When the British and Canadians landed in Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, they were accompanied by specialized armored vehicles that had the job of removing German obstacles and mines from the invasion beaches.
The life and career of a spy, the German-born Johann Heinrich Amadeus "Johnny" de Graaf (1894-1980), who was a double agent for the British against the Soviets before the Second World War, and worked for Canada against Canadian Fascists during the war.
Wood was essential to the survival of the Venetian Republic. To build its great naval and merchant ships, maintain its extensive levee system, construct buildings, fuel industries, and heat homes, Venice needed access to large quantities of oak and beech timber. The island city itself was devoid of any forests, so the state turned to its mainland ......
The authors weave together first-hand accounts of American soldiers to capture the complete experience of the individual GI in World II, from stateside training to overseas combat. Based on interviews with over 200 veterans, this book also tells the story of the mighty effort to liberate Europe through the brave young men who fought there.
From the Eastern Front to the Defense of the Homeland
In this action-packed memoir of aerial combat in World War II, Norbert Hannig remembers what it was like to fly with the German Luftwaffe on the Eastern Front: the high-altitude drama of closing in on a Soviet bomber, the thrill of watching his rounds hit home and burst the enemy into flames, the excitement of landing unscathed.
The German Defense of the West Wall, September-December 1944
The battles for the Germans' last line of defence in World War II, including Arnhem, Aachen, the Huertgen Forest, and Metz. Built as a series of forts, bunkers, and tank traps, the West Wall - known as the Siegfried Line to the Allies - stretched along Germany's western border.
A fast-growing legal system and economy in medieval and early modern Rome saw a rapid increase in the need for written documents. Brokers of Public Trust examines the emergence of the modern notarial profession -- free market scribes responsible for producing original legal documents and their copies.Notarial acts often go unnoticed, but they are ......
The 15th century was a time of dramatic and decisive change for nuns and nunneries in Florence. In the course of that century, the city's convents evolved from small, semi-autonomous communities to large civic institutions. By 1552, roughly one in eight Florentine women lived in a religious community. Historian Sharon T. Strocchia analyzes this ......
Cosmetics, Commerce, and French Society, 1750-1830
Morag Martin's history of the cosmetic industry in France examines the evolution of popular tastes and standards of beauty during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. As the French citizenry rebelled against the excesses of the aristocracy, there was a parallel shift in consumer beauty practices. Powdered wigs, alabaster white skin, and rouged ......
