Summary Book Review IRA Terror on Britain's Streets 1939-1940 by Dick Kirby:
Download or read book IRA Terror on Britain's Streets 1939-1940 written by Dick Kirby and published by Pen and Sword True Crime. This book was released on 2021-06-30 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is little known today that, in January 1939, the IRA launched a bombing campaign, codenamed The S - or Sabotage - Plan on mainland England. With cynical self-justification, they announced that it was not their intention to harm human life but in just over a year, more than 300 explosive devices resulted in 10 deaths, 96 injuries and widespread devastation. London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and many other towns and cities were targeted. On 25 August 1939, detectives in London defused three devices set to detonate that afternoon at 2.30 and arrested four terrorists. At the same time an identical bomb exploded in Coventry city center killing five civilians and injuring 50, the highest body count of the campaign. Numerous arrests were made nationwide but ill-trained personnel and additional national security resulting from the threat of Nazi invasion caused the campaign to falter and fade away in early 1940. The author, a former detective, is well qualified to write this book, having spent 18 months in Northern Ireland combatting terrorism, for which he was commended by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Lord Imbert, for displaying 'courage, dedication and detective ability'.
Summary Book Review IRA Terror on Britain’s Streets 1939–1940 by Dick Kirby:
Download or read book IRA Terror on Britain’s Streets 1939–1940 written by Dick Kirby and published by Pen and Sword True Crime. This book was released on 2021-04-14 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is little known today that, in January 1939, the IRA launched a bombing campaign, codenamed The S - or Sabotage - Plan on mainland England. With cynical self-justification, they announced that it was not their intention to harm human life but in just over a year, more than 300 explosive devices resulted in 10 deaths, 96 injuries and widespread devastation. London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and many other towns and cities were targeted. On 25 August 1939, detectives in London defused three devices set to detonate that afternoon at 2.30 and arrested four terrorists. At the same time an identical bomb exploded in Coventry city centre killing five civilians and injuring 50, the highest body count of the campaign. Numerous arrests were made nationwide but ill-trained personnel and additional national security resulting from the threat of Nazi invasion caused the campaign to falter and fade away in early 1940. The author, a former detective, is well qualified to write this book, having spent 18 months in Northern Ireland combatting terrorism, for which he was commended by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Lord Imbert, for displaying ‘courage, dedication and detective ability’.
Summary Book Review IRA Terror on Britain’s Streets 1939–1940 by Dick Kirby:
Download or read book IRA Terror on Britain’s Streets 1939–1940 written by Dick Kirby and published by Pen and Sword True Crime. This book was released on 2021-06-30 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is little known today that, in January 1939, the IRA launched a bombing campaign, codenamed The S - or Sabotage - Plan on mainland England. With cynical self-justification, they announced that it was not their intention to harm human life but in just over a year, more than 300 explosive devices resulted in 10 deaths, 96 injuries and widespread devastation. London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and many other towns and cities were targeted. On 25 August 1939, detectives in London defused three devices set to detonate that afternoon at 2.30 and arrested four terrorists. At the same time an identical bomb exploded in Coventry city centre killing five civilians and injuring 50, the highest body count of the campaign. Numerous arrests were made nationwide but ill-trained personnel and additional national security resulting from the threat of Nazi invasion caused the campaign to falter and fade away in early 1940. The author, a former detective, is well qualified to write this book, having spent 18 months in Northern Ireland combatting terrorism, for which he was commended by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Lord Imbert, for displaying ‘courage, dedication and detective ability’.
Summary Book Review The IRA Bombing Campaign Against Britain, 1939-1940 by Joseph McKenna:
Download or read book The IRA Bombing Campaign Against Britain, 1939-1940 written by Joseph McKenna and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-02-16 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This detailed account of the Irish Republican Army's bombing campaign against Britain during 1939-1940 describes how initial attacks on economic targets turned into a series of terror bombings causing the deaths of seven innocent people. Though two IRA members were hanged, the real men responsible, named here, escaped. The author covers the political situation in Ireland prior to the attacks, the recruiting and training of the bombers, the bombing campaign and the trial of two men for the murder of five people in Coventry.
