Historiska & politiska biografier

A richly drawn biography of Jane Austen, from a beloved 20th-century English novelist Elizabeth Jenkins

The first definitive biography of Mitch McConnell, revealing an intimate look at the personal and political life of one of the most powerful senators in American history.In the long history of American government, few senators have wielded as much power as Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell. That’s no accident; he worked his entire life to cultivate his dominance. In The Price of Power, award-winning journalist Michael Tackett pulls back the curtain on one of the most influential figures to ever set foot in the American Senate, offering you an intimate, personal view of his life and career. Drawing on thousands of pages of archival materials, letters, and more than 100 interviews with associates, colleagues, and McConnell himself, Tackett pieces together the story of McConnell’s early life, his formative battle with polio as a young child, and details his forty-plus-year career as one of the Senate’s most impactful leaders. A lifelong Republican, McConnell was known as a pragmatic moderate legislator when he joined the Senate in 1985. Tackett traces his steady rightward drift, as McConnell’s politics evolved with his masterful ability to consolidate and wield power. But such success comes at a cost. The Trump years brought with them the rise of an almost unrecognizable Republican party, suffused with a reactive populism that even McConnell himself would struggle to control. Featuring expert reporting, unprecedented access, and never-before-published revelations, The Price of Power is an inside portrait of exactly that—what it takes to achieve power, maintain it, deploy it, and, finally, watch it slip out of your hands

"I have heard too many people talk about me and my ideas not to realize how different my life and I actually are from the way we are portrayed. So, I decided to open up, to show who I am, what I believe in, and how I got here." In her memoir, Giorgia Meloni speaks about herself in depth for the first time. She talks about her roots, her childhood, and her relationship with her mother Anna, her sister Arianna, her grandparents Maria and Gianni, and the pain of her father’s absence. She shares her visceral passion for politics, which took her from her neighborhood of Garbatella to the Government as a Minister, and then to the leadership of Fratelli d’Italia and the European Conservatives. She also expresses the joy of being the mother of little Ginevra and her love story with Andrea. Additionally, she discusses her dreams and the future she envisions for Italy and Europe. With her characteristic frankness and clarity, she also tackles complex topics such as motherhood, identity, and faith. This passionate and engaging account reveals the past, present, and future of a political leader who has caught the attention of many, both in Italy and beyond.

The remarkable story of Sol Lurie, a child survivor of six concentration camps during the Holocaust, who continues to be a beacon of hope.After a bucolic childhood in Kovno, Lithuania, Sol was just eleven when the Nazis invaded and he and his family were forced to move into the Kovno Ghetto. The Kovno Ghetto was one of the only ghettos to later become a concentration camp, and Sol was among just a few Jewish survivors from Kovno. In this inspiring story of tenacity, character, faith, love, and forgiveness, we follow young Sol through heartbreak and fear, torment and tortue. Through Sol's eyes, we learn the history of the communities in Eastern Europe, especially Lithuania, which has long been a gap in the wider history of the Holocaust. Along the way, we meet the righteous few who helped save young Sol's life. After being imprisoned in six other concentration camps for a total of four years, Sol was liberated from Buchenwald on his 15th birthday. To this day, he still joyfully celebrates every year the day he was born and liberated. Miraculously, Sol’s three brothers and his father also survived the Holocaust. Despite the horrors of youth, Sol never lost his determination to live life to the fullest. He embarked on a new life in the United States and would thrive as a husband, father, grandfather, business owner, and an inspiration for the thousands of schoolchildren and adults who have heard Sol share his incredible tales of survival and the positive lessons he has learned from the most horrific of experiences We can all learn from Sol at a time when divisiveness reigns. Despite all that he suffered and the death of his mother and nearly all his very large extended family, Sol’s courage and positive attitude continues to inspire as he actively seeks out and see the good in others. He wholeheartedly believes in bashert, a Yiddish word that means destiny, which gave him his “mission to educate others to love, not to hate.” Life Must Go On! is a moving and vital new addition to the history of the Holocaust and chorus of surivor stories that resonate throughout the generations.

Embark on a riveting journey through the life of Lydia Komape, an unsung hero in South African history.

