Search results for ""author paul collins""

On 23 November 1849, in the heart of Boston, one of the city’s richest men vanished. Dr. George Parkman, who owned much of Boston's West End, was last seen that afternoon visiting his alma mater, Harvard Medical School. Police scoured city tenements and the harbour but a Harvard janitor held a much darker suspicion: that their ruthless benefactor had not left the Medical School building. His shocking discovery engulfed America in one of its most infamous trials, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. John White Webster, Harvard’s professor of chemistry. A baffling case of red herrings, grave robbing and dismemberment; it became a landmark in the use of medical forensics. Rich in characters and atmosphere, Blood & Ivy explores the fatal entanglement of new science and old money in one of America’s greatest murder mysteries.

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On November 23rd of 1849, in the heart of Boston, one of the city’s richest men simply vanished. Dr. George Parkman, a Brahmin who owned much of Boston’s West End, was last seen that afternoon visiting his alma mater, Harvard Medical School. Police scoured city tenements and the harbor, and leads put the elusive Dr. Parkman at sea or hiding in Manhattan. But one Harvard janitor held a much darker suspicion: that their ruthless benefactor had never left the Medical School building alive. His shocking discoveries in a chemistry professor’s laboratory engulfed America in one of its most infamous trials: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. John White Webster. A baffling case of red herrings, grave robbery, and dismemberment, it became a landmark case in the use of medical forensics and the meaning of reasonable doubt. Paul Collins brings nineteenth-century Boston back to life in vivid detail, weaving together newspaper accounts, letters, journals, court transcripts, and memoirs from this groundbreaking case. Rich in characters and evocative in atmosphere, Blood & Ivy explores the fatal entanglement of new science and old money in one of America’s greatest murder mysteries.

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The Black Country has more miles of canal than Venice. During the industrial revolution this transport system developed to serve the steel, coal, lime and glass industries that grew up so extensively. Now much of the area’s heavy industry has disappeared, but many of the canals remain – to be utilised as an integral part of the Black Country’s thriving tourist industry. Black Country Canals includes a wide range of photographs, many previously unpublished, and is accompanied by fascinating and informative captions which combine to illustrate the canals in their heyday and more recently. The book is sure to appeal to all who live in or visit the Black Country, and to transport historians everywhere.

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An archaeological history of ancient Assyria, showcasing its superb buildings, art and literature.

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Stimulating, encyclopaedic, and often downright funny, this is a book worth remembering." , Stephen O'Shea, Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada) A lively, full-to-bursting history of the turbulent tenth century in Europe, . Collins presents chaotic upheaval across Europe in an organized and riveting fashion." , Kirkus (starred review)The tenth century dawned in violence and disorder. Charlemagne's empire was in ruins, most of Spain had been claimed by Moorish invaders, and even the papacy in Rome was embroiled in petty, provincial conflicts. The stability once provided by Imperial Rome had dissolved, leaving a perilous landscape behind. Yet the story of the tenth century is the story of our culture's birth. This was the moment that civilization emerged from the Dark Ages into the light of day.The Birth of the West tells the story of a transformation from chaos to order, exploring the alien landscape of Europe in transition. It thoroughly renovates older conceptions of feudalism and what medieval life was actually like. The result is a wholly-new vision of how civilization sprang from the unlikeliest of origins, and proof that our tenth-century ancestors are not as remote as we might think. The Birth of the West is a re-making of what we think we know about the end of the Dark Ages. It is also the gate to the utterly unexpected cosmos of European forebears., The characters who people The Birth of the West are as familiar as relatives,as indeed they are,groping their way to a cohesive Western culture. The Birth of the West is thus the tale of our birth, and Collins tells it with a narrative grace and elegance which will make readers cherish it." , Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's Ark

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The Kinver Light Railway once linked the Black Country to Kinver, an inland resort to which local people flocked on high days and holidays. On some occasions over 20,000 people were carried by tramcar in one day! Part conventional street tramway, part cross-country electric railway, the line withered and died as those it branched from closed. Yet, despite having been gone for many years, much survives from the tramway and its echoes are still around. After charting the line’s history, this book recreates a ride along the line to Kinver using a plethora of historic photographs, many of which have not been published before. Kinver’s delights are highlighted before the return journey is made in the present day, pointing out the many features and objects from the tramway that survive along the way.

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Made to fill the major gap in the literature on public administration applied in development. This title provides a review of the state-of-the-art which is both historically-grounded and forward-looking, and which will appeal to a broad readership: policy-makers, managers, advisers, scholars and others operating at all levels of government from local community through international levels. The studies offer a practical approach, consistently linking theory with practice and experience, providing a forum for new and exciting ideas.

