This book provides a fascinating & stunningly illustrated account of ancient Greece & its classical heritage. It chronicles military & political development in Athens Sparta & other ancient Greek city-states all revealed in magnificent detail. It features a special focus on the life tactics & military campaigns of Alexander the Great one of the most important soldiers the world has ever known. It explains & examines the military techniques & strategies operations & training of the Greek armies. It features over 500 photographs illustrations maps battle plans & fact boxes. The first half of this military & political history details how the Greeks recovered from the collapse of the first Minoan Cretan & Mycenaean civilizations & moved towards democracy. It highlights the Persian Wars shows Athens during the Golden Age before it was wrecked by the wars with Sparta & describes the men & women who made Greeces name resonate down the ages. The second part of the book describes the rule of Alexander the Great a military genius who helped spread Greek culture across half of Asia. Nigel Rodgers shows how Alexanders death without an heir was an irreparable loss & that ultimately his heir turned out to be the Roman empire. With information on weapons & fleets on the tactics of Greek soldiers & the organization of great armies this is a breathtaking analysis of 2000 years of impassioned politics warfare & culture. ...

The monarchical presidential regimes that prevailed in the Arab world for so long looked as though they would last indefinitely
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Until road transport began to make inroads into the goods & freight monopoly enjoyed by the railways there were thousands of goods yards throughout the UK & every conceivable commodity was transported in railway wagons. This lavishly illustrated book tells the story of the evolution of freight services & the Rise & Fall of the local goods train from the early days to the modern privatised railway & from the steam age to todays modern traction era with particular emphasis on the British Railways years from 1948 to 1997. ...

There is nothing more charming & evocative to railway enthusiasts than a rural branch line. Most were built before the advent of motorised road transport & provided a vital lifeline for the communities served but these lines inevitably declined. Although the infamous Dr Beeching usually takes the blame for closures there were significant losses in the 1920s & 1930s when more than a 1 000 miles of track were declared redundant. More recently there has been regeneration of some lines & new stations opened. This beautifully illustrated book looks at lines from the steam age through to the present time of diesel & electric multiple units. ...

From modest beginnings Britain rose throughout the nineteenth century to become the greatest shipbuilding nation in the world yet by the end of the following century the British merchant fleet ranked just 38 in the world. The glory days of sail had given way to the introduction of the steam age. Traditional shipwrights had railed against new industrial methods resulting in the infamous demarcation disputes. Talented men like Brunel & Armstrong had always sought change & development but too many shipbuilders were relying on old technologies. From building mighty battleships & extravagant ocean liners the nation became complacent & its yards were eventually no longer as innovative as their foreign competitors. In the twenty-first century British shipbuilding has shrunk to a mere fraction of its former size & has become almost totally dependent on government contracts. The popularity of & fascination with this subject has prompted a new edition of Anthony Burton's successful book. With fresh images & a new final chapter the story of the rise & cataclysmic fall of British shipbuilding has been brought right up to date. ...

Winner of the 2010 W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize for Best Political Science Book of the Year 2010. The relentless rise of Communism was the most momentous political development of the first half of the twentieth century. No political change has been more fundamental than its demise in Europe & its decline elsewhere. In this hugely acclaimed book Archie Brown provides an indispensable history that examines the origins of the ideology its development in different countries its collapse in many states following the Soviet perestroika & its current incarnations around the globe. The Rise & Fall of Communism explains how & why Communists came to power; how they were able in a variety of countries on different continents to hold on to power for so long; & what brought about the downfall of so many Communist systems. A groundbreaking work from an internationally renowned specialist this is the definitive study of the most remarkable political & human story of our times. ...

ECW burst onto the sports entertainment scene in the early 1990s & redefined the industry with a reckless brutal death-defying & often bloody style that became known as hardcore. In the process it attracted a rabid cult-like following that is still going strong today. The ECW hardcore style changed the wrestling business forever; & more than any other single factor it was the adoption of this new breed of wrestling from the young upstart company by the WWE that was largely responsible for the subsequent WWE domination of the industry. Through extensive interviews with former ECW talent & management fans will have an inside look at what made the company great -- & what led to its ultimate demise. ...

Electric & Music Industries Ltd (EMI) first saw the light of day in the UK in 1931. In a visionary move for the gramophone age it manufactured both hardware (recording & playback equipment) & software (the records & tapes its machines would play). For over half a century EMI dominated both sectors its music division eventually becoming the most successful in the world with a roster that at various times included The Beatles Maria Callas Frank Sinatra Cliff Richard Pink Floyd The Beach Boys Queen Robbie Williams The Spice Girls Kate Bush & Kylie Minogue. Then in the 1990s things started to go wrong
- This is the continuing saga of Britains greatest music company as it faces an uncertain future under new ownership. Since 2009 EMI has broken new acts & sold millions of records BUT the massive debts incurred by its owners Terra Firma have finally taken it to the brink of a break-up. Music industry experts & executives financiers & commentators plus artists managers assess EMIs fortunes as the company celebrates its 80th birthday.

Includes:: interviews with many key players including former EMI Group/EMI Music executives Sir Colin Southgate Jim Fifield Eric Nicoli Tony Wadsworth David Munns Rupert Perry Ray Cooper & Jon Webster. He has also interviewed many managers music journalists financial analysists & rival record company executives.


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The medical achievements of the post-war years rank as one of the supreme epochs of human endeavour. Advances in surgical technique new ideas about the nature of disease & huge innovations in drug manufacture vanquished most common causes of early death But since the mid-1970s the rate of development has slowed & the future of medicine is uncertain. How has this happened? James Le Fanu's hugely acclaimed survey of the 'twelve definitive moments' of modern medicine & the intellectual vacuum which followed them has been fully revised & updated for this edition. The Rise & Fall of Modern Medicine is both riveting drama & a clarion call for change. ...

THE RISE & FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE covers the history of British expansion overseas from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Narrative & analysis are interwoven with revealing eyewitness"ation to provide keen insight into the minds of those involved in conquering settling & ruling the greatest Empire the world has seen. Throughout there are consistant themes; the search for profit & the moral misgivings it generated; domestic developments which made imperial expansion desirable; & the sense of national & personal destiny felt by the empire-builders. Spanning four centuries & six continents James' magnificent survey examines the imperial experience & its legacy with tremendous verve. Informed comprehensive & perceptive it is the essential summary of the era. ' James' epic is not only a first-rate narrative but also a penetrating portrait of the British... Having largely if often inadvertently selfishly or ham-fistedly engineered the world we live in we need the courage now to face up to our record as coolly & intelligently as Lawrence James has done'
- John Spurling TLS
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