The Landmark Library Series
By Francis Pryor, Rupert Christiansen, Colin Jones and
3.5/5
()
About this series
'Takes readers on a narrative odyssey' Wall Street Journal, Books of the Year
'Highlights a dizzying burst of new research' The Economist
'A refreshing addition to the canon of literature that contemplates Oceanic navigation' Noelle Kahanu
'I would not be surprised if, after reading this masterpiece, many readers are compelled to take up voyaging themselves' Science Magazine
Thousands of islands, inhabited by a multitude of different peoples, are scattered across the vastness of the Pacific. The first European explorers to visit Oceania, from the sixteenth century on, were astounded and perplexed to find populations thriving so many miles from the nearest continents. Who were these people and where did they come from?
In Voyagers, the distinguished anthropologist Nicholas Thomas charts the course of the seaborne migrations that populated the islands between Asia and the Americas. Drawing on the latest research, including insights gained from linguistics, archaeology, and the re-enactment of voyages, Thomas provides a dazzling account of these long-distance migrations, the sea-going technologies that enabled them, and the societies that they left in their wake.
Titles in the series (10)
- Guernica: Painting the End of the World
5
A brilliant, concise account of the painting often described as the most important work of art produced in the twentieth century, as part of the stunning Landmark Library series. Pablo Picasso had already accepted a commission to create a work for the Spanish Republican Pavilion in 1937 when news arrived of the bombing of the undefended Basque town of Gernika. James Attlee offers an illuminating account of the genesis, creation and complex afterlife of Picasso's Guernica. He explores the historical and cultural context from which the painting sprang and the meanings it accrued during its travels across Europe and the Americas, as well as its influence on artists both living and dead. Finally, he argues for its continuing importance as a warning of what happens when the forces of darkness go unchallenged. Praise for Guernica: 'Helps you appreciate Guernica's daring and resonance' Literary Review 'An impressive overview of the painting's conception and execution, and its subsequent life as an exhibit and a symbol... Attlee's book succeeds in showing how influential Guernica has been' Sunday Times 'Attlee digs up rich examples of the debate and devotion that invariably attended the painting... Guernica literature abounds; but this book is a worthwhile addition' Spectator
- Magna Carta: The Making and Legacy of the Great Charter
1
A beautifully produced account of the signing, impact and legacy of Magna Carta, a document that became one of the most influential statements in the history of democracy, as part of the stunning landmark library series. On a summer's day in 1215 a beleaguered English monarch met a group of disgruntled barons in a meadow by the river Thames named Runnymede. Beset by foreign crisis and domestic rebellion, King John was fast running out of options. On 15 June he reluctantly agreed to fix his regal seal to a document that would change the world. A milestone in the development of constitutional politics and the rule of law, the 'Great Charter' established an Englishman's right to Habeas Corpus and set limits to the exercise of royal power. For the first time a group of subjects had forced an English king to agree to a document that limited his powers by law and protected their rights. Dan Jones's elegant and authoritative narrative of the making and legacy of Magna Carta is amplified by profiles of the barons who secured it and a full text of the charter in both Latin and English.
- The British Museum
7
A concise history of one of the world's greatest and most comprehensive museum collections, from its founding in 1753. A product and symbol of the 18th-century Enlightenment, the British Museum is as iconic an expression of that cultural tendency as Johnson's Dictionary, the French Encyclopedie and Linnaean plant classification. Its collections embody the raw material of empiricism – the bringing together of things to enable the widest intellectual experiment to take place. James Hamilton explores the establishment of the Museum in the 1750s (from the bequest to the nation of the collections of Sir Hans Sloane); the chosen site of its location; the cultural context in which it came into being; the subsequent development, expansion and diversification of the Museum, both as a collection and as a building, from the early 19th to the 21st century; the controversy occasioned by some of its acquisitions; and the legacy and influence of the Museum nationally and globally.
- Skyscraper
8
Chicago's beautiful Reliance Building, sixteen storeys tall, was designed in 1890 by John Root and completed in 1895 by Charles B. Atwood. In its construction – metal frame, large areas of plate glass, fire-proof brick and terracotta cladding – it pioneers all the key elements of twentieth-century high-rise architecture, and many of the tenets of Modernism. Cruickshank reflects on the extraordinary architectural, artistic and engineering world of the 1890s and its great figures such as Daniel H. Burnham, Louis Sullivan and William Le Baron Jenney. He looks forward to the Reliance building's immediate progeny, such as the 1902 Flatiron Building in New York and to the hubristic high-rise architecture of the twenty-first century. This is also the story of Gilded Age Chicago, which was burned to the ground in 1871. The city – corrupt, violent and fabulously wealthy – was ready to try anything, even revolutionary forms of architecture.
