Other books that might interest you

• 

  Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers -...

  Martin Popoff

  • 0
  • 1
  • 0

  pbi“Motörhead, remember me now, Motörhead, alright!”/b/i/p
  piLemmy, Phil, Fast Eddie and the Rise of Motörhead/i is the first book to celebrate the classic-era Motörhead lineup of Lemmy Kilmister, “Fast” Eddie Clarke, and Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor. Through interviews with all of the principal troublemakers, Martin Popoff celebrates the formation of the band and the records that made them legends: iMotörhead/i, iOverkill/i, iBomber/i, iAce of Spades/i, iNo Sleep ’til Hammersmith/i, and iIron Fist/i. An in-depth coda brings the story up to date with the shocking recent deaths of Taylor and Kilmister./p
  pMotörhead comes to life in this book as bad-luck bad boys — doused in drink and drugs, most notably speed — incapable of running their lives right, save for Fast Eddie, who is charged with holding things together. Popoff also examines the heady climate of music through the band’s rise to prominence during the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, with detailed reflection on Motörhead’s unique position in the scene as both originators and embattled survivors who carried on the renegade spirit of those times./p

  Show book

• 

  Edmund Burke - The First...

  Jesse Norman

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Edmund Burke is both the greatest and the most underrated political thinker of the past three hundred years. A brilliant 18th-century Irish philosopher and statesman, Burke was a fierce champion of human rights and the Anglo-American constitutional tradition, and a lifelong campaigner against arbitrary power. Revered by great Americans including Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, Burke has been almost forgotten in recent years. But as politician and political philosopher Jesse Norman argues in this penetrating biography, we cannot understand modern politics without him. 
   
  As Norman reveals, Burke was often ahead of his time, anticipating the abolition of slavery and arguing for free markets, equality for Catholics in Ireland, and responsible government in India, among many other things. He was not always popular in his own lifetime, but his ideas about power, community, and civic virtue have endured long past his death. Indeed, Burke engaged with many of the same issues politicians face today, including the rise of ideological extremism, the loss of social cohesion, the dangers of the corporate state, and the effects of revolution on societies. He offers us now a compelling critique of liberal individualism, and a vision of society based not on a self-interested agreement among individuals, but rather on an enduring covenant between generations. 
   
  Burke won admirers in the American colonies for recognizing their fierce spirit of liberty and for speaking out against British oppression, but his greatest triumph was seeing through the utopian aura of the French Revolution. In repudiating that revolution, Burke laid the basis for much of the robust conservative ideology that remains with us to this day: one that is adaptable and forward-thinking, but also mindful of the debt we owe to past generations and our duty to preserve and uphold the institutions we have inherited. He is the first conservative. 
   
  A rich, accessible, and provocative biography, Edmund Burke describes Burke's life and achievements alongside his momentous legacy, showing how Burke's analytical mind and deep capacity for empathy made him such a vital thinker—both for his own age, and for ours.

  Show book

• 

  Plain Speaking - An Oral...

  Merle Miller

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  “Never has a President of the United States, or any head of state for that matter, been so totally revealed, so completely documented” (Robert A. Arthur).  Plain Speaking is the bestselling book based on conversations between Merle Miller and the thirty-third President of the United States, Harry S. Truman. From these interviews, as well as others who knew him over the years, Miller transcribes Truman’s feisty takes on everything from his personal life, military service, and political career to the challenges he faced in taking the office during the final days of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. Using a series of taped discussions from 1962 that never aired on television, Plain Speaking takes an opportunity to deliver exactly how Mr. Truman felt about the presidency, and his thoughts in his later years on his accomplishments and the legacy he left behind.   “The values of Plain Speaking, on the whole, are those of the highest form of political communication: the bull session. As with all good bull sessions, what is said here ranges widely in quality and seriousness, as one should expect when dealing with a complex man.” —The New York Times   “Plain Speaking has a nostalgic, downhome quality of good friends gossiping over the back fence, or saying their piece of a twilight eve rocking on the porch—and if those fellas back in Washington have their secret machines running, well, they won’t like what they overhear. Not one little bit.” —Kirkus Reviews

  Show book

• 

  Queens Who Ruled England The:...

  Charles River Editors

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Until the implementation of new legislation on March 26, 2015, men were given preference to women in the British royal line. This system of male primogeniture meant that women seldom inherited the throne, and even when they did, they were often dominated by male councillors. Those women who married British kings gained the title of Queen, but they were queen consorts, holding the title with no power. This meant only a select few women ruled in their own right.  
  	When Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952, many commentators heralded the beginning of her reign as the second Elizabethan age. The first one, of course, concerned the reign of Henry VIII’s second surviving daughter and middle surviving child, Queen Elizabeth I, one of England’s most famous and influential rulers. It was an age when the arts, commerce and trade flourished. It was the epoch of gallantry and great, enduring literature. It was also an age of wars and military conflicts in which men were the primary drivers and women often were pawns.  
  Then, there was Queen Mary I of England, who earned herself the less-than-pleasant moniker of “Bloody Mary.” While in power, Mary vowed to restore papal authority and revert England to Catholicism, placing the bullseye on Protestants. Laws against heresy made a bloody comeback, which saw hundreds of Protestants dragged to the stakes.  
  	England has had no shortage of influential monarchs, but only Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria had their nation’s age literally named after them. Both the Elizabethan era and Victorian era have come to symbolize a golden age of peace and progress in every aspect of British life, with the long reigns of both queens also providing stability.

  Show book

• 

  Nick Clegg - The Biography

  Chris Bowers

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In early April 2010 Nick Clegg was fighting for recognition, even as the young, fresh and personable leader of Britain's third political party. Two weeks later he was the focus of 'Cleggmania' and his popularity was compared with Churchill's. Four weeks after that he became the second most important figure in the government - but within a year he was ridiculed and reviled as popular hopes turned to disappointment. But who is Nick Clegg? What has made him the man he is today? By what route did he enjoy one of the most spectacular rises - and falls - in British politics? This fully revised and updated edition of Chris Bowers' acclaimed biography contains an analysis of the first years of coalition government, and tells us what we can expect of the Deputy Prime Minister as the next general election approaches. With a lightness of touch that captures the spirit of the unstuffy Lib Dem leader, and with the benefit of access to Clegg himself and the many people who have shaped and worked with him, Bowers presents a sensitive, critical and above all insightful portrait of one of the leading political figures of our age.

  Show book

• 

  Seven Climbs - Finding the...

  Charles Sherwood

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  'Even the most casual reader among you will by now have worked out that the whole thing is little more than a delightful ruse for having a very good time.'
  Experienced climber Charles Sherwood is on a quest to find the best climb on each continent. He eschews the traditional Seven Summits, where height alone is the determining factor, and instead considers mountaineering challenge, natural beauty and historical context, aiming to capture the diverse character of each continent and the sheer variety of climbing in all its forms.
  The author's ambitious odyssey takes him to the Alps, the Himalaya, Yosemite, the Andes, Kenya, New Zealand and South Georgia. His goal is neither to seek glory nor to complete a box-ticking exercise, but simply to enjoy himself in the company of his fellow climbers, including Mark Seaton, Andy Kirkpatrick and Stephen Venables, and to appreciate the splendour of his surroundings. On classic routes like the North Face of the Eiger and the Nose on El Capitan, it is hard not to be swept away by Sherwood's unfaltering enthusiasm.
  Also featuring fascinating historical detail about each route, Seven Climbs is a compelling account of Sherwood's efforts to answer a much-debated question: which are the world's greatest climbs?

  Show book