Engelska

<b>Blending the allure of the supernatural with keen historical insights and more than 500 photos, this enchanting chronicle of magic around the world will bewitch skeptics and true believers alike.</b><br/><br/>Magic and the occult have held humanity in their thrall for thousands of years. This sweeping history traces its origins across time and culture-from the protective amulets of ancient Egypt to ceremonial magic in India, Celtic paganism to modern magic tricks.<br/><br/><i>National Geographic Book of Magic and the Occult</i> illuminates this enthralling world across more than 90,000 years of history. You'll meet witches and wizards, healers and alchemists, discovering the legends behind them and how they have enriched modern culture. You'll also encounter a host of spellbinding subjects, including:<br/><br/><ul><li>Mystical moments, including spooky gatherings, strange happenings, and ghost stories</li><li>Magic in pop culture, from Harry Houdini to Harry Potter</li><li>Places of power, from Mount Fuji to "phantom" islands like Hy-Brasil</li><li>Magical creatures like dragons and the Loch Ness Monster</li><li>The art of divination, including the Chinese Zodiac, numerology, and tarot</li><li>Modern magic, from neopaganism to astrology and herbalism</li></ul><br/>Filled with more than 500 vivid illustrations and dynamic maps, this bewitching book is the true story of magical beliefs around the world.

Democracies are fragile. Liberties that seemed won for all time can be squandered. Few historical events illustrate this as vividly as the failure of the Weimar Republic, which resulted in the transfer of power to Hitler's Nazi Party. But this tragedy was not inevitable. In this gripping new book, celebrated historian Volker Ullrich charts the many lost alternatives and missed opportunities that contributed to German democracy's collapse. In an immersive style that takes us to the heart of political power, Ullrich argues that, right up until January 1933, history was open - and so too in the present it is within our hands whether democracy lives or dies.

<strong>Israel can't go on like this. </strong> <br/><br/>7 October and Israel's subsequent invasion of Gaza laid bare the cracks in its foundations. It was unveiled as a country unable to protect its citizens, divided between messianic theocrats and selective liberals, resented by its neighbours and losing the support of Jews worldwide. While its leaders justify bombing campaigns exceeding the worst atrocities of World War 2 and a spiralling humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, Israel is becoming a pariah state. Its worst enemy is not Hamas, but itself. <br/><br/>Ilan Pappe paves a path out of the Jewish state, rooted in restorative justice and decolonisation, including the return of refugees, the end of illegal settlements, and building bridges with the Arab world. The future can be one of reconciliation, not endless war.

The North Sea, a maritime highway and the edge of the nation of islanders with a proud sea-faring past. Running from Kent and the Rhine estuary to the Norwegian coast and the tip of the Shetland islands, it has been home to warring tribes, foreign invaders, lost civilisations and holidaymakers. Its history spans millennia, since a seismic shift sent land retreating and water rushing in. Today, the North Sea continues to rise, claiming land mass as the east coast crumbles and sinks.<br/><br/>In <i>The North Sea</i>, renowned historian Alistair Moffat spends a year travelling its shores to better understand our relationship to the sea. He takes us on an epic, sweeping history from the white cliffs of Dover to flooded homes, crossing wild fenland and Brexit fault lines, visiting well-worn seaside towns and windswept island monasteries.<br/><br/>The story he tells is one of newcomers and the mark they left, of Roman invasions, the arrival of the Saxons and the Viking raids. But it is also a story of those they met, of Pictish citadels and Orcadian stone circles. It is a story of technological advancement, of submarine engineering and weather forecasting. It is a story of huge industry, from whaling expeditions and fishing trawlers to the boom of North Sea oil and offshore wind farms. This is the story of how the North Sea shaped us and will continue to do so; it is above all a story of insistent, inescapable change.

Sveriges tidigmoderna historia mellan 1500- och 1800-talen präglades av stora omkastningar av det politiska systemet. Olika regimer avlöste varandra, ibland under turbulenta former. Sverige har lyfts fram, först som en pionjär med en stark stat som organiserade en effektiv byråkrati som kunde finansiera militär expansion under 1500- och 1600-talen. Men senare har 1700-talets Sverige istället setts som ett exempel på tidiga demokratiska styrelseformer. <br/><br/>I <i>Shifting regimes</i> tar tre historiker ett helhetsgrepp på perioden 15381810. Hur och på vilka sätt påverkade de turbulenta regimskiftena Sveriges utveckling till en modern demokratisk stat? I boken ifrågasätter de den etablerade bilden av Sveriges historia som en kontinuerlig process karakteriserad av konsensus mellan de politiska aktörerna. Författarnas analys visar istället på en ojämn kamp mellan olika sociala grupper. Den ideala balansen mellan en stark statsmakt och ett organiserat samhälle visade sig vara svår, om inte omöjlig, att uppnå och förverkliga under den tidigmoderna perioden. De visar på att demokratiseringen av Sverige var en seglivat ryckig och svängig process ända in i modern tid.

Milena And Margarete [Bok / Inbunden]

<b>A brilliant new account of one of the world's most remote, mysterious and misunderstood places: Easter Island.</b><br/><br/>More than 1200 miles from the nearest inhabited island and 2200 miles from mainland Chile, <b>Easter Island</b> is one of the most inaccessible places on the planet, made famous by its thousand <b>huge statues</b>. How people came to live there and what happened to them has been the cause of heated debate. Now, in this compelling and deeply researched new book, we find out the answers.<br/><br/>For too long, people have imposed their own theories on this extraordinary place and its inhabitants. <b>Thor Heyerdahl</b>, after his famous <i><b>Kon-Tiki </b></i>expedition, claimed the island had been discovered by light-skinned people from South America, believing only they could have been capable of travelling there and building the statues. Erich von Daniken took it to greater extremes, saying the statues had been<b> carved by aliens</b>. More recently, <b>Jared Diamond</b>'s theory of ecocide - that Islanders destroyed their world by cutting down all the trees - has become popular as a vital message about the need to conserve our planet's resources.<br/><br/>None of this survives scrutiny, or captures the island's inspiring, and tragic, real story. With new research, local indigenous histories and rediscovered historical sources, archaeologist Mike Pitts creates <b>a fascinating and comprehensive portrait of Easter Island - and reveals how the truth is even more remarkable than the fiction. </b>