- Dante's Divine Comedy
12
A TLS Book of the Year. 'Erudite and urgent, Ian Thomson's Dante's Divine Comedy is another book that everyone ought to read' Spectator. 'Succinct but wide-ranging, Ian Thomson's richly illustrated exploration of Dante's masterpiece is... fun... ingenious... fascinating' Observer. 'A book worth savouring as a chunky, chatty, richly illustrated guide that brings Dante and his world within our reach' Evening Standard. A lively and wide-ranging exploration of a literary masterwork and its influence on writers, poets, artists and film-makers up to our own time. Dante has no equal as he sings of other-worldly horror and celestial beatitude alike. Yet for all our distance from medieval theology, the Florentine poet's allegorical journey through hell, purgatory and paradise remains one of the essential works of world literature. At least fifty English language versions of the Inferno – the first part of Dante's poem – appeared in the twentieth century alone. If Dante's Divine Comedy speaks to our present condition, it is because it tells the story of Everyman who sets out in search of salvation in this world. Dante composed his great poem in the spoken Italian of his time. He wrote about suffering bodies and human weakness, and about divine ecstasy, in words that have resonated with readers and writers for the last seven hundred years.
- Shakespeare: The Theatre of Our World
13
In 1623 the actors John Heminges and Henry Condell assembled Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, better known as The First Folio. In doing so they preserved literature's most dramatically vital and poetically rich account of our human world. Endlessly reinterpreted by critics and performers, Shakespeare's inexhaustible work has remained abreast of contemporary concerns ever since, and it continues to hold a mirror up to the nature of our troubled society and our contradictory selves. The plays accompany us through the ages of mankind, from comic springtime to wintry age, compressing our life in time into the three hours' traffic of the stage; the characters in them have shaped the way we think about politics and war, consciousness and morality, love and death. Peter Conrad examines the world-view of the plays, their generic originality and their astonishingly inventive language. He goes on to explore Shakespeare's global legacy as his characters migrate to every continent and are reinvented by later writers, painters, composers, choreographers and film-makers.
- The Rite of Spring
16
The story behind the scandalous first performance of one of the most influential works in the history of music, as part of the stunning Landmark Library series. On 29 May 1913, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, a new ballet by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, received its premiere. Many of the cultural big names of Paris were there, or were rumoured to have been there: Debussy, Ravel, Proust, Gertrude Stein, Picasso. When the curtain rose on a cast of frenziedly stamping dancers, a near-riot ensued, ensuring the evening would enter the folklore of modernism. While it was the dancing that triggered the mayhem, Stravinsky's score contained shocks enough, with its innovations in form, rhythm, dissonance and its sheer sonic power. The Rite of Spring would achieve recognition in its own right as a concert piece, and is now seen as one of the most influential works of the 20th century. Gillian Moore explores the cultural climate that created The Rite, tells the story of the creation of the music and the ballet and provides a guide to the music itself, showing how a scandalous novelty of 1913 became a 21st-century concert staple. As well as considering its influence on 20th-century classical composers, she probes The Rite's impact on film music (including scores for Star Wars and Jaws); its extensive influence on jazz musicians (including Charlie Parker) and by artists as diverse as Weather Report, Joni Mitchell, Frank Zappa and The Pet Shop Boys.
- Railways
20
From Britain's most popular railway historian, a concise, authoritative and fast-paced telling of how the railways changed the world. The arrival of the railways in the first half of the nineteenth century and their subsequent spread across every one of the world's continents acted as a spur for economic growth and social change on an extraordinary scale. The 'iron road' stimulated innovation in engineering and architecture, enabled people and goods to move around the world more quickly than ever before, and played a critical role in warfare as well as in the social and economic spheres. Christian Wolmar describes the emergence of modern railways in both Britain and the USA in the 1830s, and elsewhere in the following decade. He charts the surge in railway investment plans in Britain in the early 1840s and the ensuing 'railway mania' (which created the backbone of today's railway network), and the unstoppable spread of the railways across Europe, America and Asia. Above all, he assesses the global impact of a technology that, arguably, had the most transformative impact on human society of any before the coming of the Internet, and which, as it approaches two centuries of existence, continues to play a key role in human society in the twenty-first century. 'A lucid and engaging account of the far-reaching effects that trains have had upon society' The Railway & Canal Historical Society
- The French Revolution
19
A short, brilliant and controversial new interpretation of arguably the most important revolution of all time: the event that made the rights of man and the demand for liberty, equality and fraternity central to modern politics. In this miraculously compressed, incisive book David Andress argues that it was the peasantry of France who made and defended the Revolution of 1789. That the peasant revolution benefitted far more people, in more far reaching ways, than the revolution of lawyerly elites and urban radicals that has dominated our view of the revolutionary period. History has paid more attention to Robespierre, Danton and Bonaparte than it has to the millions of French peasants who were the first to rise up in 1789, and the most ardent in defending changes in land ownership and political rights. 'Those furthest from the centre rarely get their fair share of the light', Andress writes, and the peasants were patronised, reviled and often persecuted by urban elites for not following their lead. Andress's book reveals a rural world of conscious, hard-working people and their struggles to defend their ways of life and improve the lives of their children and communities.
