This textbook is endorsed by OCR and supports the specification for A-Level Classical Civilisation (first teaching September 2017). It covers Components 23 and 24 from the 'Culture and the Arts' Component Group: Invention of the Barbarian by Alastair Thorley Greek Art by Athina Mitropoulos and Laura Snook What image did the ancient Greeks have of themselves and others? How and why were men and women represented differently in Greek art? To what extent is modern western ideology still influenced by ancient Greek attitudes towards the east? This book offers both A-Level students and their teachers the opportunity to consider these and many other important questions. The ideas prevalent in fifth-century Athens retain their powerful influence across the modern world, regardless of whether we agree that they should. The ideal preparation for the final examinations, all content is presented by experts and experienced teachers in a clear and accessible narrative. Ancient literary and visual sources are described and analysed, with supporting images. Helpful student features include study questions, quotations from contemporary scholars, further reading, and boxes focusing in on key people, events and terms. Practice questions and exam guidance prepare students for assessment. A Companion Website is available at www.bloomsbury.com/class-civ-as-a-level.

These are the stories that made Europe. Journeying from Turkey to Iceland, award-winning travel writer Nicholas Jubber takes us on a fascinating adventure through our continent's most enduring epic poems to learn how they were shaped by their times, and how they have since shaped us. The great European epics were all inspired by moments of seismic change: The Odyssey tells of the aftermath of the Trojan War, the primal conflict from which much of European civilisation was spawned. The Song of the Nibelungen tracks the collapse of a Germanic kingdom on the edge of the Roman Empire. Both the French Song of Roland and the Serbian Kosovo Cycle emerged from devastating conflicts between Christian and Muslim powers. Beowulf, the only surviving Old English epic, and the great Icelandic Saga of Burnt Njal, respond to times of great religious struggle - the shift from paganism to Christianity. These stories have stirred passions ever since they were composed, motivating armies and revolutionaries, and they continue to do so today. Reaching back into the ancient and medieval eras in which these defining works were produced, and investigating their continuing influence today, Epic Continent explores how matters of honour, fundamentalism, fate, nationhood, sex, class and politics have preoccupied the people of Europe across the millennia. In these tales soaked in blood and fire, Nicholas Jubber discovers how the world of gods and emperors, dragons and water-maidens, knights and princesses made our own: their deep impact on European identity, and their resonance in our turbulent times.

This collection of postcards provides a window into a world now lost forever: Paris in its golden age. Leonard Pitt's selection offers a stimulating view of an era in which both Paris and the `carte postale' were in vogue. Pitt's choice of medium introduces the reader to a rich and alive social world, in which, during the early years of the twentieth century, over one million postcards were produced and exchanged a day. Exchanges range from the passing romances of Parisian street-vendors through to the lovesick expat writing to his sweetheart back home: revel and be transported by this exciting mix of landmark and anecdote, the glorious and elegant commingling with the quaint and nostalgic.

No other special force in history has a mystique equal to that of ancient Rome's thoroughbred protection and counter-insurgency squadron--the renowned Praetorian Guard. Originally conceived as a personal army for the emperor, the Guard assumed a much greater role than simple bodyguard, taking over a wide range of powers in the city and operating for more than 300 years. Inseparable from the machinery of the Roman state, the Praetorians had the power to make or break individual emperors.In The Praetorian Guard, Sandra Bingham offers a comprehensive and timely history of this elite military unit, from its foundation by Augustus in 27 BCE to its disbandment by Constantine in 312 CE. Exploring the multifaceted nature of the Guard, she discusses and describes its arms and insignia, size and recruitment tactics, and command structure and individual duties, as well as Guard members' family and religious lives. Bingham provides readers with a unique view of how others in antiquity portrayed these special forces and includes detailed illustrations, maps, and plans to paint a clear picture of this politically mighty military institution.

