Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  The Apparitionists - A Tale of...

  Peter Manseau

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  A story of faith and fraud in post-Civil War America, told through the lens of a photographer who claimed he could capture images of the dead 
  In the early days of photography, in the death-strewn wake of the Civil War, one man seized America's imagination. A "spirit photographer," William Mumler took portrait photographs that featured the ghostly presence of a lost loved one alongside the living subject. Mumler was a sensation: The affluent and influential came calling, including Mary Todd Lincoln, who arrived at his studio in disguise amidst rumors of seances in the White House.  
  Peter Manseau brilliantly captures a nation wracked with grief and hungry for proof of the existence of ghosts and for contact with their dead husbands and sons. It took a circus-like trial of Mumler on fraud charges, starring P. T. Barnum for the prosecution, to expose a fault line of doubt and manipulation. And even then, the judge sided with the defense - nobody ever solved the mystery of his spirit photography.  
  This forgotten puzzle offers a vivid snapshot of America at a crossroads in its history, a nation in thrall to new technology while clinging desperately to belief.

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  The White Sniper - Simo Häyhä

  Tapio Saarelainen

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  Simo Häyhä (1905-2002) is the most famous sniper in the world. During the Winter War fought between Russia and Finland in 1939-1940 he had 542 confirmed kills with iron sights, a record that still stands today. He has been a role model for snipers all over the world. 
  Simo Häyhä was a man of action who spoke very little, but he was respected by his men and his superiors and given many difficult missions, including taking out specific targets. Able to move silently and swiftly through the landscape, melting into the snowbound surroundings in his white camouflage fatigues, his aim was deadly and his quarry rarely escaped. The Russians learned of his reputation as a marksman and tried several times to kill him by indirect fire. He was promoted from corporal to second lieutenant and he was awarded the Cross of Kollaa. 
  After the war Simo Häyhä lead a quiet, unassuming life in farming and forestry. His roots were deep in the Finnish soil, and he loved life in rural Finland. A true patriot, he epitomized the traits of a professional soldier, performing his duty and setting an example of bravery that personified the Finnish spirit when confronted by the Russian onslaught. The White Sniper fully explores Simo Häyhä's life, his exploits in the Winter War, and the secrets behind his success.

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  Loyal Dissent - Brief Lives of...

  A.C. Grayling, James Campbell,...

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  With origins as far back as the 14th Century, Westminster School is one of the oldest in the country with a long tradition of scholarship - and outstanding results, both in academic and public life. 
  Over the centuries, Westminster has stood apart from other prominent schools. Firmly grounded between Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, it has remained curiously unswayed by the influence and ethos of figures such as Thomas Arnold and the Victorian public school tradition, combining a distinctive evolution with the retention of much of its unique character. 
  A great many of the school's former pupils are famous names. At one time, some of those pupils were uncontrolled outside school hours and notoriously unruly about town, but always encouraged to question, challenge and debate - and above all to respect genuine scholarship. They rank among this country's most distinguished thinkers, writers, theologians, scientists, politicians, artists and musicians. 
  Ben Jonson, George Herbert, Richard Busby, John Locke, Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke, Lord Mansfield, Charles Wesley, Warren Hastings, Jeremy Bentham, Henry Mayhew, A. A. Milne, John Spedan Lewis, Richard Doll and Tony Benn are the individuals the authors recognise as 'loyal dissenters', at once respectful of peers, staff and principles, yet unafraid to forge their own direction.

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  I’ll Always Have Paris - A Memoir

  Art Buchwald

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  In 1948, an Austrian-Hungarian Jewish 22-year-old from New York began his new career. Determined to be famous, he bought a one-way ticket to Paris, France. His assignment: cover nightclubs, sidewalk cafes, and weddings for the legendary Paris Herald Tribune. For the next 14 years, he developed a life and career by socializing and reporting on the folkways and foibles of some of the most powerful and famous people in the world. In I'             ll Always Have Paris, Art Buchwald remembers those golden years—             when he fell in love with a redhead named Ann, spoofed Hemingway, dined with gangsters, and crashed costume balls in Venice. Filled with Buchwald's extraordinary gift for storytelling, this memoir is a true delight.

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  Minor Works of Josephus

  Flavius Josephus

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  There are 3 parts to this collection. 
   
  (1) Against Apion is a two-volume defence of Judaism as classical religion and philosophy, stressing its antiquity, as opposed to what Josephus claimed was the relatively more recent tradition of the Greeks. Some anti-Judean allegations ascribed by Josephus to the Greek writer Apion, and myths accredited to Manetho are also addressed. 
   
  (2) Discourse To The Greeks Concerning Hades describes the author's views on the afterlife against the prevailing view of the "Greeks" (i.e., the Greco-Romans) of his day. Although generally still reprinted in editions of Whiston's Josephus, later scholars have realized that this attribution is incorrect. This brief discourse, at least in its original form, is now attributed to the church father Hippolytus. 
   
  (3) The Life of Josephus is an autobiographical text written by Josephus in approximately 94-99 CE – possibly as an appendix to his Antiquities of the Jews – where the author for the most part re-visits the events of the War, apparently in response to allegations made against him by Justus of Tiberias. (Summary from Wikipedia)

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  A Fighter Pilot's Call to Arms -...

  Stanislav Fejfar, Simon Muggleton

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  The World War II memoir of a Battle of Britain fighter ace who escaped Czechoslovakia to serve in France and with the RAF in England. Stunned into action by the rapid collapse of his country in 1938, Czech pilot Stanislav Fejfar escaped and traveled through Poland to serve initially with the French Foreign Legion, then as a sous-lieutenant with the French air force in early 1940. After the demise of that country, he fled to England in July 1940 to join the RAF. Posted to 310 Squadron, he saw much feverish action and he rapidly became an ace during the Battle of Britain but was to lose his life on 17 May 1942, shot down over Boulogne flying his beloved Spitfire. Until recently it was not known that throughout his short career, Stanislav kept a full day-by-day diary which has been translated by Henry Prokop and is the basis for this book. Augmented by the diligent research of Norman Franks and Simon Muggleton in unearthing previously unpublished combat reports, letters and other articles of memorabilia, together with their annotated comments, this is an extremely valuable and moving account by a man who gave his life defending freedom. A book which will be sought out by anyone interested in the history of the Battle of Britain.

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