Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

Abandon ship : the real story of the sinkings in the Falklands War /Paul Brown. "When Argentinian forces invaded the Falklands in April 1982, the British government responded by despatching a task force to the Atlantic to wrest back control of the islands. The resulting war saw modern weapon systems tested in combat for the first time, to tragic effect. In the aftermath, official documents were released, but many were heavily censored, and others withheld altogether, so that a full understanding of those events could not be gained. Drawing from recently declassified and previously unpublished reports from the official inquiry, Dr Paul Brown details the true story behind the dramatic events that led to the loss of six British ships - HMS Antelope, Ardent, Coventry and Sheffield, RFA Sir Galahad and SS Atlantic Conveyor - as well as the controversial sinking of the Argentinian cruiser ARA General Belgrano by HMS Conqueror."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 997.1102445

Njinga of Angola : Africa's warrior queen /Linda M. Heywood. "Though largely unknown in the West, the seventeenth-century African queen Njinga was one of the most multifaceted rulers in history, a woman who rivaled Queen Elizabeth I in political cunning and military prowess. In this landmark book, based on nine years of research and drawing from missionary accounts, letters, and colonial records, Linda Heywood reveals how this legendary queen skillfully navigated - and ultimately transcended - the ruthless, male-dominated power struggles of her time."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 967.3/01

Dèunkirchen 1940 : the German view of Dunkirk /Robert Kershaw. "Dèunkirchen 1940 is the first major history on what went wrong for the Germans at Dunkirk. As supreme military commander, Hitler had seemingly achieved a miracle after the swift capitulation of Holland and Belgium, but with just seven kilometres before the panzers captured Dunkirk - the only port through which the trapped British Expeditionary force might escape - they came to a shuddering stop. Hitler had lost control of his stunning advance. Only a detailed interpretation of the German perspective - historically lacking to date - can provide answers as to why. Drawing on his own military experience, his German language skills and his historian's eye for detail, Robert Kershaw creates a new history of this familiar battle. With a fresh angle on this famous conflict, Dèunkirchen 1940 delves into the under-evaluated major German miscalculation both strategically and tactically that arguably cost Hitler the war."--Provided by the publisher. 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.5421428

German and Italian aircraft carriers of World War II / Douglas C. Dildy and Ryan K. Noppen ; illustrated by Paul Wright. "This book explains the role of naval aviation in the two powers' rearmament programs, and how wartime experience proved how challenging it is for even a powerful navy to build and operate aircraft carriers. Packed with new artwork and archive photos, it tells the history of the Graf Zeppelin, the Italian attempts to convert the liners Roma and Augustus, and other German and Italian carrier conversion projects which never left the shipyard or the drawing board." 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.8255094309044

Shackleton : by endurance we conquer /Michael Smith. Ernest Shackleton is one of history's great explorers, an extraordinary character who pioneered the path to the South Pole over 100 years ago and became a dominant figure in Antarctic discovery. A charismatic personality, his incredible adventures on four expeditions to the Antarctic have captivated generations. He joined the Empire's last great endeavor of exploration: to conquer the South Pole with Scott on the Discovery expedition. A clash with Scott led to Shackleton being ordered home and started a bitter feud between the two. Shackleton's riposte was the Nimrod expedition, which uncovered the route to the Pole and honed the leadership skills that later encouraged men to overcome unimaginable hardship on the Endurance expedition of 1914. But Shackleton was a flawed character whose chaotic private life, marked by romantic affairs, unfulfilled ambitions, and failed business ventures, contrasted with celebrity status as the leading explorer. Persistent money problems left his men unpaid and his family with debts. Drawing on extensive research of original diaries, letters, and many other publications, Michael Smith brings a fresh perspective to the heroic age of Polar exploration, which was dominated by Shackleton's complex, compelling, and enduringly fascinating story. 2015. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92SHACKLETON

