Cross Channel Currents delves into the nuanced relationship between Britain and France, known as the Entente Cordiale. It features insights from notable figures like Roy Jenkins and Douglas Hurd, exploring historical connections, shared interests, and the complexities of cross-Channel relations through personal anecdotes and reflections.
Jean Valjean is free at last after nineteen years in prison. Cold and hungry, he is rejected by everyone he meets. But Jean's life is changed forever when he discovers love. He spends the rest of his life helping people, like himself, who have been victims of poverty and social injustice - 'les miserables'.--Cover.
The English first came into existence as an idea, before they had a common ruler and before the country they lived in even had a name. They have lasted as a recognizable entity ever since, and their defining national institutions can be traced back to the earliest years of their history. Since those precarious days of invasion and conquest, with many spectacular changes of fortune, their political, economic and cultural contacts have left traces for good and ill across the world. This book describes the history of the English and its meanings, from the earliest beginnings in wetlands and monasteries to the cosmopolitan energy of today's England. Robert Tombs draws out important threads running through the story, including participatory government, language, law, religion, ever-changing relations with other peoples, and the diverse and sometimes conflicting ways the English have understood their own history. This book, the first single-volume work on this scale for more than half a century, presents a challenging modern account, bringing out the strength and resilience of English government, the deep patterns of division, and yet also the persistent capacity to come together in the face of danger.
Focusing on the Paris Commune of 1871, this book delves into the often-overlooked role of the army during this tumultuous period. It explores the army's initial camaraderie with revolutionaries, its subsequent brutal suppression of the Commune, and the factors influencing its actions, including morale and organization. Through extensive archival research, the author sheds light on the government's policies and the tragic outcomes of the conflict, highlighting the immense loss of life and the complexities of civil war dynamics in modern Europe.
Focusing on nineteenth-century France, this book serves as an essential resource for specialists while also being accessible to students and general readers. It combines rich historical insights with engaging narrative, making it a dynamic and comprehensive overview of the period. Its lively approach ensures that readers will find both depth of knowledge and an enjoyable reading experience.
That Sweet Enemy brings both British wit (Robert Tombs is a British historian) and French panache (Isabelle Tombs is a French historian) to bear on three centuries of the history of Britain and France. From Waterloo to Chirac's slandering of British cooking, the authors chart this cross-channel entanglement and the unparalleled breadth of cultural, economic, and political influence it has wrought on both sides, illuminating the complex and sometimes contradictory aspects of this relationship--rivalry, enmity, and misapprehension mixed with envy, admiration, and genuine affection--and the myriad ways it has shaped the modern world. Written with wit and elegance, and illustrated with delightful images and cartoons from both sides of the Channel, That Sweet Enemy is a unique and immensely enjoyable history, destined to become a classic.
The authors present a definitive study of the unique and endlessly fascinating relationship between France and Britain - and its effects on the world
THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Geography comes before history. Islands cannot have the same history as continental plains. The United Kingdom is a European country, but not the same kind of European country as Germany, Poland or Hungary. For most of the 150 centuries during which Britain has been inhabited it has been on the edge, culturally and literally, of mainland Europe. In this succinct book, Tombs shows that the decision to leave the EU is historically explicable - though not made historically inevitable - by Britain's very different historical experience, especially in the twentieth century, and because of our more extensive and deeper ties outside Europe. He challenges the orthodox view that Brexit was due solely to British or English exceptionalism: in choosing to leave the EU, the British, he argues, were in many ways voting as typical Europeans.
Focusing on the Paris Commune, this book provides a detailed exploration of the revolutionary period following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. It examines how Parisians established an interim government in defiance of the National Assembly, highlighting the Commune's brief existence and its harsh repression. The author, Robert Tombs, contextualizes these events within the broader political and social landscape of the time, analyzing their lasting impact on France and Europe as a whole.
This exhibition catalogue showcases the work of Canadian artist and graphic designer Robert Tombs, highlighting his creations since 1985. It features 100 illustrations that encompass his diverse practice, including exhibition catalogues, artist's books, posters, and ephemera, all expressed through various techniques like drawing, xerography, letterpress, and offset printing. The catalogue itself is designed by Tombs in an experimental style, emphasizing a modernist sensibility with an economical approach to printing and binding. Included are two essays by Canadian writers Michael Davidge and Marina Roy, each approximately 4,000 words, that explore Tombs's art and book design, placing his work within the contexts of early modernism and conceptual art. Based in Ottawa, Tombs specializes in printed matter, photography, and installation, with a focus on experimental typography. His collaborations span numerous artists, writers, and institutions, and he holds degrees from Mount Allison University and Yale University. Tombs served as Senior Designer at Cornell University Press from 1999 to 2003, and his recent installations include works in Paris, Kingston, Erfurt, and Newfoundland. He has received 33 awards and his work is part of several public collections, including the Canada Council Art Bank and the National Gallery of Canada Library. All pieces in the exhibition belong to the artist's collection.