Life & Times – serie

The ancient world of fifth century Greece, an astonishing period of cultural development that helps situate the originality of Socrates, and to the city-state of Athens in particular. The social, political and cultural currents flowing through Athens are inseparable from an understanding of the events and attitudes that Socrates examined and intellectually dissected.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is recognised as a giant of world literature; an exceptionally prolific and versatile writer. As a student, he composed pastoral plays in the style of the waning Rococo. With Gotz von Berlichingen, a drama conceived in the spirit of Shakespeare, he joined the avant-garde Sturm und Drang authors. His epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther elicited fervent responses among those who rejected the traditions of the Enlightenment, and in his tragedy Faust, which evolved over a 60-year period, he created a prototype of the Romantic hero. Furthermore, based on his studies in literary theory, he developed a concept of 'world literature' that he hoped would foster communication among writers of different nations.

Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1400-1468) is widely heralded as one of the most influential men of the last millennium. His invention, a printing press with mechanical moving type, had an unprecedented impact on the political and cultural history of Europe and beyond. But despite his significance, a rigorous and accessible biography has not been published in English – until now.Charting Gutenberg’s life from his youth in Mainz to his final years and lasting legacy, Stephan Füssel – one of Europe’s leading experts on Gutenberg – brings together authoritative scholarship and historical detail to illuminate the life of this fascinating figure. This short biography contains everything you need to know about the man who changed the printed word, and the world, forever.

Mary Seacole’s remarkable life began in Jamaica, where she was born a ‘free person,’ the daughter of a black mother and white Scottish army officer. Ron Ramdin – who, like Seacole, was born in the Caribbean and emigrated to the UK – tells the remarkable story of a woman celebrated today as a pioneering nurse. But Seacole’s time in the Crimea, for which she is best-known, was only the pinnacle of a life of adventure and travel.Refused permission to serve as an army nurse, Seacole took the remarkable step of funding her own journey to the Crimean battlefront and there, in the face of sometimes harsh opposition, she established a hotel for wounded soldiers. Unlike Florence Nightingale – whose exploits saw her venerated as the ‘lady with the lamp’ for generations afterwards – Seacole cared for soldiers perilously close to the fighting.Her short-lived fame back in Britain was the work of soldiers and the press who campaigned to have her exploits acknowledged. Her book, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, became a bestseller. Then she was forgotten, dying 25-years later in obscurity, and unjustly written out of history for over a century.

The charismatic, near-mythological figure of Josip Broz Tito was many things: an inspirational partisan leader and scourge of the Germans during their occupation of Yugoslavia in the Second World War; a doctrinaire communist but an ever-present thorn in Moscow's side; an oppressor, a dictator, a reformer, and a playboy. He managed Yugoslavia's internal tensions through personality, force of will, and political oppression. It was only after his death in 1980 that the true scale of this feat was understood; the country's institutions and politicians were then revealed as rudderless, and the country created by Tito - a Croat turned Yugoslav - collapsed into a bloody and at times genocidal civil war. These ethnic conflicts were Tito's nightmare, yet, as Neil Barnett shows in this short but engaging biography, they were in many ways the result of his own myopic egomania.

Patrice Lumumba had been prime minister of the newly liberated Congo for only seven months at the time of his assassination in 1961. As news of his execution spread, his image was brandished in demonstrations around the world along with those of Che Guevara and Mao Zedong. He would go on to become an icon of anti-imperialist struggle and perhaps the most famous leader of the African independence movement. Lumumba’s life and the freedom that he sought for the Congo exposed ongoing Western colonialism and the problematic nature of the independence granted to huge swathes of the globe after 1945.Leo Zeilig’s concise, direct biography tells the story of the Congo in the dying days of colonialism; of Lumumba’s transition from nationalist, to revolutionary, to international symbol of African liberation; and of the role of Western powers in his murder.

James Joyce (1882-1941) is hailed as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Rejecting his homeland and its religion as a young man, Joyce went on to reinvent the Dublin of his youth in fiction. His masterpiece Ulysses - once banned in Britain and the United States - redefined the modern novel and has become a canonical classic, while Finnegans Wake, written as his eyesight deteriorated, cemented Joyce's legacy as one of the founding figures of modernist literature.In this lucid and compelling biography, Ian Pindar vividly explores crucial events in Joyce's life, from his self-imposed exile to his creative triumphs. Revealing how Joyce's work carefully blends the abstract and the mundane, Joyce is a timeless study of a man who revolutionised the literary landscape and celebrated the great human comedy of which we are all part.

