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Books > Humanities > History > European history > General

Only One Year - A Memoir (Paperback): Svetlana Alliluyeva Only One Year - A Memoir (Paperback)
Svetlana Alliluyeva
R480 R400 Discovery Miles 4 000 Save R80 (17%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Edexcel AS/A Level History, Paper 1&2: Revolutions in early modern and modern Europe Student Book + ActiveBook (Paperback):... Edexcel AS/A Level History, Paper 1&2: Revolutions in early modern and modern Europe Student Book + ActiveBook (Paperback)
Alan White, Daniel Nuttall, Oliver Bullock
R1,260 Discovery Miles 12 600 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Exam Board: Edexcel Level: A level Subject: History First teaching: September 2015 First exams: June 2017 This book: covers the essential content in the new specifications in a rigorous and engaging way, using detailed narrative, sources, timelines, key words, helpful activities and extension material helps develop conceptual understanding of areas such as evidence, interpretations, causation and change, through targeted activities provides assessment support for both AS and A level with sample answers, sources, practice questions and guidance to help you tackle the new-style exam questions. It also comes with three years' access to ActiveBook, an online, digital version of your textbook to help you personalise your learning as you go through the course - perfect for revision

The Global History of Portugal - From Pre-History to the Modern World (Hardcover): Carlos Fiolhais, Jose Eduardo Franco, Jose... The Global History of Portugal - From Pre-History to the Modern World (Hardcover)
Carlos Fiolhais, Jose Eduardo Franco, Jose Pedro Paiva
R3,478 Discovery Miles 34 780 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

For thousands of years Portugal has been the point of arrival and departure for peoples, cultures, languages, ideas, fashions, behaviours, beliefs, institutions and produce. While its miscegenation and global multimodal activity enriched the world in many ways, it also provoked violence, war, suffering and resistance. The Global History of Portugal contains 93 chapters grouped into five parts: Pre-history, Antiquity, Middle Ages, Early Modern period and Modern World. Each chapter begins with an event, interpreted in the light of global history. Each part opens with an introduction, offering a perspective of the period in question. The three Editors, five Scientific Coordinators (Joao Luis Cardoso, Carlos Fabiao, Bernardo Vasconcelos e Sousa, Catia Antunes and Antonio Costa Pinto) and ninety Contributors offer a critical and analytical synthesis of the history that originated in Portuguese territory or passed through it, stimulating the process of encounter and dis-encounter in todays global world. The history presented gives special attention to the world that moulded Portugal and the Portuguese, and to the ways Portugal configured the world. It seeks to identify and understand the transversal entanglements of historic impact and the impulses these gave to the construction of Portugal and the world. Contemporary reflection and academic scholarship on the global history of leading nations has stimulated a rethinking of the past and a more comprehensive recognition of legacy. Historians can no longer overlook the wider world with which their country of investigation has interacted. Portugals role in the dynamic circulation of peoples and ideas makes it global history not only unique by way of what took place but also in terms of a potential academic template for better understanding of how the past shapes the present, and more particularly the importance of acknowledging a countrys past historic mis-steps and how these are dealt with by contemporary populations.

