Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

Slavery, capitalism and the Industrial Revolution / Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson. "For too long, the role of slavery in driving Britain's economic development has been marginalized. In their remarkable new book, Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson 'follow the money' to document in revealing detail the role of slavery in the making of Britain's industrial revolution. Slavery was not just a source of wealth for a narrow circle of slave owners who built grand country houses and filled them with luxuries. The forces set in motion by the slave and plantation trades seeped into almost every aspect of the economy and society. In textile mills, iron and copper smelting, steam power, and financial institutions, slavery played a crucial part. Things we might think far removed from the taint of slavery, like 18th century fashions for indigo-patterned cloth, sweet tea, snuff boxes, mahogany furniture, ceramics and silverware, were intimately connected. Even London's role as a centre for global finance was partly determined by the slave trade as insurance, financial trading and mortgage markets were developed in the City to promote distant and risky investments in enslaved people. The result is a bold and unflinching account of how Britain became a global superpower, and how the legacy of slavery persists. Acknowledging Britain's role in slavery is not just about toppling statues and renaming streets. We urgently need to come to terms with slavery's inextricable links with Western capitalism, and the ways in which many of us continue to benefit from slavery to this day."--Provided by publisher. 2023 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 382/.440941

Journey back to freedom : the Olaudah Equiano story /Catherine Johnson ; with illustrations by Katie Hickey. "Aged only eleven, Olaudah Equiano was cruelly snatched from his home in Africa and sold into slavery. He spent much of the next ten years serving various masters at sea, travelling to the far corners of the globe. He witnessed horrendous cruelty and occasional kindness, while experiencing daring adventures and extreme peril. Throughout it all, he never gave up hope that one day he would be free again."-- 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.362092

Edmund Burke and the British Empire in the West Indies : wealth, power, and slavery /P.J. Marshall. "Edmund Burke was both a political thinker of the utmost importance and an active participant in the day-to-day business of politics. It is the latter role that is the concern of this book, showing Burke engaging with issues concerning the West Indies, which featured so largely in British concerns in the later eighteenth century. Initially, Burke saw the islands as a means by which his close connections might make their fortunes, later he was concerned with them as a great asset to be managed in the national interest, and, finally, he became a participant in debates about the slave trade. This volume adds a new dimension to assessments of Burke's views on empire, hitherto largely confined to Ireland, India, and America, and explores the complexities of his response to slavery. The system outraged his abundantly attested concern for the suffering caused by abuses of British power overseas, but one which he also recognised to be fundamental for sustaining the wealth generated by the West Indies, which he deemed essential to Britain's national power. He therefore sought compromises in the gradual reform of the system rather than immediate abolition of the trade or emancipation of the slaves."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 325.3209033

A new history of yachting / Mike Bender "This book, by a leading expert in the field, is the first major history of yachting for over a quarter of a century. Setting developments within political, social and economic changes, the book tells the story of yachting from Elizabethan times to the present day: the first uses of yachts, by monarchs, especially Charles II; yacht clubs and yacht racing in the eighteenth century; the early years of the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes and an analysis of the America Cup challenges; the pioneering developments in Ireland and the exporting of yachting to the colonies and trading outposts of the Empire; the expansion of yachting in Victorian times; the Golden Age of Yachting in the years before the First World War, when it was the sport of the crowned heads of Europe; the invention of the dinghy and the keelboat classes and, after the Second World War, the massive numbers of home-built dinghies; the breaking of new boundaries by risk-taking single-handers from the mid-1960s; the expansion of leisure sailing that came in the 1980s with the use of moulded plastic yachts; and current trends and pressures within the sport. Well-referenced yet highly readable, this book will be of interest both to the scholar and the sailing enthusiast."--Provided by the publisher. 2017 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 797.14

