From Neil MacGregor, the author of A History of the World in 100 Objects, this is a view of Germany like no other For the past 140 years, Germany has been the central power in continental Europe. Twenty-five years ago a new German state came into being. How much do we really understand this new Germany, and how do its people now understand themselves? Neil MacGregor argues that uniquely for any European country, no coherent, over-arching narrative of Germany's history can be constructed, for in Germany both geography and history have always been unstable. Its frontiers have constantly floated. Königsberg, home to the greatest German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, is now Kaliningrad, Russia; Strasbourg, in whose cathedral Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany's greatest writer, discovered the distinctiveness of his country's art and history, now lies within the borders of France. For most of the five hundred years covered by this book Germany has been composed of many separate political units, each with a distinct history. And any comfortable national story Germans might have told themselves before 1914 was destroyed by the events of the following thirty years. German history may be inherently fragmented, but it contains a large number of widely shared memories, awarenesses and experiences; examining some of these is the purpose of this book. Beginning with the fifteenth-century invention of modern printing by Gutenberg, MacGregor chooses objects and ideas, people and places which still resonate in the new Germany - porcelain from Dresden and rubble from its ruins, Bauhaus design and the German sausage, the crown of Charlemagne and the gates of Buchenwald - to show us something of its collective imagination. There has never been a book about Germany quite like it.

Germany: Memories of a Nation

Arts & Photography

MacGregor, Neil

History & Criticism

Penguin Uk

"An enthralling and profoundly humane book that every civilized person should read." --The Wall Street Journal The blockbuster New York Times bestseller and the companion volume to the wildly popular radio series When did people first start to wear jewelry or play music? When were cows domesticated, and why do we feed their milk to our children? Where were the first cities, and what made them succeed? Who developed math--or invented money? The history of humanity is one of invention and innovation, as we have continually created new things to use, to admire, or leave our mark on the world. In this groundbreaking book, Neil MacGregor turns to objects that previous civilizations have left behind to paint a portrait of mankind's evolution, focusing on unexpected turning points. Beginning with a chopping tool from the Olduvai Gorge in Africa and ending with a recent innovation that is transforming the way we power our world, he urges us to see history as a kaleidoscope--shifting, interconnected, constantly surprising. A landmark bestseller, A History of the World in 100 Objects is one f the most unusual and engrossing history books to be published in years. “None could have imagined quite how the radio series would permeate the national consciousness. Well over 12.5 million podcasts have been downloaded since the first programme and more than 550 museums around Britain have launched similar series featuring local history. . . . MacGregor’s voice comes through as distinctively as it did on radio and his arguments about the interconnectedness of disparate societies through the ages are all the stronger for the detail afforded by extra space. A book to savour and start over.” —The Economist

A History of the World in 100 Objects

Penguin??Books

The New York Times bestselling author of A History of the World in 100 Objects brings the world of Shakespeare and the Tudor era of Elizabeth I into focus We feel we know Shakespeare’s characters. Think of Hamlet, trapped in indecision, or Macbeth’s merciless and ultimately self-destructive ambition, or the Machiavellian rise and short reign of Richard III. They are so vital, so alive and real that we can see aspects of ourselves in them. But their world was at once familiar and nothing like our own. In this brilliant work of historical reconstruction Neil MacGregor and his team at the British Museum, working together in a landmark collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the BBC, bring us twenty objects that capture the essence of Shakespeare’s universe. A perfect complement to A History of the World in 100 Objects, MacGregor’s landmark New York Times bestseller, Shakespeare’s Restless World highlights a turning point in human history. This magnificent book, illustrated throughout with more than one hundred vibrant color photographs, invites you to travel back in history and to touch, smell, and feel what life was like at that pivotal moment, when humankind leaped into the modern age. This was an exhilarating time when discoveries in science and technology altered the parameters of the known world. Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation map allows us to imagine the age of exploration from the point of view of one of its most ambitious navigators. A bishop’s cup captures the most sacred and divisive act in Christendom. With A History of the World in 100 Objects, MacGregor pioneered a new way of telling history through artifacts. Now he trains his eye closer to home, on a subject that has mesmerized him since childhood, and lets us see Shakespeare and his world in a whole new light.

Shakespeare's Restless World: Portrait of an Era

Germany

History

Europe

VIKING

A panoramic exploration of peoples, objects and beliefs over 40,000 years from the celebrated author of A History of the World in 100 Objects and Germany, following the new BBC Radio 4 documentary and British Museum exhibition. Available for pre-order now. No society on Earth lacks beliefs about where it has come from, its place in the world, and the connection of individuals to the eternal. Neil MacGregor's dazzling new book traces how different societies have understood and articulated their place in the cosmic scheme. He brilliantly turns his kaleidoscope of objects, monuments and ideas to examining mankind's beliefs - not from the perspective of institutional religions, but by focusing on the shared narratives that have shaped our societies, and our relationships with each other. 'The new blockbuster by the museums maestro Neil MacGregor ... The man who chronicles world history through objects is back ... examining a new set of objects to explore the theme of faith in society' Sunday Times

Living with the Gods

World

Allen Lane.

