{"title":"History \u0026 Politics","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"the-earth-transformed-peter-frankopan-signed","title":"The Earth Transformed Peter Frankopan (Signed)","description":"\u003cp\u003ePaperback  - bookplated\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the international bestselling author of The Silk Roads comes a major history of how a changing climate has dramatically shaped the development—and demise—of civilisations across time. When we think about history, we rarely pay much attention to the most destructive floods, the worst winters, the most devastating droughts or the ways that ecosystems have changed over time. In The Earth Transformed, Peter Frankopan, one of the world’s leading historians, shows that the natural environment is a crucial, if not the defining, factor in global history – and not just of humankind.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eVolcanic eruptions, solar activities, atmospheric, oceanic and other shifts, as well as anthropogenic behaviour, are fundamental parts of the past and the present. In this magnificent and groundbreaking book, we learn about the origins of our species: about the development of religion and language and their relationships with the environment; about how the desire to centralise agricultural surplus formed the origins of the bureaucratic state; about how growing demands for harvests resulted in the increased shipment of enslaved peoples; about how efforts to understand and manipulate the weather have a long and deep history. All provide lessons of profound importance as we face a precarious future of rapid global warming.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTaking us from the Big Bang to the present day and beyond, The Earth Transformed forces us to reckon with humankind’s continuing efforts to make sense of the natural world\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"City Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43969676280016,"sku":"","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0595\/8113\/7104\/files\/9781526622556.jpg?v=1713788768"},{"product_id":"pre-order-fly-wild-swans-by-jung-chang-signed","title":"Fly, Wild Swans by Jung Chang (Signed)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"imageBlockWrap\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"imageBlock\"\u003eHardback \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"imageBlock\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productContentWrap\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productContent\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003eJung Chang’s Wild Swans was a book that defined a generation, an epic personal history of Jung, her mother and grandmother – ‘three daughters of China’. The book opens in 1909 with her grandmother’s birth – and foot-binding – when China was under the last emperor, moving through Mao Zedong’s rule, especially the Cultural Revolution during which Jung’s parents were subjected to horrendous ordeals because of their courage. It finishes in 1978 when Deng Xiaoping officially ended the Mao era and started the ‘reforms’.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJung, at that propitious juncture, became one of the first Chinese to leave Communist China for the West. Nearly half a century on, China has risen from a decrepit and isolated state to a global power, the challenger to the United States’ dominant position in the world. Through those decades, Jung’s life has been intimately entwined with her native land.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer experiences dealing with the regime in those years were rich and revealing – especially so because all her books were (and are) banned. Fly, Wild Swans is the follow-up to Wild Swans and brings the story of Jung’s family – along with that of China – up to date. The book is in many ways Jung’s love letter to her mother.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is inevitably also about her grandmother and father, both of whom died tragically in the Cultural Revolution but are often recalled in this book. In fact, the past is never far away in Jung’s subsequent life. It has shaped her, and moulded the present China, and what’s more, it promises to herald the future.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChina is now at another watershed moment with the era of Chairman Xi Jinping greatly affecting the lives of Jung and her mother. Fly, Wild Swans is Jung’s heartfelt response to that experience, and a book filled with drama, love, curiosity and incredible history – both personal and global. Ultimately uplifting, told in Jung’s clear, honest and compelling voice, it is memoir writing at its best.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"City Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56589764362621,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0595\/8113\/7104\/files\/9780008661069.jpg?v=1753958883"},{"product_id":"sun-fun-bungaroosh-by-anthea-ballam","title":"Sun, Fun \u0026 Bungaroosh by Anthea Ballam","description":"\u003cp\u003eA selection of seaside delights and devotions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe City of Brighton and Hove is warm and welcoming - it welcomes tourists, conference delegates, refugees and seagulls. We have a cool festival and a very noisy Pride and we claim to be one of the most popular locations for Jedis. The City is predominantly secular yet has many well-attended churches, several mosques, synagogues and a Hindu temple, not to mention Buddhist centres of excellence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis little prayer book - dedicated to the people of Brighton and Hove and their distinctive spirit - also takes in a few universal themes. It's appropriate for believers and non-believers alike.