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Sumer was a region of the ancient world that today forms the southern part of Iraq. It is a vast, flat land of floodplains formed by the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates. It was here that some of the world's first cities arose and writing was invented. Archaeologists have explored the remains of some of Sumer's ancient settlements. They have made remarkable discoveries at places such as Uruk, Ur, Eridu, Nippur, Kish and Lagash. These show that the people of Sumer were great artists, builders, inventors, warriors and traders. By 3500 BC the population of some Sumerian towns had grown into cities. The largest was certainly Uruk, which had a population of at least 10,000. At this time this would have been the largest settlement on the planet. Writing was invented by the Sumerians around 3200 BC. This script is known as cunieform script and through it readers can learn about the Sumerians in their own words. Readers will discover what is meant by a ziggurat, how cunieform writing works, the importance of cylinder seals and stories of Sumerian kings, heroes and gods. This fascinating book is perfect for Key Stage 2 readers aged 9 and up to gain a picture of one of the earliest civilisations in the world.

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Dudley was connected by tram to various parts of the Black Country, first by steam trams and then by electric ones. This book takes a route-by-route look at the development, operation and run-down of the tramway system which once linked Dudley to Brierley Hill, Stourbridge, Netherton, Cradley Heath, Pensnett, Kingswinford, Wordsley, Kinver, Lye, Wollaston, Old Hill and Blackheath. After charting each line’s history, the book recreates a ride along them using a plethora of historic photographs, many of which have not been published before, highlighting the many features and objects from the tramway that survive along the way.

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Between the ninth and seventh centuries BC the small kingdom of Assyria in northern Iraq expanded through conquest to dominate the region from Egypt to Iran. The power of the Assyrian kings was reflected in the creation of a series of magnificent palaces in which the walls of principal rooms and courtyards were lined with huge panels of alabaster carved with images of the monarch as priest, victorious warrior and hunter. Together, the sculptures constitute some of the most impressive and eloquent witnesses of the ancient Middle East. This book serves as a superb visual introduction to what are undoubtedly some of the greatest works of art from the ancient world, showcasing a series of specially taken photographs of the British Museum's unrivalled collection of Assyrian sculptures. These stunning images capture the majesty of the Assyrian king, his magnificent court and its protecting divinities, through individual panels or extraordinary, often overlooked details, such as incised embroidery on robes, the contours of flesh and musculature, the turn of a horse's head or the order within the apparent chaos of battle. An introduction sets the sculptures in their cultural and art-historical context. A brief history of Assyria and the royal palaces is followed by an overview of their discovery, reception and understanding. These are the earliest examples of complex narrative art, and their multilayered meanings occupied entire rooms in which the raw emotion and energy of animals and humans was captured with remarkable vitality. Many of these exceptional carvings rank among the greatest achievements in the history of art.

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The Sumerians are widely believed to have created the world’s earliest civilization on the fertile floodplains of southern Iraq from about 3500 to 2000 BC. They have been credited with the invention of nothing less than cities, writing and the wheel, and therefore hold an ancient mirror to our own urban, literate world. But is this picture correct? Paul Collins reveals how the idea of a Sumerian people was assembled from the archaeological and textual evidence uncovered in Iraq and Syria over the last 150 years. Reconstructed through the biases of those who unearthed them, the Sumerians were never simply lost and found, but reinvented a number of times, both in antiquity and in the more recent past.

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Howard Carter's excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 was one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. The name of Egypt's 'boy king' is now synonymous with the glories of this ancient civilisation, and the spectacular contents of his tomb continue to capture the public's imagination. This book tells the story of the search for Tutankhamun's tomb and its discovery using Howard Carter's original excavation records that were deposited in the archives of the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford. The meticulous recording process and conservation work on the thousands of objects took Carter and his team an astonishing 10 years and for its time the entire enterprise was a model of archaeological investigation. Against this backdrop of painstaking scholarship, the book also explores the phenomenon of 'Tut-mania', when the world was gripped by all things Tutankhamun, from jewellery and clothing to dance music and curses. In the final section, the authors re-evaluate what the tomb s contents can tell us about the king and his time, and explore various projects that have in recent years sought to ensure the preservation of Tutankhamun's tomb and its contents for future generations. For all of these projects, the Howard Carter archive in the Griffith Institute remains an invaluable resource.

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Ancient Mesopotamia and Iran are usually treated separately or as part of a much broader 'Ancient Near East'. However, the developments that lie at the root of our own world - farming, cities, writing, organised religion, warfare - were forged in the tensions and relations between the inhabitants of lowland Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) and the highlands of Iran. Mountains and Lowlands explores this relationship providing a detailed but accessible account covering the period 6000 BC-AD 650, from the development of the first agricultural communities to the coming of Islam. The story is told through the superlative Ancient Near Eastern collections in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, supplemented by images of photographs of archaeological sites and of iconic pieces in other collections including the Louvre, Paris. The discussion is further supported by six maps commissioned especially for this publication.

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