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East Prussia 1945. Seven-year-old Liesabeth Otto lost her mother and siblings while fleeing the Red Army. Alone she wanders through the forests and ends up in the neighboring Baltic States in search of food and shelter. She struggled for years under incredible privation, always on the lookout for Soviet henchmen. A harrowing fate, at the same time a panorama of German-Soviet post-war history.

Een diepgaand onderzoek van originele documenten van de geschiedenis van Amerika.

The Dirlewanger Brigade was an anti-partisan unit of the Nazi army, reporting directly to Heinrich Himmler. The first members of the brigade were mostly poachers who were released from prisons and concentration camps and who were believed to have the skills necessary for hunting down and capturing partisan fighters in their camps in the forests of the Eastern Front. Their numbers were soon increased by others who were eager for a way out of imprisonment—including men who had been convicted of burglary, assault, murder, and rape.

Under the leadership of Oskar Dirlewanger, a convicted rapist and alcoholic, they could do as they pleased: there were no repercussions for even their worst behavior. This was the group used for its special “talents” to help put down the Jewish uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto, killing an estimated 35,000 men, women, and children in a single day. Even by Nazi standards, the brigade was considered unduly violent and an investigation of its activities was opened. The Nazi hierarchy was eager to distance itself from the behavior of the brigade and eventually exiled many of the members to Belarus. Based on the archives from Germany, Poland, and Russia, The SS Dirlewanger Brigade offers an unprecedented look at one of the darkest chapters of World War II.

Zusammenfassung: De geschiedenis van rechts terreur in Duitsland begon niet met de opkomst van de nationaalsocialisten, maar met een samenzwering tegen de Duitse democratie en een bloedige reeks moorden precies honderd jaar geleden. De daders in de vroege Weimarrepubliek hadden dezelfde motieven, wrok en doelen als de rechtse terroristen van nu. Hun dodelijke vastberadenheid was gebaseerd op sociaal milieu en emotie, op structeren en netwerken die overal mogelijk zijn en nooit helemaal zijn verdwenen. In De wraak van de verliezers legt Florian Huber parallellen tussen rechts terreur in de vroege Weimarrepubliek en het rechts-terrorisme van nu. Een spannend verhaal dat uitmondt in de spectaculaire moord op Walther Rathenau, de Duitse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken, waarmee Huber laat zien dat de geschiedenis zich nu herhaalt - of dat de aantrekkingskracht rechts-terrorisme wellicht nooit echt is afgenomen. Bron: Flaptekst, uitgeversinformatie.

An extraordinary portrait of thirteenth-century Languedoc as well as of the savage war fought within its borders over the future of Christianity

In the twelfth century, Languedoc, in the far south, was among the most beautiful parts of France, far away from the world of the feudal north. However, it was in this rich region that a heresy of Eastern origin took hold, forcing the Catholic Church to confront a rival whose teachings questioned the foundations of Christian thought. These heretics, called Cathars, held a profoundly pessimistic view of the world that was based on the duality of all things, including good and evil: according to one heretic, "The one, the good God, made the invisible world, while the other, the evil God, made the visible one."

Jonathan Sumption's acclaimed history examines the roots of this heresy as well as of the crusade the Church undertook in 1208 to stamp out the infidels, who ultimately were conquered by the Catholic armies. But this book does more than simply describe this terrible war; it reconstructs a lost world of great cultural richness, one that saw the creation in Languedoc of the troubadour tradition as well as the magnificent castles at Cabaret and Carcassonne.

Mark Greengrass's gripping, major, original account of Europe in an era of tumultuous change

SUNDAY TIMES and FINANCIAL TIMES Books of the Year 2014

This addition to the landmark Penguin History of Europe series is a fascinating study of 16th and 17th century Europe and the fundamental changes which led to the collapse of Christendom and established the geographical and political frameworks of Western Europe as we know it.

From peasants to princes, no one was untouched by the spiritual and intellectual upheaval of this era. Martin Luther's challenge to church authority forced Christians to examine their beliefs in ways that shook the foundations of their religion. The subsequent divisions, fed by dynastic rivalries and military changes, fundamentally altered the relations between ruler and ruled. Geographical and scientific discoveries challenged the unity of Christendom as a belief-community. Europe, with all its divisions, emerged instead as a geographical projection. It was reflected in the mirror of America, and refracted by the eclipse of Crusade in ambiguous relationships with the Ottomans and Orthodox Christianity. Chronicling these dramatic changes, Thomas More, Shakespeare, Montaigne and Cervantes created works which continue to resonate with us. Christendom Destroyed is a rich tapestry that fosters a deeper understanding of Europe's identity today.

