Historical geography Books

Book SynopsisA Sunday Times ''Must Read'' book.Described by the Sunday Times as a gently studious Bill Bryson crossed with an upbeat and relaxed WG Sebald, Tide is a superb book... a delight to read. It is profound and powerful, and should win prizes.From Cnut to D-Day, the history and science of the unceasing tide is explored for the first time.Half of the world''s population lives in coastal regions lapped by tidal waters. Yet how little most of us know about the tide - a key force on our planet that has altered the course of history and will transform our future.Our ability to predict and understand the tide depends on centuries of science, from the observations of Aristotle and the theories of Newton to today''s supercomputer calculations. This story is punctuated here by notable tidal episodes in history, from Caesar''s thwarted invasion of Britain to the catastrophic flooding of Venice, and interwoven with a rich folklore that continues to inspire art and literature today.With Aldersey-Williams as our guide to the most feared and celebrated tidal features on the planet, from the original maelstrøm in Scandinavia to the world''s highest tides in Nova Scotia to the crumbling coast of East Anglia, the importance of the tide, and the way it has shaped - and will continue to shape - our civilization, becomes startlingly clear.Trade ReviewA spring tide of colour and historical anecdote laps over the more austere mudflats of the actual science. So much so that I find myself looking forward to the next piece of technical exposition -- Tom Whipple * The Times *Imagine, if possible, a gently studious Bill Bryson crossed with an upbeat and relaxed WG Sebald. It is a superb book... a delight to read. It is profound and powerful, and should win prizes. -- James McConnachie * Sunday Times *This fascinating book deftly explores the dramatic history, critical importance, and scientific wonder of the tides. Hugh Aldersey-Williams is a marvelous guide who takes the reader on a sweeping and thought-provoking adventure into the heart of one of the most captivating, mysterious, and elemental forces of nature -- Eric Jay Dolin, author of Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American LighthousePrepare for a voyage with the best of companions - Hugh Aldersey-Williams is a storyteller supreme, and he's found a subject worthy of his talents -- Edward Dolnick, author of The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern WorldScience writing at its best ... fascinating and beautiful -- Matt Ridley on 'Periodic Tales'Immensely engaging and continually makes one sit up in surprise -- Richard Cohen on 'Periodic Tales' * Sunday Times *Aldersey-Williams is full of good stories and he knows how to tell them well -- Graham Farmelo on 'Periodic Tales' * Sunday Telegraph *Engaging and thoughtful... Like some of the most compelling biographers, Aldersey-Williams partly inhabits his subject * Literary Review on The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the 21st Century *Exposes new facts and ideas every other page -- Horatio Clare * Observer *Aldersey-Williams's corrective meshes a history of the science with tide-related technologies and tidally sculpted events. It's an eloquent ebb and flow * Nature *

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Book SynopsisIan Vince is a contributing editor to The Idler, has written for Channel 4's Bremner, Bird and Fortune and is the author of four humorous books, including Britain: What a State and The MyWay Code. He also writes a regular column in the Daily Telegraph called Strange Days', in which he travels around Britain seeking out curious local customs, folklore and odd occurrences.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review[Somerville's] infectious enthusiasm and wry humour infuse his journey from the Isle of Lewis to southern England, revealing our rich geological history with vibrant local and natural history. * Observer *For someone who hated geology lessons at school, barely able to stay awake during discussions of laminated rhyolites and tuffaceous breccias, Christopher Somerville has made up for this with aplomb and vivid readability. To have tramped more than 1,000 miles from the sea stacks of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, where in fiery days gone by more than 3,000 million years ago the landscape was literally set in stone, and reach the silty clay of Wallasea Island in Essex is a remarkable achievement. By focusing on the best bits of geological interest along the way such as Arthur's Seat in once volcanic Edinburgh, the sandstone crags of the Pennine Way and the chalky Chilterns, he provides an illuminating new take on the British landscape. Encounters, warm humour, history and plenty of geology (Carboniferous periods, Permian periods, Zechstein Seas, no less) carry you down the winding tracks. -- Tom Chesshyre, author of Lost in the LakesRambling alongside the tirelessly energetic Christopher Somerville from the comfort of my armchair is a joy. In Walking the Bones Someville is the perfect travelling companion. Knowledgeable and observant, he picks up the stories of the paths he walks along in much the same way as he illuminates the stones which are under his feet, holding them up for us to see, and then returning them to the path, for the next curious traveller to find. A meticulous exploration of the ground beneath our feet. Glorious." -- Katherine Norbury, author of The Fish Ladder and Women on NatureAn ideal gift for any walking enthusiast who wants to know more. -- Patrick Corbett * Geoscientist magazine *Walking the Bones of Britain demystifies our daunting geology on a nine-month journey laced with humour and history. -- Roger Butler * The Great Outdoors *

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION 2023The Sunday Times Science Book of the YearAs seen on CountryfileIf anyone was born to save Britain's rainforests, it was Guy Shrubsole' Sunday TimesShortlisted for the Richard Jefferies Society Literary PrizeTemperate rainforest may once have covered up to one-fifth of Britain, inspiring Celtic druids, Welsh wizards, Romantic poets, and Arthur Conan Doyle's most loved creations. Though only fragments now remain, they are home to a dazzling variety of luminous life-forms.In this awe-inspiring investigation, Guy Shrubsole travels through the Western Highlands and the Lake District, down to the rainforests of Wales, Devon, and Cornwall to map these spectacular lost worlds for the first time.This is the extraordinary tale of one person's quest to find Britain's lost rainforests and bring them back.*Guy Shrubsole''s The Lost Rainforests of Britain was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 2023-04-30*Trade Review‘Remarkable … Shrubsole has completely changed the way many people look at the temperate woodlands that remain in parts of western Britain’ Financial Times ‘If anyone was born to save Britain’s rainforests, it was Guy Shrubsole’ Sunday Times, The Sunday Times Science Book of the Year ‘Fascinating, lyrical … A celebration of these dazzling worlds and a plea to act before they are extinguished’ The Times ‘[The Lost Rainforests of Britain] could be a lament but instead it is suffused with the irrepressible positivity and cheerful enthusiasm of a born campaigner’ Patrick Barkham, Guardian ‘Enchanting and insightful … Wonderfully evocative’ Geographical ‘Excellent … Inspiring’ Unherd ‘A treasure chest full of woodland jewels, rare, precious and beautiful’Chris Packham ‘A magnificent and crucial book that opens our eyes to untold wonders’George Monbiot ‘A beautiful, lyrical and urgent book … I cannot recommend it enough’Nick Hayes, author of the Sunday Times-bestselling The Book of Trespass ‘Utterly enchanting, transporting and spellbinding … A rallying cry for restoring the rainforests of Britain urgently, and an inspiring and informative must-read for anyone interested in rewilding and ecological restoration’Lucy Jones, author of Losing Eden ‘Passionate, powerful, political and practicable, Guy Shrubsole gives us a blueprint for how to bring our missing rainforests back to life in all their riotous, tangled glory. Impeccably researched, convincingly argued and with generous measures of joyful discovery, this really is a spectacular book’Lee Schofield, author of Wild Fell

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Book SynopsisFrom our suburban streets which still trace the boundaries of long vanished farms to the Norfolk Broads, formed when medieval peat pits flooded - evidence of man''s effect on Britain is everywhere. Packed with over 250 maps and photographs, compellingly written and argued, this highly acclaimed book will permanently change the way you see your surroundings.Trade ReviewPryor is that rare combination of a first-rate working archaeologist and a good writer, with the priceless ability of being able to explain complex ideas clearly. This is popular archaeology at its best. * Times Higher Educational Supplement *Under his gaze, the land starts to fill with tribes and clans wandering this way and that, leaving traces that can still be seen today... Pryor feels the land rather than simply knowing it -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *I guarantee you'll enjoy it * British Archaeology *Compelling, deeply rewarding and hugely impressive ... pull on your boots and coat, go out into the open -- Philip Marsden * Sunday Times *A rollercoaster across a hundred centuries ... Pryor clearly loves this country in the marrow of his bones -- Adam Nicholson * Scotsman *

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Book Synopsis''An enthralling, elegantly written and, ultimately, profoundly alarming history'' EconomistA bold new perspective on the history of South Asia, telling its story through its climate, and the long quest to tame its watersSouth Asia''s history has been shaped by its waters. In Unruly Waters, historian Sunil Amrith reimagines this history through the stories of its rains, rivers, coasts, rivers and seas - and of the weather-watchers and engineers, mapmakers and farmers who have sought to control them. He shows how fears and dreams of water have, throughout South Asia, shaped visions of political independence and economic development, provoked efforts to reshape nature through dams and pumps, and unleashed powerful tensions within and between nations.Every year humans have watched with overwhelming anxiety for the nature of that year''s monsoon to be revealed, with entire populations living or dying on the outcome. From the first small weather-reporting stations to today''s satellites, the modern battle both to understand and manage water has literally been a matter of life or death.Today, Asian nations are racing to construct hundreds of dams in the Himalayas, with dire environmental impacts; hundreds of millions crowd into coastal cities threatened by cyclones and storm surges. In an age of climate change, this highly original work of history is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand not only Asia''s past but its future.

