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A thought-provoking, authoritative biography of one of history's most maligned rulers Louis XVI of France, who was guillotined in 1793 during the Revolution and Reign of Terror, is commonly portrayed in fiction and film either as a weak and stupid despot in thrall to his beautiful, shallow wife, Marie Antoinette, or as a cruel and treasonous tyrant. Historian John Hardman disputes both these versions in a fascinating new biography of the ill-fated monarch. Based in part on new scholarship that has emerged over the past two decades, Hardman's illuminating study describes a highly educated ruler who, though indecisive, possessed sharp political insight and a talent for foreign policy; who often saw the dangers ahead but could not or would not prevent them; and whose great misfortune was to be caught in the violent center of a major turning point in history. Hardman's dramatic reassessment of the reign of Louis XVI sheds a bold new light on the man, his actions, his world, and his policies, including the king's support for America's War of Independence, the intricate workings of his court, the disastrous Diamond Necklace Affair, and Louis's famous dash to Varennes.
Louis XIV was a man in pursuit of glory. Not content to be the ruler of a world power, he wanted the power to rule the world. And, for a time, he came tantalizingly close. Philip Mansel’s King of the World is the most comprehensive and up-to-date biography in English of this hypnotic, flawed figure who continues to captivate our attention. This lively work takes Louis outside Versailles and shows the true extent of his global ambitions, with stops in London, Madrid, Constantinople, Bangkok, and beyond. We witness the importance of his alliance with the Spanish crown and his success in securing Spain for his descendants, his enmity with England, and his relations with the rest of Europe, as...
Louis XVIII was the most European of the Kings of France. A grandson of Louis XV, born in Versailles in 1755, he escaped from Paris in 1791, disguised as an Englishman. He spent the following twenty - four years as an exile, in Germany, Italy, Russia, Poland, and finally, for seven years, in England. In 1814 he was restored to the throne. As King he renounced French conquests and followed a policy of 'union' with his fellow-monarchs in what he called 'the European system'. The interests of France and Britain, in particular, he considered 'as one'. Based on research throughout Europe, Louis XVIII describes not only the public figure, but also the private man, who compensated for a loveless and childless marriage by lavishing affection on male and female favourites. It is the only English biography of this great protagonist of the French Revolution and Empire, the last French monarch to die on the throne.
Louis IX of France reigned as king from 1226 to 1270 and was widely considered an exemplary Christian ruler, renowned for his piety, justice, and charity toward the poor. After his death on crusade, he was proclaimed a saint in 1297, and today Saint Louis is regarded as one of the central figures of early French history and the High Middle Ages. In The Sanctity of Louis IX, Larry F. Field offers the first English-language translations of two of the earliest and most important accounts of the king’s life: one composed by Geoffrey of Beaulieu, the king’s long-time Dominican confessor, and the other by William of Chartres, a secular clerk in Louis’s household who eventually joined the Dom...
In this book, the preeminent child psychologist of our time gives us the results of his lifelong effort to determine what is most crucial in successful child-rearing. His purpose is not to give parents preset rules for raising their children, but rather to show them how to develop their own insights so that they will understand their own and their children's behavior in different situations and how to cope with it. Above all, he warns, parents must not indulge their impulse to try to create the child they would like to have, but should instead help each child fully develop into the person he or she would like to be.
A gaunt woman stares into the bleakness of the Great Depression. An exuberant sailor plants a kiss on a nurse in the heart of Times Square. A naked Vietnamese girl runs in terror from a napalm attack. An unarmed man stops a tank in Tiananmen Square. These and a handful of other photographs have become icons of public culture: widely recognized, historically significant, emotionally resonant images that are used repeatedly to negotiate civic identity. But why are these images so powerful? How do they remain meaningful across generations? What do they expose--and what goes unsaid? InNo Caption Needed, Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites provide the definitive study of the iconic photograph ...
In his afterword, Igor Webb writes, "The lament, uttered when love and death are most closely bound, is something like an essential accessory to mortality. . . . 'Living with a Visionary' is the poet's account of his, and (and his wife) Diana's, descent into hell (from effects of Parkinson's disease). . . . But it's in 'Some of Her Things,' a fable in the form of a long prose poem, . . . that Matthias most powerfully, and poignantly, deploys his language. . . . it is a courtly threnody for lost time." Literary Nonfiction
A comprehensive anthology on justice with readings that offer the different theories on the importance and placement of justice in society.The well-argued, accessible articlesencompass classic to contemporary theories and cover both positive and negative.
Authors include missiologists José M. de Mesa, Darrell L. Whiteman, Aylward Shorter, Jon P. Kirby, and Angelyn Dries, anthropologists Linda E. Thomas, Anthony J. Gittins, and Philip Gibbs, and theologians Gemma T. Cruz and Robert J. Schreiter. Book jacket.
Collects American newspaper columns from various historical periods that consider the lasting relevance, educational quality, and power of journalism in today's increasingly digital age.