History
Inside the Neolithic Mind
David - Lewis Williams and David Pearce, paperback, € 24.00
Newly available in paperback, this brilliantly argued and elegantly written book examines the web of belief, myth and society in the Neolithic period, continuing the story begun in the bestselling and critically acclaimed book "The Mind in the Cave". Drawing on the latest research, the authors skilfully link material on human consciousness, imagery and religious concepts to propose provocative new theories about the causes of an ancient revolution in cosmology, the origins of social complexity and even the drive behind the domestication of plants and animals.
Empires of the Sea: The Final battle for the Mediterranean 1521-1580
Roger Crowley, paperback, € 16.00
"Empires of the Sea" shows the Mediterranean as a majestic and bloody theater of war. Opening with the Ottoman victory in 1453 it is a breathtaking story of military crusading, Barbary pirates, white slavery and the Ottoman Empire - and the larger picture of the struggle between Islam and Christianity. Coupled with dramatic set piece battles, a wealth of riveting first-hand accounts, epic momentum and a terrific denouement at Lepanto, this is a work of history at its broadest and most compelling.
When Drummers Were Women
Layne Redmond, paperback, € 22.40
In this well illustrated book, Layne Redmond, a drummer herself who has taught and performed on the frame drum for many years and a recurrent visitor to Cyprus, has written an empowering work on the history and meaning of female drumming in ancient spiritual traditions. She bases her work on her travels to ancient sites and other research, tracing the role of sacred drumming from as far back as the Paleolithic era (in the worship of the "Great Mother" or "Great Goddess") and in ancient civilizations in the Near East, India, Greece, and Rome. Along the way, she unearths the first representation of a framed drum at Catal Huyuk (in present-day Turkey). Redmond even takes us through the rise of Christianity, which silenced both women and drumming in worship, then concludes with the reappearance of drumming in the modern age and its importance as a medium for transformation.
1434
Gavin Menzies, paperback, €16.00
In his bestselling book 1421:The Year China Discovered the World, Gavin Menzies revealed that it was the Chinese that discovered America, not Columbus. Now he presents further evidence that it was also Chinese advances in science, art, and technology that formed the basis of the European Renaissance and our modern world. In his bestselling book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, Gavin Menzies presented controversial and compelling evidence that Chinese fleets beat Columbus, Cook and Magellan to the New World. But his research has led him to new discoveries that Chinese influence on Western culture didn't stop there. Until now, it was considered that the Italian Renaissance - the basis of our modern Western world - came about as a result of a re-examining the ideas of classical Greece and Rome. Gavin Menzies makes the startling argument that a sophisticated Chinese delegation visited Italy in 1434, sparked the Renaissance, and forever changed the course of Western civilization. After that date the authority of Aristotle and Ptolemy was overturned and artistic conventions challenged, as was Arabic astronomy and cartography. Florence and Venice of the 15th century attracted traders from across the world. Menzies presents evidence that a large Chinese fleet, official ambassadors of the Emperor, arrived in Tuscany in 1434 where they met with Pope Eugenius IV in Florence. A mass of information was given by the Chinese delegation to the Pope and his entourage - concerning world maps (which Menzies argues were later given to Columbus), astronomy, mathematics, art, printing, architecture, steel manufacture, civil engineering, military machines, surveying, cartography, genetics, and more. It was this gift of knowledge that sparked the inventiveness of the Renaissance - Da Vinci's inventions, the Copernican revolution, Galileo, etc. Following 1434, Europeans embraced Chinese intellectual ideas, discoveries, and inventions, which formed the basis of European civilization just as much as Greek thought and Roman law.
The Middle Sea: The History of the Mediterranean
John Julius Norwich, paperback, €16.00
The Mediterranean has nurtured three of the most dazzling civilisations of antiquity, witnessed the birth or growth of three of our greatest religions and links three of the world's six continents. To the peoples living around its periphery, it has served at various times as a cradle and a grave, a bond and a barrier, a blessing and a battlefield. Geographically, it is unlike any other sea in the world; in historical importance also, it stands alone. John Julius Norwich has visited every country around its shores; he has written histories of Norman Sicily, of Venice and of Byzantium. Now at last he tells the story of the Middle Sea itself - a story that begins with the Phoenicians and the Pharaohs and ends with the Treaty of Versailles. Today, we sometimes see the Mediterranean principally as a playground: waters once stained with blood are polluted with cruise ships and suntan oil. Is this progress? Who knows. But the Middle Sea must never be taken for granted; and no reader of this book should ever do so again.
Empire and the English Character: The Illusion of Authority
Kathryn Tidrick, paperback, € 19.20
How did the English come to see themselves as an imperial race with a mission to conquer and 'civilise'? Kathryn Tidrick's acclaimed book explores the origins of the ideal of imperial rule and the effect it had on the character of the English ruling classes. From the Lawrence brothers of the Punjab, Rajah James Brooke of Sarawak and Mountbatten to Frederick Courtenay Selous, Elspeth Huxley and Cecil Rhodes. Tidrick illuminates some of the extraordinary lives and actions of the people that formed and governed the British Empire, from India to Africa and beyond. Enlightening and entertaining!