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Book Synopsis''As fascinating as it is beautifully written'' JARED DIAMOND, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs and SteelRivers, more than any road, technology or political event, have shaped the course of civilization. Rivers have opened frontiers, defined borders, supported trade, generated energy and fed billions. Most of our greatest cities stand on river banks or deltas, and our quest for mastery has spurred staggering advances in engineering, science and law. Rivers and their topographic divides have shaped the territories of nations and the migration of peoples, and yet - as their resources become ever more precious - can foster cooperation even among enemy states. And though they become increasingly domesticated, they remain a formidable global force: these vast arterial powers promote life but are capable of destroying everything in their path.From ancient Egypt to our growing contemporary metropolises, Rivers of Power<Trade ReviewSmith takes readers on a tour of the world's great rivers. The result is fascinating, eye-opening, sometimes alarming, and ultimately inspiring. -- Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth ExtinctionA tour de force - a narrative as powerful as the rivers he documents. He is up there with Jared Diamond - a storyteller with real craft. From Herodotus musing on the Nile to the dam makers of modern China, this is their story. -- Fred Pearce, author of When The Rivers Run DryThis book about rivers is as fascinating as it is beautifully written -- Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs and Steel, and UpheavalPassionate... and infectiously enthusiastic ... an eclectic journey through several millennia. -- Victor Mallet * The Financial Times *Instructive and entertaining. Smith's prose is clear and he explains scientific concepts well. * The Times *A hymn to hydrology ancient and modern. * The Spectator *With scholarship, literary flair, and a personal touch, Smith takes the reader on a fascinating and surprising voyage of discovery. He also sounds a clarion call for all of us to invest in protecting our rivers as a means of improving our own lives. -- Eric Jay Dolin, bestselling author of Black Flags, Blue WatersHow can one write a world history of rivers? Laurence C. Smith triumphantly meets the challenge, fluently comparing the role of rivers in wartime, in trade, in water management, in floods and droughts, and, looking to the future, in a world of rising temperatures. -- David Abulafia, author of The Boundless SeaEngaging, informative, magisterial in its coverage, intimidating in the scope of its command of the material, there's no end to the good things to be said about this book. * Geography Realm *Absorbing. Smith is not only an excellent storyteller, he is also perhaps the world's leading scientist using satellites to unlock the secrets of the planet's rivers. His deep understanding will inspire readers to see rivers in wholly new and surprising ways. -- Paul Bates, Professor of Hydrology, University of BristolSmith demonstrates compellingly and engagingly that rivers have played a key role in the development of nations and, indeed, of humankind itself. -- Professor Julian Dowdeswell, Director of the Scott Centre for Polar Research, University of Cambridge

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Book SynopsisOsman, the founder of the Ottoman Empire, had a dream in which a tree sprouted from his navel. As the tree grew, its shade covered the earth; as Osman's empire grew, it, too, covered the earth. This is the most widely accepted foundation myth of the longest-lasting empire in the history of Islam, and offers a telling clue to its unique legacy. Underlying every aspect of the Ottoman Empire's epic history--from its founding around 1300 to its end in the twentieth century--is its successful management of natural resources. Under Osman's Tree analyzes this rich environmental history to understand the most remarkable qualities of the Ottoman Empire--its longevity, politics, economy, and society. The early modern Middle East was the world's most crucial zone of connection and interaction. Accordingly, the Ottoman Empire's many varied environments affected and were affected by global trade, climate, and disease. From down in the mud of Egypt's canals to up in the treetops of Anatolia, AlaTrade Review"This is an outstanding book, carefully written and timely. Mikhail has brought the tools of environmental history to bear in this fresh telling of Egyptian, Ottoman, and Middle Eastern history. He focuses on the last five hundred years, after Egypt became the crown jewel of the Ottoman Empire, and masterfully embeds his history into the complex ecologies surrounding the Nile River, an enduring source of both life and cruel natural disasters. With thoughtful thematic categories driving his analysis, Mikhail makes an important contribution not just to Middle Eastern history, but to how a new generation of historians must view the relationship between people and the changing face of our planet, particularly during the new uncertainty of the Anthropocene Epoch."--Brett L. Walker, Montana State University "Focusing on early modern Egypt, Mikhail puts power and knowledge in the Ottoman Empire in conversation with environmental relations--the movement of water, the accumulation of silt, the distribution of food, the need for wood for ships, the spread of disease, the possession and use of animals as sentient commodities, climatic fluctuations, and fundamental changes in the organization of human and animal labor. The result is a reinterpretation of the Ottoman Empire as an ecosystem that expands the possibilities of environmental history."--Richard White, Stanford University "'The Ottoman Empire was an ecosystem.' Thus, historian Mikhail concludes his rich, part socioeconomic, part environmental history of early modern Ottoman Egypt. Filling a hole in the historiography with a breathtaking array of cases, themes, and illustrations, Mikhail offers an ideal pedagogical tool for all levels of university courses. He digs into his analytical tool box and reveals an Egypt deeply integrated into the larger world, both economically and ecologically. From accounts of droughts and bubonic plagues to the aftereffects of volcanic eruptions in Iceland, Mikhail's contribution opens a new prism through which to study human interactions with nature. Perhaps the most valuable contribution is the author's charting of the vibrant synthesis of life patterns between peasants, local landowners, and imperial governors and the ebbs and flows of the natural life upon which the Ottoman Empire's wealthiest province depended. Add to the mix the equally complex (sometimes deadly) relationship Egyptians necessarily had with beasts of burden, rats, and fleas, all sharing the fate of the temperamental seasonal flooding of the Nile, and this book makes for an outstanding addition to any library. Essential."--Choice "Certainly the best work ever on Ottoman environmental history. Brings the Middle East into the global picture in as comprehensive a way as can possibly be imagined."--Roger Owen, Harvard University "In presenting the early modern Ottoman regime as relatively benign--at least environmentally benign--Alan Mikhail is upsetting a commonly held view of Ottoman rule as singularly destructive and backward looking. . . . In fact, by using the examples of Egyptian food exports to different parts of the Empire--most notably to the Hijaz--and timber imports into Egypt from Anatolia, Professor Mikhail shows how provinces were interdependent and that the centre-periphery model is misleading. Watching the author demolish such preconceptions is one of the many pleasures of reading this book. In making a notable contribution to environmental history, from Nile water, to mud, to animals, crops, and finally to humans, Professor Mikhail also helps us to understand how the Ottoman Empire worked as a political system."--Metascience "Under Osman's Tree frames the Ottoman Empire as an ecosystem. By emphasizing the complex relationships between imperial power and nature, Mikhail introduces a dizzying range of human and nonhuman actors, demonstrating how animals, water, silt, microbes, trees, and volcanoes might recast more traditional readings of sultans, bureaucrats, and peasants. . . . Mikhail offers another trailblazing contribution to the burgeoning field of Middle Eastern environmental history. It is a welcome addition to advanced undergraduate and graduate syllabi, laying out an ambitious agenda for colleagues working on Middle Eastern and global environmental histories."--Environmental History "With this rich and accessible study of the relationship between human communities and their natural environment in Ottoman Egypt, Mikhail offers us an original interpretation of Ottoman history. Rarely does a new book make us rethink completely our assumptions about a subject matter we think we know well. Under Osman's Tree does precisely that, and as such it is a worthy successor to Fernand Braudel's magisterial classic, The Mediterranean."--Resat Kasaba, University of Washington

