Social and cultural history

People are drawn to the harbours and boats of Scotland whether they have a seafaring background or not. Why do boats take on different shapes as you follow the complex shorelines of islands and mainland? And why do the sails they carry appear to be so...

Discover one of the Scottish Enlightenment's brightest stars.Among the giants of the Scottish Enlightenment, the name of James Hutton is overlooked. Yet his Theory of the Earth revolutionised the way we think about how our planet was formed and...

'Coffin roads' along which bodies were carried for burial are a marked feature of the landscape of the Scottish Highlands and islands - many are now popular walking and cycling routes. This book journeys along eight coffin roads to...

Scotland is a land of many languages including Gaelic, Pictish, Brythonic, Norse, Anglo-Saxon and Modern English among them. The result is an often bewildering series of overlapping layers of place-names, difficult at times to understand and even...

In 1944, Glasgow received one of the greatest gifts ever made to any city in the world: a collection of over 6,000 artworks of many types spanning centuries and civilisations. The benefactors were Glasgow-born shipping magnate Sir William Burrell and...

The inspiring story of a Highland estate, which was rescued from the catastrophic effects of decades of human interference, and is now one of the most successful examples of rewilding in the UK.In 1995 the National Trust for Scotland acquired Mar Lodge...

INCLUDES HUNDREDS OF NEW AND EXPANDED ENTRIESFrom 'Aald Rock' to 'Zeenty-teenty', A Dictionary of Scottish Phrase and Fable is an unputdownable gallimaufry of curious items embracing sayings, put-downs, insults, mottos, traditions, legends, folklore,...

Proverbs, once described as 'the wisdom of many and the wit of one', offer unique insights the way of life and the social mores of past generations.This book features an introduction which explores the role of proverbs in Scottish culture and over 1,000...

On a hillside near Ballachulish in the Scottish Highlands in May 1752 a rider is assassinated by a gunman. The murdered man is Colin Campbell, a government agent travelling to nearby Duror where he's evicting farm tenants to make way for his relatives...

Vienna is unique amongst world capitals in its consistent international importance over the centuries. From the ascent of the Habsburgs as Europe's leading dynasty to the Congress of Vienna, which reordered Europe after Napoleon, to bridge- building...

The Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April, 1320, is one of the most remarkable documents to have been produced anywhere in medieval Europe. Signed by 51 Scottish nobles, it confirms Scotland's status as an independent sovereign state with the right...

When the Clyde Ran Red paints a vivid picture of the heady days when revolution was in the air on Clydeside. Through the bitter strike at the huge Singer Sewing machine plant in Clydebank in 1911, Bloody Friday in Glasgow's George Square in 1919, the...

From the Ice Age to the recent Scottish Referendum, historian and author Alistair Moffat explores the history of the Scottish nation. As well as focusing on key moments in the nation's history such as the Battle of Bannockburn and the Jacobite Risings,...

Orkney lies only 20 miles north of mainland Scotland, yet for many centuries its culture was more Scandanavian than Scottish. Strong westerly winds account for the scarcity of trees on Orkney and also for the tradition of well-constructed stone...

In Teatimes: A World Tour food historian Helen Saberi takes us on a journey into the fascinating history of teatimes, from elegant afternoon teas, hearty high teas and delicious cream teas, to cricket and tennis teas, the funeral teas of Britain and much...

This is ancient Greece - but not as we know it. Few people today appreciate that Greek civilisation was spread across the Middle East, and that there were Greek cities in the foothills of the Himalayas. This book tells the story of the Greeks outside...

Tea has a rich and well-documented past. The beverage originated in Asia long before making its way to seventeenth-century London, where it became an exotic, highly sought-after commodity. Over the subsequent two centuries, tea's powerful psychoactive...

The Goths are truly a 'lost civilization'. Sweeping down from the north, ancient Gothic tribes sacked the imperial city of Rome and set in motion the decline and fall of the western Roman Empire. Ostrogothic and Visigothic kings ruled over Italy and...

Cuba is a rare and fascinating place. In a world where revolutionary socialism seems an almost quaint reminder of the Cold War, the island remains one of the few nations on the planet guided by a Communist party, still committed to fighting imperialism,...

Tolkien's wizard Gandalf, Wagner's Valkyrie Brnnhilde and Marvel's superhero the Mighty Thor: these are just a few examples of how Icelandic medieval literature has shaped the human imagination during the past 150 years.  Echoes of Valhalla...

The zombie has shuffled with dead-eyed, remorseless menace from its beginnings in obscure folklore and superstition to become the dominant image of the undead today. In contemporary visions of global apocalypse, such as the...

Double-decker buses, bowler hats, and cricket may be synonymous with British culture, but when it comes to their cuisine, nothing comes to mind faster than fish and chips. Sprinkled with salt and vinegar and often accompanied by mushy peas, fish and...