Exam board: WJEC Level: AS/A-level Subject: History First teaching: September 2015 First exams: Summer 2016 (AS); Summer 2017 (A-level) Build, reinforce and revise the historical knowledge and exam skills required for WJEC AS/A-level History. Matched to the 2016 specification for Wales, this study guide contains clear content summaries and annotated sample answers to exam questions. - Concisely covers the key issues and content in the specification, breaking the Unit down into manageable chunks - Consolidates understanding with regular knowledge-check questions, plus useful tips - Builds the analytical and evaluative skills that students need to succeed in AS/A-level History - Improves students' exam technique, providing sample student answers to past paper questions, with commentary to explain the number of marks awarded - Helps students to learn the content throughout the course, study independently and revise for their exams

Along the Bering Strait, through the territories of the Inupiat and Yupik in Alaska, and the Yupik and Chukchi in Russia, Bathsheba Demuth explores an ecosystem that has long sustained human beings. Yet when Americans and Europeans arrived with self-serving ideas of human progress, the Chukchi and Seward Peninsulas and surrounding waters became the site of an historical experiment. Here, the great modern ideologies of production and consumption, capitalism and communism, were subject to the pressures of arctic scarcity. Whales and walruses, caribou and fox, gold and oil: through these resources Demuth draws a vivid portrait of the sweeping effects of turning ecological wealth into economic growth and state power over the past century and a half. More urgent in a warming climate, and as we seek new economic ideas for a postindustrial age, Floating Coast delivers necessary warnings and poses provocative questions about human desires and needs in relation to environmental sustainability.

This is the story of the mighty city of Troy that gave birth to one of the greatest legends ever told. Sumptuously illustrated, Troy uncovers the archaeological history of the city and the people involved with the discoveries. It also retells the compelling tale of the siege, the characters involved and the bloody battles that ensued, while answering many pressing questions about this extraordinary place. Drawing on the works of Homer and Virgil, it provides a captivating and complete account of the legend of Troy, a legend which continues to fascinate everyone from schoolchildren to film directors.

The Amazon History Book of the Year 2013 is a magisterial chronicle of the calamity that befell Europe in 1914 as the continent shifted from the glamour of the Edwardian era to the tragedy of total war. In 1914, Europe plunged into the 20th century's first terrible act of self-immolation - what was then called The Great War. On the eve of its centenary, Max Hastings seeks to explain both how the conflict came about and what befell millions of men and women during the first months of strife. He finds the evidence overwhelming, that Austria and Germany must accept principal blame for the outbreak. While what followed was a vast tragedy, he argues passionately against the `poets' view', that the war was not worth winning. It was vital to the freedom of Europe, he says, that the Kaiser's Germany should be defeated. His narrative of the early battles will astonish those whose images of the war are simply of mud, wire, trenches and steel helmets. Hastings describes how the French Army marched into action amid virgin rural landscapes, in uniforms of red and blue, led by mounted officers, with flags flying and bands playing. The bloodiest day of the entire Western war fell on 22 August 1914, when the French lost 27,000 dead. Four days later, at Le Cateau the British fought an extraordinary action against the oncoming Germans, one of the last of its kind in history. In October, at terrible cost they held the allied line against massive German assaults in the first battle of Ypres.The author also describes the brutal struggles in Serbia, East Prussia and Galicia, where by Christmas the Germans, Austrians, Russians and Serbs had inflicted on each other three million casualties. This book offers answers to the huge and fascinating question `what happened to Europe in 1914?', through Max Hastings's accustomed blend of top-down and bottom-up accounts from a multitude of statesmen and generals, peasants, housewives and private soldiers of seven nations. His narrative pricks myths and offers some striking and controversial judgements. For a host of readers gripped by the author's last international best-seller `All Hell Let Loose', this will seem a worthy successor.