Summary Book Review Scotland Yard’s Casebook of Serious Crime by Dick Kirby:
Download or read book Scotland Yard’s Casebook of Serious Crime written by Dick Kirby and published by Pen and Sword True Crime. This book was released on 2021-06-23 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Times change and not always for the better. Dick Kirby, a former long serving Met officer and now best-selling author, maintains that the current politically correct culture coupled with an inept Crown Prosecution Service and aided and abetted by the Police & Criminal Evidence Act, has slowed the pursuit of criminals and justice to a snail’s pace. As this gripping book clearly demonstrates it was not always so. During the 20th Century, uniformed officers were visibly part of the community, patrolling their beats and protecting the public’s property. Detectives detected, cultivating informants and, like their uniform counterparts, knowing the characters on their manor. What’s more, they were backed by their senior officers, who had on-the-job experience. Drawing on both celebrated and lesser known cases, the author describes in plain speak crime fighting against merciless gangsters, desperate gunmen, inept kidnappers, vicious robbers, daring burglars and ruthless blackmailers. Using his first-hand knowledge he highlights the often unconventional methods used to frustrate and outwit hardened criminals and the satisfaction gained from successful operations.
Summary Book Review Missing Presumed Murdered by Dick Kirby:
Download or read book Missing Presumed Murdered written by Dick Kirby and published by Pen and Sword True Crime. This book was released on 2022-05-30 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Murders in any form, and the more gruesome the better, hold a morbid fascination to the British public but never more so than when the bodies of the victims are never found. Aside from the lack of closure for relatives and friends, this factor creates problems for police and prosecutors and has macabre appeal for the public. Muriel McKay, wife of a senior News of the World Executive was kidnapped in 1969. Although her body, believed to have been fed to pigs, was never found, the perpetrators were convicted. The same fate was suffered by the business partner of a Polish farmer. James Camb murdered a glamorous actress feeding her to sharks but this did not stop women flocking to see him in court. John Haigh confessed to disposing of his nine victims in acid. Again, his trial was a sell-out. Dick Kirby, former Scotland Yard detective turned best-selling crime writer has ‘unearthed’ a fascinating collection of disappearances such as the dismemberment of a gay man’s wife who had threatened to expose him in the 1950s. Later, when a woman’s head was discovered near his home, he confessed only to find that it dated from Roman times. These and numerous other cases make Missing, Presumed Murdered a riveting, if grisly, read
Summary Book Review Killers, Kidnappers, Gangsters and Grasses by Dick Kirby:
Download or read book Killers, Kidnappers, Gangsters and Grasses written by Dick Kirby and published by Pen and Sword True Crime. This book was released on 2022-12-31 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his latest thrilling book, much published crime author Dick Kirby draws on his fast moving policing service, much of which was with Scotland Yards Serious Crime Squad and the Flying Squad. As if that was not enough he brings in accounts of fellow coppers during the final decades of the 20th century to add a fresh dimension. It quickly becomes clear to the reader that Kirby and his colleagues practiced their art in a markedly different style than that prevailing today. Corners were cut, regulations ignored and pettifogging rules trampled on in the wider public interest of bringing criminals to justice and preserving law and order. Above all the best senior detectives led fearlessly. Kirby describes front line policing where the public came first and the criminals a poor second. There are great stories of arrests, ambushes, fights and meeting informants in unlikely places. Eyebrows may be raised at the books contents but many will feel that there is no place in the fight against serious crime for woke-ness and political correctness and regret the passing of no-nonsense law enforcement.
Summary Book Review The Brighton Police Scandal by Dick Kirby:
Download or read book The Brighton Police Scandal written by Dick Kirby and published by Pen and Sword True Crime. This book was released on 2021-12-30 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the late 1950s the reputation of Brighton as a popular seaside resort took a sinister and notorious turn. After a series of drunken disturbances, suspicions were raised that the owner of the Astor Club, which became known globally as ‘The Bucket of Blood’, was bribing members of the town’s CID to ignore licencing hours. The situation escalated to the point where Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad was called in. Their investigation soon revealed that these bribes were the tip of a police corruption iceberg. Criminality among crooked cops had been going on for years. Provided money was paid, charges were dropped, previous convictions overlooked and evidence disappeared. Others were ‘fitted up’ unless they paid up. Police were party to burglaries, assisting in the ‘fencing’ of stolen property and protection payments from bookmakers, clubs and bars. During the scandal filled trial of the Chief Constable and CID ringleaders there was perjury, violent witness intimidation with one having his premises burnt to the ground. All this and more is described in this meticulously researched account of one of Britain’s most publicised police corruption scandals written with insider knowledge.