Livres d'ecole et litterature de jeunesse en France au XVIIIe siecle (Paperback): Emmanuelle Chapron Livres d'ecole et litterature de jeunesse en France au XVIIIe siecle (Paperback)
Emmanuelle Chapron
R2,932 Discovery Miles 29 320 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Riche de ses editeurs scolaires et de ses collections enfantines, le dix-neuvieme siecle a-t-il invente le marche du livre pour enfants? Dans la France du dix-huitieme siecle, de nombreux acteurs s'efforcent deja de separer, au sein de la librairie, les lectures adaptees aux enfants et aux jeunes gens. Les rituels pedagogiques des colleges et des petites ecoles, les strategies commerciales des libraires, les preoccupations des Eglises, les projets et les politiques de reforme scolaire, tous pousses par la fievre educative de la noblesse et de la bourgeoisie, produisent alors d'innombrables bibliotheques enfantines, plurielles et plastiques, avec ou sans murs. Cet ouvrage montre comment, a un ordre des livres domine par les logiques des institutions scolaires et des metiers du livre, se surimpose a partir des annees 1760 une nouvelle categorie, celle du " livre d'education ", qui ne s'identifie plus a un lieu, mais a un projet de lecture, et s'accompagne de l'emergence de nouvelles figures d'auteurs. Alors que les etudes sur la litterature de jeunesse poursuivent partout leur developpement et leur structuration, ce livre dialogue avec les dernieres recherches europeennes sur la question. A l'inverse des travaux litteraires, il part, non des auteurs et des textes, mais des objets et de leurs manipulations. Son originalite est d'apporter un regard historien sur ces questions, en articulant histoire du livre et de la librairie, histoire de l'education, histoire des milieux litteraires et de la condition d'auteur. --- With its wealth of educational publishers and children's collections, did the nineteenth century invent the children's book market? In eighteenth-century France, many people were already trying to separate the literature suitable for children and young people within the bookstore. The pedagogical rituals of colleges and small schools, the commercial strategies of booksellers, the concerns of the churches, the projects and policies of school reform, all driven by the educational fever of the nobility and the bourgeoisie, produced countless children's libraries, plural and plastic, with or without walls. At the beginning of the century, the ordering of books was dominated by the rationale of educational institutions and the book trade: this book shows how a new category emerged from the 1760s onwards, that of the "educational book", which was no longer identified with a place, but with a literacy project, and which was accompanied by the emergence of new authors. As studies on children's literature continue to be developed and shaped in many areas, this book is in dialogue with the latest European research on the subject. In contrast to literary studies, this research does not start from authors and texts, but from objects and their uses. Its originality lies in the fact that it provides a historical perspective on these issues, articulating the history of books and bookshops, the history of education, the history of literary circles and the status of the author.

The Library - A Fragile History (Paperback, Main): Arthur der Weduwen, Andrew Pettegree The Library - A Fragile History (Paperback, Main)
Arthur der Weduwen, Andrew Pettegree
R396 R376 Discovery Miles 3 760 Save R20 (5%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

LONGLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS' ASSOCIATION NON-FICTION CROWN A SUNDAY TIMES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Timely ... a long and engrossing survey of the library' FT 'A sweeping, absorbing history, deeply researched' Richard Ovenden, author of Burning the Books Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes or filled with bean bags and children's drawings - the history of the library is rich, varied and stuffed full of incident. In this, the first major history of its kind, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen explore the contested and dramatic history of the library, from the famous collections of the ancient world to the embattled public resources we cherish today. Along the way, they introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world's great collections, trace the rise and fall of fashions and tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanours committed in pursuit of rare and valuable manuscripts.

The Life and Legend of Catterina Vizzani - Sexual identity, science and sensationalism in Eighteenth-Century Italy and England... The Life and Legend of Catterina Vizzani - Sexual identity, science and sensationalism in Eighteenth-Century Italy and England (Paperback)
Clorinda Donato
R2,935 Discovery Miles 29 350 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

From the time Catterina Vizzani, a young Roman woman, began wooing the woman she was attracted to, she did so dressed as a man. Fleeing Rome to avoid a potential trial for sexual misdeeds, she became Giovanni Bordoni, transitioning and becoming a male in spirit, deed, and body, through what was the most complete physical change possible in the eighteenth century. This volume features Giovanni Bianchi's 1744 Italian account of Vizzani/Bordoni, published for the first time together with a modern English translation, making available to an English-speaking audience the objective, scientific exploration of gender conducted by Bianchi. John Cleland's well-known, albeit fanciful, 1751 version of the story has also been reproduced here, shedding light on the divergent sexual politics driving Bianchi's Italian original and Cleland's greatly embellished English translation. Through a close examination of Bianchi's work as anatomical practitioner and scholar, Clorinda Donato traces the development of his advocacy for tolerance of all sexual orientations. Several chapters address the medical and philosophical inquiry into sexual preference, reproduction, sexual identity, and gender fluidity which Enlightenment anatomists from Holland to Italy engaged with in their research concerning the relationship between the mind and the reproductive organs. Meanwhile, it is the social implications of gender ambiguity which may be analysed in Cleland's condemnation of women who "pass" as men. Drawing on the biographies produced by Bianchi and Cleland, the volume reflects on the motivation of each author to tell the story of Vizzani/Bordoni either as a narration of empowerment or a cautionary tale within the European context of evolving sexual opinions, some based on scientific research, others based on social practice and cultural norms.

