The Finest Hours of The Second World War

From the beginning of the Second World War the sea became a vitally important scene of conflict. Great Britain relied on receiving supplies by sea and, therefore, a total blockade of the United Kingdom was one the main objectives of Hitler’s Germany. The British government was forced to maintain a strategy of antisubmarine warfare throughout the conflict, while the Royal Navy sought to interrupt the Third Reich’s maritime traffic. In these circumstances the submarine became an important weapon of war. Headed by Karl Dönitz, who would later succeed Hitler as Head of State, the German...

In 1839, French writer and activist Flora Tristán traveled to London to observe firsthand the capital of the first modern industrial nation in the world. In Promenades dans Londres, she recounts the four months she spent visiting both those areas of the city the tourists avoided (and a few places she could only enter disguised as a man)—workshops and brothels, working-class neighborhoods and factories, asylums and jails—as well as the haunts of the bourgeoisie: Parliament, the horse races at Ascot, and private clubs. Her resulting diatribe against the inequalities she witnessed, and the...

Is it possible to create an enjoyable and mysterious history of literature? Every author—novelist, philosopher, poet, or essayist—has any enigma to offer or reveal, either about their lives or about their works. For instance, do we know exactly where Cervantes was born? Are we sure that Conan Doyle was not a murderer? Why did Comte decide to create his own religion? Did Jose Cadalso exhume his girlfriend's corpse? Was Corneille Moiré's ghostwriter? Was Berbiguier harassed by imps? Maybe Jules Verne did belong to a secret society. Have any works been inspired by dreams—or by insanity?...

Los refranes y maldiciones del acervo folclórico ídish que, en versión española y fonética original ídish, integran la presente obra, fueron seleccionados intentando brindar una muestra amplia y representativa de esta singular expresión oral del pueblo judío. En el marco de una historia más de tres veces milenaria, el ídish condensa una cultura cocinada a fuego lento a lo largo de un milenio. Muchos refranes ídish son chistes condensados, y también expresiones de sabiduría popular: Los dos se quieren, él se quiere y ella se quiere. Cuando la solterona sale a bailar van los...

La tribu otomí y las que guardan parentesco con ella se configuran todavía entre las poblaciones menos conocidas de México. La lectura de este trabajo, cuyas dos partes más importantes están dedicadas a las lenguas de la familia otomí-pame, pone en evidencia su carácter fundamentalmente lingüístico.