The extraordinary history of Ancient Egyptian civilization
- from its earliest origins to the creation of its greatest monument
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In this engaging & ambitious work, John Romer aims to refocus the gaze of the non-specialist away from the Pharaonic period (about which there are any number of popular histories) onto the Neolithic, & the growth of a centralised Egyptian state. He traces fifteen hundred years of development, from the emergence of farming communities along the route of the Nile to the creation of the sophisticated administrative, transport & supply systems which allowed the construction of the Great Pyramid. His approach is avowedly archaeological, aiming to get away from the priviledging of textual court-focused history, & stressing the role & lives of the ordinary peoples of Egypt. ...

Sussex, East & West, has been well served by fine cartographers over the past four centuries, but this exciting work is no mere collection of historic maps. All 70 maps are completely new & original, presenting the history of Sussex in a way never previously attempted. Prepared by leading experts, they plot a huge diversity of subject matter, ranging from prehistoric times to the present day, & each is accompanied by a text which places it in context & reveals a remarkable amount of new research. From the geological structure of Sussex to the Saxon settlement that gave the county its name; & from 17thcentury inns to the patterns of employment & commuting in the late 20th century – including such contemporary issues as the Health Service, education & planning – so much of the past & the life of the county that can be illuminated by a map has been included. This major new work of reference is the result of a partnership between the University of Sussex, the Sussex Archaeological Society & East & West Sussex County Councils. The editors have worked closely with the University’s Cartographic Department to produce maps of high quality & accuracy to ensure that this millenial volume is a landmark publciation of which Sussex can be proud. ...

Discover London’s ancient Riverside pubs, set in an area that was for centuries home to pirates, smugglers, shipbuilders, pilgrims & the infamous Execution Dock. The pubs & the sites are in the Wapping &, across the Thames, the Rotherhithe area of east London, & where appropriate the guide provides information on opening hours & phone numbers. To see other titles in this series of thematic walks in London please click on the series link. ...

This definitive, multi-volume history of the world`s first known state reveals that much of what we have been taught about Ancient Egypt is the product of narrow-minded visions of the past. Drawing on a lifetime of research, John Romer chronicles the history of Ancient Egypt from the building of the Great Pyramid through the rise & fall of the Middle Kingdom: a peak of Pharaonic culture & the period when writing first flourished. He reveals how the grand narratives of nineteenth & twentieth-century Egyptologists have misled us by portraying a culture of cruel monarchs & chronic war. Instead, based in part on discoveries of the past two decades, this extraordinary account shows what we can really learn from the remaining architecture, objects & writing: a history based on physical reality. ...

Boadicea battled the Romans. Nancy Astor fought in Parliament. Emmeline Pankhurst campaigned for female suffrage. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became a pioneering physician in a man`s profession. Mary Quant revolutionised the fashion industry. Britain has traditionally been defined by its conflicts, its conquests, its men & its monarchs. It`s high time that it was defined by its women. In this unique history, Jenni Murray tells the stories of twenty-one women who refused to succumb to the established laws of society, whose lives embodied hope & change. Famous queens, forgotten visionaries, great artists & trailblazing politicians
- all pushed back boundaries & revolutionised our world. In Murray`s hands their stories are enthralling & beguiling; they have the power to inspire us once again.
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They were famous queens, unrecognised visionaries, great artists & trailblazing politicians. They all pushed back boundaries & revolutionised our world. Jenni Murray presents the history of Britain as you`ve never seen it before, through the lives of twenty-one women who refused to succumb to the established laws of society, whose lives embodied hope & change, & who still have the power to inspire us today. ...

