{"title":"Books by Peter Marshall","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780006862451","title":"Demanding the Impossible","description":"\u003cp\u003eA fascinating and comprehensive history, Demanding the Impossible is a challenging and thought-provoking exploration of anarchist ideas and actions from ancient times to the present day. Navigating the broad 'river of anarchy', from Taoism to Situationism, from Ranters to Punk rockers, from individualists to communists, from anarcho-syndicalists to anarcha-feminists, Demanding the Impossible is an authoritative and lively study of a widely misunderstood subject. It explores the key anarchist concepts of society and the state, freedom and equality, authority and power and investigates the successes and failure of the anarchist movements throughout the world. While remaining sympathetic to anarchism, it presents a balanced and critical account. It covers not only the classic anarchist thinkers, such as Godwin, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Reclus and Emma Goldman, but also other libertarian figures, such as Nietzsche, Camus, Gandhi, Foucault and Chomsky. No other book on anarchism covers so much so incisively.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this updated edition, a new epilogue examines the most recent developments, including 'post-anarchism' and 'anarcho-primitivism' as well as the anarchist contribution to the peace, green and 'Global Justice' movements. Demanding the Impossible is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand what anarchists stand for and what they have achieved. It will also appeal to those who want to discover how anarchism offers an inspiring and original body of ideas and practices which is more relevant than ever in the twenty-first century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204146167986,"sku":"9780006862451","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780006862451.jpg?v=1785658767"},{"product_id":"9780008394424","title":"Storm’s Edge","description":"'A surprising page-turner, full of humour and startling details' THE TIMES                                'If I read a better history this year, I will be lucky' TOM HOLLAND                                'An astonishing tour de force’ SPECTATOR                                Shortlisted for the HWA Nonfiction Crown Award                                Longlisted for the Highland Book Prize                    From Peter Marshall, winner of the 2018 Wolfson Prize, Storm’s Edge is a new history of the Orkney Islands that delves deep into island politics, folk beliefs and community memory on the geographical edge of Britain.             Peter Marshall was born in Orkney. His ancestors were farmers and farm labourers on the northern island of Sanday – where, in 1624, one of them was murdered by a witch. In an expansive and enthralling historical account, Marshall looks afresh at a small group of islands that has been treated as a mere footnote, remote and peripheral, and in doing so invites us to think differently about key events of British history.             With Orkney as our point of departure, Marshall traverses three dramatic centuries of religious, political and economic upheaval: a time when what we think of as modern Scotland, and then modern Britain, was being forged and tested.             Storm's Edge is a magisterial history, a fascinating cultural study and a mighty attestation to the importance of placing the periphery at the centre. Britain is a nation composed of many different islands, but too often we focus on just one. This book offers a radical alternative, encouraging us to reorient the map and travel with Peter Marshall through landscapes of forgotten history.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55206019760501,"sku":"9780008394424","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008394424_1089a71f-bb1f-47d8-99fc-56037661bc11.jpg?v=1785658596"},{"product_id":"9781844135370","title":"The Mercurial Emperor","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the late 16th century the greatest philosophers, alchemists, astronomers, painters, and mathematicians of the day flocked to Prague to work under the patronage of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, an emperor more interested in the great minds of his times than in the exercise of his immense power. Rarely leaving Prague Castle, he gathered around him a galaxy of famous figures: among them the painter Arcimboldo, the astronomer Tycho Brahe, the mathematician Johannes Kepler, the philosopher Giordano Bruno and the magus John Dee. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFascinated by the new Renaissance learning, Rudolf found it nearly impossible to make decisions of state. Like Faust, he was prepared to risk all in the pursuit of magical knowledge and the Philosopher's Stone which would turn base metals into gold and prolong life indefinitely. But he also faced threats: religious discord, the Ottoman Empire, his own deepening melancholy and an ambitious younger brother. As a result he lost his empire and nearly his sanity. But he enabled Prague to enjoy a golden age of peace and creativity before Europe was engulfed in the Thirty Years' War.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFilled with angels and devils, high art and low cunning, talismans and stars, \u003ci\u003eThe Mercurial Emperor \u003c\/i\u003eoffers a captivating perspective on a pivotal moment in the history of Western civilisation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308314505589,"sku":"9781844135370","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781844135370_f4b66169-df41-4df9-a26e-ab3868e69757.jpg?v=1786027819"},{"product_id":"9798888571163","title":"Cladh Hallan: Roundhouses and the Dead in the Hebridean Bronze Age and Iron Age","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis second of two volumes presents archaeological and scientific studies of a wide range of materials from the unusually long-occupied Bronze Age and Iron Age site of Cladh Hallan on South Uist in the Western Isles of Scotland. These include metalworking debris, copper-alloy, gold and iron artifacts, bone and antler tools and ornaments, flint and quartz tools, coarse stone tools, pumice, shale ornaments and fuel ash slag. The metalworking assemblage, from casting weapons, tools and ornaments, is exceptional in its size and in its being stratified within a domestic context of production. Metal tools and ornaments, some placed as special deposits on house floors, include a gold-plated penannular ring and an iron object stratified within an 11th-century BC house floor, among the earliest finds of iron artefacts in Britain.