Subjects:  1. General    2. Genocide    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. International    7. International Relations - Diplomacy    8. Political Freedom & Security - International Secur    9. Politics / Current Events    10. Reference    11. Security, International    12. History / General    13. United Nations & UN agencies   

Subjects:  1. Africa    2. Africa - General    3. Anthropology - Cultural    4. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 10-12)    5. Encyclopedias    6. History - Africa    7. History - General History    8. History: World    9. Juvenile Nonfiction    10. People & Places - Africa    11. Reference    12. Reference - Encyclopedias    13. African history    14. African studies    15. Reference works   

Subjects:  1. Historiography    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Reference    6. History / Historiography   

Reviews (7)

Did not like the book.
This book has nothing common with the classical English style if you are looking for it. It has dark, gloomy and boring room photographs. But, it has a useful information in the introduction part as it explains the history and challenges in English decoration style from early periods until now.

don't judge this book by its cover
I, too, thought this book would be the penultimate guide to English style.That would only be true however, if one believes English style to be unrelentingly grim, grim, grim.All the photographs (and there were fewer than one might have wished) were of dark interiors and unwelcoming, depressing rooms.Maybe Chippy Irvine could have just explored her husband Keith's work.This book does not represent English style at all, to my mind, despite its misleading cover.Glad I didn't pay full price for it.

Truly English
This is a good book, and you will like it if you favor English style. Some pictures are average, but I liked it. Very cool pictures of bathrooms! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Decorating - General    2. Decoration and ornament    3. Design & Construction    4. Do-It-Yourself    5. England    6. English influences    7. Home Improvement / Construction    8. House & Home    9. Interior Design - Style Books    10. Interior decoration    11. Reference    12. House & Home / Decorating   

Editorial Review

Sometimes a battle, such as the one that raged along France's MarneRiver in 1918, involves hundreds of thousands of soldiers and costs many lives. Sometimes, as in the case of Tippecanoe, a battle involves only a few hundred fighters. Great or small, as historian Paul Davis notes, history has turned on clashes such as these.Read more

Reviews (10)

Four and Half Stars
This is definately not a novel you can sit down and read in one sitting but it is must for any history buffs.Anyone interested in how civilization came into being will need to ruffle through these pages to find that one battle they couldn't quite remember in the car (not that anyone does that).It is highly knowledgable about the general results and actions in many famous battles.

Great book
This book provides, for 100 definitive battles in history, the historical setting, the battle including a short description of it and a diagram or map showing the where the armies were positioned, and the result, the result including the effect on history and what would have happened if the battle had been won by the other side.
Excellent, Informative Resource
"100 Decisive Battles" provides detailed information about 100 of the most important battles in the history of the world. With an average of 4 or 5 pages per battle, the book not only provides the reader with an excellent resource, but informative, in- depth passages as well. Every entry includes the name and date of the battle, as well as information about the opposing commanders, the size of the forces involved, and casualties. Also, the campaign and historical setting surrounding the battle are analyzed and explained. Many maps, pictures, and 'sidebars' with information about topics related to the battle are included.
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Subjects:  1. Battles    2. History - Military / War    3. Military    4. Military - General    5. Military Science    6. Military history    7. Reference    8. Technology    9. History / Military / General    10. History, Other | Military History   

Editorial Review

Late antiquity--that period of history between 250 and 800 C.E.--was a unique and notable era, when the Roman and Sassanian empires spanned a great arc from the Atlantic coasts of Europe and Morocco across the Mediterranean, into the Balkans, and through the Middle East as far as Afghanistan. Historians have tended to dismiss this era as the decline and fall, and little more. In contrast, the editors of Read more

Reviews (10)

Don't Overlook This One
This is a massive history text well worth the price tag put on it. First, the scholars who assembled this work are first rate - Peter Brown (Princeton University and author of "Augustine of Hippo"), Oleg Grabar (Islamic scholar at Princeton) and Bowersock (Ancient Historian also at Princeton) - these three men alone have gathered a storehouse of contributors that takes up 5 pages in the back of the book. So the research for this text is overwhelming.
Oh well!
Great Illustrations but unfortunetly the text is not its equal. For the amount of money that it cost me, I was disappointed. You are better off buying Peter Brown's "The World of Late Antiquity"
A useful historical guide
The book 'Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World', edited by G.W. Bowerstock, Peter Brown, and Oleg Grabar, is a wonderful collection of essays and encyclopedic articles on the period on a fascinating period of transition and change in the history of the West. This is a period often overlooked and neglected, for it is a period of confusion and uneasy description; the Roman Empire has fallen, but the medieval world has yet to rise. Literature from this historical period is rare, both in terms of history and literary output; the medieval world looms large over late antiquity due to the rise of literature that is more easily accessible to those in the modern world. Read more

