Forty miles out into the Atlantic from the western isles of Scotland lies the archipelago of St Kilda. Home to human populations for more than 4000 years, the islands inhabitants were evacuated from the main island in 1930 leaving it as a haven for wildlife, a tourist destination and workplace for those studying and monitoring the islands ecology and its radar station built in the 1950s. Many of those writing about St Kilda have emphasised the remoteness and insularity of its environment, ...

When the last 36 inhabitants of St Kilda, 40 miles west of the Scottish Hebrides, were evacuated in 1930, the archipelago at ‘the edge of the world’ lost its permanent population after five millennia.It has long been accepted that the islanders’ failure to adapt to the modern world was its demise. Andrew Fleming overturns the traditional view. Unafraid of highlighting dark times, he shows how they sacrificed their reputation as an uncorrupted, ideal society to embrace and exploit t...

First published in 1988, The Dartmoor Reaves is a classic story of archaeological fieldwork and discovery, and a winner of the Archaeological Book Award. This major new edition adds both color illustrations and two substantial new chapters to the original groundbreaking text, which revolutionized our understanding of Britain's prehistoric landscapes.Dartmoor has long been known for the richness of its prehistoric heritage; stone circles, hut circles, massive burial cairns,...

Cipières, in the Alpes-Maritimes, is a French upland landscape rich in archaeology and distinctive in its topography. Cipières: Community and Landscape in the Alpes-Maritimes is a unique exploration which brings together a wealth of documentary sources retained in the village with material evidence in the landscape to produce an interdisciplinary and holistic account of the development of one community and its lands. Beginning with a history of the Project, the volume examines the village’...

The De Havilland Comet was an absolute marvel of British engineering—the world's first commercial jetliner, promising to shrink the globe with unprecedented speed. But within a year of its triumphant launch, the planes began spontaneously exploding mid-flight in the clear blue sky, plummeting into the Mediterranean Sea without warning. The culprit was not sabotage or pilot error, but a devastating ignorance of high-altitude physics. This technical history dissects the aerodynamic catastrop...

Shortlisted for The Wolfson History Prize.Discover the true story of St. Kilda.When the last 36 inhabitants of St Kilda, 40 miles west of the Scottish Hebrides, were evacuated in 1930, the archipelago at 'the edge of the world' lost its permanent population after five millennia.It has long been accepted that the islanders' failure to adapt to the modern world was its demise. Andrew Fleming overturns the traditional view. Unafraid of highlighting d...

Discover the strange and true stories that shaped Scotland's past.From ancient battles to modern-day mysteries, Scottish History: Strange but True unearths the most bizarre and hilarious facts about Scotland's rich heritage. Explore the iconic figures, peculiar events, and cultural quirks that define this captivating nation.Perfect for history buffs and curious readers alike, this collection of anecdotes offers a fresh perspective on Scottish ident...

The gripping, marvel-filled account of how a native son took a casual walk up a mountain on Cape Breton Island and made an archeological discovery of world-shaking proportions.In the summer of 2002, at home for his parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary, Paul Chiasson decided to climb a mountain he had never explored on the island where eight generations of his Acadian family had lived. Cape Breton is one of the oldest points of exploration and settlement in the Americas, with a his...

The extraordinary story of the UK’s most gruelling and spectacularly beautiful islands. Tom Steel’s acclaimed portrait of the St Kildan’s lives is now updated in this reissued edition.Situated at the westernmost point of the United Kingdom, the spectacularly beautiful but utterly bleak island of St Kilda is familiar to virtually nobody. A lonely archipelago off the coast of Scotland, it is hard to believe that for over two thousand years, men and women lived here, cut off from the ...

How did medieval Europeans use and change their environments, think about the natural world, and try to handle the natural forces affecting their lives? This groundbreaking environmental history examines medieval relationships with the natural world from the perspective of social ecology, viewing human society as a hybrid of the cultural and the natural. Richard Hoffmann's interdisciplinary approach sheds important light on such central topics in medieval history as the decline of Rome, re...

The Hebrides hold a remarkable place in the imaginations of Scotland and England. On the outer edge of the British Isles and facing the Atlantic Ocean, these iconic islands form part of Europe's boundary. Because of their unique position, they have been at the centre of a network of ancient shipping routes which has led to a history of cultures colliding and merging. Home to a long and rich Gaelic tradition, they have attracted saints and sinners, and artists and writers, inspiring awe and...

More wide ranging, both geographically and chronologically, than any previous study, this well-illustrated book offers a new definition of Celtic art.Tempering the much-adopted art-historical approach, D.W. Harding argues for a broader definition of Celtic art and views it within a much wider archaeological context. He re-asserts ancient Celtic identity after a decade of deconstruction in English-language archaeology.Harding argues that there were communities in Iron Age Eu...