History Books

Book SynopsisDrawing on primary source material and interviews with statisticians and other scientists, this book offers an account of Bayes' rule for general readers, It traces its discovery by an amateur mathematician in the 1740s through its development into roughly its modern form by French scientist Pierre Simon Laplace.Trade Review"If you're not thinking like a Bayesian, perhaps you should be."—John Allen Paulos, New York Times Book Review"A masterfully researched tale of human struggle and accomplishment . . . Renders perplexing mathematical debates digestible and vivid for even the most lay of audiences."—Michael Washburn, Boston Globe"[An] engrossing study. . . . Her book is a compelling and entertaining fusion of history, theory and biography."—Ian Critchley, Sunday Times"This account of how a once reviled theory, Baye’s rule, came to underpin modern life is both approachable and engrossing."—Sunday Times"Makes the theory come alive . . . enjoyable . . . densely packed and engaging . . . very accessible . . . an admirable job of giving a voice to the scores of famous and non-famous people and data who contributed, for good or for worse."—Significance Magazine"A very compelling documented account . . . very interesting reading."—José Bernardo, Valencia List Blog"McGrayne explains [it] beautifully. . . . Top holiday reading."—The Australian"Engaging . . . Readers will be amazed at the impact that Bayes' rule has had in diverse fields, as well as by its rejection by too many statisticians. . . . I was brought up, statistically speaking, as what is called a frequentist. . . . But reading McGrayne's book has made me determined to try, once again, to master the intricacies of Bayesian statistics. I am confident that other readers will feel the same."—The Lancet"The Theory That Would Not Die is a rollicking tale of the triumph of a powerful mathematical tool."—Andrew Robinson, Nature"The Theory That Would Not Die is the first popular science book to document the rocky story of Bayes’s rule. At times, her tale has everything you would expect of a modern-day thriller. . . . To have crafted a page-turner out of the history of statistics is an impressive feat. If only lectures at university had been this racy."—David Robson, New Scientist"The Theory That Would Not Die is an impressively researched, rollicking tale of the triumph of a powerful mathematical tool."—Andrew Robinson, Nature Vol. 475"McGrayne is such a good writer that she makes this obscure battle gripping for the general reader."—Engineering and Technology Magazine"Scientists and statisticians have fought over a deep philosophical divide about probability, which Sharon Bertsch McGrayne explores with great clarity and wit."—Christine Evans-Pughe, Engineering and Technology Magazine"McGrayne holds the hand of the general reader as she lays out the history of the theorem and how it is now used in just about every walk of life. . . . Science writing at its absolute peak."—The BooksellerEditor's Choice, New York Times Book Review"We now know how to think rationally about our uncertain world. This book describes in vivid prose, accessible to the lay person, the development of Bayes' rule over more than two hundred years from an idea to its widespread acceptance in practice."—Dennis Lindley, University College London"A book simply highlighting the astonishing 200 year controversy over Bayesian analysis would have been highly welcome. This book does so much more, however, uncovering the almost secret role of Bayesian analysis in a stunning series of the most important developments of the twentieth century. What a revelation and what a delightful read!"—James Berger, Arts & Sciences Professor of Statistics, Duke University, and member, National Academy of Sciences"Well known in statistical circles, Bayes’s Theorem was first given in a posthumous paper by the English clergyman Thomas Bayes in the mid-eighteenth century. McGrayne provides a fascinating account of the modern use of this result in matters as diverse as cryptography, assurance, the investigation of the connection between smoking and cancer, RAND, the identification of the author of certain papers in The Federalist, election forecasting and the search for a missing H-bomb. The general reader will enjoy her easy style and the way in which she has successfully illustrated the use of a result of prime importance in scientific work."—Andrew I. Dale, author of A History of Inverse Probability From Thomas Bayes to Karl Pearson and Most Honorable Remembrance: The Life and Work of Thomas Bayes"Compelling, fast-paced reading full of lively characters and anecdotes . . . A great story."—Robert E. Kass, Carnegie Mellon University"Fascinating . . . I truly admire [McGrayne’s] style of writing, and . . . ability to turn complex mathematical ideas into intriguing stories, centered around real people."—Judea Pearl, winner of the 2012 Turing Award

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Book SynopsisTimothy Snyder traces the emergence of four rival modern nationalist ideologies from common medieval notions of citizenship.Trade Review“Charting the passages to nationhood and to national reconciliation in this impossibly complex region is the aim of Timothy Snyder’s erudite and engrossing book. . . . An illuminating historical essay. . . . This important book is also elegantly written.”—Charles King, Times Literary Supplement“[A] fresh and stimulating look at the path to nationhood.”—Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs“[Snyder] utilizes poetry, monuments, symbols, and mini-biography, and family-and village-centered micro-history to make his points, and he succeeds in integrating a common-sense, democratic, and tolerant morality into a set of essentially objective, parallel story-lines. . . . A great book for the professional, scholar, student, and curious reader.”—David Goldfrank, The International History Review"Ambitiously conceived and superbly executed. . . . The Reconstruction of Nations isdistinguished by its clear structure, lucid prose, uncompromising judgements, and cogent argument. It marks the debut of a hugely talented historian."—Richard Butterwick, English History ReviewWinner of the 2003 George Louis Beer Prize given by the American Historical AssociationWinner of the 2003 Eastern Review PrizeWinner of the 2004 American Association for Ukrainian Studies Book Award"This is by far the best English-language survey of northeastern Europe’s multicultural past. Snyder offers us an innovative and unconventional re-reading of the broad narrative of Polish, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian history, exploring and explaining issues of national identity without getting trapped within the categories of nationalist historiography. His ambition to cover four centuries of history was a bold move in today’s era of academic specialization, but he has succeeded brilliantly."—Brian Porter, Professor of History, University of Michigan; author of When Nationalism Began to Hate: Imagining Modern Politics in 19th Century Poland"This is an excellent book. The research is impressive. Snyder asks the right questions and then delivers.”—John Micgiel, executive director, East Central European Center, Columbia University"The Reconstruction of Nations isa brilliant and fascinating analysis of the subtleties, complexities, and paradoxes of the evolution of nations in Eastern Europe. Snyder highlights the success of contemporary leaders of Poland in bringing an end to the centuries of war, conquest, and ethnic cleansing, which have plagued that part of the world. His study has major implications for all of us who want to understand the processes of state collapse and nation-building in the world."—Samuel P. Huntington, Chairman, Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies"This book is a work of profound scholarship and considerable importance. It represents a highly original approach to a neglected area of Europe—but also has wider implications for all those interested in questions of nationalism and state-building."—Timothy Garton Ash, Director, European Studies Centre, St Antony’s College, Oxford, author of The Polish Revolution

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Book SynopsisMaximos the Confessor is one of the most challenging and original Christian thinkers of all time. The Ambigua is his greatest philosophical and doctrinal work, in which daring originality, prodigious talent for speculative thinking, and analytical acumen are on lavish display. The result is a labyrinthine map of the mind’s journey to God.

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Book Synopsis''Football history at its best'' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY''Hugely moving... a very good book indeed'' FOUR FOUR TWO''Kuper is an original, sophisticated and adventurous writer. The story he has to tell... is fascinating and pressing'' SUNDAY TIMESIn FOOTBALL AGAINST THE ENEMY Simon Kuper crossed the globe in search of the links between football, politics and culture. In AJAX, THE DUTCH, THE WAR he skilfully pieces together an alternative account of World War II. He looks at the lives of the footballers who played for the Dutch club, the officials and the ordinary fans during this tumultuous period and challenges the accepted notion of the War in occupied Europe. With almost 80 per cent of Amsterdam''s Jewish Corner wiped out during the war, the long-held belief that, by and large, half the Dutch population had some kind of link to the Resistance has, of late, come into question. Kuper explores this issue and looks deeper into the role Trade ReviewAt last, the long-awaited follow-up from the author of the classic FOOTBALL AGAINST THE ENEMY... hugely moving... a very good book indeed * FOUR FOUR TWO *An intriguing social history, full of quirky observations and anecdotes, written with winning geniality... Kuper has produced a beguiling book, not only for aficionados of the beautiful game or connoisseurs of Jewish history, but for anyone curious about our not-so-distant past * FINANCIAL TIMES *Passionate and moving * GUARDIAN *Football history at its best * SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY *His writing combines scholarly graft, a feel for political complexity, and quiet but powerful wit * INDEPENDENT *Kuper is an original, sophisticated and adventurous writer. The story he has to tell... is fascinating and pressing * SUNDAY TIMES *

