Author : David M. Robinson
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 474 pages
File Size : 10,21 MB
Release : 2009
Category : History
ISBN : 9780674036086
Four themes dominate this study of the late Mongol empire in Northeast Asia: the need for an all-inclusive regional perspective; pan-Asian integration under the Mongols; the tendency for individual and family interests to trump those of dynasty, country, or linguistic affiliation; and the need to see Koryŏ Korea as part of the wider Mongol empire.
Author : Simon R. Green
Publisher : Open Road Media
Page : 531 pages
File Size : 49,26 MB
Release : 2018-05-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1504053370
In this trilogy set in the Deathstalker universe, the New York Times–bestselling author delivers “lots of action” and “exotic dangers” (Science Fiction Chronicle). Gathered here into a single volume, the novels in Simon R. Green’s Twilight of the Empire series take place before Owen Deathstalker’s rebellion in the same universe. An empire that once peacefully united galaxies in harmony is now rotten with corruption and ruled by a mad empress, threatened by outside alien invasion and violent internal rebellion. Against this background, “Green moves his plot at top speed” and delivers action-packed adventures set on three different worlds (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine). Mistworld: A rebel planet, cut off from the fruits of the Empire by a punishing blockade, Mistworld is a refuge for criminals, traitors, and exiles. Under a harsh medieval order, the strong rule, the weak perish, and everyone steals. A legendary Siren, possessed of terrible mental powers, Investigator Topaz is one of the few honest ones left. And when the Empire attempts to attack the psionic shield that protects Mistworld, she is the only one who can save them, whether they deserve it or not . . . Ghostworld: Ten years ago, the indigenous people of Unseeli rose up in rebellion against the Empire. Captain John Silence led the massacre that left the natives extinct and the planet uninhabited, except for the engineers who mine its invaluable metals. But when communication is abruptly cut off from the mining settlement, Captain Silence must return to find out what’s gone wrong—and confront the ghosts that still haunt his nightmares . . . Hellworld: Disgraced naval officer Scott Hunter is given a choice: get drummed out of the Imperial starfleet or join a suicide mission with the Hell Squad. One-way planetary scouts, the Hell Squad is made up of outcasts who explore new worlds for colonization. They survive or they die, but they never come back. Hunter leads a motley team of hard-nosed rebels to the volcano planet of Wolf IV, where they discover an ancient city and awaken a race of aliens. And now it’s kill or be killed . . .
Author : Marnia Lazreg
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 30,6 MB
Release : 2016-12-13
Category : History
ISBN : 0691173486
Torture and the Twilight of Empire looks at the intimate relationship between torture and colonial domination through a close examination of the French army's coercive tactics during the Algerian war from 1954 to 1962. By tracing the psychological, cultural, and political meanings of torture at the end of the French empire, Marnia Lazreg also sheds new light on the United States and its recourse to torture in Iraq and Afghanistan. This book is nothing less than an anatomy of torture--its methods, justifications, functions, and consequences. Drawing extensively from archives, confessions by former torturers, interviews with former soldiers, and war diaries, as well as writings by Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and others, Lazreg argues that occupying nations justify their systematic use of torture as a regrettable but necessary means of saving Western civilization from those who challenge their rule. She shows how torture was central to guerre révolutionnaire, a French theory of modern warfare that called for total war against the subject population and which informed a pacification strategy founded on brutal psychological techniques borrowed from totalitarian movements. Lazreg seeks to understand torture's impact on the Algerian population--especially women--and also on the French troops who became their torturers. She explores the roles Christianity and Islam played in rationalizing these acts, and the ways in which torture became not only routine but even acceptable. Written by a preeminent historical sociologist, Torture and the Twilight of Empire holds particularly disturbing lessons for us today as we carry out the War on Terror.
Author : Liz Brown
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 401 pages
File Size : 42,57 MB
Release : 2021-05-18
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0143132903
"Twilight Man is biography, romance, and nonfiction mystery, carrying with it the bite of fiction." -- Los Angeles Review of Books “In Twilight Man, Liz Brown uncovers a noir fairytale, a new glimpse into the opulent Gilded Age empire of the Clark family.” —Bill Dedman, co-author of The New York Times bestseller Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune The unbelievable true story of Harrison Post--the enigmatic lover of one of the richest men in 1920s Hollywood--and the battle for a family fortune. In the booming 1920s, William Andrews Clark Jr. was one of the richest, most respected men in Los Angeles. The son of the mining tycoon known as "The Copper King of Montana," Clark launched the Los Angeles Philharmonic and helped create the Hollywood Bowl. He was also a man with secrets, including a lover named Harrison Post. A former salesclerk, Post enjoyed a lavish existence among Hollywood elites, but the men's money--and their homosexuality--made them targets, for the district attorney, their employees and, in Post's case, his own family. When Clark died suddenly, Harrison Post inherited a substantial fortune--and a wealth of trouble. From Prohibition-era Hollywood to Nazi prison camps to Mexico City nightclubs, Twilight Man tells the story of an illicit love and the battle over a family estate that would destroy one man's life. Harrison Post was forgotten for decades, but after a chance encounter with his portrait, Liz Brown, Clark's great-grandniece, set out to learn his story. Twilight Man is more than just a biography. It is an exploration of how families shape their own legacies, and the lengths they will go in order to do so.
