DescriptionExperience a thrilling, comprehensive account of the Bolshevik seizure of power during the Russian Revolution - an event which ended czarist rule, led to the rise of Communism, and changed the shape of the 20th Century. Reed, a journalist who witnessed the Bolshevik takeover during ten precarious days in 1917, provides thorough background information and firsthand reporting. The immediacy of Reed's reporting makes Ten Days that Shook the World an essential historical document, one that brings us as close as possible to the tumultuous events of 1917.
DescriptionThis first-hand account of the noble, barbaric Fourth Crusade was written by Geoffroy de Villehardouin, a French nobleman who played a leading role in the war. The First, Second, and Third Crusades were an effort by Christians to free the Holy Land from the Turks, but the Fourth Crusade degenerated into a war of conquest amongst fellow Christians. Villehardouin's account provides important insights into the motivations of the crusaders in this most famous of campaigns, launched at the dawn of the 13th century.
DescriptionEdward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire occupies an immortal place in the pantheon of historical masterpieces. This recording covers the final three volumes of Gibbon's work, tracing ten centuries in the life of the eastern half of the empire, whose capital city was Constantinople. Among the many figures who stride across Gibbon's stage here are the emperor Justinian I, a noble statesman and successful warrior, brought low by his lascivious wife, the former prostitute Theodora; the murdering Basil I, a peasant who nonetheless proved himself a worthy figure upon which to drape the purple; and the final emperor of all Constantine XI, who died on the battlements of Constantinople in 1453, valiantly fighting a losing battle to prevent the Turks from gaining a city thay had craved for centuries. This is still the work that sets the standard for all histories of the period.
DescriptionEven at the dawn of the Age of Reason, some of the finest minds in Europe were still pursuing the alchemist's dream of discovering the arcanum, the secret formula for turning base metals into gold. The quest attracted brilliant intellects, charlatans and princes, all drawn in by the promise of unlimited wealth. By the eighteenth century, the quest for that arcanum was beginning to give way to another: the secret formula for making porcelain, the exquisite ceramic that the Chinese and Japanese had been perfecting for one thousand years, so precious that vast fortunes were spent on it. To own the secret of its making would be to command wealth and prestige to an unimaginable degree. An extraordinary episode in culture and scientific history comes to life in this fascinating story of genius, greed, and exquisite beauty.