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Book SynopsisIn Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor Tim Lawrence examines the city's party, dance, music, and art culture between 1980 and 1983, tracing the rise, apex, and fall of this inventive, vibrant, and tumultuous scene.Trade Review"Lawrence goes into remarkable depth to portray this world which, during its few short years, gained expansive popularity and had a significant impact on art, film, literature, and culture. His meticulous research, with details on the leading figures, trends, events, places, and music that made it all happen, also provides critical/analytical commentary on the social backdrop of the times, the genesis of the emerging and eclectic music/dance styles, and the essence of this artistic renaissance. In addition to the well-selected photographs, notes, and bibliography, set lists, discographies, and a filmography add to the title's impressive breadth. Cultural historians and those familiar with the 1980s milieu will find this informative and insightful." -- Carol J. Binkowski * Library Journal *"Through a comprehensive and lushly detailed text stuffed with original photos from dance floors, DJ booths, and parties, Lawrence imparts the mood, the music, the faces and the places from that remarkable era, with a nostalgic nod to nights where 'a new kind of freedom was set to rule the night.' ... Dance music historians will want this book for reference, while others who recall these days with a sense of longing will close its covers and dream of the days when nightlife amounted to a line of cocaine, a Madonna remix, and a dark, packed dance floor in a basement club in the Village." -- Jim Piechota * Bay Area Reporter *"Life and Death provides the most intensive mapping of this brief era of New York subculture we've yet seen. The book's strength is its depth of research, drawing on the realtime journalism of the era as well as many new interviews. The detail is fascinating, as Lawrence salvages ephemeral events, forgotten people, and lost places from the fog of faded memory." -- Simon Reynolds * Bookforum *"Exceptionally accessible (the author’s passion for his subject shows through on every page; it’s easy to imagine how his knowledge and genuine interest opened many a door and got people talking, telling tales recorded here that might not otherwise have seen the light of day), the raw, new energy of the city is accurately captured and conveyed. No small feat.... Seriously, when’s the last time you read a book you could actually dance to?" -- Tom Cardamone * Lambda Literary Review *"The focus here is clearly music. Mr. Lawrence even includes some D.J. playlists for the listener to investigate. But Life and Death is more expansive than that — it takes you deep into a time and place, the good-old-bad-old-days of pre-Rudolph Giuliani New York, which many have valorized for some time now. If the 1970s have been thoroughly examined, the early ’80s have been left relatively unexplored, and while Mr. Lawrence provides a lot of minutiae, he also delivers a story with some sweep." -- Michaelangelo Matos * New York Times *"[I]f you have no abiding love for New York, disco, hip-hop, studio techniques, or fast and dirty real-estate shuffles—there must be such people, statistically—perhaps Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor will not hold you. But if you care for any of those things, and even if that concern borders on the obsessive, you will benefit from Lawrence’s investigations." -- Sasha Frere-Jones * The New Yorker *"The cast of characters in the book can be staggering, the exhaustive accounts overwhelming — Lawrence interviewed or corresponded with more than 130 people, and he makes room for their voices — but that's part of the point: He wants a crowded and motley party. This is a scrupulously researched, marvelously detailed history." -- Megan Pugh * Village Voice *"[A] compelling tale, beautifully told. As one who was fortunate enough to have landed in New York during this timeframe, Lawrence does a cracking job capturing a time when even listening to the city’s black radio stations at noon could change your life. It was a surreal, magical period of ground-breaking activity which now seems hard to believe could actually happen at the same time in the same city. Finally, here’s the proof." -- Kris Needs * Record Collector *"[O]ffers fresh detail and insight on the clubs, DJs, parties and recordings that emerged from the scene. He even offers DJ playlists from different clubs." -- Andy Beta * Wall Street Journal *"Tim Lawrence's Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983, the definitive history of that fabled time in the city, is already taking on the status of a sacred text." -- David Hershkovits * Paper Magazine *"Reading Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor as a clubber in the city is to reflect not only on what’s been lost over the past three decades, but on how the sounds, events and characters at the center of Lawrence’s story still influence NYC’s nightlife. . . . [W]hat Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor makes acutely obvious, as both volume and prism, is not just the cultural value of the city’s party scene, but how it also serves as a moral compass – and how it still can." -- Piotr Olov * The Guardian *"Life & Death defines New York's unnamed era of invention. When Boy George was nicking from the cloakroom at Blitz, and everyone else was at The Batcave, this is how it ran in NYC. With hundreds of interviews, deep research and enlightening playlists, it's almost as invigorating as being there." * DJ Magazine *"Lawrence has mustered convincing evidence for the case that Madonna was not the most important cultural creation of early 1980s New York. . . . Lawrence is most convincing when he documents the remarkable variety and genre-blurring fecundity of sounds available to tuned-in city dwellers, a diversity that was even more bracing when contrasted with the monotonous airwaves stifling the rest of North America." -- Robert Anasi * TLS *"Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor is a remarkably intense piece of 'community history writing.' It breathes life into an iconic historical epoch and sociocultural scene without ever retreating into nostalgia or naive celebration. In fact, there's something unexpectedly electrifying about reading Lawrence's exceptionally well-researched historical studies. It is the sensation of remotely yet meaningfully becoming part of something hitherto only secretly known. One becomes slowly yet unequivocally aware of how that specific era's cultural and sociopolitical conditions, so thoroughly reconstructed in these works, resonate with the current sense of cultural and political impasse." -- Niels Van Tomme * The Wire *Table of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 Part I. 1980: The Recalibration of Disco 1. Stylistic Coherence Didn't Matter at All 11 2. The Basement Den at Club 57 30 3. Danceteria: Midtown Feels the Downtown Storm 48 4. Subterranean Dance 60 5. The Bronx-Brooklyn Approach 73 6. The Sound Became More Real 92 7. Major-Label Calculations 105 8. The Saint Peter of Discos 111 9. Lighting the Fuse 122 Part II. 1981: Accelerating Toward Pluralism 10. Explosion of Clubs 135 11. Artistic Maneuvers in the Dark 155 12. Downton Configures Hip Hop 170 13. The Sound of a Transcendent Future 184 14. The New Urban Street Sound 199 15. It Wasn't Rock and Roll and It Wasn't Disco 210 16. Frozen in Time or Freed into Infinity 221 17. It Felt Like the Whole City Was Listening 232 18. Shrouded Abatements and Mysterious Deaths 239 Part III. 1982: Dance Culture Seizes the City 19. All We Had Was the Club 245 20. Inverted Pyramid 257 21. Roxy Music 271 22. The Garage: Everybody Was Listening to Everything 279 23. The Planet Rock Groove 288 24. Techno Funksters 304 25. Taste Segues 314 26. Stormy Weather 320 27. Cusp of an Important Fusion 331 Part IV. 1983: The Genesis of Division 28. Cristal for Everyone 343 29. Dropping the Pretense and the Flashy Suits 369 30. Straighten It Out with Larry Levan 381 31. Stripped-Down and Scrambled Sounds 400 32. We Became Part of This Energy 419 33. Sex and Dying 430 34. We Got the Hits, We Got the Future 438 35. Behind the Groove 449 Epilogue. Life, Death, and the Hereafter 458 Notes 485 Selected Discography 515 Selected Filmography 529 Selected Bibliography 521 Index 537

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Book SynopsisNearly all the works Aristotle (384–322 BC) prepared for publication are lost; the priceless ones extant are lecture-materials, notes, and memoranda (some are spurious). They can be categorized as practical; logical; physical; metaphysical; on art; other; fragments.

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Book SynopsisIn his new preface E. O. Wilson reflects on how he came to write this book: how The Insect Societies led him to write Sociobiology, and how the political and religious uproar that engulfed that book persuaded him to write another book that would better explain the relevance of biology to the understanding of human behavior.Trade ReviewWilson is a sophisticated and marvelously humane writer. His vision is a liberating one, and a reader of this splendid book comes away with a sense of the kinship that exists among the people, animals, and insects that share the planet. * New Yorker *Compellingly interesting and enormously important...The most stimulating, the most provocative, and the most illuminating work of nonfiction I have read in some time. -- William McPherson * Washington Post Book World *A work of high intellectual daring...Here is an accomplished biologist explaining, in notably clear and unprevaricating language, what he thinks his subject now has to offer to the understanding of man and society...The implications of Wilson's thesis are rather considerable, for if true, no system of political, social, religious or ethical thought can afford to ignore it. -- Nicholas Wade * New Republic *Twenty-five years after its first publication, Harvard University Press has re-released Edward O. Wilson's classic work, On Human Nature. A double Pulitzer Prize winner, Wilson is a writer of effortless grace and stylish succinctness and this is one of his finest, most important books...[A] highly influential, elegantly written book. -- Robin McKie * The Observer *A seminal, groundbreaking, informative, thought-provoking, enduringly valuable, and highly recommended read. * Bookwatch *