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Book SynopsisExplore the social and cultural history of 100 of the world''s most important cities. From the first towns in Mesopotamia to today''s global metropolises, cities have marked the progress of civilisation. Written in the form of illustrated biographies, Great Cities offers a rich historical overview of each featured city, brought to vivid life with paintings, photographs, timelines, maps, and artefacts.This history book provides a fascinating insight into the events, movements and people throughout history who have shaped the cities where we live. Inside the pages of this visual guide, discover: - The story behind each city - how it was established, critical moments in its development, and why it is considered historically significant - The different types of cities, from the centres of ancient and lost civilisations and great river cities to planned cities and modern metropolises- Beautiful illustrations with large-scale reproductions of paintings, photographs, maps, and other artefacts- Stunning images of city life and key moments in history are complemented by close-ups of revealing details and feature panels that provide additional context From the ancient to the modern, get under the skin of what made cities like Persepolis, Paris, Vienna, Prague, Amsterdam, Tokyo, and Dubai tick. This lavish book is about more than history - it explores the art, architecture, commerce, and politics of the great civilisations throughout history. Great Cities provides a unique window into how cities have become markers of human progress. Explore which ancient civilisation founded the precursor to Mexico City, why Venice was the gateway to the East, what the Belle Epoque was, and who the first city to build sewers was. It''s the perfect gift for armchair explorers interested in history, geography, and the arts.

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2020A SUNDAY TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, THE TIMES AND BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEARFor most of human history, the seas and oceans have been the main means of long-distance trade and communication between peoples - for the spread of ideas and religion as well as commerce. This book traces the history of human movement and interaction around and across the world''s greatest bodies of water, charting our relationship with the oceans from the time of the first voyagers. David Abulafia begins with the earliest of seafaring societies - the Polynesians of the Pacific, the possessors of intuitive navigational skills long before the invention of the compass, who by the first century were trading between their far-flung islands. By the seventh century, trading routes stretched from the coasts of Arabia and Africa to southern China and Japan, bringing together the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific and linking half the world through the international spice trade. In the Atlantic, centuries before the little kingdom of Portugal carved out its powerful, seaborne empire, many peoples sought new lands across the sea - the Bretons, the Frisians and, most notably, the Vikings, now known to be the first Europeans to reach North America. As Portuguese supremacy dwindled in the late sixteenth century, the Spanish, the Dutch and then the British each successively ruled the waves.Following merchants, explorers, pirates, cartographers and travellers in their quests for spices, gold, ivory, slaves, lands for settlement and knowledge of what lay beyond, Abulafia has created an extraordinary narrative of humanity and the oceans. From the earliest forays of peoples in hand-hewn canoes through uncharted waters to the routes now taken daily by supertankers in their thousands, The Boundless Sea shows how maritime networks came to form a continuum of interaction and interconnection across the globe: 90 per cent of global trade is still conducted by sea. This is history of the grandest scale and scope, and from a bracingly different perspective - not, as in most global histories, from the land, but from the boundless seas.Trade ReviewIn its mixture of supreme storytelling, beautifully drawn characters, fearless scope and rigorous scholarship, it ranks with the very best of world histories. ... From Morocco to Hawaii, Australia to the Persian Gulf, he delivers an intense and thrilling tour de force, filled with pirates, kings, scholars, monsters, conquerors, sailors, merchants, adventurers, slavers and slaves, taking us from the age of triremes and longships, hulks and cogs, dhows and junks, galleons and dreadnoughts, all the way up to the container ship. -- Simon Sebag-Montefiore * Daily Telegraph *His grasp of the material is not so much encyclopaedic as breathtaking ... this is a tour de force. Writing history on this scale is challenging and enormously impressive; the author deserves applause for a magisterial achievement. -- Peter Frankopan * Sunday Times *The Boundless Sea is a work of immense scholarship, a forensic tribute to human enterprise. ... After reading this book your horizons will be wonderfully expanded, and you'll be as eager as the Ancient Mariner to retell its stories... Abulafia's masterpiece has the potential to alter the way we understand the human story and our place within it. -- Horatio Clare * Spectator *David Abulfia's The Boundless Sea is a hugely ambitious masterpiece and quite rightly was the winner of this year's Wolfson prize for history. It is a mighty thassolo-gasm and a triumphant successor to his wonderful history of the Mediterranean. Remarkably, it manages to stitch together and make accessible some diverse and often intractable bits of ocean history, and is an astonishingly accomplished work of both scholarly synthesis and fluent narrative history. -- William Dalrymple * The Spectator Books of the Year *Nothing less than a history of humanity written from the perspective of the sea -- Jerry Brotton * Financial Times *He tells, in broad strokes and pin-sharp detail, the story of how humanity has crossed the oceans to explore, trade and fight ... A big book, full of surprises. I can open it at any page and be engrossed in his incredible scholarship and vivid narrative. -- Hugh Johnson * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZEFrom the bestselling author of UNDERLAND, THE OLD WAYS and THE LOST WORDS''Few books give such a sense of enchantment; it is a book to give to many, and to return to repeatedly'' Independent Words are grained into our landscapes, and landscapes are grained into our words. Landmarks is about the power of language to shape our sense of place. It is a field guide to the literature of nature, and a glossary containing thousands of remarkable words used in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales to describe land, nature and weather.Travelling from Cumbria to the Cairngorms, and exploring the landscapes of Roger Deakin, J. A. Baker, Nan Shepherd and others, Robert Macfarlane shows that language, well used, is a keen way of knowing landscape, and a vital means of coming to love it.''Enormously pleasurable, deeply moving. A bid to save our rich hoard of landscape language, and a blow struck for the power of a deep creative relationship to place'' Financial Times''A book that ought to be read by policymakers, educators, armchair environmentalists and active conservationists the world over'' GuardianTrade ReviewPublisher's description. The number one bestselling book from the author of The Old Ways. This is a celebration of the unique relationship between language and place; a field guide to nature writers from Roger Deakin to Nan Shepherd; and a glossary containing thousands of remarkable, poetic, funny, peculiar and endangered words to describe the natural world. * Penguin *Thoughtful and lyrical writing . . . It's gorgeous -- Katy Guest * Independent on Sunday *Enormously pleasurable, deeply moving . . . Landmarks is both a bid to save our rich hoard of landscape language, and a blow struck for the power of a deep creative relationship to place * Financial Times *His writing has a confidence and enjoyment, a passionate purpose . . . he celebrates our vast, but evaporating, vocabulary for the landscape * Daily Telegraph *A story like this is salutary...Landmarks is a book that ought to be read by policymakers, educators, armchair environmentalists and active conservationists the world over. * Guardian *The writing is full of clarity and internal reflections and the chapters ripple over into each other like a linked chain of mountain pools.... What is remarkable about these words is how precise they are, and how deeply local. They feel as if they somehow grew out of the land itself. A delight. * Sunday Times Magazine *The mood is one of celebration... [Landmarks is] the product of an active academic intelligence and emotional generosity, irradiated by a profound sense of wonder... Few books give such a sense of enchantment; it is a book to give to many, and to return to repeatedly * Independent *

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Book SynopsisThe true story of the greatest mystery of Arctic exploration—and the rare mix of marine science and Inuit knowledge that led to the shipwreck’s recent discovery.Trade Review"... his [Paul Watson's] account of the final uncovering of Erebus and Terror wrecks is riveting..." -- The Observer"This fascinating book weaves together the story of the lost Franklin Expedition of 1845 and the remarkable people and events that led to the shipwreck’s discovery in 2014." -- Choice

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Book SynopsisUnstable Properties convincingly argues that the so-called land question in British Columbia cannot be resolved without understanding the fundamentally unstable ideological foundation of land and title arrangements on which the province rests.Trade ReviewThis is critical reading for legal scholars and anyone interested in Indigenous rights. -- S. Perreault, CHOICE ConnectA welcome addition to a literature that has been dominated by lawyers, historians, journalists, and political scientists. -- Bruce McIvor, UBC * BC Studies *The principles explored here are relevant to planners everywhere. * Plan Canada *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Paper Claims1 The Invention of British Columbia2 Calder, Churn, and Destabilization: 1973–973 Unsettled in the Wake of Delgamuukw4 The Politics of Refusal and the End of the Political Path, 2004–145 Property, Territory, Sovereignty, and CitizenshipConclusion: Reconciliation and Reimagining British ColumbiaReferences; Index

