United States expansionism and British North America, 1775-1871

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Dominic Ziegler

"Black Dragon River is a personal journey down one of Asia's great rivers that reveals the region's essential history and culture. The world's ninth largest river, the Amur serves as a large part of the border between Russia and China. As a crossroads for the great empires of Asia, this area offers journalist Dominic Ziegler a lens with which to examine the societies at Europe's only borderland with east Asia. He follows a journey from the river's top to bottom, and weaves the history, ecology and peoples to show a region obsessed with the past--and to show how this region holds a key to the complex and critical relationship between Russia and China today."--NoveList.

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Jeremy Black

"In this innovative study of the Grand Tour, Jeremy Black relies on archival sources to provide an exploration of the real tourist experience rather than, as with the majority of studies of the Grand Tour, an account that is essentially based on travel literature. While sensitive to wider cultural dimensions, the author demonstrates his interest in the experience of tourists, particularly the circumstances they encountered, and the impact of the Grand Tour on British society. Black conjures up a vivid account of the pleasures and predicaments experienced by tourists. He also asks about the impact of tourism on Britain and locates foreign travel in the tension between cosmopolitanism and xenophobia in British culture and society. The book closes with the impact of the French Revolution on tourism."--BOOK JACKET.

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Gareth Davies

"A memoir of the London Symphony Orchestra on tour, focusing on their historical first visit to America in 1912 and their most recent US tour earlier this year. Gareth Davies, Principal Flautist at the LSO, tells the remarkable story of a groundbreaking expedition through recently discovered diaries, archive material from London and New York and newspaper reports from the time. Against this is set a behind-the-scenes account of the LSO's contemporary US touring schedule, which finds that a surprising number of the same challenges remain. We join Gareth and his colleagues as they contend with airports, volcanoes, travel strikes, illness and even life and death situations. As well as vivid descriptions of sitting centre stage surrounded by music and working with Haitink, Gergiev and Sir Colin Davies, we get to glimpse into the backstage goings on and see inside the mind of a professional musician as never before. Written by someone at the heart of the action, we follow the travels of two musicians, a century apart in the same orchestra. The show does go on." --Publisher description.

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Oliver Rackham

From its earliest origins to the present day, Oliver Rackham describes the endlessly changing character of Britain's countryside.