Sutton History Classics – serie

A study of one of the most influential figures in Germany's history. Treating Bismarck as a man of his time, A.J.P. Taylor surveys his political policy and actions as well as investigating the psychology of a man whose life and achievements continue to be controversial.

In this age of burgeoning prison populations, of fascination with details of crime whether by psychopaths or politicians, this re-issue of Christopher Hibbert's classic social history of crime and punishment is timely. The author's immensely readable narrative takes the reader through the lurid story of crime, detection, conviction and punishment. He discusses murder as a lust and murder as a trade: mutilation, torture, lynching and flogging: the guillotine, the gallows and the gas chamber; outlaws of the forest and the street; the Surete,Scotland Yard and the FBI; sexual crimes,police corruption and under-age offenders. From the Dark Ages to the measured steps to the reform of penal sanctions of more recent years, this balanced guide to society's ills is a compelling read.Throughout, Hibbert argues that cruel punishments will inevitably have the effect of creating cruelty. There is no book like Hibbert's currently available: intelligent, wide-ranging and accessible. The issues of crime and punishment and of society's responsibilities in this regard continue to be debated and popular culture seems to be obsessed with crime.Liverpool University reports something like a hundred applicants for every place on its criminal profiling course. Hibbert's engrossing and eminently balanced account has never been more timely.

The restless curiosity of the Victorians, their search for higher levels of comfort, their passion for scientific advance and their general obsession with "things" inspired them to search the natural world, the artistic heritage of other cultures and ages and to apply their minds to devising solutions to a host of practical issues. This survey of Victorian material culture brings to life the material culture of one of the most inventive, and acquisitive, societies.

This work aims to get behind the myths and present the real Bluebeard, Gilles de Rais, one of the most enduring baddies of history. His infamy lives on, the precursor of our own time's serial killers and a founding father of the cult of the child-snatching bogeyman.

Following the Reformation, bonfires and bells were the most public markers of a new calendar that was uniquely English and that developed in the 200 years following it. David Cressy presents the reader with a picture of an English people who were at odds with the Puritan killjoys of their day.

This is a detailed and amusing look at the place where we spend a third of our lives - bed! Examples include a Neolithic stone bed from Skara Brae in the Orkneys, ornate early Renaissance beds, a mid-18th century bed from Chippendale's Chinese period and American metal folding beds.