Looting in Wartime Britain

Looting in Wartime Britain PDF Author: Todd Gray
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781903356586
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This new fascinating book will have broad national appeal to anyone with an interest in wartime, social or local history. Scholarly but readable.Looting took Britain by surprise in the summer of 1940 and it continued throughout the war. The shock was replaced by anger and outrage as looting accompanied the German bombing of cities across the country. It intensified as many looters were revealed to be in positions of trust. Todd Gray uncovers diverse reasons for why it took place and with careful research provides evidence to support this uncomfortable aspect of the past. It is part of our history that hurts but to ignore it is to diminish a generation's struggle against fascism.

Looting in Wartime Britain

Looting in Wartime Britain PDF Author: Todd Gray
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781903356586
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This new fascinating book will have broad national appeal to anyone with an interest in wartime, social or local history. Scholarly but readable.Looting took Britain by surprise in the summer of 1940 and it continued throughout the war. The shock was replaced by anger and outrage as looting accompanied the German bombing of cities across the country. It intensified as many looters were revealed to be in positions of trust. Todd Gray uncovers diverse reasons for why it took place and with careful research provides evidence to support this uncomfortable aspect of the past. It is part of our history that hurts but to ignore it is to diminish a generation's struggle against fascism.

Soldier, Sailor, Beggarman, Thief

Soldier, Sailor, Beggarman, Thief PDF Author: Clive Emsley
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199653712
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Get Book Here

Book Description
The first serious investigation of criminal offending by members of the British armed forces both during and immediately after the two world wars of the twentieth century.

The History of Loot and Stolen Art

The History of Loot and Stolen Art PDF Author: Ivan Lindsay
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
ISBN: 1906509573
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 665

Get Book Here

Book Description
The author of this enthralling book aims to present a well-illustrated and documented alternative history of the Western World through graphic accounts of looting and art theft from the time of Sargon, ruler of Syria in 721 BC, to the present day. Almost all the principal players included appear on the stage of World history and many of them are known as conquerors, confiscators (the old-fashioned word for looters) and ruthless administrators of the regions they created as a result of their conquests. Featured here are emperors, kings, queens, popes, adventurers, explorers and those whose energies and expertise supported the greed and acquisitive ambitions of their masters. The different motivation of the greatest looters in history is a recurrent theme which is examined throughout.

Half the Battle

Half the Battle PDF Author: Robert Mackay
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719058943
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book Here

Book Description
How well did civilian morale stand up to the pressures of total war and what factors were important to it? This book rejects contentions that civilian morale fell a long way short of the favourable picture presented at the time and in hundreds of books and films ever since. While acknowledging that some negative attitudes and behaviour existed-panic and defeatism, ration-cheating and black-marketeering-it argues that these involved a very small minority of the population. In fact, most people behaved well, and this should be the real measure of civilian morale, rather than the failing of the few who behaved badly. The book shows that although before the war, the official prognosis was pessimistic, measures to bolster morale were taken nevertheless, in particular with regard to protection against air raids. An examination of indicative factors concludes that moral fluctuated but was in the main good, right to the end of the war. In examining this phenomenon, due credit is accorded to government policies for the maintenance of morale, but special emphasis is given to the 'invisible chain' of patriotic feeling that held the nation together during its time of trial.

In Defense of Looting

In Defense of Looting PDF Author: Vicky Osterweil
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 1645036677
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Get Book Here

Book Description
A fresh argument for rioting and looting as our most powerful tools for dismantling white supremacy. Looting -- a crowd of people publicly, openly, and directly seizing goods -- is one of the more extreme actions that can take place in the midst of social unrest. Even self-identified radicals distance themselves from looters, fearing that violent tactics reflect badly on the broader movement. But Vicky Osterweil argues that stealing goods and destroying property are direct, pragmatic strategies of wealth redistribution and improving life for the working class -- not to mention the brazen messages these methods send to the police and the state. All our beliefs about the innate righteousness of property and ownership, Osterweil explains, are built on the history of anti-Black, anti-Indigenous oppression. From slave revolts to labor strikes to the modern-day movements for climate change, Black lives, and police abolition, Osterweil makes a convincing case for rioting and looting as weapons that bludgeon the status quo while uplifting the poor and marginalized. In Defense of Looting is a history of violent protest sparking social change, a compelling reframing of revolutionary activism, and a practical vision for a dramatically restructured society.

