The Mafia has been given many names since it was founded one hundred and forty years ago: the Sect, the Brotherhood, the Honoured Society, and now Cosa Nostra. Yet as times have changed, the Mafia's subtle and bloody methods have remained the same. Now, for the first time, COSA NOSTRA reconstructs the complete history of the Sicilian Mafia from its origins to the present day, from the lemon groves and sulphur mines of Sicily, to the streets of Manhattan.

COSA NOSTRA is a definitive history, rich in atmosphere, and with the narrative pace of the best detective fiction.

The mob genre has finally grown up.

Verslag van het functioneren van de Duitse contraspionagedienst in Nederland tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog en van het gebruik dat zij daarbij maakten van de Nederlander Anton van der Waals.

One of our most eminent historians presents a powerful look at the buildup to and aftermath of one of the most decisive moments of the Second World War - Kristallnacht - not only for the Jewish population suddenly identified as a group to be destroyed, but also in terms of the international response it inspired and its larger implications. In Kristallnacht, Martin Gilbert seamlessly combines a moving account of the suffering of the victims of the Nazi regime with a sophisticated analysis of the gradual process, which made the horrors of the Third Reich possible. Broadening his canvas, Gilbert also powerfully depicts how the rest of the world failed Europe's increasingly desperate Jewish population: in the aftermath to Kristallnacht almost every country was asked to help; most would not do so, despite the transport of a staggering 10,000 German Jewish children to Britain.

Verslag van de zoektocht naar het vooroorlogse Poolse stadje Nasielsk, dat de grootvader van de Amerikaanse auteur tijdens een vakantie in 1938 op film vastlegde.

It has long been argued that the Allies did little or nothing to rescue Europe's Jews. Arguing that this has been consistently misinterpreted, The Myth of Rescue states that few Jews who perished could have been saved by any action of the Allies. In his new introduction to the paperback edition, Willliam Rubinstein responds to the controversy caused by his challenging views, and considers further the question of bombing Auschwitz, which remains perhaps the most widely discussed alleged lost opportunity for saving Jews available to the Allies.

When Adolf Hitler seized Vienna in the Anschluss of 1938, he called the city a pearl to which he would give a proper setting. But the setting he left behind seven years later was one of ruin and destruction--a physical, spiritual, and intellectual wasteland.Here is a grippingly narrated and heartbreaking account of the debasement of one of Europe's great cities. Thomas Weyr shows how Hitler turned Vienna from a vibrant metropolis that was the cradle of modernism into a drab provincial town. In this riveting narrative, we meet Austrian traitors like Arthur Seyss-Inquart and mass murderers like Odilo Globocnik. Proconsuls like Joseph Buerckel, who hacked Austria into seven pieces, and Baldur von Schirach, who dreamed of making Vienna into a Nazi capital on the Danube--and failed miserably. More painfully, Weyr chronicles the swift destruction of a rich Jewish culture and the removal of the city's 200,000 Jews through murder, exile, and deportation. Vienna never regained the global role the city had once played. Today, Weyr concludes, only the monuments remain--beautiful but lifeless.This is not only the story of Nazi leaders but of how the Viennese themselves lived and died: those who embraced Hitler, those who resisted, and the many who merely, in the local phrase, "ran after the rabbit." The author draws on his own experiences as a child in Vienna under Nazi rule in 1938, and those of his parents and friends, plus extensive documentary research, to craft a vivid historical narrative that chillingly captures how a once-great city lost its soul under Hitler.

