European history

A masterful new account of old regime France by one of the world's most prominent political philosophers France before 1789 traces the historical origins of France's National Constituent Assembly of 1789, providing a vivid portrait of...

A dramatic intellectual biography of Victorian jurist Travers Twiss, who provided the legal justification for the creation of the brutal Congo Free State.Eminent jurist, Oxford professor, advocate to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Travers Twiss (18091897)...

Displayed on European stages from 1810 to 1815 as the Hottentot Venus, Sara Baartman was one of the most famous women of her day, and also one of the least known. As the Hottentot Venus, she was seen by Westerners as alluring and primitive, a reflection...

The French government's 2004 decision to ban Islamic headscarves and other religious signs from public schools puzzled many observers, both because it seemed to infringe needlessly on religious freedom, and because it was hailed by many in France as an...

An essential introduction to Josephus's momentous war narrativeThe Jewish War is Josephus's superbly evocative account of the Jewish revolt against Rome, which was crushed in 70 CE with the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. Martin...

During the spring of 1933, Stalin's police rounded up nearly one hundred thousand people as part of the Soviet regime's "cleansing" of Moscow and Leningrad and deported them to Siberia. Many of the victims were sent to labor camps, but ten thousand of...

From humble beginnings, Rome became perhaps the greatest intercontinental power in the world. Why did this historic city become so much more influential than its neighbor, nearby Latium, which was peopled by more or less the same stock? Over the years,...

A gripping history of the Soviet dissident movement, which hastened the end of the USSR and still provides a model of opposition in Putin's Russia.Beginning in the 1960s, the Soviet Union was unexpectedly confronted by a dissident movement that captured...

Thank you, our Stalin, for a happy childhood." "Thank you, dear Marshal [Stalin], for our freedom, for our children's happiness, for life." Between the Russian Revolution and the Cold War, Soviet public culture was so dominated by the power of the state...

Grand political accomplishment and artistic productivity were the hallmarks of Augustus Caesar's reign (31 B.C. to A.D. 14), which has served as a powerful model of achievement for societies throughout Western history. Although much research has been...

In this compilation from Plutarch's Greek Lives, James Romm gathers the material of greatest historical significance from fifteen biographies, ranging from Theseus in earliest times to Phocion in the late fourthcentury BCE. While preserving the outlines...

William of Rubruck was a Franciscan friar who wrote the first great travel book about Asia. In 1253-55 he made the journey from the Holy Land to the court of the Great Khan Mngke at Qaraqorum in Mongolia and back again. William was interested in all that...

In The Medieval Kitchen, Hannele Klemettil presents a richly illustrated history of medieval food and cookery in Western Europe and Scandinavia. The book is also a practical cookbook, with a collection of more than 60 originally sourced recipes that can...

Celebrated for its own clarity and sublime style, this classic work of literary theory draws on the writings of Demosthenes, Plato, Sappho, Thucydides, Euripides, and Aeschylus, among others, to examine and delineate the essentials of a noble style. The...

As London emerged from the devastation of the Second World War, planners and policy makers sought to rebuild the city in ways that would reshape the behavior of its citizens as much as its buildings and infrastructure-a program defined by a strong...

This edited edition of Stanley Lombardo's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses includes an Introduction by W. R. Johnson. "Stanley Lombardo successfully matches Ovid's human drama, imaginative brio, and irresistible momentum; and Ralph Johnson's superb...

'A judicious selection of the varied writings of the great humanist, translated from both Latin and Italian. The introduction is admirably structured, clear and coherent, and presents Petrarch to the reader without didacticism or oversimplification. It...

The definitive partisan biography of Rosa Luxemburg, as only a contemporary and comrade could know her.Striking the right balance between personal insight and political analysis, this biography traces Rosa Luxemburg's development from a humble Polish...

The Women Incendiaries tells the inspirational story of women who played a leading role in the Paris Commune, one of history's greatest moments of social upheaval. This is the first paperback edition of this vital, remarkable book.Edith Thomas was a...

"Thank goodness . . . for Mark Steel. Engagingly lighthearted while clearly thorough, the author has taken the events of the French Revolution and given them a human face, as well as neatly poking fun at the over-pomposity with which our recent...

Here, with critical notes and context, are V.I. Lenin's Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism and Nikolai Bukharin's Imperialism and World Economy. They are both essential for understanding the nature of imperialism and war historically-and today...

The rise of the Third Reich remains one of the most widely debated and discussed events of the twentieth century. Gluckstein sets out to place Nazism in the context of the economic crisis and the failed workers' revolution, seeking to draw lessons for...

