Nick Sharman Boeken

Through extensive archival research, the book reinterprets the relationship between Britain and Spain during the rise and fall of the British Empire. It argues that Britain effectively transformed Spain into an 'informal' colony, leveraging its economic and military strength to further its own interests. By analyzing five critical crises, including the First Carlist War, the author reveals how Britain's free trade policies and military interventions hindered Spain's industrial progress. This innovative study sheds light on the complexities of imperial dynamics between industrial powers and their informal colonies.

This book analyzes the newspaper coverage of one of America’s most famous and dramatic trials–the trial of the “Chicago 8.” Covering a five month period from September 1969 to February 1970 the book considers the way eight radical activists including Black Panther leader Bobby Seale, antiwar activists Tom Hayden, David Dellinger, and Rennie Davis, and leading Yippies, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin are represented in the press. How did the New York Times represent Judge Hoffman’s decision to chain and gag Bobby Seale in the courtroom for demanding his right to represent himself? To what extent did the press adequately describe the injustice visited on the defendants in the trial by the presiding Judge, Julius J Hoffman? The author aims to answer these questions and demonstrate the press’s reluctance to criticize Judge Hoffman in the case until the evidence of his misconduct of the trial became overwhelming.