5 History / Military English eBooks

Customs in Common: Studies in Traditional Popular Culture
Death of an Army: The First Battle of Ypres, 1914 in which the British Regular Army Was Destroyed
In Flanders Fields: The 1917 Campaign
The Freight Train Book
Forts of the West: Military Forts and Presidios

Customs in Common: Studies in Traditional Popular Culture
1993 | ISBN: 1565840747, 1565840038 | English | 560 Pages | EPUB | 28 MB
Customs in Common is the remarkable sequel to E.P. Thompson's influential, landmark volume of social history, The Making of the English Working Class. The product of years of research and debate, Customs in Common describes the complex culture from which working class institutions emerged in England?a panoply of traditions and customs that the new working class fought to preserve well into Victorian times.
In a text marked by both empathy and erudition, Thompson investigates the gradual disappearance of a range of cultural customs against the backdrop of the great upheavals of the eighteenth century. As villagers were subjected to a legal system increasingly hostile to custom, they tried both to resist and to preserve tradition, becoming, as Thompson explains, ?rebellious, but rebellious in defence of custom." Although some historians have written of riotous peasants of England and Wales as if they were mainly a problem for magistrates and governments, for Thompson it is the rulers, landowners, and governments who were a problem for the people, whose exuberant culture preceded the formation of working-class institutions and consciousness.
Using a wide range of sources, Thompson shows how careful attention to fragmentary evidence helps to decode the fascinating symbolism of shaming rituals including ?rough music," and practices such as the ritual divorce known as ?wife sale." And in examining the vigorous presence of women in food riots from the sixteenth century onwards, he sheds further light on gender relations of the time.
Essential reading for all those intrigued by English history, Customs in Common has a special relevance today, as traditional economies are being replaced by market economies throughout the world. The rich scholarship and depth of insight in Thompson's work offer many clues to understanding contemporary changes around the globe.

Death of an Army: The First Battle of Ypres, 1914 in which the British Regular Army Was Destroyed
William Morrow | 1968 | ISBN: N/A | English | 230 Pages | PDF | 30 MB
This text describes the first battle of Ypres in October and November 1914, in which the British Army was destroyed. In this epic struggle, the old British Regular Army, whose fighting qualities have never been surpassed, stood and died facing odds of up to seven to one.

In Flanders Fields: The 1917 Campaign
1958 | ISBN: N/A | English | 344 Pages | PDF | 58 MB
Of all the grim, gallant and inglorious battles of the Western Front, this is the name uniquely evocative of the "mud and blood" that pervaded the First World War. The total gain - a few thousand yards of indefensible slough - cost about a million Allied lives. In this now classic account of the Flanders campaign, Leon Wolff graphically describes the whole terrible business: from Haig's initial plan; his determination to carry it out despite constant opposition from the Cabinet and the muddle of doubts and disagreement among the military staff; through the early stages of the "great offensive"; and to the scene of the battle itself - the Flanders fields which will "forever haunt Western civilization".

The Freight Train Book
Carolrhoda Books | 1980 | ISBN: 0876141238 | English | 40 Pages | PDF | 13 MB
Photographs and captions describe various cars of a freight train, including the locomotive, caboose, boxcars, hoppers, flatcars, piggyback cars, refrigerator cars, tank cars, and auto carriers.

Forts of the West: Military Forts and Presidios
University of Oklahoma Press | 1965 | ISBN: N/A | English | 302 Pages | PDF | 30 MB