Homage to Catalonia (Paperback): George Orwell Homage to Catalonia (Paperback)
George Orwell
R77 Discovery Miles 770 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. In 1936, George Orwell volunteered as a soldier in the Spanish Civil War. In Homage to Catalonia, first published just before the outbreak of World War II, Orwell documents the chaos and bloodshed of that moment in history and the voices of those who fought against rising fascism. His experience of the civil war would spark a significant change in his own political views, which readers today will recognise in much of his later literary work; a rage against the threat of totalitarianism and control.

Iran and a French empire of trade, 1700-1808 - The other Persian letters (Paperback): Junko Therese Takeda Iran and a French empire of trade, 1700-1808 - The other Persian letters (Paperback)
Junko Therese Takeda
R2,925 Discovery Miles 29 250 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Iran and a French Empire of Trade examines the understudied topic of Franco-Persian relations in the long eighteenth century to highlight how rising tensions among Eurasian empires and revolutions in the Atlantic world were profoundly intertwined. Conflicts between Persia, Turkey, India and Russia, and European weapons-dealing with these empires occurred against a backdrop of climate change and food insecurities that destabilized markets. Takeda shows how the French state relied on "entrepreneurial imperialism" to extend commercial activities eastwards beyond the Mediterranean during this time, from Louis XIV's reign to Napoleon Bonaparte's First Empire. Organized as a collection of microhistories, her study showcases a colourful set of characters-rogue merchants from Marseille, a gambling house madam, a naturalized Greek-French drogman, and a bi-cultural Genevan-Persian consul, among others-to demonstrate how individuals on the fringes of French society spearheaded projects to foster ties between France and Persia. Considering the Enlightenment as a product of a connected world, Takeda investigates how trans-imperial adventurers, merchants, consuls, and informants negotiated treaties, traded commodities and arms, transferred knowledge, and introduced industrial practices from Asia to Europe. And she shows the surprising ways in which Enlightenment debates about regime changes from the Safavid to Qajar dynasties and Persia's borderland wars shaped French ideas about revolution and policies related to empire-building.

Machiavelli - A Biography (Paperback): Miles J. Unger Machiavelli - A Biography (Paperback)
Miles J. Unger 1
R509 R433 Discovery Miles 4 330 Save R76 (15%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Few philosophers are more often referred to and more often misunderstood than Machiavelli. He was truly a product of the Renaissance, and he was as much a revolutionary in the field of political philosophy as Leonardo or Michelangelo were in painting and sculpture. He watched his native Florence lose its independence to the French, thanks to poor leadership from the Medici successors to the great Lorenzo (Il Magnifico). Machiavelli was a keen observer of people, and he spent years studying events and people before writing his famous books. Descended from minor nobility, Machiavelli grew up in a household that was run by a vacillating and incompetent father. He was well educated and smart, and he entered government service as a clerk. He eventually became an important figure in the Florentine state but was defeated by the deposed Medici and Pope Julius II. He was tortured but eventually freed by the restored Medici. No longer employed, he retired to his home to write the books for which he is remembered. Machiavelli had seen the best and the worst of human nature, and he understood how the world operated. He drew his observations from life, and he was appropriately cynical in his writing, given what he had personally experienced. He was an outstanding writer, and his work remains fascinating nearly 500 years later.