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Book SynopsisA reexamination of the most extraordinary of ancient ceremonies, this book explores the magnificence of the Roman Triumphbut also its darker side, as it prompted the Romans to question as well as celebrate military glory. This work is a testament to the profound importance of the triumph in Roman cultureand for monarchs and generals ever since.Trade ReviewConjectures and conclusions grow from and around the triumphus like kudzu. It takes the mighty vorpal sword of Mary Beard to clear a path through this jabberwocky jungle, snicker-snack. She stands in the great tradition of myth-puncturing Latin classicists--scholars like Richard Bentley, Basil Gildersleeve. A. E. Housman. or Ronald Syme--when she points out that almost all the established views on the triumph are dubious or plain wrong...Her prose, for all its learning, is jaunty. Her book is, in short, a triumph. -- Garry Wills * New York Review of Books *[This] book succeeds as a case study in ancient history, but also as an implicit invitation to reconsider representations of victory and loss in our own culture. Beard ranges among literary, historiographical, artistic, architectural, numismatic, epigraphical, and archaeological sources with impressive ease and fluency, showing that the preoccupation with triumph haunts all these different fields of Roman cultural life--from Ovid's cheeky claim that triumphal processions can be good for picking up girls, and his presentation of himself as the victim of Cupid's triumphal chariot, to the many triumphal arches that the triumphalist Romans erected, which Beard reads as attempts to construct a permanent memorial from an essentially fleeting parade...Beard brilliantly shows that most of this story about the typical Roman triumph is a scholarly or literary fabrication, supported by very slender evidence, or by none at all; or it is a reconstruction based on evidence from authors in widely different time periods, each of whom has his own axe to grind...The demolition work is the most obvious accomplishment of her book. -- Emily Wilson * New Republic *This is no ordinary history. It is not a reconstruction but a deconstruction, a virtuoso display of how to interrogate one's sources. Not only that, it is written with sly subtlety, delightful humor and an agreeable absence of jargon. -- Christian Tyler * Financial Times *A book that manages to be simultaneously both brilliantly subtle and splendidly swaggering. Throughout it, [Beard] subjects our sources for the Roman triumph to merciless dissection, exposing with a pathologist's scalpel how beneath all its outward sheen there lurked profound insecurities and ambivalences...[It] can be enjoyed by readers far beyond the purlieus of classics departments...A book that is, in every sense of that complex word, a triumph. -- Tom Holland * Sunday Times *This rich and provocative book offers such a full account of what it means to call ancient Rome "a triumphal culture." -- William Fitzgerald * Times Literary Supplement *From the first (uncertain) moment when Romans came to think of triumph as a bundle of victory rites that could be repeatedly improved upon, generals fought and lobbied for their moment in the limelight. Enemies, rivals and spectators could not resist being drawn into the show. Beard's Roman Triumph will exercise a similar fascination on its readers. -- Greg Woolf * The Guardian *In The Roman Triumph, many cherished assumptions are robustly interrogated or put to the sword...Beard takes us on a dizzying trip back and forth across triumphs and centuries (Pompey, Romulus, Nero, Augustus). Only after she has unpicked accounts of Pompey's triumph, and reflected on captives, spoils, rules and ritual, does she pause briefly to end at origins...Simultaneously a re-evaluation of the triumph, of Roman culture more broadly, and of the problems of scholarship on ancient societies, this is an ambitious project. -- Maria Wyke * The Independent *Thorough, minutely detailed and closely argued...[Beard's] account certainly brings us closer to the complex and fascinating reality than any Rome according to MGM or Paramount. -- Christopher Hart * Independent on Sunday *This book gives a bracing lesson in the use and abuse of evidence, as Beard teases apart the various bits and pieces that have gone to make up the conglomerate picture of the timeless essence of the triumph. In the process, she unpicks many of our basic assumptions about those quintessentially Roman characteristics we normally see embodied in it. The triumph and its reception here become fractals of Roman culture--and of the way Roman culture is studied...Illuminating perspectives [are] offered throughout the book...This learned and spirited book could have been no more than an exercise is debunking and dismantling. Beard enjoys debunking and dismantling, and does it with panache, but her unpicking of the evidence and her demolition of the consensus is not meant to create an epistemological no-man's-land; she wants to highlight the rewarding difficulty of the project of history, not its impossibility. There are things to be known about the past, and there are things to be known about how we come to know them. Beard stages her own show, demonstrating by practice, and in the process has given us a piece of scholarship that has lessons to teach anyone engaged in the study of the past. -- Denis Feeney * London Review of Books *[Beard] is immensely knowledgeable, and lays forth one of the paradoxes of history (and not only ancient history, one may add). This is that the more we know, the less certain we can be of anything...This is a fascinating book which offers another paradox. By showing how much that we thought we knew is uncertain, Mary Beard teaches us far more than any confident account of the triumphal ceremony ever could. -- Allan Massie * Literary Review *So you thought you knew about the Roman Triumph? Conventional wisdom states that triumphant generals in Rome painted their faces red. They rode in a chariot with a slave who whispered to them: "Remember that you are a man." For that one day, they impersonated the king of the gods, Jupiter Best and Greatest, wearing his costume, consisting of a purple toga and a tunic decorated with a palm-leaf pattern, a laurel wreath and other accessories...If you thought you knew some or all of these facts, Mary Beard's excellent book will prove you wrong...It makes healthily astringent (as well as fascinating) reading...The book can be heartily recommended. -- Jonathan Powell * Times Higher Education Supplement *At every turn Beard happily strips away misconceptions and hypotheses, emphasizing the fragility of the facts...It's hard to imagine a more perceptive and questioning study of a central cultural practice that lasted into the Christian era, and was constantly being subverted, extended, and absorbed into representations of empire and even of divinity. -- Helen Meany * Irish Times *[Beard] strips layer after layer after layer away and the mystery and the excitement of the book is wondering what will be left at the end…She is almost the Miss Marple of Roman history because she sees to the heart of a mystery and how it works…She is not dumbing down but she is making accessible what is incredibly interesting. -- Tom Holland * Five Books *How much do we really know about Rome's supreme honor, and how much is myth and invention? Not much and quite a lot, it turns out. Beard's brilliant analysis locates the ritual in the shifting political, social and martial worlds of Rome. Illuminating moments abound. -- Marc Lambert * Scotland on Sunday *Brilliant, original and challenging, this book is a triumph in itself. * The Scotsman *[An] arresting and highly readable new book...A highly amusing as well as illuminating read...Overall, Beard is giving us a lesson in how to understand and study ritual. Its early students (not least Frazer, one of the founders of modern anthropology, in The Golden Bough), saw it as a strait-jacket, constraining behavior within tightly defined parameters. This book gives us the Roman triumph as a case study in the lessons of more recent anthropology. Parameters are broad: malleable enough for ritual to be used to attempt to justify behavior, and not just to dictate it...Instead of unchanging ritual, Beard gives us a world of invented precedent and "convenient amnesia," of substantial success but also manifold failure as individual Roman generals attempted to mold general practice to their own--usually political--purposes. -- Peter Heather * BBC History Magazine *Beard’s approach to the triumph is “uncomfortably subversive”, as she labels a quip of Seneca at the start of her study...Beard shows us throughout her study that, as the old cliché aptly puts it, the triumph is still good to think with and also “good to think about.” Her book is as much about doing ancient history as reconstructing the history of an ancient ceremony, and perhaps more about writing and the writing of an account of The Roman Triumph than actually writing the account itself..I found this an eminently readable and hugely entertaining book in which Beard enthusiastically conveys her commitment to reviewing the evidence for the triumph. -- Robert Tatam * Journal of Classics Teaching *Beautifully written, brilliantly insightful, this book is highly recommended to all those Romanists, professional and amateur, excavators and tourists, who want to get under the skin of the empire-builders of ancient Rome. -- Neil Faulkner * Current Archaeology *In this highly individual book Mary Beard plays havoc with conventional ideas about the Roman triumph, while at the same time scrupulously presenting the evidence with which we can make up our own minds. It is the most important statement to date by a major historian of Roman culture. -- William V. Harris, Shepherd Professor of History, Columbia UniversityOccasionally one comes across a work of history which lights up a whole era as if by a lightning flash. Mary Beard's new book falls into this rare category. By focusing on the specific ritual of the triumph, she brilliantly illuminates the Roman world in all its aspects—military and political, social and literary, religious and geographical—and also reminds us how much of our own language and culture of success is drawn from this gaudy and often bloody spectacle. -- Robert Harris, author of Imperium

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Book SynopsisHistorians of the French Revolution used to take for granted what was also obvious to its contemporary observers--that the Revolution was shaped by the radical ideas of the Enlightenment. Yet in recent decades, scholars have argued that the Revolution was brought about by social forces, politics, economics, or culture--almost anything but abstractTrade ReviewWinner of the 2015 PROSE Award in European & World History, Association of American Publishers "[A]dvances an erudite and persuasive argument... Israel's categorization of the various revolutionary factions offers fascinating new insights, and his knack for uncovering interesting but neglected individuals and texts is second to none ... rich and thought provoking book. It is remarkable and significant."--Rachel Hammersley, Times Literary Supplement "[C]losely argued... Israel can be understood as a historian in the long liberal tradition stretching back to Madame de Stael, who herself witnessed the revolution and saw it as a story of the betrayal of liberty."--Ruth Scurr, Wall Street Journal "[W]ith typical boldness Israel invites us to reconceptualise our very idea of the Revolution."--Jeremy Jennings, Standpoint "Overwhelmingly impressive."--Peter Watson, Times "[P]acked with details ... [Revolutionary Ideas] is part of Israel's major project to give the Enlightenment, especially the Radical Enlightenment as he calls it, new luster."--NRC Handelsblad "[M]ajestic."--Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe, Trinidad and Tobago News "Israel, a professor of modern European history at Princeton, is a world authority on the 18th-century Enlightenment. Here he constructs a bold and brilliantly argued case that the 1789 French Revolution was propelled by the clash of innovative political doctrines that supported or contested Enlightenment values."--Tony Barber, Financial Times "Israel, author of the pathbreaking studies on the Dutch Republic, European Jews, and more recently the radical Enlightenment, now turns his attention to the French Revolution, arguing that the underlying cause was ideological--namely, the impact of the radical Enlightenment resulting from the work of philosophers Denis Diderot, Claude Adrien Helvetius, and Paul-Henry Thiry, Baron d'Holbach... Israel takes them at their word, painstakingly poring through voluminous revolutionary newspapers and the archives parlementaires, records of the revolutionary national assemblies... This significant and nuanced study is a major reinterpretation."--Choice "A racy account of the concepts that shaped the French Revolution and its people... The book leaves the reader with a strong impression of the power of ideas that unlock political energy and the strength of leadership needed to withstand fickle popular opinion."--Tom Watson, New Statesman "A remarkable book... An enormously rich and engaging work that invites us to think and to challenge received wisdom."--Mark Curran, European History Quarterly "Amazingly well-researched... To describe it as a very, very worthy read, would be an understatement of colossal, consequentialist design."--David Marx Book ReviewsTable of ContentsList of Figures vii Acknowledgments ix Prologue 1 Chapter 1 Introduction 6 Chapter 2 Revolution of the Press (1788-90) 30 Chapter 3 From Estates-General to National Assembly (April-June 1789) 53 Chapter 4 The Rights of Man: Summer and Autumn 1789 72 Chapter 5 Democratizing the Revolution 103 Chapter 6 Deadlock (November 1790-July 1791) 141 Chapter 7 War with the Church (1788-92) 180 Chapter 8 The Feuillant Revolution ( July 1791-April 1792) 204 Chapter 9 The "General Revolution" Begins (1791-92) 231 Chapter 10 The Revolutionary Summer of 1792 246 Chapter 11 Republicans Divided (September 1792-March 1793) 278 Chapter 12 The "General Revolution" from Valmy to the Fall of Mainz (1792-93) 316 Chapter 13 The World's First Democratic Constitution (1793) 345 Chapter 14 Education: Securing the Revolution 374 Chapter 15 Black Emancipation 396 Chapter 16 Robespierre's Putsch ( June 1793) 420 Chapter 17 The Summer of 1793: Overturning the Revolution's Core Values 450 Chapter 18 De-Christianization (1793-94) 479 Chapter 19 "The Terror" (September 1793-March 1794) 503 Chapter 20 The Terror's Last Months (March-July 1794) 545 Chapter 21 Thermidor 574 Chapter 22 Post-Thermidor (1795-97) 593 Chapter 23 The "General Revolution" (1795-1800): Holland, Italy, and the Levant 635 Chapter 24 The Failed Revolution (1797-99) 670 Chapter 25 Conclusion: The Revolution as the Outcome of the Radical Enlightenment 695 Cast of Main Participants 709 Notes 733 Bibliography 803 Index 833

