Review"This magnificent book ...is teeming with colourful characters. Over the course of nearly 800pp, we follow faiths; sail with fleets; trade with bankers, financiers and merchants; raid with pirates and observe battles and sieges; watch cities rise and fall and see peoples migrate in triumph and tragedy. But at its heart, this is a history of mankind - gripping, worldly, bloody, playful - that radiates scholarship and a sense of wonder and fun, using the Mediterranean as its medium, its watery road much travelled." -- Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Financial Times "This memorable study, its scholarship tinged with indulgent humour and an authorial eye for bizarre detail, celebrates the swirling changeability at the heart of that wonderful symbiosis of man and nature which once took place long Mediterranean shores" -- Jonathan Keates, Sunday Telegraph "An Everest of a book, brocaded with studious observation and finely-tuned scholarship...the effect is mesmerising, as detail accumulates meticulously." -- Ian Thomson, Independent "David Abulafia's marvellous history of the Mediterranean is an excellent corrective to oversimplified views of geopolitics." -- Economist "New, highly impressive book...magisterial work..." -- ProspectProduct DescriptionFor over three thousand years, the Mediterranean Sea has been one of the great centres of world civilisation. From the time of historical Troy until the middle of the nineteenth century, human activity here decisively shaped much of the course of world history. David Abulafia?s The Great Sea is the first complete history of the Mediterranean from the erection of the mysterious temples on Malta around 3500 BC to the recent reinvention of the Mediterranean?s shores as a tourist destination.Part of the argument of Abulafia?s book is that the great port cities ? Alexandria, Trieste and Salonika and many others ? prospered in part because of their ability to allow many different peoples, religions and identities to co-exist within sometimes very confined spaces. He also brilliantly populates his history with identifiable individuals whose lives illustrate with great immediacy the wider developments he is describing.The Great Sea ranges stupendously across time and the whole extraordinary space of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Jaffa, Venice to Alexandria. Rather than imposing a false unity on the sea and the teeming human activity it has sustained, the book emphasises diversity ? ethnic, linguistic, religious and political. Anyone who reads it will leave it with their understanding of those societies and their histories enormously enriched. Views: 14
FIT TO BE TIED—UP!Lucy Falco couldn't believe her luck. First, her former husband, Christopher Banks, waylaid her at the office on New Year's Eve—asking for another chance. Then, before she could turn him down flat, a trio of inept thieves burst in, tied the pair together...and left them in a storage room.READY TO RE-WED?And that room started to get very, very hot. Chris's still-enticing body was pressed oh, so close to Lucy's, and the heroic way he'd tried to rescue her was quite impressive. Soon Lucy began to wonder if it was time to reconsider their marriage's end. So what was Chris to her? Her best chance for a cute date for New Year's Eve...or was he her man for always?HOLIDAY HONEYMOONS:Because when you combine holidays with weddings, something magical happens! Views: 14
July 20, 1894. The German Military Attache in Paris. Colonel Maximillien von Schwarzkoppen received a visit from a seedy-looking middle-aged Frenchman who would not give his name. He told Schwarzkoppen that he was a French army officer serving on the General Staff; that he was in desperate need of money; and was therefore prepared to sell military secrets to the Germans.Captain Alfred Dreyfus, then aged 35, was a high-flying career artillery officer. Shy, reserved, sometimes awkward, but intelligent and ambitious, Dreyfus had everything he might have hoped for: a wife, two enchanting children, plenty of money and a post on the General Staff. However, Dreyfus' rise in the army had not made him friends. Many of them came from the impoverished Catholic aristocracy and disliked Dreyfus because he was rich, bourgeois and, above all, a Jew.On October 13, Captain Dreyfus was summoned by the General de Boisdeffre to the Ministry of War. Despite minimal evidence against... Views: 14
They are Americans, and they are mujahideen. Hundreds of men from every imaginable background have walked away from the traditional American dream to volunteer for battle in the name of Islam. Some have taken part in foreign wars that aligned with U.S. interests while others have carried out violence against Western interests abroad, fought against the U.S. military, and even plotted terrorist attacks on American soil. This story plays out over decades and continents: from the Americans who took part in the siege of Mecca in 1979 through conflicts in Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Bosnia, and continuing today in Afghanistan and Somalia.Investigative journalist J. M. Berger profiles numerous fighters, including some who joined al Qaeda and others who chose a different path. In these pages he portrays, among others, Abdullah Rashid, who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan; Mohammed Loay Bayazid, who was present at the founding of al Qaeda; Ismail Royer, who fought in Bosnia and... Views: 14
Tourists and natives trolling bars and the scenic places that make up the French Quarter are being hunted. A mutilator intent on gathering trophies made up of swatches of skin laden with tattoos and scars is the hunter. The victims, left drugged but alive, are unable to help the police with a description of the perpetrator. With no clues and a serial criminal at large, the local police have no choice but to turn to the Serial Crimes Tracking Unit.The Serial Crimes Tracking Unit, better known as SCTU, is used to dealing with dead bodies, so they are unsure their hunting skills will be useful. While the perpetrator might fit a profile, the living are of little help. After all, they don't even remember being attacked. Dealing with the living, especially those who have been victimized has never been a strong point of Aislinn Cain's. As Aislinn and her team go to work at solving this case, they find themselves in a race against the clock. It is only a matter of time before their serial... Views: 14
