One of the defining moments in Western history, the bloody and dramatic story of the battle for the soul of Renaissance Florence. By the end of the fifteenth century, Florence was well established as the home of the Renaissance. As ge...

A dazzling new history of the world told through the ten major empires of human civilization.Eminent historian Paul Strathern opens the story of Empire with the Akkadian civilization, which ruled over a vast expanse of the region of ...

Building on his enormously successful series of Philosophers in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern now applies his witty and incisive prose to brief biographical studies of the world's great writers. He brings their lives and ideas to life in...

In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, only twenty-eight, set sail for Egypt with 335 ships, 40,000 soldiers, and a collection of scholars, artists, and scientists to establish an eastern empire. He saw himself as a liberator, freeing the Egypt...

The glorious and infamous history of the Borgia family--a world of saints, corrupt popes, and depraved princes and poisoners--set against the golden age of the Italian Renaissance. The Borgia family have become a byword for evil. Co...

A colorful new history of Venice that illuminates the character of the great city-state by shining a light on some of the most celebrated personalities of European historyThe Republic of Venice was the first great economic, cultural, ...