20 History HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY CONTINUED


71300 DISCOVERING FAMOUS GRAVES by Lynn Pearson


Our book looks at nearly 1,000 graves of famous Britons at home and abroad, and also of a few foreigners buried on British soil. Find out where Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles is buried (Hendon), the many famous names in Highgate Cemetery like Lizzie Siddal and Jacob Bronowski, John Wesley in Islington and Arnold


Bennett in Burslem, Agatha Christie, the Churchills, John Buchan, Jerome K. Jerome, Max Beerbohm, Pocahontas, John Betjeman, Capability Brown, Rob Roy, Ian Fleming, Screaming Lord Sutch, Edith Nesbit and many others on this unique touring guide. With location specifics (no easy task in some cemeteries and graveyards), and obscure funeral terms. 80 photos and some beautiful woodcuts. 152pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £4


71031 CONFUCIUS: A Throneless King by Meher McArthur


We know that Confucius lived in the modern Shandong Province and was an avid scholar of the traditions of the Western Zhou dynasty. In 530 B.C. at the age of 20 Confucius was appointed manager of the state’s grain warehouse, and he ended his career as Minister of Justice of the State of Lu. Confucius’s teachings are collected in the volume known as The Analects, at the core of which is the concept of ren or benevolence. An ideal man, a junzi, possessed this virtue and also behaved with kindness and wisdom. Human relationships and compassion are central. 234pp, photos. £20 NOW £3.50


72669 THOMAS PAINE Enlightenment, Revolution and the Birth of Modern Nations by Craig Nelson


Despite being a founder of both the United States and the French Republic and the author of three of the biggest bestsellers of the 18th century, Thomas Paine has remained a somewhat indistinct figure. How this lower-class British tradesman managed to write the cornerstone of American democracy and the bible of English radicalism, ‘The Rights of Man’, is a question that has challenged historians for centuries. Nelson traces the dramatic past from Paine’s early years as a struggling London mechanic to his journey after fortune in the New World, his early pamphleteering, miraculous escape from execution in Paris to final years in America, where he lived an impoverished life and suffered from dementia. 397pp paperback with b/w photos. $16 NOW £5


70881 JAMES BOSWELL: The Journal of His


German and Swiss Travels 1764 edited by Marlies Danziger


This research edition of the private papers of James Boswell has been printed to correspond to the originals in spelling, capitalisation, paragraphing and punctuation - including passages in French. This volume covers Boswell’s travels through the German and Swiss territories from mid-June 1764 to New Year’s Day 1765 through Italy, Corsica and France. The editor’s introduction and detailed notes throw light on contemporary political and historical contexts. Along with the fully written journal, the book includes Boswell’s personal daily memoranda and his often revealing Ten Lines A Day poetry exercises, his expense accounts, and maps. Culminates in exhilarating meetings with Rousseau and Voltaire. 436 pages 23 x 16cm, with four maps. Yale University Press first edition. £110 NOW £16.50


71145 ROMANTIC REVOLUTIONARY by Robert Harvey


Subtitled ‘Simon Bolívar and the Struggle for Independence in Latin America’, Bolívar was the archetypal romantic revolutionary. In 1807 Bolívar returned to Caracas and joined the resistance movement, declaring independence for Venezuela four years later. He soon gave up politics to search for a military solution, devising the ‘Decree of War until Death’ in July 1813, and claiming the title El Libertador. His final campaign from 1817-21 saw the eventual liberation of Venezuela, Columbia and Panama. He continued his commitment to liberty with the subsequent conquest of Ecuador and Peru. By 1828 Bolívar had declared himself a dictator. 404pp, illus, maps. £20 NOW £3.50


71202 PAULINE BONAPARTE: Venus of Empire by Flora Fraser


The brilliant life of Napoleon’s favourite sister, once considered the most beautiful woman in all Europe, Pauline Bonaparte Borghese. Although she shocked the continent with her affairs and opulent wardrobe and jewellery, just as remarkable was her fidelity to the emperor (if not her husbands) and the influence she had on him. She was by his side at his famous victories in Italy, a regular at Malmaison with him and her rival for his affections, the Empress Josephine, followed him to exile on Elba and, following his final defeat at Waterloo, begged to be allowed to join him on St Helena. 306 roughcut pages, colour plates. $28.95 NOW £5


