Solitude has always had an ambivalent status: the capacity to enjoy being alone can make sociability bearable, but those predisposed to solitude are often viewed with suspicion or pity.Drawing on a wide array of literary and historical sources, David Vincent explores how people have conducted themselves in the absence of company over the last three centuries. He argues that the ambivalent nature of solitude became a prominent concern in the modern era. For intellectuals in the roma...

I Am Morbid tells the astounding story of David Vincent, former bassist and singer with Morbid Angel, and now outlaw country performer and leader of the I Am Morbid supergroup. Written with the bestselling author Joel McIver, it’s an autobiography that transcends the heavy metal category by its very nature.Much more than a mere memoir, I Am Morbid is an instruction manual for life at the sharp end—a gathering of wisdom distilled into ten acute les...

Privacy: A Short History provides a vital historical account of an increasingly stressed sphere of human interaction. At a time when the death of privacy is widely proclaimed, distinguished historian, David Vincent, describes the evolution of the concept and practice of privacy from the Middle Ages to the present controversy over digital communication and state surveillance provoked by the revelations of Edward Snowden.Deploying a range of vivid primary material, he discus...

'I Hope I Don't Intrude' takes its title from the catch-phrase of the eponymous hero of the 1825 play Paul Pry, which was an immense success on the London stage and then rapidly in New York and around the English-speaking world. It tackles the complex, multi-faceted subject of privacy in nineteenth-century Britain by examining the way in which the tropes, language, and imagery of the play entered public discourse about privacy in the rest of the century. The volume is not...

The Fatal Breath is the first full-scale history of the Covid-19 pandemic in Britain. Deploying a rich archive of personal testimonies together with a wide range of research reports and official data, it presents a moving and challenging account of the crisis that enveloped Britain (and the world) in the spring of 2020.With sensitivity, care, and an historian’s critical eye, David Vincent places the pandemic in context. While much contemporary commentary has assumed people...

First published in 1981, Bread, Knowledge and Freedom is a study of 142 working class autobiographies all of which cover some part of the period between 1790 and 1850. It is a full-scale examination of a form of source material that is significantly extensive. The book illustrates many aspects of ordinary working-class family life as well as the working-class pursuit of knowledge and literacy and the attempts of the middle-class educators to impose their notion of ‘useful knowledg...

While this is a work of fiction, it is based on actual events that took place during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte. Therefore, some of the characters in this book are based on historical figures that took part in these events. Other characters are entirely fictitious and are not meant to resemble anyone known or unknown to the author.

Lord Bainbridge is a love story, but a love story of a different kind. Lord Jeremy Bainbridge is a young Englishman of the upper class. He is also a homosexual in a time when society demanded harsh penalties for those who dared to indulge in the love story that dare not speak its name. But Jeremy Bainbridge is determined to live the life he has been dealt. He finds himself on board the Titanic on her fateful maiden voyage. There, he meets and falls in love with a young Irishman, Tom Kenned...

The year 1917 finds Russia in complete chaos as the long anticipated winds of revolution finally sweep across the country. The Tsar, Nicholas II, has been forced to abdicate and he and his family have been sent into exile in Siberia. Meanwhile, throughout Russia numerous plans are being formulated to free the Romanovs from their captivity. One of these plans comes to involve Natalya Karakova, once a leading light in Russian high society. But now, she and her husband, Constantine, find them...

A deliciously detailed exploration of the big personalities, gargantuan operation, and enormous success of the most popular movie of its time, Gone with the Wind.It starts, of course, with a book—and the runaway success of a historical novel that made the casting of Scarlett O’Hara edge-of-the-seat international news. Every generation, new fans fall in love with the movie, and more recently debate the presentation of the Civil War and the characterization ...

Loafing Around — making great bread at home. Written for the home baker by a home baker, Loafing Around aims to not only provide a diverse selection of tested bread recipes, but also describe the processes and techniques involved in enough detail to allow the home baker to develop new recipes with confidence.Loafing Around covers the main types of bread: unleavened bread, soda bread, breads made using baker’s yeast, and sourdough. Recipes use a range of flours, inc...

Presents a comprehensive introduction to the selection, operation, and testing of infrared devices, including a description of modern detector assemblies and their operationThis book discusses how to use and test infrared and visible detectors. The book provides a convenient reference for those entering the field of IR detector design, test or use, those who work in the peripheral areas, and those who teach and train others in the field.Chapter 1 contains i...