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Book SynopsisTakes readers inside the wily world of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century pirates. With swashbuckling irreverence and devilish wit, this book uncovers the hidden economics behind pirates' notorious, entertaining, and sometimes downright shocking behavior.Trade ReviewOne of San Francisco Chronicle's 100 Best Books for 2009 Winner of the 2009 Best International Nonfiction Book, Week Winner of the 2009 Gold Medal Book of the Year Award in Business and Economics, ForeWord Reviews "A brisk, clever new book, The Invisible Hook, by Peter T. Leeson, an economist who claims to have owned a pirate skull ring as a child and to have had supply-and-demand curves tattooed on his right biceps when he was seventeen, offers a different approach. Rather than directly challenging pirates' leftist credentials, Leeson says that their apparent espousal of liberty, equality, and fraternity derived not from idealism but from a desire for profit."--Caleb Crain, New Yorker "[S]urprising and engaging ... [Leeson's] seminars must be wildly popular."--Stephen Sedley, London Review of Books "Economist Leeson leads readers though a surprisingly entertaining crash course in economics in this study of high seas piracy at the turn of the 18th century... Illustrated with salty tales of pirates both famous and infamous, the book rarely bogs down even when explaining intricate economic concepts, making it a great introduction to both pirate history and economic theory."--Publishers Weekly "Mr. Leeson's book represents a serious attempt to use the tools of economics to make sense of the institutions of piracy. The book is another example of economic imperialism, the use of economics to make sense of real world phenomena that are outside the standard realm of economic science. It addresses an important force that did, and does, impact world trade. But as the skull and crossbones on its spine suggests, the book is also just fun... [T]he book manages to be entertaining and informative. It is a fun read and provides parents with something to teach their children while looking for pirate treasure left long ago at the beach."--Edward Glaeser, Economix blog, NYTimes.com "The Invisible Hook is an excellent book by one of the most creative young economists around."--Steven D. Levitt, Freakonomics blog "Peter T. Leeson has done his part to dispel the pirate myths by using economic theory to explain pirate behavior and organization in his exemplary new book... Mr. Leeson has produced a fresh perspective on an old topic... The Invisible Hook is quick-paced but thought-provoking. Based on this work, the reader should look forward to more books by the author."--Claude Berube, Washington Times "Piracy has not been Leeson's only obsession. The other has been economics. When he was 17 years old he had supply and demand curves tattooed on his right bicep ... now the professor has brought his two enthusiasms together in a wonderful (and wonderfully titled) new book. The Invisible Hook is his study of the hidden economics of piracy."--Daniel Finkelstein, Times "Jauntily characterising the typical pirate ship as akin to 'a Fortune 500 company', [Leeson] reorients pirates as precursors of Milton Friedman and the Chicago school of economics."--Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times "One of the finest introductory courses in economics since Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson... The Invisible Hook is a good addition to the genre of popular economics: a fun and enlightening read, and rock solid in its scholarly bona fides."--Michael Shermer, Nature "From countless films and books we all know that, historically, pirates were criminally insane, traitorous thieves, torturers and terrorists. Anarchy was the rule, and the rule of law was nonexistent. Not so, dissents George Mason University economist Peter Leeson in his myth-busting book, The Invisible Hook, which shows how the unseen hand of economic exchange produces social cohesion even among pirates."--Michael Shermer, Scientific American "Given the flurry of piracy off the Somali coast in 2009, this relatively short narrative could not be timelier. The Invisible Hook, a play on Adam Smith's famous 'invisible hand,' is an engaging, informative look at the economics of piracy and pirates."--Choice "Peter Leeson, an economics professor at George Mason University, offers a fascinating perspective into the world of Blackbeard, 'Black Bart' Roberts and 'Calico Jack' Rackham in his highly readable book The Invisible Hook."--J. Peter Pham, San Francisco Chronicle "An engaging and thorough portrait of high seas banditry that goes beyond the pop-culture stereotypes to argue that though often brutal and always mercenary, pirates were ahead of their time when it came to matters of economic fairness and progressive labor practices."--Kevin Canfield, Mother Jones "[I]n The Invisible Hook, Peter Leeson deftly explodes piratical myths ... [The Invisible Hook] offers many colourful, meticulously researched insights into the behaviour of some of history's most colourful anti-heroes, and it will appeal to anyone with even passing interests in history, politics, sociology and/or economics."--Michelle Baddeley, Times Higher Education "Leeson says history cannot explain all piratical paradoxes. Only economics can disentangle the different strands."--Leon Gettler, The Age "Leeson hangs the meat of his pirate tale on a sturdy skeleton of economics... The Invisible Hook is a delightful read, thanks to Leeson's engaging writing. He reduces a veritable mountain of facts and history into an entertainingly educational experience."--Lewis Perdue, Barron's "This engaging account is fun to read and full of humor, qualities not often associated with an explanation of economic theory... This reviewer speculates that if more economic texts were written like this one, there would be a glut of economics majors to compensate for the shortage of pirates roaming the Atlantic."--Karl Helicher, Foreword Magazine "Peter T. Leeson digs into the dollars and cents of piracy. He urges us to see pirates as economic actors, their behavior shaped by incentives, just like the rest of us. Once you're in an economic state of mind, you can begin to understand actions such as lighting one's beard on fire, voting, being decent to black people, and torturing captives 'for fun'--all equally nutty behaviors to the average 18th--century observer. When Leeson is done guiding you through the pirate world, life on a rogue ship starts to look less like a Carnival cruise with cutlasses and cannons and more like an ongoing condo association meeting at sea."--Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason "Cleverly written and witty... [Casts] a penetrating glance at the social and political motives of these odd outlaw communities."--Daniele Archibugi, Open Democracy "Delightful... Examines the hidden order behind the literal anarchy of pirates... Entertaining and educational."--Roger K. Miller, Tampa Bay Tribune "What possible connection could there be between economics and a book on piracy? A lot, it turns out. Peter Leeson explains this seemingly bizarre connection in page after page of his witty new book, The Invisible Hook."--David R. Henderson, Regulation Magazine "[Offers] not only a thumbnail history of piracy but important insights into the economic way of thinking... Fascinating, entertaining and educational."--Alan W. Bock, Orange County Register "[A]n eye-opener... The Invisible Hook is a gripping read that sheds as much light on 21st century economics ... as it does on 17th and 18th century piracy."--Ethical Corporation Magazine "The book wittily demonstrates that economic theories and principles, if not the be-all and end-all, can illuminate notable historical trends."--Stephen Saunders, Canberra Times "[W]ell-documented and very readable ... covers pirates from bow to stern. In addition to some descriptions of high seas navigation, maneuvers and stealth that border on high adventure, Leeson supplies plenty of counterintuitive, even surprising, revelations about pirates... And Leeson explains it all with economics... Bottom line: Peter T. Leeson's The Invisible Hook is an insightful hoot, and scores a couple of extra points for originality. Economics-minded readers who enjoy historical adventure or relish over-the-top 'freakonomics' should get a hearty yo-ho-ho out of this book. Not to mention a 360-degree brain twist before diving into that new Michael Crichton novel."--Seeking Alpha "This is an enjoyable read that discusses the management style, branding, employee recruitment and retention, compensation and incentives and strategic planning of pirates and why these systems were effective. There are some valuable lessons to be learned."--Bill Sutton, Sports Business Journal "Peter Leeson's The Invisible Hook argues that many of the founding principles of capitalist, liberal democracies are not rooted in the Glorious Revolution or the writing of the Declaration of Independence; but the incentive structures necessary to keep a group of rowdy ocean-bound outlaws working as a team of ruthless sea bandits."--Tim Wilson, IPA Reviews "It's Freakonomics meets Pirates of the Caribbean. Jack Hirshleifer meets Jack Sparrow. Fischer Black meets Blackbeard. Adam Smith meets Captain Hook... Peter Leeson claims, 'A pirate ship more closely resembled a Fortune 500 company than the society of savage schoolchildren depicted in William Golding's Lord of the Flies.' And by the end of the book, he had me convinced of it."--Rick Lax, Las Vegas Weekly "Leave it to an economist to take our current obsession [with pirates] and peer under it in search of a new interpretation... The Invisible Hook is an entertaining economic history of an era and a way of business rarely considered in such a way. Pirates were rational!"--MIT Sloan Management Review "Peter T. Leeson ... puts salty flesh on the bones of the pirates' legend in The Invisible Hook, pulling off the formidable trick of being both rigorous and cheeky... Leeson's lights ... are bright and convincing... [A] jaunty gem of a book... [H]is argument assuredly does bolster the Chicago School case that the dismal science pervades every human endeavor."--Jonathan Stevenson, Democracy "Leeson's book is stimulating, provocative, and, of course, a fun read."--Douglas Marcouiller, Journal of World Trade Review "For those who are interested in a quick course in free-market political economy, or in a fresh approach to the history of piracy, The Invisible Hook provides many pleasures and provocations."--Philip Smallwood, Eighteenth-Century Studies "The Invisible Hook is certainly a worthwhile read for various audiences. It can serve as an effective introduction to several key economic concepts with pirate society serving as an excellent vehicle for grabbing a reader's interest. This book would be an ideal supplemental reading for undergraduate principles of microeconomics or economic history classes... The book can also be valuable to any historian of piracy seeking a uniquely economics-based perspective on their subject."--Andrew Young, Southern Economic Journal "[Leeson] clearly is ... an undoubtedly excellent teacher, because the style and tone of the book are that of an engaging lecturer who makes economics entertaining for his undergraduate students."--Mark G. Hanna, International Journal of Maritime History "[T]here is much to be learned from Blackbeard and his compatriots: social order can arise without explicit design, and economics provides a powerful set of ideas for understanding how. This is the central idea of The Invisible Hook, and part of the reason why it is among the best popular works of economics in recent years."--Francis J. DiTraglia, Journal of Value Inquiry "I guarantee that after the first few pages you won't be able to put this book down, and you will come away with a set of refreshing insights that you may very well find relevant to your own research agenda... To put it bluntly, this book is a must read, or at least a 'should read,' for comparative political scientists, particularly those with a taste for the world of economics... Leeson should at least get a couple doubloons of your hard-earned booty."--Anthony Gill, Comparative Political Studies "The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates, stands out as a novel contribution to international economics and, by extension, international relations."--Mitchell A. Belfer, Central European Journal of International and Security Studies "Well shiver me timbers, this surely is a wickedly good book! In fact, Peter Leeson has produced a book applying the dismal science that is both fun to read, and entertaining. Arrgh-uably, it also has more economic relevance than 95 percent of the articles in mainstream economics journals. Furthermore, it is accessible to virtually any reader."--Bruce L. Benson, Public Choice "With all the books on these colorful criminals, Leeson's is the only one to focus on the economic side of the matter. That is his great advantage."--Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance "The Invisible Hook is a great read. I recommend it without hesitation to professional academics, students, anyone interested in a clear exposition of the economic way of thinking, and every scurvy dog who is interested in pirating."--Bruce L. Benson, Public ChoiceTable of ContentsList of Illustrations xi Preface and Acknowledgments xiii Chapter 1: The Invisible Hook 1 Chapter 2: Vote for Blackbeard The Economics of Pirate Democracy 23 Chapter 3: An-arrgh-chy The Economics of the Pirate Code 45 Chapter 4: Skull & Bones The Economics of the Jolly Roger 82 Chapter 5: Walk the Plank The Economics of Pirate Torture 107 Chapter 6: Pressing Pegleg The Economics of Pirate Conscription 134 Chapter 7: Equal Pay for Equal Prey The Economics of Pirate Tolerance 156 Chapter 8: The Secrets of Pirate Management 176 Epilogue: Omnipresent Economics 194 Postscript: You Can't Keep a Sea Dog Down The Fall and Rise of Piracy 197 Where This Book Found Its Buried Treasure A Note on Sources 207 Notes 213 Index 2

