Reinhold Rücker Angerstein was an eighteenth-century industrial spy. He travelled widely in Europe in the 1750s, supported by the Swedish government, gathering information about trade and emerging technology. The diary of his trip to Britain is extraordinary for its quality of observation and insight, its comparative nature and the large number of detailed illustrations. The breadth of its coverage is astounding: coal, tin and copper mines, porcelain factories, iron foundries, smithies and workshops, rolling and slitting mills, chemical factories, water works and so on. This English-language translation provides, for the first time, Angerstein's work in accessible form. It will be of immense significance to historians of the period.

This is a book about discovery and disaster, exploitation and invention, warfare and science - and the relationship between human beings and the chemical elements that make up our planet. Lars Ohrstrom introduces us to a variety of elements from S to Pb through tales of ordinary and extraordinary people from around the globe. We meet African dictators controlling vital supplies of uranium; eighteenth-century explorers searching out sources of precious metals; industrial spies stealing the secrets of steel-making. We find out why the Hindenburg airship was tragically filled with hydrogen, not helium; why nail-varnish remover played a key part in World War I; and the real story behind the legend of tin buttons and the downfall of Napoleon. In each chapter, we find out about the distinctive properties of each element and the concepts and principles that have enabled scientists to put it to practical use. These are the fascinating (and sometimes terrifying) stories of chemistry in action.

La 4eme de couv. indique : "This is a book about discovery and disaster, exploitation and invention, warfare and science, and the relationship between human beings and the chemical elements that make up our planet. It is an introduction to chemistry as you never thaught it at school."

Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden today all enjoy a reputation for strong labour movements, which in turn are widely seen as part of a distinctive regional approach to politics, collective bargaining and welfare. But as this volume demonstrates, narratives of the so-called “Nordic model” can obscure the fact that experiences of work and the fortunes of organized labour have varied widely throughout the region and across different historical periods. Together, the essays collected here represent an ambitious intervention in labour historiography and European history, exploring themes such as work, unions, politics and migration from the early modern period to the twenty-first century.

The British led the way in holidaymaking. This four-volume primary resource collection brings together a diverse range of texts on the various forms of transport used by tourists, the destinations they visited, the role of entertainments and accommodation and how these affected the way that tourism evolved over two centuries. Volume 4: Seaside Resorts The final volume presents case studies of four major seaside resorts: Scarborough, Margate, Brighton and Blackpool. Scarborough evolved from a spa town to a seaside resort. Margate became a coastal resort from scratch and became one of the earliest sites of mass tourism. Brighton had sea bathers by the 1730s and its early development followed a similar path to that of Margate, but its royal connections allowed its rapid growth into a large town with high quality accommodation. When the railway arrived at Blackpool in 1846 it was a large village. Thirty years later it had two piers and a large hotel. Its steady growth was due to the stream of working class visitors from the local hinterland of major industrial towns and cities.

The British led the way in holidaymaking. This four-volume primary resource collection brings together a diverse range of texts on the various forms of transport used by tourists, the destinations they visited, the role of entertainments and accommodation and how these affected the way that tourism evolved over two centuries.Volume 1: Travel and Destinations Texts in this volume draw on accounts by early travellers, from short factual lists to longer subjective descriptions. Documents show how eagerly new forms of transport were adopted and how they gave rise to different leisure activities and new destinations. Methods of travel covered include: early road travel by horse or wagon, river travel via sail and steamships, railways, the safety bicycle, motorized transport (charabancs, coaches, buses, cars and bicycles) and finally, air travel.

The century from 1750 to 1850 was a period of dramatic transformations in world history, fostering several types of revolutionary change beyond the political landscape. Independence movements in Europe, the Americas, and other parts of the world were catalysts for radical economic, social, and cultural reform. And it was during this age of revolutions—an era of rapidly expanding scientific investigation—that profound changes in scientific knowledge and practice also took place. In this volume, an esteemed group of international historians examines key elements of science in societies across Spanish America, Europe, West Africa, India, and Asia as they overlapped each other increasingly. Chapters focus on the range of participants in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century science, their concentrated effort in description and taxonomy, and advances in techniques for sharing knowledge. Together, contributors highlight the role of scientific change and development in tightening global and imperial connections, encouraging a deeper conversation among historians of science and world historians and shedding new light on a pivotal moment in history for both fields.