Christopher Clark's Kaiser Wilhelm II: A Life in Power is a short, fascinating and accessible biography of one of the 20th century's most important figures. King of Prussia, German Emperor, war leader and defeated exile, Kaiser Wilhelm II was one of the most important - and most controversial - figures in the history of twentieth-century Europe. But how much power did he really have? Christopher Clark, winner of the Wolfson prize for his history of Prussia, Iron Kingdom, follows Kaiser Wilhelm's political career from his youth at the Hohenzollern court through the turbulent decades of the Wilhelmine era into global war and the collapse of Germany in 1918, to his last days. He asks: what was his true role in the events that led to the outbreak of the First World War? What was the nature and extent of his control? What were his political goals and his success in achieving them? How did he project authority and exercise influence? And how did his people really view him? Through original research, Clark presents a fresh new interpretation of this contentious figure, focusing on how his thirty-year reign from 1888 to 1918 affected Germany, and the rest of Europe, for years to come.

Philip Hensher’s selection of stories reflects the ‘desperate modernity’ of Berlin as it make and remakes itself over a period of more than a hundred turbulent years. Theodore Fontane provides a window on privileged society under Kaiser Wilhelm II while Robert Walser records the vibrant social and cultural life of the bustling imperial capital. Alfred Doblin and Vladimir Nabokov join the creative ferment of the ‘Golden Twenties’ while in the darkening world of the early Thirties, Christopher Isherwood is seduced by Berlin’s decadent cabaret society, Erich Haffner explores the city’s seamy underside and the irrepressible heroine of Irmgard Keun’s The Artificial Silk Girl seeks fame and fortune in her stolen fur coat. Thomas Wolfe’s hero visits a city shadowed by Hitler’s rise; Hans Fallada’s working-class couple quietly resists the Nazis; Heinz Rein reports on the last days of the Third Reich. Cold War espionage enlivens works by Len Deighton and Ian McEwan; Christa Wolf’s They Divided the Sky and Peter Schneider’s The Wall Jumper depict the Berlin Wall’s impact on a personal scale; Gunter Grass amd Uwe Timm examine German reunification from very different angles. Finally, more recent arrivals – from Chloe Aridjis’s Mexican-Jewish university student in Book of Cloud to the desperate African refugees in Jenny Erpenbeck’s Go, Went, Gone – bear witness to Berlin’s continuing evolution as an arena of the possible.

Winner of the Wolfson History Prize, Christopher Clark's Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600-1947 is a compelling account of a country that played a pivotal role in Europe's fortunes and fundamentally shaped our world. Prussia began as a medieval backwater, but transformed itself into a major European power and the force behind the creation of the German empire, until it was finally abolished by the Allies after the Second World War. With great flair and authority, Christopher Clark describes Prussia's great battles, dynastic marriages and astonishing reversals of fortune, its brilliant and charismatic leaders from the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg to Bismarck and Frederick the Great, the military machine and the progressive, enlightened values on which it was built.

Аверс профили Вильгельма II и Августины Виктории вправо По кругу надпись WILHELM DK KAISER KNIG V PREUSSEN AUGUSTE VICTORIA DKK V PRРеверс Напдись ZUM EHEJUBILAUM SEID FROHLICH IN HOFFNUNG GEDULDIG IN TRUBSAL HALTET AN AM GEBET ROMER C 12 V 12Страна: Германская ИмперияШxДxВ: 56x85x1Вес: 0.128Материал: БиметаллСохранность: XF

Аверс Профиль Вильгельма II вправо По кругу надпись WILHELM II DEUTSCHER KAISER Вильгельм II немецкий императорРеверс KRIEGERVEREIN HERRMANNSDORF Военная ассоциация ГермансдорфаСтрана: Германская ИмперияШxДxВ: 32x35x2Вес: 0.011Дата учреждения:1897Материал: БронзаГод:1897Сохранность: VF+

The pacy, sensitive and formidably argued history of the causes of the First World War, from acclaimed historian and author Christopher Clark The moments that it took Gavrilo Princip to step forward to the stalled car and shoot dead Franz Ferdinand and his wife were perhaps the most fateful of the modern era. An act of terrorism of staggering efficiency, it fulfilled its every aim: it would liberate Bosnia from Habsburg rule and it created a powerful new Serbia, but it also brought down four great empires, killed millions of men and destroyed a civilization. What made a seemingly prosperous and complacent Europe so vulnerable to the impact of this assassination? In The Sleepwalkers Christopher Clark retells the story of the outbreak of the First World War and its causes. Above all, it shows how the failure to understand the seriousness of the chaotic, near genocidal fighting in the Balkans would drag Europe into catastrophe.

With a close and studied reading of the major religious texts, Christopher Hitchens documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion.

With a close and studied reading of the major religious texts, Christopher Hitchens documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion.

Bestselling Newbery Medalist Christopher Paul Curtis delivers a powerful companion to his multiple award-winning Elijah of Buxton. Benji and Red couldn't be more different. They aren't friends. They don't even live in the same town. But their fates are entwined. A chance meeting leads the boys to discover that they have more in common than meets the eye. Both of them have encountered a strange presence in the forest, watching them, tracking them. Could the Madman of Piney Woods be real? In a tale brimming with intrigue and adventure, Christopher Paul Curtis returns to the vibrant world he brought to life in Elijah of Buxton. Here is another novel that will break your heart-and expand it, too.