71400 LUCIA IN THE AGE OF NAPOLEON by Andrea Di Robilant


At the end of the 18th century, a beautiful Venetian 16- year-old was married off to a member of one of the wealthiest and most powerful families of the once glorious maritime republic. Her life was transformed when the dynamic young Napoleon Bonaparte led his army into northern Italy, and the Venetian Republic fell apart. During her chequered life, Lucia was by turns a dazzling young hostess, a lady-in-waiting at the court of Prince Eugene in Milan, a single mother in Paris during the fall of Napoleon’s Empire, a friend of Josephine’s, and Lord Byron’s hard-nosed landlady when he leased part of the Palazzo Mocenigo. She became a remarkable witness to an age of great turmoil. 336 pages with maps and plates in colour and b/w. £20 NOW £4.75


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71403 MYSTERY OF LEWIS CARROLL by Jenny Woolf


Subtitled Discovering the Whimsical, Thoughtful, and Sometimes Lonely Man Who Created Alice in Wonderland. How true is the gossip both about paedophilia and about certain adult women who became attached to Lewis Carroll? What could be the ‘romantic secret’ that many think ruined his life? Was it Alice or her older sister who caused a coolness between him and the Liddell family? Who caused him major financial trouble, and why have this person’s identity and actions remained unknown until now? 326 pages, illus. $27.99 NOW £6


HISTORY


Histories make men wise. - Francis Bacon


73132 KING’S REVENGE: Charles II and the Greatest Manhunt in British History by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh


The execution of Charles I on that bitter day in January 1649 instilled in his exiled son, the 19-year-old Prince of Wales, a thirst for revenge bordering on the fanatical. Not only did he want vengeance against the 59 regicides who signed his father’s


death warrant, but also anybody who had supported them. From exile in Holland he instigated the biggest manhunt the nation had seen, spreading from England to the rest of Europe and on to America, lasting for 30 years. When he ascended the throne as Charles II in 1660 his thirst for revenge intensified, with show trials in London and assassination squads despatched abroad. Charles II’s fury knew no reason and grotesquely, even those who had since died such as Cromwell himself, John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton, Cromwell’s son-in- law, had their decomposing bodies disinterred and decapitated. History has painted all the regicides as fanatical Puritans, but among their number were some exceptional men such as the poetic genius John Milton, who went into hiding but escaped with his life due to influential friends, and Algernon Sidney, who decamped to the US and whose writings inspired the founders of the American Revolution. With a delightful eye for the quirky. B/w plates, 383pp paperback. £14.99 NOW £6


73058 A RENEGADE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES: From the Founding


Fathers to the Present Day by Thaddeus Russell


In a totally new approach to ‘social history’ which claims to be ‘from the bottom up’ the author digs even deeper than the bottom. This, he says, is ‘history from the gutter up’. It tells the story of ‘bad’ Americans - drunkards, prostitutes, ‘shiftless’


slaves and white slackers, criminals, juvenile delinquents, brazen homosexuals and others who operated beneath American society - and shows how they shaped our world, created new pleasures and expanded our freedoms. According to this new view, American history was driven by clashes between those interested in preserving the community and those more intent on pursuing their own desires - the respectable versus the degenerate, the moral versus the immoral. The book spends as much time in the street, the bedroom, the movie theatre and the saloon as it does listening to speeches. Readers will see inside brothels and gay nightclubs and the secret parties held by slaves, which explain why so many refused to leave the plantation when they were freed. In a highly provocative new perspective, convention is turned on its head. Readers may baulk at the contention that prostitutes, not feminists, won women’s liberation and that - without organized crime - there would be no Hollywood, Las Vegas, labour unions, legal alcohol, birth control or gay rights. They may find it difficult to swallow the assertion that rock-and-rollers brought down the Soviet Union. This controversial book will leave everyone arguing until dawn! 382 pages. £20 NOW £7


73203 LANDMARK


XENOPHON’S HELLENIKA by Robert B. Strassler and David Thomas


Xenophon’s Hellenika is the primary source for the events of the final seven years of the Peloponnesian War and its aftermath. This superbly detailed volume covers the years between 411 and 362 BC, a


particularly dramatic period during which the alliances among Athens, Sparta, Thebes and Persia were in constant flux. Together with the volumes of Herodotus and Thucydides, it completes an ancient narrative of the military and political history of classical Greece. This era was vital in the development of our own culture. The citizens of Athens overcame their own complex problems in reconciling law and popular government, and so produced a stable democracy. Much of what was written then continues to inspire philosophers and historians today. Xenophon was an Athenian who participated in the expedition of Cyrus the Younger against Cyrus’ brother the Persian King Artaxerxes II. Later, Xenophon joined the Spartan army and consequentially was exiled from Athens. In addition to the Hellenika, a number of his essays have survived, including one on his memories of his teacher, Socrates. This edition gives readers a new, authoritative and completely accessible translation. Its 16 appendices have been written by leading classics scholars, and the timeline helps to clarify what would otherwise be a confusing period. Unlike any other edition of the