'A beautifully written book, it's been years since I had to look away from a page because it was just too heart-breaking to go on' - Arundhati Roy, Elle 'One of the most humane and terrifying books I've ever read' - Helen Simpson, Observer The devastating history of the Chernobyl disaster by Svetlana Alexievich, the winner of the Nobel prize in literature - A new translation by Anna Gunin and Arch Tait based on the revised text - In April 1986 a series of explosions shook the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Flames lit up the sky and radiation escaped to contaminate the land and poison the people for years to come. While officials tried to hush up the accident, Svetlana Alexievich spent years collecting testimonies from survivors - clean-up workers, residents, firefighters, resettlers, widows, orphans - crafting their voices into a haunting oral history of fear, anger and uncertainty, but also dark humour and love. A chronicle of the past and a warning for our nuclear future, Chernobyl Prayer shows what it is like to bear witness, and remember in a world that wants you to forget.

A poet, a gangster and an agent of the Resistance; 'Deserter' details three astonishing lives shaped by the decision to flee during WWII. During the Second World War, the British lost 100,000 troops to desertion, and the Americans 50,000. Commonwealth forces from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Britain's colonial empire also left the ranks in their thousands. But, surprisingly, only one WWII deserter was executed for his crime. In `Deserter', veteran reporter and historian Charles Glass gives voice to the powerful stories of three soldiers, two Americans and one Brit, who all ran from the conflict to meet with distinctly different fates. He follows each into the heat of battle, exploring the pressures that formed their decisions and the lasting impact of their choices. The result is a highly emotional and engaging study of an under-explored area of World War II history.

This is the first serious appraisal of Metternich's role in the Austrian Empire and beyond. Covering both domestic and international affairs, Sked presents a fresh and convincing description of Metternich's era and argues that despite his battered historical reputation, Metternich was the leading diplomat in Europe over four decades.

"Mastering Modern German History 1864-1990" addresses the key political, social and economic developments in German history from 1864, to unification, through to the collapse of the Berlin Wall and re-unification. In recent years, significant aspects of German history have been the subject of new interpretations and areas such as Bismarck, William II, the origins of the First World War, Hitler, the Holocaust and the Second World War will be fully explored in the light of new research. Completely accessible and written in an engaging and lucid style, this text provides students with an in-depth look at Germany and its complex past.

`Taubman delivers a political and biographical tour de force, something approaching a definitive work' Simon Sebag-Montefiore, The Financial Times `Outstanding, superbly gripping and surely definitive' Daily Telegraph 'Taubman has produced an utterly convincing picture of the contradictory Khrushchev, from his peasant origins and meteoric rise, through purges, politburo plotting, brave de-Stalinisation and the erratic, blustering, bull-in-a-china-shop style that eventually alienated his colleagues and took the world to the brink of Armageddon over Cuba' SUNDAY TIMES `Unlikely to be surpassed any time soon either in richness or complexity . . . [A] monumental biography' New York Times William Taubman's brilliant biography of one of the key figures of the Soviet Union is a study in contrasts -- how the boy from a peasant background rose to the heights of power; how a single-minded, ambitious political player survived twenty years under Stalin; how he opened up to the West after Stalin's death and yet brought the world close to oblivion in the Cuban Missile Crisis. What emerges is a fascinating picture of a man constantly torn between benevolence and malevolence -- a man who made himself cultured and yet who could never really escape his image as a bullying country bumpkin (most famously demonstrated by his interruption of Macmillan's speech to the UN in 1960 by banging his shoe on the table -- the urbane Macmillan responded, 'Mr President, perhaps we could have a translation, I could not quite follow'). William Taubman has previously edited collections of Nikita Khrushchev's speeches and reminiscences and is completely immersed in this subject -- his biography is likely to remain the standard work for years to come.