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Book SynopsisA Spectator Book of the Year 2020A Times and Sunday Times Best Book of 2020A Mail on Sunday Book of the Year 2020Inspired Lowe's sensitive, disturbing book should be compulsory reading for both statue builders and statue topplers' MAX HASTINGS, SUNDAY TIMESWhat happens when our values change, but what we have set in stone does not?Humankind has always had the urge to memorialise, to make physical testaments to the past. There's just one problem: when we carve a statue or put up a monument, it can wind up holding us hostage to bad history.In this extraordinary history book, Keith Lowe uses monuments from around the world to show how different countries have attempted to sculpt their history in the wake of the Second World War, and what these memorials reveal about their politics and national identity today.Amongst many questions, the book asks: What does Germany signal to today's far right by choosing not to disclose the exact resting place of Hitler? How can a bronze statue of a youngTrade Review‘[An] inspired idea … Always thoughtful and evocative, sometimes controversial … Lowe’s sensitive, disturbing book should be compulsory reading for both statue builders and statue topplers. Too many memorials of all kinds seek to promote deceits or half-truths.’MAX HASTINGS, THE SUNDAY TIMES ‘[A] brilliantly researched and timely book … Lowe is not afraid to tread on sensitive ground, but he does so with the integrity that comes from really knowing his material’THE DAILY MAIL, FIVE STARS ‘Such a provocative perspective makes Lowe’s choice of monuments important. The well-balanced range here enables the retelling of some remarkable war stories, while also providing fascinating insights into the ways different nations have remembered or denied issues around national identity and the glory and horrors of war … this is some of the most thought-provoking writing about the Second World War that I have read for a long while’SPECTATOR ‘In this timely book, which neatly combines history, art criticism and travelogue, Lowe examines 25 monuments to the Second World War spread across three continents … Lowe is a fine guide to these monuments because he feels the moral force — for good or bad — of each site he visits’THE TIMES, BOOK OF THE WEEK ‘Time after time throughout Prisoners of History, Keith Lowe’s commentaries are more articulate and supple than the monuments they describe, interpret and criticise’THE LITERARY REVIEW ‘Keith Lowe’s book could not be more timely … his observations seem uncannily prescient … he is sharp on cultural and national differences in perceptions of the war’STANDPOINT MAGAZINE

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Book SynopsisA photography book that is a vital accompaniment to the many fans of Hilary Mantel's bestselling Wolf Hall TrilogyAt the very beginning of the twentieth century, Zola said, 'In my view you cannot claim to have really seen something till you have photographed it.'' The act of photographing, at least for a moment, distinguishes its object and estranges it from its context . . . Every stroke of the pen releases a thousand pictures inside the writer's head. This book has made some of them visible.' Hilary MantelHilary Mantel, Ben Miles, the stage's celebrated Thomas Cromwell, and his brother, photographer George Miles, spent many years exploring the locations we know Thomas Cromwell visited and inhabited Putney, Austin Friars, Wolf Hall, the Tower of London to capture the faint traces of Tudor England and his extraordinary life. Accompanied with extracts from The Wolf Hall Trilogy, some of them published here for the first time, and including a stunning new essay by its author, these phoTrade Review Praise for the Wolf Hall trilogy ‘The most masterful story telling imaginable’ Graham Norton ‘Very few writers manage not just to excavate the sedimented remains of the past, but bring them up again into the light and air so that they shine brightly once more before us. Hilary Mantel has done just that’ Simon Schama, Financial Times ‘Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall novels make 99 per cent of contemporary literary fiction feel utterly pale and bloodless by comparison’ The Times ‘So original and disconcerting that it will surely come to be seen as a paradigm-shifter’ Sunday Telegraph ‘Hers are books that refuse to shy away from the underside of life … Hilary Mantel is one of our bravest as well as our most brilliant writers’ Olivia Laing, Observer ‘It is the making of our English world, and who can fail to be stirred by it?’ Helen Dunmore, author of Birdcage Walk ‘Succeeds brilliantly in every particle … it’s an imaginative achievement to exhaust superlatives’ Spectator ‘Mantel in the voice of Cromwell is inspired. When she is in full flow as a novelist, creating scenes and inventing dialogue, she is more convincing than rendering a recorded scene from history’ Philippa Gregory, Sunday Express ‘Mantel has redefined what the historical novel is capable of . . . Taken together, her Cromwell novels are, for my money, the greatest English novels of this century’ Observer, Stephanie Merritt

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Book SynopsisA dramatic rethinking of the encounter between Montezuma and Hernando Cortés that completely overturns what we know about the Spanish conquest of the AmericasOn November 8, 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés first met Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, at the entrance to the capital city of Tenochtitlan. This introduction—the prelude to the Spanish seizure of Mexico City and to European colonization of the mainland of the Americas—has long been the symbol of Cortés’s bold and brilliant military genius. Montezuma, on the other hand, is remembered as a coward who gave away a vast empire and touched off a wave of colonial invasions across the hemisphere.But is this really what happened? In a departure from traditional tellings, When Montezuma Met Cortés uses “the Meeting”—as Restall dubs their first encounter—as the entry point into a comprehensive reevaluation of both Cortés and Montezuma. Drawing on rare primary sources and overlooked accounts by conquistadors and Aztecs alike, Restall explores Cortés’s and Montezuma’s posthumous reputations, their achievements and failures, and the worlds in which they lived—leading, step by step, to a dramatic inversion of the old story. As Restall takes us through this sweeping, revisionist account of a pivotal moment in modern civilization, he calls into question our view of the history of the Americas, and, indeed, of history itself. Trade Review“Restall skillfully describes a subtler story of relationships both loving and coercive. . . . Bold.” — New Yorker “Restall has a well-earned reputation as a mythbuster in the history of the New World. . . . A lively, original, and readable book aimed at a wider audience. . . . A remarkable achievement.” — Wall Street Journal “Blending erudition with enthusiasm, Restall has achieved a rare kind of work—serious scholarship that is impossible to put down.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A methodical deconstruction of the myths surrounding Hernando Cortés’ “Mexican conquest” and the surrender of Montezuma. . . . Throughout, Restall’s assertions are well-supported and difficult to refute, and the timeline that opens the book is particularly helpful. An engaging revisionist exploration of one of human history’s great lies.” — Kirkus “A narrative that complicates our understanding of a history that, though well-known, is wrong in many of its details. In correcting it, Restall makes a fine contribution to the history of the New World, one that should inspire other re-evaluations of our cherished stories.” — Kirkus (online) “Brilliant deep dive into the history and scholarship. . . . Through diligent research, Restall presents readers with a fascinating view of Montezuma, mounting a convincing argument that Cortes’ self-serving accounts and the traditional narrative are almost surely false.” — BookPage “Matthew Restall illuminates every topic he touches. His new book is the best study ever--the subtlest, most sensitive, most challenging, and best-informed--on the conquest of Mexico.” — Felipe Fernández-Armesto, author of Columbus and Amerigo “A new, startlingly persuasive picture of what actually happened during the Spanish Conquest, based on a radical question: What if the tough, canny leaders of these native military empires didn’t suddenly fold up like wet cardboard at the arrival of a couple of hundred bearded oddities from some faraway place?” — Charles Mann, author of 1491 “In a deeply learned history that reads like a detective story, Restall reveals the Gordian knot of myth and fiction that have long hidden the real history of the encounter between Montezuma and Cortes. The history of the Americas will never be the same.” — Louis S. Warren, author of God’s Red Son: The Ghost Dance Religion and the Making of Modern America

