Jeff Pearce

“The West will begin to understand Africa when it realizes it’s not talking to a child—it’s talking to its mother.”So writes Jeff Pearce in the introduction to his fascinating, groundbreaking work, African Ideas: How a Continent and Its People Changed the World.We learn early on in school how Europe and Asia gave us important literature, science, and art, and how their nations changed the course of history. But what about Africa? There are plenty of books that detail its colonialism, corruption, famine, and war, but few that discuss the debt owed to African thinkers and innovators. In African Ideas, we meet Zera Yacob, an Ethiopian philosopher who developed the same critical approach and several of the same ideas as René Descartes. We consider how Somalis traded with China, and we meet the African warrior queens who still inspire national pride. We explore how Liberia’s Edward Wilmot Blyden deeply influenced Marcus Garvey, and we sneak into the galleries and theaters of 1920s Paris, where African art and dance first began to make huge impacts on the world. Relying on meticulous research, Pearce brings to life a rich intellectual legacy and profiles modern innovators like acclaimed griot Papa Susso and renowned economist George Ayittey from Ghana. From the ancient Nubians to a Nigerian superstar in modern painting and sculpture, from the father of sociology in the Maghreb to how the Mau Mau in Kenya influenced Malcom X, African Ideas is bold, engaging, and takes the reader on a journey of thousands of years up to the present day. Past works have reinforced misconceptions about Africa, from its oral traditions and languages to its resistance to colonial powers. Other books have treated African achievements as a parade of honorable mentions and novelties. This book is different—refreshingly different. It tells the stories behind the milestones and provides insights into how great Africans thought, and how they passed along what they learned. Provocative and entertaining, African Ideas at last gives the continent its due, and it should change the way we learn about the interactions of cultures and how we teach the history of the world.

In the summer of 1839, Henry Layard—just twenty-two years old—left England for eastern Europe and distant lands of the Ottoman Empire. He had never set foot in these regions before and wasn’t fluent in their languages. But he would experience one dramatic adventure after another, narrowly escaping death, combatting murderous thieves, riding with Bakhtiari warriors in Persia, and going on secret missions for the British embassy in Turkey. Layard made some of the most important archaeology discoveries ever, uncovering the ruins of Nineveh in 1845, as well as the lost Assyrian capital of Ashur. It’s thanks to his secret efforts that scores of Yezidi refugees were saved from persecution. When he returned to England, his personal account of his finds at Nineveh became a bestseller. He went on to witness the famous Charge of the Light Brigade, investigated the Indian Mutiny, and as Britain’s diplomat, he played a key role in saving Istanbul from destruction and looting during a war. Real-life Indiana Jones meets Lawrence of Arabia in Winged Bull, the first biography in half a century to tell the story of Henry Layard and his daring adventures. While you may not know his name, you likely have seen his work. The winged bulls, lions and priceless treasures of art and jewellery that he found make up permanent collections in institutions such as the British Museum, Britain’s National Gallery and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Layard may have also been the first “archaeologist with a conscience.” While better known figures either stole their discoveries or bribed their way into ruins, Layard sought formal permission from local authorities. His books and letters draw a picture of a man who deeply respected the lands and cultures he explored. Using Layard’s own letters as well as archival materials and never-before-published documents, author Jeff Pearce captures the life of a man who was never at rest, whether galloping off with tribal rulers or standing up for the poor and downtrodden as a British MP. Discover the life of Henry Layard in this gripping tale of astonishing discoveries, swashbuckling exploits, and political intrigue.

It's the 1980s, an era of smart suits and saxophones, squatters in abandoned blocks and protests over the final threats of the Cold War. Typewriters are plentiful, David Bowie and Prince are at the heights of their stardom, and people plug into Walkmans instead of iPods. The decade's hottest place for music, fashion and politics was London, and it's here that a group of expats from North America try to build their dreams into reality. Calvin Trent wants to found a magazine that can rival Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, and he just might pull it off. Their British friend, Jeremy, tries to duck the racism of cops patrolling the Brixton neighbourhood and be the voice of sensible business values behind the others' grand design. Beth, a quirky, talented musician and photographer is trying to get over her past creative failures, but she just may escape her depression in the arms of Ram Talbott. Ram the narrator, who loves too much, who feels too much and who needs to make sense of it all after the dream falls apart. And when a young woman is violently attacked in a London park, the horrific crime will haunt them all and even inspire a few in unexpected ways. THE NEW BOHEMIANS is a story about an era that was more vibrant, more complicated and more exciting than today's nostalgic references. By turns lyrical and comic, it's a love letter to the writers and artists who are the also-rans, the ones who don't get movies made out of their lives or who have courses taught on their forgotten works. But for a short while, they had their brilliant moments...

It was the war that changed everything, and yet it’s been mostly forgotten: in 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia. It dominated newspaper headlines and newsreels. It inspired mass marches in Harlem, a play on Broadway, and independence movements in Africa. As the British Navy sailed into the Mediterranean for a white-knuckle showdown with Italian ships, riots broke out in major cities all over the United States.Italian planes dropped poison gas on Ethiopian troops, bombed Red Cross hospitals, and committed atrocities that were never deemed worthy of a war crimes tribunal. But unlike the many other depressing tales of Africa that crowd book shelves, this is a gripping thriller, a rousing tale of real-life heroism in which the Ethiopians come back from near destruction and win.Tunnelling through archive records, tracking down survivors still alive today, and uncovering never-before-seen photos, Jeff Pearce recreates a remarkable era and reveals astonishing new findings. He shows how the British Foreign Office abandoned the Ethiopians to their fate, while Franklin Roosevelt had an ambitious peace plan that could have changed the course of world history?had Chamberlain not blocked him with his policy on Ethiopia. And Pearce shows how modern propaganda techniques, the post-war African world, and modern peace movements all were influenced by this crucial conflict?a war in Africa that truly changed the world.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

They say that executing a murderer won't bring your loved one back. But now it can. Scientists have developed a new technology that has terrifying repercussions. The Karma Booth can execute a murderer and return their victims to life. But at what cost? Ethics consultant Timothy Cale is hired by the US government to investigate this earth-shattering breakthrough and makes a startling discovery. The returned victims possess disturbing abilities. When notorious war criminal Viktor Limonov escapes from a Karma Booth execution unharmed, it’s up to Cale to stop him before he murders every returned victim across the globe.

The poor boy who made his fortune . . . not just once but twice.Little Jeff Pearce grew up in a post-war Liverpool slum. His father lived the life of an affluent gentleman whilst his mother was forced to steal bread to feed her starving children. Life was tough and from the moment Jeff could walk he learned to go door to door, begging rags from the rich, which he sold down the markets. Leaving school at the age of fourteen, he embarked on an extraordinary journey, and found himself, before the age of thirty, a millionaire.Then, after a cruel twist of fate left him penniless, he, his wife and children were forced out of their beautiful home . . .With nothing but holes in his pockets, Jeff had no alternative but to go back down the markets and start all over again. Did he still have what it took? Could he really get back everything he had lost?A Pocketful of Holes and Dreams is the heartwarming true story of a little boy who had nothing but gained everything and proof that, sometimes, rags can be turned into riches . . .______________'An inspirational tale of hard work and determination' 5* reader review 'I just loved this book from the first chapter - I was gripped' 5* reader review

When it comes to sex in the Great White North, we've definitely mastered the art of staying warm. Join Jeff Pearce as he takes an irreverent romp through Canada's little-known sexual history and peeks into the bedrooms of the nation.