Showing results for "An Individual History" in Historical

Napoleon Bonaparte lived one of the most extraordinary of all human lives. In the space of just 20 years, from October 1795, when as a young artillery captain he cleared the streets of Paris of insurrectionists, to his final defeat at the (horribly mismanaged) battle of Waterloo in June 1815, Napoleon transformed France and Europe. After seizing power in a coup d'état, he ended the corruption and incompetence into which the revolution had descended.

The breathtaking memoir by a member of "Nicky's family", a group of 669 Czechoslovakian children who escaped the Holocaust through Sir Nicholas Winton's Kindertransport project. My Train to Freedom relates the trials and achievements of award-winning humanitarian and former Episcopal priest Ivan Backer.

It is sometimes difficult to remember that in war there are innocents on all sides who suffer. German citizens who had no connection to the atrocities committed by their countrymen nonetheless endured great hardships because of them.

As the United States marks the 150th anniversary of our defining national drama, 1861 presents a gripping and original account of how the Civil War began. 1861 is an epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefields. Early in that fateful year, a second American revolution unfolded, inspiring a new generation to reject their parents' faith in compromise and appeasement, to do the unthinkable in the name of an ideal.

Eine wahre Geschichte über Mut und Kameradschaft, Versagen und Verzweiflung, Triumph und Trauer. Das bekannteste und folgenreichste Gefecht in der Geschichte der Bundeswehr fand am Karfreitag, dem 2. April 2010 bei Kunduz statt. Deutsche Soldaten gerieten in einen Hinterhalt und kämpften mehr als acht Stunden gegen eine Überzahl von Taliban. Drei Soldaten fielen, fünf wurden verwundet, sechs afghanische Soldaten kamen durch »friendly fire« der Deutschen ums Leben. Zwei Tage später benutzte Verteidigungsminister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg zum ersten Mal die Worte "Krieg in Afghanistan".

Eine Jugend in Deutschland, voller Hoffnung und voller Enttäuschung: Als Freiwilliger zieht Ernst Toller begeistert in den Ersten Weltkrieg und kehrt, für kriegsuntauglich erklärt, als bekennender Pazifist zurück. In München schlägt er sich im November 1918 auf die Seite der Revolution, wird zum Anführer der Räterepublik und erlebt deren tragisches Scheitern. Er wird geächtet, festgenommen und zu fünf Jahren Festungshaft verurteilt. Als er im Juli 1924 das Gefängnis verlässt, ist Ernst Toller eine internationale Berühmtheit.

Ms Eaton was visiting the continent and touring the Netherlands when Napoleon brought the British and Prussians to battle near the town of Waterloo. Eaton was caught up in the rush of panicked civilians fleeing and the reinforcements surging forward. She provides a rare insight into the events around the battle itself.

In Paris, January 1943, 230 French women resisters were rounded up and sent on a train to Auschwitz - the only train, in the four years of the German occupation, to take women of the resistance to a death camp. The youngest was a schoolgirl of 15, the eldest a farmer’s wife of 68; there were among them teachers, biochemists, sales girls, secretaries, housewives and university lecturers. The women turned to one another, finding solace and strength in friendship and shared experience.

In 1942 the young soldier Arthur Dodd was taken prisoner by the German Army and transported to Oswiecim in Polish Upper Silesia. The Germans gave it another name, now synonymous with mankind’s darkest hours. They called it Auschwitz. Forced to do hard labour, starved and savagely beaten, Arthur thought his life would end in Auschwitz. Determined to go down fighting, he sabotaged Nazi industrial work, risked his life to alleviate the suffering of the Jewish prisoners and aided a partisan group planning a mass breakout.

John L. Ransom was taken prisoner in 1863 when his regiment was split into two smaller forces in East Tennessee. He was placed into Andersonville Prison, formerly known as Camp Sumter. Ransom wrote a journal, published in 1881, on his experiences in the camp. Andersonville was the worst of Confederate prison camps, where hundreds of prisoners died daily. Ransom’s diary is important as it provides information on the notorious Andersonville prison camp that may not have been known otherwise.

Spanning Lincoln's life - from his early career as a Springfield lawyer, to his presidential reign during one of America's most troubled historical periods, to his assassination in 1865 - these essays, developed from original C-SPAN interviews, provide a compelling, composite portrait of Lincoln, one that offers up new stories and fresh insights on a defining leader.

Combinando tres facetas fundamentales de la vida de Winston Churchill - su vida privada, su trayectoria políticay bélica, y el contexto histórico en el que ambas se desarrollaron-, Breve Historia de Winston Churchill nos presenta la biografía del político que gobernó Inglaterra durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, pero que, además, luchó en la Guerra del 98, en la Guerra de los Boers, que participó en la Primera Guerra Mundial como Lord del Almirantazgo y asistió al duro proceso de descolonización de Inglaterra.

Twelve Years a Slave is the autobiographical account of Solomon Northup, an African American who was born free in New York in the early 1800s. In 1841, Solomon Northup was captured and forced into slavery for a period of twelve years. Northup's account is detailed in its account of life on a cotton and sugar plantation and the daily routine of slave life during the first part of the 19th century.

Mary Edwards Walker (1832-1919) defied the conventions of her era. Born and raised on a farm in Oswego, New York, Walker became one of a handful of female physicians in the nation - as well as a passionate believer in the rights of women. She campaigned for women's suffrage and against traditional male-dominated marriage vows, and any issue involving the sublimation of her sex. From the outset of the Civil War, Walker volunteered her services as a physician.

Dr. Ernst Gräfenberg was among the most sought-after gynecologists in pre-World War II Germany. The creator of the first IUD, known as the Gräfenberg ring, he was posthumously credited with identifying the eponymous "Gräfenberg spot" or G-spot. He was also a Jew in Nazi Germany, and by 1938 he had been stripped of his practice, his possessions, and his freedom and was languishing in a Nazi prison.