Vanished Kingdoms

Author : Norman Davies
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 9780670022731
Total Pages : 830 pages
Book Rating : 4.3X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Vanished Kingdoms written by Norman Davies and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012 with total page 830 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the history of fourteen lost European kingdoms and what their stories can teach the modern world, providing narrative accounts of the rise and fall of nations ranging from Tolosa to the Soviet Union.

Author : Guy, John
Publisher : Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN 13 : 1588395243
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia written by Guy, John and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 2014-04-07 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh and exciting exploration of Southeast Asian history from the 5th to 9th century, seen through the lens of the region's sculpture

Author : Gerard Russell
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1471114724
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms written by Gerard Russell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-11-20 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite its reputation for religious intolerance, the Middle East has long sheltered many distinctive and strange faiths: one regards the Greek prophets as incarnations of God, another reveres Lucifer in the form of a peacock, and yet another believes that their followers are reincarnated beings who have existed in various forms for thousands of years. These religions represent the last vestiges of the magnificent civilizations in ancient history: Persia, Babylon, Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs. Their followers have learned how to survive foreign attacks and the perils of assimilation. But today, with the Middle East in turmoil, they face greater challenges than ever before. In Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms, former diplomat Gerard Russell ventures to the distant, nearly impassable regions where these mysterious religions still cling to survival. He lives alongside the Mandaeans and Ezidis of Iraq, the Zoroastrians of Iran, the Copts of Egypt, and others. He learns their histories, participates in their rituals, and comes to understand the threats to their communities. Historically a tolerant faith, Islam has, since the early 20th century, witnessed the rise of militant, extremist sects. This development, along with the rippling effects of Western invasion, now pose existential threats to these minority faiths. And as more and more of their youth flee to the West in search of greater freedoms and job prospects, these religions face the dire possibility of extinction. Drawing on his extensive travels and archival research, Russell provides an essential record of the past, present, and perilous future of these remarkable religions.

Author : Gene S. Stuart
Publisher : American Society of Civil Engineers
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Lost Kingdoms of the Maya written by Gene S. Stuart and published by American Society of Civil Engineers. This book was released on 1993 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Splendid color photos overshadow the text. No references. No index. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Author : Emily Hawkins
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0711262829
Total Pages : 91 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book An Atlas of Lost Kingdoms written by Emily Hawkins and published by . This book was released on 2022-10-04 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Atlas of Lost Kingdoms takes young explorers on a quest to discover legendary lost worlds from a variety of different cultures spanning the globe.

Author : Norman Davies
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141960485
Total Pages : 848 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Vanished Kingdoms written by Norman Davies and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2011-10-27 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The past is a foreign country' has become a truism, yet the past differs from the present in many unfamiliar ways and historical memory is extraordinarily imperfect. The degree to which we think of the European past as the history of France, Germany, Britain, Russia and so on, actually obstructs our view of former reality, and blunts our sensitivity to the ever-changing political landscape. Europe's past is littered with kingdoms, empires and republics which no longer exist but which were some of the most important entities of their day - 'the Empire of Aragon', which dominated the western Mediterranean in the thirteenth century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the largest country in Europe for part of the eighteenth century. This book shows the reader how to peer through the cracks of mainstream history-writing, and to catch a glimpse of the 'Five, Six or Seven Kingdoms of Burgundy'. How long will it be before the USSR, until recently one of the world's two superpowers, is wholly or half-forgotten as most of these? The histories of the lost echo across the centuries, mixed in with more familiar sounds. One of the purposes of this book is to help us hear them again more clearly, and appreciate where they came from. As in his earlier celebrated books Europe and The Isles, Norman Davies aims to subvert our established view what looks familiar in history and urges us to look and think again. This stimulating book, full of unexpected stories, observations and connections, gives us a fresh and original perspective on European history.

