European History

Cesspools and Sewers: Toilets in Dirty Old London

Lee Jackson, author of Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth, wrote a series of posts for the Yale University Press London Blog to explain how the inventors of ‘sanitary science’ nevertheless lived in what remained a notoriously filthy city. Some of these entries will be appearing here on the

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Somme’s End

Edward Strauss— The Battle of the Somme, which began on July 1, 1916, is generally said to have concluded on November 18 of that year. In a dispatch on December 29, 1916, General Douglas Haig, commander of the British Armies in France, summed up the battle’s accomplishments: “…The three main

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Dancing on the Dead: George Walker and Dirty Old London

Lee Jackson, author of Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth, wrote a series of posts for the Yale University Press London Blog to explain how the inventors of ‘sanitary science’ nevertheless lived in what remained a notoriously filthy city. Some of these entries will be appearing here on the

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After Bannockburn—After the Referendum: Robert the Bruce and the difficulties of Settlement

Michael Penman— Scotland’s medieval icons William Wallace and Robert the Bruce and their military encounters with England only occasionally reared their heads during the party leaders’ recent campaigning for and against Scottish independence. In January 2012, former Scottish Secretary and Stirling MP, Michael Forsyth, charged that SNP leader and Scottish

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How to Give a Great Speech: A Master Class with Winston Churchill

Chances are good that you have been asked to speak in public before and will need to speak in public again. Giving a compelling speech is no easy task at any level, be it giving a TED Talk in front of hundreds or just summarizing a novel at school. You

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Book Excerpt: A World Without Jews: The Nazi Imagination from Persecution to Genocide

Follow @yaleRELIbooks Alon Confino‘s A World Without Jews: The Nazi Imagination from Persecution to Genocide centers itself around an important question: Why exactly did the Nazis burn the Hebrew Bible everywhere in Germany on November 9, 1938? The events of Kristallnacht have not been adequately accounted for by historians in their large-scale assessments

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Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker

A “Must-Read” pick for the New York Post and a Daily Beast “Hot Reads” title!   As discussed in our March”WAR!” theme, it remains of the utmost importance to consider the individual experiences of soldiers. Those on the front lines provide a personal narrative – one that is often separate

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From the Sky: Images of The First World War

The Great War Seen from the Air in Flanders Field, 1914-1918, a monumental publication we are pleased to distribute on behalf of our Belgian colleagues at Mercatorfonds, gathers a wealth of meticulous research and carefully curated images – more than 500 images, culled from an archive of over 20,000 to provide the

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And the 2013 NBCC Biography Award Goes to… YUP Author Leo Damrosch!

In January, the National Book Critics Circle announced their annual award finalists for the 2013 publishing year. Among those honored for book reviewing, lifetime achievement, and books published in a myriad of categories is Yale University Press author Leo Damrosch, whose book Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World is a finalist

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The Most Famous Roman Ever to Have Lived

See all 20% off titles in our YUP Backlist History promotion! In a key moment of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the titular character famously declares: I could be well moved, if I were as you; If I could pray to move, prayers would move me; But I am constant as the

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