Most historians, both ancient and modern, have viewed the Late Republic of Rome through the eyes of its rich nobility. In The Assassination of Julius Caesar, Michael Parenti presents us with a story of popular resistance against entrenched power and...

"Brou enables us to feel that we are actually living through these epoch-making events.... [D]o not miss this magnificent work."-Robert Brenner, UCLAA magisterial, definitive account of the upheavals in Germany in the wake of the Russian revolution. Brou...

Drawn from James B. Atkinson and David Sices' Montaigne: Selected Essays, this annotated translation of tienne de La Botie's political masterpiece offers an ideal opportunity to become acquainted with the thought of a brilliant though short-lived...

"Spanish poetry in the twentieth century uniquely combines both primitive and sophisticated elements. It is as firmly rooted in folksongs and ballads as it is in wild surrealist imagery. The brilliant personalism and imaginative grace of Machado, Jimenez...

In Paris and London, the crowds hailed him as the man who had conquered Napoleon, as the liberator of Europe, and as a benevolent, enlightened monarch. At home he came to be feared as a reactionary, oppressive autocrat in a country where millions of...

The history of Judaism has for too long been dominated by the theme of antisemitism, reducing Judaism to the recurrent saga of persecution and the struggle for survival. The history of philosemitism provides a corrective to that abysmal view, a reminder...

This essential document for the study of Roman history traces the story of Rome from Romulus and the foundations of Rome to the reign of the Emperor Tiberius. It is especially valuable to historians and students for its vivid eyewitness account of the...

The ten speeches in this volume illustrate Cicero's entire career and exemplify all the major contexts for his oratory: before the senate, the people, and the courts. They illuminate the major political crises of Cicero's time and offer portraits of many...

Comprising relevant selections from the four ancient writers whose portraits of Alexander the Great still survive--Arrian, Diodorus, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius--this volume provides a complete narrative of the important events in Alexander's life. The...

A.J. Woodman's translation combines accuracy and Tacitean invention, masterfully conveying Tacitus' distinctive and powerful manner of expression, and reflecting the best of current scholarship. An introductory essay discusses Tacitus' career, the period...

This new volume of three of Euripides' most celebrated plays offers graceful, economical, metrical translations that convey the wide range of effects of the playwright's verse, from the idiomatic speech of its dialogue to the high formality of its choral...

Mitchell-Boyask's Introduction gives the reader a lively and accessible overview of Euripides' life, the circumstances of the original performances, and critical debate on the three plays. Footnotes to the translations provide students with useful...

Lenin (18701924) was the leader of the communist Bolshevik party and founder of the Soviet Union. He was a key revolutionary thinker and a man who, at one time, lived in exile for his political views and survived several assassination attempts. This...

Amusing, well researched, and surprisingly sophisticated, Leon Trotsky: An Illustrated Introduction is the perfect primer on the life and thought of the great leader and chronicler of the Russian Revolution. With sympathy and humor, Tariq Ali and Phil...

Like the movie of the same name, the poems in Rancho Notorious are peopled with a colorful cast of characters, all born of the fertile imagination of Richard Garcia. Through narratives, lyric poems and dramatic monologues, Garcia's characters demonstrate...

"Republication of David Lowenthal's elegant translation of Montesquieu's neglected study of the Romans--an indispensable source for understanding the philosopher's treatment of Rome in The Spirit of the Laws--makes the book available to a new generation...

Long a master of the crafts of Homeric translation and of rhapsodic performance, Stanley Lombardo now turns to the quintessential epic of Roman antiquity, a work with deep roots in the Homeric tradition. With characteristic virtuosity, he delivers a...

In this new translation of the Homeric Hymns, Sarah Ruden employs a melodious and flexible non-rhyming line of eleven syllables, offering a close approximation of Greek hexameter verse in natural English rhythms. The result is a Homeric Hymns marked by...

Meineck's translation is faithful and supple; the language employed is modern without betraying the grandeur and complexity--particularly the images--of the Aeschylean text. After reading this translation, one has but one further wish: to see it and hear...

Aeschylus: The Libation Bearers; Euripides: Electra; Sophocles: Electra

Winner of the Premio internazionale Giuseppe Sormani 2011, awarded by the Fondazione Istituto Piemontese Antonio Gramsci in Turin for the best book/article on Gramsci in the period between 2007-2011 internationally.Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks are...

'This is the best Prometheus Bound in English. Deborah Roberts' translation is accurate, readable, and true to the original in idiom, imagery, and the combination of a high style with occasional colloquialism. The informative notes and perceptive...