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By Mary Renault

FROM THE COVER: “In the fifth century B.C., Alexias, a young Athenian of good family, reaches manhood during the last phases of the Peloponnesian War. The adult world he enters is one in which the power and influence of his class have been undermined by the forces of war. Alexias finds himself drawn to the controversial teachings of Sokrates, following him even though it at times endangers both his own life and his family's place in society. Among the great teacher's followers Alexias meets Lysis, and the two youths become inseparable- -together they wrestle in the palaestra, journey to the Olympic Games, and fight in the wars against Sparta. As their relationship develops against the background of famine, siege, and civil conflict, Mary Renault expertly conveys the intricacies of classical Greek culture.”

Vintage Books. A Division Of Random House, Inc.. 2001. 400p.

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By Christopher Hibbert

FROM THE AUTHOR’S NOTE: “Although there are very many books on the lives and times of the Medici, not since the appearance of Colonel G. F. Young's two-volume work in 1909 has there been a full-length study in English devoted to the history of the whole family from the rise of the Medic bank in the late fourteenth century under the guidance of Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici to the death of the last of the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany, Gian Gastone, in 1737. This book is an attempt to supply such a study and to offer a reliable alterative, based on the fruits of modern research, to Colonel Young's work, which Ferdinand Schevill has described as 'the subjective divagations of a sentimentalist with a mind above history'…..”

New York Morrow Quill Paperbacks. 1980.

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By Janine Assa, translated by Anne Hollander

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “Half the human race - and even a little more - is made up of women. This mathematical truth, which history occasionally overlooks, tends too often to take on the glamor of a modern discovery, of an achievement of contemporary scientific progress. Must we suppose that the creature born of Adam's rib has required so many centuries to reach 'perfection"? It can indeed be asserted that ever since antiquity - and even before the birth of the Roman Empire - our masculine forbears have had to deal with woman already in possession of all the qualities recognized in the sex, of which either amiability or weakness is generally emphasized, according to the desire to win women over or to rule them….”

London. . Grove Press. Evergreen Profile Book 13. 1960. 196p.

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Edited By David Womersley

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “Edward Gibbon (1737-94) published The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in three instalments between 1776 and 1788. It was an immediate popular success, selling (as the delighted author put it) 'like a sixpenny pamphlet on the news of the day'. The book was immediately involved in controversy for its supposed hostility to established religion. But Gibbon's attitudes were much more nuanced, his intentions much more complicated, and his historical interests vastly more profound, than were those of any deist….”

London. Penguin Books. 1995. 97p.

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By Gordon Kavanagh

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “Traditionally the effects of the Irish Famine have been interpreted as a watershed in Irish history, creating new conditions of demographic decline, altered farming structures and new economic policies, not to mention an institutionalised Anglophobia among the Irish at home and abroad. The Famine devastated the country and brought Ireland to its knees. The Famine was primarily the result of a crop disease, which destroyed the potato crop in 1845. The disease would return again in the ensuing years. It was not until the early 1850's that the country finally began to recover. In the meantime its people had experienced such horror and heartbreak that is difficult to comprehend today, where Ireland is a relatively affluent country, with much wealth and comfort….”

Ireland. Gordon Kavanagh and Gabriel Kavanag. 2003. 155p.

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By Michael Grant

FROM THE JACKET: “….Michael Grant dives into the reasons why the reign of this Roman emperor, which lasted from 306 to 337 A.D.. marked a watershed in the history of civilization, albeit one charged with irony. Founding his capital at Constantinople, Constantine revitalized the Enstern half of the empire, enabling it to survive and flourish (as the Byzantine Empire) for another thousand years. Yet, as Grant shows, this shift of power to the east would prove fatal to the Western empire and have profound consequences for Europe as a whole. Constantine’s most far-reaching decision, however. was the legalization of Christianity and his conversion to the faith. Without this dramatic change Christianity might have remained a suppressed. minority religion---or worse. Grant points out the irony behind this watershed, too: For Constantine, the Christian God represented not peace but power, not humanity but success in warfare. Whatever the emperor's motives, Christian writers of that period--and after--greatly admired Constantine. Grant draws on their writings judiciously, while noting, for example, that Eusebius fails to mention Constantine's murder of his own son and his empress. Grant deftly explores the many questions surrounding these killings--Had the son plotted revolution? Had his stepmother, the empress, fallen in love with him? Had the emperor allowed a charge of rape (possibly false) brought by the empress against the stepson to stand?…

NY. Barnes & Noble. 1993. 282p.

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By L. Mara Dodge

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “This study explores the treatment of women in Illinois prisons from the early nineteenth to the late twentieth century. Although it fouses on a small minority of women-convicted felons--it asks far broader questions: Who were these women? What were their crimes? How and why did patterns of criminality, prosecution, conviction, and sentencing shift over the decades? How did factors such as race, class, ethnicity, age, marital status, reputation, and social standing influence the chain of official decisions that led from arrest to prosecution to conviction and, finally, to sentencing? Once women were sentenced, what was the character of their prison experience, and how did that experience evolve over time? How were women affected by shifting philosophies of punishment and rehabilitation; by changing ideologies of prison superintendents, psychiatrists, sociologists, and parole board members? What was the nature of discipline, surveillance, and social control within women's prisons? And finally, how did women resist, subvert, or accommodate prison regimes?

DeKalb, Illinois. Northern Illinois University Press. 2002. 347p.

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By Robert B. Asprey

FROM THE COVER: Napoleon Bonaparte has been too often remembered as either demi-god or devil incarnate. In The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, the first volume of a two-volume cradle-to-grave biography, Robert Asprey instead treats him as a human being Asprey tells this fascinating, tragic tale in lush narrative detail, charting the exciting, reckless thrill ride of Napoleon's vertiginous ascent to fame and the height of power. Here is Napoleon as he was--not saint, nor sinner, but a man devoured by his vision of himself, his empire and his world. "This work's great service is showing by a clear presentation of the facts just why Napolcon Bonaparte has been such an enduring figure of fascination for most of two centuries. When complete, Asprey's biography bids fair to become the standard work in English on the most prominent avatar of the great man' theory of history. -Boston Globe

NY. Basic Books. 2000. 604p.

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By Robert B. Asprey

FROM THE COVER: “This second volume of Robert Asprey's biography of Napoleon completes his monumental study of one of history's most enigmatic, complex and fascinating figures. The Reign of Napoleon Bonaparte chronicles Napoleon's chilling, reckless reign and fall from power. This swift-moving, dramatic volume opens where The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte left off, at Napoleon's astounding victory at Austerlitz in 1805, charting his life from the zenith of his power to his lonely, exile's deach sixteen years later on the island of Saint Helena. "Accessible, fast-moving narrative."-Publishers Weekly

NY. Basic Books. 2001. 509p.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.