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HISTORY-MEMOIRS

IMPERIAL HISTORY, CRIMINAL HISTORIES-MEMOIRS

Inca Religion and Customs

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By Father Bernabe Cobo. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton. Foreword by Tohn Howland Rowe

FROM THE COVER: “Completed in 1653, Father Bernabe Cobo's Historia del Nuevo Mundo is an important source of information on pre-conquest and colonial Spanish America. Though parts of the work are now lost, the remaining sections which have been translated offer valuable insights into Inca culture and Peruvian history. Inca Religion and Customs is the second translation by Roland Hamilton from Cobo's massive work. Beginning where History of the Inca Empire left off, it provides a vast amount of data on the religion and lifeways of the Incas and their subject peoples. Despite his obvious Christian bias as a Jesuit priest, Cobo objectively and thoroughly describes many of the religious practices of the Incas. He catalogs their origin myths, beliefs about the afterlife, shrines and objects of worship, sacrifices, sins, festivals, and the roles of priests, sorcerers, and doctors. The section on Inca customs is equally inclusive. Cobo covers such topics as language, food and shelter, marriage and childrearing, agri- culture, warfare, medicine, practical crafts, games, and burial rituals. Because the Incas apparently had no written language, such post- conquest documents are an important source of information about Inca life and culture. Cobo's work, written by one who wanted to preserve something of the indigenous culture that his fellow Spaniards were fast destroying, is one of the most accurate and highly respected.”

Austin. University Of Texas Press. 1990. 301p.

The Penguin History of the World

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By J. M. Roberts

FROM THE COVER: "This book is a stupendous achievement... the unrivalled World History for our day. It extends over all ages and all continents. It covers the forgotten experiences of ordinary men as well as chronicling the acts of men in power. It is unbelievably accurate in its facts and almost incontestable i n its judgements” - AJP Tavlor in the Observer.

'Anyone who wants an outline grasp of history, the core of al subjects, can grasp it here.” - Economist

"A work of outstanding breadth of scholarship and penetrating judgements. There is nothing better of its kind” - Jonathan Sumption in the Sunday Telegraph

London. Penguin Books. 1976. 1,021p.

The Templars

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By Piers Paul Read

FROM THE COVER: “A source of enduring contemporary curiosity, the Knights of the Temple of Solomon were an order of warrior monks first founded to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land from infidel attack. Piers Paul Read reveals the Templars - in their white tunics with red crosses over chainmail- as the first uniformed standing army in the western world, as wel as pioneers of international banking. He examines their fall at the hands of a greedy French king, who extracted confessions of heresy and immorality by torture. And the extraordinary Middle Ages, with their blend of high religious fervour and unusual cruelty, are brought startlingly to the page. “

'He writes with great clarity, delineates character well and succinctly, and can tell a good story.” Times Literary Supplement.

London. Phoenix Press, 1999. 375p.

A Brief History of The Vikings: The Last Pagans Or The First Modern Europeans?

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By Jonathan Clements

FROM THE COVER: “Between the eighth and eleventh centuries, the Vikings surged from their Scandinavian homelands to trade, raid and invade along the coasts of Europe. Their reach stretched from Newfoundland to Baghdad, their battles were as far-flung as Africa and the Arctic. But were they great seafarers or desperate outcasts, noble heathens or oafish pirates, the last pagans or the first of the modern Europeans? This concise study puts medieval chronicles, Norse sagas and Muslim accounts alongside more recent research into ritual magic, genetic profiling and climatology. It includes biographical sketches of some of the most famous Vikings, from Erik Bloodaxe to Saint Olaf, King Canute to Leif the Lucky. It explains why the Danish king Harald Bluetooth lent his name to a twenty-first century wireless technology; why so many Icelandic settlers had Irish names; and how the last Viking colony was destroyed by English raiders.

NY. Carroll & Graf Publishers. 2005. 296p.

Waterloo: Day Of Battle

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By David Howarth

FROM THE JACKET: “A great many books have been written about the Battle of Waterloo but none quite like this; the reader can feel the shock of battle almost as if he were there. The first shots were fired at about 11:30 on a Sunday morning in June 1815. By 9:00 that night, 40,000 men and 10,000 horses lay dead or wounded among theBelgian grainfields,and Napoleon had fled, abandoning his army and al hope of recovering his empire-and also, it was said, a fortune in diamonds sewn into the lining of his uniform. This is the story of the men who were there. From their recollections, David Howarth has re-created the battle as it appeared to them on the day it was fought-what they saw and heard, the little that they knew of what was happening, and, above all, what they felt. The book follows the fortunes of men of al ranks on both sides-and some women too…”

New York. Atheneum. 1968. 249p.

