{"title":"S P Mackenzie","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"bader-s-war-book-s-p-mackenzie-9780752455341","title":"Bader's War","description":"More than a quarter of a century after his death, Douglas Bader remains the most famous fighter pilot Britain has every known. He lost both of his legs a flying accident in 1931, but overcame his disability and returned to the RAF in 1939, rising to command a Canadian fighter squadron and then the first RAF fighter wing during the Battle of Britain. Shot down and made prisoner, he made numerous escape attempts and became so aggravating to his German captors that he was held in Colditz Castle. Widely recognised for his exploits during the war, he became even more famous from the 1950s onward as a result on a bestselling biography that served as the basis of the hit film Reach for the Sky. While he had as many flaws as laudable qualities, Bader undeniably achieved great things, both during the Second World War and in his later work for the disabled. Bader’s War makes use of new memoirs, interviews, and documents that have only recently become available to shed more light on various episodes in his life and provide a rounded and unbiased portrayal of this fascinating man.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49544557986065,"sku":"GOR004556978","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50116695621905,"sku":"CIN0752455346G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0752455346.jpg?v=1751425685"},{"product_id":"second-world-war-in-europe-book-s-p-mackenzie-9780582326927","title":"The Second World War in Europe","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49549776879889,"sku":"GOR003126054","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49614483226897,"sku":"GOR006115206","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49614737146129,"sku":"GOR001448957","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0582326923.jpg?v=1751230458"},{"product_id":"bader-s-war-book-s-p-mackenzie-9781862274679","title":"Bader's War","description":"Bader's War makes use of new memoirs, interviews and previously unpublished documents to help shed further light on various episodes in the life of Douglas Bader, providing an unbiased portrayal of the most famous fighter pilot Britain has ever known.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49554127356177,"sku":"GOR002911253","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1862274673.jpg?v=1766658122"},{"product_id":"home-guard-book-s-p-mackenzie-9780192853318","title":"The Home Guard","description":"Today we laugh at \"Dad's Army\", but in 1940 the threat of a German invasion of Britain was a very real one. S. P. MacKenzie's detailed history of the Home Guard offers a new perspective on the men who took up the challenge. Despite its popular image of old men and teenagers playing soldiers, the Home Guard, often as large as the wartime army, became an astonishingly strong political force in its own right. Quite literally the people in arms, it proved able to exert a good deal of influence on policy. The threat of invasion receded and the Home Guard was never called upon to fulfil its military role, though there was a brief attempt to resurrect it in the 1950s. Since then it has been largely neglected by military historians and there have been few serious examinations of the part it played in the Home Front.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49622854730001,"sku":"GOR001245510","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49638026903825,"sku":"GOR001499050","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50593766506769,"sku":"GOR003428194","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0192853317.jpg?v=1750940188"},{"product_id":"second-world-war-in-europe-book-sp-mackenzie-9781405846998","title":"The Second World War in Europe","description":"This is an updated edition of the first truly concise introduction to the history of World War II in the West. The author, S. P. MacKenzie traces the major events on both fighting front and home front, explaining what happened and, just as importantly, why the balance of fortunes swung first towards the Axis and then towards the Allies. Along with overviews of the origins and consequences of the conflict, the book:     Provides a narrative account of the course of events on land throughout the war Contains sections specifically devoted to societies and economies; resistance movements and collaboration; technology and intelligence; alliances and strategy; the war in the air and at sea Assesses the impact of the war and introduces the key historiographical debates surrounding it  Far from being a blow-by-blow account, the book shows how the Second World War can only be understood by taking all the contributing factors - military, economic and social among others - into account. In addition to the existing wealth of useful supplementary material, this edition has been updated to include a colour illustration section and, for readers interested in learning more, a detailed narrative guide to published historical literature. Admirably succinct yet academically rich, this is the essential introduction to the Second World War in the West.