Subjects:  1. Ancient - General    2. Ancient World History    3. Classical dictionaries    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History: World    7. Reference    8. History / Medieval    9. World history: BCE to c 500 CE    10. World history: c 500 to C 1500   

Reviews (3)

NO PAIN NO GAIN
VERY COOL BOOK ON THE ART OF TORTURE, SADIST AND OTHER FOLKS INTERESTED IN THIS TYPE OF ACTIVITY WILL FIND THIS BOOK INFORMATIVE

With a turn of the screw, this review is for you
With The Instruments of Torture, Mr.Kerrigan has written a superbly informative and gruesome journey into the hellish world of torture. He illustrates his book with nightmarish visions of a world gone mad! The author's text is both well researched and entertaining. This book ranks with Innes's History of Tortureand Farrington's History of Punishment and Torture. Only John Swain's masterpiece The Pleasures of the Torture Chamber ranks higher!

A real page turner
An action-packed trip through the tools and devices that make torture memorable, without getting bogged down in the "moral" issues involved (with the exception of the socially manditory epilogue entitled "Torture Bad"). Exacting and well-illustrated examples of torture instruments and techniques grouped by type and design.Read more

Subjects:  1. History    2. History - General History    3. History: World    4. Penology    5. Reference    6. Torture    7. World - General    8. History / Reference   

Subjects:  1. Directories    2. Reference   

Reviews (9)

Essential for the Hornblower reader
On reading the Hornblower adventure novels we are taking to coves, harbors, islands, and other places where Horatio Hornblower went during his illustrious career.One of the problems one encounters is that while the geographic descriptions in the novels are pretty good, it takes a good bit of imagination to follow the adventures around the real estate.The Companion solves this problem by providing maps of each scene of action and reference points to follow.Horatio would never have put to sea without a good map, and neither should you.The last half of the Companion is the "biographer's" story of how he came to write each novel.Frequently he was on a cruise or vacation somewhere and imagined sea battles taking place where his cruise ship now leisurely sailed.It's interesting to see how Horatio's life unfolded.

Gone through Hornblower and still hungry?
We all are.This one will help, but you'll still be hungry.The Hornblower Companion is the best effort I've ever found to pull all the Hornblower books into a line and examine how they fit together.A reference book.

The Mental and Physical Shape of the Hornblower Plots!
I would strongly recommend this book for any fan of the Hornblower novels.Read more

Subjects:  1. (Cecil Scott),    2. 1899-1966    3. Characters    4. Forester, C. S    5. Historical fiction, English    6. History    7. History and criticism    8. History: American    9. Horatio Hornblower    10. Literature - Classics / Criticism    11. Literature and the wars    12. Military - Naval    13. Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815    14. Reference    15. Sea stories, English   

Subjects:  1. 1738-1820    2. Biography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Europe - Great Britain - General    5. Family    6. General    7. George    8. Great Britain    9. Historical - British    10. History    11. History: World    12. III,    13. King of Great Britain,    14. Nobility    15. Reference    16. Royalty    17. History / General   

Reviews (5)

Biography of a Man and his Ideas
This short little book chronicles two things, though in sketches only: the life of James Madison and the story of his ideas.With this book Rakove does and excellent job of capturing both.
Fine book impossibly packaged
I never thought I would write something like this, but it must be said. I buy hundreds of books a year and this work was unique. A fine book fatally flawed in its physical execution, and monumentally overpriced. Rakov, Amazon, and publishers take note. This shameful 'product' might have been acceptable even with its extravagent price were it not for the disgraceful binding that ran the text into the tightly bound spine. Books are meant to read, not wrestled. I had to return my copy because of this bit of publishing garbage - which cost me the postage. Shame on you all.

A very well-written short biography of Madison
Initially, I had reservations about reading such a short book on such a complex and important figure as James Madison.Indeed, there are aspects of Madison's life that Rakove should have written more, particularly Madison's personal life and his famous, life-of-the-party wife, Dolly. Read more

Subjects:  1. 1751-1836    2. 1783-1809    3. Biography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. General    6. History    7. History: World    8. Madison, James,    9. Politics and government    10. Presidents    11. Reference    12. United States    13. American history    14. History / General    15. USA   

Subjects:  1. 1066-1485    2. Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066    3. Civilization    4. Encyclopedias    5. England    6. Europe - Great Britain - General    7. Great Britain    8. Great Britain - History    9. History    10. History - General History    11. History: American    12. Medieval    13. Medieval World History (Circa 450 - Circa 1450)    14. Medieval period, 1066-1485    15. Reference    16. British & Irish history: c 1000 to c 1500    17. British & Irish history: c 500 to c 1000    18. History / General    19. Reference works    20. c 1000 CE to c 1500   

Subjects:  1. History    2. History: World    3. Reference   

Reviews (1)

