James Waite - Böcker

The French withdrawal from Vietnam in 1954 was the product of global pressures and triggered significant global consequences. By treating the war as an international issue, this book places Indochina at the center of the Cold War in the mid-1950s. Arguing that the Indochina War cannot be understood as a topic of Franco-US relations, but ought to be treated as international history, this volume brings in Vietnamese and other global agents, including New Zealand, Australia, and especially Britain, as well as China and the Soviet Union. Importantly, the book also argues that the successful French withdrawal from Vietnam – a political defeat for the Eisenhower administration – helped to avert outright warfare between the major powers, although with very mixed results for the inhabitants of Vietnam who faced partition and further bloodshed. The End of the First Indochina War explores the complexities of intra-alliance competition over global strategy – especially between the United States and British Commonwealth – arguing that these rivalries are as important to understanding the Cold War as east-west confrontation. This is the first truly global interpretation of the French defeat in 1954, based on the author’s research in five western countries and the latest scholarship from historians of Vietnam, China, and Russia. Readers will find much that is new both in terms of archival revelations and original interpretations.

The Talyllyn Railway is not only one of the world famous Great Little Trains of Wales, but was the first railway in the world to be owned and operated by volunteer labour. As such it was the forerunner of most of today’s heritage railways. This book, compiled by James Waite, a renowned photographer of narrow gauge railways, takes the reader on a full colour photographic journey from the line’s headquarters at Tywyn Wharf through the splendid Mid Wales countryside to the terminus in the forest at Nant Gwernol.

A full colour 120 page hardback photographic album by renowned photographer James Waite of the narrow gauge railway lines of the American continents in the 21st century. The reader is taken on an illustrated journey across North America from New England in the east to the West Coast, and then south through Central America and on into South America; journey’s end being in Patagonia, at the southern tip of Argentina. Features many lesser-known lines, as well as the popular Cumbres & Toltec and Durango & Silverton operations.

A full colour 120 page hardback illustrated album by renowned photographer James Waite of the narrow gauge activity in the former Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia) in the 21st Century. Yugoslavia was a popular destination for enthusiasts of narrow gauge railways in the Communist era, having an unusually lengthy network (a legacy of the Austro-Hungarian empire), and Bosnia-Hercegovina remains one of the last bastions of everyday steam working in the railway world. In this book, the author not only visits the Bosnian operations, but also illustrates how the network and the trains that operated on it, have been adapted to serve the fledgling tourist industry.

A full colour 120 page hardback illustrated album of the Ffestiniog and both Welsh Highland Railways. The book takes the form of an illustrated journey from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Caernarfon. The photographs are accompanied by detailed and informative captions.