This is the first book about a significant South African figure, Joe Modise, who worked in the shadows for much of his life. His journey took him from an impoverished childhood to being chief of a guerrilla army and then Minister of Defence in a liberated country.

Written in 1889 (CW 5)Steiner met Nietzsche's work in 1889. At once fascinated by Nietszche's style and repelled by certain pathological aspects of his consciousness, Steiner recognized Nietzsche's spiritual preeminence as a "fighter for freedom."Six years later, as a result of meeting Nietzsche's sister, Steiner encountered the dying philosopher himself. Thereafter, he spent several weeks in the Nietzsche archives. The result was this book, an essential stepping stone toward an understanding of anthroposophy.This book is a translation from German of Friedrich Nietzsche, ein Kämpfer gegen seine Zeit (GA 5).

The Story of Cole Younger, by Himself, a classical book, has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we at Alpha Editions have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work and hence the text is clear and readable.

On 14 August 1943, Squadron Leader Frank Griffiths set off on a secret mission to deliver supplies to members of the French Resistance living in occupied France. A few hours later, his plane had crashed into a village near Annecy, killing all six of his crew and five civilians. Only Frank survived.What happened next was extraordinary: badly injured and slipping in and out of consciousness, Frank embarked on an epic 1,400-mile, 108-day escape from the Nazis. Assisted by ordinary people - children, villagers, farmers, rebels and soldiers - he managed to make his way to safety in Gibraltar, via a Frenchwoman's chimney, the attic over a brothel and a Spanish prison cell, not to mention an arduous trek over the Pyrenees.But Frank's story does not end there. 79 years later, his great-grandson Adam Hart set out to follow Frank's escape route. Step for step Adam recreated his ancestor's journey and met the descendants of the people who had risked their lives to help Frank on his way, breathing new life into Frank's heroic tale and keeping his great-grandfather's memory alive.Operation Pimento is a riveting tale of danger, bravery and legacy - as told by the voice of a new generation.

Packed with fresh and surprising stories, 1945: The Reckoning takes readers on a spectacular journey from the deadly jungles of Burma through hospital ships on Indian rivers and copper mines in Formosa to the 'lost trains' of the Belsen concentration camp. As the fate of the world is decided so too is that of the British Empire and in India millions of men and women struggle to decide whether to support 'the Raj' or fight alongside the Japanese. In Borneo a little known Australian special forces campaign - secretly controlled from London - goes horribly wrong as questions are asked about whether its true purpose is military or imperial.Clearing away the haze of nostalgia, many uncomfortable truths emerge - but so too does a new and balanced analysis of Empire at this unsurpassed moment of global jeopardy. An Indian military family is bitterly divided. Will it be the brother who stands by the British, or the one who follows Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army, who goes on to help build a new and free India?

The Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO), or the Compulsory Work Service, program remains one of the most unsettling features of France's history in World War II. Established by the Vichy government in 1943, this initiative saw young men provide forced labor, primarily within France or Germany, in support of the Third Reich's war effort. In this illuminating translation of the journal of Jean Louis Mary Pasquiers, a former teacher and forced laborer from Paris, Passing Misery documents Pasquiers' life within war-torn Europe, in unwilling service to the Nazi regime. By exploring Pasquiers' personal story, this book offers an unrivalled insight into the complexities of war-time collaboration, resistance, and moral culpability, shedding light on one of the darkest chapters in European history.

Pre-order now and discover a story 400 years in the making - the definitive biography of the man who dominated England in the first half of the sixteenth century__________Born into the English Wars of the Roses, educated in the European Renaissance, enthralled by the Age of Exploration and ultimately destroyed by Henry VIII, Thomas More is one of the most famous - or notorious - figures in English history.Is he a saintly scholar, the visionary author of Utopia and an inspiration for statesmen, socialists and intellectuals even today?Or is he the stubborn zealot famously portrayed in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall?Thomas More: A Life is the definitive biography of this hypnotic, flawed figure. Overturning many received interpretations of the sixteenth century, Joanne Paul shows Thomas More to have been an intellectual and political giant of his age, central to the making of modern Europe. Based on new archival discoveries and drawing on more than a decade's research into More's life and work, this is a richly-told story of family, faith and politics, and a compelling portrait of a man who, more than four hundred years after his death, remains the most brilliant mind of the Renaissance.__________