The insular character of Britain delayed the creation of professional police until the 19th century. This volume traces the course of British amateur policing until that time, at which point it deals with the foundation of the London Metropolitan Police and efforts to create similar professional urban institutions in New York and Montreal.Due attention is also given to the fact that very different conditions in rural Ireland necessitated the creation of a para-military type of forc...

In the turbulent decade which produced the Canadian Confederation of 1867, a group of seasoned veterans of the American Civil War turned their attention to the conquest of Canada. They were Irish-American revolutionaries — unique because they fought under their own flag. They were know as the Fenians and they believed that the first step on the road to the liberation of Ireland was to invade Canada. The Last Invasion of Canada vividly recaptures the drama of the decade. It recount...

The Orange Lodges, originally a powerful agency for the defence of loyalist and protestant interest in Ireland, have flourished as fraternal societies in the British Army in nearly every part of the English-speaking world. Although founded by Irish protestant peasants, they soon attracted sections of the upper and middle classes who, at time, found Orangemen useful politically, but embarrassing and difficult to control. This study, originally published in 1966, deals with the founding of t...

A bestselling historian shows how the British Empire created the modern world.**“Scrupulous scholarship and a rattling good tale.” —**Wall Street JournalThe British Empire was the largest in all history, its reach the nearest thing to world domination ever achieved. By the eve of the Second World War, over a fifth of the world's land surface and nearly a quarter of the world's population were under some form of British rule. Yet fo...

Australians have celebrated the Anzacs for nearly a century--but what do we really know of what war did to them? Charles Bean, historian of the citizen soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force, wrote that its history spanned 'the good and the bad'--but so far Australians have only looked at the good.Leading war historian Peter Stanley reveals the citizen soldiers the army regarded as its 'bad characters'. These were men who went absent and deserted, caught or concealed VD, got dru...

Canadians of Scottish descent, who today total over 4.7 million, have never made up more than 16 per cent of Canada’s population. Yet they have supplied thirteen of twenty-two Canadian prime ministers, and have made proportionate contributions in exploration, education, banking, military service, railroading, invention, literature, you name it.Award-winning author Ken McGoogan has written a vivid, sweeping narrative showcasing more than sixty Scots who have shaped Canada. They incl...

From the bestselling author of Destiny of the Republic, this thrilling biographical account of the life and legacy of Winston Churchill is a "nail-biter and top-notch character study rolled into one" (The New York Times).At the age of twenty-four, Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become prime minister of England. He arrived in South Africa in 1899, valet and crates of vintage wine in tow, to cover the brutal colonial w...

In his first work of nonfiction, bestselling novelist James Webb tells the epic story of the Scots-Irish, a people whose lives and worldview were dictated by resistance, conflict, and struggle, and who, in turn, profoundly influenced the social, political, and cultural landscape of America from its beginnings through the present day.More than 27 million Americans today can trace their lineage to the Scots, whose bloodline was stained by centuries of continuous warfare along the bor...

The Canada–U.S. border was in flames as the War of 1812 continued. York's parliament buildings were on fire, Niagara-on-the-Lake burned to the ground and Buffalo lay in ashes. Even the American capital of Washington, far to the south, was put to the torch. The War of 1812 had become one of the nineteenth century's bloodiest struggles.Flames Across the Borderis a compelling evocation of war at its most primeval level — the muddy fields, the frozen forests and the om...

The biography of one of New Zealand's greatest military leaders whose story has remained untold until now. The Forgotten General highlights the courage intelligence and determination of an exceptional New Zealander. Major-General Sir Andrew Russell was a distinguished soldier and a dedicated leader of men. He was among the top-ranked divisional commanders in the British armies that fought on the Western Front in World War I. He has been described as 'the one military commander of genius th...

Peter Cashin was at the centre—the stormy centre—of Newfoundland’s political and public life for more than thirty years. Known to many as “the fighting Major,” in a tribute to his wartime service with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, he played a decisive role at every major stage in the political drama that transformed Newfoundland from a British Dominion to a Canadian Province. Peter Cashin wrote a memoir soon after he retired from public life in 1953. Part of it was published shortly bef...

Between 15,000 and 20,000 underage youths, some as young as ten, signed up to fight in Canada's armed forces in the First World War. They served in the trenches alongside their elders, and fought in all the major battles: Ypres, the Somme, Passchendaele, Vimy Ridge, and the rest. Many were injured or suffered psychological wounds. Many died. This is the first book to tell their story.Some boys joined up to escape unhappy homes and workplaces. Others went with their parents' blessin...