The pandemic that plagued mankind, previously contained, has returned. The world's population is again facing the dark and sobering realization that its very existence is threatened. The distant, horrible memory has returned with a vengeance. The vaccine, once the world's savior, has lost its ability to contain the onslaught of a new and deadly strain of the disease. The world's leading experts are at a loss to explain or even contain, the seemingly unstoppable tsunami.

This book examines how European farmers responded to the economic and political challenges created by the First World War and the Great Depression. The difficulties of interwar Europe have been frequently explored, but rarely from the perspective of the agricultural sector, where two-fifths of the population earned their livelihood, mostly as small, family farmers.The traditional literature argues that the landed elites conspired to undermine many of Europe's young democracies afte...

When a concussion at the National Championship Game lands Sam Brock, star quarterback for the University of Oklahoma Sooners, in the hospital, a sample of his blood is tested by a secretive medical research lab.When the blood is found to have a rare antigen that would lead to a cure for HIV/AIDS, Sam is kidnapped and becomes a pawn in a world unfamiliar and deadly. He draws the attention of two rival clandestine medical research groups...one dedicated to a humanitarian mission to b...

Few could have imagined ten years ago where we'd be in America today: We are confronted on all sides by interminable crises that threaten the very fabric of our nation—from a border flooded with millions of migrants from all over the world, to a fentanyl crisis killing more American youths every year than the past three wars combined. Radical transgender activism and other cultural insanity has pushed more youths to commit suicide than at any other time in history. It seems as though the w...

Great Britain, the 1980s. VHS is rapidly becoming popular, and the more gory and violent the movies, the better. One company has latched on to this trend quickly – selling and renting controversial films to the public. It is called the Video Instant Picture Company, a.k.a. VIPCO.Founded and run by Michael Lee – Mike to his friends – this small independent video distributor would swiftly grow into a money-making machine and become synonymous with the so-called 'Video Nasties' scanda...

Today's wine industry is characterized by regional differences not only in the wines themselves but also in the business models by which these wines are produced, marketed, and distributed. In Old World countries such as France, Spain, and Italy, small family vineyards and cooperative wineries abound. In New World regions like the United States and Australia, the industry is dominated by a handful of very large producers. This is the first book to trace the economic and historical forces t...

Amid present-day conflagrations, this illuminating book reminds us of the sources, and profound consequences, of Christian fundamentalism in the sixteenth century. Simpson focuses on the cultural transformation in early modern England that allowed common people to read the Bible for the first time. The last wave of fundamentalist reading in the West provoked 150 years of violent upheaval; as we approach a second wave, this powerful book alerts us to our peril.

How did the Reformation, which initially promoted decidedly illiberal positions, end up laying the groundwork for Western liberalism?The English Reformation began as an evangelical movement driven by an unyielding belief in predestination, intolerance, stringent literalism, political quietism, and destructive iconoclasm. Yet by 1688, this illiberal early modern upheaval would deliver the foundations of liberalism: free will, liberty of conscience, religious tolerat...

When we think of breaking images, we assume that it happens somewhere else. We also tend to think of iconoclasts as barbaric. Iconoclasts are people like the Taliban, who blew up Buddhist statues in 2001. We tend, that is, to look with horror on iconoclasm. This book argues instead that iconoclasm is a central strand of Anglo-American modernity. Our horror at the destruction of art derives in part from the fact that we too did, and still do, that. This is most obviously true of England's i...

"This book traces the history of a complex sexual fantasy which features recurrently in Goethe's writings from his days as a student in Leipzig to the final years as Europe's most celebrated living poet. Simpson shows how the young man's fantasy of innocent sexuality became an increasingly troubled one during the poet's first decade in Weimar. Goethe began to recognize in it a submerged element: the incestuous roots of desire. Triggered by this discovery, Goethe's imagination becomes incre...

In this distinctive new history of the origins of the Spanish Civil War, James Simpson and Juan Carmona tackle the highly-debated issue of why it was that Spain's democratic Second Republic failed. They explore the interconnections between economic growth, state capacity, rural social mobility and the creation of mass competitive political parties, and how these limited the effectiveness of the new republican governments, and especially their attempts to tackle economic and social problems...

Embark on an Unprecedented Odyssey: Annie Press Chronicles O.J. Simpson's Enigmatic Journey and His Enduring Legacy.Prepare to be transported on an unforgettable journey as Annie Press reveals the compelling biography of O.J. Simpson, a figure whose life story defies the limits of imagination. Prepare for an immersive journey into the incredible life of a man who has made an everlasting impression on the fabric of American society.In this enthralling biogra...