He saw that Mediterranean history, under Rome's influence, was becoming an organic whole, so he starts his work in 264 B.C. with the beginning of Rome's clash with African Carthage, the rival imperialist power, andends with the final destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C.

    In fact, recent research has shown that this vision bears little relation to reality.The field of archaeology has changed dramatically in the past two decades, as women have challenged their male colleagues' exclusive focus on hard artifacts such as spear points rather than tougher to find evidence of women's work. J. M. Adovasio and Olga Soffer are two of the world's leading experts on perishable artifacts such as basketry, cordage, and weaving. In The Invisible Sex, the authors present an exciting new look at prehistory, arguing that women invented all kinds of critical materials, including the clothing necessary for life in colder climates, the ropes used to make rafts that enabled long-distance travel by water, and nets used for communal hunting. Even more important, women played a central role in the development of language and social life—in short, in our becoming human. In this eye-opening book, a new story about women in prehistory emerges with provocative implications for our assumptions about gender today.

    Lisa Hilton’s meticulously researched new work explores the lives of the 20 women crowned between 1066 and 1503. She reconsiders the fictions surrounding well-known figures like Eleanor of Aquitaine, illuminates the lives of forgotten queens such as Adeliza of Louvain, and shows why they all had to negotiate a role that combined tremendous influence with terrifying vulnerability. The result is a provocative and dramatic narrative that redefines English history.

    Life in a Medieval Castle and Life in a Medieval City, both by Joseph and Frances Gies.” —George R. R. Martin, author of Game of ThronesThroughout history, the significance of the family—the basic social unit—has been vital. In Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages, acclaimed historians Frances and Joseph Gies trace the development of marriage and the family from the medieval era to early modern times. It describes how the Roman and barbarian cultural streams merged under the influence of the Christian church to forge new concepts, customs, laws, and practices. Century by century, the Gies follow the development—sometimes gradual, at other times revolutionary—of significant components in the history of the family including:The basic functions of the family as a production unit, as well as its religious, social, judicial, and educational roles.The shift of marriage from private arrangement between families to public ceremony between individuals, and the adjustments in dowry, bride-price, and counter-dowry.The development of consanguinity rules and incest taboos in church law and lay custom.The peasant family in its varying condition of being free or unfree, poor, middling, or rich.The aristocratic estate, the problem of the younger son, and the disinheritance of daughters.The Black Death and its long-term effects on the family.Sex attitudes and customs: the effects of variations in age of men and women at marriage.The changing physical environment of noble, peasant, and urban families.Arrangements by families for old age and retirement.Expertly researched, master historians Frances and Joseph Gies—whose books were used by George R.R. Martin in his research for Game of Thrones—paint a compelling, detailed portrait of family life and social customs in one of the most riveting eras in history.

    In Cleopatra, the author unmasks all the fantastic Cleopatras from Chaucer, Cecil B. DeMille, George Bernard Shaw, and others. 32 pages of illustrations.

    So universal and timeless are its tactics for pursuing a competitive advantage that some of the most notable people in government, sports, and the entertainment world have all quoted from its nearly 2500-year-old pages. These six expertly crafted lectures explore this classic's wisdom for staying nimble in an ever-changing environment and for maximizing reward while minimizing risk remains eternally fresh. As war and business become more mental and less physical, human intellect plays an ever greater role in competition-making Sun Tzu's strategies highly relevant to the information age.Through a precise explanation of the original text and case studies, Professor Wilson examines how the seminal work's model of leadership has been applied-and misapplied-throughout the realms of war, politics, business, and beyond. You'll study the text's historical framework and then delve into the critical calculations that must be made prior to war-what Sun Tzu refers to as knowing the enemy, knowing ourselves.By studying real-world examples, you'll come away understanding the qualities effective commanders must possess and the work's practical implications for outmaneuvering competitors in daily life. By taking this course, you will appreciate Sun Tzu's content on a far deeper level.Disclaimer: The views expressed in this course are those of the professor and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

    1763. Filipo di Vecellio of Florence, portrait painter, is the toast of London: rich, successful and married to a beautiful woman. Their house is the hub of the art world but beneath the surface, the house conceals a swarm of dangerous secrets.

    This is the first book-length study in English to investigate what women did in the Viking age, both at home in Scandinavia and in the Viking colonies from Greenland to Russia. [Text taken from the back cover of the book]

    Course Lecture Titles - (24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture) 1. Theseus 2. Achilles and Agamemnon 3. Hector 4. Odysseus 5. Lycurgus 6. Solon 7. Croesus 8. Xerxes 9. Leonidas 10. Themistocles 11. Pausanias 12. Pericles 13. Anaxagoras, Phidias, and Aspasia 14. Sophocles 15. Thucydides 16. Alcibiades 17. Nicias 18. Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War 19. Lysander and Socrates 20. The Trial of Socrates 21. Xenophon, Plato and Philip 22. Alexander the Great 23. Pyrrhus 24. Cleopatra

    Neither a handbook nor an encyclopedia, this updated second edition narrates and interprets the development of historiography from its origins in Greek poetry to the present, with sections on such current topics as postmodernism, deconstructionism, black history, women's history, microhistory, Historikerstreit, the linguistic turn, and more.

    Quintus Tullius, a young standard bearer for the Ninth Roman legion, vows to properly bury his grandfather who had been killed by the Druids. In the strange foreign country of the Britons, Quintus meets lovely Regan, the mysterious foster daughter of the Warrior Queen of the Iceanians. Once, he saves her, and then in a daring scene, she rescues him. They are at once bound into history in a time of magic and mystery.

    In Battles of the Bible Chaim Herzog, former President of the State of Israel, and Mordechai Gichon, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, present a comprehensive work on the wars of ancient Israel. Both authors have seen extensive military service in the region which features in biblical accounts. The Bible covers a vast period of military history, from the invasion of Canaan by Joshua's Israelites, through the conquest of the kingdom by David and Solomon and the split of the kingdom into Judah and Israel, to the Maccabees' rebellion against Seleucid domination. The reliability of these accounts is supported by their technical accuracy and by descriptions of topographic conditions. They provide strategic and tactical lessons still applicable today and are a key to understanding the wider history of the region. Battles of the Bible is a fascinating and valuable work, not only for its exacting scrutiny, but also for its insight into the relevance of biblical accounts and their continuing value.

    Here is the handsome young prince who chose books over the beautiful young women and men sent to tempt him; the youthful conqueror who ordered bloody massacres but grew sick with self-loathing afterward; the brilliant general who battled his way into the unknown to learn the mysteries of life; the ascetic who brought his people richness and luxury beyond their wildest dreams; the despot who, in a dozen years, altered the entire thrust of history; the heir to a kingdom no mortal had ever before dared to claim

    The third edition adds new texts to sections throughout the book, vividly describing women's sentiments and circumstances through readings on love, bereavement, and friendship, as well as property rights, breast cancer, female circumcision, and women's roles in ancient religions, including Christianity and pagan cults.

    Jacques Le Goff has written a book which will not only be read by generations of students and historians, but which will delight and inform all those interested in the history of medieval Europe. Part one, Historical Evolution, is a narrative account of the entire period, from the barbarian settlement of Roman Europe in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries to the war-torn crises of Christian Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.Part two, Medieval Civilization, is analytical, concerned with the origins of early medieval ideas of culture and religion, the constraints of time and space in a pre-industrial world and the reconstruction of the lives and sensibilities of the people during this long period. Medieval Civilization combines the narrative and descriptive power characteristic of Anglo-Saxon scholarship with the sensitivity and insight of the French historical tradition.