Wilhelm Hauff was a writer of extraordinary fancy and invention, but working for a more obvious purpose, and producing narratives more related in character to popular legends. He was born in 1802, at Stuttgard, and in early life showed a great predilection for telling childish narratives. Being designed for the theological profession, he went to the University of Tubingen in 1820. On leaving the university, Hauff became tutor to the children of the Wiirttemberg minister of war, General Ernst Eugen Freiherr von Hugel, and for them wrote his Tales, which he published in his Almanack of Tales for the year 1826. Only a few of his famous tales take place in Germany, among them the Nose, the Dwarf and The Cold Heart. Hauff needs only to be known to become popular in any country. His works, which are somewhat numerous, were published in a complete edition by the poet Gustav Schwab, in 1830. Wilhelm Hauff died in 1827, before he had completed his twenty-sixth year.

Wilhelm Hauff was a writer of extraordinary fancy and invention, but working for a more obvious purpose, and producing narratives more related in character to popular legends. He was born in 1802, at Stuttgard, and in early life showed a great predilection for telling childish narratives. Being designed for the theological profession, he went to the University of Tubingen in 1820. On leaving the university, Hauff became tutor to the children of the Wiirttemberg minister of war, General Ernst Eugen Freiherr von Hugel, and for them wrote his Tales, which he published in his Almanack of Tales for the year 1826. Only a few of his famous tales take place in Germany, among them the Nose, the Dwarf and The Cold Heart. Hauff needs only to be known to become popular in any country. His works, which are somewhat numerous, were published in a complete edition by the poet Gustav Schwab, in 1830. Wilhelm Hauff died in 1827, before he had completed his twenty-sixth year.

From the winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction comes a magnificent portrait of youth and growing up. Christopher and Toni found in each other the perfect companion for that universal adolescent pastime: smirking at the world as you find it. In between training as flaneurs and the grind of school they cast a cynical eye over their various dislikes: parents with their lives of spotless emptiness, Third Division (North) football teams, God, commuters and girls, and the inhabitants of Metroland, the strip of suburban dormitory Christopher calls home. Longing for real life to begin, we follow Christopher to Paris in time for les evenements of 1968, only to miss it all in a haze of sex, French theatre and first love, leading him, to Toni's disappointment, back to Metroland.

Christopher Clark's The Sleepwalkers has become one of the most influential history books of our century: a remarkable rethinking of the origins of the First World War, which has had a huge impact on how we see both the past and the present. For the many readers who found the narrative voice, craftsmanship and originality of Clark's writing so compelling, Prisoners of Time will be a book filled with surprises and enjoyment. Bringing together many of Clark's major essays, Prisoners of Time raises a host of questions about how we think about the past, and both the value and pitfalls of history as a discipline. The book includes brilliant writing on German subjects: from assessments of Kaiser Wilhelm and Bismarck to the painful story of General von Blaskowitz, a traditional Prussian military man who accommodated himself to the horrors of the Third Reich. There is a fascinating essay on attempts to convert Prussian Jews to Christianity, and insights into everything from Brexit to the significance of battles. Perhaps the most important piece in the book is 'The Dream of Nebuchadnezzar', a virtuoso meditation on the nature of political power down the ages, which will become essential reading for anyone drawn to the meaning of history.

A special edition of Julian Barnes’s first novel with an introduction from the author and previously unseen archive material. Christopher and Toni found in each other the perfect companion for that universal adolescent pastime: smirking at the world as you find it. In between training as flaneurs and the grind of school, they cast a cynical eye over their various dislikes: parents with their lives of spotless emptiness, Third Division (North) football teams, God, commuters and girls, and the inhabitants of Metroland: the strip of suburban dormitory Christopher calls home. Longing for real life to begin, Christopher makes for Paris in time for les evenements of 1968, only to miss it all in a haze of sex, French theatre and first love. And before long he finds himself drawn inevitably back to Metroland and the very life he was trying to escape... This special edition contains unseen archive material including letters from early fans such as Philip Larkin and Dodie Smith, contemporary reviews, a deleted scene from the original manuscript as well as an introduction from the author.

'Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last Friday, Winnie-the-Pooh lived in a forest all by himself under the name of Sanders' Curl up with a true children's classic by reading A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh. Winnie-the-Pooh may be a bear of very little brain, but thanks to his friends Piglet, Eeyore and, of course, Christopher Robin, he's never far from an adventure. In this story Pooh gets into a tight place, nearly catches a Woozle and heads off on an 'expotition' to the North Pole with the other animals. In this stunning edition of Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne's world-famous story is once again brought to life by E.H. Shepard's illustrations. Heart-warming and funny, Milne's masterpiece reflects the power of a child's imagination like no other story before or since.

WILHELM FURTWANGLER - BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO. 9 'CHORAL'. 2 LP. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 1770-1827 - , - , Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op.125 "Choral' - , SIDE A Hall ambience - , I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso - , SIDE B II. Molto vivace - , SIDE C III. Adagio molto e cantabile - , SIDE D IV. Finale: Beginning - , "O Freunde, nicht diese Tone.' - , Alla marcia ("Froh, froh.') - , Andante maestoso - , End and applause - , - , Elisabeth Schwarzkopf soprano - Elisabeth Hongen contralto - , Hans Hopf tenor - Otto Edelmann bass - , Chor und Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele ∙ Wilhelm Pitz chorus master - , Wilhelm Furtwangler conductor -