The War on the West - How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason (Hardcover): Douglas Murray The War on the West - How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason (Hardcover)
Douglas Murray
R445 Discovery Miles 4 450 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER 'The most important book of the year' Daily Mail The brilliant and provocative new book from one of the world's foremost political writers 'The anti-Western revisionists have been out in force in recent years. It is high time that we revise them in turn...' In The War on the West, international bestselling author Douglas Murray asks: if the history of humankind is one of slavery, conquest, prejudice, genocide and exploitation, why are only Western nations taking the blame for it? It's become perfectly acceptable to celebrate the contributions of non-Western cultures, but discussing their flaws and crimes is called hate speech. What's more it has become acceptable to discuss the flaws and crimes of Western culture, but celebrating their contributions is also called hate speech. Some of this is a much-needed reckoning; however, some is part of a larger international attack on reason, democracy, science, progress and the citizens of the West by dishonest scholars, hatemongers, hostile nations and human-rights abusers hoping to distract from their ongoing villainy. In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows the ways in which many well-meaning people have been lured into polarisation by lies, and shows how far the world's most crucial political debates have been hijacked across Europe and America. Propelled by an incisive deconstruction of inconsistent arguments and hypocritical activism, The War on the West is an essential and urgent polemic that cements Murray's status as one of the world's foremost political writers.

The Queen and the Mistress - The Women of Edward III (Hardcover): Gemma Hollman The Queen and the Mistress - The Women of Edward III (Hardcover)
Gemma Hollman
R507 Discovery Miles 5 070 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

'Hollman combines scrupulous research with spellbinding storytelling; The Queen and the Mistress will keep you turning the pages.' - Sylvia Barbara Soberton, author of Ladies-In-Waiting: The Women Who Served Anne Boleyn 'A must-read for anyone interested in medieval women's or royal history.' - Catherine Hanley, author of Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior 'In The Queen and the Mistress, Gemma Hollman challenges much of the misinformation and misconceptions which have surrounded both women for centuries ... A triumph of historical research and interpretation.' - Sharon Bennett Connolly, author of Ladies of Magna Carta: Women of Influence in Thirteenth Century England 'The Queen and the Mistress is an absorbing and masterful historical work, which you might not even notice because it is also incredibly fun. Hollman writes with obvious joy and sensitivity towards her subjects, bringing these complex women and their world to glorious life. I couldn't put it down.' - Eleanor Janega, Going Medieval Podcast IN A WORLD WHERE MAN IS KING, CAN WOMEN REALLY HAVE IT ALL - AND KEEP IT? Philippa of Hainault was Queen of England for forty-one years. Her marriage to Edward III, when they were both teenagers, was more political transaction than romantic wedding, but it would turn into a partnership of deep affection. The mother of twelve children, she was the perfect medieval queen: pious, unpolitical and fiercely loyal to both her king and adopted country. Alice Perrers entered court as a young widow and would soon catch the eye of an ageing king whose wife was dying. Born to a family of London goldsmiths, this charismatic and highly intelligent woman would use her position as the king's favourite to build up her own portfolio of land, wealth and prestige, only to see it all come crashing down as Edward himself neared death. The Queen and the Mistress is a story of female power and passion, and how two very different women used their skills and charms to navigate a tumultuous royal court - and win the heart of the same man.

Greece and the New Balkans - Themes and Histories (Paperback): James Pettifer Greece and the New Balkans - Themes and Histories (Paperback)
James Pettifer
R444 Discovery Miles 4 440 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The Oxford academic and foreign correspondent James Pettifer has been an international authority on and historian of modern Greece and its Balkan neighbours for over thirty years. At the same time, he has been an eye-witness to many of the events that led to the ex-Yugoslav Wars. This book, bringing together some of his most important papers and reports, explores the evolution of the Macedonian crisis, the chaos and anarchy in Albania linked to the war in Kosovo, and the recent debt crisis in Greece. It also analyses the region's turbulent history with seminal papers on historiography and the evolution of British foreign policy towards Greece and the wider region in the twentieth century, the nature of Montenegrin identity at the time of independence, and the changing role of Albania in the Balkans. The key paper on the emergence of the New Macedonian Question, which has set the parameters for all later analysis, is also included in this collection The end of the Cold War after 1990 was expected to herald an era of stability and liberal democratic development, but in reality the Southern Balkans have experienced intermittent crises during these years, from the implosion of impoverished Albania and the gradual collapse of Yugoslavia into fragmentation and violent conflict, to the chain of events in Greece that led to the post-2010 financial crisis and the ensuing imposition of international control over the economy. These issues have emerged against the background of deteriorating relations with Turkey and an alarming climate of militarization and instability throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. This collection, which includes material hitherto difficult to access, will be an essential tool for all students of the history, international relations and contemporary politics of an increasingly critical region on the interface of Europe and the Middle East.