Bodies / machines / edited by Iwan Rhys Morus. "It is hard to believe that the pursuit of artificial intelligence is not a phenomenon of the twentieth century. For over three hundred years, the boundaries between bodies and machines[,] the natural and the artificial, the animate and the inanimate have been passionately explored. These explorations, beginning in the seventeenth and eighteenth and increasing during the nineteenth century, have been all but forgotten, lost beneath the commotion of the modern day world. This book retrieves these lost histories, giving voice to the hopes, dreams, and fears of philosophers, medical practitioners, engineers, craftsmen and artisans who have all been fascinated by the interface between bodies and machines. The journey back in time unfolds with the mysterious advent of mechanical philosophies, which conceptualized the body and the surrounding world largely in terms of mechanistic interactions. These theories develop in intriguing directions and fuel experiments in such areas as material production and social punishment, spiritualism and mental health. From reanimating dead bodies with electricity, which led to the introduction of the electric chair, through to the use of machines to render hysterics and the insane fit for reintroduction into society, this book conveys the dark truths behind our relationship with machines. This book is not only an exceptional contribution to the history of technology but also to contemporary debates about humans and machines."--Provided by the publisher. 2002. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 62-1

All his spies : the secret world of Robert Cecil /Stephen Alford. "Robert Cecil, statesman and spymaster, lived through an astonishingly threatening period in English history. Queen Elizabeth had no clear successor and enemies both external and internal threatened to destroy England as a Protestant state, most spectacularly with the Spanish Armada and the Gunpowder Plot. Cecil stood at the heart of the Tudor and then Stuart state, a vital figure in managing the succession from Elizabeth I to James I & VI, warding off military and religious threats and steering the decisions of two very different but equally wilful and hard-to-manage monarchs. The promising son of Queen Elizabeth's chief minister Lord Burghley, for Cecil there was no choice but politics, and he became supremely skilled in the arts of power, making many rivals and enemies. 'All His Spies' is an engaging and original work of history. Many readers are familiar with the great events of this tumultuous time, but 'All His Spies' shows how easily these dramas could have turned out very differently. Cecil?s sureness of purpose, his espionage network and good luck all conspired to keep England uninvaded and to create a new 'British' monarchy which has endured to the present day."--Provided by the publisher. 2024. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 942.055092

A walk across Africa : J.A. Grant's account of the Nile expedition of 1860-1863 /edited and annotated with an introduction by Roy Bridges. "The Nile Expedition of 1860-1863 was one of the most important exploratory expeditions made in the nineteenth century. The long-debated question of the location of the source of the Nile was answered (despite continuing arguments) and the venture had important historical consequences. Earlier accounts of the expedition have assumed James Augustus Grant to have been no more than the loyal second-in-command to John Hanning Speke, the leader. This new edition of Grant's 1864 book, A Walk across Africa, provides the opportunity to re-examine his role. The original text has been fully annotated with explanatory notes and also supplemented by extracts from the very remarkable detailed day-to-day journal which Grant kept. Even more unusually, this edition includes reproductions of the whole visual record which he made consisting of 147 watercolours and sketches. This was the first ever visual record of large parts of East Africa and the Upper Nile Valley region. These documentary and illustrative materials have been drawn from the extensive collection of Grant's papers now in the care of the National Library of Scotland. The Library has co-operated in the preparation of this volume to make possible its special features.Grant emerges as a much more impressive and important figure than has previously been recognised. He was a trained scientist and his narrative is a well-organised perspective on the expedition and its activities. His own growing understanding of Africa and of Africans becomes apparent and helps to explain his later activities."--Provided by the publisher. 2018. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 061.22HAKLUYT

Sea of dangers : Captain Cook and his rivals in the South Pacific /Geoffrey Blainey. In 1769 two ships set out independently in search of a missing continent: a French merchant ship commanded by Jean de Surville, and a small British naval vessel, the Endeavour, commanded by Captain James Cook. Neither knew of the other's existence. Cook's first long voyage was one of the most remarkable in recorded history: in a ship not much larger in area than a tennis court, he not only sailed around the world, following the most difficult route any navigator had ever attempted, but also changed the map of the world. He was the first to explore most of the New Zealand coast and much of the east coast of Australia. He lost a third of his crew to tropical illnesses, after earlier saving them from scurvy. Historian Geoffrey Blainey brings his storytelling powers to bear on this fascinating and important adventure, drawing us into the lives of the major figures.--From publisher description. 2009. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92COOK:92SURVILLE

Building Trust : The history of DNV 1864-2014 "From its foundation in 1864 as a society to inspect and classify Norwegian merchant ships, DNV has grown into one of the world's largest organisations for inspection, certification and verification services. This book recounts its history from the earliest years to the present day, with particular emphasis on the past four decades. Building Trust analyses how DNV maritime activities were internationalised as part of the globalisation of world trade, and how diversification accelerated rapidly after Norway's offshore industry took off in the 1970s. A detailed account is given of how DNV developed its services in a complex interaction with markets, governments and international organisations regulating technological risk. The book concludes with an account of the merger of DNV and Germanischer Lloyd in 2013 to create the present DNV GL Group, which has about 17,000 employees and is active in more than 100 countries worldwide."--Provided by the publisher. 2014 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 061.238:629.123.001.3