'Did you keep a list of the words coined by Covid? Wayne Grady did! They're deftly woven into a journal/timeline, taking us through two years of surrealism and limbo.' - Margaret AtwoodThis exploration of the many new terms of...

From the winner of the 2021 Governor General's Award for literature, a revelatory look into an obscured piece of Canadian history: what was then called the Eskimo Identification Tag SystemIn 2001, Dr. Norma Dunning applied to the Nunavut Beneficiary...

**Winner, The Danger Awards 2023, People's Choice Awards****Shortlisted, The Danger Awards 2023, Non-fiction**Executioners were once a critical component of the justice system in New South Wales. In an era when judges handed down death sentences...

The ultimate handbook for exploring Sydney's cemeteries - from crowded inner-city plots to spacious burial grounds in semi-rural spots.Cemeteries are not simply places for the dead - they are designed for the living. Visiting cemeteries to admire the...

Most convicts arriving in New South Wales didn't expect to make their fortunes. Some went on to great success, but countless convicts and free migrants struggled with limited prospects, discrimination and misfortune. Many desperate people turned to The...

Unlike other books on epidemics, which either focus on the science behind how microbes cause disease or tell first-person accounts of one particular disease, Epidemics: The Impact of Germs and Their Power over Humanity takes a holistic approach to...

Whether it was helping Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls win three consecutive NBA titles in the 1990s, or showing up to a book signing in a dress and full makeup, Dennis Rodman has always distinguished himself as one of the great and most polarizing...

For over three-hundred years, the Qafa family name has been synonymous with fighting for Albanian independence. Since the 1600's, Qafa men have lost their lives and taken lives fighting against the Ottoman Turks, the Yugoslavian Serbs, and the communists...

"Mizuko: True Spirit" is an epic American-immigrant tale of hardship, assimilation, and the eventual triumph that ensued. When the Takahashi's, one of the wealthiest families in western Japan lost their great fortune in 1900, five-year old Mizuko...

Hell Bent (with dramatic illustrations) reveals how the very biology that led to our common Ancestor coming down from the trees on to the top of the food chain, is the very biology that will send our civilization spiraling toward extinction within the...

'This book explores settler colonial genocides in a global perspective and over the long dure. It does so systematically and compellingly, as it investigates how settler colonial expansion at times created conditions for genocidal violence, and...

An essential guidebook to influential Black women from Chicago's South and West Sides, and their social, cultural, and artistic contributions to movements both past and present. Geographically, historically, and politically, Lifting As They Climbed...

What fuels and sustains activism and organizing when it feels like our worlds are collapsing? Doing Justice is a practical and imaginative resource for activists and organizers building power in an era of destabilization and catastrophe.Longtime...

Through a discussion of current perspectives in philosophy of history-especially with a critical approach to Paul Ricur's work-and a rigorous reading of Karl Marx's oeuvre, Karl Marx, Historian of Social Times and Spaces proposes a novel interpretation...

The Russian Workers' Opposition in 1919-21 advocated trade union management of the Soviet economy and worker dominance of the Russian Communist Party's leading bodies. The Workers' Opposition in the Russian Communist Party: Documents, 1919-30 comprises...

The Sinking Middle Classchallenges the "save the middle class" rhetoric that dominates our political imagination. The slogan misleads us regarding class, nation, and race. Talk of middle class salvation reinforces myths holding that the US is a...

This ground-breaking history of the General Jewish Labour Bund in migration investigates how the organisation transformed itself from a revolutionary protagonist in early twentieth-century Russia to a socialist institution of secular Jewish life and...

This comprehensive collection of fiction, poetry, and reportage by revolutionary women of the 1930s lays to rest the charge that feminism disappeared after 1920. Among the thirty-six writers are Muriel Rukeyser, Margaret Walker, Josephine Herbst, Tillie...

Walter Rodney was a scholar, working class militant, and revolutionary from Guyana. Strongly influenced by Marxist ideas, he remains central to radical Pan-Africanist thought for large numbers of activists' today. Rodney lived through the failed though...

This volume offers a comprehensive introduction for activists, general readers, and specialists interested in the history and politics of revolutionary movements, uprisings, and revolts in the neoliberal era. As intertwined health and economic crises...

Recent years have seen a massive growth of interest in socialism, particularly among young people. But few are fully aware of socialism 's revolutionary history. For this reason, an appreciation of the Second International--often called the "Socialist...

In most accounts of the origins of money we are offered pleasant tales in which it arises to the mutual benefit of all parties as a result of barter. In this groundbreaking study David McNally reveals the true story of money's origins and development as...

Few documents have had more of an impact on the course of history as has the Communist Manifesto. From its famous opening lines-"A specter is haunting Europe: the specter of Communism"-to its final rallying cry-"Workers of the world unite!"-the words of...

Ever since Plato'sRepublicewish scholars, thinkers, and popularizers have contributed notably to this genre, strikingly few have turned their attention to the history of Jewish leaders-that is, leaders specifically of the Jewish people-in particular.And...