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Book SynopsisExplore the world''s most famous battles by their geography as you uncover the most ancient, medieval and modern combats in history.If you''re interested in finding out more about the biggest battles fought throughout the ages, then this war book is perfect for you. Battles Map by Map puts you in the seat of famous generals and commanders such as Rameses II, Napoleon, and Alexander the Great who expertly planned their attacks by studying the plains on which they would take place. So what are you waiting for? Journey back in time to learn more about wars such as the Battle of Alesia, Napoleonic Wars, and World War II and follow the geography of these epic battles in this brilliant book on the history of the world. Journey into past like never before as you explore: - 80 easy-to-follow maps showcasing the most famous battles in history- Timelines that showcase battles in chronological order, ideal for visual learners- Informative easy-to-read text explains the events of the battles- Features provide additional contextual information on key technologies, leaders, armies, and moreBursting with striking illustrations and full of fascinating detail, this history book is the ultimate gift for map lovers, military history enthusiasts, and armchair generals everywhere. Battles Map by Map takes you right to the heart of the action, where you can discover the profiles of famous commanders and military leaders and reveal the impact of groundbreaking weapons and battlefield innovations. Additionally, historic maps, paintings, photographs, and objects take you to the heart of the action whereby the impact of groundbreaking weapons and battlefield innovations is revealed. Broadcasting journalist and historian, Peter Snow, provides a foreword for this marvellous history book for adults. From ancient to modern battles, he provides context for the world''s most famous wars, both won and lost. See for yourself how tactics, technology, vision, and luck have all played a part in the outcome of wars throughout history.At DK, we believe in the power of discovery.So why stop there? The Map by Map series includes other titles such as History of the World Map by Map and World War II Map by Map, each detailing historical events and placing them in the context of geography. DK''s luxurious Map by Map books are fantastic history gifts, packed with fascinating facts, high-quality photography, and detailed profiles and descriptions of people and events.

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Book SynopsisUsing nearly 500 historical maps and many other illustrations - from rough sketches drawn in the field to commercial maps to beautifully rendered works of art - this illustrated work tells the story of California's past from a visual perspective. It offers an informative look at the transformation of the state from before European contact.Table of ContentsA Visual California The First Californians Notions of a Western Shore Of Gold and Galleons The First New England On the Right Hand of the Indies Spain Moves North Exploring an Unknown Interior Russian California Mexican California West to California American California The Gold Rush The State of California The United States Coast Survey Searching for a Railroad Path Building the Transcontinental Railroad The Southern Pacific A Geological Survey Water, Wine, and Oranges The Rise of Urban California Los Angeles The San Francisco Bay Area San Diego Sacramento Other Cities Rails for Growth The Burning of San Francisco Wildness for the People Bringing Water to the Cities From Bike Paths to Freeways Power for a New Economy Of Airports and Airlines Boom and Bust A West Coast Defended Moving and Shaking Catalog of Maps Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSpans archaic Greece to the Late Roman Empire, and no more than two standard scales (1:500,000 and 1:1,000,000) are used to represent most regions. This title brings the ancient past back to life in an unforgettably vivid and inspiring way.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2000 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Multivolume Reference Work in the Humanities, Association of American Publishers "[The Barrington Atlas] is the best geography of the ancient world ever achieved... [I]t reveals the world inhabited or reached by the Greeks and Romans from 1000 B.C. to A.D. 640 in thrilling detail, and a color code lets us track changes through 16 centuries. The collective learning poured into this project is almost intimidating to contemplate, and the fact that it could be completed testifies to extraordinary planning, dedication and courage... [T]he cartography is luminous, the printing superb and the binding strong and supple... [T]his magnificent book is likely to become a powerful engine of learning and discovery for many years."--D.J.R. Bruckner, New York Times Book Review "I doubt that it will ever be superseded... [T]he clarity and sheer beauty of the maps in the Barrington Atlas, for which Princeton University Press and the printers in Palladio's Vicenza deserve the highest credit and praise, make the main volume a joy to handle. The fold-out of the entire ancient Mediterranean world, Map 1 'Mare Internum,' is to die for... [T]his remarkable atlas ... has made a major contribution to re-establishing cartography as one of the basic sub-disciplines within classical studies."--Paul Cartledge, Times Higher Education Supplement "This atlas is an indispensable tool for historians concerned with ancient times. But it is also a source of great pleasure for the amateur, the lover of literature."--Bernard Knox, Los Angeles Times Book Review "Beautifully produced with an exquisite combination of scholarly precision and the highest level of cartographic art, this atlas is one of the greatest achievements in 20th-century Greek and Roman scholarship--and it probably will never be superseded."--Publishers Weekly "[An] essential tool for anyone interested in classical antiquity... It provides, for the first time in recent history, a single bound volume that maps the entire classical world... Superbly edited."--Library Journal ("Best Reference Sources, 2000") "[A] wonderful guide to the wordless lessons of antiquity. Everyone who studies Greece and Rome owes [the makers of the Barrington Atlas] a personal debt."--Peter Stothard, editor of the Times Literary Supplement, naming the Barrington Atlas "My Book of the Decade" in the Globe and Mail (2009) "[A] remarkable achievement... This unique resource is the most comprehensive atlas published on ancient Greece and Rome."--Booklist "[A] vast achievement... Richard Talbert can be proud of his editorship: the collective effort, academic and technical, that has gone into the realisation of this gigantic project ... almost defies the imagination. It is even more impressive in that his teams had to work virtually from scratch. Their chief goal was to fill a notorious gap, and they have done so with exemplary skill."--Peter Green, London Review of Books "The Barrington Atlas is a major contribution to scholarship, extensive in scale, reliable and up to date, and so laid out as to be really helpful to the user."--Jasper Griffin, New York Review of Books "[N]o decent academic or public library should be without this marvelous work... [A] magnificent achievement."--Guy Halsall, New Scientist "[A] definitive work."--Peter Jones, BBC History "This atlas will be indispensable to scholars in classical studies. My only caution is that, at eight pounds, a sturdy coffee table is required for its use."--Judith A. Tyner, Geographical Review

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Book SynopsisLondon: A Guide for Curious Wanderers presents a miscellany of historic and quirky curiosities to spot as you wander around the capital.Trade Review“In its 165 pages, the book manages to pack in a heap of information and Jack is sensible in acknowledging that some things may be urban myths or that we simply don’t know their true origins. As well as a standard index, there is a listing by postcode which I think is a splendid idea in these days of phone maps. Beautifully illustrated by Katherine Fraser… A great addition to the library of London loves.” -- The London Society".a really enjoyable book: the research is wide ranging, and Jack’s knowledge and enthusiasm is infectious… an ideal gift for anyone starting to ask questions about this wonderful city.” -- Hornsey Historical Society“If you love London, if you love history, if you love walking – you will love Jack’s book. If you have only a slight interest in any of these, by the time you have finished the first section – your curiosity to learn more will have been piqued. Bravo Jack Cheshire – this is a book that will have a permanent place on our shelves. All Londoners and visitors to London ought to have a copy too.” -- Lady Lewis“If you wish to own just one reference about London, you could do no better than purchasing this sumptuously produced book.” -- Cabbie Blog

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Book SynopsisIn this new reading of maps and map making, Harley undertakes a surprising journey into the nature of the social and political unconscious.Trade ReviewThe father of critical cartography, and therefore the idea that a map should be understood as more than just a set of directions, was J. B. Harley... The New Nature of Maps... display[s] great erudition. -- Nicholas Lemann New Yorker Harley was an iconoclast, subverting traditional approaches to map-making by drawing together art history, literature, philosophy and visual culture. It's a view that can now be savored in his collected essays, The New Nature of Maps. -- Nick Saunders New Scientist With supreme tact, sympathetic insight into Harley's personality and his own deft scholarship, Laxton has produced... a book worthy of Harley. -- Catherine Delano-Smith Nature Inlcuding Andrew's introduction... we have a debate within the volume, not only postmodernism and its critique, but also other examples of Harley's anit-positivist and anti-Eurocentric approach alongside a potent understanding of the processes and problems of map making. -- Jeremy Black Imago Mundi The 'new nature' of maps reflects the sea change in the discipline of the history of cartography that has occurred, to a remarkable degree instigated by Brian Harley. -- John Cloud Technology and Culture 2003Table of ContentsContents: Introduction: Meaning, Knowledge, and Power in the Map Philosophy of J.B. Harley, by J. H. Andrews 1 Text and Contexts in the Interpretation of Early Maps 2 Maps, Knowledge, and Power 3 Silences and Secrecy: The Hidden Agenda of Cartography in Early Modern Europe 4 Power and Legitimation in the English Geographical Atlases of the Eighteenth Century 5 Deconstructing the Map New England Cartography and the Native Americans 7 Can There Be a Cartographic Ethics