The German invasion of the Soviet Union was Hitler's biggest gamble in his quest for Lebensraum in the East - and it was at Stalingrad that his gamble failed. Stalingrad is a history of the greatest battle of World War II, a defining moment in the struggle on the Eastern Front. From conditions on the Eastern Front before the battle to the consequences of the battle for both combatants, Stalingrad is a comprehensive account of the build-up, engagement, turning points and aftermath of what became the Verdun of World War II. With authoritative text and rarely seen photographs, Stalingrad shows how the rubble-strewn city gave rise to a bitter hand-to-hand struggle between both sides, and how landmarks such as the Mamaev Kurgan Hill could change hands 17 times in a single day. With battle maps, 170 photographs and appendices, Stalingrad is a fascinating and vivid account of the battle that bled the German army dry, and turned the war in the East decisively against Germany.

Ever since ancient times, the Celts have been more feared than welcomed. Known to be fierce, indomitable warriors, mercenaries and conquerors, they were in the eyes of the Mediterranean world barbarians par excellence, the enemies of civilization. Sharing a common language and social structure (which supported their warrior ideology), the various Celtic populations of fighting men, farmers, and artisans- who never knew political unity-over the centuries came to occupy the whole of continental and insular Europe, to the fringes of Asia Minor. The various Celtic peoples produced art, artifacts, weapons and material goods that showed regional differences, and modern archaeology recognizes the Western Hallstatt culture and the later La Tene culture in Continental Europe, the Ibero-Atlantic cultures group, and the peoples of the Golasecca culture in northwestern Italy. The Celts did not build megalithic monuments and left only a few large sculptures comparable with those of the Greek and Etruscan-Italian world. Their art was applied to small objects and the figurative repertoire "notclassical/ anti-classical" gave shape to a fantastic, fleeting vision of a very specific nature, reflecting their own spiritual and magico-religious world. Despite the territorial conquests of Rome and other populations, the identity, language, cults and the beliefs of the Celts survived until the dawn of the Middle Ages. Thanks to the transmission of their oral literature, compiled and transcribed by Irish monks, we can intensively explore both the spiritual world and the culture of the Celtic peoples, who were among the most important formative forces in the history of European continent. For a long time given second-rate status by scholars of Greek and Roman civilizations, today-after major international exhibitions reflecting new archaeological discoveries-the Celts have become one of the most studied populations of the ancient world.

`As gripping as any spy thriller, Hastings's achievement is especially impressive, for he has produced the best single volume yet written on the subject' Sunday Times `Authoritative, exciting and notably well written' Daily Telegraph `A serious work of rigourous and comprehensive history ... royally entertaining and readable' Mail on Sunday In The Secret War, Max Hastings presents a worldwide cast of characters and extraordinary sagas of intelligence and Resistance to create a new perspective on the greatest conflict in history. The book links tales of high courage ashore, at sea and in the air to the work of the brilliant `boffins' battling the enemy's technology. Here are not only the unheralded codebreaking geniuses of Bletchley Park, but also their German counterparts who achieved their own triumphs and the fabulous espionage networks created, and so often spurned, by the Soviet Union. With its stories of high policy and human drama, the book has been acclaimed as the best history of the secret war ever written.

The Vikings maintain their grip on our imagination, but their image is too often distorted by medieval and modern myth. It is true that they pillaged, looted, and enslaved. But they also settled peacefully and developed a vast trading network. They traveled far from their homelands in swift and sturdy ships, not only to raid, but also to explore. Despite their fearsome reputation, the Vikings didn't wear horned helmets, and even the infamous berserkers were far from invincible.

By dismantling the myths, "The Age of the Vikings" allows the full story of this period in medieval history to be told. By exploring every major facet of this exciting age, Anders Winroth captures the innovation and pure daring of the Vikings without glossing over their destructive heritage.

He not only explains the Viking attacks, but also looks at Viking endeavors in commerce, politics, discovery, and colonization, and reveals how Viking arts, literature, and religious thought evolved in ways unequaled in the rest of Europe. He shows how the Vikings seized on the boundless opportunities made possible by the invention of the longship, using it to venture to Europe for plunder, to open new trade routes, and to settle in lands as distant as Russia, Greenland, and the Byzantine Empire. Challenging the image of the Vikings that comes so easily to mind, Winroth argues that Viking chieftains were no more violent than men like Charlemagne, who committed atrocities on a far greater scale than the northern raiders.

