Europe Century

Today's copyright wars can seem unprecedented. Sparked by the digital revolution that has made copyright - and its violation - a part of everyday life, fights over intellectual property have pitted creators, Hollywood, and governments against consumers, pirates, Silicon Valley, and open-access advocates. But while the digital generation can be forgiven for thinking the dispute between, for example, the publishing industry and Google is completely new, the copyright wars in fact stretch back three centuries - and their history is essential to understanding today's battles.

Beleaguered by scandal, betrayed by faithless spouses, bedeviled by ambitious children, the kings and queens of Great Britain have been many things, but they have never been dull. Some sacrificed everything for love, while others met a cruel fate at the edge of an axman's blade. Behind the Palace Doors features stories covering every monarch, from randy Henry VIII to reserved Elizabeth II.

It is early 20th-century Greece. Theodosia, a teenage girl and her younger sister, lose their parents in Constantinople and are thrown into a massive population exchange between Greece and Turkey. They arrive at a refugee camp in Northern Greece, where their choice is to perish or to use the resources at hand in order to survive. Despite all the difficulties they encounter, the sisters decide not to give up, and fight for a better life. Theodosia's story carries on throughout a century and is peppered with horrific events, likable characters, and a great love story.

Hard Border goes to the very roots of the Irish boundary where, after decades of division and conflict, a fragile peace has prevailed since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Post-Brexit, it will re-emerge as the only land frontier between the United Kingdom and the European Union. In his travelogue of the abandoned 50-mile route along the Ulster Canal, Darach MacDonald presents a close-up narrative history of Ireland.

A gripping history of the Security Service and its covert surveillance on British writers and intellectuals in the twentieth century.

The Cancer Problem offers the first medical, cultural, and social history of cancer in 19th-century Britain. It argues that it was in the 19th century that cancer acquired the unique emotional, symbolic, and politicized status it maintains today. Through an interrogation of the construction, deployment, and emotional consequences of the disease's incurability, this book reframes our conceptualization of the relationship between medicine and modern life and reshapes our understanding of chronic and incurable maladies, both past and present.

The long agony of the “sick man of Europe”, an expression used by the Tsar of Russia to depict the falling Ottoman Empire, could almost blind people to its incredible power and history. Preserving its mixed heritage, coming from both its geographic position rising above the ashes of the Byzantine Empire and the tradition inherited from the Muslim Conquests, the Ottoman Empire lasted more than six centuries. Its soldiers fought, died, and conquered lands on three different continents, making it one of the few stable multi-ethnic empires in history, and likely one of the last.

Michał Ogórek meticulously recreates the picture of Poland that used to be drawn during the particular periods of the 100 years of Polish independence: Poland of Piłsudski, Rydz-Śmigły, Bierut, Gomułka, Gierek, Jaruzelski, Wałęsa, and Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński. The more worshiped each of the leaders were, the more painful their demise usually was. The magnitude of the leaders' worship caused people to cry out of emotion, and later out of disappointment and anger. But this book will only make you cry out of laughter.

The “gripping” (The Washington Post) story of the most famous regiment in American history: the Rough Riders, a motley group of soldiers led by Theodore Roosevelt, whose daring exploits marked the beginning of American imperialism in the 20th century. Both a portrait of these men, few of whom were traditional soldiers, and of the Spanish-American War itself, The Crowded Hour dives deep into the daily lives and struggles of Roosevelt and his regiment. Using diaries, letters, and memoirs, Risen illuminates an influential moment in American history.

Max Czollek's De-Integrate! is a polemical, often humorous examination of Jewish life in contemporary Germany that speaks to the position of minorities the world over. Rooted in sociological theory, the book offers an engaging and approachable critique of Germany's much-lauded traditions of memory culture and Vergangenheitsbewältigung—its "successful" negotiation of its Nazi past.

This is the true story of an unknown American politician who played a critical role in ending centuries of conflict in Northern Ireland. Without the president's permission, and breaking every conventional rule about how to deal with terrorists, former congressman Bruce Morrison helped end a conflict that most observers thought would continue indefinitely.

For the past two decades, you could cross the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic half a dozen times without noticing or, indeed, without turning off the road you were travelling. It cuts through fields, winds back and forth across roads and wends from the mouth of the Newry River to the mouth of the Foyle. It's frictionless - a feat sealed by the Good Friday Agreement. Before that, watchtowers loomed over border communities, military checkpoints dotted the roads and bridges had been demolished to prevent crossings.

Ci troveremo a passeggiare nella Parigi del Seicento, accompagnati da guide d'eccezione, “persone di mondo” colte ma non dotte, educate a conversare in società con straordinaria naturalezza, garbo e finezza. Leggerle è quasi come ascoltarle, perché sapevano mettere sulla carta il loro parlato senza appannarlo, dentro memorie, lettere, libelli. I tre accompagnatori principali sono Retz, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, e Mazzarino.

Al mismo tiempo que se producían estas revoluciones sociales y económicas en Europa, los pueblos comenzaron a manifestar una tendencia a la unión lingüística y cultural que iba a perfilar los límites nacionales.

The 19th century saw the rise of one of the largest, most powerful empires of the modern era. The sun never set on the British Empire, whose holdings spanned the globe, in one form or another. Its naval supremacy linked the Commonwealth of Canada with the colonies in South Africa and India, and through them trade flowed east and west. An integral but underutilized part of this vast trade network included China, a reclusive Asian kingdom closed off from the Western world that desired none of its goods.

There are very few national relationships quite as complicated and enigmatic as the one that exists between the English and the Irish. For two peoples so interconnected by geography and history, the depth of animosity that is often expressed is difficult at times to understand. The History of Ireland and Northern Ireland in the 20th Century analyzes the tumultuous events that marked Irish history during the 20th century.

Virtually everyone would agree that Leonardo da Vinci was the most important artist of the High Renaissance. It was Leonardo who singlehandedly created the defining features of Western art: a realism based on subtle shading; depth using atmospheric effects; and dramatic contrasts between light and dark.

The Book Hunter in London is a fascinating look at those who love books, collect books, and sell books. Published in 1895, this is a remarkable look back at how books were viewed in the 19th century and before.

England has more often been faced with the claims of competing kings and queens than with a period of no monarch at all. The major exception to that rule came in the 11 years between 1649 and 1660, when England was a republic. Following the disastrous reign of Charles I and the civil wars that led to his execution, Parliament and the army ruled England. England’s republican experiment started out as a work of collaboration and compromise; lords, army officers, and members of Parliament (MPs) worked together to find a political settlement.

Over the long span of its history, England faced many enemies but by the strength of itself as a nation, it would continue to prevail. Considering its legacy and impact on the world, it comes as no surprise that stories about it are abundant.