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Book SynopsisA Sunday Times History Book of the Year 2019Shortlisted for The Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award'No Briton has written better than Winder about Europe' - Sunday TimesIn AD 843, the three surviving grandsons of the great Emperor Charlemagne met at Verdun. After years of bitter squabbles over who would inherit the family land, they finally decided to divide the territory and go their separate ways. In a moment of staggering significance, one grandson inherited what became France, another Germany and the third Lotharingia: the chunk that initially divided the other two. The dynamic between these three great zones has dictated much of our subsequent fate.In this beguiling, hilarious and compelling book we retrace how both from west and from east any number of ambitious characters have tried and failed to grapple with these Lotharingians, who ultimately became Dutch, German, Belgian, French, Luxembourgers and Swiss. Over many centuries, not only has Lotharingia brought forth many of Europe's greatest artists, inventors and thinkers, but it has also reduced many a would-be conqueror to helpless tears of rage and frustration. Joining Germania and Danubia in Simon Winder's endlessly fascinating retelling of European history, Lotharingia is a personal, wonderful and gripping story.Trade ReviewA master of the art of making history both funny and fun . . . Once again he brings Germany bouncing back to life -- Simon Jenkins, author of A Short History of EuropeWinder is our guide with delicious festive wit, and equal erudition -- Diarmaid MacCulloch * Tablet *Weird and wonderful . . . No Briton has written better than Winder about Europe -- Daniel Johnson * Sunday Times *There is so much fascinating detail in this book that it is hard to put down . . . -- Michael Burleigh, author of The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of NowWinder looks afresh at the long arc of European history, with its perpetual interplay between defiant local units and grandiose attempts at unifying schemes -- Stephen Moss * Guardian *The high plateau of my year was my catching up with Simon Winder. Danubia and Germania are an idiosyncratic, often funny fusion of history writing, travel writing and disrespect -- Sir Tom Stoppard * TLS *Brings to mind PJ O'Rourke's Holidays in Hell or anything by Bill Bryson -- Gerard DeGroot * The Times *A heady blend of jolly travel stories, weird German aristocrats, obscure baroque altarpieces and horrendous sectarian massacres. There are plenty of serious points here, but Winder never forgets that history is meant to be fun -- Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times, Best History Books of the year 2019An absolutely wonderful hybrid of hilarious travel writing and incisive historical analysis . . . Lotharingia follows on the acclaimed Danubia and Germania * Quillette *It's not so much history, as a long cultural tour, led by a brilliantly witty guide . . . There are a great many jokes and irreverent hoots, in case everything gets too earnest . . . -- Neal Ascherson, The New York Review of BooksSimon Winder has created a genre all of his own, the history-travelogue-memoir, which he uses adeptly to explore the hinterlands between France and Germany and their centuries of dynasties, discord and discontent . . . -- Judith Flanders, author of The Victorian House and Christmas: A Biography

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Book Synopsis'A lovely debut from a gifted young author. Violet Moller brings to life the ways in which knowledge reached us from antiquity to the present day in a book that is as delightful as it is readable.' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk RoadsIn The Map of Knowledge Violet Moller traces the journey taken by the ideas of three of the greatest scientists of antiquity – Euclid, Galen and Ptolemy – through seven cities and over a thousand years. In it, we follow them from sixth-century Alexandria to ninth-century Baghdad, from Muslim Cordoba to Catholic Toledo, from Salerno’s medieval medical school to Palermo, capital of Sicily’s vibrant mix of cultures, and – finally – to Venice, where that great merchant city’s printing presses would enable Euclid’s geometry, Ptolemy’s system of the stars and Galen’s vast body of writings on medicine to spread even more widely. In tracing these fragile strands of knowledge from century to century, from east to west and north to south, Moller also reveals the web of connections between the Islamic world and Christendom, connections that would both preserve and transform astronomy, mathematics and medicine from the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Vividly told and with a dazzling cast of characters, The Map of Knowledge is an evocative, nuanced and vibrant account of our common intellectual heritage.'An endlessly fascinating book, rich in detail, capacious and humane in vision.' Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became ModernTrade ReviewSuperb . . . Ambitious but concise, deeply researched but elegantly written, and very entertaining, The Map of Knowledge is popular intellectual history at its best * Daily Telegraph *A sumptuous, glittering, endlessly fascinating book, written with passion, verve and humour. -- Catherine Nixey, author of The Darkening AgeAs the historian Violet Moller reveals in her expansive book, the passage of ideas from antiquity through the Middle Ages and beyond was fraught with obstacles . . . The story she tells is a fascinating one. -- Daisy Dunn * Sunday Times *If, say, the streets of 10th-century Baghdad seem a little remote, Moller's travelogue of ideas brings such places vividly to life - and explains how the modern world came into being along the way. * History Revealed *What Moller does . . . is to imagine vivid scenes and scenarios and to populate them with colourful historical figures thinking big, bold, beautiful ideas. -- Ian Sansom * Spectator *Moller's brings the wonders of the medieval Muslim empires vividly to life. -- James Marriott * The Times *Euclid’s Elements is the seed from which my subject of mathematics grew. Thanks to Violet Moller’s fascinating and meticulous account I’ve had a glimpse of just how this text, together with works by Ptolemy and Galen, blossomed as they wound their way through the centuries and the seven cities at the heart of her book. What an adventure. -- Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and author of The Creativity CodeThe Map of Knowledge is extremely important and insightful. It shines a light on how we know what we know about antiquity and the people and cultures we have to thank for the preservation and interpretation of ancient wisdom. We need much more of this! -- Professor Michael Scott, author of Ancient Worlds: An Epic History of East and WestA lovely debut from a gifted young author. Violet Moller brings to life the ways in which knowledge reached us from antiquity to the present day in a book that is as delightful as it is readable -- Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk RoadsAn epic treasure hunt into the highways and byways of stored knowledge across faiths and continents. -- John Agard, poet and playwrightAn exceptionally bold and important book -- Daisy Hay, author of Young RomanticsThe Map of Knowledge is an endlessly fascinating book, rich in detail, capacious and humane in vision. -- Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became ModernThe author’s prose runs smoothly and she wears her considerable learning lightly. Beautifully illustrated, bound and set, this is a concise, timely and important book—and popular history at its best. -- Ross Leckie * Country Life *Fascinating * Daily Telegraph *After the fall of Rome, the libraries of the West were burned by marauding Goths and Huns, and the Greek and Roman classics survived only in the Islamic world. Violet Moller’s wonderful The Map of Knowledge . . . tells the story of how that knowledge was first preserved, then returned to Europe through Arabic translations made in cities such as Baghdad, Palermo, Toledo and Cordoba. It is a beautifully written and researched work of intellectual archaeology. -- William Dalrymple * Spectator 'Books of the year' *Table of ContentsSection - i: Preface Chapter - 1: The Great Vanishing Chapter - 2: Alexandria Chapter - 3: Baghdad Chapter - 4: Cordoba Chapter - 5: Toldedo Chapter - 6: Salerno Chapter - 7: Sicily Chapter - 8: Venice Chapter - 9: 1500 and beyond Acknowledgements - ii: Acknowledgements Section - iii: Bibliography Section - iiii: Notes Index - iiiii: Index