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Book SynopsisWhen the excavations at Pompeii were first placed on a scholarly archaeological footing in the 19th century, brothers Fausto and Felice Niccolini were close at hand and ready to respond. Making use of the newly introduced technique of color lithography, they documented the buildings, frescos, statues, as well as the most ordinary everyday objects, of the city buried in just 24 hours by the catastrophic eruption of Vesuvius and preserved for over 1,600 years under a mantle of volcanic ash. The Niccolinis’ goal was to illustrate all aspects of life in the antique city. Their publication, Le case ed i monumenti di Pompei (“The Houses and Monuments of Pompeii”), which was issued in installments between 1854 and 1896 in Naples, presented over 400 color plates providing not only views, maps, and groundplans of the city and its public buildings, but also offered unprecedented access to Pompeii’s private residences. They revealed the astonishing painted wall decorations that adorned these long-buried abodes, their intricate works of art, and the practical utensils of everyday use, conjuring up a vivid picture of each house as a real domestic space. In total, the plates illustrated more than 1,000 items, each extensively specified and located for the first time, making the publication a major reference in Pompeii research. In addition, “animated” representations visualized daily life in Pompeii’s workshops, taverns, and shops, on its public squares, and in its temples, theaters, and baths. This meticulous facsimile revives the Niccolinis’ extraordinary achievement with all color plates and two introductory essays setting the project in its contemporary context and presenting the historical protagonists of the Vesuvian excavations. In addition, we explore the remarkable influence exerted by Pompeian art—and by the haunting plaster casts made of victims of the eruption—on the visual arts. Across painting, sculpture, and interior design, we trace the Pompeii legacy in the work of Robert Adam, Anton Raphael Mengs, Angelika Kaufmann, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Pablo Picasso, and Giorgio de Chirico, right through to recent masters Duane Hanson and George Segal.Trade Review“TASCHEN resurrects [the Niccolini brothers’] achievement in this sumptuous tome.” * The Guardian *

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Book SynopsisA history of Central Eurasia since ancient times. It presents a fundamental rethinking of the origins, history, and significance of this major world region. It describes the rise and fall of the great Central Eurasian empires, including those of the Scythians, Attila the Hun, the Turks and Tibetans, and Genghis Khan and the Mongols.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2009 PROSE Award in World History & Biography/Autobiography, Association of American Publishers "Christopher I. Beckwith, professor of Central Eurasian studies at Indiana University, suggests in his recent book, Empires of the Silk Road (Princeton University Press), that 'the most crucial element' of societies all through Central Eurasia--including the ones analyzed by this exhibition--was the 'sociopolitical-religious ideal of the heroic lord' and of a 'war band of his friends' that was attached to him and 'sworn to defend him to the death.' This idea, he suggests, affected the organization of early Islam as well as the structure of Tibetan Buddhist devotion. In fact, this 'shared political ideology across Eurasia,' Mr. Beckwith suggests, 'ensured nearly constant warfare.' The region's history is a history of competing empires; trade became part of what was later called the Great Game."--Edward Rothstein, New York Times "[T]his is no mere survey. Beckwith systematically demolishes the almost universal presumption that the peoples and powers of Inner Asia were typically predatory raiders, and thus supplied themselves by extracting loot and tribute from more settled populations... With his work, there is finally a fitting counterpart to Peter B. Golden's magnificently comprehensive An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples: Ethnogenesis and State Formation in Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East, based on Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Greek, Latin, and European medieval sources. By reading just two books anyone can now sort out Charlemagne's Avar Ring, the Golden Horde, modern Kazakhs and Uzbeks, ancient Scyths, Borodin's Polovtsian dances (they were Cumans), present-day Turks, Seljuks, Ottomans, early Turks, and Bulghars and Bulgarians, among many less familiar states or nations."--Edward Luttwak, New Republic "[E]rudite and iconoclastic, [Empires of the Silk Road] provides a wealth of new ideas, perspectives, and information about the political and other formations that flourished in that large portion of the world known as Central Eurasia... [A] major contribution to Central Eurasian and world history."--Nicola Di Cosmo, Journal of Global History "[T]his volume is certain to provoke lively discussion across the field."--Scott C. Levi, American Historical Review "This book demands our attention and will stimulate interest and debate in many circles. The author is to be congratulated on a book that is both thoughtful and provocative in its call for a reassessment of Central Eurasia and its role in world history."--Michael R. Drompp, Journal of Asian Studies "In the process of illuminating this essential piece of the human past, Beckwick constructs a scrupulously researched narrative that is wholly accessible, and demands close attention."--Nicholas Basbanes, FineBooksMagazine.com "[Beckwith] is quite a feisty writer, as in his hot-tempered preface excoriating post-modern thought... Prof. Beckwith is one of those scholars whose almost innumerable footnotes can be relished for their wonderfully obscure detail."--George Fetherling, Diplomat & International Canada "Beckwith is the first to have carried off the feat of actually writing a history of this whole expanse of time and space in a way stimulating enough to make the reader think about it from start to finish. There is certainly something heroic about that, and this book deserves therefore to go into paperback very much as it is, uncompromised by any retractions that may be forced upon its author by others."--T. H. Barrett, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies "The result of a lifetime's work on Central Asia and a complete overturning of many of our preconceptions... Essential."--Hugh Andrew, Glasgow Herald (UK) "Beckwith's arguments are persuasive, and backed by considerable empirical evidence. He is scrupulous about noting where the evidence is murky and noting where further research is needed. Beckwith provides an interesting Central Eurasian perspective on world history... Empires of the Silk Road is work that any scholar who seeks to write about Central Eurasia will need to address closely. It is a benchmark--indeed a high one--for Central Eurasian, and indeed, world history."--Thomas D. Hall, Cliodynamics "Empires of the Silk Road is never boring, despite its involved detail. I would recommend it to anyone with enough of a background in world history and linguistics to be able to cope with a mix of outright speculation, grounded contrarianism, and straightforward history, and willing to pass over, or be entertained by, chunks of politico-aesthetic moralising."--Danny Yee, Danny Reviews "Beckwith, like the nomadic warriors he so admires, does not shy from a battle; indeed he seems to take delight in aggressive verbal swordplay. Many readers will be disappointed or even offended by his choices and preferences, and he will surely not mind in the least. His arguments in any case have the merit of inviting engagement, and his curmudgeonly writing style makes for an entertaining reading experience whether one agrees with his assessments or not. All in all, this book is a must read for students of world history."--Richard Foltz, Journal of World History "This is an interesting readable book, and one that keeps the reader's interest through all of its 472 pages... It is not by any means an encyclopaedia but the author is very thoughtful, and the book is a creative whole, and for this view alone the book is worth our attention, but with the extensive appendices and endnotes a place should be found for it in our libraries."--Roger Bantock, Middle WayTable of ContentsPREFACE vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xv ABBREVIATIONS AND SIGLA xvii INTRODUCTION xix PROLOGUE: The Hero and His Friends 1 CHAPTER 1: The Chariot Warriors 29 CHAPTER 2: The Royal Scythians 58 CHAPTER 3: Between Roman and Chinese Legions 78 CHAPTER 4: The Age of Attila the Hun 93 CHAPTER 5: The Turk Empire 112 CHAPTER 6: The Silk Road, Revolution, and Collapse 140 CHAPTER 7: The Vikings and Cathay 163 CHAPTER 8: Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Conquests 183 CHAPTER 9: Central Eurasians Ride to a European Sea 204 CHAPTER 10: Th e Road Is Closed 232 CHAPTER 11: Eurasia without a Center 263 CHAPTER 12: Central Eurasia Reborn 302 EPILOGUE: The Barbarians 320 APPENDIX A: The Proto- Indo- Europeans and Their Diaspora 363 APPENDIX B: Ancient Central Eurasian Ethnonyms 375 ENDNOTES 385 BIBLIOGRAPHY 427 INDEX 457

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Book SynopsisTranslation of: Kafka, die Jahre der Entscheidungen.Trade ReviewOne of The Guardian Best Books of 2013, chosen by Colm Toibin "Most impressive is Stach's recounting of the creation of his subject's writings... Stach's own writing is wonderfully expressive."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A scrupulous, discriminating, and highly instructive account of Kafka's life."--Robert Alter, New Republic "[S]uperbly tempered... [T]hrough this robustly determined unearthing he rescues Kafka from the unearthliness of his repute... Shelley Frisch, Stach's heroic American translator, movingly reproduces his intended breadth and pace and tone... In this honest and honorable biography there is no trace of the Kafkaesque; but in it you may find a crystal granule of the Kafka who was."--Cynthia Ozick, New Republic "Stach aims to tell us all that can be known about [Kafka], avoiding the fancies and extrapolations of earlier biographers. The result is an enthralling synthesis, one that reads beautifully... I can't say enough about the liveliness and richness of Stach's book... Every page of this book feels excited, dynamic, utterly alive."--Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World "Stach's is a splendid effort and will be hard to surpass."--William H. Gass, Harper's Magazine "A masterpiece of inspired biographical writing."--Choice "Probing... Essential reading."--Booklist (starred review) "Magnificent."--Die Zeit "Stach develops the various elements that play a role in Kafka's life brilliantly."--Der Spiegel "The first great biography of Franz Kafka ... exciting and instructive from the first to the last page."--Tagesanzeiger "This extraordinary biography fills the empty spaces between Kafka's own writings and the writings of friends, family, and contemporaries with so much empathy and imagination that one can't put it down."--Frankfurter Rundschau "[M]onumental... [A] superb English-language translation by Shelly Frisch ... now reprinted in a handsome paperback by Princeton... In this first volume, Stach sifts through that rubble with huge amounts of energy and discretion (and Frisch follows him without a misstep; it feels like exactly the book I read ten years ago in its original language)... His letters and journals are marshaled with sometimes breathtaking ingenuity, and the sheer scope of the work allows Stach to be expansive when painting his backgrounds... Always in these recountings, Stach is searching for his elusive subject, trying--as all previous biographers have tried, though none so well--to hear Kafka's strange, singular voice in the noise... Kafka: The Decisive Years was greeted with a loud chorus of praise when it first appeared in English, and the passage of almost a decade has cast no doubt on that verdict. Princeton has re-issued this classic so that it can stand next to the following volume, Kafka: The Years of Insight, newly published in hardcover. No one interested in Kafka (or, by almost inevitable extension, 20th century literature) should miss either."--Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly "[F]lawlessly translated... [A] wonderfully intelligent and perceptive portrait of a uniquely powerful writer."--PD Smith, Guardian "Stach reads the work and the life with minute care and sympathy. He has a deep understanding of the world that Kafka came from and this is matched by an intelligence and tact about the impulse behind the work itself."--Colm Toibin, Irish Independent "[T]he definitive biography."--Jonathon Sturgeon, Flavorwire "Superbly translated from German by Shelley Frisch... Illuminating facts and intelligent commentary... The three volumes are so carefully composed and densely woven--blending history, literary analysis, psychological insights, quotes and commentary from others--that it would be practically impossible to produce an abridged version in a single volume."--Alexander Adams, Spiked ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 PROLOGUE: The Black Star 16 1At Home with the Kafkas 21 2Bachelors, Young and Old 42 3Actors, Zionists, Wild People 54 4Literature and Loneliness: Leipzig and Weimar 71 5Last Stop Jungborn 86 6A Young Lady from Berlin 94 7The Ecstasy of Beginning: "The Judgment" and "The Stoker" 108 8A Near Defenestration 119 9The Girl, the Lady, and the Woman 134 10Love and a Longing for Letters 145 11Exultant Weeks, Little Intrigues 159 12The Bauer Family 169 13America and Back: The Man Who Disappeared 175 14The Lives of Metaphors: "The Metamorphosis" 192 15The Fear of Going Mad 206 16Balkan War: The Massacre Next Door 226 171913 231 18 The Man Who Disappeared: Perfection and Disintegration 242 19Invention and Exaggeration 253 20Sexual Trepidation and Surrender 266 21The Working World: High Tech and the Ghostsof Bureaucracy 281 22The Proposal 297 23Literature, Nothing but Literature 324 24Three Congresses in Vienna 350 25Trieste, Venice, Verona, Riva 368 26Grete Bloch: The Messenger Arrives 379 27An All-Time Low 390 28Kafka and Musil 401 29Matrimonial Plans and Asceticism 413 30Tribunal in Berlin 433 31The Great War 444 32Self-Inflicted Justice: The Trial and "In the Penal Colony" 464 33The Return of the East 484 34The Grand Disruption 493 35No-Man's-Land 508 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 517 TRANSLATOR'S NOTE 519 KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS 521 NOTES 523 BIBLIOGRAPHY 551 PHOTO CREDITS 563 INDEX 565

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Book SynopsisSallust’s two extant monographs take as their theme the moral and political decline of Rome, one on the conspiracy of Catiline and the other on the war with Jugurtha. Although Sallust is decidedly unsubtle and partisan in analyzing people and events, his works are important and significantly influenced later historians, notably Tacitus.