History of the Inca Empire

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By Father Bernabe Cobo. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton

FROM THE COVER: “The Historia del Nuevo Mundo, set down by Father Bernabe Cobo during the first half of the seventeenth century, represents a singularly valuable source on Inca culture. Working directly from the original document, Roland Hamilton has translated that part of Cobo's massive manuscripts that focuses on the history of the kingdom of Peru. The volume includes a general account of the aspect, character, and dress of the Indians as well as a superb treatise on the Incas-their legends, history, and social institutions.”

Austin. University Of Texas Press. 2000. 301p.

A History Of Europe Vol. I From the Earliest Times to 1713

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By H. A. L. Fisher

FROM THE PREFACE: “…Men wiser a n dmore learned than I have discerned in history a plot, a rhythm, a predetermined pattern. These harmonies are concealed from me. I can see only o n e emergency following upon another as wave follows upon wave, only one great fact withrespect to which, since it is unique, there can be no generalizations, only one safe rule for the historian: that he should recognize in the develop- ment of human destinies the play of the contingent and the unforeseen. This is not a doctrine of cynicism and despair. The fact of progress is written plain and large on the page of history; but progress is not a law of nature. The ground gained by one generation may b e lost by the next. The thoughts of men may flow into the channels which lead to disaster and barbarism….

London. Collins. Fontana. 1960 (1936). 770p.

Early Modern Europe from about 1450 to about 1720

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By Sir George Clark

FROM THE JACKET: “In this book (originally written for The Europear Inheritance) Sir George Clark tells the story of European civilization, western and eastern, in the period which followed the Middle Ages. Beginning about 1453, when the Turks captured Constantinople, be- fore America was discovered or Martin Luther born, it ends in the early eighteenth century, when Peter the Great was founding St. Peters- burg, when Sir Isaac Newton was a very old man, when steam-engines were already in use, but before any- one foresaw the French Revolution. Touching many aspects of civiliza- tion, economic, social, political, mili- tary, naval, religious and intellectual, it presents the history of the period as a record of endeavour and achievement. It is neither, on the one hand, a mere summary of facts and dates, nor, on the other, a mere essay in interpretation…”

London. Oxford University Press. 1957. 273p.

The Reformation

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By George L. Mosse

FROM THE PREFACE: “A prominent historian once wrote that "what man is, only history tells." This is certainly true if we want to understand the evolution of man in the society which he has made for himself. The age of the Reformation represents a crucial step in that historical development. Through their own thought the Reformers mirrored the doubts, hopes, and aspirations of the people of Europe. Yet it has been difficult to find modern interpretations of the age which are neither too specialized nor too elementary. Such interpretations undoubtedly do exist, but in the form of larger and more detailed analyses or as chapters in general works. This book is meant to provide an initial grasp of this epoch, and the bibliography at the end of the work will enable those so inclined to go further into the prob. lems and interpretations of the age.

NY. Henry Holt And Company. 1953. 110p.

Stonehenge Decoded

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By Gerald S. Hawkins in collaboration with John B. White

FROM THE FOREWORD: “It is altogether fitting that the discoveries described in this book were made by an astronomer affiliated with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Samuel P. Langley, third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and founder of its Astrophysical Observatory, was the first maior scientist to recognize the possible astronomic importance of the "rude, enormous monoliths" of Salisbury Plain. In his book The New Astronomy he wrote, "Most great national observatories, like Greenwich or Washington, are the perfected development of that kind of astronomy of which the builders of Stonehenge represent the infancy. Those primitive men could know where the sun would rise on a certain day, and make their observation of its place . .. without knowing anything of its physical nature." By "that kind of astronomy" he meant classical positional observation, the study of the motions rather than the structurest the "where" rather than the "what" —of beavenly bodies. His "new astronomy" was what we now call astrophysics. Langleywrote that in 1889,b y happy coincidence the same year in which construction was begun on the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. He would have been pleased to know that just seventy-five years after he made his extraordinarily wise evaluation a worker in the observatory which he founded would play a part in establishing the great astronomical signiticance of Stonehenge.

London. Fontana. 1970. 259p.

The Italian Painters Of the Renaissance

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By Bernhard Berenson

FROM THE PREFACE: “The following essay owes its origin to the author's belief that Venetian painting is the most complete expression in art of the Italian Renaissance. The Renaissance is even more important typically than historically. Historically it may be looked upon as an age of glory or of shame according to the different views entertained of European events during the past five centuries. But typically it stands for youth, and youth alone--for intellectual curiosity and energy grasping at the whole of life as material which it hope so mould in any shape….”