Neil MacGregor's A History of the World in 100 Objects takes a bold, original approach to human history, exploring past civilizations through the objects that defined them. Encompassing a grand sweep of human history, A History of the World in 100 Objects begins with one of the earliest surviving objects made by human hands, a chopping tool from the Olduvai gorge in Africa, and ends with objects which characterise the world we live in today. Seen through MacGregor's eyes, history is a kaleidoscope - shifting, interconnected, constantly surprising, and shaping our world today in ways that most of us have never imagined. A stone pillar tells us about a great Indian emperor preaching tolerance to his people; Spanish pieces of eight tell us about the beginning of a global currency; and an early Victorian tea-set speaks to us about the impact of empire. An intellectual and visual feast, this is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books published in years. 'Brilliant, engagingly written, deeply researched' Mary Beard, Guardian 'A triumph: hugely popular, and rightly lauded as one of the most effective and intellectually ambitious initiatives in the making of 'public history' for many decades' Sunday Telegraph 'Highly intelligent, delightfully written and utterly absorbing ' Timothy Clifford, Spectator 'This is a story book, vivid and witty, shining with insights, connections, shocks and delights' Gillian Reynolds Daily Telegraph

Without contemporary accounts of Jesus' appearance, artists through the ages have been free to create many images of him--images that sometimes reflect the spiritual world of the artist and other times the desires of the patron or the needs of the spectator. In this magnificently illustrated book, Neil MacGregor traces the life of Christ and the development of Christian culture in the work of artists from different times and diverse cultures. Copublished with the National Gallery, London

Seeing Salvation: Images of Christ in Art

Langmuir, Erika

Religious

Yale University Press

Bridget Riley is one of the outstanding figures of modern painting. For thirty-five years she has pursued a course of rigorous abstraction, from her celebrated Op Art works in black and white of the 1960s to the complex colour paintings of the 1990s. On the occasion of a major exhibition of her recent work at the Hayward Gallery, London, in 1992, BBC Radio broadcast an illuminating series of five dialogues, each one between Riley and a well-known personality from the art world. These talks have been brought together in this volume, expertly edited by the art historian Robert Kudielka. With Neil MacGregor, Director of the National Gallery, London, she discusses the art of the past in relation to the present; with Sir Ernst Gombrich the perception of colour in painting; with the artist Michael Craig-Martin, the theory and practice of abstraction; and with the critics Bryan Robertson and Andrew Graham-Dixon she talks about the events and travels that have shaped her life as an artist.

Bridget Riley: Dialogues on Art

Gombrich, E.H.

Graham-Dixon, Andrew

Craig-Martin, Michael

Riley, Bridget

Robertson, Bryan

Kudielka, Robert

Zwemmer

Are there miscarriages of justice in art history? Neil MacGregor believes there are. However great an artist, if his name is lost he will not receive a fair verdict from posterity. No exhibition will be devoted to his work; no books will be written about him; he will not even figure in indexes. Among these neglected geniuses is the 15th-century painter known only as the Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece. He may have been Netherlandish or German; he may or may not have been a monk. On stylistic grounds an oeuvre of half a dozen paintings, three of them large altarpieces, are attributed to him, and from them a vivid, if hypothetical, personality can be built up: emotional, compassionate, observant, original, humorous. All that is certain is that he was a great painter whose name, if known, would rank with Botticelli or Holbein. In A Victim of Anonymity, the Director of the National Gallery, London, corrects the judgment of history by demonstrating the power of this unacknowledged master. MacGregor makes us look closely at works that are all too easily passed over, showing us a peerless artist whose paintings derive their fame from nothing but their own superlative merits.

A Victim of Anonymity (Walter Neurath Memorial Lectures)

Thames&Hudson

In the same format as his best-selling books A History of the World in 100 Objects and Germany: Memories of a Nation—the acclaimed art historian now gives us a magnificent new book that explores the relationship between faith and society. Until fairly recently, religion as a major influence on the nature of individual societies around the world seemed to be on the wane. Now, far from being marginalized, the relationship between faith and society has moved to the center of politics and global conversation. Neil MacGregor's new book traces the ways in which different societies have understood and articulated their places in the cosmic scheme. It examines mankind's beliefs not from the perspective of institutional religions but according to how shared narratives have shaped societies—and what happens when different narratives run up against each other. As he did in A History of the World in 100 Objects and Germany: Memories of a Nation, MacGregor brilliantly combines objects, places, and ideas to examine and, ultimately, illuminate these pressing contemporary concerns.

Living with the Gods: On Beliefs and Peoples

KNOPF

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by MacGregor, Neil. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by MacGregor, Neil

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by MacGregor, Neil. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Germany: Memories of a Nation

A History of the World in 100 Objects

Shakespeare's Restless World: Portrait of an Era

Germany

Living with the Gods

A History of the World in 100 Objects

Seeing Salvation: Images of Christ in Art

Bridget Riley: Dialogues on Art

A Victim of Anonymity (Walter Neurath Memorial Lectures)

Living with the Gods: On Beliefs and Peoples