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe enormous and well-preserved environmental assemblage includes faunal remains of land mammals, whales, fish, birds and marine and terrestrial molluscs. Sheep were the most numerous domestic species within an assemblage of over 150,000 land mammalian remains, and Cladh Hallan has the largest collection of canine remains for any settlement in British later prehistory. Carbonized plant remains derive principally from cultivation of barley and associated weeds of cultivation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe site’s assemblage provides extensive material for chemical analysis of food residues, isotopic analysis of animal and human remains, osteological analysis of human remains, histological analysis of their processes of diagenesis, and genetic analysis of ancient DNA from animal and human remains. These analyses include full investigation of the human remains from two composite inhumations that had formerly been mummified, the first discovery of this mortuary practice in prehistoric Britain.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book concludes with a synthesis of results presented in the two volumes, presenting the rich insights provided by research on Cladh Hallan into life and death in the 2nd and early 1st millennia BC.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56310881550709,"sku":"9798888571163","price":39.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9798888571163_6630feec-27a2-4cab-b35d-073e92abd01d.jpg?v=1786035163"},{"product_id":"9780192843173","title":"Thomas More","description":"Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Thomas More is an enduringly fascinating and profoundly controversial figure. A brilliant scholar, his Utopia of 1516 dared to imagine how society might be completely reordered. At the same time, his hatred of the Reformation caused him to advocate, and seek to implement, the death penalty for heretics. A friend and advisor to Henry VIII, More's refusal to support Henry's break with Rome led to his execution in 1535, and the start of a long argument about his legacy. This Very Short Introduction assesses More's life, writings and achievements, and examines changing views of his character, in both historical interpretation and various works of fiction. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56367777677685,"sku":"9780192843173","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780192843173_8a04d5e6-ca18-47d1-8ad3-836e62bcd657.jpg?v=1786011016"},{"product_id":"9780198859062","title":"The Reformation","description":"Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring The Reformation transformed Europe and left an indelible mark on the modern world. But what actually was the Reformation and how should it be defined? Historians have long wrangled over whether it represented a force leading to progress, liberty, and modernity, or to conflict, division, and repression. What is certain is that the relationships between Church and State, between subjects and rulers, between men and women, between parents and children, and between Europe and the rest of the world were fundamentally changed during this period.In this Very Short Introduction, now thoroughly revised and updated to take account of the most recent scholarship, Peter Marshall argues that the Reformation was a long-term process of social, political, and cultural change. He shows how it consisted of distinct but related strands that altered the conditions of life for all kinds of people right across Europe. The Reformation also began the process of Christianity's transformation into a world religion. Exploring the effects it had on politics, society, art, gender relations, and the treatment of minorities, Marshall presents the Reformation as a study in unintended consequences and reveals how its complex legacies are still felt today.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56419534799221,"sku":"9780198859062","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780198859062_f0a7ae82-f7e8-4c38-9a8a-dca12fcb11b5.jpg?v=1786012481"},{"product_id":"1517","title":"1517","description":"\u003cp\u003eMartin Luther's posting of the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517 is one of the most famous events of Western history. It inaugurated the Protestant Reformation, and has for centuries been a powerful and enduring symbol of religious freedom of conscience, and of righteous protest against the abuse of power.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut did it actually really happen?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this engagingly-written, wide-ranging and insightful work of cultural history, leading Reformation historian Peter Marshall reviews the available evidence, and concludes that, very probably, it did not. The theses-posting is a myth. And yet, Marshall argues, this fact makes the incident all the more historically significant. In tracing how - and why - a 'non-event' ended up becoming a defining episode of the modern historical imagination. Marshall compellingly explores the multiple ways in which the figure of Martin Luther, and the nature of the Reformation itself, have been remembered and used for their own purposes by subsequent generations of Protestants and others - in Germany, Britain, the United States and elsewhere.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs people in Europe, and across the world, prepare to remember, and celebrate, the 500th anniversary of Luther's posting of the theses, this book offers a timely contribution and corrective. The intention is not to 'debunk', or to belittle Luther's achievement, but rather to invite renewed reflection on how the past speaks to the present - and on how, all too often, the present creates the past in its own image and likeness.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57680075358581,"sku":"9780199682010","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780199682010.jpg?v=1792423066"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-peter-marshall.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}