By J. H. Plumb

FROM CHAPTER 1: “I he face of medieval Europe was scarred with the ruins barbarous Frangipani and their armed retainers, greedy, lawless, destructive; the Forum provided a quarry for churches and rough pasture for the cattle market, and beneath the broken columns of the temple of Castor and Pollux the bullocks awaited their slaughter. The Campagna was littered with the crumbling ruins of its aqueducts; the pavements of those splendid Roman roads were narrowed by the returning wilderness. Elsewhere scraps of walls, the ruins of arena, temple, and triumphal arch, sometimes embedded in the hovels and houses of a town struggling to regain its life or lost forever in the countryside, constantly reminded the man of the Middle Ages of the fleeting life of man, of the unknowable nature of Providence. For him the past was dead, and its relics but morals in stone, a terrible warning of the wickedness that God had punished…”

Boston. Houghton Mifflin Company. 1961. 319p.

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By Jérôme Carcopino. Edited With Bibliography And Notes By Henry T. Rowell . Translated From The French By B. O. Lorimer

FROM THE PREFACE: “If 'Roman life' is not to become lost in anachronisms or petrified in abstraction, we must study it within a strictly defined period. Nothing changes more rapidly than human customs. Apart from the recent scientific discoverics which have turned the world of today upside down - steam, electricity, railways, motor-cars, and acroplanes - it is clear that even in times of greater stability and less highly developed technique the elementary forms of everyday life were subject to unceasing change. Coftee, tobacco, and champagne were not introduced into Europe until the seventeenth century; potatoes were first eaten toward the end of the eighteenth; the banana became a feature of our dessert at the beginning of the twentieth. The law of change was not less operative in antiquity. It was a commonplace of Roman rhetoric to contrast the rude simplicity of the republic with the lwxury and refinement of imperial times and to recall that Curius Dentatus 'gathered his scanty vegetables and himself cooked them on his little stove'!

London Penguin. 1967 (1941). 360p.

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By Dennis Sullivan

FROM THE COVER: “Based in a highly profitable fur trade, the seventeenth century Dutch criminal justice system of the upper Hudson River Valley regulated the community with an eye toward not only maintaining peaceful social relations, but also preserving the economic system that allowed the community to survive. This work examines the punishment practices of the Beverwijck/Albany court during the seventeenth century, delineating changes that occurred in those practices amid fluctuations in the fur trade and after the English conquest of New Netherland in 1664. This study shows that punishment practices were integrally linked to the economic status of the community and, after English conquest, to the introduction ofEnglish law.

"Dennis Sullivan's study of the punishment of crime in the upper Hudson Valley will be a major contribution to the growing bibliography of works relating to New Netherland. Researchers who work with primary source material will appreciate his rigorous use of the Dutch records at the New York State Archives. Sullivan has added another piece to the mosaic which will one day reveal New York's unique and rich colonial beginnings." — Charles Gehring, Director of the New Netherland Project

NY. Peter Lang, 1997. 367p.

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By Ann Cornelisen

FROM THE COVER: “This is the painful, heroic story of five contemporary peasant women in souther Italy- Peppina, Ninetta, Teresa, Pinuccia, Cettina. For these women and others like them, marriage is a practical and religious necessity although men and women spend very little time together once married. Many men leave their families to seek sporadic work in the cities or in other countries, and those who remain spend all of their free time with other men. Their wives are left to their own devices, and it is their earnings and their efforts that largely support the family….”

NY. Vintage. 1997. 247p.

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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.

By American Immigration Council

From the document: "The United States has broad authority to detain certain categories of migrants and others seeking humanitarian protection as their proceedings wind their way through the immigration legal system. This detention is 'civil' by definition (as opposed to criminal), meaning that it should not be punitive in nature. Despite this technical legal distinction, most immigration detention infrastructure is indistinguishable from the criminal detention context, in some instances using the same facilities and private corporations to operate detention centers and jails. [...] Alternatives to detention (ATDs) are defined as 'any legislation, policy or practice, formal or informal, that ensures people are not detained for reasons relating to their migration status. Alternatives to detention can refer to a wide range of programs that run the gamut from no governmental intervention to extensive surveillance and restrictions on liberties. Generally, alternatives to detention in the immigration context fall into the following categories: 1. Release on your own recognizance (i.e., no detention and no conditions on release)[;] 2. Release on conditions[;] 3. Release on bail/bond or other surety[;] 4. Community-based supervised release or case management[;] 5. Designated residence at a specific accommodation center[;] 6. Electronic tagging and/or tracking[;] 7. Home curfews[.]"

American Immigration Council. 2023. 10p.

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By Alexander Stille

FROM THE COVER: “In Turin, Ettore Ovazza founded a Jewish fascist movement and met with Mussolini, while Vitorio Foa joined the antifascist underground and went to prison after being betrayed by someone from his own group. In Rome, the Di Verolis lived outside of time, working as peddlers in a ghetto older than Christ-until the Germans arrived. In Genoa, Massimo Teglio worked hand-in-glove with the Catholic Church to save hundreds of Jews. And the Schönheits of Ferrara helped administer an Italian concentration camp, until being deported to Germany themselves and making their miraculous return.

This extraordinary montage--combining interview, narrative, and the evocation of Italian culture-depicts the lives of five Italian Jewish families whose experiences embody the paradoxical climate of benevolence and betrayal, and resurrects a forgotten and deeply tragic era in the history of two peoples.

"An achievement that deserves to stand next to the most insightful fiction about life and death under fascism." -Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times.

London. Penguin 1991. 362p

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FROM THE PROLOGUE: “ Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness--that ter- rible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because ni the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what--at last I- have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge…”

London. George Allen And Unwin Ltd. 1967. 240p.

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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.