Visitors to the battlefields of France and Belgium expressed pain and anguish, pride and nostalgia, and wonder and surprise at what they saw. Postcards from the Western Front chronicles the many ways in which these sites were perceived and commemorated by British people, both during the First World War and in the twenty years following the Armistice.Mark Connelly’s definitive and engaging study of the former Western Front examines how different and distinctive sub-communit...

`We Can Take It!' shows that the British remember the war in a peculiar way, thanks to a mix of particular images and evidence. Our memory has been shaped by material which is completely removed from historical reality. These images (including complete inventions) have combined to make a new history. The vision is mostly cosy and suits the way in which the Britons conceive of themselves: dogged, good humoured, occasionally bumbling, unified and enjoying diversity. In fact Britons load thei...

The films made by the British Instructional Films (BIF) company in the decade following the end of the First World War helped to shape the way in which that war was remembered. This is both a work of cinema history and a study of the public’s memory of WW1.By the early twenties, the British film industry was struggling to cope with the power of Hollywood and government help was needed to guarantee its survival. The 1927 Cinematograph Films Act was intended to support the domestic f...

George Orwell (1903-1950) is one of the most influential authors in the English language. His landmark novels Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) have been translated into many foreign languages and inspired numerous stage and film adaptations. His well-known essays "A Hanging" and "Shooting an Elephant" are widely anthologized and often taught in college composition classes. The writer is credited with inventing the terms "Big Brother," "thought crime," "u...

A three-time National Book Award for Fiction winner, Saul Bellow (1915-2005) is one of the most highly regarded American authors to emerge since World War II. His 60-year career produced 14 novels and novellas, two volumes of nonfiction, short story collections, plays and a book of collected letters.His 1953 breakthrough novel The Adventures of Augie March was followed by Seize the Day (1956), Herzog (1964) and Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970). His

This is a major new history of the British army during the Great War written by three leading military historians. Ian Beckett, Timothy Bowman and Mark Connelly survey operations on the Western Front and throughout the rest of the world as well as the army's social history, pre-war and wartime planning and strategy, the maintenance of discipline and morale and the lasting legacy of the First World War on the army's development. They assess the strengths and weaknesses of the army between 1...

In 1914, Ypres was a sleepy Belgian city admired for its magnificent Gothic architecture. The arrival of the rival armies in October 1914 transformed it into a place known throughout the world, each of the combatants associating the place with it its own particular palette of values and imagery. It is now at the heart of First World War battlefield tourism, with much of it's economy devoted to serving the interests of visitors from across the world. The surrounding countryside is dominated...

This book is the first and only comprehensive guide for administrators building ESL programs. The guide provides insight into the development, administration, and evaluation of programs for ESOL students. It stresses the importance of facilitating policy decisions and creating a solid infrastructure for quality programming. The variety of integrated perspectives presented enables administrators to better make valid, grounded decisions related to the education of their increasing numbers of...

During the opening decades of the twentieth century, highly visible red-light districts occupied entire sections of many American cities. Prostitution, still euphemistically referred to as the “social evil,” became one of the dominant social issues of the progressive era.Mark Thomas Connelly places the response to prostitution during those years within its complete social and cultural context. He shows how the antiprostitution movement became a focus for many of the anxieties and s...

The award-winning series Dead Ringers is back with highlights from its television series. A huge hit on BBC Radio 4, Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Kevin Connelly, Mark Perry and Phil Cornwell star once again in the best impression comedy on TV.This collection brings together some of the best episodes from BBC1’s first, second and third series.Enter a surreal universe where David Dickinson goes looking for weapons of mass destruction in "Weapons Hunt", the Queen sells off...

Seven more series of the popular BBC Radio 4 impressions show - plus a selection of unbroadcast materialSince the turn of the millennium, Dead Ringers has been giving us its skewed, hilarious take on the famous and the infamous. The show has won a British Comedy Award, a Sony Gold Award, and a Press Guild Award for Radio Programme of the Year - and won a legion of fans with its merciless parodies, mocking every programme, institution and p...