Treasures from the map room : A journey through the Bodleian collections /Debbie Hall. "This book explores the stories behind seventy-five extraordinary maps. It includes unique treasures such as the fourteenth-century Gough Map of Great Britain, exquisite portolan charts made in the fifteenth century, the Selden Map of China - the earliest example of Chinese merchant cartography - and an early world map from the medieval Islamic Book of Curiosities, together with more recent examples of fictional places drawn in the twentieth century, such as C.S. Lewis's own map of Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien's map of Middle Earth. As well as the works of famous mapmakers Mercator, Ortelius, Blaeu, Saxton and Speed, the book also includes lesser known but historically significant works: early maps of the Moon, of the transit of Venus, hand-drawn estate plans and early European maps of the New World. There are also some surprising examples: escape maps printed on silk and carried by pilots in the Second World War in case of capture on enemy territory; the first geological survey of the British Isles showing what lies beneath our feet; a sixteenth-century woven tapestry map of Worcestershire; a map plotting outbreaks of cholera and a jigsaw map of India from the 1850s. Behind each of these lies a story, of intrepid surveyors, ambitious navigators, chance finds or military victories. Drawing on the unique collection in the Bodleian Library, these stunning maps range from single cities to the solar system, span the thirteenth to the twenty-first century and cover most of the world."--Provided by the publisher. 2016 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 528.9

Perilous fight : America's intrepid war with Britain on the high seas, 1812-1815 /Stephen Budiansky. "Budiansky shows that, far from an indecisive and unnecessary conflict--as historians have long dismissed the War of 1812--this "forgotten war" had profound consequences that would change the course of naval warfare, America's place in the world, and the rules of international conflict forever. Never again would the great powers challenge the young republic's sovereignty in the aftermath of the stunning performance of America's navy and privateersmen. Drawing extensively on diaries, letters, and personal accounts from both sides, Budiansky re-creates the encounters at sea, the intimate hopes and fears of vainglorious captains and young seamen in search of adventure, and the behind-the-scenes political intrigue and maneuvering in Washington and London."--From publisher description. 2010. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.49"1812/1815"(42:73)

Steamship operation between Britain and Australia : problems faced by steamship operators /Jacqueline Elston. "This work examines the effect that mid 19th century steamship development had on long distance trade and communications between Britain and Australia. It takes a holistic approach, drawing together a number of diverse but related themes and using much previously unseen material to challenge many former assumptions. The role of steamships is revealed as engines of imperial ambition with the British Government operating a perfidious double-edged policy; publicly espousing 'free trade' but in practice stifling it with subsidies to favoured steamship companies. This practice was designed to obtain a 'navy on the cheap' but created such disruption to communication with the emerging colonies that the tension erupted in the political press of the day. In addition this study reveals the triumphs and disasters of running a steamship company, namely the Liverpool & Australian Navigation Co who operated Brunel's SS Great Britain, without government subsidies. Steamship companies were crucial to the creation of an import/export market on which the developing colony of Australia was to depend for its growth into a successful modern economy and liberal, democratic society."--Back cover. 2011. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 629.123.2(42:94)"18"

The cartographic state : maps, territory and the origins of sovereignty /Jordan Branch. "Why is today's world map filled with uniform states separated by linear boundaries? The answer to this question is central to our understanding of international politics, but the question is at the same time much more complex - and more revealing - than we might first think. This book examines the important but overlooked role played by cartography itself in the development of modern states. Drawing upon evidence from the history of cartography, peace treaties and political practices, the book reveals that early modern mapping dramatically altered key ideas and practices among both rulers and subjects, leading to the implementation of linear boundaries between states and centralized territorial rule within them. In his analysis of early modern innovations in the creation, distribution and use of maps, Branch explains how the relationship between mapping and the development of modern territories shapes our understanding of international politics today."--Provided by the publisher. 2014. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 528.9

Africans and the industrial revolution in England "Drawing on classical development theory and recent theoretical advances on the connection between expanding markets and technological development, this book shows the critical role of expanding Atlantic commerce in the successful completion of England's industrialization process over the period 1650-1850. The contribution of Africans, the central focus of the book, is measured in terms of the role of diasporic Africans in large-scale commodity production in the Americas - of which expanding Atlantic commerce was a function - at a time when demographic and other socio-economic conditions in the Atlantic basin encouraged small-scale production by independent populations, largely for subsistence. This is the first detailed study of the role of overseas trade in the Industrial Revolution. It revises inward-looking explanations that have dominated the field in recent decades and shifts the assessment of African contribution away from debate on profits." --Provided by the publisher. 2002 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 382(261):942.06/.081(=96)