Hellenika, it also includes the relevant texts of Diodorus Siculus and the Oxyrhynchus Historian, with explanatory footnotes and a table that correlates passages of the three works. This could perhaps be crucial to a critical assessment of Xenophon’s reliability and quality as a historian. New translation by John Marincola . A massive 565 pages with encyclopaedic index, 16 appendices, extensive annotations, note by the translator, glossary, timeline/chronology, list of ancient sources cited in this edition, and cross-reference table of related passages in Xenophon’s Hellenika, Diodorus’ Histories, and the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia. £35 NOW £12.50


73205 RISE AND FALL OF BABYLON: Gateway of the Gods by Anton Gill


In an astonishing and enlightening journey through 5,000 years of humanity’s earliest history, the author tells the extraordinary story of the first civilisations and the most magnificent city of the ancient world. It begins in 6000 BC at the


‘cradle of civilisation’ , explaining the key history of humankind’s earliest kingdoms and cities, including Mesopotamia, Sumer, Assyria, Ninevah and Ur. Here are tales of Sargon the Great, Hammurabi ‘the law- giver’ and the legendary Nebuchadnezzar, as well as many other great kings of antiquity. This superb volume also details the thousand-year splendour of Babylon, ‘the gateway of the gods’ and home not only to the fabled Hanging Gardens, but also the Ishtar Gate and the Great Ziggurat, which was the original Tower of Babel. The book explores, too, everyday life and Babylonian culture, including developments in art, architecture, law-making, economics, mathematics and astronomy that we still follow today. 192 pages with maps, glossary, timelines, 130 colour illustrations and list of museums.


£14.99 NOW £6


72561 ANNALS OF A FORTRESS: Twenty-Two


Centuries of Siege Warfare by Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet- Le-Duc


A brilliant, inspired account of how a French castle, La Roche-Pont, could, if it had existed, have grown from a vast Gallic camp on a promontory to a castle which saw plenty of action and many battles, ending with the Franco-Prussian War. It


explains the history and evolution of fortifications and siege tactics by managing to weave his extensive knowledge into an account spanning 22 centuries of European history. His tale is entirely credible, and must be a story applicable to many a French castle. Although the book was written over 100 years ago, it is still an entertaining, enlightening read, and is an excellent study of siegecraft. Diagrams and sketches help to make the whole thing very real. Dover (2007) unabridged republication of the 1876 edition published by James R. Osgood & Co., Boston. Paperback, 390pp with b/w illus.


$19.95 NOW £6


72721 INSIDE PEPY’S LONDON


by Jonathan Bastable The young Samuel Pepys played truant from school to witness the execution of Charles I, and perhaps that momentous event prompted him to become a meticulous record- keeper, preserving for posterity a picture of London’s bustling street life and the politics of the time. This


book uses numerous extracts from Pepys’ diary to build a picture of Restoration London. Pepys became secretary to his cousin Edward Montagu, one of Cromwell’s most trusted lieutenants, and was able to observe the workings of parliament at close quarters. With the Restoration, Montagu played his cards well and was created Lord Sandwich, enabling Pepys to get a good job with the Navy Board. Pepys’s colourful account of the Coronation of Charles II does not omit to tell us that he “kissed a pretty lady, Mrs Frankeleyn”. Always a womaniser with an eye - and more than just an eye - for a pretty wench, Pepys describes how his jealous wife comes at him with some red hot tongs at one o’clock in the morning, but on another occasion he gives her 50 shillings, a huge amount of money, to buy a petticoat. The Great Plague and the Great Fire are vividly described by this most observant eye-witness. Pepys was troubled by kidney stones all his life and they eventually caused his death, so his diary also gives us insight into 17th century medical care. 351pp. £9.99 NOW £5


73258 SACRED SWORDS: Jihad in the Holy Land 1097-


1291 by James Waterson Embracing the great themes of medieval history and relating events that retain an especial relevance today, this book is a history of both the Crusades and the Mongol response to them. It is filled with eyewitness accounts of battles and sieges, political intriguing, moments of high chivalry and extreme


courage. It also describes every battle and campaign from the destruction of the People’s Crusade in 1097 to the conquest of Acre in 1291, clarifying the Islamic way of war and the men who made jihad. The names of European kings and lords who fought in the Crusades are probably well-known to readers, but the names and deeds of their opponents in the Holy Land will almost certainly be unfamiliar. Using primarily Muslim sources, the author reconstructs the politics of the Levant from the First Crusade on, and places all the action of that period in the wider context of the Muslim world of the time. Here are the famed leaders of the jihad: Zangi, Nur al- Din, Saladin and Baybars. The story of the Holy War that would eventually destroy the Latin Kingdom is