More than fifty years after his death, Gamal Abd al-Nasser remains a towering figure in the Arab world. As one of the young officers who overthrew British-backed King Farouk in 1952, Nasser rose to prominence as a charismatic visionary who challenged foreign dominance. At just 36 years old, he became the undisputed leader of Egypt, in a presidency that would run from 1956 to 1970. This insightful biography delves into the life of Nasser, charting his rise to power, his nationalisation of the Suez Canal and his turbulent years as president. Many in the Arab World celebrate Nasser for his defiance of colonial rule and his dream of Arab unity. However, his legacy is not without its contradictions. Critics have alluded, for instance, to his autocratic rule and unfulfilled promises. In Nasser (Life and Times), Alexander explores this tension between Nasser’s revolutionary ideas and the reality of his governance, offering a nuanced portrait of one of the most complex figures of the Middle East.

Growing up in the wake of the Spanish military’s shattering defeat at the hands of the United States in 1898 over Cuba and having survived a bullet to the stomach while serving his country in Morocco, it is perhaps no wonder that Francisco Franco’s fame and notoriety was eventually guaranteed by his ruthless pursuit of victory for the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War.Franco played a major role on the world stage until his death in 1975. At once intensely sentimental and affecting cool indifference at times of bad news, he emphasised the need to obey orders, the importance of individual bravery, absolute loyalty to the Fatherland and the crucial role of the army. Variously courted by the liberal democracies of Britain and France, the Fascist alliance of Hitler and Mussolini and then by anti-communist administrations in Washington, the memory of his successful policies, leading to rapid growth during a time of economic depression, are tempered by his government’s extreme repression of political opponents and perpetration of mass violence during the White Terror. In Franco, Michael Streeter explores the Generalissimo’s legacy as the subject of a cult of personality in one of Europe’s longest-lasting modern dictatorships and considers his genesis, his successes – decades of relative stability and prosperity during a period of great European conflict – and the terrible cost at which they came.

Fully Revised and Enlarged Edition with a new ForewordSince his execution for high treason in 1916, Roger Casement has been lauded for his humanitarian activism in Africa and the Amazon. His life, however, has remained obscured behind speculation about his sexuality and his complicated contribution to Ireland’s revolutionary generation that took up arms against the British Empire. He lives on as an enduring enigma in the history of British-Irish relations—a figure who refuses easy categorisation, and whose legacy demands radical reconsideration.Angus Mitchell traces the life of a man fatally divided between serving the empire and advancing demands for an independent Irish nation. Understanding his logical evolution from imperialist to revolutionary unmasks a coherent global dimension to the Irish struggle. The apparent contradictions of his life resolve into a singular commitment to humanity, justice, and universal principles of love and tolerance.Beyond what it tells us about Casement’s fated path to the scaffold in Pentonville Prison, this biography invites readers to question the curation of national history,  the hidden power of archives, and the lasting impact of state secrecy.

A half-century after his death, Mao Zedong remains one of history’s most polarising figures: a peasant boy who become a revolutionary leader; a general in World War II; and finally the ‘Great Helmsman’, the founding father of the People’s Republic of China. His legacy is a story of national liberation and human tragedy; today, Mao is no static icon on a banknote, but the architect of a superpower whose ideas, methods, and personal life are continually re-examined through a modern lens.This concise yet comprehensive biography re-evaluates Mao’s ‘mass line’ ideology and bridges the gap between the man and the revolutionary, without overlooking the events that led the ending of China’s ‘Century of Humiliation’, the brutal cost of the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.Based on new archival information and startling revelations from his inner circle – including his personal physician, Dr Li Zhisui, and former nurses – Clements offers a clear and accessible portrait of a leader whose persistent influence continues to affect global power dynamics today.

UPDATED SECOND EDITIONBenjamin Britten (1913–1976) is celebrated for revitalising English opera and is recognised as one of the outstanding British composers of the 20th century. Growing up in a middle-class family in Suffolk, Britten shot to international fame with his operas, performed by his own English Opera Group, and a series of extraordinary instrumental works. He lived almost all his life in that easterly county of England, the sea providing a constant stimulus for his life and work.His music won a central place in the repertoire and the affection of successive generations of listeners. It was, above all, Britten’s ardent pursuit of innocence and beauty in his music that places it apart from that of his contemporaries and contributes to its unique quality.David Matthews brings to this biography his special insight as a fellow composer, former assistant and friend of Britten to produce this sensitive, authoritative account.