Black victorians : black people in British art, 1800-1900 /edited by Jan Marsh. "Black Victorians brings together over 100 images depicting black figures, to reveal the diversity of representation within nineteenth-century visual culture and to foreground the 'forgotten' presence of people of African descent in Victorian British art. The range of images is broad, from pictures of soldiers and sailors in Britain's armed forces and men and women in genre scenes to portraits of entertainers and political refugees and studies of artists' models. Notable individuals featured include actor Ira Aldridge, Crimean heroine Mary Seacole, the Queen's god-daughter Sarah Bonetta Davies, composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass. In addition to the fine arts of painting, drawing and sculpture, the selection includes photography, popular illustration, caricature and ephemera, which provide a cultural context for the portraits and subject pictures, as well as presenting black figures as members of British society in everyday settings."--Provided by the publisher. 2005. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 7.035/.036"180/190"(41)

The Royal Marines on the Western Front / Daniel J Mclean. "From the mud of the Somme to the raid on Zeebrugge, the Royal Marines fought in almost every element of the Great War on the Western Front. Today they are known world-wide as an elite commando fighting force, but that has only been their role since 1940, a fraction of their period in existence. Until 1923 they existed as two corps - the Royal Marine Light Infantry and the Royal Marine Artillery - and both served with distinction along the western front in the great war. This book examines and explains the engagements in which they were involved, the equipment used and the organisation and training undertaken in hitherto unseen detail, drawing on a wide variety of sources to give an accurate picture of their contribution to the war in France and Belgium."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.41241

Diversify : six degrees of integration : because the world is separate enough /June Sarpong. "In troubling times, it's tempting to retreat to our comfort zones. To people just like us. But what if actively seeking the unfamiliar was proven to be the key to a brighter future - both personally and for societyat large? In this fierce, empowering call to arms, June Sarpong MBE puts the spotlight on groups who are often marginalised in our society, including women, those living with disabilities, and the LGBTQ community. Diversify uncovers how a new approach to how we work, learn and live can help us reach our maximum potential, lessen the pressure on the state, and solve some of the most stubborn challenges we face. Drawing on new case studies - from shared parental leave, to flexible teaching methods, to communal living for pensioners and students - and with never-before published research from Oxford University, Diversify is an fierce and empowering guide to navigating a new way. And, alongside stellar research and inspiring stories are six simple and revolutionary exercises: the first steps on a journey to overcoming personal prejudice and reaping the huge rewards. The old way isn't working. This is a case for change."--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 305.8

James Gillray : a revolution in satire /Tim Clayton. "James Gillray (1756-1815) was late Georgian Britain's funniest, most inventive, and most celebrated graphic satirist and continues to influence cartoonists today. His exceptional drawing, matched by his flair for clever dialogue and amusing titles, won him unprecedented fame; his sophisticated designs often parodied artists such as William Hogarth, Joshua Reynolds, and Henry Fuseli, while he borrowed and wittily redeployed celebrated passages from William Shakespeare and John Milton to send up politicians in an age - as now - where society was fast changing, anxieties abounded, truth was sometimes scarce, and public opinion mattered. Tim Clayton's definitive biography explores Gillray's life and work through his friends, publishers - the most important being women - and collaborators, aiming to identify those involved in inventing satirical prints and the people who bought them. Clayton thoughtfully explores the tensions between artistic independence, financial necessity, and the conflicting demands of patrons and self-appointed censors in a time of political and social turmoil."--Provided by the publisher. 2022. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 741.5/942

Reparations for slavery and the slave trade : a transnational and comparative history /Ana Lucia Araujo. "This is the first book to offer a transnational narrative history of the financial, material, and symbolic reparations for slavery and the Atlantic slave trade. Drawing from the voices of various social actors who identified themselves as the victims of the Atlantic slave trade and slavery, Araujo illuminates the multiple dimensions of the demands of reparations, including the period of slavery, the emancipation era, the post-abolition period, and the present."--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.3/620973

