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 Jonathan Spangler, "The Society of Princes: The Lorraine-Guise and the Conservation of Power and Wealth in Seventeenth-Century France" English | ISBN: 0754658600 | 2009 | 362 pages | EPUB | 5 MB The princes étrangers, or the foreign princes, were an influential group of courtiers in early modern France, who maintained their unofficial status as 'foreigners' due to membership in sovereign ruling families. Arguably the most influential of these were the princes of Lorraine, a sovereign state on France's eastern border. During the sixteenth century the Lorraine-Guise dominated the culture and politics of France, gaining a reputation as a powerful, manipulative family at the head of the Catholic League in the Wars of Religion and with close relationships with successive Valois monarchs and Catherine de Medici. After the traumas of 1588, however, although they faded from the narrative history of France, they nevertheless remained at the pinnacle of political culture until the end of the eighteenth century. This book examines the lesser-known period for the Guise at the later stages of the ancien régime, focusing on the recovery of lost fortunes, prestige, favour and influence that began towards the end of the reign of Louis XIII and continued through that of Louis XIV. Central to the work is the question of what it meant to be a member of a family of princely rank whose dynastic links outside the state guaranteed privileges and favours at the highest level. Jonathan Spangler investigates how an aristocratic family operated within that political culture, including facets of patronage (political, ecclesiastical, military, and the arts) and the meaning of dynasticism itself (marriages, testaments, women's roles, multiplicity of loyalties). The result is a thorough examination of the nature of crown-noble relations in the era of absolutism as seen through the example of the Lorraine-Guise. It sheds light on how the family which had so threatened the equilibrium of the late Valois monarchy became one of the strongest pillars supporting the regime of the later Bourbons.  Terry McGowan, Terrance Patrick, "The Silence of War: An Old Marine in a Young Marine's War" English | 2016 | ISBN: 1101988185 | ASIN: B01FY8M42E, B01839Q4KE | EPUB | pages: 314 | 9.8 mb With a foreword by Bill O'Reilly, here is the incredible memoir of a former marine who returns to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan three decades after leaving the corps.  Gina Nichols, "The Seabees at Port Hueneme" English | 2006 | ISBN: 0738531200, 1531617255 | EPUB | pages: 128 | 61.7 mb In 1942, the navy sought a location for an advance base on the West Coast to ship construction materiel, equipment, and men into World War II's Pacific theater. Port Hueneme's deepwater harbor, rail system, and rural setting made it the ideal site from which to send 20 million measurement tons of war materiel and a quarter of a million men onto island specks that later became headlines: Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Philippines. Seabees later deployed from Port Hueneme to serve in the Korean, Vietnam, Desert Shield/Desert Storm, and Iraqi conflicts, as well as in peacetime, for more than 60 years. Charged with building air bases, ports, combat camps, hospitals, and other support facilities as part of military and humanitarian  Jenny Ashford, Steve Mera, "The Rochdale Poltergeist: A True Story" English | 2015 | ISBN: 151775612X | 120 pages | EPUB | 0.88 MB "Up to that point, I was quite happy to be interested in the paranormal because I really hadn't experienced much. Until I did. And then I was thinking, 'Oh God, do I really want to continue with this?'" - Steve Mera BSc., Director of the Scientific Establishment of Parapsychology Steve Mera had been investigating paranormal phenomena for many years, and had never seen anything that shook him to his very foundations. All that changed in 1996, when he was called in with his team to look into the bizarre occurrences taking place at a small bungalow in Rochdale, Manchester, England. Flying objects, disembodied voices, phantom smells and sounds, and strangest of all, copious falls of water seemingly coming from nowhere plagued the Gardner family for nearly a year. What Steve experienced during the investigation was enough to make him question his entire career path, and remains one of only a handful of cases that he is completely unable to rationally explain. This account, written by horror author Jenny Ashford from interviews conducted with Steve about the case, is a bone-chilling foray into the paranormal that will make even the most ardent skeptic sleep with the lights on.  Helen Bellany, "The Restless Wave: My Two Lives with John Bellany" English | 2020 | ISBN: 1912240653, 1912240025 | EPUB | pages: 464 | 108.4 mb Helen Bellany, twice married to the artist John Bellany, recalls their lives together in Scotland, London, and Italy, John's rise from rebellious art student to internationally recognized artist, and the human cost inherent in creating great art.  Atwood, David A, "The Rare Earth Elements: Fundamentals and Applications" English | 2013 | pages: 629 | ISBN: 111863263X | PDF | 19,7 mb Lanthanides are of great importance for the electronic industries, this new book (from the EIBC Book Series) provides a comprehensive coverage of the basic chemistry, particularly inorganic chemistry, of the lanthanoid elements, those having a 4f shell of electrons. A chapter is describing the similarity of the Group 3 elements, Sc, Y, La, the group from which the lanthanoids originate and the group 13 elements, particularly aluminum, having similar properties. Inclusion of the group 3 and 13 elements demonstrates how the lanthanoid elements relate to other, more common, elements in the Periodic Table. Beginning chapters describe the occurrence and mineralogy of the elements, with a focus on structural features observed in compounds described in later chapters. The majority of the chapters is organized by the oxidation state of the elements, Ln(0), Ln(II), Ln(III), and Ln(IV). Within this organization the chapters are further distinguished by type of compound, inorganic (oxides and hydroxides, aqueous speciation, halides, alkoxides, amides and thiolates, and chelates) and organometallic. Concluding chapters deal with diverse and critically important applications of the lanthanoids in electronic and magnetic materials, and medical imaging.  Wouter van der Brug, "The Politicisation of Migration " English | ISBN: 1138852791 | 2015 | 234 pages | EPUB | 1534 KB Why are migration policies sometimes heavily contested and high on the political agenda? And why do they, at other moments and in other countries, hardly lead to much public debate? The entrance and settlement of migrants in Western Europe has prompted various political reactions. In some countries anti-immigration parties have gained substantial public support while in others migration policies have been hardly controversial.  Laurence Bherer, "The Participatory Democracy Turn" English | ISBN: 1138503266 | 2017 | 148 pages | EPUB | 2 MB Since the 1960s, participatory discourses and techniques have been at the core of decision making processes in a variety of sectors around the world - a phenomenon often referred to as the participatory turn. Over the years, this participatory turn has given birth to a large array of heterogeneous participatory practices developed by a wide variety of organizations and groups, as well as by governments. Among the best-known practices of citizen participation are participatory budgeting, citizen councils, public consultations, etc. However, these experiences are sometimes far from the original 1960s' radical conception of participatory democracy, which had a transformative dimension and aimed to overcome unequal relationships between the state and society and emancipate and empower citizens in their daily lives. This book addresses four sets of questions: what do participatory practices mean today?; what does it mean to participate for participants, from the perspective of citizenship building?; how the processes created by the participatory turn have affected the way political representation functions?; and does the participatory turn also mean changing relationships and dynamics among civil servants, political representatives, and citizens? Overall, the contributions in this book illustrate and grasp the complexity of the so-called participatory turn. It shows that the participatory turn now includes several participatory democracy projects, which have different effects on the overall system depending on the principles that they advocate. This book was originally published as a special issue of the  Hugh Ambrose, "The Pacific: Hell Was an Ocean Away" English | 2011 | ISBN: 0451232259, 045123023X | EPUB | pages: 508 | 1.0 mb The New York Times bestselling official companion book to the Emmy® Award-winning HBO® miniseries.  Hourly History, "The Ottoman Empire: A History From Beginning to End" English | ISBN: 1730968244 | 2018 | 41 pages | EPUB | 272 KB The Ottoman Empire |
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