Famous Ancient Greeks - Learning from the Lives of Key Thinkers (Paperback): Joy Palmer Famous Ancient Greeks - Learning from the Lives of Key Thinkers (Paperback)
Joy Palmer; Illustrated by Jane Bottomley, Martin Cater
R480 Discovery Miles 4 800 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This fascinating resource teaches children about the lives of some of the most influential thinkers throughout history. The book combines short biographies of ten key figures from Ancient Greece with descriptions of the life-shaping events, philosophies and actions for which they are famous. Each biography is accompanied by activity suggestions and worksheets which enable children to gain a greater understanding of the philosophies and engage with the accounts of the historical events.

The Invention of Marxism - How an Idea Changed Everything (Hardcover): Christina Morina The Invention of Marxism - How an Idea Changed Everything (Hardcover)
Christina Morina; Translated by Elizabeth Janik
R1,014 R934 Discovery Miles 9 340 Save R80 (8%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

How did one man's critique of capitalism guide the course of modern history? When he died in 1883, Karl Marx left behind an intellectual legacy of formidable proportions and revolutionary potential, yet one that exerted limited actual political, social, or economic influence. The full force of his ideas did not come into play for another generation, and only after they had been appropriated and applied by some of Marxism's earliest proponents. The history of Marxism, in other words, is the story of those who brought Marx's ideas into play, transforming a sweeping but fractious and occasionally abstruse view of historical and social forces into a coherent plan of action. Christina Morina's illuminating book focuses on the first generation of Marxist who turned the work and ideas of one social theorist, one among many, into one of the most powerful transnational political movements in modern history. The Invention Of Marxism is therefore a group portrait, featuring such figures as Rosa Luxemburg, Max Adler, Jean Jaures, Eduard Bernstein, Karl Kautsky, and Vladimir Lenin-German, French, Russian, Czech-whose lives became dedicated to interpreting and applying Marxist thought. They were the vehicles by which his ideas were read, debated, and gradually adopted in socialist movements across Europe. Morina's fascinating book therefore reconstructs the beginnings of Marxism through the individual politicization of a group of intellectuals who made it their purpose in life to solve the "social question," exploring the nexus between their intellectual constructs and social and political reality. The Invention of Marxism shows how what started as a theory of capitalism grew into a fully-fledged political philosophy and platform, one that shaped the century that followed Marx's death. In short, it reveals how an idea first conquered these individuals and then the world.

A Traveller's History of Cyprus (Paperback): Timothy Boatswain A Traveller's History of Cyprus (Paperback)
Timothy Boatswain
R70 Discovery Miles 700 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

"A Traveller's History of Cyprus" offers a complete and authoritative history of the island's past and also touches on the sensitive present-day issues for both sides of the island. Although Cyprus is a relatively small island, its position in the East Mediterranean has always given it strategic importance beyond its size. Well-placed for travel from all over the globe with plenty of sunshine throughout the year, Cyprus has become a favored tourist destination. All visitors, whether to the Greek or Turkish side of the island, discover the immensely rich history, which has resulted in so many civilizations making their mark upon its soil. With a historical gazetteer, chronology of major events, index, bibliography and historical and contemporary maps, this book is an invaluable companion to students or visitors to the island.