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Book SynopsisEurope where the sun dares scarce appear For freezing meteors and congealed cold.' - Christopher Marlowe In this innovative and compelling work of environmental history, Philipp Blom chronicles the great climate crisis of the 1600s, a crisis that would transform the entire social and political fabric of Europe. While hints of a crisis appeared as early as the 1570s, by the end of the sixteenth century the temperature plummeted so drastically that Mediterranean harbours were covered with ice, birds literally dropped out of the sky, and ‘frost fairs’ were erected on a frozen Thames – with kiosks, taverns, and even brothels that become a semi-permanent part of the city. Recounting the deep legacy and sweeping consequences of this ‘Little Ice Age’, acclaimed historian Philipp Blom reveals how the European landscape had ineradicably changed by the mid-seventeenth century. While apocalyptic weather patterns destroyed entire harvests and incited mass migrations, Blom brilliantly shows how they also gave rise to the growth of European cities, the appearance of early capitalism, and the vigorous stirrings of the Enlightenment. A sweeping examination of how a society responds to profound and unexpected change, Nature’s Mutiny will transform the way we think about climate change in the twenty-first century and beyond.Trade ReviewA book that skilfully creates a historical panorama, in such a gripping and thrillingly informative way that it’s a joy. * Giessener Allgemeine Zeitung *An exciting history book, and an educational one. * Stern *A case study that connects the birth of the modern world with the climate change of the time. A fascinating panorama of a whole era. * Freie Presse *An imposing panorama of politics, economics and intellectual history ... [Blom] has written an informative history of the early modern age, which also prompts us to think about the connections between climate and innovation. * Deutschlandfunk Andruck *“Drawing on rich sources, including diaries, letters, account ledgers, paintings, and religious sermons as well as data gleaned by climate historians and scientists, journalist and translator Blom creates a vivid picture of the European landscape during the Little Ice Age and of social, political, and cultural changes that may have been accelerated by climate change ... An absorbing and revealing portrait of profound natural disaster. * Kirkus Reviews *A sweeping story, embracing developments in economics and science, philosophy and exploration, religion and politics. Blom delivers much of his argument through compressed, beautifully clear life sketches of prominent men. […] Blom’s hypothesis is forceful, and has the potential to be both frightening and, if you hold it up to the light at just the right angle, a little optimistic. The idea can be put like this: climate change changes everything -- John Lanchester * New Yorker *Lively . . . an eye-catchingly grand thesis * Sunday Times *Provocative . . . lively and intelligent * Literary Review *Table of ContentsUnit - 1: PROLOGUE: Winter Landscape Chapter - 1: Life without Money Chapter - 2: The Great Experiment Unit - 2: "GOD HAS ABANDONED US": Europe, 1570-1600 Chapter - 3: A Monk on the Run Chapter - 4: God’s Wind and Waves Chapter - 5: Harsh Frosts and Burning Sun Chapter - 6: A Time of Confusion and a Fiery Mountain Chapter - 7: Pilgrims and Their Hunger Chapter - 8: Truth and Wine Chapter - 9: Wine in Vienna Chapter - 10: The Lights Go Out Chapter - 11: Witches and Spoiled Harvests Chapter - 12: The Truth in the Stars Chapter - 13: Doctor Faustus Chapter - 14: Infinite Worlds Chapter - 15: The Tower of Books Unit - 3: THE AGE OF IRON Chapter - 16: Hortus Botanicus Chapter - 17: Revolutionary Places Chapter - 18: The City Devours Its Children Chapter - 19: The Magic of Green Cheese Chapter - 20: The Great Transformation Chapter - 21: A Picture of the World Chapter - 22: Idle Talk and Fabrications Chapter - 23: A Warning and a Call to Repent Chapter - 24: Tears Too Plentiful to Count Chapter - 25: The Revolution of the Barrel of a Musket Chapter - 26: Sell More to Strangers Chapter - 27: The State as Machine Chapter - 28: A Profitable Trade Chapter - 29: The Curse of Silver Chapter - 30: Officer, Retired Chapter - 31: The Subversive Republic of Letters Chapter - 32: Germanus incredibilis Chapter - 33: Virtue in the Drowning Cell Chapter - 34: Leviathan Chapter - 35: An Inventory of Morality Unit - 4: ON COMETS AND OTHER CELESTIAL LIGHTS Chapter - 36: The Madness of Crowds Chapter - 37: The Antichrist Chapter - 38: The Messiah and the Whore Chapter - 39: The Fair on the Ice Chapter - 40: The Face of Change Chapter - 41: The Price of Change Chapter - 42: Tapissier du roi Chapter - 43: The Public Sphere and the Vices of Bees Chapter - 44: The Floating Reverend Unit - 5: EPILOGUE: Supplement to The Fable of the Bees Chapter - 45: Songbirds, Wood Lice, and Corals Chapter - 46: Freedom and Luxury Chapter - 47: Inherited Compromises Chapter - 48: New Metaphors Chapter - 49: The Theology of the Market Chapter - 50: The Market and the Fortress Acknowledgements - i: Acknowledgments Section - ii: Notes Section - iii: Bibliography Section - iiii: Illustration Credits Index - v: Index

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Book SynopsisTo sail the oceans needed skill as well as courage and experience, and the sea chart with, where appropriate, the coastal view, was the tool by which ships of trade, transport or conquest navigated their course. This book looks at the history and development of the chart and the related nautical map, in both scientific and aesthetic terms, as a means of safe and accurate seaborne navigation. The Italian merchant-venturers of the early thirteenth century developed the earliest ‘portulan’ pilot charts of the Mediterranean. The subsequent speed of exploration by European seafarers, encompassing the New World, the extraordinary voyages around the Cape of Good Hope and the opening up of the trade to the East, India and the Spice Islands were both a result of the development of the sea chart and additionally as an aid to that development. By the eighteenth century the discovery and charting of the coasts and oceans of the globe had become a strategic naval and commercial requirement. Such involvements led to Cook’s voyages in the Pacific, the search for the Northwest Passage and races to the Arctic and Antarctic. The volume is arranged along chronological and then geographical lines. Each of the ten chapters is split into two distinct halves examining the history of the charting of a particular region and the context under which such charting took place following which specific navigational charts and views together with other relevant illustrations are presented. Key figures or milestones in the history of charting are then presented in stand-alone story box features. This new edition features around 40 new charts and accompanying text.Trade ReviewThe magnificent, enduring legacy which Lt Cdr John Blake, RN, has bequeathed to the world is one of those astonishing volumes which changes lives because it transforms the way history is viewed. Thank you, Lt Cmdr Blake. You have become the second Blake to bring nautical greatness to the Royal Navy! * Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis *.. in this lustrous work, John Blake ... has assembled a mouth-watering collection with which to illuminate this history of cartography. * Classic Boat Magazine *… the book is a useful and beautifully produced look at a subject which has important implications in the study of navigation, exploration, whaling, colonisation and empire. -- Richard Pflederer * History Today *New books on sea charts are most welcome, especially when they contain material rarely or never previously published. John Blake has trawled a variety of chart collections ... and has put together a most interesting volume. * Navigation News? *As a Bridge Officer I always greatly enjoyed using those older surveys ... and John Blake has produced a scholarly work, one of the most magnificent nooks I have seen for some time. A MUST for all navigators and students of the history of navigation. * Gunline (Newsletter of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary) ? *....John Blake's magnificently illustrated and informative book. * Navy News *A mouth-watering collection of historic nautical maps and navigational charts. * The Tablet *Wonderfully presented and lavish ... beautiful to look at but [the maps'] influence on history is much greater than even the aesthetic pleasure they now bring. * Catholic Herald *

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Book SynopsisOnce the grain basket for South Africa, much of Lesotho has become a scarred and degraded landscape. The nation’s spectacular erosion and gullying have concerned environmentalists and conservationists for more than half a century.Trade Review“Undoubtedly one of the most important books written to date on any part of the environmental history of Africa. It stands out in the discipline of environmental history in general as an unusually sophisticated work of great insight and explanatory power.”

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Book SynopsisIn this groundbreaking study, Jacob A. Tropp explores the interconnections between negotiations over the environment and an emerging colonial relationship in a particular South African context—the Transkei—subsequently the largest of the notorious “homelands” under apartheid.InTrade Review“Jacob A. Tropp has written an impressive history of the state’s capture of forest resources in the Transkei, between 1880 and 1930.... His book’s central question is how a reading of the social interactions surrounding environmental access can reshape historical understanding.” * American Historical Review *“Tropp’s detailed case study of the KwaMatiwane area of the Transkei...is a major contribution to the historiography of the region.” * H-SAfrica *“This environmental history is a multi-layered social history that is deeply concerned with issues of politics, culture, and gender.”“A fascinating study of African responses to the colonial restrictions on access to designated government forests.”“Elegantly argued and lucidly written, this book illustrates the uneven process of dispossession that Africans suffered at the hands of a divided colonial administration.”