Spycraft : tricks and tools of the dangerous trade from Elizabeth I to the Restoration /Nadine Akkermann & Pete Langman. "As the sixteeth century drew to a close, Europe had become a hotbed espionage. Spies, spy-catchers, and conspirators pitted their wits against each other in deadly games of hide and seek. Theirs was a dangerous trade - only those who mastered the latest techniques would survive. In this engaging account, Nadine Akkerman and Pete Langman explore the methods spies actually used in the period, including disguises, invisible inks, and even poisons. Drawing on a wealth of archival sources, they demonstrate how understanding the tricks and tools of espionage allows new insight into key events like the Babington and Gunpowder plots. They describe the technololgical innovations made by petty criminals, secretaries and other invisible actors which shaped the fate of some of history's most iconic figures. Spycraft traces how early modern spies sought to protect their own secrets while exposing those of their enemies - and provides the curious reader with a guide to this incredibly inventive moment in the long history of deception." 2024 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 327.1209

Four points of the compass : the unexpected history of direction /Jerry Brotton. "North, south, east and west: almost all societies use the four cardinal directions to orientate themselves, to understand who they are by projecting where they are. For millennia, these four directions have been foundational to our travel, navigation and exploration and are central to the imaginative, moral and political geography of virtually every culture in the world. Yet they are far more subjective and various - sometimes contradictory - than we might realize. The Four Points of the Compass takes the reader on a journey of directional discovery. Jerry Brotton reveals why Hebrew culture privileges east; why Renaissance Europeans began drawing north at the top of their maps; why the early Islam revered the south; why the Aztecs used five colour-coded cardinal directions; and why no societies, primitive or modern, have ever orientated themselves westwards. He ends by reflecting on our digital age in which we, the little blue dot on the screen, have become the most important compass point. Throughout, Brotton shows that the directions reflect a human desire to create order and that they only have meaning, literally and metaphorically, depending on where you stand." 2024. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 910

In all respects ready : Australia's Navy in World War One /David Stevens. "Written by Australia's foremost naval historian, In All Respects Ready presents the most comprehensive and authoritative account of the Australian Navy's involvement in World War I yet published. When the newly built Australian fleet sailed into Sydney for the first time in October 1913, it was portrayed as a sign of peace that came from being prepared for war. Within a year that war had broken out, and the Royal Australian Navy, fully trained and ready, was the most professional and effective force Australia had to offer the British Empire. Throughout the next four years of conflict Australian ships and sailors would operate across the seas and oceans of the world, establishing a tradition of intrepid courage and dogged endurance while forging their own unique naval and national identity. Impeccably researched, and drawing on a wealth of previously untapped official reports, intelligence summaries and private diaries, this book offers far more than a chronicle of historical fact. Crafting the definitive work on this largely ignored chapter of Australian history, the author presents an engaging narrative of the war at sea that brings to life both the human element and a richly depicted sense of place."--Provided by the publisher. 2014. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.49"1914/1918"(94)

Opposing the slavers : the Royal Navy's campaign against the Atlantic slave trade /Peter Grindal. "Much is known about Britain s role in the Atlantic slave trade during the eighteenth century but few are aware of the sustained campaign against slaving conducted by the Royal Navy after the passing of the Slave Trade Abolition Act of 1807. Peter Grindal provides the definitive account of this little known yet important part of the British, European and American history. Drawing on original sources to provide a comprehensive and engaging narrative of the naval operations against slavers of all nations in particular Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and Brazil, he describes how illegal traders sought to evade treaty obligations, reveals the obduracy of the USA that prolonged the slave trade, and shows how, despite inadequate resources, the Royal navy s sixty year campaign forced slavers to expend ever greater sums top conduct their business and confront the losses inflicted by capture and condemnation. A work that will transform our understanding of the Royal Navy s campaign against the Atlantic slave trade."--Provided by the publisher. 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326.4(42)

Britain's history and memory of transatlantic slavery : local nuances of a 'national sin' /edited by Katie Donington, Ryan Hanley and Jessica Moody. "Transatlantic slavery, just like the abolition movements, affected every space and community in Britain, from Cornwall to the Clyde, from dockyard alehouses to country estates. Today, its financial, architectural and societal legacies remain, scattered across the country in museums and memorials, philanthropic institutions and civic buildings, empty spaces and unmarked graves. Just as they did in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, British people continue to make sense of this 'national sin' by looking close to home, drawing on local histories and myths to negotiate their relationship to the distant horrors of the 'Middle Passage', and the Caribbean plantation. For the first time, this collection brings together localised case studies of Britain's history and memory of its involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, and slavery. These essays, ranging in focus from eighteenth-century Liverpool to twenty-first-century rural Cambridgeshire, from racist ideologues to Methodist preachers, examine how transatlantic slavery impacted on, and continues to impact, people and places across Britain."--Provided by the publisher. 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.3620941