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49631230492945,"sku":"GOR005009383","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50227754762513,"sku":"GOR013893620","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50308782031121,"sku":"GOR006777975","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50380603162897,"sku":"CIN1405846992G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50697459171601,"sku":"NGR9781405846998","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1405846992.jpg?v=1751419853"},{"product_id":"british-prisoners-of-the-korean-war-book-s-p-mackenzie-9780199656028","title":"British Prisoners of the Korean War","description":"During the Korean War nearly a thousand British servicemen, along with a handful of British civilians, were captured by North Korean and Red Chinese forces. In various camps in the vicinity of Pyongyang and villages along the Yalu River these men found themselves subjected to a prolonged effort by the enemy to undermine their allegiance to the Crown and enlist them in various propaganda campaigns directed against the UN war effort.   British Prisoners of the korean War is the first academic study to examine in detail exactly what happened to the major groups of British military and civilian prisoners held in different locations at various junctures between 1950 and 1953. It explores the extent to which factors such as exposure to the actions of the North Koreans as against the Red Chinese, evolving physical conditions, enemy re-education efforts, communist attempts at blackmail, British attitudes towards the Americans, and personal background and leadership qualities among captives themselves influenced the willingness and ability of the British prisoners to collaborate or resist. Thanks to the availability of hitherto classified or underutilized source materials, it is now possible to test the common popular assumption-based on official accounts and memoirs from the 1950s-that, in marked contrast to their American cousins, British captives in the Korean War were pretty much immune to communist efforts at subverting their loyalty. The results suggest that British attitudes and actions while in enemy hands were rather more nuanced and varied than previously assumed.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49996725059857,"sku":"GOR010755405","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51408808116497,"sku":"GOR007428513","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52516214210833,"sku":"NLS9780199656028","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0199656029.jpg?v=1751164669"},{"product_id":"flying-against-fate-book-s-p-mackenzie-9780700624690","title":"Flying Against Fate","description":"During World War II, Allied casualty rates in the air were high. Of the roughly 125,000 who served as aircrew with Bomber Command, 59,423 were killed or missing and presumed killed—a fatality rate of 45.5%. With odds like that, it would be no surprise if there were as few atheists in cockpits as there were in foxholes; and indeed, many airmen faced their dangerous missions with beliefs and rituals ranging from the traditional to the outlandish. Military historian S. P. MacKenzie considers this phenomenon in Flying against Fate, a pioneering study of the important role that superstition played in combat flier morale among the Allies in World War II.  Mining a wealth of documents as well as a trove of published and unpublished memoirs and diaries, MacKenzie examines the myriad forms combat fliers’ suspicions assumed, from jinxes to premonitions. Most commonly, airmen carried amulets or talismans—lucky boots or a stuffed toy; a coin whose year numbers added up to thirteen; counterintuitively, a boomerang. Some performed rituals or avoided other acts, e.g., having a photo taken before a flight. Whatever seemed to work was worth sticking with, and a heightened risk often meant an upsurge in superstitious thought and behavior. MacKenzie delves into behavior analysis studies to help explain the psychology behind much of the behavior he documents—not slighting the large cohort of crew members and commanders who demurred. He also looks into the ways in which superstitious behavior was tolerated or even encouraged by those in command who saw it as a means of buttressing morale.  The first in-depth exploration of just how varied and deeply felt superstitious beliefs were to tens of thousands of combat fliers, Flying against Fate expands our understanding of a major aspect of the psychology of war in the air and of World War II.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50014111662353,"sku":"CIN0700624694VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51804039381265,"sku":"CIN0700624694G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52586263445777,"sku":"NLS9780700624690","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0700624694.jpg?v=1763475436"},{"product_id":"bomber-boys-on-screen-book-s-p-mackenzie-9781350024847","title":"Bomber Boys on Screen","description":"Since the Second World War, depictions of Royal Air Force operations in film and television drama have become so numerous that they make up a genre worthy of scholarly attention. In this illuminating study, S. P. MacKenzie explores the different ways in which the men of RAF Bomber Command have been represented in dramatic form on the big and small screen from the war years to the present day. Bomber Boys on Screen is the first in-depth study of how and why the screen-drama image of those who flew, those who directed them, and those who provided support for RAF bomber operations has changed over time, sometimes in contested circumstances.  