Summary Book Review ‘Star Men’ in English Convict Prisons, 1879-1948 by Ben Bethell:
Download or read book ‘Star Men’ in English Convict Prisons, 1879-1948 written by Ben Bethell and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-09-27 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book tells the story of the star class, a segregated division for first offenders in English convict prisons; known informally as ‘star men’, convicts assigned to the division were identified by a red star sewn to their uniforms. ‘Star Men’ in English Convict Prisons, 1879–1948 investigates the origins of the star class in the years leading up to its establishment in 1879, and charts its subsequent development during the late-Victorian, Edwardian, and interwar decades. To what extent did the star class serve to shield ‘gentleman convicts’ from their social inferiors and allow them a measure of privilege? What was the precise nature of the ‘contamination’ by which they and other ‘accidental criminals’ were believed to be threatened? And why, for the first twenty years of its existence, were first offenders convicted of ‘unnatural crimes’ barred from the division? To explore these questions, the book considers the making and implementation of penal policy by senior civil servants and prison administrators, and the daily life and work of prisoners at policy’s receiving end. It re-examines evolving notions of criminality, the competing aims of reformation and deterrence, and the role and changing nature of prison labour. Along the way, readers will encounter an array of star men, including arsonists, abortionists, sex offenders and reprieved murderers, disgraced bankers, light-fingered postmen, bent solicitors, and perjuring policemen. Taking a fresh look at English prison history through converging lenses of class, sexuality, and labour, ‘Star Men’ in English Convict Prisons, 1879-1948 will be of great interest to penal historians and historical criminologists, and to scholars working on related aspects of modern British history.
Summary Book Review Propaganda, Censorship and Irish Neutrality in the Second World War by Robert Cole:
Download or read book Propaganda, Censorship and Irish Neutrality in the Second World War written by Robert Cole and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2006-02-22 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Allied propaganda and Eire censorship were a vital part of the conflict over Irish neutrality in the Second World War. Based upon original research in archives in Ireland, Great Britain, the United States and Canada, this study opens a new page in the history of wartime propaganda and censorship. It examines the channels of propaganda , including the press and other print media, broadcasting and film, employed in Eire and the agencies which operated them, and the structure and operations of the Eire censorship bureau which sought to repress them . It also looks at the role played by Irish-Americans in the conflict, some of whom supported, while others opposed, Irish neutrality. Which side could win this "e;war of words"e;? Could British and American propaganda overcome Eire neutrality, or would re censorship guarantee that it could not? In this detailed and wide-ranging examination of the "e;war of words"e; over Eire neutrality, the author addresses such subjects as public opinion, government policies, propaganda planning, objectives, content and channels of dissemination, and the purpose and tactics of censorship.
Summary Book Review Terrorism: The first or anarchist wave by David C. Rapoport:
Download or read book Terrorism: The first or anarchist wave written by David C. Rapoport and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2006 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Takes a chronological approach to provide a history of modern rebel or non-state terror. In addition to articles in academic journals the collection includes discussions, statements and government documents.
Summary Book Review Human Rights, Realities and Possibilities by L.J. Macfarlane:
Download or read book Human Rights, Realities and Possibilities written by L.J. Macfarlane and published by Springer. This book was released on 1990-06-18 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Researching the problems of human rights implementation in Western and Eastern Europe, this book uses Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Yugoslavia, and Hungary, as case studies. Other works by the author include "Violence and the State", and "Political Disobedience".
Summary Book Review A Book about the Film Monty Python's Life of Brian by Darl Larsen:
Download or read book A Book about the Film Monty Python's Life of Brian written by Darl Larsen and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-02-15 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a follow-up to their first true feature film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the comic troupe next decided to tackle a “shadow” version of the Christ story. Shot in the Middle East and produced during Margaret Thatcher’s ascendant years, the film satirized—among other matters—authoritarianism and religious zealotry. Upon its release, Monty Python’s Life of Brian was both a critical and commercial success, and has been since hailed as one of the greatest comedies of all time. But the film also faced backlash from religious groups for its blasphemy, perceived or otherwise. In A Book about the Film Monty Python's Life of Brian: All of the References from Assyrians to Zeffirelli, Darl Larsen identifies and examines the plethora of cultural, historical, and topical allusions in the film. In this resource, Larsen delineates virtually every allusion and reference that appears in the film—from first-century Jerusalem through 1970s Great Britain. Organized chronologically by scene, the entries in this cultural history cover literary and metaphoric allusions, symbolisms, names, peoples, and places, as well as the many social, cultural, and historical elements that populate this film. By closely examining each scene, this book explores the Pythons’ comparisons of the Roman and British Empires and of Pilate and Margaret Thatcher. In addition, Larsen helps to situate Life of Brian in the “Jesus” re-examination of the postwar period, while also taking a close look at the terror groups of first-century Judea and the modern world. A Book about the Film Monty Python's Life of Brian will appeal to scholars of history, film, British culture, and pop culture, as well as to the many fans of this iconic group.