London. Oxford. Fontana. 1930). 1960. 274p.

The Habsburg Monarchy 1809-1918: A History Of The Austrian Empire And Austria-Hungary

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By A.J. P. Taylor

FROM THE PREFACE: “This book is an entirely rewritten version of an carlier work with the same title, which I published in 1941. It is about half as long again as its predecessor. Apart from general additions, it treats Austrian foreign policy with greater detail and relevance. The Habsburg Monarchy, more than most great powers, was an organization for conducting foreign policy; and its fate was determined quite as much by foreign affairs as by the behaviour of its peoples. The creation of the Austrian Empire was dictated by Napoleon; the establishment of Austria-Hungary by Bismarck; and the Monarchy fell at the end of a great war, which it had itself helped to bring about. My attempt to write the history of the Habsburg Monarchy without discussing Habsburg foreign policy made much of the original book puzzling; and I hope I have now remedied this defect. The other principal change is in treatment. Despite efforts to face reality, the earlier book was still dominated by the 'liberal illusion'; many passages talked of 'lost opportunities' and suggested that the Habsburg Monarchy might have survived if only this or that statesman or people had been more sensible. ..”

London. Penguin 1978. 305p.

Women In History

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Compiled and edited by Don Shepherd with an Introduction by Eleanora de Vincent

FROM THE COVER: “This illustrated volume takes a close look at the famous and infamous women who have influenced history. Once buried under a blanket of indifference, their contributions emerge today as a fascinating study of women, of their search for identity, and of their striving over the limitations and constraints of the times in which they lived. An important addition to the literature of Women's Liberation is this collection of articles on the deeds and misdeeds of the assassin Charlotte Corday, the wondering queen Nefertiti, the eminent Mary, Queen of Scots, the imperial Chinese women, the tempestuous women in Hispanic history, the auto- cratic Catherine the Great, those women of fortune, Naksh and Josephine, America's First Lady of Art, Mary Cassatt, the valiant Dolley Madison and China's Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi.

Los Angeles. Mankind Publishing Company .

Ottoman Empire and Islamic Tradition

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By Norman ItzkowItz

FROM THE PREFACE: “This book provides the student with an introduction to the historical development of the Ottoman Empire and an appreciation of its institutions, social structure, and. intellectual foundations. The narrative carries the Ottomans from their beginning on theByzantine frontier as an Islamic warrior principality, through the development of their empire, down to the late cighteenth century when they found it necessary to embark upon the process of modernization. I have delineated the fundamental institutions of the Ottoman state, the major dividing lines within the society, and the basic ideas on goverment and social structure that helped the Ottomans found their empire, fostered its growth, and then sustained it through periods of inter- nal dissension and external threat.

Chic ago and London. The University of Chicago Press. 1972. 131p.

Modern Greece: A Short History

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By C. M. Woodhouse

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “What is the subject of the history of Greece: a race, a country, a language, a religion, a culture, an idea? Something of each of them must go into the answer, but none of them is adequate by itself, and their inadequacy varies.

As a complete answer, some of them can be ruled out at once. A country, for instance: the boundaries of what might be called, Greece have long fluctuated over a very wide area, and have not ceased to change, though by smaller variations, even in the present century. Or a religion: for the Orthodox Church, which, has been the religion of most Greeks for sixteen centuries, is also the religion of millions of non-Greeks, particularly among the Slavs. Or a race: ever since the work of Jakob Fallmerayer in the nineteenth century, it has been unreasonable to think of the inhabitants of Greece (however defined) as racially homogeneous and lineally descended from the ancient Hellenes. It would be equally unreasonable, however, to assert dogmatically. that no Greek living today could possibly have had a direct ancestor living in Greece 2,500 years ago….”

London. Faber and Faber. 1998. 374p.

A Little History of the World

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By E. H. Gombrich. Translated By Caroline Mustill

"A masterpiece of nonfiction writing for children. It is a wry and charming book, perfectly suited to the capacities of a 10-year-old, but also remarkably free of condescension. An adult can read it with pleasure. And, indeed, with instruction -Scott McLemee, Newsday

New Haven And London. Yale University Press. 2008. 308p.