Shipowners of Cardiff : a class by themselves :a history of Cardiff and Bristol Channel Incorporated Shipowners' Association /David Jenkins A history of the Cardiff and Bristol Channel Incorporated Shipowners' Association, founded in 1875 as the Cardiff Shipowners' Association but changing its name following a short breakaway from the Association by Bristol Channel Shipowners. Appendices provide a full list of chairmen, a list of the Association's Secretaries, a list of companies represented on the Association from 1895 onwards, individual membership figures, gross tonnage and numbers of Cardiff owned ships, committees on which Association members served and ships built for Cardiff shipowners under the British Shipping (Assistance) Act 1935 and British Shipping (Assistance) Bill 1939. Illustrations include photographs of the Association's chairmen. This is a revised edition bringing up to date an earlier text. 2013. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 347.792(429.7)

Distances of the Moon's center from the four planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn for 1831 / H. C. Schumacher Schumacher, Heinrich Christian, 1829 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 527(083.5)"1831":094

Distances of the Moon's center from the four planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn for 1831 / H. C. Schumacher Schumacher, Heinrich Christian, 1827 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 527(083.5)"1829":094

Distances of the Moon's center from the four planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn for 1832 / H. C. Schumacher Schumacher, Heinrich Christian, 1830 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 527(083.5)"1832":094

1944 : the second world war at sea in photographs. "The sixth year of the Second World War began positively for the Allies, with the successful landings at Anzio, codenamed Operation Shingle. The landings eventually led to the liberation of Rome, an important milestone in the war. The year 1944 was, however, dominated at sea by Operation Neptune, better known as the D-Day landings, on 6 June. From this point, the Allies continued to expand their foothold in Normandy, and throughout France. As the largest seaborne invasion in history, the Normandy landings were a turning point of the war. Later in the war, on the other side of the world, the Americans were launching the successful amphibious attacks on the Mariana Islands. Having captured Saipan, the American forces were in a much better strategic position in the war against Japan. Operation Dragoon was launched in the south of France in the middle of August, and continued for a month. While the troops in northern France were making steady progress, the soldiers in the south were advancing quickly, taking Toulon and Marseille within two weeks. In this book, Phil Carradice uses a variety of rarely seen photographs to continue the story of the Second World War at sea into 1944." --Provided by the publisher. 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.545.9(42)"1944"

A century of carrier aviation : the evolution of ships and shipborne aircraft /David Hobbs. "It is now almost exactly a hundred years since a heavier-than-air craft first took off and landed on a warship, and from the very beginning flying at sea made unique demands on men and machines. As warplanes grew larger, faster and heavier, air operations from ships were only possible at all through constant development in technology, techniques and tactics. This book charts the progress and growing effectiveness of naval air power, concentrating on the advances and inventions - most of them British - that allowed shipborne aircraft to match their land-based counterparts, and looking at their contribution to 20th century warfare. Written by a retired Fleet Air Arm pilot and and award-winning historian of naval flying, this is a masterly overview of the history of aviation in the world's navies down to the present day. Heavily illustrated from the author's comprehensive collection of photographs, the book will be essential reading to anyone with an interest in navies or air power." 2009. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 623.822.7(42)"19/20"

Rain of steel : Mitscher's Task Force 58, Ugaki's Thunder Gods, and the Kamikaze war off Okinawa /Stephen L. Moore. "Rain of Steel follows Navy and Marine carrier aviators in the desperate air battles to control the kamikazes directed by Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki. Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher's Task Force 58 carriers had conducted air strikes on mainland Japan and supported the Iwo Jima landings, but his aviators were sorely tested once the Okinawa campaign commenced on April 1, 1945. Ugaki would unleash ten different Kikusui aerial suicide operations, one including a naval force built around the world's most powerful battleship, the 71,000-ton Yamato. These battles are related largely through the words and experiences of some of the last living U.S. fighter aces of World War II"--Provided by publisher. 2020 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.54/252294