` Great Britain? What was that?` asks Simon Schama at the start of this, the second book of his epic three-volume journey into Britain`s past. This volume, ” The British Wars”, is a compelling chronicle of the changes that transformed every strand & stratum of British life, faith & thought from 1603 to 1776. Travelling up & down the country & across three continents, Schama explores the forces that tore Britain apart during two centuries of dynamic change
- transforming outlooks, allegiances & boundaries. From the beginning of the British wars in July 1637, for 200 years battles raged on
- both at home & abroad, on sea & on l&, up & down the length of burgeoning Britain, across Europe, America & India. Most would be wars of faith
- waged on wide-ranging grounds of political or religious conviction. But as wars of religious passions gave way to campaigns for profit, the British people did come together in the imperial enterprise of ` Britannia Incorporated`. The story of that great alteration is a story of revolution & reaction, inspiration & disenchantment, of progress & catastrophe, & Schama`s evocative narrative brings it vividly to life.


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` History clings tight but it also kicks loose, ` writes Simon Schama at the outset of this, the first book in his three-volume journey into Britain`s past. ` Disruption as much as persistence is its proper subject. So although the great theme of British history seen from the twentieth century is endurance, its counter-point, seen from the twenty-first, must be alteration.` Change
- sometimes gentle & subtle, sometimes shocking & violent
- is the dynamic of Schama`s unapologetically personal & grippingly written history, especially the changes that wash over custom & habit, transforming our loyalties. At the heart of this history lie questions of compelling importance for Britain`s future as well as its past: what makes or breaks a nation? To whom do we give our allegiance & why? & where do the boundaries of our community lie
- in our hearth & home, our village or city, tribe or faith? What is Britain
- one country or many? Has British history unfolded `at the edge of the world` or right at the heart of it? Schama delivers these themes in a form that is at once traditional & excitingly fresh. The great & the wicked are here
- Becket & Thomas Cromwell, Robert the Bruce & Anne Boleyn
- but so are countless more ordinary lives: an Irish monk waiting for the plague to kill him in his cell at Kilkenny; &, a small boy running through the streets of London to catch a glimpse of Elizabeth I. They are all caught on the rich & teeming canvas on which Schama paints his brilliant portrait of the life of the British people: `for in the end, history, especially British history with its succession of thrilling illuminations, should be, as all her most accomplished narrators have promised, not just instruction but pleasure.`





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` While Britain was losing an empire, it was finding itself...` The compelling opening words to ” The Fate of the Empire”, set the tone & agenda for the final stage of Simon Schama`s epic voyage around Britain, her people & her past. Spanning two centuries, crossing the breadth of the empire & covering a vast expanse of topics
- from the birth of feminism to the fate of freedom
- he explores the forces that shaped British culture & character from 1776 to 2000. The story opens on the eve of a bloody revolution, but not a British one. The French Revolution never quite crossed the Channel, though its spirit of fiery defiance & Romantic idealism did, sparking off a round of radical revolts & reforms that gathered momentum over the coming century
- from the Irish Rebellion to the Chartist Petition. The great question of the Victorian century was how the world`s first industrial society could come through its growing pains without falling apart in social & political conflict. Would the machine age destroy or strengthen the institutions that held Britain together, from the family to the farm? And if the British Empire helped to make Britain stable & rich, did it live up to its promise to help the ruled as well as the rulers? On the way to answering these questions, ” The Fate of the Empire” makes stops at both celebrations, like the Great Exhibition, & catastrophes, like the Irish potato famine & the Indian Mutiny. Amidst the military & economic shocks & traumas of the 20th century, & through the voices of Churchill, Orwell & H. G. Wells, it asks the question that is still with us
- is the immense weight of our history a blessing or a curse, a gift or a millstone around the neck of our future? It is a vast compelling epic, made more so by the lively storytelling & big bold characters at the heart of the action. But alongside flamboyant heroes, like Nelson & Churchill, Schama recalls unsung heroines & virtually unknown enemies. Alongside the grand ideas, he exposes the grand illusions that cost untold lives. Schama looks head on at the facts & asks, ` What went wrong with the liberal dream?` The answers emerge in ” The Fate of the Empire”, which reveals the living ideals of Britain`s long history, `a history that tied together social justice with bloody-minded liberty`.



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