Five thousand years ago there began the most momentous revolution in human history. Starting in Mesopotamia, city civilization emerged for the first time on earth, to be followed in Egypt, India, China & the Americas. The ideals of these ancient civilizations still shape the lives of the majority of mankind. ” In Search of the First Civilizations” (previously published as Legacy) asks the intriguing question: what is civilization? Did it mean the same to the Chinese, the Indians & the Greeks? What can the values of the ancient cultures teach us today? & do the ideals of the West
- a latecomer to civilization
- really have universal validity? In this fascinating historical search, Michael Wood explores these ancient cultures, looking for their essential character & their continuing legacy. ”A brilliant exploration.”
- ” Sunday Times”. ” Well-written, gorgeous & guaranteed to induce thought... Wood takes great care to put everything in a large historical perspective, which is actually more disturbing than comforting.”
- ” New York Post”.



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Olivier Roy is one of the world`s leading experts on political Islam. But he is not only a scholar-he is also a traveler. Roy`s keen & iconoclastic insights emerge from a lifetime of study combined with intrepid exploration through Afghanistan & Central Asia. In this book-length interview, Roy tells the lively & colorful story of his many adventures & discoveries in a variety of social & political settings & how they have come to shape his understanding of the Islamic world & its complex recent history. In Search of the Lost Orient is a candid, personal account of the experiences that led Roy to challenge his youthful ideas of an untouched, romanticized East & build a new intellectual framework to better understand & cohabit with the religions, politics, & cultures of the East, West, North, & South. In conversation with Jean-Louis Schlegel of the magazine Esprit, Roy offers insight into the key themes of his career. Roy`s immersion in the complexities of many Central Asian territories started him on his critique of the idea of an essentialized Islam. Alongside tales of backpacking from Paris to Kabul, his Afghan decade during the Soviet invasion, & official travel to post-Soviet Central Asia in the 1990s, Roy reflects on the nature of political & humanitarian engagement in this part of the world. He recounts his formative years, education, & developing political commitments & speaks to his evolving place within France`s shifting intellectual & religious cultures. This book outlines Roy`s lifelong practice-a combination of deliberate research goals & chance encounters-that examines Islam, immigration, &, more broadly, the future of cultures, religions, & secularism in the face of globalization. Both a significant intellectual autobiography & a compelling travelogue through some of the world`s pivotal places, In Search of the Lost Orient offers a striking testimony to the many facets of an exceptional thinker. ...

In 1911 the world was watching, waiting, hoping, attention focused on a desolate spot at the very end of the earth, as two men raced to conquer the South Pole. A hundred years after Roald Amundsen`s triumph & Robert Scott`s tragic demise, our fascination with the Antarctic remains as acute as ever. On the centenary of their epic expeditions, this book traces our search for the South Pole, from the earliest encounters with Antarctica`s icy waters, through the Heroic Age to modern times. In addition to the words of Scott & Amundsen, vivid descriptions from the logbooks, journals & narratives of pioneers such as Carsten Borchgrevink, Ernest Shackleton & Douglas Mawson provide first-hand experiences of this enigmatic & unforgiving region. In our own times, there is commentary from modern explorers & travellers, writers & scientists, who explain what the South Pole means to them. Among those featured are Edmund Hillary, Vivian Fuchs, Ranulph Fiennes & Borge Ousl&. Stunning images by Herbert Ponting & Frank Hurley, & from the personal collections of explorers & adventure photographers, as well as contemporary ephemera & artefacts illustrate the hardships of life on the ice. The authors have woven together the narrative of this enduring human quest with individual stories to place the Scott-Amundsen race in historical context & consider its legacy in the manhaulers, extreme skiers & adventure tourists of today. In the 21st century the South Pole remains an international stage for ambition & personal endeavour. For anyone who has felt the pull of this magnetic place
- this is the book for you.
...

