Author: Edward Smithies Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN: 1474603394 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 405
Book Description
When we remember the Second World War in the air, we think of fighter pilots and bomber crews. But what was it like for the men and women working as ground crew and in the aircraft factories who also played a crucial role in defeating Hitler? What was it like making history? What sense did these individuals have of what they were doing, either at the time or later? Did they feel they were caught up in the tide of great events? Or were they simply doing their demanding and often dangerous duty?
Author: Francis Spufford Publisher: Faber & Faber ISBN: 0571266444 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 386
Book Description
A brilliant, beautiful account of how British boffins triumphed across the decades in creating everything from computer games to Martian landers. The book contains chapters on the Beagle II, Elite - the 80s computer game, the Blue Streak missile, Concorde, mobile phone technology and the Human Genome Project, among others. Britain is the only country in the world to have cancelled its space programme just as it put its first rocket into orbit. Starting with this forgotten episode, 'Backroom Boys' tells the bittersweet story of how one country lost its industrial tradition and got back something else. Sad, inspiring, funny and ultimately triumphant, it follows the technologists whose work kept Concorde flying, created the computer game, conquered the mobile-phone business, saved the human genome for the human race - and who now are sending the Beagle 2 probe to burrow in the cinnamon sands of Mars. 'Backroom Boys' is a vivid love-letter to quiet men in pullovers, to those whose imaginings take shape not in words but in mild steel and carbon fibre and lines of code. Above all, it is a celebration of big dreams achieved with slender means.
Author: Graeme Sligo Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1922132543 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 305
Book Description
The Backroom Boys is the remarkable, but little known, story of how a varied group of talented intellectuals, drafted into the Australian Army in the dark days of 1942, provided high-level policy advice to Australia’s most senior soldier, General Blamey, and through him to the Government for the remainder of the war and beyond. This band of academics, lawyers and New Guinea patrol officers formed a unique military unit, the Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, under the command of an eccentric and masterful string-puller, Alf Conlon. The Directorate has been depicted as a haven for underemployed poets or meddlesome soldier-politicians. Based on wide-ranging research, this book reveals a fuller and more fascinating picture. The fierce conflicts in the wartime bureaucracy between public servants and soldiers, in which the Directorate provided critical support to Blamey, went to the heart of military command, accountability and the profession of arms. The Directorate was a pioneer in developing approaches to military government in areas liberated by the combat troops, as demonstrated by the Australian Army in New Guinea, and Borneo in 1945-46. It is an issue of enduring importance. The Directorate established the Australian School of Pacific Administration, and had an important role in founding the Australian National University. Its influence extended into post war Australia. The Backroom Boys emphasises the personality of Colonel Alf Conlon, as well as the talented men and women he recruited. Above all, this book shows how, unexpectedly, the Australian Army fostered a group of men and women who made a lasting contribution to the development of Australia in the decades after the war.
Author: Graeme Sligo Publisher: ISBN: 9781921941122 Category : Politics and war Languages : en Pages : 380
Book Description
The Backroom Boys is the remarkable, but little known, story of how a varied group of talented intellectuals, drafted into the Australian Army in the dark days of 1942, provided highlevel policy advice to Australia's most senior soldier, General Blamey, and through him to the Government for the remainder of the war and beyond. This band of academics, lawyers and New Guinea patrol officers formed a unique military unit, the Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, under the command of an eccentric and masterful string-puller, Alf Conlon. The Directorate has been depicted as a haven for underemployed poets or meddlesome soldier-politicians. Based on wide-ranging research, this book reveals a fuller and more fascinating picture. The fierce conflicts in the wartime bureaucracy between public servants and soldiers, in which the Directorate provided critical support to Blamey, went to the heart of military command, accountability and the profession of arms. The Directorate was a pioneer in developing approaches to military government in areas liberated by the combat troops, as demonstrated by the Australian Army in New Guinea, and Borneo in 1945-46. It is an issue of enduring importance. The Directorate established the Australian School of Pacific Administration, and had an important role in founding the Australian National University. Its influence extended into post war Australia. The Backroom Boys emphasises the personality of Colonel Alf Conlon, as well as the talented men and women he recruited. Above all, this book shows how, unexpectedly, the Australian Army fostered a group of men and women who made a lasting contribution to the development of Australia in the decades after the war.
Author: Nigel Rees Publisher: Batsford Books ISBN: 1849942897 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 257
Book Description
Nigel Rees presents a nostalgic and witty guide to wartime catchphrases, from the now ubiquitous 'Keep Calm and Carry On' to lesser-known gems such as 'lions led by donkeys'. Following his hugely popular survey of domestic sayings, More Tea Vicar?, Rees returns with a witty and fascinating examination of the catchphrases that saw us through wartime Britain and are still relevant in times of crisis today. Including domestic phrases of the time, propaganda, and slang developed by soldiers abroad, the book describes the provenance and development of these intriguing, quirky and sometimes crude phrases that were born out of times of conflict and have in many cases become part of our language.
Author: CAROLA SUAREZ-OROZCO Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1136077065 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 381
Book Description
At the turn of the millennium, the United States has the largest number of immigrants in its history. As a consequence, immigration has emerged once again as a subject of scholarly inquiry and policy debate. This volume brings together the dominant conceptual and theoretical work on the "New Immigration" from such disparate disciplines as anthropology, demography, psychology, and sociology. Immigration today is a global and transnational phenomenon that affects every region of the world with unprecedented force. Although this volume is devoted to scholarly work on the new immigration in the U.S. setting, any of the broader conceptual issues covered here also apply to other post-industrial countries such as France, Germany, and Japan.
Author: Anuradha Sajjanhar Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1009349740 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 199
Book Description
If right-populists have had enough of establishment experts, how do they replace them, with whom, and to what effect? Presenting the first in-depth analysis of India's new intellectual elite in the wake of a Hindu supremacist government, The New Experts investigates the power of appointed experts in normalising ideologies of governance, beyond party rhetoric. The New Experts presents an accessible narrative of how and why particular ideas gain prominence in elite policy and political discourse. Drawing on in-depth interviews and ethnographic research with national and international policy makers, politicians, bureaucrats, consultants, and journalists, this book analyses how political leaders in India strategically use modes of populist spectacle and established technocratic institutions to produce shared visions of glorified technological and hyper-nationalist futures. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available open access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.
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Author: Edward Smithies
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