Over 300 tanks and vehicles are presented in a pairing of vintage and action photos
Two outstanding references are top picks, packing in pages of value for their price tags and providing a wide-ranging history. Chris Bishop edits ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TANKS & ARMORED FIGHTING VEHICLES FROM WW I TO THE PRESENT DAY (159223626X): an exhaustive reference that may appeal to general readers, but is a special pick for military collections. Over 300 tanks and vehicles are presented in a pairing of vintage and action photos and detailed drawings, with descriptions including extensive and in-depth service histories of specs and tanks.
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Subjects:  1. Armored vehicles, Military    2. Encyclopedias    3. History    4. History: World    5. Military - General    6. Military Science    7. Reference    8. Tanks (Military science)    9. Technology & Industrial Arts    10. Transportation / Reference    11. Sale Books   

Editorial Review

On March 30, 1282, as the church bells of Palermo were sounding vespers, a crowd of Siciliansfell on a party of French soldiers, the enforcers of Angevin rule over the island. Within minutes the Frenchlay dead. The Palermo revolt spread quickly across Sicily, opposed by Frankish lords and the Italian clergy,and supported by Sicilian commoners, Aragonese infiltrators, and Byzantine spies. Against a complicatedmultinational backdrop, the noted medieval historian Steven Runciman deftly portrays the tangled world ofMediterranean politics in the 13th century, the apex of the Middle Ages. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Phenomenal History of the Thirteenth Century
Runciman's writing is absolutely amazing in this volume which treats of Europe in the mid-to-late thirteenth century.I devoured this book in a matter of days, fascinated as I am with Sicilian history and culture.Runciman gives a fantastic view of the Kingdom of Sicily after the fall of "The Kingdom in the Sun", or the Norman Kingdom based in Palermo.From the benevolent king William the Good to the villanous Charles of Anjou, Runciman presents all of those occurances which led up to the Sicilian Vespers, or the systematic destruction of French power over the Sicilians on Easter Monday, 1282.A must-read for all those interested in the history of Europe in this era.

A Panorama of Europe through the window of the Vespers
What an excellent history. It's a careful, economical but thorough recounting of events among a huge array of far-flung characters. It's not difficult to read, but rereading helps fix the cast in the mind. (The index is excellent, but a list of characters would have been helpful, although that sort of user-friendliness would definitely have been at odds with the book's Cambridge gestalt.) Sir Steven is very sparing of analysis and conjecture, so that when he does essay a mild synthesizing comment, it is all the more powerful and organic, having grown from the "objective" account and selections of incident. His final thesis -- that the medieval papacy foundered during this period due to its cautious, conscious decision to eschew centralized surrogate command (through the Hohestaufen empire) in favor of decentralized partitioning (the original balkanization) that fed and inculcated a nationalism that was ultimately much more debilitating to papal power -- is both startling and inevitable. Besides the masterful overarching view of European history, the book also is fascinating and illuminating about Sicily in particular, and its polyglot zealotry.

Political narrative at its best
This is a political narrative history in the Med during the second half of the 13th century, during Dantes lifetime. If you've read "Comedy" this provides ample background for many of the souls Dante encounters. This book is helpful not only in the historical details, but the pace of life in the Middle Ages: how long things took to unfold with slow communications and transport, and how quickly and often fortunes change. One can see the rise of early nationalism, and the beginning of the end of the Medieval Church. Overall an excellent window in to the medieval world. The majority of the book is background leading up to the Vespers (occuring on page 214 of 290), of which he calls the central element of the book. Yet, Runciman speaks only briefly of the Vespers as a popular social rising, %99 of book is the narrartion of the actions of aristocratic individuals, not a social history, so for that inconsistency I give it a 4 instead of 5 stars. In my opinion this is really a book about Charles of Anjou and the Angevin expansion in the Med., with the Vespers as a theme to give it a more popular appeal, but this does not take away from the value and enjoyability of the work, if this period interests you it is highly readable and real page turner. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Europe - General    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Medieval    6. Medieval World History (Circa 450 - Circa 1450)    7. Reference    8. Europe    9. European history: c 500 to c 1500    10. History / Europe / General    11. Mediterranean region - History    12. World history: c 500 to C 1500   

Subjects:  1. 146 B.C.-323 A.D.    2. Ancient - General    3. Ancient - Greece    4. Encyclopedias    5. Greece    6. History    7. History - General History    8. History: World    9. Reference    10. To 146 B.C.    11. Ancient Greece    12. Archaeology    13. Reference / Encyclopedias   

