"To think we are really across the Atlantic and have but to look around to find ourselves hurrying to be off the Steamer onto the tug to be brought into Liverpool!" Clarissa Sands Arnold, October 27, 1900. So begins the Diary of a year in the life of one American young woman. The beginning of a journey of wonder as Four Girls and their two female chaperones tour England and the Continent, following the well traveled path of The European Grand Tour. They become part of the throngs of middle class and wealthy Americans trying to acquire some Old World polish while experiencing the ancient history and varied cultures not available back home. Clarissa's account chronicles the experiences and logistics of such a prolonged trip by six women traveling alone, without any male protection. It also serves as a fascinating glimpse into the political and social world of Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century.

A pair of silver Regency candlesticks. Pieces of well-worn family jewelry. More than a thousand documents, letters, and photographs Lotte Meyerhoff's best friends risked their lives in Nazi Germany to safeguard these and other treasured heirlooms and mementos from her family and return them to her after the war. The Holocaust had left Lotte the lone survivor of her family, and these precious objects gave her back a crucial piece of her past. Four Girls from Berlin vividly recreates that past and tells the story of Lotte and her courageous non-Jewish friends Ilonka, Erica, and Ursula as they lived under the shadow of Hitler in Berlin. Written by Lotte's daughter, Marianne, this powerful memoir celebrates the unseverable bonds of friendship and a rich family legacy the Holocaust could not destroy. "What a delightful book, and important, too. It gives us the courage and inspiration to utterly reject the fatalistic idea that fratricide, polemic, and enmity between Christians and Jews is inevitable and unchangeable. Finally, it reminds us never to forget or fail to appreciate those forces of light that bear witness to, and instill hope for, mankind and our world." —Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, President, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews "Four Girls From Berlin is an evocative story of friendship, challenged in the most sinister environment. For Christians, it echoes the words of Jesus, 'greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friends.' The friendship of these four women, three Christians and a Jew, speaks of a greater humanity that in the face of the Nazi horror could not be broken. I strongly recommend men and women of all faiths to learn from it." —The Venerable Lyle Dennen, Archdeacon, London, England

Margaret Vandercook's 'The Ranch Girls in Europe' transports readers to a vivid and adventurous depiction of four American sisters exploring Europe. Written in a lighthearted and engaging style, the book is a captivating blend of travelogue, coming-of-age story, and cultural exploration. Vandercook's attention to detail and descriptive prose immerse readers in the sights, sounds, and experiences of early 20th-century Europe. The novel's themes of sisterhood, independence, and cultural exchange resonate with readers of all ages, making it a timeless and enjoyable read. Margaret Vandercook, a prolific American author known for her juvenile fiction, draws on her own travels and experiences to craft a compelling narrative that reflects her deep appreciation for exploration and cultural diversity. Her background in education also shines through in the themes of curiosity, learning, and growth that permeate 'The Ranch Girls in Europe.' Vandercook's passion for storytelling and worldliness infuse the book with a sense of wonder and discovery. I highly recommend 'The Ranch Girls in Europe' to readers seeking a delightful and enlightening literary journey through early 20th-century Europe. Vandercook's vivid descriptions, engaging characters, and exploration of sisterhood and cultural exchange make this novel a must-read for those who enjoy coming-of-age tales with a touch of adventure and cultural exploration.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Femicide, the killing of women and girls because of their gender, was until recently included in the category ‘homicide’, obscuring the special features of this social and gendered phenomenon. However, the majority of murders of women are perpetrated by men whom they know from family ties and are the result of intimate partner violence or so-called 'honour' killings. This book is the first one on femicide in Europe and presents the findings of a four-year project discussing various aspects of femicide. Written by leading international scholars with an interdiscplinary perspective, it looks at the prevention programmes and comparative quantitative and qualitative data collection, as well as the impact of culture. It proposes the establishment of a European Observatory on Femicide as a new direction for the future, showing the benefits of cross-national collaboration, united to prevent the murder of women and girls.

France (1837) was the third volume published in Cooper's Gleanings in Europe series, but first in the chronology of his European experience. Less sequential than his other travel narratives, France distills his impressions of French and European culture during his first two years abroad. Exhibiting many qualities of the familiar essay, it considers a wide range of topics of interest to Cooper, his friends, and potential readers in the United States. As a celebrity thoroughly at home in the brilliant society of Bourbon Paris, Cooper was able to provide fascinating glimpses of personalities, spectacles, institutions, and manners--from his distinctly American perspective. Indeed, as Professor Philbrick remarks, "No other of Cooper's works, perhaps, brings us closer to his speaking voice or puts us more directly in contact with the man himself, with all his idiosyncratic preoccupations, his quick resentments, his restless curiosity, his surprising humor, and his nobility of principle." The reader of this edition is brought even closer to Cooper in the draft of a hitherto unpublished letter, probably intended for this book, which illustrates Cooper's grasp of the still finer points of French customs and attitudes.

Performative theatre is one of the most important trends of our time. It is emblematic of the work of many European theatrical artists in the early twenty-first century. Annamaria Cascetta does not propose a model or a historical overview, but rather strives to identify the salient features of a significant trend in the theatrical research and transformation of our time by analysing some crucial examples from outstanding works, of great international resonance. She draws on work by artists from different generations, all active between the late twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first, and in various European countries, performed in a number of European theatres in recent years. The aim is to apply a method of analysis in depth, bringing out the technical elements of contemporary "performative theatre" in the field, and above all to highlight the close links between it and the urgent and troubled issues and problems of history and society in the phase of cultural and anthropological transition we are experiencing.

Queens Consort, Cultural Transfer and European Politics examines the roles that queens consort played in dynastic politics and cultural transfer between their natal and marital courts during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. This collection of essays analyses the part that these queens played in European politics, showing how hard and soft power, high politics and cultural influences, cannot be strictly separated. It shows that the root of these consorts’ power lay in their dynastic networks and the extent to which they cultivated them. The consorts studied in this book come from territories such as Austria, Braunschweig, Hanover, Poland, Portugal, Prussia and Saxony and travel to, among other places, Britain, Naples, Russia, Spain and Sweden. The various chapters address different types of cultural manifestation, among them collecting, portraiture, panegyric poetry, libraries, theatre and festivals, learning, genealogical literature and architecture. The volume significantly shifts the direction of scholarship by moving beyond a focus on individual historical women to consider ‘queens consort’ as a category, making it valuable reading for students and scholars of early modern gender and political history.