Author : Ian Ross
Publisher :
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 39,59 MB
Release : 2018-12-17
Category : Generals
ISBN : 9781784975340
Following the defeat of his rival Licinius in AD324, the Emperor Constantine has reigned for twelve years over a united Roman world. Under his patronage, Christianity continues to gain in strength and influence, while followers of the older religions increasingly feel that the traditional ways of Rome are dying away. But the emperor himself is getting old, and facing new challenges. In the east, Shapur II, the young and vigorous King of Persia, disputes Constantine's claim of protection over the Christians living within his domains. In Armenia, a state allied to Rome, the king has converted to the new faith, adding fuel to the simmering fires of Persian resentment. Now, as Constantine reaches the thirtieth anniversary of his rule, the ancestral enmity between the two great powers threatens once again to break into open war.
Author : Ian James Ross
Publisher : Abrams
Page : 303 pages
File Size : 18,2 MB
Release : 2017-06-20
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1468315358
In this “well-crafted, atmospheric” war novel set in ancient Rome, an officer battles under Constantine while in the midst of personal turmoil.(Ben Kane, author of Fields of Blood) The Roman Empire is on the brink of civil war. Only Maxentius, tyrant of Rome, stands between the emperor Constantine and supreme power in the west. Aurelius Castus is now a tribune in Constantine's army. But great honor brings new challenges: Castus is tormented by suspicions that his young wife has been unfaithful. And as Constantine becomes increasingly devoted to Christianity, he is forced to ask himself whether he is backing the wrong man. The coming war will decide the fate of empire. But Castus's own battle will carry him much further. “Hugely enjoyable. The author winds up tension into an explosion of fast-paced events.” —Conn Iggulden, author of Stormbird ”A thumping good read . . . thoroughly enjoyable.” —Ben Kane, author of Lionheart “This is up there with Harry Sidebottom and Ben Kane.” —M.C. Scott, author of Into the Fire
Author : Stephen R. Platt
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 609 pages
File Size : 34,21 MB
Release : 2018-05-15
Category : History
ISBN : 0307961745
As China reclaims its position as a world power, Imperial Twilight looks back to tell the story of the country’s last age of ascendance and how it came to an end in the nineteenth-century Opium War. As one of the most potent turning points in the country’s modern history, the Opium War has since come to stand for everything that today’s China seeks to put behind it. In this dramatic, epic story, award-winning historian Stephen Platt sheds new light on the early attempts by Western traders and missionaries to “open” China even as China’s imperial rulers were struggling to manage their country’s decline and Confucian scholars grappled with how to use foreign trade to China’s advantage. The book paints an enduring portrait of an immensely profitable—and mostly peaceful—meeting of civilizations that was destined to be shattered by one of the most shockingly unjust wars in the annals of imperial history. Brimming with a fascinating cast of British, Chinese, and American characters, this riveting narrative of relations between China and the West has important implications for today’s uncertain and ever-changing political climate.
Author : Greg King
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 28,63 MB
Release : 2017-11-14
Category : History
ISBN : 1250083036
On a snowy January morning in 1889, a worried servant hacked open a locked door at the remote hunting lodge deep in the Vienna Woods. Inside, he found two bodies sprawled on an ornate bed, blood oozing from their mouths. Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary appeared to have shot his seventeen-year-old mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera as she slept, sat with the corpse for hours and, when dawn broke, turned the pistol on himself. A century has transformed this bloody scene into romantic tragedy: star-crossed lovers who preferred death together than to be parted by a cold, unfeeling Viennese Court. But Mayerling is also the story of family secrets: incestuous relationships and mental instability; blackmail, venereal disease, and political treason; and a disillusioned, morphine-addicted Crown Prince and a naïve schoolgirl caught up in a dangerous and deadly waltz inside a decaying empire. What happened in that locked room remains one of history’s most evocative mysteries: What led Rudolf and mistress to this desperate act? Was it really a suicide pact? Or did something far more disturbing take place at that remote hunting lodge and result in murder? Drawing interviews with members of the Habsburg family and archival sources in Vienna, Greg King and Penny Wilson reconstruct this historical mystery, laying out evidence and information long ignored that conclusively refutes the romantic myth and the conspiracy stories.
Author : Peter J. Leithart
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
Page : 374 pages
File Size : 37,50 MB
Release : 2010-09-24
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0830827226
Peter Leithart weighs what we've been taught about Constantine and claims that in focusing on these historical mirages we have failed to notice the true significance of Constantine and Rome baptized. He reveals how beneath the surface of this contested story there lies a deeper narrative--a tectonic shift in the political theology of an empire--with far-reaching implications.
Author : Blythe Mallory
Publisher : Publifye AS
Page : 151 pages
File Size : 43,66 MB
Release : 2024-10-05
Category : History
ISBN : 8233932221
""Empires Unraveled"" explores the evolution of imperial power throughout history and its impact on contemporary global dynamics. This thought-provoking book examines the lifecycle of historical empires, the transformation of colonialism, and the emergence of new forms of global influence. By tracing the patterns of imperial rise and fall, the author argues that while traditional empires may have dissolved, the fundamental drivers of imperial ambition continue to shape our world in subtle ways. The book's unique perspective on the cyclical nature of power sets it apart, challenging readers to reconsider their understanding of current geopolitical landscapes. It employs innovative data visualization techniques to illustrate complex historical trends, making the information accessible to a broad audience. By bridging the gap between history, political science, and economics, ""Empires Unraveled"" demonstrates how imperial legacies continue to influence international relations and global economic systems. Progressing from ancient civilizations to modern power structures, the book guides readers through a comprehensive analysis of imperial history. It culminates in a critical assessment of contemporary global influence, offering practical frameworks for analyzing current events through the lens of historical patterns. This approach empowers readers to apply historical insights to present-day geopolitical situations, making it an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to understand the forces shaping our interconnected world.