73095 GREAT EMPIRES OF ASIA edited by Jim Masselos


From the beginning of the modern era in 1500 AD, Western history has placed Europe at the centre of worldwide political economic and cultural affairs. However, long before European powers began to encroach upon the East, Asia itself was the locus of dozens of empires, each one a distinct entity with its own unique culture. To mention just a few, the book brings to life 1,000 years of history, ranging from the Khmer, who inhabited South East Asia from 802 onwards, through the Mongols whose empire lasted for 200 years, and the Ottomans who played a significant role in world history, the Meiji Restoration in Japan from 1868 to the end of the Second World War in 1945. In this superbly illustrated volume, experts on art and history analyse the whole Asian imperial enterprise, with an emphasis on the cultural and creative. Their essays provide a decisive corrective to old myths about European dominance relative to Asia, and show instead the


polycentric nature of world power during the past 500 years. They prove how Asian kingdoms dominated global political geography and challenged the states of Europe, rather than the reverse. 240 pages 28cm x 22cm


lavishly illustrated in colour and b/w with list of contributors and notes.


ONLY £10


traced and analysed from its origins among the princes of northern Iraq. Here too is the history of the long naval contest that raged between the navy of Egypt and the Crusader fleets. A revelatory book. Foreword by Terry Jones. 206 pages with b/w plates, maps, and a note on transliteration. £19.99 NOW £7.50


72789 STORY OF ENGLAND: A Village and its People Through the Whole of English


History by Michael Wood For an island country of modest dimensions situated on the fringes of Europe, England’s influence on world history, culture, literature and politics has been disproportionately great. But how did the English people come about and develop their unique way of seeing the


world? In order to answer that question, the historian, filmmaker and broadcaster Michael Wood took an original and highly effective approach, exploring the national narrative from Roman times to the present day through the eyes of one place - Kibworth, a village in Leicestershire. Although its geographical location right at the very centre of England made it a symbolically good choice, it is a place remarkable for its ordinariness. What swung it for Wood though was the astonishing treasure trove of documents from the village held at Merton College, Oxford for the medieval period and a further wealth of documentation covering the industrial age from the mid-18th century onwards. Even so, little was known of the village’s pre-Norman times, and researching this period threw up some fascinating finds which explained much about how the village would later develop. An absolutely compelling tale of England in miniature with departing Romans, Viking and Saxon immigrants, Norman conquerors, the Black Death and famine, religious and political conflict, the Industrial Revolution, the Empire and two World Wars - all these made their indelible mark of this tiny community. 440pp, b/w photos. £20 NOW £10


73060 BOOK OF KNIGHTS by L. A. Williams


What was it actually like to be an élite soldier, kitted out with a sharp sword and a suit of gleaming armour, an icon of courage, strength and chivalry? This extraordinarily detailed volume will immerse you in the daily life and dashing exploits of the knight, bringing this romantic medieval warrior back to life with vivid


illustrations and riveting tales. From heraldry to weaponry, training and real battles, repelling invading forces, and revelling in the ancient stories of legend, here is the knight in all his gory glory. You will inspect the vast arsenal of weapons associated with knighthood, from spear-tipped pikes to the hook designed for grappling with mounted combatants, and marvel at the complications of the suits of armour that might save your life. Here are the famous incidents in knightly history that would have nourished your bellicose ambitions, such as Joan of Arc’s courageous campaign against the British and Burgundian occupation of France, and the notorious Battle of Agincourt in which French knights found themselves victims of their own body armour. Here, too, are the legendary heroes that you would have longed to emulate: King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, the Christian knight Rinaldo rescuing his beloved from a sorceress, and the Nordic hero Beowulf slaying the horrible beast Grendel at the bottom of a murky lake to rescue his Danish kingdom. And, of course, there are fearsome dragons! 134 pages 34cm x 25cm with sumptuous, often full-page, illus in colour. £16.99 NOW £6.50


73067 CHAMBERS DICTIONARY OF WORLD HISTORY: New Edition


edited by Bruce Lenman and Hilary Marsden Arranged in a straightforward A-Z format, this third edition of a work of reference has been welcomed as a comprehensive single-volume survey of the political,


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