The journals of Jeffery Amherst, 1757-1763 / edited by Robert J. Andrews. "Volume 1: General Jeffery Amherst served as commander in chief of the British army in North America during the Seven Years' War from 1758 until 1763. Under Amherst's leadership the British defeated French forces enabling the British Crown to claim Canada. Like many military officers, Amherst kept a journal of his daily activities, and the scope of this publication is from March 1757, while he was Commissary to the troops of Hesse-Kassel on British service in Germany, until his return to Great Britain in December 1763. The daily journal contains a record of and a commentary on events that Amherst witnessed or that he learned of through his correspondence. Where he mentions letters or orders received or sent, where possible, the present-day source locations of documents are identified. The Daily and Personal Journals are the record of the man who played a decisive role in British victories at Louisbourg, on Lake Champlain, and at Montreal. Amherst wrote the personal journal after he returned home. It does not have entries made on a daily basis. It is replete with lists, diagrams, and compendia to more fully explain events. Colored diagrams show dispositions or 'Orders of Battle', organizational structures, and evidence of uniform colors of units for campaigns at Louisbourg, Quebec, Niagara, Lake Champlain, the Carolinas, Montreal, and the Caribbean. In addition, Amherst made mileage charts and lists of ships, currency values, and officers who died during the war."--Provided by the publisher. [2015]. • FOLIO • 2 copies available. 92AMHERST

Finding Franklin : the untold story of a 165-year search /Russell A. Potter. "In 2014 media around the world buzzed with news that an archaeological team from Parks Canada had located and identified the wreck of the HMS Erebus, the flagship of Sir John Franklin's lost expedition to find the Northwest Passage. Finding Franklin outlines the larger story and the cast of detectives from every walk of life that led to the discovery, solving of one of the Arctic's greatest mysteries. In compelling and accessible prose, Russell Potter details his decades of work alongside key figures in the era of modern searches for the expedition and elucidates how shared research and ideas have led to a fuller understanding of the Franklin crew's final months. Illustrated with numerous images and maps from the last two centuries, Finding Franklin recounts the more than fifty modern searches for traces of his ships and crew, and the dedicated, often obsessive, men and women who embarked on them. Potter discusses the crucial role that Inuit oral accounts, often cited but rarely understood, played in all of these searches, and continues to play to this day, and offers historical and cultural context to the contemporary debates over the significance of Franklin's achievement. While examination of the HMS Erebus will undoubtedly reveal further details of this mystery, Finding Franklin assembles the stories behind the myth and illuminates what is ultimately a remarkable decades-long discovery."-- 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 910.4(987)"1845/2014"

London : a social and cultural history, 1550-1750 /Robert Bucholz, Joseph Ward. "Between 1550 and 1750 London became the greatest city in Europe and one of the most vibrant economic and cultural centres in the world. This book is a history of London during this crucial period in its rise to world-wide prominence, during which it dominated the economic, political, social and cultural life of the British Isles. London incorporates the best recent work in urban history, contemporary accounts from Londoners and tourists, and fictional works featuring the city in order to trace London's rise and explore its role as a harbinger of modernity, while examining how its citizens coped with those achievements. London covers the full range of life in London, from the splendid galleries of Whitehall to the damp and sooty alleyways of the East End. Readers will brave the dangers of plague and fire, witness the spectacles of the Lord Mayor's Pageant and the hangings at Tyburn, and take refreshment in the city's pleasure-gardens, coffee-houses and taverns"-- 2012. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 914.21"1550/1750"

A cultural history of slavery and human trafficking / general editor Benjamin N. Lawrence. "With coverage extending from prehistory to the modern day these six highly illustrated, interdisciplinary volumes are the first definitive reference work covering the cultural history of slavery and human trafficking. Volumes cover: 1. A Cultural History of Slavery and Human Trafficking in the Ancient World (10,000 BCE - 500 CE), 2. A Cultural History of Slavery and Human Trafficking in the Pre-Modern Era (500 - 1450), 3. A Cultural History of Slavery and Human Trafficking in the Age of Encounters (1450 - 1700), 4. A Cultural History of Slavery and Human Trafficking in the Age of Empire (1700 - 1900), 5. A Cultural History of Slavery and Human Trafficking in the Age of Global Conflict (1900 - 1945), 6. A Cultural History of Slavery and Human Trafficking in the Age of Globalization (1945 - present). Bringing together an international cast of over 60 contributors, each volume adopts the same thematic structure, covering: definitions and ideologies of slavery and trafficking; slavery, trafficking, and the law; political cultures; coercive laboring economies; social organization, culture, and ritual; gender, enslavement, and trafficking; age, enslavement, and trafficking; and anti-slavery, anti-trafficking, and abolition outcomes. This model supports readers in tracing one theme throughout history, as well as providing them with a thorough overview of each individual period." 2025. • BOOK • 6 copies available. txt

