European monarchs who reigned over Asian colonies and Asian royal houses adapted to decolonisation. As colonies became independent states (and European countries, and other colonial powers, lost their overseas empires), monarchies faced the challenges of decolonisation, republicanism and radicalism. These studies place dynasties - both European and 'native' - at the centre of debate about decolonisation and the form of government of new states, from the sovereigns of Britain, the Netherlands and Japan to the maharajas of India, the sultans of the East Indies and the 'white rajahs' of Sarawak. It provides new understanding of the history of decolonisation and of the history of modern monarchy.

      • Trusted Partner
        Teaching, Language & Reference
        June 2025

        Pluriversal sovereignty and the state

        by Ajay Parasram

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2023

        Socialist republic

        Remaking the British left in 1980s Sheffield

        by Daisy Payling

        Socialist republic is a timely account of 1980s left-wing politics in South Yorkshire. It explores how Sheffield City Council set out to renew the British Left. Through careful analysis of the Council's agenda and how it interacted with trade unions, women's groups, lesbian and gay rights groups and acted on issues such as peace, environmentalism, anti-apartheid and anti-racism, the book draws out the complexities involved in building a broad-based politics which aimed unite class and identity politics. Running counter to 1980s narratives dominated by Thatcherism, the book examines the persistence of social democracy locally, demonstrating how grassroots local histories can enrich our understanding of political developments on a national and international level. The book is essential reading for students, scholars, and activists with an interest in left-wing politics and history.

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      • Trusted Partner
        Biography & True Stories
        September 2024

        Bedsit land

        The strange worlds of Soft Cell

        by Patrick Clarke

        A rich and revealing examination of the legendary pop duo Soft Cell. Soft Cell are not your average pop band. Marc Almond and Dave Ball may be best known for the string of hits they released in 1981, but the powerful first phase of their collaboration embraced a staggering array of sounds, influences and innovations that would change the face of music to come. In Bedsit land, Patrick Clarke plunges into the archives and interviews more than sixty contributors, including the band members themselves, to follow Soft Cell through the many strange and sprawling worlds that shaped their extraordinary career. They lead him from the faded camp glamour of the British seaside to the dizzying thrills of the New York club scene. From transgressive student performance art to the sleaze and squalor of pre-gentrified Soho. From the glitz of British showbiz to the drug-addled chaos of post-Franco Spain. He emerges on the other side with the most in-depth, innovative and entertaining account of the duo ever written.

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