- The Arab Conquests
21
The story of the seventh- and eighth-century Muslim conquests, when armies inspired by the new religion of Islam burst out of Arabia to build the Islamic Empire. 'This book delivers drama through sublime writing, but mainly through marvellous images... As sharp as the Arabian desert in the midday sun' Gerard DeGroot, The Times, Books of the Year 'An excellent prelude to Marozzi's previous books' Spectator 'Thoroughly good fun... The narration moves swiftly but gracefully from episode to episode' Sunday Times By the time of his death in 632, the Prophet Mohammed had united the feuding tribes of Arabia at the point of his sword. In the decades that followed, armies inspired by the new religion of Islam burst out of Arabia to subjugate the Levant, southwest and Central Asia, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. The Arab Conquests lasted until 750, by which time several generations of marauding Muslim armies had carved out an Islamic empire, soon to be centred on Baghdad, which in size and population rivalled that of Rome at its zenith, extending from the shores of the Atlantic in the west to the borders of China in the east. In the process they had completely crushed one great empire (the old empire of Byzantium), and hollowed out another (that of the Iranian Sasanids). These conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries represent one of the greatest feats of arms in history. Justin Marozzi charts their lightning progress across the Middle East and vast tracts of Asia and explains how an unknown and radically militant faith swept out of the Arabian desert to change the world for ever.
Francis Pryor
Dr Francis Pryor has spent thirty years studying the prehistory of the Fens. He has excavated sites as diverse as Bronze Age farms, field systems and entire Iron Age villages. From 1980 he turned his attention to pre-Roman religion and has excavated barrows, ‘henges’ and a large site dating to 3800 B.C. In 1987, with his wife Maisie Taylor, he set up the Fenland Archaeological Trust. He appears frequently on TV’s ‘Time Team’ and is the author of ‘Seahenge’, ‘Britain B.C.’ and ‘Britain A.D.’
Read more from James Hamilton Paterson
Cooking with Fernet Branca Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Marked for Death: The First War in the Air Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blackbird: A History of the Untouchable Spy Plane Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stuck Monkey: The Deadly Planetary Cost of the Things We Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat We Have Lost: The Dismantling of Great Britain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Trains, Planes, Ships and Cars Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Landmark Library
Related ebooks
Logan's Run: Aftermath #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRock and Roll Comics: Joan Jett Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChildren's Ten Commandments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRookie Rescuer: Learning about God and 'First Responder' Work through Real Calls! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMisadventures of Adam West #10: Volume 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegend of Isis: Image Introduces Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Alabaster Box...: Poetry, Prose, and Prayer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIsfjell Point Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlying Saucers Vs. the Earth #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMonster’s Among Us: A War of Witches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Galactic Traveler: The Story of Enoch Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJourney to the Moon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecret Lives of Julie Newmar #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStyx & Stone #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Reindeer Learned to Fly Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReach Your Dreams: Five Steps to be a Conscious Creator in Your Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOrbit: Mikhail Prokhorov Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPromises: The First Chapter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOdyssey Presents: Anthology #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlying Saucers Vs. the Earth #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Art of Southwest Landscaping Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVincent Price Presents: Phibes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales from William F. Nolan's Dark Universe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRock and Roll Comics: Elvis Presley Experience Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Political Power: Michele Bachmann Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThree-Fold Cord: Creation Redemption Dominion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJudo Girl: Silencer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWords of Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGood Jokes Bad Drawings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuatermain #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
European History For You
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mein Kampf: English Translation of Mein Kamphf - Mein Kampt - Mein Kamphf Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dry: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jane Austen: The Complete Novels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Negro Rulers of Scotland and the British Isles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Celtic Charted Designs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Short History of the World: The Story of Mankind From Prehistory to the Modern Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 2]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Celtic Mythology: A Concise Guide to the Gods, Sagas and Beliefs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Six Wives of Henry VIII Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Landmark Library
55 ratings0 reviews