For members of the social elite in eighteenth century England, extended travel for pleasure came to be considered part of an ideal education as well as an important symbol of social status. Italy, and especially Rome-a fashioable, exciting and comfortable city-became the focus of such early tourists' interests. In this distinctive book, historian Jeremy Black recreates the actual experiences of those who travelled to Italy on a Grand Tour. Relying...

"Brilliant and wrenching, The Holocaust: History and Memory tells the story of the brutal mass slaughter of Jews during World War II and how that genocide has been remembered and misremembered ever since. Taking issue with generations of scholars who separate the Holocaust from Germany's military ambitions, historian Jeremy M. Black demonstrates persuasively that Germany's war on the Allies was entwined with Hitler's war on Jews. As more and more...

"From the earliest pre-history to the 1990s this stirring account describes the astonishingly varied stages through which the British Isles have passed to achieve their present identity." "Just as the islands have populated and ruled so much of the rest of the world, so they have been settled themselves by many invaders, all of whom have left their mark - from Romans to Saxons, from Vikings to Normans - creating an immensely rich historical inheritance."...

"These translations of Sumerian literature constitute the most comprehensive collection ever published of the world's earliest literature. The compositions in this book were mainly inscribed on clay tablets dating to the 18th century B.C.E., the period from which the most extensive literary records have been recovered. They encompass a wide range of different genres which will be familiar to modern readers, such as narrative myths, lyrical hymns,...