Reclaiming al-Andalus - Orientalist Scholarship and Spanish Nationalism, 1875-1919 (Hardcover): Pablo Bornstein Reclaiming al-Andalus - Orientalist Scholarship and Spanish Nationalism, 1875-1919 (Hardcover)
Pablo Bornstein
R3,448 Discovery Miles 34 480 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Reclaiming al-Andalus focuses on the construction of the scholarly discipline of Orientalist studies in Spain. Special attention is paid to the impact that the elaboration of a series of historical interpretations of the legacy left by Muslim and Jewish culture in Spain had over the writing of national history in the period of the Bourbon Restoration. A historiographical account of Spains Orientalism tackles the problematized issues that both Arabist and Hebraist scholars sought to address. Orientalist scholarship thereby became inextricably linked to different interpretations of the historical shaping of Spanish national identity. Political circumstances of the day impacted on the approach these scholars took as they engaged with the Iberian Semitic past. And this at a critical moment in the crystallization of modern Spanish nationalism. A common thread running through the work of these Orientalist scholars was the tendency to nationalize or Hispanicize cultural activity of the Semitic populations that lived on the Iberian Peninsula in medieval times. This Hispanizication was instrumentalized in diverse ways in order to serve nation-building efforts. Hence Orientalist scholarship became integrated into the national debates that were shaping Spanish cultural and political life at the turn of the century. Reclaiming al-Andalus explains how regenerationist projects taking form after the national crisis of 1898, and different polemical discussions around religion-state affairs, deeply influenced the writings of academic Orientalism. The intertwined connection between Orientalist scholarship and nationalist debates in Spain has hitherto been understudied. This book not only contributes to the general debate on modern Orientalism, but most importantly presents a profound new viewpoint to the ongoing debate on the conflictive history of Spanish nationalism.

A Short History of Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce (Hardcover): Massimo Montanari A Short History of Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce (Hardcover)
Massimo Montanari; Translated by Gregory Conti
R461 R380 Discovery Miles 3 800 Save R81 (18%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
African Europeans - An Untold History (Hardcover): Olivette Otele African Europeans - An Untold History (Hardcover)
Olivette Otele
R728 Discovery Miles 7 280 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

As early as the third century, St Maurice-an Egyptian-became leader of the legendary Roman Theban Legion. Ever since, there have been richly varied encounters between those defined as 'Africans' and those called 'Europeans'. Yet Africans and African Europeans are still widely believed to be only a recent presence in Europe. Olivette Otele traces a long African European heritage through the lives of individuals both ordinary and extraordinary. She uncovers a forgotten past, from Emperor Septimius Severus, to enslaved Africans living in Europe during the Renaissance, and all the way to present-day migrants moving to Europe's cities. By exploring a history that has been long overlooked, she sheds light on questions very much alive today-on racism, identity, citizenship, power and resilience. 'African Europeans' is a landmark account of a crucial thread in Europe's complex history. A Guardian Best Book of 2020 A History Today Book of the Year, 2020 A Waterstones Best Book of 2020

The Fourth Part of the World - An Astonishing Epic of Global Discovery, Imperial Ambition, and the Birth of America... The Fourth Part of the World - An Astonishing Epic of Global Discovery, Imperial Ambition, and the Birth of America (Paperback)
Toby Lester
R551 R465 Discovery Miles 4 650 Save R86 (16%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

"Old maps lead you to strange and unexpected places, and none does so more ineluctably than the subject of this book: the giant, beguiling Waldseemuller world map of 1507." So begins this remarkable story of the map that gave America its name.
For millennia Europeans believed that the world consisted of three parts: Europe, Africa, and Asia. They drew the three continents in countless shapes and sizes on their maps, but occasionally they hinted at the existence of a "fourth part of the world," a mysterious, inaccessible place, separated from the rest by a vast expanse of ocean. It was a land of myth--until 1507, that is, when Martin Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann, two obscure scholars working in the mountains of eastern France, made it real. Columbus had died the year before convinced that he had sailed to Asia, but Waldseemuller and Ringmann, after reading about the Atlantic discoveries of Columbus's contemporary Amerigo Vespucci, came to a startling conclusion: Vespucci had reached the fourth part of the world. To celebrate his achievement, Waldseemuller and Ringmann printed a huge map, for the first time showing the New World surrounded by water and distinct from Asia, and in Vespucci's honor they gave this New World a name: America.
"
The Fourth Part of the World "is the story behind that map, a thrilling saga of geographical and intellectual exploration, full of outsize thinkers and voyages. Taking a kaleidoscopic approach, Toby Lester traces the origins of our modern worldview. His narrative sweeps across continents and centuries, zeroing in on different portions of the map to reveal strands of ancient legend, Biblical prophecy, classical learning, medieval exploration, imperial ambitions, and more. In Lester's telling the map comes alive: Marco Polo and the early Christian missionaries trek across Central Asia and China; Europe's early humanists travel to monastic libraries to recover ancient texts; Portuguese merchants round up the first West African slaves; Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci make their epic voyages of discovery; and finally, vitally, Nicholas Copernicus makes an appearance, deducing from the new geography shown on the Waldseemuller map that the earth could not lie at the center of the cosmos. The map literally altered humanity's worldview.
One thousand copies of the map were printed, yet only one remains. Discovered accidentally in 1901 in the library of a German castle it was bought in 2003 for the unprecedented sum of $10 million by the Library of Congress, where it is now on permanent public display. Lavishly illustrated with rare maps and diagrams, "The Fourth Part of the World "is the story of that map: the dazzling story of the geographical and intellectual journeys that have helped us decipher our world.

