Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, first published in 1866, is a collection of 24 of the most commonly held superstitions of the Medieval era. For each story, Baring-Gould presents his research into the history and possible inspiration for the myth. Included among these familiar tales are: The Wandering Jew, the story of the Jewish shoemaker who is doomed to wander the earth until the Second Coming. William Tell, the Swiss hero who shot an apple off his son’s head. Saint George, a Christian...

In the Chinese Revolution of 1925–27 the Communist International played a very great role, depicted in this book quite comprehensively. We would, however, seek in vain in the library of the Communist International for a single book which attempts in any way to give a rounded picture of the Chinese Revolution. Instead, we find scores of “conjunctural” works’ which docilely reflect each zigzag in the politics of the Communist International, or, more correctly, of Soviet diplomacy in Chi...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andris Kursietis has been a researcher of military history for fi ft y years, using re-sources that span the globe. His latest book, “Bulgaria’s Military Leadership 1900 - 1945” contains the military biographies of the senior generals and admirals who served the Kingdom of Bulgaria during the fi rst forty-fi ve years of the 20th Century, a period during which Bulgaria was involved in three wars: the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), World War I (1915-1918) and World War II (19...

In March 1945, the German desperate offensive on the Danube began. While the Sixth SS Armored Army came out of positions to establish bridgeheads across the river, the STAVKA, Russia’s supreme command, was already making plans for the attack on Vienna. For ten days the German army plodded eastward until it was left exhausted. The big breakthrough did not materialize. On March 16, the Vienna operation began. The attacker became the defender, and between Budapest and Vienna the German army fo...

The revolution has come, though I did not expect it this way. War has come, just as I expected; and in that war I soon saw defeat and revolution relentlessly approaching.

With a truly profound bitterness I state: it is now clear that I was essentially correct in this Call for Socialism and in articles in my journal The Socialist. A political revolution in Germany had not yet occurred; now it has been completed, and only the revolutionaries’ inability to construct the new economy, in particu...

Tales of Terror and Mystery is a volume collecting 12 short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, first published in 1922 by John Murray. The collection is divided in two parts : Tales of Terror with horror stories, and Tales of Mystery with stories with strange schemes. This volume presents some of Conan Doyle s unduly neglected masterworks. Each begins in a quietly factual way, making all the more dramatic the crescendo of fear and puzzlement that ensues as each new circumstance is reveale...

This searing memoir, written by a son about his mother’s dementia, is set in a town in the Netherlands but the issues reflected are relevant anywhere. The family are devoted, but the mother’s decline reveals undercurrents in their relationships. We hear of the conventional medical approach to this difficult area of care but the family reject the medication so frequently prescribed to control patients.

For a while, they care for her themselves at home but her increasingly erratic and some...

The Me163 ‘Komet’ was the world’s first operational rocket plane, a milestone in military aviation history.

This book focuses mainly on the story of 6 American fighter pilots who each had a chance to achieve one victory over the fastest aircraft of the Luftwaffe.

Author Bart Vandamme (b. 1964) has been nurturing a passion for speed records in aviation for several years. After The Fastest Man in the World, this is his second book on this extraordinary subject.

The 1st Panzer Division was an elite unit in the German army. This division was one of the core divisions that conquered Europe for Nazi Germany. This book highlights the “Blitzkrieg” days of the division, running from September 1939 (the invasion of Poland) to the battle of Moscow in 1941, where the German advance finally came to a halt. The history of the 1st Panzer Division shows in detail what the concept of ‘Blitzkrieg’ meant for a mobile division at the time. It is the history ...

They get married at the Utrecht synagogue two weeks after meeting for the first time. The bride’s earlier fiancé has taken his life during the first week of the occupation. With many other Jewish Dutchmen the groom’s parents have already been arrested, before being transported to extermination camps. More than a hundred friends and family, many with a yellow Star of David, attend the reception. The cou-ple escape twice from the Dutch Theatre where the Germans hold Jews in custody pending...