History & humanity flow through Empire Falls, Maine, like the strange flotsam washed up at the bend of the vast, slow-moving Knox River. The Whiting family, owners of the mills & the shirt factory, have sold out to a multinational. The Whiting men have invariably married women who make their lives a misery. C. B. Whiting was no exception. Now his wife, Francine, the last Mrs Whiting, presides like a black widow spider over the declining fortunes of the town. Its hub is the Empire Grill, with a view down the avenue to the abandoned mill & factory. Miles Roby, a gentle, funny loser runs the grill & hopes one day to own it. Meantime, though, his wife has run off with his worst customer, he's anxious about his adored teenage daughter & his one-handed brother, his incorrigible father sponges off everyone, the police have Miles in their sights, & Mrs Whiting has her own plans for him. Here is a huge-hearted & magnificent novel by a master storyteller, marked by comic genius & a love of humankind with all its flaws & foibles. As it builds inexorably to a shocking climax, Russo constantly surprises with characters who creep under your guard to disarm you, a plot with as many twists & falls as the Knox River itself, & an ending that makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. ...

This revised & updated edition, brought to you by Britain's biggest-selling movie magazine, contains over 100 br&-new reviews including all the biggest & best films of the last 12 months. Written with the passion & humour you'd expect from Empire, the reviews in this guide are the most comprehensive & in-depth around.

Including a wealth of new photos, sidebars & fascinating & hilarious Top 10s & movie trivia, this is the most enjoyable & entertaining film guide available.

...

In Empire Lite, Michael Ignatieff explores both sides of what he sees as a new global empire
- the imperial & the humanitarian
-

...

In Empire Lite, Michael Ignatieff explores both sides of what he sees as a new global empire
- the imperial & the humanitarian
-

...

From the team who brought you The Empire Film Guide, here are all the obscure, indecent & downright bizarre facts & figures ...

3157 B.C. At the eastern edge of the great southern desert in Mesopotamia, men are at war. Roaming bandits desperate for food, water, women, & slaves ravage vulnerable town. Yet one thing eludes them: gold. A rogue named Ariamus has joined forces with Korthac, a fierce bandit who saved his life, & together they set their sights on the impenetrable walled city of of Akkad, ruled by the former barbarian Eskkar & his enchanting wife Trella.

Korthac devises a brilliant plan to conquer the city from within. Slipping into Akkad in disguise, he will gradually win the trust of Trella. While Eskkar is away, bringing other towns into his burgeoning empire, Korthac & Ariamus will strike, wreaking havoc on the city in a way it never expects.

Told with rich historical detail & full of violence, sex, passion, & battles reminiscent of the best of Bernard Cornwell, The Road to Empire is a marvelous trip into the past.



...

This ambitious book explores the role of empire in world history. What does it mean to be an empire? How does one empire differ from another? Why does an empire rise & why fall? Why have empires flourished in some eras & regions of the world but not in others? On an unusally wide canvas, Dominic Lieven addresses all these questions. His central focus is on the rise & fall of empire in Russia & the Soviet Union. The dynamics of empire's history in Russia are explored through comparisons not only between the tsarist & Soviet periods but also between Russia, its great contemporaries & rivals of the Ottoman, Habsburg & British empires, & a broad range of other cases from ancient China & Rome to the present-day United States, Indonesia, India & the European Union. Dominic Lieven shows that many of empire's dilemmas still have force in today's world. His perspective throws light on the current crisis in the former USSR by comparing post-Soviet problems & dangers with the upheavals caused by the collapse of other leading powers' empires. A fresh view of many of today's most intractable issues is also provided, from the troubles in Ulster to ethnic cleansing in the Balkans & the fate of Russian, British, German & Asian diasporas stranded by the collapse of empire. ...

For thousands of years we have grown, cooked & traded food, & over that time much has changed. Where once we subsisted on gritty, bland grains, we now enjoy culinary creations & epicurean delights made with vegetables from the New World, fish trawled from the deep sea, & flavoured with spices from the Orient.

But how did we make that change from eating for survival to the innovations of modern cuisine? How has food helped to shape our culture? & what will happen when global warming & peak oil have their inevitable effect on agriculture?

Empires of Food is an authoritative exploration of the innumerable ways that food has changed the course of history. The earliest cities, after all, were founded on the creation & exchange of food surpluses, & since then trade routes of ever greater sophistication have developed. We've built complex societies by shunting corn & wheat & rice along rivers, up deforested hillsides, & into the stockpots of history.

But we cannot go on forever. As Evan D. G. Fraser & Andrew Rimas compellingly show, the abundance that we all enjoy comes at a price, & unless we think of a more sustainable way to grow, eat & enjoy food, we may find that our civilization reaches its best before date.





...

For thousands of years we have grown, cooked & traded food, & over that time much has changed. Where once we subsisted on gritty, bland grains, we now enjoy culinary creations & epicurean delights made with vegetables from the New World, fish trawled from the deep sea, & flavoured with spices from the Orient.

But how did we make that change from eating for survival to the innovations of modern cuisine? How has food helped to shape our culture? & what will happen when global warming & peak oil have their inevitable effect on agriculture?

Empires of Food is an authoritative exploration of the innumerable ways that food has changed the course of history. The earliest cities, after all, were founded on the creation & exchange of food surpluses, & since then trade routes of ever greater sophistication have developed. We've built complex societies by shunting corn & wheat & rice along rivers, up deforested hillsides, & into the stockpots of history.

But we cannot go on forever. As Evan D. G. Fraser & Andrew Rimas compellingly show, the abundance that we all enjoy comes at a price, & unless we think of a more sustainable way to grow, eat & enjoy food, we may find that our civilization reaches its best before date.





...

For thousands of years we have grown, cooked & traded food, & over that time much has changed. Where once we subsisted on gritty, bland grains, we now enjoy culinary creations & epicurean delights made with vegetables from the New World, fish trawled from the deep sea, & flavoured with spices from the Orient.

But how did we make that change from eating for survival to the innovations of modern cuisine? How has food helped to shape our culture? & what will happen when global warming & peak oil have their inevitable effect on agriculture?

Empires of Food is an authoritative exploration of the innumerable ways that food has changed the course of history. The earliest cities, after all, were founded on the creation & exchange of food surpluses, & since then trade routes of ever greater sophistication have developed. We've built complex societies by shunting corn & wheat & rice along rivers, up deforested hillsides, & into the stockpots of history.

But we cannot go on forever. As Evan D. G. Fraser & Andrew Rimas compellingly show, the abundance that we all enjoy comes at a price, & unless we think of a more sustainable way to grow, eat & enjoy food, we may find that our civilization reaches its best before date.





...