Author : Norman Davies
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 1846148324
Total Pages : 656 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Beneath Another Sky written by Norman Davies and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2017-12-07 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'He writes history like nobody else. He thinks like nobody else ... He sees the world as a whole, with its limitless fund of stories' Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times Where have the people in any particular place actually come from? What are the historical complexities in any particular place? This evocative historical journey around the world shows us. 'Human history is a tale not just of constant change but equally of perpetual locomotion', writes Norman Davies. Throughout the ages, men and women have endlessly sought the greener side of the hill. Their migrations, collisions, conquests and interactions have given rise to the spectacular profusion of cultures, races, languages and polities that now proliferates on every continent. This incessant restlessness inspired Davies's own. After decades of writing about European history, and like Tennyson's ageing Ulysses longing for one last adventure, he embarked upon an extended journey that took him right round the world to a score of hitherto unfamiliar countries. His aims were to test his powers of observation and to revel in the exotic, but equally to encounter history in a new way. Beneath Another Sky is partly a historian's travelogue, partly a highly engaging exploration of events and personalities that have fashioned today's world - and entirely sui generis. Davies's circumnavigation takes him to Baku, the Emirates, India, Malaysia, Mauritius, Tasmania, Tahiti, Texas, Madeira and many places in between. At every stop, he not only describes the current scene but also excavates the layers of accumulated experience that underpin the present. He tramps round ancient temples and weird museums, summarises the complexity of Indian castes, Austronesian languages and Pacific explorations, delves into the fate of indigenous peoples and of a missing Malaysian airliner, reflects on cultural conflict in Cornwall, uncovers the Nazi origins of Frankfurt airport and lectures on imperialism in a desert oasis. 'Everything has its history', he writes, 'including the history of finding one's way or of getting lost.' The personality of the author comes across strongly - wry, romantic, occasionally grumpy, but with an endless curiosity and appetite for knowledge. As always, Norman Davies watches the historical horizon as well as what is close at hand, and brilliantly complicates our view of the past.

Author : Norman Davies
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101630825
Total Pages : 154 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Litva: The Rise and Fall of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania written by Norman Davies and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-02-19 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating history of a Baltic empire’s dominance and decline—excerpted from internationally bestselling author Norman Davies’s Vanished Kingdoms Vanished Kingdoms introduces readers to once-powerful European empires that have left scant traces on the modern map. In this excerpt from his widely acclaimed book, Norman Davies tells the ill-fated story of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Founded in the mid-thirteenth century in one of the continent’s first settled regions, where the oldest of its Indo-European languages is spoken, the Grand Duchy at its peak was the largest country in Europe, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and it commanded yet greater influence after uniting with its western neighbor, the Kingdom of Poland, to form the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Grand Duchy’s huge territory included the great cities of Kiev, Vilnius, Riga, Minsk, and Brest. Despite being ahead of its time as an elective republic in an age of absolute monarchy, power struggles and foreign incursions led to its ultimate demise and forced partition by Russia, Prussia, and Austria in 1795. In this selection from a work The Boston Globe has called “commendably accessible, magisterial, and uncommonly humane,” Davies chronicles these rich yet unfamiliar chapters in the history of modern Lithuania, Belarus, and Latvia with his signature acuity and verve.

Author : Pamela Gutman
Publisher : Weatherhill, Incorporated
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.68/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Burma's Lost Kingdoms written by Pamela Gutman and published by Weatherhill, Incorporated. This book was released on 2001 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thorough introduction to the history, art, and culture of Arakan, an ancient state located in the northeast corner of Burma, explains and illustrates how Southeast Asia from the beginning of the first millennium absorbed and reinterpreted the influences of many cultures. It is written by a noted scholar who visited the area over many years while conducting research for her doctoral thesis on Arakan. Off the Bay of Bengal, in the northwest corner of Burma lie the splendid capital cites of ancient Arakan; Dhanyaawadi, Vesali and Mrauk-U (Myohaung) being the largest. Mentioned in Ptolemy's "Geographia" (2nd century), Arakan was from earliest times a cosmopolitan state with a vigorous and mixed culture. Indian Brahmins conducted the royal ceremonials, Buddhist monks spread their teachings, traders came and went, and artists and architects used Indian models for inspiration. Through Buddhism, Arakan came into contact with other remote countries, including Sri Lanka, Nepal, Tibet, and China. To the east were the many early empires of Southeast Asia: Burman, Siamese, and Khmer, while later came influences from the Islamic courts of Bengal and Delhi. This is the first comprehensive study on the history, art, and culture of Arakan. It also serves as an excellent introduction to the hitherto almost unknown bronze and stone art of Arakan.

Author : Norman Davies
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101545348
Total Pages : 848 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Vanished Kingdoms written by Norman Davies and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-01-05 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An evocative account of fourteen European kingdoms-their rise, maturity, and eventual disappearance. There is something profoundly romantic about lost civilizations. Europe's past is littered with states and kingdoms, large and small, that are scarcely remembered today, and while their names may be unfamiliar-Aragon, Etruria, the Kingdom of the Two Burgundies-their stories should change our mental map of the past. We come across forgotten characters and famous ones-King Arthur and Macbeth, Napoleon and Queen Victoria, right up to Stalin and Gorbachev-and discover how faulty memory can be, and how much we can glean from these lost empires. Davies peers through the cracks in the mainstream accounts of modern-day states to dazzle us with extraordinary stories of barely remembered pasts, and of the traces they left behind. This is Norman Davies at his best: sweeping narrative history packed with unexpected insights. Vanished Kingdoms will appeal to all fans of unconventional and thought-provoking history, from readers of Niall Ferguson to Jared Diamond.