In 1922, the British archaeologist Howard Carter opened King Tutankhamuns tomb, illuminating the glories of an ancient civilization. And while the world celebrated the extraordinary revelation that gave Carter international renown and an indelible place in history, by the time of his death, the discovery had nearly destroyed him. Now, in a stunning feat of narrative nonfiction, Daniel Meyerson has written a thrilling and evocative account of this remarkable man and his times. 
 Carter began his career inauspiciously. At the age of seventeenunknown, untrained, untriedhe was hired as a copyist of tomb art by the brash, brilliant, and boldly unkempt father of modern archaeology, W. F. Petrie. Carter struck out on his own a few years later, sensing that something amazing lay buried beneath his feet, waiting for him to uncover it. 
 But others had the same idea: The ancient cities of Egypt were crawling with European adventurers and their wealthy sponsors, each hoping to outdo the others with glittering discoverieseven as growing nationalist resentment against foreigners plundering the countrys most treasured antiquities simmered dangerously in the background. 
 Not until Carter met up with the risk-taking, adventure-loving occultist Lord Carnarvon did his fortunes change. There were stark differences in personality and temperament between the cantankerous Carter and his gregarious patron, but together they faced down endless ridicule from the most respected explorers of the day. Seven dusty and dispiriting years after their first meeting, their dream came to astonishing life. 
 But there would be a price to pay for this partnership, their discovery, and the glory and fame it brought both menand the chain of events that transpired in the wake of their success remains fascinating and shocking to this day. 
 An enthralling story told with unprecedented verve, In the Valley of the Kings is a tale of mania and greed, of fame and lost fortune, of history and its damnations. As he did in The Linguist and the Emperor, Daniel Meyerson puts his exciting storytelling powers on full display, revealing an almost forgotten time when past and present came crashing together with the power to changeor cursemens lives.

In the Valley of the Kings: Howard Carter and the Mystery of King Tutankhamun's Tomb

History

Meyerson, Daniel

Americas

Brécourt Academic

Codex Witsenii: Annotated Watercolours of Landscapes, Flora and Fauna Observed on the Expedition to the Copper Mountains in the Country of the ... at the Cape of Good Hope Copied at the Cape

Arts & Photography

Wilson, M. L.

History & Criticism

Dating from the eighth century, Táin Bó Cúailnge is the oldest Irish epic, a heroic mythic tale on par with Beowulf and The Aeneid. The sprawling, dramatic tale of the legendary warrior Cú Chulainn and his battle against the invading army of Connacht over the fabled Brown Bull of Cooley, The Táin is an enthralling epic of heroism, magic, bloodshed, and betrayal. The wellspring of Irish literature from Yeats to Joyce, The Táin is the story of the emergence of a hero with superhuman strength and supernatural powers. It is a paean to the Irish landscape and a bawdy and contentious marital farce. Filled with phenomenal battle scenes of hand-to-hand combat and clashes between massive armies, Cú Chulainns heroic exploits contain the historical seeds of the struggle for Irish nationalism as well as the mythic roots of the traditional Irish love of nature. Carsons lively, conversational rendition of The Táin will bring the adventures of the legendary Irish hero to a new generation of readers interested in epic poetry and Irish history. In the first translation in forty years, Carson brings this seminal work of literature fully to life, capturing all the visceral power of the ancient epic. It is truly a classic for our time.

The Tain

Literature & Fiction

Carson, Ciarán

Contemporary

The grandeur and power of Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War have enthralled readers, historians, and statesmen alike for two and a half millennia, and the work and its author have had an enduring influence on those who think about international relations and war, especially in our own time. In Thucydides, Donald Kagan, one of our foremost classics scholars, illuminates the great historian and his work both by examining him in the context of his time and by considering him as a revisionist historian. 
 Thucydides took a spectacular leap into modernity by refusing to seek explanations for human behavior in the will of the gods, or even in the will of individuals, looking instead at the behavior of men in society. In this context, Kagan explains how The Peloponnesian War differs significantly from other accounts offered by Thucydides' contemporaries and stands as the first modern work of political history, dramatically influencing the manner in which history has been conceptualized ever since.

Thucydides: The Reinvention of History

Kagan, Donald

Ancient Civilizations

The Emperor Justinian reunified Romes fractured empire by defeating the Goths and Vandals who had separated Italy, Spain, and North Africa from imperial rule. In his capital at Constantinople he built the world's most beautiful building, married its most powerful empress, and wrote its most enduring legal code, seemingly restoring Rome's fortunes for the next five hundred years. Then, in the summer of 542, he encountered a flea. The ensuing outbreak of bubonic plague killed five thousand people a day in Constantinople and nearly killed Justinian himself. 
 In Justinian's Flea , William Rosen tells the story of history's first pandemic plague seven centuries before the Black Death that killed tens of millions, devastated the empires of Persia and Rome, left a path of victims from Ireland to Iraq, and opened the way for the armies of Islam. Weaving together evolutionary microbiology, economics, military strategy, ecology, and ancient and modern medicine, Rosen offers a sweeping narrative of one of the great hinge moments in history, one that will appeal to readers of John Kelly's The Great Mortality , John Barry's The Great Influenza , and Jared Diamond's Collapse .

Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe

Rosen, William

Charles V (1500-58), King of Aragon, ruler of Castile and Roman Emperor is one of the most interesting and perplexing of the great European monarchs. Son of Philip the Handsome and Juana, Queen of Castile, who was regarded as insane, by the age of nineteen he was the most powerful monarch in Europe. In this, the first biography for many years, Harald Kleinschmidt draws on the latest research to portray Charles V in the light of his upbringing and dynastic relations, and against a background of turmoil and unprecedented European expansion. 
 Coming to power as a very young man, Charles V held high aims and ideals about exercising control over the greatest number of territories ever accumulated by a European ruler. As the defender of Catholic Christendom, he attempted to achieve both the cultural and religious unity of Europe and European world rule. His struggles against Lutheranism were initially successful, but the harsh measures he took against his Protestant prisoners provoked an uprising that forced him to grant Protestantism legal recognition. Likewise, although Charles V substantially extended Spanish dominions in the New World through the conquest of Mexico by Cortes in 1519-21 and of Peru by Pizarro ten years later, the demands of ruling his vast European realm ultimately overwhelmed him. Disillusioned by the seeming impossibility of achieving peace in Europe, in 1555 Charles renounced his imperial crown in favour of his brother Ferdinand. Shortly afterwards, he resigned his kingdoms of Spain, the Netherlands and the Spanish Americas to his son Philip and retired to live in seclusion near the monastery of San Geronimo de Yuste. Legend has it that his ghost continues to advise the Spanish monarchs.

Charles V: The World Emperor

Kleinschmidt, Harald

The life of Cellini is a romping good story which at present exists only in the form of a memoir, read by students and specialists. Derek Parker retells Cellini's life, setting it in the context of the turbulent world of Renaissance Europe. Cellini, famous as sculptor and goldsmith, and patronized by both Francis I of France and the Medici courts of Tuscany, was one of the most picturesque figures of the Renaissance. His adventures, hot temper and tendency to fight, his escapes from prison and amorous escapades among the Florentine and Roman nobility, and his interest in magic, made him a figure of renown in his own time, and beyond.

Cellini: Artist, Genius, Fugitive

Parker, Darker

Francisco Pizarro is possibly one of the best known but least understood figures of world history. In 1530, at the age of fifty-four, he set out on his successful and bloody conquest of Peru, thus changing the future of a continent and its peoples forever. It was a long way from his humble beginnings as an illiterate, illegitimate pig-herder. Within these pages Stuart Stirling tells the story of adversity and tragedy which was the life of Francisco Pizarro. 
 By the standards of the time, Pizarro was an elderly man when he conquered Peru. He had served as a foot soldier in Spain's Italian wars and later earned a living as an Indian fighter and slaver. Audacious, ruthless and cruel, Pizarro had a surprising and almost fatalistic belief in the Indies as an escape from his illegitimacy. Luck also played a major part in his invasion of Peru - Pizarro's 200 men should not have been able to defeat the indigenous army of more than 30,000, but they did. However, the Spanish conquest saw few happy endings, even for Pizarro, who was now rich beyond his wildest dreams. Eleven years after the conquest, he was assassinated by his one-time Spanish allies. 
 Stuart Stirling's researches in the Archives of the Indies in Seville enable him to present an accurate portrait of Pizarro as a man of his time, and to place even his most infamous act - the killing of the Inca king Atahualpa - within context. This book brings the man to life against a turbulent background of exploration, discovery, empire building and a clash of cultures.

Pizarro: Conqueror of the Inca

Biographies & Memoirs

Stirling, Stuart

Historical

The ancient land of Syria remains for many a sinister and forbidding destination, only recently opening up to foreign travellers. Marius Kociejowski presents a completely fresh and unexpected face to this mysterious country. Based on his own visits to Syria, The Street Philosopher and the Holy Fool describes a journey which brings him into contact with a host of colourful and unusual characters, each of whom is an outsider of sorts.   Abed, the 'street philosopher', and Sulayman, the 'holy fool', are two of these intriguing people. Their friendship is emblematic of the polarities of Syrian daily existence - an ancient culture threatened by economic and political pressures. Sulayman is an alchemist and healer who moves along a path of asceticism strange even to his fellow Muslims. Abed, while he is desirous of Sulayman's otherworldliness, also yearns for a world where, in his own words, he can 'cut the watermelon and live normally'. Other characters include Myrna, a Christian stigmatic, 'the prince of fools' Abu al-Talib, who speaks in parables and the jokester Sufi saint of Damascus, Shaykh Ahmad al-Harun. In their company, Marius Kociejowski walks the narrow line between reason and folly. The Street Philosopher and the Holy Fool provides a memorable account of the deeper purposes of travel: to absorb the spirit of a place, to meet people from a different sphere of life and to return changed.

The Street Philosopher and the Holy Fool: A Syrian Journey

Kociejowski, Marius

Describes ancient lighthouses built by the Phoenicians and Greeks, then details development of lighthouses from seventeenth-century wood-fired beacons to today's state-of-the-art solar-powered lights. Readers are treated to a fascinating chronicle of lighthouse technology and architecture, with focus on how lighthouses have evolved over the centuries. Full-color cutaway diagrams show the inner workings of a lighthouse and describe how its lens system operates.

Beacon On The Rock: Dramatic History of Lighthouses from Ancient Greece to the Present Day

Williams. Peter

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