The Civilization Of The Renaissance In Italy

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By Jacob Burckhardt. Translated by S. G. C. Middlemore With a new Introduction by Peter Burke and Notes by Peter Murray

FROM THE INTRODUCTION : “….Burckhardt's conception of history was a very different one from that of many of his contemporaries. He rejected both the positivism andthe Hegelianism which fascinated so many of his contemporaries all over Europe. As a student at the university of Berlin, he wrote regretfully that the philosophy of history was taught by followers of Hegel, 'whom I cannot understand'. As a professor at the university of Basel, he told his students that his lectures on the study of history would offer 'no philosophy of history. According to Burckhardt, there was no such thing; the idea of the philosophy of history was a contradiction in terms, 'for history co-ordinates, and hence is unphilosophical, while philosophy subordinates, and hence is unhistorical. In other words, history is unsystematic and systems are unhistorical.

This view is further from British historical empiricism than it may look. Unlike many practising historians, Burckhardt was not philoso- phically illiterate. Despite his claim to be unfit for speculation and abstract thought, he was well acquainted with the ideas of Hegel and Schopenhauer as well as with those of the young Nietzsche, with whom he used to go for walks discussing ideas. Although he was sceptical of the claims made for grand philosophical systems, his vision ofthe past was not completely free of philosophical presuppositions, as weshall see….”

London. Penguin 1990. 388p.

The Renaissance Medieval or Modern?

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Edited With An Introduction BY Karl H. Dannenfeldt.

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “In 1860 in the introduction to his work on The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Jacob Burckhardt predicted the present "Problem of the Renaissance” when he wrote "To each eye, perhaps, the out¬lines of a great civilization present a differ¬ent picture. ... In the wide ocean upon which we venture, the possible ways and directions are many; and the same studies which have served for this work might easily, in other hands, not only receive a wholly different treatment and application, but lead to essentially different conclusions.” To the writers of the Italian Renaissance itself, there was no serious problem. Their views of the age in which they were living furnished the basis for a long-held concept, namely, that after a period of about a thousand years of cultural darkness and igno-rance, there arose a new age with a great revival in classical literature, learning, and the arts. The humanists of the Northern Renaissance continued this concept. "Out of the thick Gothic night our eyes are opened to the glorious torch of the sun,” wrote Rabelais. Moreover, there was also now introduced a reforming religious element, further emphasizing the medieval barbarization of religion and culture. Protestant writers joined in this condemnation of the dark medieval period, an attack little circumscribed by the defense of the medieval Church by Catholic apologists…”

Boston. D. C. Heath. Problems In European Civilization. 1959. 129p.

Protestantism And Capitalism: The Weber Thesis and Its Critics

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Edited With An Introduction By Robert W. Green

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “Did the Protestant Reformation, and especially its Calvinist branch, have a decisive influence upon the development of modern capitalism? For more than half a century this question has been the focal point of a scholarly controversy which had its beginning in 1904-5 with the publication by the famous German sociologist, Max Weber, of two articles entitled “Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus” [The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism]. Together with a supplementary article, “Die protestantische Sekten und der Geist des Kapitalismus” [The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism], which appeared in 1906, these articles, with some additional footnotes, now constitute the first studies in Max Weber's collected essays on the sociology of religion….Almost immediately following their first appearance, these articles attracted the interest of scholars in several different fields because, in its various aspects, the Weber hypothesis cut across the areas of a number of separate scholarly disciplines. Since Weber was himself a sociollogist, and in this instance he seemed to be attempting to apply a sociological method to an historical problem, both sociologists and historians became concerned. Because capitalism was involved, economic historians were aroused; and the role Weber assigned to Protestantism drew the attention of both Catholic and Protestant theologians. Some of these scholars attacked Weber’s position; some supported it; some seemed willing to accept a modified or cautiously qualified version of it. Beyond that, however, if one may judge by what they have written, the authors who commented upon Weber’s work, whether supporting or attacking it, seem frequently to have misunderstood or misinterpreted either Weber’s method or his conclusions or both…”

Boston. D. C. Heath And Company. Problems In European Civilization. 1959. 132p.

The Outbreak Of The First World War Who Was Responsible?

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Edited With An Introduction By Dwight E. Lee

FROM THTE INTRODUCTION: “The origins of the First World War have become a major historical prob¬lem not merely because the event seemed to be of great significance as a turning point in world history, but also, and perhaps more importantly, because the question of who was responsible, raised during the war and answered in the peace settle¬ment, became a vital and passionately argued issue in both domestic and international politics. By placing the blame for the war on Germany and its allies and thereby justifying reparations, the victorious powers supplied one of the major factors utilized by Hitler in his rise to power in Germany….”

Boston. D. C. Heath And Company. Problems of European Civilization. 1958. 88p.