'The Penguin History of Europe series ... is one of contemporary publishing's great projects' New Statesman

This gripping and richly illustrated account of wartime Greece explores the impact of the Nazi Occupation upon the lives and values of ordinary people. The first full account of the experience of occupation, it offers a vividly human picture of resistance fighters and black marketeers, teenage German conscripts and Gestapo officers, Jews and starving villagers.

"Fascinating. . . . [Mazower] succeeds in getting under the skin of the occupation. . . . [This book] conjures up, in vivid detail, life under an occupation that had shattered old certainties and replaced them with painful choices, cynical compromises, and hopes undercut by the daily death toll." --Mark Almond, New York Times

"A vivid picture of the German occupier's mind and actions. . . . Mazower's arguments are always fair." --Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A superb book on the horrors afflicting wartime Greece. . . . [Mazower] has done vast archival research and emerged with a gripping, readable and human account, setting every moment of a tragic period in appropriate context." --Fritz Stern, Foreign Affairs

"[A] sensitive, illuminating and richly textured account of painful, complex experience." --Richard Overy, Observer
Mark Mazower is professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London, and author of Dark Continent.

Examines the life of Spanish dictator General Franco

In the early nineteenth century, Britons and Americans renewed their struggle over the legacy of the American Revolution, leading to a second confrontation that redefined North America.  Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Alan Taylor’s vivid narrative tells the riveting story of the soldiers, immigrants, settlers, and Indians who fought to determine the fate of a continent. Would revolutionary republicanism sweep the British from Canada? Or would the British contain, divide, and ruin the shaky republic?
 
In a world of double identities, slippery allegiances, and porous boundaries, the leaders of the republic and of the empire struggled to control their own diverse peoples. The border divided Americans—former Loyalists and Patriots—who fought on both sides in the new war, as did native peoples defending their homelands. And dissident Americans flirted with secession while aiding the British as smugglers and spies.

During the war, both sides struggled to sustain armies in a northern land of immense forests, vast lakes, and stark seasonal swings in the weather. After fighting each other to a standstill, the Americans and the British concluded that they could safely share the continent along a border that favored the United States at the expense of Canadians and Indians.

Moving beyond national histories to examine the lives of common men and women, The Civil War of 1812 reveals an often brutal (sometimes comic) war and illuminates the tangled origins of the United States and Canada.

Moving beyond national histories to examine the lives of common men and women, The Civil War of 1812 reveals an often brutal (sometimes comic) war and illuminates the tangled origins of the United States and Canada.

'The Penguin History of Europe series ... is one of contemporary publishing's great projects' New Statesman

The Pursuit of Glory brings to life one of the most extraordinary periods in European history - from the battered, introvert continent after the Thirty Years War to the dynamic one that experienced the French Revolution and the wars of Napoleon. Tim Blanning depicts the lives of ordinary people and the dominant personalities of the age (Louis XIV, Frederick the Great, Napoleon), and explores an era of almost unprecedented change, growth and cultural, political and technological ferment that shaped the societies and economies of entire countries.

'A scintillating, encyclopaedic history, rich in detail from the arcane to the familiar... a veritable tour de force' Richard Overy, New Statesman

'Transnational history at its finest ... .. social, political and cultural themes swirl together in one great canvas of immense detail and beauty' Gerard DeGroot, The Times

'Dazzlingly erudite and entertaining' Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times

A masterpiece which brings to life an extraordinarly turbulent and dramatic era of revolutionary change.

The Pursuit of Power draws on a lifetime of thinking about nineteenth-century Europe to create an extraordinarily rich, surprising and entertaining panorama of a continent undergoing drastic transformation. The book aims to reignite the sense of wonder that permeated this remarkable era, as rulers and ruled navigated overwhelming cultural, political and technological changes. It was a time where what was seen as modern with amazing speed appeared old-fashioned, where huge cities sprang up in a generation, new European countries were created and where, for the first time, humans could communicate almost instantly over thousands of miles. In the period bounded by the Battle of Waterloo and the outbreak of World War I, Europe dominated the rest of the world as never before or since: this book breaks new ground by showing how the continent shaped, and was shaped by, its interactions with other parts of the globe.

Richard Evans explores fully the revolutions, empire-building and wars that marked the nineteenth century, but the book is about so much more, whether it is illness, serfdom, religion or philosophy. The Pursuit of Power is a work by a historian at the height of his powers: essential for anyone trying to understand Europe, then or now.