Hitler's Holy Relics - A True Story of Nazi Plunder and the Race to Recover the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire... Hitler's Holy Relics - A True Story of Nazi Plunder and the Race to Recover the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire (Paperback)
Sidney Kirkpatrick
R436 R366 Discovery Miles 3 660 Save R70 (16%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

From Paris to Stalingrad, the Nazis systematically plundered all manner of art and antiquities. But the first and most valuable treasures they looted were the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire. In "Hitler's Holy Relics, "bestselling author Sidney Kirkpatrick tells the riveting and never-before-told true story of how an American college professor turned Army sleuth recovered these cherished symbols of Hitler's Thousand-Year Reich before they could become a rallying point in the creation of a Fourth and equally unholy Reich.
Anticipating the Allied invasion of Nazi Germany, Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler had ordered a top-secret bunker carved deep into the bedrock beneath Nurnberg castle. Inside the well-guarded chamber was a specially constructed vault that held the plundered treasures Hitler valued the most: the Spear of Destiny (reputed to have been used to pierce Christ's side while he was on the cross) and the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire, ancient artifacts steeped in medieval mysticism and coveted by world rulers from Charlemagne to Napoleon. But as Allied bombers rained devastation upon Nurnberg and the U.S. Seventh Army prepared to invade the city Hitler called "the soul of the Nazi Party," five of the most precious relics, all central to the coronation ceremony of a would-be Holy Roman Emperor, vanished from the vault. Who took them? And why? The mystery remained unsolved for months after the war's end, until the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, ordered Lieutenant Walter Horn, a German-born art historian on leave from U.C. Berkeley, to hunt down the missing treasures.
To accomplish his mission, Horn must revisit the now-rubble-strewn landscape of his youth and delve into the ancient legends and arcane mysticism surrounding the antiquities that Hitler had looted in his quest for world domination. Horn searches for clues in the burnt remains of Himmler's private castle and follows the trail of neo-Nazi "Teutonic Knights" charged with protecting a vast hidden fortune in plundered gold and other treasure. Along the way, Horn has to confront his own demons: how members of his family and former academic colleagues subverted scholarly research to help legitimize Hitler's theories of Aryan supremacy and the Master Race. What Horn discovers on his investigative odyssey is so explosive that his final report will remain secret for decades.
Drawing on unpublished interrogation and intelligence reports, as well as on diaries, letters, journals, and interviews in the United States and Germany, Kirkpatrick tells this riveting and disturbing story with cinematic detail and reveals-- for the first time--how a failed Vienna art student, obsessed with the occult and dreams of his own grandeur, nearly succeeded in creating a Holy Reich rooted in a twisted reinvention of medieval and Church history.

Stalin - The Court of the Red Tsar (Paperback): Simon Sebag Montefiore Stalin - The Court of the Red Tsar (Paperback)
Simon Sebag Montefiore
R415 R332 Discovery Miles 3 320 Save R83 (20%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

Winner of the British Book Awards History Book of the Year Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize This thrilling biography of Stalin and his entourage during the terrifying decades of his supreme power transforms our understanding of Stalin as Soviet dictator, Marxist leader and Russian tsar. Based on groundbreaking research, Simon Sebag Montefiore reveals in captivating detail the fear and betrayal, privilege and debauchery, family life and murderous cruelty of this secret world. Written with extraordinary narrative verve, this magnificent feat of scholarly research has become a classic of modern history writing. Showing how Stalin's triumphs and crimes were the product of his fanatical Marxism and his gifted but flawed character, this is an intimate portrait of a man as complicated and human as he was brutal and chilling.

