Duncan Cameron

The Norman Conquest in the eleventh century is one of the best-known events in English history, but the French attempts to invade England three hundred years later are largely ignored and misunderstood. In fact, French invaders landed on English soil more than fifty times during the fourteenth century, sometimes accompanied by allies from Castile, Monaco, Genoa and Scotland. Each incursion was part of an overall strategy led by the French monarch of the time, and those participating were well-trained fighters and shipmen. They were certainly not pirates, which is how they have often been described. The incursions were brutal, involving murder of civilians and rapine. Those along the invasion front responded and fought back, often surprisingly effectively. Determined English locals, organised into well-trained posses, sometimes bested the Continental professional fighters; although the economic damage caused by the raids was long-term. In the later years of the century Charles the Wise and his great admiral Jean de Vienne made ambitious plans for full-scale conquest. The initial plans for the invasion were made at a time when France was engulfed by multiple crises, of which England was a prime cause. Whole forests of ancient trees were felled in the Seine Valley to build the fleet. Edward III and his son Richard II never were dislodged from the throne of England by the Valois – but the threat was real. The fourteenth-century French invasion of England was not a single overwhelming event – such as Napoleon’s invasion of Russia – but a long-lasting process, sometimes intensely violent, which led to important changes to English society and had a profound and lasting impact upon the areas along the invasion front. This is the Anglo-French conflict that time forgot.

The Norman Conquest in the eleventh century is one of the best-known events in English history, but the French attempts to invade England three hundred years later are largely ignored and misunderstood. In fact, French invaders landed on English soil more than fifty times during the fourteenth century, sometimes accompanied by allies from Castile, Monaco, Genoa and Scotland. Each incursion was part of an overall strategy led by the French monarch of the time, and those participating were well-trained fighters and shipmen. They were certainly not pirates, which is how they have often been described. The incursions were brutal, involving murder of civilians and rapine. Those along the invasion front responded and fought back, often surprisingly effectively. Determined English locals, organised into well-trained posses, sometimes bested the Continental professional fighters; although the economic damage caused by the raids was long-term. In the later years of the century Charles the Wise and his great admiral Jean de Vienne made ambitious plans for full-scale conquest. The initial plans for the invasion were made at a time when France was engulfed by multiple crises, of which England was a prime cause. Whole forests of ancient trees were felled in the Seine Valley to build the fleet. Edward III and his son Richard II never were dislodged from the throne of England by the Valois – but the threat was real. The fourteenth-century French invasion of England was not a single overwhelming event – such as Napoleon’s invasion of Russia – but a long-lasting process, sometimes intensely violent, which led to important changes to English society and had a profound and lasting impact upon the areas along the invasion front. This is the Anglo-French conflict that time forgot.

From the 1940s to the 1960s, the microcar posed a challenge to the large companies that mass-produced cars to uniform designs. The microcar was the opposite, produced by small entrepreneurial start-ups using quirky design concepts that offered motorists cheaper and more economical vehicles. This book is a beautifully illustrated history of the British microcar, from the early days of Bond and Reliant to the proliferation of micro marques during the 1950s and their demise during the 1960s. It explores many eccentric British concepts, comparing the cars to their influential European competitors, examining the social and economic reasons for the decline and disappearance of the microcar, but also saluting the signs of a microcar renaissance in the twenty-first century, this time from mainstream manufacturers.

Om man har lärt sig att tyda tecknen och förstå sambanden kan man ofta förstå och på kort sikt förutse den ekonomiska utvecklingen i världen. Internationell ekonomi ger hjälp på vägen. Läromedlet gör komplicerade samband begripliga. Exempel ur verkligheten visar hur kunskap om internationella ekonomiska samband ökar företagens möjlighet att fatta kloka beslut. Kort sagt, hur kunskap banar väg till handling. Uppgifter och ordlistorFaktatexten varvas med olika sorters övningar - repetitionsuppgifter, undersökande uppgifter och praktikfall - som gör det möjligt att diskutera och analysera innehållet i kapitlen. Eftersom källor på på internet ofta är engelskspråkiga finns de centrala begreppen som tas upp i texten även på engelska i marginalen. Dessutom finns en svensk-engelsk och engelsk-svensk ordlista med vanliga fackuttryck i slutet av boken. Där finns också en ordlista med vanliga företagsekonomiska och nationalekonomiska begrepp förklarade. Lösningshäfte och lärarhandledningI serien finns också ett utförligt lösningshäfte och en lärarhandledning som bland annat innehåller pedagogiska tips, faktablad, provuppgifter inklusive lösningar, praktikfall inklusive lösningar samt artiklar som kan användas i undervisning eller vid prov. Läromedlet är skrivet av ett internationellt författarteam med erfarenhet från såväl handel som finansiella marknader och främmande kulturer. Cege Ekström är lärare i ekonomiska ämnen med många internationella kontakter samt erfaren läromedelsförfattare. Duncan Cameron är brittisk affärskonsult, skribent och lärare. Leif Holmvall är författare och föreläsare samt egenföretagare med inriktning på internationella affärer. Björn Uhlin är nationalekonom och bankman, verksam i bland annat Storbritannien och Schweiz. Utdrag ur Bibliotekstjänsts recension av tredje upplagan: "Denna pedagogiska introduktionsbok är en av ämnesområdets bästa." - Jan-Olof Svensson