Drawing on a wealth of written, visual, and archaeological evidence, "The Age of the Vikings" sheds new light on the complex society and culture of these legendary seafarers.

"A deep study of "the veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety.,."This scholarly work renders high service in promoting understanding not only internationally but in plural societies which have a Muslim presence."
-- "Frontline"

"Reveals rivalry and confrontation, but also fascination for the exotic as she points out clichA(c)s and distortions that have shaped western views of Islam and its founder."
--"Book News, Inc."

"In this well-written and timely work...Reeves makes a serious effort to be fair to the authors surveyed in her wrok regardless of the views held."
-- "Choice"

"An engaging and enlightening book. It does a superior job of showing how the West has contributed to the current clash of civilizations."
--"Sixteenth Century Journal"

Generations of Western writersfrom the Crusades to the present dayhave written portraits claiming to depict the life and personality of Muhammad, the founder of Islam. Over the course of thirteen centuries, stubbornly biased and consistently negative representations have persisted, presenting images which bear no resemblance to the noble man familiar to Muslims. Muhammad in Europe traces this consistent tradition of distortion and provides an account of the reasons behind it.

Drawing on works dating from the Middle Ages to the last decade of the twentieth century and spanning Latin, Italian, French, German, and English language sources, the book culminates with a critical analysis of Salman Rushdie's controversial novel, "The Satanic Verses,"

The epic story of an enormous Soviet apartment building where Communist true believers lived before their destruction The House of Government is unlike any other book about the Russian Revolution and the Soviet experiment. Written in the tradition of Tolstoy (TM)s War and Peace, Grossman (TM)s Life and Fate, and Solzhenitsyn (TM)s The Gulag Archipelago, Yuri Slezkine (TM)s gripping narrative tells the chilling true story of an enormous Moscow apartment building where Soviet leaders and their families lived until hundreds of these Bolshevik true believers were led, one by one, to prison or to their deaths in Stalin (TM)s purges. Drawing on letters, diaries, and interviews with survivors, and featuring hundreds of rare photographs, this epic story weaves together biography, literary criticism, architectural history, and fascinating new theories of revolutions, millennial prophecies, and reigns of terror. The result is an unforgettable saga of a building that, like the Soviet Union itself, became a haunted house, forever disturbed by the ghosts of the disappeared.

Between April and July 1944, Truman Smith Flew thirty-five bombing missions over France and Germany. He was only twenty years old. Although barely adults, Smith and his peers worried about cramming a lifetime's worth of experience into every free night, each knowing he probably would not survive the next bombing mission. Written with blunt honesty, wry humor, and insight, "The Wrong Stuff" is Smith's gripping memoir of that time. In a new preface, the author comments with equal honesty and humor on the impact this book has had on his life.

Rome began as a collection of primitive huts on the banks of the Tiber, some considerable time before Romulus founded the great city. Ruled by kings for the first two and a half centuries, the Romans abolished the monarchy and created for their little city state a form of government that was successfully adapted to control an Empire. The Romans learned how to weld together a larger state by integrating other city states and tribes, offering them the benefits and privileges of Roman citizenship in return for services and manpower in the army and government. Roman society was based on wealth, and extreme snobbery permeated every level of the social hierarchy. Upward mobility was rare during the Republic, and equal rights were out of the question. At the bottom of the heap were the slaves, with no rights at all. Although little remains of Roman architecture from this period, the famously straight Roman roads began during the Republic, fanning out from the capital towards all parts of Italy. Patricia Southern charts the rise of Rome from its humble origins to its dominance of the western world, describing the personalities who helped to shape it, such as rebel gladiator Spartacus, Hannibal, the Carthaginian leader who invaded Italy, Caesar and Pompey, and finally Octavian, Cleopatra and Mark Antony.