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Tristram Hunt

    One of Britain's leading young historians, this author focuses on social and political history. Their work explores the relationship between ideologies and urban development, often highlighting the impact of significant individuals on societal shifts. Writing engagingly about the formation of modern society, their work emphasizes understanding the historical forces that shape it.

    Building Jerusalem
    Building Jerusalem : The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City
    The Radical Potter
    The Lives of the Objects
    Bryan Organ
    The Frock-Coated Communist
    • The Frock-Coated Communist

      • 464 pages
      • 17 hours of reading
      4.4(30)Add rating

      Friedrich Engels is one of the most attractive and contradictory figures of the nineteenth century. Born to a prosperous mercantile family in west Germany, he spent his career working in the Manchester cotton industry, riding to the Cheshire hounds, and enjoying the comfortable, middle-class life of a Victorian gentleman.

      The Frock-Coated Communist
    • This monograph highlights the work of English artist Bryan Organ, known for his portraits of figures like Princess Diana, Elton John, and Charles III. Featuring around 80 large-format portraits, sketches, and various artworks, it includes insightful texts from prominent British authors, filling a notable gap in art literature.

      Bryan Organ
    • The Lives of the Objects

      • 272 pages
      • 10 hours of reading

      Here, ten world-renowned curators from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London tell the story of ten of the most famous and curious objects acquired by the museum over its history. Among these are "Tipu's Tiger," an almost life-size wooden mechanical toy of a tiger mauling a European soldier; the "Great Bed of Ware," a 10 1/2-foot-wide Elizabethan bed; and a "Shakespeare First Folio," one of the few survivors of an estimated 750 that were originally printed. Learn too about collection building and how careful curation and fortuitous optimism drive and change museum priorities over time.

      The Lives of the Objects
    • Josiah Wedgwood, perhaps the greatest English potter who ever lived, epitomized the best of his age. From his kilns and workshops in Stoke-on-Trent, he revolutionized the production of ceramics in Georgian Britain by marrying technology with design, manufacturing efficiency and retail flair. He transformed the luxury markets not only of London, Liverpool, Bath and Dublin but of America and the world, and helping to usher in a mass consumer society. Tristram Hunt calls him 'the Steve Jobs of the eighteenth century'. But Wedgwood was radical in his mind and politics as well as in his designs. He campaigned for free trade and religious toleration, read pioneering papers to the Royal Society and was a member of the celebrated Lunar Society of Birmingham. Most significantly, he created the ceramic 'Emancipation Badge', depicting a slave in chains and inscribed 'Am I Not a Man and a Brother?' that became the symbol of the abolitionist movement. Tristram Hunt's hugely enjoyable new biography, strongly based on Wedgwood's notebooks, letters and the words of his contemporaries, brilliantly captures the energy and originality of Wedgwood and his extraordinary contribution to the transformation of eighteenth-century Britain.

      The Radical Potter
    • 'History writing at its compulsive best' A. N. Wilson This is a history of the ideas that shaped not only London, but Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Sheffield and other power-houses of 19th-century Britain. It charts the controversies and visions that fostered Britain's... číst celé

      Building Jerusalem : The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City
    • Building Jerusalem

      • 496 pages
      • 18 hours of reading
      3.9(19)Add rating

      The ideas and people who inspired and shaped the great Victorian cities, with all their energy, achievements and pride číst celé

      Building Jerusalem
    • A remarkable new biography from one of Britain's leading young historians that recovers the co-founder of communism from the shadows of history, portraying how one of the great "bon viveurs" of Victorian Britain reconciled his exuberant personal life with his radical political philosophy

      Marx's general
    • Marx's General

      The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels

      • 462 pages
      • 17 hours of reading
      3.7(17)Add rating

      The biography offers a vibrant and insightful portrayal of a key figure in Victorian England, emphasizing their friendship with Marx and their role as a political successor. With a blend of warmth and historical context, it captures the complexities of their life and contributions, making it a compelling read for those interested in the era's social and political dynamics.

      Marx's General
    • Almost a quarter of a million lives were lost as King and Parliament battled for their religious and political ideals in the English Civil War. This title offers a narrative based on the first-hand accounts of those who witnessed these traumatic events.

      The English Civil War At First Hand
    • Presents an approach to Britain's imperial past through the cities that epitomised it. This book examines the stories and defining ideas of ten of the important: Boston, Bridgetown, Dublin, Cape Town, Calcutta, Hong Kong, Bombay, Melbourne, New Delhi, and twentieth-century Liverpool

      Ten Cities that Made an Empire