Loot

Loot PDF Author: Adam Raz
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1804295159
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book Here

Book Description
Exiled in 1948, Palestinians were robbed of their private property when looting became weaponized During the 1948 War, Israeli fighters and residents alike plundered Palestinian homes, shops, businesses, and farms. This bitter truth was then suppressed or forgotten over the coming years. Tens of thousands took part in the pillage of Palestinian property, stealing the belongings of their former neighbours. The implications of this mass looting go far beyond the personality or moral fibre of those who took part. Plundering served a political agenda by helping to empty the country of its Palestinian residents. In this context, it was part of the prevailing policy during the war – one designed to crush the Palestinian economy, destroy villages, and to confiscate and sometimes destroy crops and harvests remaining in the depopulated zones. The participating Jewish public became a stakeholder, motivated to prevent Palestinian residents from returning to the villages and cities they had left. These ordinary people were mobilized in the push for the segregation of Jews and Arabs in the early years of statehood. With painstaking original research into primary sources, Adam Raz has brought to light a tragic moment in the history of a conflict that roils the region and the wider world. As the details of the Nakba are understood and documented, redress for Palestinian grievances comes closer to reality.

Bombing, States and Peoples in Western Europe 1940-1945

Bombing, States and Peoples in Western Europe 1940-1945 PDF Author: Claudia Baldoli
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441198032
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 375

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the first book to treat bombing during WWII as a European phenomenon and not just the 'Blitz' on Britain and Germany. With Western Europe now at the heart of a united continent, it is even more difficult to explain how only 70 years ago European states destroyed much of the urban landscape from the air. There were many blitzes between 1940 and 1945 with an estimated 700,000 people killed. The purpose of this book is to provide the basis for a comparison of the experience of western states under the impact of bombing. In particular, it considers the political, cultural and social responses to bombing rather than the military, strategic and social dimensions which have formed the core of the discussion hitherto. This book will correct the popular perception of the British Blitz as the key bombing experience by exposing the reality of life under the bombs for communities as far apart as Brest, Palermo, and Rostock. An international panel of historians consider the issues raised amidst the bombing of human rights and protection of civilians in this seminal event in C20th history.

The Book Thieves

The Book Thieves PDF Author: Anders Rydell
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735221235
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Get Book Here

Book Description
"A chilling reminder of Hitler’s twisted power." —BBC For readers of The Monuments Men and The Hare with Amber Eyes, the story of the Nazis' systematic pillaging of Europe's libraries, and the small team of heroic librarians now working to return the stolen books to their rightful owners. While the Nazi party was being condemned by much of the world for burning books, they were already hard at work perpetrating an even greater literary crime. Through extensive new research that included records saved by the Monuments Men themselves—Anders Rydell tells the untold story of Nazi book theft, as he himself joins the effort to return the stolen books. When the Nazi soldiers ransacked Europe’s libraries and bookshops, large and small, the books they stole were not burned. Instead, the Nazis began to compile a library of their own that they could use to wage an intellectual war on literature and history. In this secret war, the libraries of Jews, Communists, Liberal politicians, LGBT activists, Catholics, Freemasons, and many other opposition groups were appropriated for Nazi research, and used as an intellectual weapon against their owners. But when the war was over, most of the books were never returned. Instead many found their way into the public library system, where they remain to this day. Now, Rydell finds himself entrusted with one of these stolen volumes, setting out to return it to its rightful owner. It was passed to him by the small team of heroic librarians who have begun the monumental task of combing through Berlin’s public libraries to identify the looted books and reunite them with the families of their original owners. For those who lost relatives in the Holocaust, these books are often the only remaining possession of their relatives they have ever held. And as Rydell travels to return the volume he was given, he shows just how much a single book can mean to those who own it.

The Bombing of London 1940-41: The Blitz and its impact on the capital

The Bombing of London 1940-41: The Blitz and its impact on the capital PDF Author: John Conen
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1803134097
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 315

Get Book Here

Book Description
A concise and balanced view of what is known as the Blitz on London. The title emphasizes bombing over blitz and recognises that the meaning of ‘the Blitz’ has now acquired other general connotations and is often equated to ‘Britain in wartime’ or the spirit of carrying on.

The Blackout in Britain and Germany, 1939–1945

The Blackout in Britain and Germany, 1939–1945 PDF Author: Marc Wiggam
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319754718
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 138

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is the first major study of the blackout in the Second World War. Developing a comparative history of this system of civil defense in Britain and Germany, it begins by exploring how the blackout was planned for in both countries, and how the threat of aerial bombing framed its development. It then examines how well the blackout was adhered to, paying particular regard to the tension between its military value and the difficulties it caused civilians. The book then moves on to discuss how the blackout undermined the perception of security on the home front, especially for women. The final chapter examines the impact of the blackout on industry and transport. Arguing that the blackout formed an integral part in mobilising and legitimating British and German wartime discourses of community, fairness and morality, the book explores its profound impact on both countries.