Instead of the dying Old Regime, Schama presents an ebullientcountry, vital and inventive, infatuated with novelty andtechnology--a strikingly fresh view of Louis XVI's France. A NewYork Times bestseller in hardcover. 200 illustrations.
At once an informed overview for general-interest readers anda superb resource for serious buffs, this extraordinary, gloriouslyillustrated volume is sure to become one of the fundamental booksin any Civil War library. Its features include a dramatic narrativepacked with eyewitness accounts and hundreds of rare photographs,artifacts, and period illustrations. Evocative sidebars, detailedmaps, and timelines add to the reference-ready quality of thetext. From John Brown's raid to Reconstruction, Eyewitness to the CivilWar presents a clear, comprehensive discussion that addresses everymilitary, political, and social aspect of this crucial period.In-depth de*ions of campaigns and battles in all theaters ofwar are accompanied by a thorough evaluation of the nonmilitaryelements of the struggle between North and South. In their ownwords, commanders and common soldiers in both armies tell of lifeon the battlefield and behind the lines, while letters from wives,mothers, and sisters provide a portrait of the hom
In this luminous portrait of Paris, celebrated historianAlistair Horne gives us the history, culture, disasters, andtriumphs of one of the world’s truly great cities. Horne makesplain that while Paris may be many things, it is neverboring. From the rise of Philippe Auguste through the reigns of Henry IVand Louis XIV (who abandoned Paris for Versailles); Napoleon’s riseand fall; Baron Haussmann’s rebuilding of Paris (at the cost ofmuch of the medieval city); the Belle Epoque and the Great War thatbrought it to an end; the Nazi Occupation, the Liberation, and thepostwar period dominated by de Gaulle--Horne brings the city’shighs and lows, savagery and sophistication, and heroes andvillains splendidly to life. With a keen eye for the tellinganecdote and pivotal moment, he portrays an array of vividincidents to show us how Paris endures through each age, is alteredbut always emerges more brilliant and beautiful than ever. TheSeven Ages of Paris is a great historian’s tribute to a city helov
Encyclopedic and panoramic in its scope, this fascinating workchronicles the rich spiritual, political, and cultural institutionsof Arab history through 13 centuries.
Ireland in the mid-1800s was primarily a population ofpeasants, forced to live on a single, moderately nutritious crop:potatoes. Suddenly, in 1846, an unknown and uncontrollable diseaseturned the potato crop to inedible slime, and all Ireland wasthreatened. Index.
A source of endless fascination and speculation, the subjectof countless biographies, novels, and films, Elizabeth I is nowconsidered from a thrilling new angle by the brilliant younghistorian Tracy Borman. So often viewed in her relationships withmen, the Virgin Queen is portrayed here as the product of women—themother she lost so tragically, the female subjects who worshippedher, and the peers and intimates who loved, raised, challenged, andsometimes opposed her. In vivid detail, Borman presents Elizabeth’s bewitching mother,Anne Boleyn, eager to nurture her new child, only to see her takenaway and her own life destroyed by damning allegations—which taughtElizabeth never to mix politics and love. Kat Astley, the governesswho attended and taught Elizabeth for almost thirty years, inviteddisaster by encouraging her charge into a dangerous liaison afterHenry VIII’s death. Mary Tudor—“Bloody Mary”—envied her youngersister’s popularity and threatened to destroy her altogether. Andanimosity dr
Propelled by the discovery of an ancient book and a cache ofyellowing letters, a young woman plunges into a labyrinth where thesecrets of her family's past connect to an inconceivable evil: thedark reign of Vlad the Impaler and a time-defying pact that mayhave kept his awful work alive through the ages. The search for thethe truth becomes an adventure of monumental propportions, takingus from monasteries and dusty libraries to the captitals of EasternEurope - in a feat of storytelling so rich, so exciting, sosuspenseful that it has enthralled readers around he world.
If not for today's news stories about piracy on the high seas,it'd be easy to think of pirating as a romantic way of life longgone. But nothing is further from the truth. Pirates have existedsince the invention of commerce itself, and they reached the zenithof their power during the 1600s, when the Mediterranean was thecrossroads of the world and pirates were the scourge of Europe.Historian and author Adrian Tinniswood brings this exciting andsurprising chapter in history alive, revealing that the history ofpiracy is also the history that has shaped our modern world.
In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famousmoment in American military history, James Bradley has captured theglory, the triumph, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six menwho raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind theimmortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage andindomitable will of America. In February 1945, American Marines plunged into the surf at IwoJima—and into history. Through a hail of machine-gun and mortarfire that left the beaches strewn with comrades, they battled tothe island's highest peak. And after climbing through a landscapeof hell itself, they raised a flag. Now the son of one of the flagraisers has written a powerfulaccount of six very different young men who came together in amoment that will live forever. To his family, John Bradley never spoke of the photograph or thewar. But after his death at age seventy, his family discoveredclosed boxes of letters and photos. In Flags of Our Fathers ,James Bradley draws on those documents
In this imaginative book, Maya Jasanoff uncovers theextraordinary stories of collectors who lived on the frontiers ofthe British Empire in India and Egypt, tracing their exploits totell an intimate history of imperialism. Jasanoff delves beneaththe grand narratives of power, exploitation, and resistance to lookat the British Empire through the eyes of the people caught up init. Written and researched on four continents, Edge ofEmpire enters a world where people lived, loved, mingled, andidentified with one another in ways richer and more complex thanprevious accounts have led us to believe were possible. And as thisbook demonstrates, traces of that world remain tangible—andtopical—today. An innovative, persuasive, and provocative work ofhistory.