From October 1944 to April 1945 the Red Army fought a bloody campaign to destroy the German Army in East Prussia, and capture the capital of the province, Konigsberg. This book follows the course of one of historys forgotten battles, the fall of the city of Konigsberg. It covers in detail the desperate battles the Germans fought to hold off the Red Army, from the Soviet Memel and Gumbinnen Offensives of October 1944, which saw Russian soldiers break into the frontier districts of East Prussia, to the final stand of the German defenders of Konigsberg in April 1945. The German generals, Erhard Raus of the Third Panzer Army and Otto Lasch of Fortress Konigsberg were faced by enemies both external and internal. Their struggle to defend the city after the great Soviet offensive of January 1945 was hampered by the activities of the malevolent Gauleiter Erich Koch, and the obstinate refusal of Hitler to countenance any operation flexibility. Drawing on primary sources, The Battle of Konigsberg recounts the terrible story of these campaigns both German and Soviet perspectives. Referring to the records of the commanders who fought these battles, it provides a unique in-depth study of the forgotten last stand, of the fall of Fortress Konigsberg.

"This engaging book tackles the contentious issue of categorizing the Christian military campaigns against Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula."—Historian

 Space and time are the most fundamental features of our experience of the world, and yet they are also the most perplexing. Does time really flow, or is that simply an illusion? Did time have a beginning? What does it mean to say that time has a direction? Does space have boundaries, or is itinfinite? Is change really possible? Could space and time exist in the absence of any objects or events? Are our space and time unique, or could there be other, parallel worlds with their own space and time? What, in the end, are space and time? Do they really exist, or are they simply theconstructions of our minds?Robin Le Poidevin provides a clear, witty, and stimulating introduction to these deep questions, and many other mind-boggling puzzles and paradoxes. He gives a vivid sense of the difficulties raised by our ordinary ideas about space and time, but he also gives us the basis to think about theseproblems independently, avoiding large amounts of jargon and technicality.His book is an invitation to think philosophically rather than a sustained argument for particular conclusions, but Le Poidevin does advance and defend a number of controversial views. He argues, for example, that time does not actually flow, that it is possible for space and time to be both finiteand yet be without boundaries, and that causation is the key to an understanding of one of the deepest mysteries of time: its direction.Travels in Four Dimensions draws on a variety of vivid examples and stories from science, history, and literature to bring its questions to life. No prior knowledge of philosophy is required to enjoy this book. The universe might seem very different after reading it.

Dood, liefde en sex zijn de elementen die het leven van een jonge schilder bepalen.

Een dag in het leven van een oud-verzetstrijder voor wie het bestaan uitzichtloos is geworden.

Tragikomische episoden, vol erotiek, dood en ellende, uit de relatie tussen een kunstenaar en de vrouw die hem verliet.

Vijf monologen van mensen die voor een ingrijpende beslissing staan.

De twee wezens die in hun ondergoed voor me staan doven elke vorm van erotisch verlangen. Rogier, die zich met zijn extra kilo's duidelijk niet op zijn gemak voelt, slaat stuurs zijn armen over elkaar. Zijn zijflanken hangen over zijn onderbroek. Masja naast hem schijnt zich nergens voor te schamen in haar zwarte lingerie en staart me uitdagend aan. 'Nou zeg het maar, meneer de regisseur,' zegt ze, met iets te veel nadruk op het laatste woord. De onderliggende gedachte is helder: jij weet het niet, jij hebt het nooit geweten en je zult het nooit weten.

Bundel met 24 verhalende opstellen over ziektegeschiedenissen van bijzondere patiënten met hersenstoornissen.

De ontmoeting met een mysterieuze jonge vrouw brengt een man in een verwarrende situatie.

Vanaf 1 november staat Nederland een maand lang in het teken van de bekendste roman uit het rijke oeuvre van Willem Frederik Hermans: 'De donkere kamer van Damokles'. Dit boek zal dan in een oplage van 890.000 exemplaren worden uitgereikt aan alle leden van Openbare Bibliotheken. Als begeleidend boekje schreef Hermans-biograaf Willem Otterspeer een biografisch essay over Hermans' inspiratiebronnen, de ontstaansgeschiedenis van de roman en de uiteenlopende reacties die deze klassieker door de jaren heen heeft uitgelokt. Ook probeert hij te achterhalen hoe Hermans als schrijver te werk ging en gaat hij op zoek naar het creatieve hart van het boek. De vraag is altijd geweest: heeft Dorbeck nu wel of niet bestaan? Ook Otterspeer gaat op zoek naar Dorbeck, maar natuurlijk vooral om Hermans te vinden.

Het bewogen leven van een arme Mexicaanse revolutionair die tot macht en aanzien komt.

Het beoefenen van de deugden van het Tao-meesterschap versterkt de band tussen geestverwanten.

Verzameling interviews met bekende Nederlanders.

In Nazareth aan het begin van onze jaartelling wordt Jozef, de vader van Jezus, ten onrechte beschuldigd van moord op een vooraanstaande stadsgenoot en dreigt gekruisigd te worden.

Keuze uit de poëzie van de Duitse literator (1797-1856).