Speak for Britain!

Speak for Britain!
Author: Martin Pugh
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 490
Release: 2010-03-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1407051555

Written at a critical juncture in the history of the Labour Party, Speak for Britain! is a thought-provoking and highly original interpretation of the party's evolution, from its trade union origins to its status as a national governing party. It charts Labour's rise to power by re-examining the impact of the First World War, the general strike of 1926, Labour's breakthrough at the 1945 general election, the influence of post-war affluence and consumerism on the fortunes and character of the party, and its revival after the defeats of the Thatcher era. Controversially, Pugh argues that Labour never entirely succeeded in becoming 'the party of the working class'; many of its influential recruits - from Oswald Mosley to Hugh Gaitskell to Tony Blair - were from middle and upper-class Conservative backgrounds and rather than converting the working class to socialism, Labour adapted itself to local and regional political cultures.

Britain

Britain
Author: Andrew Whittaker
Publisher: Thorogood Publishing
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2009
Genre: British
ISBN: 1854186272

British culture is strewn with names that strike a chord the world over such as Shakespeare, Churchill, Dickens, Pinter, Lennon and McCartney. This book examines the people, history and movements that have shaped Britain as it now is, providing key information in easily digested chunks.

The Making of the English Working Class

The Making of the English Working Class
Author: Edward Palmer Thompson
Publisher: IICA
Total Pages: 866
Release: 1964
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

This account of artisan and working-class society in its formative years, 1780 to 1832, adds an important dimension to our understanding of the nineteenth century. E.P. Thompson shows how the working class took part in its own making and re-creates the whole life experience of people who suffered loss of status and freedom, who underwent degradation and who yet created a culture and political consciousness of great vitality.

Language in the British Isles

Language in the British Isles
Author: David Britain
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 542
Release: 2007-08-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1107320127

The British Isles are home to a vast range of different spoken and signed languages and dialects. Language continues to evolve rapidly, in its diversity, in the number and the backgrounds of its speakers, and in the repercussions it has had for political and educational affairs. This book provides a comprehensive survey of the dominant languages and dialects used in the British Isles. Topics covered include the history of English; the relationship between Standard and Non-Standard Englishes; the major non-standard varieties spoken on the islands; and the history of multilingualism; and the educational and planning implications of linguistic diversity in the British Isles. Among the many dialects and languages surveyed by the volume are British Black English, Celtic languages, Chinese, Indian, European migrant languages, British Sign Language, and Anglo-Romani. Clear and accessible in its approach, it will be welcomed by students in sociolinguistics, English language, and dialectology, as well as anyone interested more generally in language within British society.

Fabulosa!

Fabulosa!
Author: Paul Baker
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2020-07-24
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1789141680

A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year “Richly evocative and entertaining.”—Guardian “An essential book for anyone who wants to Polari bona!”—Attitude “Exuberant, richly detailed. . . . A delightful read.”—Tatler Polari is a language that was used chiefly by gay men in the first half of the twentieth century. It offered its speakers a degree of public camouflage and a means of identification. Its colorful roots are varied—from Cant to Lingua Franca to dancers’ slang—and in the mid-1960s it was thrust into the limelight by the characters Julian and Sandy, voiced by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams, on the BBC radio show Round the Horne (“Oh hello Mr Horne, how bona to vada your dolly old eek!”). Paul Baker recounts the story of Polari with skill, humor, and tenderness. He traces its historical origins and describes its linguistic nuts and bolts, explores the ways and the environments in which it was spoken, explains the reasons for its decline, and tells of its unlikely reemergence in the twenty-first century. With a cast of drag queens and sailors, Dilly boys and macho clones, Fabulosa! is an essential document of recent history—a fascinating and fantastically readable account of this funny, filthy, and ingenious language.