CPNB-uitgave in kader van Buch Boeken (VARA)

Bekroond met de AKO Literatuurprijs, de F. Bordewijkprijs en de Opzij Literatuurprijs

Exploring a time of profound change, this book details the intellectual ferment after the fall of the Han dynasty. Questions about “heaven” and the affairs of the world that had seemed resolved by Han Confucianism resurfaced and demanded reconsideration. New currents in philosophy, religion, and intellectual life emerged to leave an indelible mark on the subsequent development of Chinese thought and culture. This period saw the rise of xuanxue (“dark learning” or “learning of the mysterious Dao”), the establishment of religious Daoism, and the rise of Buddhism. In examining the key ideas of xuanxue and focusing on its main proponents, the contributors to this volume call into question the often-presumed monolithic identity of this broad philosophical front. The volume also highlights the richness and complexity of religion in China during this period, examining the relationship between the Way of the Celestial Master and local, popular religious beliefs and practices, and discussing the relationship between religious Daoism and Buddhism.

Verhalen over mensen die in dieren veranderen (en omgekeerd) uit de Chinese, Joodse, Nederlandse, Indiase, Turkse, Surinaamse, Marokkaanse en Indonesische verteltraditie

Van Wildenrode is priester, leraar, dichter. Bij het Davidsfonds verscheen een monografie

poezie voorjeugdigen (10 plus)

Set in the grandeur of Africa a novel of passion and confrontation

Historisch blijft alles op elkaar lijken, maar soms wordt het goede onderdrukt

De auteur onderneemt een pelgrimstocht. 

Bevat een pleidooi na aanklacht wegens toverkunsten, met humor en welsprekendheid. 

1. Teil. Elementar-, Formen- und Wortlehre - ( Nachdruck der 2. Auflage) 2. Teil. Satzlehre (5. Auflage) (Zusammen zwei Bande)

(citaat: onze binnenkant is belangrijker dan onze buitenkant)

Een kleurrijke selectie van amoureuze en erotische bladzijden uit de wereldliteratuur... 

On June 22, 1941, Hitler launched a massive three-pronged attack on the Soviet Union, and in days his troops were within reach of Moscow. The attack was stunning, but Stalin's response was even more astonishing. During the invasion, the mighty Soviet military stood in place while its soldiers were slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands.
Drawing on a wealth of newly available documents, from classified Politburo papers and diaries of key generals to diplomatic cables and secret police memos, the Russian historian Constantine Pleshakov paints a startling portrait of Stalin, one of history's most feared despots, as a vulnerable and paralyzed leader. Refusing to believe that the Germans would strike first, despite repeated warnings, he continued to supply them with war materials in the days before the attack, then tied his generals' hands in the crucial first hours of the invasion. For more than a week, while Hitler rolled over Soviet territory, Stalin cowered in his dacha, leaving the country rudderless and -- as Pleshakov reveals here -- nearly losing power. The Red Army's effort to regain the territory lost in those first ten days cost more than 10 million Soviet lives.
Stalin's Folly is a dramatic hour-by-hour account that sheds light on an enigmatic and ruthless figure while providing a new and far deeper understanding of Russian history.

The humanities and the sciences face challenging times, each in their own way. The humanities suffer shrinking enrollments and budgets, and are perceived by some as irrelevant in a changing economy. The sciences face a political climate that disrespects academic expertise and challenges settled debates. Meanwhile age-old disputes about their spheres of knowledge continue: does scientific knowledge subsume that of the humanities? Are their forms of knowledge complementary, or ultimately at odds?

Richard Foley, a philosopher of knowledge and the former Dean of Arts and Sciences at New York University, here provides a concise and accessible overview of what the overarching goals of these disciplines are, relative to one another, and what kind of knowledge they aim to produce. His fundamental argument is that the sciences aim at insights that ideally are not limited to particular locations or times and are also perspective-free and wholly descriptive, whereas the humanities appropriately seek insights about specific locations and times, with the insights being perspective-based and having evaluative as well as descriptive elements. He also finds these two spheres of knowledge to be complementary in the search for understanding of our world and the human condition. The ultimate goal of Foley's investigation however is an eloquent defense and celebration of the culture of academic research. In an era of sound-bites and tweet-length falsehoods, this culture values and supports long-term intellectual achievements for the good of humanity - produced with hard work, dedication, and patience. The Geography of Insight is essential reading for readers both inside and outside of the academy.