Confronting The Classics

Ansary, Tamim

In this "terrific" (San Francisco Chronicle) book, an award-winning author tells the story of how humans invented history, from the Stone Age to the Virtual Age Traveling across millennia and cultures, The Invention of Yesterday argues that world history is a narrative we're constantly inventing. Fifty thousand years ago, we roamed the world as countless autonomous bands of...

Carrie Gibson

For more than four centuries, enslaved people across the Americas, from the United States and the Caribbean to Brazil, fought any way they could to gain their freedom. For the first time, their dramatic stories are gathered in one sweeping narrative that offers a message of inspiration in our own time. "Among the emancipators are the millions whose stories will never be known. ...

William Rankin

"This is it: the full download from a true genius of cartography. Radical Cartography will make you see maps, and, indeed, your place on the planet, with fresh eyes."—Daniel Immerwahr, author of How to Hide an Empire. A stunning, thought-provoking exploration of how maps shape our understanding of the world—featuring over 150 full-color maps in a gorgeous packageMaps are ubiqui...

Ansary, Tamim

"A must read for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of the Islamic world" (San Francisco Chronicle) We in the West share a common narrative of world history. But our story largely omits a whole civilization whose citizens shared an entirely different narrative for a thousand years as the Islamic world saw it, from the time of Mohammed through the fall of the Ot...

Mark Mazower

From one of our most eminent historians, a penetrating and timely examination of how the meaning of antisemitism has mutated, with unexpected and troubling consequencesWhat are we talking about when we talk about antisemitism? For most of its history it was understood to be a menace from the political Right, the province of ethno-nativists who built on Christendom's long-standi...

David Mccullough

In this posthumous collection of thought-provoking essays—many never published before—Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and bestselling author David McCullough affirms the value of history, how we can be guided by its lessons, and the enduring legacy of American ideals.History Matters brings together selected essays by beloved historian David McCullough, some published here for ...

Mary Beard

'The reigning Queen of Classics' Spectator'Mary Beard is the best in the business' Dan Snow'Excellent' Guardian'Enthralling' Sunday TimesBritain's most famous classicist asks: what are civilisations?Central to this huge question are the ways in which we have depicted the human and the divine from prehistory to the present day. And across such iconic creations as Angkor Wat, the...

Mary Beard

What made the Romans laugh? Was ancient Rome a carnival, filled with practical jokes and hearty chuckles? Or was it a carefully regulated culture in which the uncontrollable excess of laughter was a force to fear--a world of wit, irony, and knowing smiles? How did Romans make sense of laughter? What role did it play in the world of the law courts, the imperial palace, or the sp...

Mary Beard

A sweeping, revisionist history of the Roman Empire from one of our foremost classicists.Ancient Rome was an imposing city even by modern standards, a sprawling imperial metropolis of more than a million inhabitants, a "mixture of luxury and filth, liberty and exploitation, civic pride and murderous civil war" that served as the seat of power for an empire that spanned from Spa...

Mary Beard

New York Times Bestseller National Book Critics Circle Finalist Wall Street Journal Best Books of 2015 Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2015 Economist Books of the Year 2015 New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of 2015 A sweeping, "magisterial" history of the Roman Empire from one of our foremost classicists shows why Rome remains "relevant to people many centuries later" A...

Mary Beard

Companion to the major new BBC documentary series CIVILISATIONS, presented by Mary Beard, David Olusoga and Simon SchamaThe idea of 'civilisation' has always been debated, even fought over. At the heart of those debates lies the big question of how people - from prehistory to the present day - have depicted themselves and others, both human and divine. Distinguished historian M...