With Britain leaving the EU, now is the time for an obituary for the EU as an institution. In this short, rigorously argued book, updated after Brexit, John R. Gillingham tells the history of an idea that has soured and withered away.He reveals the failures from its postwar origins to set out what the EU was; the role that Delors played in creating the neoliberal monster it is today, and the contemporary - crises; refugees, Brexit, the Euro - that the current institution fails to d...

William II (1087-1100), or William Rufus, will always be most famous for his death: killed by an arrow while out hunting, perhaps through accident or perhaps murder. But, as John Gillingham makes clear in this elegant book, as the son and successor to William the Conqueror it was William Rufus who had to establish permanent Norman rule. A ruthless, irascible man, he frequently argued acrimoniously with his older brother Robert over their father's inheritance - but he also handed out effect...

When originally published in 1985 this was the first detailed study of business in Nazi Germany. Drawing on a wealth of new evidence from government and private archives, the book throws light on the important role played by Germany heavy industry in preserving traditions valuable for the post-Nazi future.Contrary to widely held beliefs, the industrialists of the Ruhr did not master-mind the economic strategy of the third Reich, nor were they the helpless victims of Hitler’s tyrann...

The Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval Warfare provides a comprehensive guide to the battles and wars, commanders, tactics, formations, fortifications, and weapons of war in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, India, China, and Japan from the beginning of recorded history to the 16th century. More than 3,000 entries, written by expert military historians, cover all aspects of warfare from the emergence of the earliest walled cities in the Ancient Near East up to and including the period...

First published as part of the best-selling The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths' Very Short Introduction to Medieval Britain covers the establishment of the Anglo-Norman monarchy in the early Middle Ages, through to England's failure to dominate the British Isles and France in the later Middle Ages. Out of the turbulence came stronger senses of identity in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Yet this was an age, too, ofgrowing definition of Englishne...

Neither a feckless knight-errant nor a king who neglected his kingdom, Richard I was in reality a masterful and businesslike ruler. In this wholly rewritten version of a classic account of the reign of Richard The Lionheart, John Gillingham scrutinizes the reasons for the King’s fluctuating reputation over successive centuries and provides a convincing new interpretation of the significance of the reign. This edition includes a complete annotation and expanded bibliography.

The Norman Conquest in 1066 was the last time England was successfully invaded, and was one of the most profound turning points in English history, cataclysmically transforming a disparate collection of small nations into a European state. But what actually happened? How was the invasion viewed by those who witnessed it? And how has its legacy been seen by generations since? This fascinating Very Short Introduction reveals how dramatically English life was changed, from its langua...

**From the bestselling author of The Ascent of Money and The Square and the Tower“A dazzling history of Western ideas.”—The Economist“Mr. Ferguson tells his story with characteristic verve and an eye for the felicitous phrase.” —Wall Street Journal“[W]ritten with vitality and verve . . . a tour de force.” —Boston Globe**Western civilization’s rise to global dominance is the single most important historical phenome...

Don't waste money on individual texts by a classic author. Get (nearly) all in 1, 2 or (at most) 3 FREE-FOREVER volumes. Save space in your ebook shelves.The works of Jane Austen as originally published but converted for easy reading by cross-platform ebook / ePUB standards. Organized alphabetically and by type of text for quicker navigation; a master table of contents leads you to specific tables of contents for each included work. This volume includes:

“Murder, dirty politics, pirate lore, and a hot police detective . . . A cozy lover’s dream come true” from the New York Times bestselling author (Susan McBride, USA Today bestselling author).In the gentle coastal town of South Cove, California, all Jill Gardner wants is to keep her store—Coffee, Books, and More—open and running. So why is she caught up in the business of murder?When Jill’s elderly friend, Miss Emily, calls in a fit of piq...

The bestselling, Man Booker Prize-winning novel, a breathtaking feat of storytelling where everything is connected, but nothing is as it seems ...**"A true achievement. Catton has built a lively parody of a 19th-century novel, and in so doing created a novel for the 21st, something utterly new. The pages fly." —**New York Times Book ReviewIt is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to stake his claim in New Zealand's booming gold rush. O...

It took a quarter-century of bad strategy, including more than a dozen years of Western air attacks and invasions in the Middle East, to bring the so-called "Islamic State" into existence. Can we somehow manage to avoid the well-trodden path of overreacting to the provocations of Islamist extremists?With the rise of ISIS, a new style of terrorism that publicly gloats over acts of extreme cruelty has reawakened the fears of the global audience. But in Don't Pani...