Italy

Italy
Author: Andrew Whittaker
Publisher: Thorogood Publishing
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2010
Genre: Culture
ISBN: 1854186280

Speak the Culture: Italy offers a rich and engaging insight into the events, people and movements that have shaped Italy and the Italians. A guidebook can show you where to go, a phrase-book what to say, but only Speak the Culture: Italy will lead you to the nation's soul. The Italian character is complex, contradictory, alluring and infinitely variable: heirs to the greatest empire of the ancient world but almost ungovernable; cradle of western civilization as well as the Mafia; maestros of modern design, mired in old-fashioned bureaucracy; epicentre of the Catholic Church and exemplars of la dolce vita. Where do you start? Giotto? Caravaggio? Murky Etruscan tombs or the mighty Roman Pantheon? Speak the Culture: Italy sifts through a sprawling 3,000 year saga and makes sense of it, dissecting architecture, music, food, art, literature, cinema, family and much more. Culture is covered in its broadest sense, extending into every aspect of Italian life--food and drink, religion, politics, sport, manners, character and so on. While the Italian peninsula has its ancient history, it's been a unified nation for less than 150 years. Lo Stivale, or the famous Boot, is young: the nuances of strong, surviving regional identities are important and revealed. Taken as a whole, Speak the Culture: Italy gives you an insight into what it means to be Italian, but it's also a book to dip into, to learn, for instance, about Giuseppe Verdi, Sophia Loren or Umberto Eco. Easily read and beautifully illustrated, this, the fourth in the Speak the Cultureseries, offers an intimate understanding of Italian life and culture for new residents, second home-owners, holidaymakers, business travelers, students and lovers of Italy everywhere.

Origins of the Specious

Origins of the Specious
Author: Patricia T. O'Conner
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2010-08-24
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0812978102

Do you cringe when a talking head pronounces “niche” as NITCH? Do you get bent out of shape when your teenager begins a sentence with “and”? Do you think British spellings are more “civilised” than the American versions? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you’re myth-informed. In Origins of the Specious, word mavens Patricia T. O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman reveal why some of grammar’s best-known “rules” aren’t—and never were—rules at all. This playfully witty, rigorously researched book sets the record straight about bogus word origins, politically correct fictions, phony français, fake acronyms, and more. Here are some shockers: “They” was once commonly used for both singular and plural, much the way “you” is today. And an eighteenth-century female grammarian, of all people, is largely responsible for the all-purpose “he.” From the Queen’s English to street slang, this eye-opening romp will be the toast of grammarphiles and the salvation of grammarphobes. Take our word for it.

Politics and the English Language

Politics and the English Language
Author: George Orwell
Publisher: Renard Press Ltd
Total Pages:
Release: 2021-01-01
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1913724271

George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Politics and the English Language, the second in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell takes aim at the language used in politics, which, he says, ‘is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind’. In an age where the language used in politics is constantly under the microscope, Orwell’s Politics and the English Language is just as relevant today, and gives the reader a vital understanding of the tactics at play. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times

Understanding the British: a Hilarious Guide from Apologising to Wimbledon

Understanding the British: a Hilarious Guide from Apologising to Wimbledon
Author: Adam Fletcher
Publisher:
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2019-03-26
Genre:
ISBN: 9781724018205

The British are not who you think they are... In fact, they're not even who they think they are! Come on a hilarious tour of the most misunderstood people on Earth. Throwing away all the usual, boring stereotypes, best-selling author (and Brit) Adam Fletcher will explain: - What cricket has to do with the Grim Reaper. - When you shouldn't say sorry. - The real reason Brexit happened. - Which secret religion every Brit is a member of. - The twenty most annoying phrases in the English language. - What every Brit automatically does when left alone. - The revolutionary hangover cure invented in Scotland. - The secret ideology behind roundabouts. - The Ten Commandments of British humour. And much more. Packed with warmth, humour, honesty, insight, and more than forty hilarious illustrations, Understanding the British is the definitive irreverent guide to a strange nation--a book that will appeal to lovers of George Mikes, Bill Bryson, and George Mahood. The truth about the British will surprise you. Discover it now! Bonus: includes a How British Are You? quiz that will reveal just how well you understand the British mentality.