Summary Book Review Terrorist Histories by Caoimhe Nic Dhaibheid:
Download or read book Terrorist Histories written by Caoimhe Nic Dhaibheid and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-11-03 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses provides a series of in-depth portraits of men and women who have been labelled ‘terrorists’, from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Bridging historical methodologies and theoretical approaches to terrorism studies, it seeks to contribute to the developing historicising of terrorism studies. This is achieved principally through a prosopographical approach. In the preponderance of detailed statistical and quantitative data on the practice of terrorism and political violence, the individuals who participate in terrorist acts are often obscured. While ideologies and organisations have attracted much scholarly interest, less is known of the personal trajectories into political violence, particularly from a historical perspective. The focus on a relatively narrow cast of high-profile terrorist ‘villains’, to a large part driven by popular and media attention, results in a somewhat skewed picture; of equal value, arguably, is a more sustained reflection on the lives of lesser-known individuals. The book sits at the juncture between terrorism studies, historical biography and ethnography. It comprises case studies of ten individuals who have engaged in political violence in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, in a number of locations and with a variety of ideological motivations, from Russian-inflected anarchism to Islamist extremism. Through detailed empirical research, crucial themes in the study of terrorism and political violence are explored: the diverse individual radicalisation pathways, the question of disengagement and re-engagement, various counter-terrorist and counter-insurgency strategies adopted by governments and security forces, and the changing nature and perception of terrorism over time. Although not explicitly comparative, a number of themes resonate between the case studies, which will be drawn together in the conclusion to this book. These include the role of migration in radicalisation, the influence of radical family heritages, the experience of imprisonment and the narratives which individuals construct to tell their own terrorist life-stories. It also provides an historically grounded answer to one of the most contentious and heated debates in recent literature on terrorism studies: ‘what leads a person to turn to political violence?’ In examining the life-narratives of a diverse range of men and women who at some point embraced violence, this book seeks to contribute to a growing understanding of the entire arc of a terrorist lifespan, from radicalisation to mobilisation, to disengagement and beyond. This book will be of much interest to students of political violence, terrorism studies, security studies and politics in general.
Summary Book Review Britain at Bay by Alan Allport:
Download or read book Britain at Bay written by Alan Allport and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping, groundbreaking epic that combines military with social history, to illuminate the ways in which Great Britain and its people were permanently transformed by the Second World War. Here is the many-faceted, world-historically significant story of Britain at war. In looking closely at the military and political dimensions of the conflict's first crucial years, Alan Allport tackles questions such as: Could the war have been avoided? Could it have been lost? Were the strategic decisions the rights ones? How well did the British organize and fight? How well did the British live up to their own values? What difference did the war make in the end to the fate of the nation? In answering these and other essential questions he focuses on the human contingencies of the war, weighing directly at the roles of individuals and the outcomes determined by luck or chance. Moreover, he looks intimately at the changes in wartime British society and culture. Britain at Bay draws on a large cast of characters--from the leading statesmen and military commanders who made the decisions, to the ordinary men, women, and children who carried them out and lived through their consequences--in a comprehensible and compelling single history of forty-six million people. For better or worse, much of Britain today is ultimately the product of the experiences of 1938-1941.
Summary Book Review An Almanac of Murder by Fenton Bresler:
Download or read book An Almanac of Murder written by Fenton Bresler and published by Severn House Pub Limited. This book was released on 1987 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of 366 tales of real murders which took place in Great Britain and the United States during the twentieth century
Summary Book Review The Politics of Terrorism, Third Edition, by Michael Stohl:
Download or read book The Politics of Terrorism, Third Edition, written by Michael Stohl and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-08-19 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the reader with an introduction to the concept and practice of terrorism embedded within a firm understanding of politics and social structure. It explores the major theories, typologies, strategies, ideologies, practices, and responses to contemporary political terrorism.
