DescriptionThe Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 B.C. and continued intermittently for 27 years. It pitted the all-powerful land force of Sparta and its allies against the supremely powerful naval force of Athens. Thucydides actually participated in this conflict…
DescriptionThe early myths of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia Minor, Canaan, Greece, and Rome have greatly and continuously influenced all of Western culture and civilization. Myths rely on imagination and intuition; they express fervently held convictions about the ultima…
DescriptionThe story of the Native-American princess who risked her life to save English explorer John Smith. This profile goes beyond the myths we learned in childhood to chronicle the life of the real Pocahontas: a stateswoman who dreamed of peaceful coexistence with European settlers.
DescriptionIn the indulgence of their egotistical ambitions and reckless whims, kings, conquerors and dictators have frequently presented a spectacle, sometimes comic but more often tragic in its results, that the authors have tried to bring back to life in this book. Here are living biographies of these twenty famous rulers: King Solomon; Asoka; Caesar; Augustus; Constantine; Charlemagne; Kublai Khan; Henry VIII; Queen Elizabeth; Montezuma; Ivan the Terrible; Catherine the Great; Louis XIV; Frederick the Great; Napoleon; Queen Victoria; Kaiser Wilhelm; Stalin; Mussolini; and Hitler.
DescriptionHere are more than 60 eyewitness accounts of notable historical events beginning with the Spartans at Thermopylae in 480 BC through to and including the Bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Hear of the Black Death of the 1340s, the 1666 G…
DescriptionThe Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 BC and continued intermittently for twenty-seven years. It pitted an all-powerful land force (Sparta and its allies) against a supremely powerful naval force (Athens). Thucydides actually participated in this conflict, a war which he realized would have a greater influence on the history of Greece than any other war. The History of the Peloponnesian War is true to its title: it is a story of battles and sieges, of alliances hastily made and soon broken, and most importantly, of the behavior of people as the war dragged on and on, and the inevitable "corrosion of the human spirit."…
DescriptionBy the middle of the second century B.C., the Roman Republic has been changed completely from the sober and virtuous character of the previous generations of self-sacrificing soldier-farmers. Rome has become a wealthy, diverse metropolis of many conflicti…
DescriptionShe was Egypt's greatest queen, but not a drop of Egyptian blood flowed through her veins. The Romans regarded her as a dangerous seductress, but for almost half of her adult life she remained celibate. A profile of this exceptional woman who used all of her talent to become one of the most feared rulers of her time.
DescriptionIn 1519, Hernando Cortes arrived in Mexico to investigate stories of a wealthy empire. What he encountered was beyond his wildest dreams; an advanced civilization with complex artistic, political, and religious systems (involving extensive human sacrifice) and replete with gold. This was the Aztec empire, headed by the aloof emperor, Montezuma. With just a handful of men, Cortes achieved the impossible, crushing the Aztecs and their allies, and effectively annexing the whole territory for Spain. One of the most extraordinary stories of conquest in mankind's history, it is told here in the classic account by the American historian W.H. Prescott.
DescriptionAt Will Durant's death at 96, in 1981, his personal papers were dispersed among relatives, collectors, and archive houses. Twenty years later, scholar John Little discovered the previously unknown manuscript of Heroes of History in Durant's granddaughter's garage. Written shortly before he died, these 21 essays serve as an abbreviated version of Durant's best-selling, 11-volume series, The Story of Civilization . Durant traces the lives and ideas of those who have helped to define civilization, from Confucius to Shakespeare, from the Roman Empire to the Reformation, spanning thousands of years of human history. A volume of life-enhancing wit and wisdom, Heroes of History draws upon Durant's expansive knowledge and singular ability to translate distant events and complex ideas into easily accessible principles.