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Book SynopsisIn Memorabilia and in Oeconomicus, a dialogue about household management, we see the philosopher Socrates through the eyes of his associate, Xenophon. In the Symposium, we obtain insight on life in Athens. Xenophon's Apology is an interesting complement to Plato's account of Socrates' defense at his trial.

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Book SynopsisThis best-selling cookbook features a delicious collection of recipes from every strata of classical civilization, all accessible to the contemporary cook. Featuring step-by-step instructions, the modern cook will be able to tackle everything from simple meals and street food through to lavish banquets and wedding feasts with an authentic Ancient Greek and Roman flair.

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Book SynopsisHere is a survivor''s vivid account of the greatest maritime disaster in history. The information contained in Gracie''s account is available from no other source. He provides details of those final moments, including names of passengers pulled from the ocean and of those men who, in a panic, jumped into lifeboats as they were being lowered, causing injury and further danger to life. Walter Lord, author of ''A Night to Remember'', comments that Gracie''s book - written shortly before he died from the exposure he suffered on the night - is invaluable for chasing down who went in what boat, and calls Gracie an indefatigable detective.

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Book SynopsisA fascinating insight into 16th-century seafaring and exploration, discover Devaulx's sumptuous 1583 manuscript and encyclopedic reference for sailors. This edition reproduces the complete 31 folios in all their brilliant art and science, gathering color illuminations, observations, charts, and oceanic mapsa magnificent maritime showpiece.

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Book Synopsis'Beautifully written, acutely observed This is a wonderful memoir of an exotic childhood and a striking portrait of one of the world's most beguiling countries. A gem of a book.' ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITHTrade Review'The nearest thing you will get to Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals in Africa and it is just as enchanting' Giles Foden, Conde Nast Traveller 'Beautifully written and lovingly told, Scott's book has the makings to be Out of Africa meets Running with Scissors' New York Times Book Review 'A fabulous read, rollicking, good-humoured and intensely sane' Alexandra Fuller 'Scott does more than simply record her African adventures. She tackles the difficult issue of race, revealing a shift in white attitudes across the generations [and] remind[s] us that southern Africa has many different histories' Independent

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Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of Fortress Malta this is the second book in the Mediterranean war trilogy. This book looks afresh at the conflict in Northern Africa, focusing for the first time on the involvement of the US and the way this early collaboration to defeat shaped the whole Anglo-American axis for the rest of the war in Europe.By June 1942, Britain had reached her lowest ebb. Her military command was in tatters, her armies beaten, and in the Middle East it seemed all might be lost. Her new ally, America, had only fledgling armed forces and was severely under-trained, yet it was this alliance of the weary combatant and naïve newcomer, coming together for the first time in North Africa, that would eventually bring about the defeat of Nazi Germany.This crucial period from defeat at Gazala through to the victories of Alamein and, ultimately, Tunisia was a time of learning for the Allies. Yet by the end Britain and America had finally gained material and certain tactical advantagTrade Review'Anyone who wants to know how it felt to fight in the desert war should read Holland's book. It represents a remarkable collation of personal experience and sensible historical judgments.'Sunday Telegraph, Max Hastings 'Holland has produced a wonderful book whose pace…never seems to flag … he is a master at evoking time and place, with haunting descriptions of the desert landscape … If there is a better book on the North African campaign, I haven't read it.'Daily Telegraph, Saul David 'Using personal testimony and private memoirs as effectively as official archives, he recreates the hardships and challenges faced by ordinary soldiers and reassesses the tactical and strategic innovations that finally gave the allies the upper hand.'Sunday Times 'as Holland shows, this period saw the realisation of how the war might eventually be won'BBC History Magazine 'stands out from the crowd’Literary Review, Nigel Jones 'The book gives the individuals, be they commander-in-chiefs or infantry, space that attests to their bravery and sacrifices … a comprehensive appraisal of the war in North Africa.'Good Book Guide 'Holland tells the story brilliantly. He has delved into archives for letters and diaries and diligently tracked down survivors … Vividly, intelligently, movingly, Holland's monumental chronicle tells it like it was.'Patrick Bishop, Mail on Sunday

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Book SynopsisThe atom bombs dropped on Japan opened the door to the nuclear age. In an ambitious programme, the US Navy paired missiles with nuclear-powered submarines resulting in the Polaris fleet of forty-one deterrent submarines with the first leaving on patrol in 1960. Agreement was later reached to supply the missiles to the Royal Navy.

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Book SynopsisHomeland security is rarely just a matter of the homeland; it involves the circulation and multiplication of policing practices across borders. Though the term homeland security is closely associated with the United States, Israel is credited with first developing this all-encompassing approach to domestic surveillance and territorial control. Today, it is a central node in the sprawling global homeland security industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars. And in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, India emerged as a major growth market. Known as India''s 9/11 or simply 26/11, the attacks sparked significant public pressure to adopt modern homeland security approaches. Since 2008, India has become not only the single largest buyer of Israeli conventional weapons, but also a range of other surveillance technology, police training, and security expertise.Pairing insights from science and technology studies with those from decolonial and postcolonial theory, Fab

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Book Synopsis''a Casement violently opened just over my Head, and a Woman gave three frightful Skreetches, and then cry''d, Oh! Death, Death, Death!''Purporting to be an eye-witness account, the Journal of the Plague Year is a record of the devastation wrought by the Great Plague of 1665 on the city of London. Defoe''s fictional narrator, known only as ''H. F.'', recounts in vivid detail the progress of the disease and the desperate attempts to contain it. He catalogues the rising death toll and the transformation of the city as its citizens flee and those who remain live in fear and despair. Above all it is the stories of appalling human suffering and grief that give Defoe''s extraordinary fiction its compelling historical veracity.This revised edition includes comprehensive notes, a complete topographical index, and a new introduction to the greatest work of plague literature. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from arouTrade ReviewThe London of an earlier period - 1665 - is brought vividly and pungently back to life. * Cannock and Rugeley Chronicle *Gruesomely compulsive reading. * Colin Waters, Sunday Herald *

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Book Synopsis''You know how to win a battle, Hannibal; you do not know how to use the victory!''Livy''s great history of Rome contains, in Books 21 to 30, the definitive ancient account of Hannibal''s invasion of Italy in 218 BC, and the war he fought with the Romans over the following sixteen years. Livy describes the bloody siege of the Spanish city of Saguntum, Rome''s ally, which sparked the war, and the Carthaginian leader''s famous march with elephants over the Alps into Italy. Livy''s gripping story-telling vividly conveys the drama of the great battles, the disastrous encounters at Trasimene and Cannae, and the final confrontation between Hannibal and the youthful Scipio Africanus. Individuals as well as events are brought powerfully to life, as the long course of the Second Punic War unfolds.This new translation captures the brilliance of Livy''s style, and is accompanied by a fascinating introduction and notes.The complete Livy in English, available in five volumes from Oxford World''s Classics. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade Review...has long been recognised as 'one of the most outstanding narratives in ancient historiography'. * John John Jacobs, Yale University *'Altogether, Yardley and Hoyos have collaborated to produce what will now become the authoritative English rendering of Livy 21-30. Yardley's exemplary translation strikes the right balance between a strict fidelity to the syntax of the Latin and the need to explain what Livy means while translating him.' * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

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Book SynopsisThe 1947 UN resolution to partition Palestine irrevocably changed the political landscape of the Middle East, giving rise to six full-fledged wars between Arabs and Jews, countless armed clashes, blockades, and terrorism. This title tells the story from both the Arab and Jewish perspectives.Trade Review“Tightly argued.”—Neil Caplan, Times Literary Supplement“Ephraim Karsh’s Palestine Betrayed tells in rich detail the story of the fall of the British Mandate and the rise of Israel, going a long way towards doing justice to the history at hand.”—Seth Frantzman, Jerusalem Post“A brave and exceedingly important piece of work.”—David Vital, author of A People Apart“With Isaiah Friedman, Efraim Karsh is the preeminent scholar-spokesman of the Revisionist (politically-rightist) Movement in Zionism. I consider this latest of Karsh’s books, Palestine Betrayed, a work of meticulous, even exhaustive scholarship which must be taken with the greatest seriousness and respect by historians of diverse points of view. Indeed, any student of modern Israel will ignore at their peril its sheer cornucopia of factual revelations.”—Howard Sachar“This is the story of the triple betarayal of Palestine by Britsh colonial masters, Arab despots and Palestinian demagogues. A must read for anyone interested in the Middle East’s longest-running conflict.”—Amir Taheri

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Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive history of 'English' as an academic discipline in Britain, covering the development of the subject from its late-eighteenth-century beginnings up to the 1960s.

