Simone Veil, the former French lawyer and politician who became the first President of the European Union, was born Simone Jacob in 1927. In A Life, she describes in vivid detail a childhood of happiness and innocence spent in Nice that came to an abrupt end in 1944 when, at the age of 17, she was deported with her family to concentration camps. Though she survived, her mother, father, and brother all died in captivity. After the liberation of Auschwitz and upon her return to Fran...

The Veiled Sun: From Auschwitz to New Beginnings by Paul Schaffer and Translated from the French by Vivian Felsen with a Foreword by Serge Klarsfeld and an Introduction by Simone Veil.The Veiled Sun is a Holocaust memoir written in a highly literate style. Paul Schaffer spent his teenage years on the run from the Nazis in Austria, Belgium and France, and then in Auschwitz from 1942 to 1945. He survived to become a successful industrialist who was honoured by the g...

This controversial, impassioned call-to-arms for a return to the ideals that fueled the French Resistance has sold millions of copies worldwide since its publication in France in October 2010. Rejecting the dictatorship of world financial markets and defending the social values of modern democracy, 93-old Stéphane Hessel -- Resistance leader, concentration camp survivor, and former UN speechwriter -- reminds us that life and liberty must still be fought for, and urges us to reclaim those e...

This Very Short Introduction provides an analytical narrative of the main events and developments in Soviet Russia between 1917 and 1936. It examines the impact of the revolution on society as a whole--on different classes, ethnic groups, the army, men and women, youth. Its central concern is to understand how one structure of domination was replaced by another. The book registers the primacy of politics, but situates political developments firmly in the context of massive economic, social...

As financial turmoil in Europe preoccupies political leaders and global markets, it becomes more important than ever to understand the forces that underpin the European Union, hold it together and drive it forward. This timely book provides a gripping account of the realities of power politics among European states and between their leaders. Drawing on long experience working behind the scenes, Luuk van Middelaar captures the dynamics and tensions shaping the European Union from its ori...

The twentieth century in Europe witnessed some of the most brutish episodes in history. Yet it also saw incontestable improvements in the conditions of existence for most inhabitants of the continent - from rising living standards and dramatically increased life expectancy, to the virtual elimination of illiteracy, and the advance of women, ethnic minorities, and homosexuals to greater equality of respect and opportunity. It was a century of barbarism and civilization, of cruelty and tende...

The modern world began on May 29, 1919.In this provocative and sweeping chronicle of 20th century history, acclaimed historian Paul Johnson argues that the confirmation of Einstein’s theory of relativity set in motion a chain of events that replaced moral absolutes with a destructive new era of moral relativism.This powerful work of intellectual history traces how the ideas of Marx, Freud, and Einstein were tragically twisted into justifications for the ter...

The incredible unexplored connections between two of history’s greatest leadersRonald Reagan and Winston Churchill were true giants of the twentieth century, but somehow historians have failed to notice the many similarities between these extraordinary leaders. Until now.In Greatness, Steven F. Hayward—who has written acclaimed studies of both Reagan and Churchill—goes beneath the superficial differences to uncover the remarkable (and remarkably important) parallel...

'Memoirs of such richness are rare . . . a joy' JAMES NAUGHTIE'A remarkable personal journey, by one of the great political correspondents of our world - eloquent, enlightening, exhilarating' PHILIPPE SANDSA trailblazer for women in journalism, Hella Pick arrived in Britain in 1939 as a child refugee from Austria. Over nearly four decades she covered the volatile global scene, first in West Africa, followed by America and long periods in Eu...

Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism is a classic critique of France's policies in Algeria in the 1950s and 1960s and inspired much subsequent writing on colonialism, post-colonialism, politics, and literature. It includes Sartre's celebrated preface to Fanon's classic Wretched**of the Earth. Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism had a profound impact on French intellectual life, inspiring many other influential French thinkers and critics of colonialism such as Jean-Francois Lyota...

After studying the history of the EU intently, I wrote this book when it became very clear to me that either Remainers were deliberately lying to us or they did not have much idea what the EU is about. The UK has had a Referendum whether to leave the EU or Remain. The country voted to leave by a considerable majority. Its significance can be compared to a combination of the evacuation of Dunkerque and The Battle of Britain. However it would seem that the majority of those who voted to rema...

The author and politician analyzes the troubled state of Britain's post–World War II political and economic systems, and proposes a solution.When World War II ended for Great Britain in 1945, MP John Strachey wondered what he and his country were going to do with the freedom they had fought for and won. The men who ran the country before the war had taken England so far down the road to disaster that it seemed almost impossible to save. To prevent history from repe...