This definitive work tells the entire story of the world's most extraordinary artistic medium of the last four hundred years. Opera paints the human passions with astonishing power & drama. This book the first new full-length single-volume History of Opera" for more than a generation provokes in-depth discussions of many works by the greatest opera composers from Monteverdi Handel & Mozart to Verdi & Wagner to Strauss Puccini Berg & Britten. There are lively discussions of opera's social political & literary background its economic circumstances & the almost continual polemics that have accompanied its development through the centuries. Abbate & Parker examine the problems that opera has faced in the last half century when new works
- which were once opera's life-blood
- have shrunk to a tiny minority have largely failed to find a permanent place in the repertoire. Yet the book's final message is one of celebration. Opera as an art form remains extraordinarily buoyant & challenging. It continues to transform people physically emotionally & intellectually & to articulate human experience in ways no other art form can match."

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Copleston an Oxford Jesuit & specialist in the history of philosophy first created his history as an introduction for Catholic ecclesiastical seminaries. However since its first publication (the last volume appearing in the mid-1970s) the series has become the classic account for all philosophy scholars & students. The 11-volume series gives an accessible account of each philosophers work but also explains their relationship to the work of other philosophers. ...

This is a unique survey of photography from its origins until now. From a delivery boy to one of the most important industrialists in American history George Eastman's career developed in a particularly American way. The founder of Kodak died in 1932 & left his house to the University of Rochester. Since 1949 the site has operated as an international museum of photography & film & today holds the largest collection of its kind in the world. The continually expanding photography collection contains over 400 000 images & negatives
- among them the work of Alfred Stieglitz Edward Steichen Ansel Adams & others
- as well as 23 000 cinema films five million film stills one of the most important silent film collections technical equipment & a library with 40 000 books on photography & film. The George Eastman House is a pilgrimage site & a place of worship for researchers photographers & collectors from all over the world. This volume shows in chronological order the most impressive images & the most important developments in the art of light that is photography. It provides in its huge collection & themes a unique survey of the medium from its origins until now.

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Preston Guild is only celebrated every twenty years & has a history stretching back to the Middle Ages more than 800 years ago. Described as our Greatest Carnival the event has changed greatly over the years: originally it was held to help regulate the towns trade then was transformed into a fashionable get-together for gentry & burgesses & more recently a celebration of civic pride famous around the country. The Guild of 2012 will be the first with Preston having city status. ...

One could not ask for a more meticulous or scholarly assessment of what Britain meant to the Romans or Rome to Britons than Peter Salways Monumental Study Frederick Raphael Sunday Times From the invasions of Julius Caesar to the unexpected end of Roman rule in the early fifth century AD & the subsequent collapse of society in Britain this book is the most authoritative & comprehensive account of Roman Britain ever published for the general reader. Peter Salways narrative takes into account the latest research including exciting discoveries of recent years & will be welcomed by anyone interested in Roman Britain. ...

Scotland's history has been badly served over the years. Defined by its relationship to England Scotland's popular history is full of near-mythical figures & tragic events her past littered with defeat failure & thwarted ambition. The martyrdom of William Wallace the tragedy of Mary Queen of Scots & the forlorn cause of Bonnie Prince Charlie all give the impression of 'poor' Scotland; a victim of misfortune leading to the country's inevitable submission to the Auld Enemy. After the Union in 1707 Scotland's increasing reliance on England culminated in a crisis of confidence & identity that tortures the country to this day. But how accurate is this version of events? Using the very latest in historical research & by placing Scotland's story in the wider context of British European & global history some of the myths that pervade the past will be exploded to reveal a Scotland which forged its own destiny often with success. ...

Why has there been such an explosion of discussion about sex in the west since the 17th century? Here one of Frances greatest intellectuals explores the evolving social economic & political forces that have shaped our attitudes to sex. In a book that is at once controversial & seductive Foucault describes how we are in the process of making a science of sex which is devoted to the analysis of desire rather than the increase of pleasure. ...

Thirty-six months in combat. Twenty-four years as a sniping instructor. Twenty years of exhaustive research including decades spent seeking out hundreds of historic volumes long out of print test-firing historic firearms walking Revolutionary & Civil War battlefields with a laser rangefinder & visiting military museums in the United States & Europe. Only Major John Plaster author of the highly acclaimed The Ultimate Sniper has the background & knowledge to bring you this authoritative history of sniping & sharpshooting
- the first such book from a combat riflemans unique perspective. In The History of Sniping & Sharpshooting John Plaster has assembled the most comprehensive combat history ever published on the subject. It begins in the 15th century with the first use of precision" musket fire in Europe & continues into the 21st century with the significant role sniping is playing the Iraq & Afghanistan & the global War on Terror. Detailing major engagements & minor skirmishes over five centuries of warfare Plaster has unearthed hundreds of incidents where calculated precision rifle fire has changed the course of battles
- & sometimes history. He fittingly addresses well-known sharpshooters & snipers
- Hiram Berdan Vasili Zaitsev Carlos Hathcock
- but also pays tribute to forgotten riflemen such as John Burns Benjamin Forsyth & Arthur Wermuth to name but a few. He also explains how the evolution of firearms & optical technology has intertwined with sniping on the battlefield & how it has influenced tactics organizations & capabilities
- a subject that has never before been address adequately."




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International stained glass expert Virginia Raguin traces the emergence of stained glass as a unique art form through an examination of its techniques & symbolism & the political & historical contexts both ecclesiastical & secular in which it has been displayed. From Romanesque to Gothic Revival Renaissance to Opalesque Virginia Raguin reveals her profound knowledge of the naunces of style & the aesthetics of light in this compelling field. ...

Matt Warshaw knows more about surfing that any other person on the planet. After five years of research & writing Warshaw has completed a totally unprecedented history of the sport & the culture it has spawned. With a voice that is definitive funny & wholly original The History of Surfing delivers the ultimate book for surfers everywhere. ...