Until now dramas that focus on Bomber Command have tended to be mentioned only in passing or studied in isolation, despite the prevalence of surveys of both the British war film genre and of aviation cinema.  In Bomber Boys on Screen MacKenzie examines the development, presentation, and reception of significant dramas on a decade-by-decade basis. Titles from the beginning of the war (The Lion Has Wings, 1939) to the start of new century (Bomber's Moon, 2014) are situated in the context of technical possibilities and limitations, evolving social and cultural norms in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and the development of moral and utilitarian controversies surrounding the wartime bomber offensive directed against Nazi Germany. While the focus is on feature films and television plays, reference is also made to documentaries, memorials, veterans’ organizations, book titles, war comics, and other representations of the war fought by Bomber Command.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50244490035473,"sku":"GOR013897275","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1350024848.jpg?v=1751467576"},{"product_id":"battle-of-britain-on-screen-book-s-p-mackenzie-9781474228466","title":"The Battle of Britain on Screen","description":"This new, updated edition of The Battle of Britain on Screen examines in depth the origins, development and reception of the major dramatic screen representations of ‘The Few’ in the Battle of Britain produced over the past 75 years. Paul MacKenzie explores both continuity and change in the presentation of a wartime event that acquired and retains near-mythical dimensions in popular consciousness and has been represented many times in feature films and television dramas. Alongside relevant technical developments, the book also examines the social, cultural, and political changes occurring in the second half of the 20th century and first decade of current century that helped shape how the battle came to be framed dramatically.   This edition contains a new chapter looking at the portrayal of the Battle of Britain at the time of its 70th anniversary. Through its perceptive demonstration of how our memory of the battle has been constantly reshaped through film and television, The Battle of Britain on Screen provides students of the Second World War, 20th-century Britain and film history with a thorough and complex understanding of an iconic historical event.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50258713018641,"sku":"GOR010154598","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1474228461.jpg?v=1751273180"},{"product_id":"colditz-myth-book-s-p-mackenzie-9780199262106","title":"The Colditz Myth","description":"Though only one among hundreds of prison camps in which British servicemen were held between 1939 and 1945, Colditz enjoys unparalleled name recognition both in Britain and in other parts of the English-speaking world. Made famous in print, on film, and through television, Colditz remains a potent symbol of key virtues - including ingenuity and perseverance against apparently overwhelming odds - that form part of the popular mythology surrounding the British war effort in World War II. Colditz has played a major role in shaping perceptions of the POW experience in Nazi Germany, an experience in which escaping is assumed to be paramount and 'Outwitting the Hun' a universal sport. The story of Colditz has been told often and in a variety of forms but in this book, MacKenzie chronicles the development of the Colditz myth and puts what happened inside the castle in the context of British and Commonwealth POW life in Germany as a whole. Being a captive of the Third Reich - from the moment of surrender down to the day of liberation and repatriation - was more complicated and a good deal tougher than the popular myth would suggest. The physical and mental demands of survival far outweighed escaping activity in order of importance in most camps almost all of the time, and even in Colditz the reality was in some respects very different from the almost \"Boy's Own\" caricature that developed during the post-war decades. In \"The Colditz Myth\", MacKenzie seeks, for the first time, to place Colditz - both the camp and the legend - in a wider historical context.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50346472374545,"sku":"CIN0199262101G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0199262101.jpg?v=1751323214"},{"product_id":"bomber-boys-on-screen-book-s-p-mackenzie-9781350024854","title":"Bomber Boys on Screen","description":"Since the Second World War, depictions of Royal Air Force operations in film and television drama have become so numerous that they make up a genre worthy of scholarly attention. 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