The European Antarctic: science and strategy in Scandinavia and the British Empire /Peder Roberts. "This is the first transnational study of British, Norwegian, and Swedish engagement with the Antarctic, from the years before the Great War to the early years of the Cold War. Rather than charting how Europeans unveiled the Antarctic, it uses the history of Antarctic activity as a window into the political and cultural worlds of twentieth-century Britain and Scandinavia. Science was a resource for states attempting to reveal - and control - the Antarctic and its resources. But it was also a source of personal and institutional capital, a means of earning civic status and professional advancement. The book ranges from the politics of whaling management to the changing value of geographical exploration in the academy and the rise of specialized, state-sponsored research, presenting an episodic rather than a linear narrative focused on historically specific networks and strategies. Drawing upon scholarship in critical geopolitics, imperial environmental history, and the cultural history of science, author Peder Roberts argues that despite its splendid geographical isolation, the Antarctic was a field for distinctly local European dreams"-- 2011. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 910.4(99:42:48)

Social history of british naval officers, 1775 -1815/ Evan Wilson "This book explores the world of British naval officers at the height of the Royal Navy's power in the age of sail. It describes the full spectrum of officers, from commissioned officers to the unheralded but essential members of every ship's company, the warrant officers. The book focusses on naval officers' social status and its implications for their careers. The demands of life at sea conflicted with the expectations of genteel behaviour and background in eighteenth-century Britain, and the ways officers grappled with this challenge forms a key theme. Drawing on a large database of more than a thousand officers, the book argues that, contrary to the prevailing view, officers were mostly from the middling sort, not the landed elite. It shows how the navy attracted hordes of hopeful commissioned officers, how unemployment was common for the majority even in wartime, and how only a select group managed to gain promotion to post-captain. The book corrects our understanding of the men who lived and served in the wardrooms of the Royal Navy and refocusses our attention away from those who won fame and fortune and onto ordinary naval officers."--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.33(42)

The Saltwater Frontier : Indians and the Contest for the American Coast /Andrew Lipman. "Andrew Lipman's eye-opening first book is the previously untold story of how the ocean became a "frontier" between colonists and Indians. When the English and Dutch empires both tried to claim the same patch of coast between the Hudson River and Cape Cod, the sea itself became the arena of contact and conflict. During the violent European invasions, the region's Algonquian-speaking Natives were navigators, boatbuilders, fishermen, pirates, and merchants who became active players in the emergence of the Atlantic World. Drawing from a wide range of English, Dutch, and archeological sources, Lipman uncovers a new geography of Native America that incorporates seawater as well as soil. Looking past Europeans' arbitrary land boundaries, he reveals unseen links between local episodes and global events on distant shores."--Provided by the publisher 2015 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 910.4(42:492)(=97)

Picturing the Pacific : Joseph Banks and the shipboard artists of Cook and Flinders /James Taylor "For over 50 years between the 1760s and the early 19th century, the pioneers who sailed from Europe to explore the Pacific brought back glimpses of this new world in the form of oil paintings, watercolours and drawings - a sensational view of a part of the world few would ever see. Today these works represent a fascinating and inspiring perspective from the frontier of discovery. It was Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, who popularised the placement of professional artists on British ships of exploration. They captured striking and memorable images of everything they encountered: exotic landscapes, beautiful flora and fauna, as well as remarkable portraits of indigenous peoples. These earliest views of the Pacific, particularly Australia, were designed to promote the new world as enticing, to make it seem familiar, to encourage further exploration and, ultimately, British settlement. Drawing on both private and public collections from around the world, this lavish book collects together oil paintings, watercolours, drawings, prints and other documents from those voyages, and presents a unique glimpse into an age where science and art became irrevocably entwined."--Provided by the publisher. 2018. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 7:910.4(265/266)

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