Showing results by publisher "Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd" in History

Three German women are haunted by the past and their secrets in the devastating aftermath of WWII. A mesmerising story of resistance, forgiveness and the complexity of the human heart. A resistance widow. A silent co-conspirator. The only one who survived. Bavaria, Germany. June, 1945. The Third Reich has crumbled. The Russians are coming. Can Marianne von Lingenfels and the women in her care survive and build their ravaged world anew?

No disease sparked as much dread in the 18th century as smallpox. The virus killed millions across the globe, carrying off one in every five victims and disfiguring survivors with tell-tale pitted scars. But one mysterious method offered hope: inoculation, the practice of piercing the skin to insert a drop of infected matter and induce a mild case of smallpox. Those inoculated safely were protected from the ‘Speckled Monster’ and stayed immune for life. Only one problem remained: convincing people to accept the treatment.

Where were you when America elected Barack Obama? Kate Jennings was in New York, eyes wide open, completing her take on an amazing time: "the run-up to the election... a time when every day felt like a year and we became slightly crazed from worry but also mesmerised, unable to switch off the cable news stations, obsessively tracking the DOW, VIX, LIBOR spreads, polls in red states. So much at stake. American Revolution is a dazzling and perceptive look at the United States between hope and despair.

When the first convoys of the ANZAC Expeditionary Forces sailed from Albany’s majestic King George Sound in November and December 1914, they carried with them hundreds of horses. Many had been loaded in ports elsewhere in Australia and New Zealand. Some came from unexpected places, including Juna Downs, a vast pastoral station in Western Australia’s remote Pilbara region.

As we emerge from the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, what can we learn from other recoveries? Through interviews with experts, policymakers and community leaders, Andrew Wear examines past recoveries, exploring what went well, what we should do differently and what the lessons might be for the recovery ahead of us.    

A deeply felt meditation on race, sex and American culture - at once incendiary and icy, mischievous and provocative, celebratory and elegiac. The daughter of a successful paediatrician and a fashionable socialite, Margo Jefferson spent her childhood among Chicago's Black elite. She calls this society 'Negroland': 'a small region of Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege and plenty'. With privilege came expectation.

In August 1948, 545 passengers boarded an overcrowded, clapped-out vessel in Marseilles to face an uncertain future in Australia and New Zealand. They came from displaced persons camps in Germany, death camps in Poland, labour camps in Hungary, gulags in Siberia and stony Aegean islands. There were those who had been hunted by the Nazis and those who had welcomed them; those who had followed the Communists and those who had fled them.

In 1943, Edda Mussolini, daughter of the fascist dictator, gave her father and Hitler an extraordinary ultimatum – release her husband, Italy’s former foreign minister, Galeazzo Ciano, from prison, or risk her leaking her husband’s incendiary diaries to the press. Instead, Hitler and Mussolini vowed to do everything in their power to destroy the diaries – even if it meant killing Edda. They ordered Hilde Beetz, a German spy, to seduce Ciano in prison in order to learn the diaries’ location.

The definitive biography of Phillip Schuler, one of Australia's greatest war correspondents, from Gallipoli to his death in Flanders. Phillip Schuler, a handsome young journalist from the Melbourne Age, covered the Gallipoli campaign alongside Charles Bean. His bravery was legendary. His dispatches were evocative and compassionate. He captured the heroism and horror for Australian newspaper readers in ways the meticulous yet dry prose of Bean never could.

This is the story of the women who took part in the Long March, seen through the biographies of three key players. Lee and Wiles trace the womens' stories in three time periods: the Long March itself, a decade later at liberation and then 40 years on. Drawing on published and unpublished sources, including interviews, this is the moving story of one of the great events of 20th-century history.

Immigration is a simple economic equation, but its effects are complex. Sharply written and brilliantly clarifying, Exodus offers a provocative analysis of an issue that affects us all. It is one of the most pressing and controversial questions of our time - vehemently debated, steeped in ideology, profoundly divisive. Drawing on original research and case studies, Collier explores this volatile issue from three perspectives: that of the migrants themselves, that of the people they leave behind and that of the host societies where they relocate.

With over two billion adherents, Christianity is the world’s largest religion. However, with a multitude of denominations, and varying opinions on many central tenets, it can be difficult to obtain a balanced overview of this complex faith. Best-selling author Keith Ward provides a unique and authoritative introduction to Christianity that will reward both the curious and those seeking a deeper understanding of their religion.

The Beat Generation was a revolutionary group of American writers in the late 50s and early 60s who fused an open approach to literature with a bohemian lifestyle. Immortalised through Kerouac’s On the Road and Ginsberg’s Howl, their relaxed, gritty, and candid writing continues to inspire anyone drawn to the unconventional.

A thrilling, character-driven look at Stockholm’s drug-and-sex-fueled underworld from the fantastic Jens Lapidus, following Stockholm Delete. For decades, a secret network in Stockholm has been exploiting young girls, ruthlessly eliminating anyone who threatens to reveal their secret. As oddly paired duo Teddy and Emelie - the thug and the lawyer - investigate, the terrifying noose tightens. The police force has established a special team to find out just who's involved in the network but can't seem to get close enough. And who is it that's trying to silence Teddy and Emelie, using any means necessary?

Ireland’s Secret War reveals strategic Nazi intentions for Ireland and the real role of leading government figures of the time, placing Dan Bryan and G2—the military intelligence branch of the Irish Defence Forces—at the centre of the country’s battle against Nazi Germany. With the help of over 35 hours of previously unpublished audio recordings that were held in storage in Northern California for over 50 years, Marc Mc Menamin reveals the extraordinary unheard history of WWII in Ireland, told from the point of view of the main protagonists.

The first novel truly to capture the story of Ireland during the BSE crisis, shown through the small, deeply intimate stories of four people caught up in its churn. A photograph is hung on a gallery wall for the very first time since it was taken two decades before. It shows a slaughter house in rural Ireland, a painting of the Virgin Mary on the wall, a meat hook suspended from the ceiling - and, from its sharp point, the lifeless body of a man hanging by his feet.

The Enlightenment has been nothing if not divisive, being blamed for bloody disasters - Auschwitz, the gulags, Islamic terrorism - as well as being heralded as the harbinger of reason and equality. To this day historians disagree over when it was, where it was, and what it was. Kieron O’Hara deftly traverses these conflicts, presenting the history, ideology, culture, and social life of the Enlightenment, not as a simple set of easily enumerated ideas, but rather as an evolving conglomerate that spawned a diverse set of thinkers.

The Vietnamese looked on Long Tan as a key victory for them, and in the sequel to The Soldiers' Story, Terry Burstall makes a veteran's emotional journey back to the battlefield after 25 years.

Blending narrative with analysis, Peter Davies explores a time of obscene opulence, mass starvation, and ground-breaking ideals; where the streets of Paris ran red with blood, and the numbers requiring execution precipitated the invention of the guillotine. Davies brings the subject up to date by considering the legacy of the revolution and how it continues to resonate in today’s France.

Every now and again America confronts its demons, walks away from deep internal division, and strives towards justice. Barack Obama: The Movement for Change tells the story of a visionary leader who refuses to be limited by America's history and determines instead to change it.