Yet the other recurrent theme of the period has been the overwhelming need for political reform--and the repeated failure to achieve it. Professor Ginsborg's authoritative work--the first to combine social and political perspectives--is concerned with both the tremendous achievements of contemporary Italy and "the continuities of its history that have not been easily set aside."

    For twenty-five centuries, the people of Sicily have been creating what is perhaps the basic cuisine of Europe on the beautiful island in the heart of the Meditteranean.Beginning with the oldest and most elementary components in the Sicilian diet, Mary Taylor Simeti surveys the bounty of the Sicilian table and Sicilian history. Simeti provides authentic recipes as well as evocations of the dishes' origins: from the simple glories of vine, olive, and wheat to the culinary innovations of Arab and Norman invaders; from the plain but mouth-watering dishes prepared by peasants in the Middle Ages to the ritual luxuries of Sicily's aritocracy; from the succulent delicacies made in monasteries and covents to the street-food pleasures that have become favorites all over the world.With more than 100 photographs and illustrations, this comprehensive volume is a book to cook from, a book to read, and a book to treasure as a testament to one of the finest cuisines in the world.

     Just eleven years after the Wright brothers' first flight, the Royal Flying Corps set off for France, and every aspect of air-fighting had to be discovered for the first time. At the start of the First World War, the flying machine was hardly taken seriously; it was an odd, accident-prone diversion for the rich and the obsessed. Four years later when the war had ended, such had been the pace of development that almost the entire range of modern aircraft types had evolved: from fighters to bombers, from ground attack to reconnaissance. ‘The First Great Air War’ is the full, fascinating account of how a handful of men, British, French, German and Italian, young, with a love of flying and adventure, went to war. Of how tactics, planes and attitudes developed from the amateur to the professional. It is the story of air aces and individual courage, of technical innovation and the coming of age of air power. ‘A valuable history of the air war that began it all … by an ex-flyer of the Second World War who has a genuine feeling for the feats of his predecessors’ - THE BIRMINGHAM POST ‘His sympathy with the fighting man (and woman) shines out of every page’ - LIVERPOOL DAILY POST Richard Townsend Bickers volunteered for the RAF on the outbreak of the second world war and served, with a Permanent Commission, for eighteen years. He wrote a range of military fiction and non-fiction books, including ‘Torpedo Attack’, ‘My Enemy Came Nigh’, ‘Bombing Run’, ‘Fighters Up’ and ‘Summer of No Surrender’.

    His poor daughter Serafina wants to be allowed to marry. Each of their dreams seems far away until Angelo, a rich young nobleman from Milan, appears and devises a way to make everyone's dreams come true. Full color.

    Covering the lives of more than sixty singers from the end of the sixteenth century to the nineteenth, he blends history and anecdote as he examines their social origins and backgrounds, their training and debuts, their brilliant careers their relationship with society and the Church, and their decline and death.The castrati became a legend that still fascinates us today. Thousands flocked to hear and see these singing hybrids - part man, part woman, part child - who portrayed virile heroes on the operatic stage, their soprano or contralto voices weirdly at variance with their clothes and bearing. The sole surviving scratchy recording tells us little of the extraordinary effect of those voices on their audiences - thrilling, unlike any sound produced by the normal human voice.Illustrated with photographs and engravings, the book ranges from the glories of patronage and adulation to the darker side of a fashion that exploited the sons of poor families, denied them their manhood and left them, when they were old, to decline into poverty and loneliness. It is a story that will intrigue opera-lovers and general readers alike, superbly told by a writer who has researched his subject with the thoroughness of a true enthusiast.

    Other Details: 170 full-color illustrations 248 pages 10 1/4 x 10 1/4" Published 1991

    This book is the record of their dialogues. Levi spoke of the war, of anti-Semitism, of the camps, of German guilt, of Israel's emergence, and of his own extraordinary life and work. The give-and-take of the discussion, its tone, its lucidity, its intelligence, lift it well above the level and format of the usual journalistic interview with a celebrated author.

    The stories people made up about their deeds helped to explain the mysteries of the real world – the rising and setting of the sun, the changing seasons, the dumb beasts.They fought with giants and dragons. They were loved by princesses, outwitted by witches and saved by their friends. They took on impossible tasks, accepted every challenge and unwittingly undertook any honourable mission. Their adventures took them to every corner of the known world.They were the bravest and most chivalrous men – Lancelot and the knights of the round table, who paid allegiance to King Arthur, and Roland and the knights at the court of Charlemagne. Their deeds are legendary, but there is little doubt that they are based on historical fact.

    Confronted with a forgetful innkeeper you'll do better than mumble an apology by learning to say Allora dormiamo nella lobby. ("In that case, we will sleep here in the lobby"). Forced to wait for your dinner you'll say: Bisogna essere Primo Ministro per essere servito qui? ("Must one be Prime Minister to get service here?") Women traveling alone will finally have the phrases they need at their fingertips, such as Contento tu ("Dream on"), Guardi che chiamo la polizia ("I'll call the police"), and Neanche se fosse l'ultimo uomo sulla terra ("Not if you were the last man on earth"). On the other hand, a chapter on "Making Love" teaches the delicate language of amore. Wicked Italian is the next best thing to being named Marcello or Sophia. Ciao!

    Brunelleschi studied with passion the forms and technical processes of classical Roman architecture which, along with the invention of perspective, led him to found a rational method for measuring space and to seek an architecture in which each single part is harmoniously blended and in proportion with the whole. This rationalism is the foundation of his language, and marks the entire urban structure of Florence: the colonnade of the Ospedale degli Innocenti (Foundling Hospital), San Lorenzo and the Sacrestia Vecchia, the Chapel dei Pazzi, Santo Spirito, and above all, the ground-breaking solution to the dome of Stanta Maria del Fiore.