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"City Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57334536896893,"sku":null,"price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0595\/8113\/7104\/files\/coversunfunbungaroosh.jpg?v=1762422518"},{"product_id":"pre-order-talking-classics-the-shock-of-the-old-by-professor-mary-beard-signed","title":"Talking Classics by Professor Mary Beard (Signed)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHardback\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhat's exciting about a piece of bread 4,000 years old? Or some pots of paint abandoned in the eruption at Pompeii? Why should we be bothered with the distant past anyway? What's the point? The life, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome have something to offer everyone. They are not the property of wealthy white men only. They make us wonder how to make sense of people who lived long ago (from angry landlords to giggling senators) - and to think harder about our own world, to look at it differently.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn Talking Classics, Mary Beard points to the surprising connections between antiquity and the present. From revolutionaries to dictators, Bob Dylan to Beyoncé, she joins forces with the varied modern characters who have been transfixed by the ancient world. It's not compulsory, she argues, to be excited by antiquity, but it's a shame not to be.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAfter half a century teaching and studying classics, she fills the book with lively stories, curious facts and some good gossip. Talking Classics explains why the deep past does really affect us all.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"City Books ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57712994484605,"sku":null,"price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0595\/8113\/7104\/files\/9781805220312.jpg?v=1768660176"},{"product_id":"rasputin-and-the-downfall-of-the-romanovs-by-antony-beevor-signed","title":"Rasputin: And the Downfall of the Romanovs by Antony Beevor (Signed)","description":"\u003cp\u003eHardback \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHow could a barely literate peasant from Siberia determine the fate of the world? Undoubtedly, the so-called 'mad monk' Rasputin bewitched Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra. Yet their strange and scandalous relationship conceals a riddle, one that casts an intriguing light on the controversial 'great man' theory of history. Rasputin was a devoted monarchist, not a revolutionary.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHe had no official position, no forces at his command. Nevertheless, he contributed more to the fall of the Romanov dynasty than any other individual. So demoralised was the Tsarist officer corps by stories of corruption, to say nothing of the rumours of his debauchery with the Empress - and even her daughters - that when the February Revolution broke out, not a sword was raised in defence of the regime.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJust as Rasputin cast a spell over the Romanovs, his legend has bewitched historians. More than a century later, we still fail to comprehend fully the collapse of the greatest autocracy on Earth. Was there any truth to the wild tales that brought down the empire? Or was his true legacy an unsettling lesson on the potency of myth? From the bestselling author of Stalingrad comes a fascinating and deeply insightful historical post-mortem\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"City Books ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58212629250429,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0595\/8113\/7104\/files\/9781399617628_1.jpg?v=1779874815"},{"product_id":"the-future-is-peace-by-aziz-abu-sarah-maoz-inon-signed-by-both-authors","title":"The Future Is Peace by Aziz Abu Sarah \u0026 Maoz Inon (Signed by both authors)","description":"\u003cp\u003eHardback - bookplated\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePeople have lost hope that peace is possible. Talking about peace seems too vulnerable, too naïve, too dangerous. We have resigned ourselves to this unending war as the only way forward.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBut we have tried this. We have tried war. The only war that is won is one that leads to peace.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOn paper Aziz and Maoz should not be friends. Aziz's brother was killed by Israeli forces, and Maoz lost both his parents in the 7 October 2023 attacks. In The Future is Peace, these two lifelong peace activists take readers on a searing journey to understand this holy, bloodstained land and explore each other's personal and national histories.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePairing unapologetic candour and inspirational prose, Abu Sarah and Inon are sending a message to humanity that the people have the power to make change. Peace is achievable, not just between Palestinians and Israelis, but throughout the world.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"City Books ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58260981449085,"sku":null,"price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0595\/8113\/7104\/files\/9781837264070.jpg?v=1780926837"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0595\/8113\/7104\/collections\/Frostquake_hardback_18.99.jpg?v=1780395465","url":"https:\/\/www.city-books.pro\/collections\/history.oembed","provider":"City Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}