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Book SynopsisThis book shows that the Western treatment of World War II, the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War as separate and distinct misrepresents their overlapping connections and causes. S. C. M. Paine emphasizes the fears and ambitions of Japan, China and Russia, and the pivotal decisions that set them on a collision course in the 1920s and 1930s.Trade Review'Paine's study offers new perspectives on imperialist wars and interventions in twentieth-century Asia. Based on multi-archival research, it addresses a range of issues in the fraught relations of Japan, China, Russia, and the United States. Students of comparative history will find Paine's analytical framing particularly interesting.' Herbert P. Bix, Binghamton University'The author has written a highly original and provocative work, organized around the thesis that 'nested' civil, regional, and international wars defined East Asian politics and international relations over the first half of the twentieth century. By artful use of the latest Russian, Japanese, Chinese, and U.S. primary and secondary sources, Professor Paine succeeds in showing how war changed the face of East Asia.' Stephen R. MacKinnon, Arizona State University'The first integrated study of Asia's forty years of war. A major intellectual contribution.' Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations, University of Pennsylvania'… a fascinating account of how modern East Asia was shaped by war. By disaggregating the three main wars in the first half of the twentieth century, the author succeeds in showing how their causes and conditions were linked but still separate.' O. A. Westad, author of Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750'This excellent and ambitious book deals with state-building and warfare in twentieth-century Asia. It underlines the critical role of war in modern Asian history and shows how often war trumped diplomacy. It shows too the terrible toll that warfare has exacted on China, Japan, and Russia. Paine gives an original, perceptive, and long-overdue reinterpretation of twentieth-century Asia.' Diana Lary, author of The Chinese People at War'… Paine's book provides us with an important tool through which we can learn the lessons of the past. This in turn will hopefully allow us to plot a safer course in order to avoid any future wars for Asia.' Tosh Minohara, Pacific Affairs'An excellent one-volume survey of Chinese military history in the first half of the twentieth century, The Wars for Asia, 1911–1949 will be of value to anyone interested in World War II and particularly the causes of the Pacific War.' A. A. Nofi, Editor, The NYMAS ReviewTable of ContentsPart I. Fear and Ambition: Japan, China, and Russia: 1. Introduction: the Asian roots of World War II; 2. Japan 1931–6: the containment of Russia and national restoration; 3. China 1926–36: chaos and the quest for the mandate of heaven; 4. Russia 1917–36: impending two-front war and world revolution; Part II. Nested Wars: A Civil War within a Regional War within a Global War: 5. Flashback to 1911 and the beginning of the long Chinese Civil War; 6. The regional war: the Second Sino-Japanese War; 7. The global war: World War I; 8. The final act of the long Chinese Civil War; 9. Conclusion: civil war as the prologue and epilogue to regional and global wars.

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Book SynopsisFrom the origins of urbanization in Mesopotamia to the global metropolises of today, great cities have marked the development of human civilization. This book tells their stories, from Uruk and Memphis to Tokyo and Sao Paulo.Trade Review'An extravaganza … a terrific line-up of writers, and some superb illustrations' - The Times Literary Supplement'One couldn’t really ask for better people to open windows of insight on this fascinating and urgent topic' - Condé Nast Traveller'The history of cities is a history of civilization and such histories do not usually come so clear, so concise, so accessible and so entertaining as this' - The Art BookTable of ContentsUruk • Mohenjo-daro • Memphis • Thebes • Hattusa • Babylon • Nineveh • Carthage Athens • Linzi • Alexandria • Meroë • Jerusalem • Rome • Teotihuacan • Tikal • Constantinople • Mecca • Damascus • Chang’an • Baghdad • Córdoba • Angkor • Palermo • Cairo • Samarkand • Paris • Lübeck • Kraków • Venice • Florence • Benin Timbuktu • Cuzco • Tenochtitlan • Lisbon • Rome • Istanbul • Agra • Isfahan • Beijing • Kyoto • Prague • Amsterdam • Mexico City • London • Stockholm • Dublin • Copenhagen • St Petersburg • Vienna • Edinburgh • Moscow • Paris • London • Budapest Montreal • Washington DC • Barcelona • New Delhi • Berlin • Chicago • Los Angeles • Buenos Aires • Singapore • New York • São Paulo • Sydney • Tokyo • Shanghai

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[A] tour de force. Middlekauff has the admirable ability to capture historical truths in vivid images and memorable phrases.... Middlekauff's empathy enhances this massive book's cumulative power. The cause was glorious; the book is too."--Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post Book World"This is narrative history at its best, written in a conversational and engaging style.... A major revision and expansion of a popular history of the American Revolutionary period."--Library Journal"The reader in search of a wide-ranging overview of the Revolution would be better off turning to any number of earlier books (from Trevelyan's classic 'American Revolution' to more recent works like 'The Glorious Cause' by Robert Middlekauff)."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times, in a review of 1776Table of ContentsMaps Editor's Introduction Porlogue: The Sustaining Truths 1. The Obstructed Giant 2. The Children of the Twice-Born 3. Beginnings: From the Top Down 4. The Stamp Act Crisis 5. Response 6. Selden's Penny 7. Chance and Charles Townshend 8. Boston Takes the Lead 9. The "Bastards of England" 10. Drift 11. Resolution 12. War 13. "Half a War" 14. Independence 15. The War of Posts 16. The War of Maneuver 17. The Revolution Becomes a European War 18. The War in the South 19. The "Fugitive War" 20. Inside the Campaigns 21. Outside the Campaigns 22. Yorktown and Paris 23. The Constitutional Movement 24. The Children of the Twice-Born in the 1780s 25. The Constitutional Convention 26. Ratification: An End and a Beginning Epilogue

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Book SynopsisA striking combination of social intimacy and distinterested political analysis, this title evokes the elegance and excitement of the dynamic international community in Bucharest before the world had come to grips with the horrors of war and genocide.Trade Review"Excellent description and shrewd observation." (Times Literary Supplement) "The most vivid report, long or short, I have ever seen on Rumania... brilliantly written and mercilessly barbed. An unusually skillful and readable book." (Ralph Thompson, New York Times)"

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Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive military history of the war in Vietnam The Vietnam War cast a shadow over the American psyche from the moment it began. In its time it sparked budget deficits, campus protests, and an erosion of US influence around the world. Long after the last helicopter evacuated Saigon, Americans have continued to battle over whether it was ever a winnable war. Based on thousands of pages of military, diplomatic, and intelligence documents, Geoffrey Wawro’s The Vietnam War offers a definitive account of a war of choice that was doomed from its inception. In devastating detail, Wawro narrates campaigns where US troops struggled even to find the enemy in the South Vietnamese wilderness, let alone kill sufficient numbers to turn the tide in their favor. Yet the war dragged on, prolonged by presidents and military leaders who feared the political consequences of accepting defeat. In the end, no number of young lives lost or bombs dropp

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Book SynopsisWhat is history, and why should we study it? Is there such a thing as historical truth? Is history a science? One of the most accomplished historians at work today, John Lewis Gaddis, answers these and other questions in this short, witty, and humane book. The Landscape of History provides a searching look at the historian''s craft, as well as a strong argument for why a historical consciousness should matter to us today.Written in the tradition of Marc Bloch and E. H. Carr, The Landscape of History is at once an engaging introduction to the historical method for beginners, a powerful reaffirmation of it for practitioners, a startling challenge to social scientists, and an effective skewering of postmodernist claims that we can''t know anything at all about the past. It will be essential reading for anyone who reads, writes, teaches, or cares about history.Trade Review"These engaging and accessible lectures describe why history matters. Non-historians who want to learn more about the field will find the book illuminating, and historians will learn from the tools provided."--The San Francisco Chronicle"A masterful statement on the historical method by a distinguished Cold War historian.... Gaddis' most provocative claim is a powerful irony: Social science, with its independent variables and deductive theories, would appear to have more scientific pretensions than does history. But the historical method, which relies on thought experiments and the interplay of inductive and deductive reasoning, more fully shares the methodical logic of such fields as astronomy, paleontology, and evolutionary biology. Gaddis' characterization of the social sciences will surely spark debate even as it illuminates important intellectual connections between the disciplines. Delightfully readable, the book is a grand celebration of the pursuit of knowledge."--Foreign Affairs"A bold and challenging book, unafraid of inviting controversy. It provides a strong statement for our time of both the limits and the value of the historical enterprise."--Alan Brinkley, New York Times Book Review"Never before have I come across a book that so illuminated the craft of the historian.... Gaddis has a delightful command of language--and a delight in it. He draws on Gertrude Stein, Mark Twain, contemporary movies, Thucydides, Tom Stoppard, Woody Allen and lots more.... He is a distinguished scholar who writes with a clarity and a lack of pedantry that is quite marvelous. Equally impressive, he's not afraid of a rip-roaring fight with his fellow academics."--Michael Pakenham, The Baltimore Sun"In 'The Landscape of History,' Mr. Gaddis, the author of several distinguished books on the cold war, both pays homage to Bloch (and with more conditional admiration, to the British historian E.H. Carr) and addresses the challenge of postmodernism. He does all of this in an urbane and eloquent little volume that, in its way, might even be what Bloch himself would have written had he lived.... Mr. Gaddis's learned and graceful reflections on all of these questions are deeply humane, propelled by the conviction that only by sustaining a historical consciousness can we know where we should want to go. They will also never allow either the reader of history or the writer of it to think about the past in quite the same way as before."--Richard Bernstein, New York Times"This is another of those books that rewards the effort it requires. Besides providing invaluable insights into how the historian goes about his business, it teaches--like all really good books--of life beyond its boundaries."--Colin Walters, Washington Times"A technical but provocative inquiry for sophisticated history readers."--Booklist"Entertaining, masterful disquisition on the aims, limitations, design, and methods of historiography.... Employing a wide range of metaphors (from Cleopatra's nose to Napoleon's underwear), displaying an extensive knowledge of current thinking in mathematics, physics, and evolutionary biology, alluding frequently to figures as disparate as Lee Harvey Oswald, Gwyneth Paltrow, John Lennon, and John Malkovich, Gaddis guides us on a genial trip into the historical method and the imagination that informs it.... Provocative, polymathic, and pleasurable."--Kirkus Reviews"The Landscape of History explores recent, surprising convergences of natural science and human history and does so with clarity, charm and easy erudition. Gaddis's book is a real tour de force: a delight to read, and a light-hearted celebration of the odd, 'fractal' patterns that intellectual and other forms of human and natural history exhibit."--William H. McNeillTable of ContentsPreface ; 1. "The Landscape of History" ; 2. "Time and Space" ; 3. "Structure and Process" ; 4. "The Interdependency of Variables" ; 5. "Chaos and Complexity" ; 6. "Causation, Contingency, and Counterfactuals" ; 7. "Molecules with Minds of Their Own" ; 8. "Seeing Like a Historian" ; Notes ; Index

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Book SynopsisA source book for American culture in the 1960s and 1970s: “suggested reading” from the Last Whole Earth Catalog, from Thoreau to James Baldwin.The Whole Earth Catalog was a cultural touchstone of the 1960s and 1970s. The iconic cover image of the Earth viewed from space made it one of the most recognizable books on bookstore shelves. Between 1968 and 1971, almost two million copies of its various editions were sold, and not just to commune-dwellers and hippies. Millions of mainstream readers turned to the Whole Earth Catalog for practical advice and intellectual stimulation, finding everything from a review of Buckminster Fuller to recommendations for juicers. This book offers selections from eighty texts from the nearly 1,000 items of “suggested reading” in the Last Whole Earth Catalog.After an introduction that provides background information on the catalog and its founder, Stewart Brand (interesting fact: Brand go