Michael Wood examines whether the legendary figures of Troy, Achilles, Hector, Paris & Helen, actually existed & whether events such as the siege of Troy ever occured. New evidence uncovered at the excavation site of what is believed to be the city of Troy & events including the rediscovery of the so-called jewels of Helen are examined & commented upon. Wood provides a real historical background to the Trojan War & some of the most exciting discoveries in archaeology, vividly evoking the era that they relate to. ...

When H. V. Morton sett out for Wales over seventy years ago, his only previous visit had been twenty years earlier in the unsuccessful pursuit of a girl he loved in Pwllheli. This time, he went to write a book that would capture something of the soul of the country & its people – a people, as he notes, who have managed to retain their language & their individuality though they are the smallest of nations in the British Isles. Endlessly curious, chatty, erudite & entertaining, Morton is the perfect companion as he travels from the agricultural north to the industrial south, pausing on the way to gossip with those he meets, indulge in wickedly funny speculation & pass on a remarkable amount of fascinating detail & information. By a natural raconteur & a consummate travel writer, In Search of Wales – like its companion volumes on Engl&, Scotland & Ireland – remains one of the best books ever written about that country, as vivid & engaging today as it was on first publication. ...

In Siberia is the account of Colin Thubron`s 15, 000-mile journey through Siberia
- an astonishing country, one that makes up
...

In the bitter cold of Danish Jutl&, where the sea freezes over & the Nazis have yet to invade, a young girl dreams of one day going on a great journey to Siberia, while her beloved brother Jesper yearns for the warmer climes of Morocco. Their home, with a pious mother who sings hymns all day & a silent father, is as cold as their surroundings. But the unshakeable bond between brother & sister creates a vital warmth which glows in spite of the chill & the dark clouds that threaten to overtake their dreams. ...

Few places on earth can have escaped the singular eye of Norman Lewis. But always, in the course of his long career, he has come back to Sicily. From his first, wartime visit
- to a land untouched since the Middle Ages
- through his frequent returns, he has watched the island & its people as they have changed over the years. Lewis treats us to his observations on the Mafia. We benefit from his friendships with policemen, journalists & common people. Moreover, he writes beautifully of landscape & language, of his memories of his first father-in-law (professional gambler, descendant of princes & member of the Unione Siciliana), of Sicily's changing sexual mores, of the effects of African immigration, of Palermo & its ruined palaces
- & of strange superstitions, of witches & bandits & murder.


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In Spite of Oceans: Migrant Voices explores the individual journeys of generations in transition from the South Asian subcontinent to Engl&. Poignantly written, & based on real events & interviews, what emerges is the story of lives between cultures, of families reconciling customs & traditions away from their ancestral roots, & of the tensions this necessarily creates. We hear from the young bride from Bangladesh, married to a stranger, who comes to England to navigate life with a man she cannot love; from an Indian father who struggles to come to terms with his son`s mental illness & hides it from people he knows; about how a mother & daughter`s relationship was shattered in the clash over the Pakistani traditions her daughter chooses not to follow. Each narrative describes a journey that is both literal & deeply emotional, exploring the hold an inherited culture can have on the decisions & choices we make. At times heart-breaking, at times inspirational, In Spite of Oceans brings to life the pull of the past & the push of the future, & the evolving nature of what we understand as home. ...

India is poised to become one of the world`s three largest economies in the next generation & to overtake China as the world`s most populous country by 2032. Well before then India`s incipient nuclear deterrent will have acquired intercontinental range & air, sea & land capabilities. India`s volatile relationship with its nuclear-armed neighbour, Pakistan, may prove to be the source of the world`s next major conflict. & if you call anyone- from your bank to rail enquiries- your query may well be dealt with by a graduate in Gujarat. Any way one looks at it, India`s fate matters. Edward Luce, one of the most incisive & talented journalists of his generation, assesses the forces that are forging the new nation. Cutting through the miasma that still clouds thinking about India, this extraordinarily accomplished book takes the measure of a society that is struggling to come to grips with modernity. Drawing on historical research, existing literature & his own unparalleled access as the New Delhi-based, South Asia correspondent of the FT, this is a book that will enthral as well as educate & will remain the definitive book on the country for many years. ...