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Book SynopsisIn this groundbreaking study, Jacob A. Tropp explores the interconnections between negotiations over the environment and an emerging colonial relationship in a particular South African context—the Transkei—subsequently the largest of the notorious “homelands” under apartheid.InTrade Review“Jacob A. Tropp has written an impressive history of the state’s capture of forest resources in the Transkei, between 1880 and 1930.... His book’s central question is how a reading of the social interactions surrounding environmental access can reshape historical understanding.” * American Historical Review *“Tropp’s detailed case study of the KwaMatiwane area of the Transkei...is a major contribution to the historiography of the region.” * H-SAfrica *“This environmental history is a multi-layered social history that is deeply concerned with issues of politics, culture, and gender.”“A fascinating study of African responses to the colonial restrictions on access to designated government forests.”“Elegantly argued and lucidly written, this book illustrates the uneven process of dispossession that Africans suffered at the hands of a divided colonial administration.”

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“In all the annals of Spanish conquests in the Americas, there is no one to compare with Pedro de Alvarado. This brutal conquistador took a fleet, and many reluctant Guatemalan Mayas, to muscle in on Pizarro’s conquest of the Inca Empire. Defeated by forests, mountains, volcanic eruption, and adverse weather, Alvarado was bought off in a deal to rival one between modern Mafia families. George Lovell tells this lurid, little-known story with clarity and élan.” John Hemming, author of The Conquest of the Incas“As George Lovell vividly reveals, Alvarado’s ambitions were boundless, as was his willingness to make Indigenous peoples on two continents suffer for those ambitions. How to tell such a tale of tenacity and tragedy without surrendering to the temptation to turn it into a swashbuckling adventure? Lovell pulls it off by keeping a close and careful eye on his primary sources, skillfully teasing out a history that never glorifies yet remains utterly gripping.” Matthew Restall, author of Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest and When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting That Changed History“Drawing from Spanish chronicle sources, archival materials, and transcribed primary source collections, Lovell delivers a highly readable, biographically driven narrative of the little-known episode, and throughout he centers its lamentable consequences on thousands of people because of Alvarado’s rapaciousness.” Hispanic American Historical Review"Accompanied by a rich array of maps and photographs taken directly by the author in the main places of Alvarado's expedition, Lovell's accurate narrative is based on a large and solid bibliography that ranges between Anglophone and Ibero-American studies." Storicamente“The history of Pedro de Alvarado is highly illustrative of the intrigues that grew out of conquistadors’ ambitions but are rarely mentioned in the “official” history. W. George Lovell masterfully recreates an episode of the conquest that shows what occurred behind the scenes … .” The Americas

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Book SynopsisBoundaries - lines imposed on the landscape - shape our lives, dictating everything from which candidates we vote for to what schools our children attend to the communities with which we identify. Historian Derek Everett examines the function of these internal lines in American history generally and in the West in particular.Trade ReviewWith Derek Everett as our guide, what might seem one of the simplest acts of creating the West-defining its states by drawing lines on the map-becomes a revelation into the many crosscurrents-political, social, ethnic, economic, and, let's face it, idiosyncratic-that shaped the emergence of a distinctive American region. Creating the American West is also a reminder of how the lines we draw have always both divided and united us."" - Elliott West author of The Essential West: Collected Essays

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Book SynopsisThe forest primeval, the river of life, the sacred mount read Landscape and Memory' to have these explainedLandscape and Memory' is a history book unlike any other. In a series of journeys through space and time, it examines our relationship with the landscape around us rivers, mountains, forests the impact each of them has had on our culture and imaginations, and the way in which we, in turn, have shaped them to answer our needs.This is not a conventional history book, but a book that builds up its argument by a series of poetic stories and impressions which cumulatively have the effect of a great novel. The forest primeval, the river of life, the sacred mount at the end of this wonderful book we understand where these ideas have come from, why they are so compelling and how they still lie all around us.Trade Review‘One of the most intelligent, original, stimulating, self-indulgent, perverse and irresistibly enjoyable books I have ever read.’ Philip Ziegler ‘This is a tour de force of vivid historical writing…It is astonishingly learned, and yet offered with verve, humour and an unflagging sense of delight.’ Michael Ignatieff, IOS ‘Simon Schama is a giant, a great thinking machine and a golden lyricist as well. He takes us beyond geololgy and vegetation into myth and memory, to unravel the ancient connections which bring mountain, forest and river into our soul.’ Brian Masters, MoS ‘Schama long ago established himself as one of the most learned, original and provocative historians in the English speaking world…Unclassifiable, inimitable, fascinating, “Landscape and Memory” will inform and haunt, chasten and enrage. It is that rarest of commodities in our cultural marketplace – a work of genuine originality.’ Anthony Grafton, New Republic

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Book SynopsisA Spectator Book of the Year 2020A Times and Sunday Times Best Book of 2020A Mail on Sunday Book of the Year 2020Inspired Lowe's sensitive, disturbing book should be compulsory reading for both statue builders and statue topplers' MAX HASTINGS, SUNDAY TIMESWhat happens when our values change, but what we have set in stone does not?Humankind has always had the urge to memorialise, to make physical testaments to the past. There's just one problem: when we carve a statue or put up a monument, it can wind up holding us hostage to bad history.In this extraordinary history book, Keith Lowe uses monuments from around the world to show how different countries have attempted to sculpt their history in the wake of the Second World War, and what these memorials reveal about their politics and national identity today.Amongst many questions, the book asks: What does Germany signal to today's far right by choosing not to disclose the exact resting place of Hitler? How can a bronze statue of a youngTrade Review‘[An] inspired idea … Always thoughtful and evocative, sometimes controversial … Lowe’s sensitive, disturbing book should be compulsory reading for both statue builders and statue topplers. Too many memorials of all kinds seek to promote deceits or half-truths.’MAX HASTINGS, THE SUNDAY TIMES ‘[A] brilliantly researched and timely book … Lowe is not afraid to tread on sensitive ground, but he does so with the integrity that comes from really knowing his material’THE DAILY MAIL, FIVE STARS ‘Such a provocative perspective makes Lowe’s choice of monuments important. The well-balanced range here enables the retelling of some remarkable war stories, while also providing fascinating insights into the ways different nations have remembered or denied issues around national identity and the glory and horrors of war … this is some of the most thought-provoking writing about the Second World War that I have read for a long while’SPECTATOR ‘In this timely book, which neatly combines history, art criticism and travelogue, Lowe examines 25 monuments to the Second World War spread across three continents … Lowe is a fine guide to these monuments because he feels the moral force — for good or bad — of each site he visits’THE TIMES, BOOK OF THE WEEK ‘Time after time throughout Prisoners of History, Keith Lowe’s commentaries are more articulate and supple than the monuments they describe, interpret and criticise’THE LITERARY REVIEW ‘Keith Lowe’s book could not be more timely … his observations seem uncannily prescient … he is sharp on cultural and national differences in perceptions of the war’STANDPOINT MAGAZINE

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Book Synopsis“In many ways, Land combines bits and pieces of many of Winchester’s previous books into a satisfying, globe-trotting whole. . . . Winchester is, once again, a consummate guide.”—Boston GlobeThe author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and The Perfectionists explores the notion of property—bought, earned, or received; in Europe, Africa, North America, or the South Pacific—through human history, how it has shaped us and what it will mean for our future.Land—whether meadow or mountainside, desert or peat bog, parkland or pasture, suburb or city—is central to our existence. It quite literally underlies and underpins everything. Employing the keen intellect, insatiable curiosity, and narrative verve that are the foundations of his previous bestselling works, Simon Winchester examines what we human beings are doing—and have done—with the billions of acres that together make up the solid surface of our planet.Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World examines in depth how we acquire land, how we steward it, how and why we fight over it, and finally, how we can, and on occasion do, come to share it. Ultimately, Winchester confronts the essential question: who actually owns the world’s land—and why does it matter? 

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Book SynopsisIn the 19th century, Americans began to use maps in extraordinary new ways. Medical men mapped diseases to understand epidemics, natural scientists mapped climate to uncover weather patterns, and Northerners created slave maps to assess the power of the South. This book charts how thematic maps demonstrated the analytical potential of cartography.Trade Review"Powerful.... Satisfying.... Though both the book and the website can stand alone, together they productively bring the careful, intimate, controlled narrative of the book form alongside the full-color, hyperlinked social nature of web-based projects to convincingly argue that America without maps would have been a different kind of place altogether." (Public Books)"

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Book SynopsisIn focusing on the power of "bottom-up" maps to transform modern European identities, the author argues that the history of cartography must expand beyond the study of elite maps and shift its emphasis to the democratization of cartography in the modern world.

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