Reviews (1)

sleek wooden boats built by true craftsmen
A well documented history of the Purdy Boat Company from the early 1900's written by the grandson and grandnephew of the Ned and Gil Purdy. This book includes pictures, line drawings and even some receipts. These wonderful boats (some of which are still in existence and documented in the book) have been owned by Carl Fisher, Caleb Bragg, Walter Chrysler, T.E. Lawrence, and Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (a distant relative of the Purdys). Included is also a partial history of Port Washington, NY, where most of the boats were built and some raced in the Gold Cup races of the 20's. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Boating - General    2. History - General History    3. Reference    4. Sports    5. Sports & Recreation   

Reviews (1)

Excellent synopsis of cultural history
Peter Burke is professor of Cultural History at the University of Cambridge and is certainly one of the most prominent figures in cultural history today.This volume is a selection of his essays, most of them previously published, which will certainly bring students up to date on the current practice of cultural history.There are essays on the origins of cultural history, the cultural history of dreams, chivalry in the New World, as well as an excellent discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the history of mentalities.In another essay Burke takes the cultural concept of carnival (one he previously dealt with in his excellent "Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe") and explores it in the context of Brazilian and African societies.Although five of the twelve essays focus on the author's area of specialization --Renaissance and Early Modern Italy-- there is much broader knowledge to be gained from the volume.Burke succinctly narrates the evolution of this type of history, demonstrating the relationship between historians such as Bloch, Burckhardt and Huizinga to the social anthropologists' search for collective representations (Durkheim and Lucien L�vy-Bruhl), and ending with the myriad ways in which the discipline is practiced today.Although the book is great, I do think it would have benefited from a more thorough discussion of the "new" cultural historians such as Lynn Hunt et al. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Civilization    3. Culture    4. Historiography    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History: World    8. Renaissance    9. World - General   

Reviews (3)

concerned about a failing sense of community?
A historian by profession, Dr. Archibald helps us to see that history is not just a summary of those moments that have already passed, it is also a sort of encrypted blueprint to the future. It humbly guides us on ourjourney through time, and will even show us where we have gone astray.Dr.Archibald proficiently uncovers the secrets of the past, and identifiesthem as the truths upon which a sound future can be built

A Book to Remember
Historical societies and preservation organizations have proliferated in recent decades.This undoubtedly arises from a humanly-shared experiential depth, a depth that Robert Archibald, examines in this brooding look at thedeeply interconnected relation between personal experience and community,time, and place. Giving us inspiration for the future of the community
It's a struggle to find balance between "progress" and quality of life.It's also a struggle to retain our connections to the past and try to fit them into our lives today.In searching for some"quick" answers to how the museum I manage could answer some ofthese questions and how we can continue to be relevant to the community weserve, I read this book.It, of course, doesn't provide any quicksolutions, but instead provides a heap of ideas and a strong philosophy tobase activities & programs on.I read it as a museum professional, BUTfound alot in it for my role as a community member.I'd definitelyrecommend the book for anyone interested in strengthening their communityor finding common ground between community groups.The book does not readlike a "how to" book.It's beautifully written, but stillpractical.A quick quote from the book: "Remembering confirms ourattachments to each other". ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Case studies    3. City and town life    4. Community life    5. Historians    6. History    7. History - General History    8. History - U.S.    9. History, Local    10. History: American    11. Philosophy    12. United States    13. United States - State & Local - General    14. History / United States / State & Local    15. History: theory & methods    16. Museums & Museology    17. USA   

Reviews (7)

Dismissal is not an option
Somewhat dated, perhaps. But, Mrs. Tuchman's insights in "Practicing History" are timeless in key points on the myth of objectivity and keeping the historical context of events in view.In our day, history seems dependent on the historian's political slant with few exceptions and Mrs. Tuchman speaks to that trend years before it became so obvious. Her words also speak to the growth of the post-world war one cynicism that seems as prevalent (perhaps more so) a century later.So-called "professionals" of all fields are sometimes easily offended or threatened by what Mrs. Tuchman calls "independent" communicators in their field.Attempting to dismiss or marginalize the independent/amateur is not a response to the issues they raise.Only an independent could have written this book and challenged the "professional" establishment. And few independents have the credentials to do so as Mrs. Tuchman has.
Barbara Tuchman for Dinner
I love the feeling that I'm picking the brain of BWT. Her methods of writing and observations are worthwhile for a lifetime. The humility the author has toward fact gathering benefits all her readers. This collection is first a delight to any fan of the woman herself, and second a tool for learning about good history writing. A bonus third point is for history novices like me- a crash course on several topics of interest. A "crash course" from Barbara Tuchman is possibly an experience of the most concise, informative and comprehensive summary on a subject you'll find.

Get it for the Two Essays on The Historian
"Practicing History", by Barbara W. Tuchman, sub-titled "Selected Essays".Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, 1981.Read more

Subjects:  1. 1900-1999 (20th century)    2. 20th century    3. Historiography    4. History - General History    5. History, Modern    6. History: American    7. Reference    8. World - General    9. History / Reference    10. History: theory & methods    11. USA