David Marsh

A bold new account of Europe’s plight as it faces political fracture, economic stagnation and external challenges from the U. S., China and Russia Today, Europe finds itself in a fast-changing, polarised world dominated by Chinese-American rivalry. The European Union and its surrounding nonmember states, despite initial successes after the fall of the Berlin Wall, have failed to implement a strategy for success in the twenty-first century. Britain’s exit from the Union has weakened both sides, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has thrown these shortcomings into sharp relief. How should states across the continent position themselves in the decades to come? Drawing on unpublished archives and interviews with over 150 leading figures, David Marsh investigates Europe’s present crisis, from the march of populism, Franco-German malaise, and the breakdown of relations with Putin’s Russia. Fault lines are emerging in the monetary union, while the fight against climate change has impacted growth. Facing its gravest test since the Second World War, Europe must find fresh reserves of resilience—and seek out renewed international partnerships to ensure success.

The Global Mental Health Crisis is a direct result of the fact that, over time, the actual size of our brains is getting smaller. This is an historical fact but is entirely reversible with better brain nutrition. This has now reached crisis proportions. In 2023, The European Brain Council recognised that "Brain Health conditions have become a global health emergency". Back in 1972, Graham Rose wrote in the Sunday Times "Unless action is taken to care for the nutrition of the brain 'We will become a race of morons!' Authors Michael A Crawford and David E Marsh have both devoted their lives to this vital area of research. This book is their legacy. In painstaking detail, they put the case of how to reverse the Global Mental Health Crisis. With greater awareness of the problem, it’s cause and the solution required to make a change, their message could not be clearer. By reading this book you will not be able to say, “We didn’t realise”. This book may contain complex research and the result of detailed research, but the message is simple. And so is the action we all need to take. This book may contain complex research and the result of detailed research, but the message is simple. And so is the action we all need to take. We also explain the role of the environment in the evolution of the brain, leading to early Homo sapiens with a brain capacity of over 1,600cc, and explaining why it is now only 1,366 cc and mental ill-health is escalating. The concepts in this book have been fifty-one years in the making. They can't wait any longer. There is no more time. Presented with these incontrovertible facts, it does not need a rocket scientist to work out what will happen if these dumbing down trends continue! Fortunately, solutions are available which will lead to brighter and healthier children of the future.

An introduction to one of the premier humanists of the Italian Renaissance, whose extraordinary work in biography, politics, religion, and philosophy has been largely unknown to Anglophone readers. A celebrated orator, historian, philosopher, and statesman, Giannozzo Manetti (1396–1459) was one of the most remarkable figures of the Italian Renaissance. The son of a wealthy Florentine merchant, he was active in the public life of the Florentine republic and embraced the new humanist scholarship of the Quattrocento. Among his many contributions, Manetti translated from classical Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, bringing attention to great works of the ancient world that were previously unknown. He also offered a humanist alternative to the Vulgate Bible by translating into Latin the Greek text of the New Testament and the Hebrew Psalms. His other works included biographies of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio; A Translator’s Defense, an indispensable treatise on the art of translation; and Against the Jews and the Gentiles, an apologia for Christianity. Manetti is most remembered for his treatise On Human Worth and Excellence, a radical defense of human nature and of the new world view of Renaissance humanism. In this authoritative biography, the first ever in English, David Marsh guides readers through the vast range of Manetti’s writings, which, despite growing scholarly interest, are still largely unfamiliar to the English-speaking world. Marsh’s fresh appraisal makes clear why Manetti must be considered among the great expositors of the spirit of his age.

Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) was the most versatile humanist of the fifteenth century: author of numerous compositions in both Latin and Italian, and a groundbreaking theorist of painting, sculpture, and architecture. His Latin writings owe much to the model of Petrarch (1304-1374), the famed poet of the Italian Canzoniere, but also a prolific author of Latin epistles, biographies, and poems that sparked the revival of classical culture in the early Italian Renaissance. The essays collected here reflect some thirty years of research into these pioneers of Humanism, and offer important insights into forms of Renaissance 'self-fashioning' such as allegory and autobiography.

Explore Leeds' secret history through a fascinating selection of stories, facts and photographs.

This is Volume I of twenty-one in the Class, Race and Social Structure Series. Originally published in 1958, this is the second edition of a study that now focuses on the changing social structure of England and Wales between 1871 and 1961. The main object of this book, therefore, as it was in the first edition, is to introduce the student and the general reader to the maze of social statistics, which have become available, concerning the social structure of England and Wales. The emphasis throughout is on applied or descriptive statistics and a knowledge of statistical techniques therefore those (and they seem to be many) who have an instinctive dislike of mathematics need not be deterred from following the attempt which has been made to analyse the changing social structure with the aid of social statistics.

Leeds, sited in the heart of West Yorkshire, is the UK’s third largest city and is home to a community rich in history, ambition and achievement. As the financial, cultural and commercial heart of West Yorkshire, Leeds is a city essential to the global economic system. Although only a small borough for much of its existence, Leeds in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries became a key centre for the production and trading of wool. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, Leeds developed into a major industrial hub, extending its reach into engineering, printing, commerce, health and education. Iron foundries were among other industries of extreme importance. The city then expanded, absorbing many of the surrounding villages and townships to become the urban city we see today. Combining cultural riches with strong transport and communication links, it continues to attract students, entrepreneurs and professionals, not only to visit, but often to relocate to this vibrant part of West Yorkshire. The authors have charted the area’s great past, and the enormous changes that have taken place, through a selection of fascinating and inspiring old postcards.

For Who the Bell Tolls is a book that explains the grammar that people really need to know, such as the fact that an apostrophe is the difference between a company that knows its s*** and a company that knows it's s***, or the importance of capital letters to avoid ambiguity in such sentences as 'I helped my Uncle Jack off his horse.'David Marsh's lifelong mission has been to create order out of chaos. For four decades, he has worked for newspapers, from the Sun to the Financial Times, from local weeklies that sold a few thousand copies to the Guardian, with its global readership of nine million, turning the sow's ear of rough-and-ready reportage into a passable imitation of a silk purse. The chaos might be sloppy syntax, a disregard for grammar or a fundamental misunderstanding of what grammar is. It could be an adherence to 'rules' that have no real basis and get in the way of fluent, unambiguous communication at the expense of ones that are actually useful. Clear, honest use of English has many enemies: politicians, business and marketing people, local authority and civil service jargonauts, rail companies, estate agents, academics . . . and some journalists. This is the book to help defeat them. 'A splendid and, more importantly, sane book on English grammar.' Mark Forsyth, author of The Etymologicon

Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) was the most versatile humanist of the fifteenth century: author of numerous compositions in both Latin and Italian, and a groundbreaking theorist of painting, sculpture, and architecture. His Latin writings owe much to the model of Petrarch (1304-1374), the famed poet of the Italian Canzoniere, but also a prolific author of Latin epistles, biographies, and poems that sparked the revival of classical culture in the early Italian Renaissance. The essays collected here reflect some thirty years of research into these pioneers of Humanism, and offer important insights into forms of Renaissance 'self-fashioning' such as allegory and autobiography.