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"An excellent, well-researched, literate overview of 20th century warfare and the development of the fighter plane. Lords of the Sky will captivate history and aviation buffs alike." -- STEPHEN COONTS, New York Times bestselling author of Flight of the Intruder "Meticulously researched and beautifully written, this must-read chronological history of fighter pilots reads like a great literary novel. Dan Hampton has crafted an important work that is sure to become a classic within the historic lore of military aviation." -- CHRISTINA OLDS, co-author of Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds Praise for Viper Pilot: "Hampton's one of the most decorated pilots in Air Force history... We may never see his like again." -- New York Post "Dramatic, fast-paced, and definitive -- a pleasure for everyone who loves reading about aviation, and the life-and-death drama of air combat." -- MICHAEL KORDA, author of With Wings Like Eagles and Ike "An epic history of the fighter pilot world by a gifted author and historian with the trained eye of a combat pilot. This will be an enduring work of aviation literature. Experience the thrill, hear the wind, encounter the danger: Read this book!" -- Major General DON SHEPPERD (USAF Ret.), co-author of Bury Us Upside Down; former Director of the Air National Guard. "Superbly written. Paints a vivid picture of the skills, scares, scars, and science of air combat brilliantly, weaving them into a fascinating historical fabric that embraces technology, history, and politics. Buffs and the general public will agree that this is a first in the field!" -- Colonel WALTER BOYNE (USAF, Ret.), Former Director of the National Air & Space Museum and author of Beyond the Wild Blue: A History of the United States Air Force

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Book SynopsisStep inside the dazzling world of the sixteenth-century scientist.

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Book SynopsisThe 2025 edition of Warship, the celebrated annual publication featuring original research on the history, development, and service of the world''s warships.For over 45 years, Warship has been the leading annual resource on the design, development, and deployment of the world''s combat ships. Featuring a broad range of articles from a select panel of distinguished international contributors, Warship combines original research, new book reviews, warship notes, an image gallery, and much more, maintaining the impressive standards of scholarship and research with which the annual has become synonymous. Detailed and accurate information is the hallmark of all the articles, which are fully supported by plans, data tables, and stunning photographs. This year''s Warship includes features on France''s first destroyers, the turn-of-the-century 300-tonne type; Denmark''s H-class submarines of World War II; Italy''s proposed battlecruiser desi

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Book SynopsisSocial upheaval in early 20th-century Europe is the historical setting for this study by Spanish philosopher, Jose Ortega y Gasset. In print since 1932, Ortega's vision of Western culture is of society sinking to its lowest common denominator and drifting toward chaos.

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Book Synopsis'Totally absorbing and highly readable account of a remarkable life . . . genuinely revelatory' The Times'A colossal book about a colossal life, a spectacular journey across the entire twentieth century' Daily MailWritten with complete access to the Queen Mother’s personal letters and diaries, William Shawcross's riveting biography is the truly definitive account of this remarkable woman, whose life spanned the twentieth century. Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, was born on 4 August 1900. Drawing on her private correspondence and other unpublished material from the Royal Archives, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother vividly reveals the witty girl who endeared herself to soldiers convalescing at Glamis in the First World War; the assured young Duchess of York; the Queen, at last feeling able to look the East End in the face at the height of the Blitz; the QueeTrade ReviewThis splendid biograpy captures something of the warm glow that she brought to every event and encounter. It also reveals a deeper and more interesting character, forged by good sense, love of country, duty, humour and an instinct for what is right. This is a wonderful book, authoritative, frank and entertaining * Daily Telegraph *A totally absorbing and highly readable account of a remarkable life . . . Shawcross's book is genuinely revelatory -- The TimesA colossal book about a colossal life, a spectacular journey across the entire twentieth century through the eyes of a thoughtful woman who took the hand of a shy royal understudy and was propelled through modern history -- Daily MailLively and elegantly written . . . A rich portrait -- The EconomistImpressively researched . . . Shawcross avoids the traps [of] hagiography . . . He succeeds in the difficult task of keeping his subject resolutely centre-stage in an elegant account -- Independent

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Book SynopsisIncorporating exciting new material that has come to light since the last German edition of 1980, Herwig Wolfram places Gothic history within its proper context of late Roman society and institutions. He demonstrates that the barbarian world of the Goths was both a creation of and an essential element of the late Roman Empire.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Gothic History as Historical Ethnography 1. The Names The Gothic Name The Dual Names of the Two Gothic Peoples Visigoths and Ostrogoths as Western Goths and Eastern Goths The Epic and the Derisive Names of the Goths Biblical and Classical Names for the Goths Gothic Royal Houses and Their Names 2. The Formation of the Gothic Tribes before the Invasion of the Huns Gutones and Guti Politics and Institutions of the Gutones The Trek to the Black Sea The Goths at the Black Sea The Gothic Invasions of the Third Century The Gothic Advance into the Aegean Aurelian and the Division of the Goths The Tervingian-Vesian Confederation at the Danube The Events of 291 to 364 The Era of Athanaric, 365-376/381 Ulfilas and the Beginning of the Conversion of the Goths The Ostrogothic Greutungi until the Invasion of the Huns Ermanaric's Greutungian Kingdom and Its Dissolution Political Organization and Culture of the Goths at the Danube and the Black Sea The Gutthiuda: The Land of the Tervingi and Taifali The Kuni: Community of Descent and Subdivision of the Gutthiuda The Harjis, the Tribal Army Gards, Batirgs, Sibja: Lordship, Retainers, Community of Law Haims (Village): The Social World of the Gothic Freeman Cult and Religion among the Goths Language and Daily Life The Ostrogothic-Greutungian Kingship 3. The Forty-year Migration and the Formation of the Visigoths, 376/378 to 416/418 The Invasion and Settlement of the Goths in Thrace From the Crossing of the Danube (376) to the Battle of Adrianople (378) Theodosius and the Settlement of the Goths in Thrace The Balkan Campaigns of 395-401 The Foedus of 397 and the Settlement of the Goths in Macedonia Alaric's Elevation to the Kingship Fravitta and Eriulf Gainas and Tribigild The Goths in the Western Empire, 401-418 Alaric's Italian Wars Athaulf and the Gothic Trek Westward Athaulf 's Contribution to the Visigothic Ethnogenesis The Visigoths Become Horsemen Radagaisus and His Contribution to the Visigothic Ethnogenesis Valia and the Goths "in Roman Service" 4. The Kingdom of Toulouse, 418 to 507 The Aquitanian Federates, 418-466 The Visigothic "Superpower," 466-507 Euric (466-484) and the Breach of the Foedus of 416/418 The Conquest of the Auvergne and Tarraconensis The Last Battles with the Empire The Organization and Development of Dominion Alaric II (484-507) The Legal and Ecclesiastical Policies of Euric and Alaric II The Legislation of Euric and Alaric II The Ecclesiastical Policies of Euric and Alaric II The King and the Royal Clan The Royal Family The King Court Life: Religion, Language, and Culture The Kingship: Its Functions and Functionaries Military Organization The Courtiers Royal Estates and Finances The Settlement of the Visigoths The Peoples of the Kingdom of Toulouse: Ethnic and Social Composition Goths and Romans in the Kingdom of Toulouse Jews, Greeks, and Syrians The Native Barbarians The Immigrant Barbarians Conditions of Dependency The End That Was No End 5. The "New" Ostrogoths The Division and Reunification of the Amal Goths, 375-451 Pannonian Greutungi, Hunnic Goths, and Ostrogoths The Ostrogothic Kingdom in Pannonia, 456/457-473 The Ostrogoths in the Balkans, 473-488 Theodoric's Battle for Italy, 488-493 The Ostrogothic March to Italy The Battles in Italy, 489-493 Flavius Theodericus Rex: King of the Goths and Italians, 493-526 Theodoric's Efforts To Obtain Imperial Recognition, 490/493-497 Some Questions Theodoric's Kingdom: An Attempt at a Constitutional Analysis Theodoric's Rule in Theory and Practice Exercitus Gothorum Comites Gothorum, Duces, Saiones, Millenarii, Mediocres, Capillati The Settlement of the Gothic Army Polyethnicity, Social Status, and Compulsory Military Service Ostrogothic Weapons and Fighting Techniques Theodoric's Barbarian Policy and the Securing of Italy The Vandals The Visigoths The Burgundians The Franks Raetia and Western Illyricum under Ostrogothic Dominion Barbarian Traditions and Ethnography Theodoric's Roman Policy and the End of His Kingship, 526 The Amal Successors of Theodoric, 526-536 Athalaric (526-534) Theodahad (534-536) The Non-Amal Kings and the Fall of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, 536-552 Vitigis (536-540) Hildebad and Eraric (540/541) Totila (541-552) The Epilogue: Teja (552) Appendixes 1. Roman Emperors 2. A Survey of Gothic History 3. Genealogical Charts of the Balthi and Amali Notes List of Abbreviations Bibliography Index Maps

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Book SynopsisOn two days in 1761 and 1769 hundreds of astronomers pointed their telescopes towards the skies to observe a rare astronomical event: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun.United by this momentous occasion, scientists from around the globe came together to answer the essential question: how can the universe be measured? In Chasing Venus Andrea Wulf paints a vivid portrait of the rivalries, triumphs and misfortunes that befell these men, along with their passion and determination to succeed. This extraordinary book tells their story and how one single event prompted the first international scientific collaboration.Trade ReviewAndrea Wulf's story of the chase is an enthralling, nail-biting thriller and will undoubtedly prove one of the non-fiction books of the year. Even if you fail to see the Transit, don't miss this wonderful book -- John Harding * Daily Mail *A fine example of scientific storytelling about astronomers of the Enlightenment observing the transit of Venus ... narrated with elegant expertise. -- Iain Finlayson * The Times *Historian Andrea Wulf’s Chasing Venus is beautifully paced, alternating between expe­ditions, with lush descriptions of the often arduous journeys involved. * Nature *[a] truly excellent book…Andrea Wulf tell[s] the rip-roaring tales of numerous expeditions that set off around the globe to observe the Venusian transit of 1761…[She] communicate[s] the verve and energy – not to mention the perilous nature – of the expeditions. -- Marcus Chown * New Scientist *It charts the story of a truly international effort; to not only observe the transit ... but to present the real quest that was to finally determine the distance between the Earth and the Sun ... [an] outstanding book! It's the book of the year so far – do not miss it! * Astronomy Now *

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