The story of the most iconic railway company of the great age of steam. The initials `GWR` conjure an evocative picture of a Brunswick green locomotive hauling tea-&-cream- coloured coaches through a verdant West Country landscape. But the GWR was not just engines & trains. In this comprehensive history, Colin Maggs, one of the country`s foremost railway historians, tells of other, perhaps less well-known aspects of the company`s history. Its construction & expansion; the activities of its publicity department; its sea, air & road services. It was a caring cradle-to-the-grave employer & at Swindon provided a hospital, school, baths & recreational facilities. These, & other fascinating aspects of the company are all revealed in this accessible book illustrated with over 100 photographs & period posters, many in colour. ...

Over the centuries the Middle East has confounded the dreams of conquerors & peacemakers alike. This now-classic book, fully updated to 2009, follows the historic struggles of the region over the last two hundred years, from Napoleon`s assault on Egypt, through the slow decline & fall of the Ottoman Empire, to the painful emergence of modern nations, the Palestinian question & Islamic resurgence. For this fourth edition, Economist journalist & Middle East correspondent Nicolas Pelham has written an extensive new chapter examining recent developments throughout the Middle East, including the invasions of Iraq & Afghanistan, the situation in Iran, the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict & relations with the US under President Obama. ...

A History of the Pacific Islands is a wide ranging account of the peopling of the Pacific & the area’s impact on world history. The narrative spans nearly 50, 000 years & deals with an area (Melanesia, Micronesia & Polynesia) that makes up nearly a third of the globe’s surface. Steven Roger Fischer follows the development of the region from New Guinea’s earliest settlement to the modern-day statehoods of the Pacific, looking at the varied genealogy of the peoples themselves & the rich heritage resulting from multifarious succeeding invading peoples, as well as exploring the effect on the region of such global issues as whaling, pandemics, colonization, trade, war & nuclear testing. ...

The Silk Road is a route from the edges of the European world to the central plains of China. For thousands of years, its history has been a traveller`s history, of brief encounters in desert towns, snowbound passes & nameless forts. It was the conduit that first brought Buddhism, Christianity & Islam into China, & the site of much of the ` Great Game` between Victorian empires. Jonathan Clements guides the reader through the trackless wastes of the Taklamakan Desert, its black whirlwinds & dead lakes, its shimmering mirages, lost cities & mysterious mummies, but also its iconic statues & memorable modern pop songs. He explains the truth behind odd tales of horses that sweat blood, defaced statues & missing frescoes, & Marco Polo`s stories of black gold that seeps from the earth. ...

south Yorkshire has some of the most varied countryside in Engl&, ranging from the Pennine moors & the wooded hills & valleys in the west to the estate villages on the magnesian limestone escarpment & the lowlands in the east. Each of these different landscapes has been shaped by human activities over the centuries. This book tells the story of how the present landscape was created. It looks at buildings, fields, woods & moorl&, navigable rivers & industrial remains, & the intriguing place-names that are associated with them. Chapters include: The Oldest Parish Churches Monasteries & their Granges Pennine Farms Wombwell Ings & Old Moor Inland Waterways Wentworth Castle Cannon Hall & its Park Coal Mining & many more. ...

Our understanding of world history is changing, as new discoveries are made on all the continents & old prejudices are being challenged. In this truly global journey Andrew Marr revisits some of the traditional epic stories, from classical Greece & Rome to the rise of Napoleon, but surrounds them with less familiar material, from Peru to the Ukraine, China to the Caribbean. He looks at cultures that have failed & vanished, as well as the origins of today's superpowers, & finds surprising echoes & parallels across vast distances & epochs. This is a book about the great change-makers of history & their times, people such as Cleopatra, Genghis Khan, Galileo & Mao, but it is also a book about us. For 'the better we understand how rulers lose touch with reality, or why revolutions produce dictators more often than they produce happiness, or why some parts of the world are richer than others, the easier it is to understand our own times.' Fresh, exciting & vividly readable, this is popular history at its very best. ...

Our understanding of world history is changing, as new discoveries are made on all the continents & old prejudices are being challenged. In this truly global journey Andrew Marr revisits some of the traditional epic stories, from classical Greece & Rome to the rise of Napoleon, but surrounds them with less familiar material, from Peru to the Ukraine, China to the Caribbean. He looks at cultures that have failed & vanished, as well as the origins of today`s superpowers, & finds surprising echoes & parallels across vast distances & epochs. This is a book about the great change-makers of history & their times, people such as Cleopatra, Genghis Khan, Galileo & Mao, but it is also a book about us. For `the better we understand how rulers lose touch with reality, or why revolutions produce dictators more often than they produce happiness, or why some parts of the world are richer than others, the easier it is to understand our own times.` Fresh, exciting & vividly readable, this is popular history at its very best. ...

A clearly written, accessible & comprehensive text that tells the story of man s journey from the time of the first hominids to the present. Sections include: Ancient World, 10, 000 to 500BC, Classical World, 500 BC to AD500, Medieval World, AD500 to 1500, Early Modern World, 1500-1783, 19th Century, the Modern World from 1914 to the first decade of the 21st century. This book tells the story of how we got to where we are today through conflict & intrigue, power won & lost, & great empires built & destroyed. ...

Beginning with an unlikely stowaway`s account of life on board Noah`s Ark, A History of the World in 10à  ½ Chapters presents a surprising, subversive, fictional history of earth told from several kaleidoscopic perspectives. Noah disembarks from his ark but he & his Voyage are not forgotten: they are revisited in on other centuries & other climes
- by a Victorian spinster mourning her father, by an American astronaut on an obsessive personal mission. We journey to the Titanic, to the Amazon, to the raft of the Medusa, & to an ecclesiastical court in medieval France where a bizarre case is about to begin... This is no ordinary history, but something stranger, a challenge & a delight for the reader`s imagination. Ambitious yet accessible, witty & playfully serious, this is the work of a brilliant novelist.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects, based on the celebrated BBC Radio 4 series, is an original approach to the history of humanity, using objects which previous civilizations have left behind them, often accidentally, as prisms through which we in the present day can explore past worlds & the lives of the people who lived them. The range of the book is enormous, beginning with the earliest surviving objects made by human hands & ending with a 21st object that represents the world in which we live today. Neil Mac Gregor ...