Libros de

A cultural history of the Medieval sword

power, piety and play

The sword is an important and multi-faceted symbol of military power, royal and communal authority, religion and mysticism. This study takes the sword beyond its functional role as a tool for killing, considering it as a cultural artefact, and the broader meaning and significance it ...

The Bible and Crusade narrative in the twelfth century

A new investigation into the twelfth-century accounts of the First Crusade, showing their complex relationship with the Bible. The Bible exerted an enormous influence on the crusading movement: it provided medieval Christians with language to describe holy war, spiritual models for crusaders, and justifications for ...

Traders in men

merchants and the transformation of the transatlantic slave trade

During the eighteenth century, Britain's slave trade exploded in size. Formerly a small and geographically constricted business, the trade had, by the eve of the American Revolution, grown into a transatlantic system through which fifty thousand men, women, and children were enslaved every year ...

Pompeii

This second edition of Alison E. Cooley's accessible introduction to Pompeii takes into account the major new theories and discoveries that have emerged since the first edition was published 20 years ago. Italy's third most popular tourist destination, Pompeii attracts millions of visitors ...

A brief history of ancient China

A Brief History of Ancient China adapts a traditional Chinese historical format to present a multi-faceted account of the first two millennia of China's earliest history: from the time of the legendary rulers Yao and Shun (c. 2000 BCE) down to the end of ...

Imágenes fast-food

La violencia en la era del canibalismo digital

Vivimos en la era del canibalismo digital, con la mirada fija pegada a la pantalla. El mundo material pierde consistencia de manera progresiva, hasta que nuestra realidad se transforma en un simulacro, en donde muere el cuerpo. Hoy nos alimentamos de imágenes: imágenes fast-food que ...

The last witches of England

a tragedy of sorcery and superstition

On the morning of Thursday 29 June 1682, a magpie came rasping, rapping and tapping at the window of a prosperous Devon merchant. Frightened by its appearance, his servants and members of his family had, within a matter of hours, convinced themselves that the bird ...

Stonehenge

A brief history

Stonehenge is one of the world's most famous monuments. Who built it, how and why are questions that have endured for at least 900 years, but modern methods of investigation are now able to offer up a completely new understanding of this iconic stone ...

Ptolemy I Soter

themes and issues

Ptolemy I, whose epithet was Savior, was in many respects the most successful of all of Alexander the Great's successors. He created the longest lasting of the Hellenistic kingdoms that rose in the aftermath of the great conqueror's death, ending with the death ...

China incorporated

the politics of a world where China is number one

Is the West prepared for a world where power is shared with China? A world in which China asserts the same level of global leadership that the USA currently assumes? And can we learn to embrace Chinese political culture, as China learned to embrace ours ...

Stalinism at war

the Soviet Union in World War II

"Masterfully told and compelling reinterpreted." The Moscow Times Stalinism at War tells the epic story of the Soviet Union in World War Two. Starting with Soviet involvement in the war in Asia and ending with a bloody counter-insurgency in the borderlands of Ukraine, Belarus and ...

Literary theory

the complete guide

Bringing together Mary Klages's bestselling introductory books Literary Theory: A Guide for the Perplexed and Key Terms in Literary Theory into one fully integrated and substantially revised, expanded and updated volume, this is an accessible and authoritative guide for anyone entering the often bewildering ...

Freedom

a disease without cure

We are all afraid that new dangers pose a threat to our hard-won freedoms, so what deserves attention is precisely the notion of freedom. The concept of freedom is deceptively simple. We think we understand it, but the moment we try and define it we ...

Cervantes, the Golden Age, and the battle for cultural identity in 20th-century Spain

Studies that connect the Spanish 17th and 20th centuries usually do so through a conservative lens, assuming that the blunt imperialism of the early modern age, endlessly glorified by Franco's dictatorship, was a constant in the Spanish imaginary. This book, by contrast, recuperates the ...

Historicizing the French Revolution

the two hundred years' war

This book provides a critical examination of over 300 historical works about the French Revolution, published in Europe (in particular in France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Russia) as well as in the United States between 1789 and 1989. It also goes on to examine ...

Military departures, homecomings and death in classical Athens

Hoplite transitions

This volume sheds new light on the experience of ancient Greek warfare by identifying and examining three fundamental transitions undergone by the classical Athenian hoplite as a result of his military service: his departure to war, his homecoming from war having survived, and his homecoming ...

The history of Britain and Ireland

prehistory to today

The History of Britain and Ireland: Prehistory to Today is a balanced and integrated political, social, cultural, and religious history of the British Isles. Kenneth Campbell explores the constantly evolving dialogue and relationship between the past and the present. Written in the aftermath of the ...

The war that doesn't say its name

the unending conflict in the Congo

Why violence in the Congo has continued despite decades of international intervention Well into its third decade, the military conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been dubbed a "forever war"-a perpetual cycle of war, civil unrest, and local feuds over power ...

Ancient Africa

a global history, to 300 CE

A panoramic narrative that places ancient Africa on the stage of world history This book brings together archaeological and linguistic evidence to provide a sweeping global history of ancient Africa, tracing how the continent played an important role in the technological, agricultural, and economic transitions ...

The last Muslim conquest

the Ottoman Empire and its wars in Europe

A monumental work of history that reveals the Ottoman dynasty's important role in the emergence of early modern Europe The Ottomans have long been viewed as despots who conquered through sheer military might, and whose dynasty was peripheral to those of Europe. The Last ...