Sam Atkins, an engaging young clerk on the staff of Mr. Samuel Pepys during the time that the famous diarist first served as secretary to the Lord High Admiral of England, rose from obscurity to fame on one memorable, terrifying occasion. At the age of twenty-one, Sam was accused of complicity in the Popish Plot, that ingenious fabrication of the infamous Titus Oates, which brought a hysterical nation to the verge of panic, and profoundly influenced the literature and history of Restoration England. Summoned without warning on Friday, November 1, 1678, to the office in Whitehall of the British secretary of state, the bewildered Sam was quickly removed to Winchester House where he was brought before the secret committee formed by the House of Lords to investigate the plot. Interrogated by the powerful Lord Shaftesbury, Sam learned that he was suspected of complicity in the murder of a Protestant magistrate, Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey. Actually, the accusations made against Sam were intended to involve his master, Mr. Pepys, in the Popish Plot. Although Pepys was a known Protestant, he had been the duke's favorite when York was the Lord High Admiral, and there was evidence that, although he deplored his former patron's religion, the secretary remained loyal to him. Lord Shaftesbury, the archenemy of the Catholic duke, hoped to use Atkins's confession against Pepys, and through the secretary involve the duke of York in a conspiracy to commit murder. Though a most unlikely candidate for a role in the events that ultimately served to determine the course of a great nation, Sam Atkins, brought fortitude and a not inconsiderable measure of heroism to the trials he was destined to suffer. John Harold Wilson, professor emeritus of English at the Ohio State University, is the celebrated author of many distinguished books on the history and literature of the English Restoration, including "Nell Gwyn: Royal Mistress" and "All the King's Ladies.
Science and Spectacle relates the construction of the telescope to the politics and culture of post-war Britain. From radar and atomic weapons, to the Festival of Britain and, later, Harold Wilson's rhetoric of scientific revolution, science formed a cultural resource from which post-war careers and a national identity could be built. The Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope was once a symbol of British science and a much needed prestigious project for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, but it also raised questions regarding the proper role of universities as sites for scientific research.
The war of June 1967 between Israel and Arab states was widely perceived as being forced on Israel to prevent the annihilation of its people by Arab armies hovering on its borders. Documents now declassified by key governments question this view. The UK, USSR, France and the USA all knew that the Arab states were not in attack mode and tried to dissuade Israel from attacking. In later years, this war was held up as a precedent allowing an attack on a state that is expected to attack. It has even been used to justify a pre-emptive assault on a state expected to attack well in the future. Given the lack of evidence that it was waged by Israel in anticipation of an attack by Arab states, the 1967 war can no longer serve as such a precedent. This book seeks to provide a corrective on the June 1967 war.
The story does not end with Horace, however, because he passed his skills on to his three sons, who also became prominent builders and businessmen."--BOOK JACKET.
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