From the deadly shores of North Africa to the invasion ofSicily to the fierce jungle hell of the Pacific, the contributionof the World War II Ranger Battalions far outweighed their numbers.They were ordinary men on an extraordinary mission, experiencingthe full measure of the fear, exhaustion, and heroism of combat innearly every major invasion of the war. Whether spearheading alanding force or scouting deep behind enemy lines, these highlymotivated, highly trained volunteers led the way for other soldiers-- they were Rangers. With first-person interviews, in-depth research, and a completeappendix naming every Ranger known to have served, author RobertBlack, a Ranger himself, has made the battles of WWII come to lifethrough the struggles of the men who fought to win the greatest warthe world has ever seen.
At the end of the American Revolution, sixty thousandAmericans loyal to the British cause fled the United States andbecame refugees throughout the British Empire. This groundbreakingbook offers the first global history of the loyalist exodus toCanada, the Caribbean, Sierra Leone, India, and beyond. Followingextraordinary journeys like the one of Elizabeth Johnston, a youngmother from Georgia, who led her growing family to Britain,Jamaica, and Canada, questing for a home; black loyalists such asDavid George, who escaped from slavery in Virginia and went on tofound Baptist congregations in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone; andMohawk Indian leader Joseph Brant, who tried to find autonomy forhis people in Ontario, Liberty’s Exiles challengesconventional understandings about the founding of the United Statesand the shaping of the postrevolutionary world. Based on originalresearch on four continents, this book is at once an intimatenarrative history and a provocative new analysis—a story about thepast that
In this thrilling real-life account of bravery, greed,obsession, and ultimate betrayal, award- winning writer Joe Jacksonbrings to life the story of fortune hunter Henry Wickham and hiscollaboration with the empire that fueled, then abandoned him. In1876, Wickham smuggled 70,000 rubber tree seeds out of therainforests of Brazil and delivered them to Victorian England'smost prestigious scientists at Kew Gardens. The story of howWickham got his hands on those seeds-and the history-makingconsequences-is the stuff of legend. The Thief at the End of theWorld is an exciting true story of reckless courage andambition that perfectly captures the essential nature of GreatBritain's colonial adventure in South America.
The Taste of Conquest offers up a riveting, globe-trottingtale of unquenchable desire, fanatical religion, raw greed, ficklefashion, and mouthwatering cuisine–in short, the very stuff ofwhich our world is made. In this engaging, enlightening, andanecdote-filled history, Michael Krondl, a noted chef turned writerand food historian, tells the story of three legendarycities–Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam–and how their single-mindedpursuit of spice helped to make (and remake) the Western diet andset in motion the first great wave of globalization. Sharing mealsand stories with Indian pepper planters, Portuguese sailors, andVenetian foodies, Krondl takes every opportunity to explore theworld of long ago and sample its many flavors. Along the way, hereveals that the taste for spice of a few wealthy Europeans ledto great crusades, astonishing feats of bravery, and even wholesaleslaughter. As stimulating as it is pleasurable, and filled with surprisinginsights, The Taste of Conquest offers a compell
Forty years after his Hitler: A Study in Tyranny set astandard for scholarship of the Nazi era, Lord Alan Bullock givesreaders a breathtakingly accomplished dual biography that placesAdolf Hitler's origins, personality, career, and legacy alongsidethose of Joseph Stalin--his implacable antagonist and moral mirrorimage.
This brief and illuminating account of the ideas of worldorder prevalent in the Elizabethan age and later is anindispensable companion for readers of the great writers of thesixteenth and seventeenth centuries—Shakespeare and the Elizabethandramatists, Donne and Milton, among many others. The basic medievalidea of an ordered Chain of Being is studied by Professor Tillyardin the process of its various transformations by the dynamic spiritof the Renaissance. Among his topics are: Angels; the Stars andFortunes; the Analogy between Macrocosm and Microcosm; the FourElements; the Four Humours; Sympathies; Correspondences; and theCosmic Dance—ideas and symbols which inspirited the minds andimaginations not only of the Elizabethans but of all men of theRenaissance.
This painstakingly researched volume covers the armament andammunition that have served the SEALs, tracing each weapon from thedevelopment stage to its current form. Also included are exclusiveaccounts from those who first witnessed these weapons in action.Written with the cooperation of the UDT/SEAL Museum Association inFlorida, and packed with detailed information and photos, this bookoffers fresh insight into the technology that has for decadessustained the Navy SEALs as an unstoppable military force-andcontinues to make them the most dangerous warriors in theworld.