Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, who ruled as president of France from 1848 to 1852, then as emperor until 1870, when his regime collapsed after a crushing military defeat at the hands of Prussia. In the second half of the 20th century, Napoleon’s reputation underwent a modest rehabilitation, as he won praise of France’s…
Roberto Calasso weaves together and connects stories of ancient world with the thinking of Kafka, Weil, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard which promises and separation from one of the founding texts of Western civilisation, but omission of Hindu literature. These tales of grace and guilt, of the chosen and the damned, cast many Biblical figures and indeed…
How a broken corporate culture paved the way for catastrophe, with race to beat competition and reward top executives, Boeing skimped on testing, pressured employees to meet unrealistic deadlines, and convinced and forced regulators to put planes into service without properly equipping them or their pilots for flight, Peter Robinson, award-winning reporter for Bloomberg, looks…
“The Ledger: Accounting for Failure in Afghanistan” assess the West’s similarly failed approach to Afghanistan in military, diplomatic, political and developmental terms and reveals the west’s failure to understand Afghanistan and the ties that bind Afghanistan, and its people underpins the west’s 20-year struggle there. Building on record of the past starts from the first…
533: A Book of Days, tells the story through a tireless explorer of distant cultures, for more than forty year Cees Nooteboom has been returning to the Island of Menoca, “the Island of Wind”, and it is in his house there, with a study full of books, and a garden taken over with native plants…
A provocative history of Henry Kissinger’s art of diplomatic negotiations in the Middle East that is full of unique challenges and barriers Kissinger and his successors have faced in their attempts to broker peace between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Master of the Game, reveals the drama, dazzling manoeuvres and grand strategic vision. In…
Hyeonseo Lee, a child growing up in North Korea. was one of the millions trapped by the world’s most secretive and brutal communist regime. From the indoctrination she received in Kindergarden to her forced service in the Socialist Youth League at age of fourteen, the state controlled ever aspect of her life. As the great famine…
Sarah Moss’s The Fell, gripping and funny, in which actor Emma Lowndes gives voice to four characters Kate, a woman quarantining in her Peak District house, wide open space tantalisingly close, her teenage son, Matt, their older neighbour, Alice, balancing loneliness with her need to shield herself, and the mountain rescuer dispatched when disaster…
London’s Zenith was the era of Georgian town squares, during 1700-1800, an imperial city which finds itself at the centre of world’s trade, empire, finance and manufacture. Andrew Saint, an architectural historian, conveys the excitement, diversity and richness of London at a time when the city was at the height of its power, uniqueness and…
Tim Mak, NPR investigative reporter gives a blistering expose of the powerful US lobbying group, the National Rifle Association, revealing meticulously its people, power, corruption and ongoing downfall. The NRA once a grassroots club dedicated to gun safety, once compelled respect -even fear- from Republicans an Democrats alike, ballooned into a powerful lobbyist organisation…