‘Flak’ Houses were the rest homes set up in England during the Second World War by the American Red Cross to provide centers of rest and recuperation for combat-weary airmen. These were usually situated in large country houses where flyers were permitted to wear civilian clothes and partake in a variety of sporting and recreational activities. All told, some 87,000 men passed through the R&R system before it disbanded in 1945. Keith Thomas covers the history of more than 20 Flak Houses in ...

Keith Thomas’s earlier studies in the ethnography of early modern England, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Man and the Natural World, and The Ends of Life, were all attempts to explore beliefs, values, and social practices in the centuries from 1500 to 1800. In Pursuit of Civility continues this quest by examining what English people thought it meant to be “civilized” and how that condition differed from being “barbarous” or “savage.” Thomas shows that the upper ranks of society sought ...

Witchcraft, astrology, divination and every kind of popular magic flourished in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from the belief that a blessed amulet could prevent the assaults of the Devil to the use of the same charms to recover stolen goods. At the same time the Protestant Reformation attempted to take the magic out of religion, and scientists were developing new explanations of the universe. Keith Thomas's classic analysis of beliefs held on every level of Engli...

'Man and the Natural World, an encyclopaedic study of man's relationship to animals and plants, is completely engrossing ... It explains everything - why we eat what we do, why we plant this and not that, why we keep pets, why we like some animals and not others, why we kill the things we kill and love the things we love ... It is often a funny book and one to read again and again' Paul Theroux, Sunday Times'The English historian Keith Thomas has revealed modes of...

Who knows what might be going on in Miss Buzby's boarding house, where she accepts (shudder!) theatrical types?

The Neolithic in Britain was a period of fundamental change: human communities were transformed, collectively owning domesticated plants and animals, and inhabiting a richer world of material things: timber houses and halls, pottery vessels, polished flint and stone axes, and massive monuments of earth and stone. Equally important was the development of a suite of new social practices, with an emphasis on descent, continuity and inheritance. These innovations set in train social processes ...

This book allows the reader to see the humanity of biblical leaders, which makes the information relatable to our present time. It gives practical insights that will allow you to move into a more intimate relationship with God, your family, and your following.

Have you ever wondered what Jesus meant in His parables? In The Parables of Jesus, British Pastor Keith Thomas teaches in-depth to explain some of the most important topics on spiritual growth that Jesus taught.

Home brewing has become increasingly popular, as a way to both make your own unique beer and develop a valuable skill to be proud of. Home Brew – A Guide to Brewing Beer offers a complete overview, from the basics of kit brewing, through to a full-scale mash brew, covering various types of beer, such as ale, bitter, stout, lager, porters, wheat beers and IPA . Combining eighty years of collective knowledge in the brewing industry, this valuable resource describes each stage of production, ...

The purpose of doing this study is to focus on the coming of Christ, and to better prepare us for His coming. The early Christians in the first century would often talk of His coming and encourage one another by looking forward to the day when Christ would return. If that was so for centuries ago, how much more should we be anticipating His coming in the days in which we live? Now more than ever, it is important that we remember often to lift up our heads and say, “Come Lord Jesus!”

Like soldiers walking into a minefield, there are some things in life that are unseen but deadly. Just because you may be unaware of something dangerous, it doesn’t mean it cannot affect you. There is an old saying “what you don’t know can’t hurt you.” Although it is true that knowledge can bring with it pain, it is much better to be forewarned about danger than to ignore it. In Keith's latest study, If God is For Us, he leads us through the scriptures that help us see that God is for us, ...

How should we live? That question was no less urgent for English men and women who lived between the early sixteenth and late eighteenth centuries than for this book's readers. Keith Thomas's masterly exploration of the ways in which people sought to lead fulfilling lives in those centuries between the beginning of the Reformation and the heyday of the Enlightenment illuminates the central values of the period, while casting incidental light on some of the perennial problems of human exist...