The War on the West - How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason (Paperback): Douglas Murray The War on the West - How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason (Paperback)
Douglas Murray
R334 R271 Discovery Miles 2 710 Save R63 (19%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER 'The most important book of the year' Daily Mail The brilliant and provocative new book from one of the world's foremost political writers 'The anti-Western revisionists have been out in force in recent years. It is high time that we revise them in turn...' In The War on the West, international bestselling author Douglas Murray asks: if the history of humankind is one of slavery, conquest, prejudice, genocide and exploitation, why are only Western nations taking the blame for it? It's become perfectly acceptable to celebrate the contributions of non-Western cultures, but discussing their flaws and crimes is called hate speech. What's more it has become acceptable to discuss the flaws and crimes of Western culture, but celebrating their contributions is also called hate speech. Some of this is a much-needed reckoning; however, some is part of a larger international attack on reason, democracy, science, progress and the citizens of the West by dishonest scholars, hatemongers, hostile nations and human-rights abusers hoping to distract from their ongoing villainy. In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows the ways in which many well-meaning people have been lured into polarisation by lies, and shows how far the world's most crucial political debates have been hijacked across Europe and America. Propelled by an incisive deconstruction of inconsistent arguments and hypocritical activism, The War on the West is an essential and urgent polemic that cements Murray's status as one of the world's foremost political writers.

Napoleon (Paperback): Vincent Cronin Napoleon (Paperback)
Vincent Cronin
R359 Discovery Miles 3 590 Ships in 12 - 17 working days
To Father - The Letters of Sister Maria Celeste to Galileo, 1623-1633 (Paperback): Dava Sobel To Father - The Letters of Sister Maria Celeste to Galileo, 1623-1633 (Paperback)
Dava Sobel
R284 Discovery Miles 2 840 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The story of Galileo's daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, as told through her letters to her father. A companion to the bestselling Galileo's Daughter, the letters are edited and introduced by Dava Sobel. Galileo Galilei was at the heart of the most dramatic collision in history between science and religion. But the great Italian scientist was also a loving father who treasured his illegitimate daughter, Virginia. She was perhaps her father's equal in brilliance, industry and sensibility, and became his greatest source of strength during his most difficult years. Now readers can follow their story, as she told it, in this beautiful volume of her surviving 124 letters to Galileo. Both in their original Italian and translated into English by the author of Galileo's Daughter, these entrancing letters still speak in the present tense, suspended in the urgency of their once current affairs.

Instructions for British Servicemen in France, 1944 (Hardcover, Illustrated Ed): Instructions for British Servicemen in France, 1944 (Hardcover, Illustrated Ed)
2
R150 Discovery Miles 1 500 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In 1944 the British War Office distributed a handbook to British soldiers informing them what to expect and how to behave in a newly-liberated France. Containing candid descriptions of this war-ravaged society (widespread malnourishment, rampant tuberculosis) as well as useful phrases and a pronunciation guide (Bonjewer, commont-allay-voo), it was an indispensable guide to everyday life. This small, unassuming publication had a deeper purpose: to bring together two allies who did not enjoy ideal relations in 1944. The book attempts to reconcile differences by stressing a shared history and the common aim - defeating Hitler. It also tried to dispel misapprehensions: 'There is a fairly widespread belief among people in Britain that the French are a particularly gay, frivolous people with no morals and few convictions.' Often unintentionally hilarious in its expression of these false impressions, the book is also a guide for avoiding social embarrassment: 'If you should happen to imagine that the first pretty French girl who smiles at you intends to dance the can-can or take you to bed, you will risk stirring up a lot of trouble for yourself - and for our relations with the French.' Many of its observations still ring true today. For example, 'The French are more polite than most of us. Remember to call them "Monsieur, Madame, Mademoiselle," not just "Oy!"' Others remind us of how we recently we have adopted French customs: 'Don't drink yourself silly. If you get the chance to drink wine, learn to "'take it".' Anyone with an interest in Britain, France or World War II will find this an irresistible insight into British attitudes towards the French and an interesting, timeless commentary on Anglo-French relations.

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