The Salvation Army has now been around for more than one hundred and fifty years, having celebrated its sesquicentennial in 2015 with an International Congress in London. Over the years both the Army and the world in which it appeared have changed beyond recognition. This is a good time for the movement to stop and look back--not just to celebrate, but to see where it is today. The Army has not evolved in isolation from the world. Bringing its own history with it, it nevertheless belongs t...

The idea of a state religion is seldom connected to religious freedom and liberal, modern, and democratic states. However, such a situation existed in Norway until 2012, when the Lutheran Church was the state church of Norway. A large majority of the population belonged to the church, even though the percentage in 2013 had fallen to well over seventy-five. The relationship between the church and minority religious movements demanded adaptation and compromises from the minority churches. Th...

In 1929 a constitutional storm that had long been gathering suddenly burst, sweeping from office General Bramwell Booth, the son and successor to William Booth Founder of The Salvation Army.So traumatic was this event that for many years '1929' – for that is how it was known – was only talked of in hushed tones in Army circles. The telling of what happened was left to those from outside the Army family.Now after more than 80 years, the full story of the crisis, with all its...

‘Early one morning in May 1878 a tall bearded man, wearing a long yellow dressing gown and felt slippers, set off an explosion in his London bedroom.’ (The man in question was, of course, William Booth!)So begins chapter one of the latest book from the pen of John Larsson, which offers a fascinating insight into some of the most remarkable years in the history of The Salvation Army. Drawing on a series of ‘Rear-Mirror Views’ articles published in the UK Salvationist magazine, the b...

William and Catherine Booth not only created a new dynamic force called The Salvation Army, but as parents brought into the world a boisterous crew of eight originals – as gifted and headstrong as their parents.All of the children followed in their parents' footsteps and became pioneer officers. They played highly significant roles across the continents in the phenomenal growth of the early Salvation Army. But not all was sunshine. When three of them in midlife rebelled against thei...

The international leader of The Salvation Army is elected by a High Council comprised of more than 100 of the Army’s most senior leaders from around the world.In this book the author invites readers to step inside a typical High Council in session at the Army’s conference centre in Sunbury-on-Thames to observe what happens. His role is that of a tour guide, explaining and giving the background to the various stages of an event that lasts a week or more.Drawing on the recoll...

Business guru Peter Drucker referred to the Salvation Army as "The most effective organization in the U.S". The Salvation Army has long been revered for it's passionate adherence to it's mission and purpose of delivering humanitarian and spiritual aid to anyone, no matter who they are. In this important book, former commissioner of the Salvation Army in the U.S. Robert Watson outlines those principles that not only guide that organization, but also can apply to companies, ministries and organ...

Great Speeches collects over forty of the most powerful and stirring addresses delivered in the English language.It captures the significant historical events of the past 400 years in the words of their participants, from those speeches given in times of war and sorrow, such as Winston Churchill's 'This Was Their Finest Hour', to those delivered at moments of hope, such as Barack Obama's election victory address.Other speeches include:• Charl...

The Will of the People is an incisive, in-depth look at Winston Churchill’s lifelong commitment to parliamentary democracy. First elected at twenty-five, Churchill was still in the House of Commons sixty-four years later. By far the largest part of his life – of his working days and nights – was spent in the cut and thrust of debate in the service of the people, whose instrument he believed Parliament to be. “I am a child of the House of Commons,” he told a joint session o...

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.With the passing of Nelson Mandela, ‘the father of the nation’, comes the end of an era, and the moment to look back on his remarkable saving, and remaking, of South Africa. After years of oppression and racial inequality, concentrated violence and apartheid, Mandela led the country to unite ‘for the freedom of us all’ as the country’s first black President.SOUTH AFRICA: HISTORY IN AN HOUR gives a lively account of the f...

In July 2007, Zimbabwe's worsening economy saw inflation skyrocket to 7,634 per cent, deepening the already chronic food shortages in a country where only one in five of the adult population is in employment.Months later, on 20 November 2007, Ian Smith, the former Prime Minister of Rhodesia died, leaving behind him a lifetime of resistance to black majority rule and the dangers that he believed it would bring to his country.Ian Smith was a man with the ability to excite powerful emotions i...