Maritime London : an historical journey in pictures and words /Anthony Burton "The book looks at London's maritime history from the establishment of Roman Londinium to the present day. It discusses many different aspects of life on the Thames and its connecting waterways and canals. There was a time when the River Thames was the main highway for the city, when watermen plied their trade carrying passengers and goods in a wide variety of craft, ranging from rowing boats to sailing barges. The Thames was also, for many centuries, a major ship building centre, and the story includes the construction of some iconic vessels from Henry VIII's flagship Henri Grace âa Dieu to Isambard Brunel's great steamship the SS Great Eastern. London was also until recently the country's most important port. In the days of sail, the Port of London was crowded with vessels and it was not until the nineteenth century that major enclosed docks were built, a process that continued into the early years of the twentieth century. The early nineteenth century also saw London connected to the rest of England through a network of canals. Other topics covered include the lifeboat service, river fire fighting forces and the river police. The result is a colourful pageant that highlights the vital role that London's waterways played in the life of the capital."--Provided by the publisher. 2022. • FOLIO • 1 copy available.

Warships of the Great War era : a history in ship models /David Hobbs. "The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich houses the largest collection of scale ship models in the world, many of which are official, contemporary artefacts made by the craftsmen of the navy or the shipbuilders themselves, and ranging from the mid seventeenth century to the present day. As such they represent a three-dimensional archive of unique importance and authority. Treated as historical evidence, they offer more detail than even the best plans, and demonstrate exactly what the ships looked like in a way that even the finest marine painter could not achieve. This book is one of a series that takes a selection of the best models to tell the story of specific ship types - in this case, the various classes of warship that fought in the First World War, from dreadnoughts to coastal motor boats. It reproduces a large number of model photos, all in full colour, and including many close-up and detail views. These are captioned in depth, but many are also annotated to focus attention on interesting or unusual features. Although pictorial in emphasis, the book weaves the pictures into an authoritative text, producing an unusual and attractive form of technical history."--Provided by the publisher. 2014. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 086.5:623.82

The Women's Royal Naval Service : a world war two memoir /Brenda Birney. "Aged only 24, in 1941 Brenda Heimann, a London secretary, joins up as a Wren. Little does she imagine that she will work in the tunnels under the white cliffs of Dover. Eight months' preparation for D-Day in Inverness culminates in Brenda being driven all along the south coast of England from Portsmouth to Dover delivering the final sealed instructions to commanders taking part in the Invasion of Normandy. Stationed in Caserta, near Naples, Brenda was shown round Venice by one of the real Monuments' Men. At the end of the War, Brenda takes her first flight - from Naples to Malta for her last posting. The WRNS was the time of her life!"--Provided by the publisher. 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. txt

Sir Charles Raymond of Valentines and the East India Company / Georgina Green. "Meticulously researched, Georgina Green's Sir Charles Raymond of Valentines and the East India Company offers readers a detailed biography of a successful eighteenth-century sea captain whose Oriental fortune laid the foundations for domestic comfort and commercial achievement at home in Georgian Essex. Raymond's later life in the City of London managing ships for the East India Company, as a director of the Sun Fire Office and later as a banker, earned him respect and a baronetcy. Living at Valentines in modern day Ilford, Raymond's success attracted other retired captains - relations and business colleagues, to live nearby in Ilford and Woodford. Without these captains who carried their cargo the East India Company would never have become a major force in India. The book includes new material about voyages at sea, the risks and rewards, backed up by statistical information. Readers will encounter Georgian Britain in the round. Trade, politics, marriage, culture, business, sociability, neighbourhood and material life were intertwined in the life of Sir Charles Raymond, just as they were woven through the foundation of Britain's Indian empire. Georgina Green has been well known as a local historian in Redbridge and the Epping Forest area for over 30 years and has written several other books about the history of the area."--Provided by the publisher. 2015. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 954.031092

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