Josiah Ober ·At the Deathbed of Alexander the Great

Tom Holland · Hannibal Crosses the Alps

Theodore K. Rabb · Christmas Day in the Year 800

John Julius Norwich · Venice, July 24, 1177

Katherine Fischer Drew · Magna Carta and the King’s Men

Barbara A. Hanawalt · Rebel Leader Confronts King at Smithfield in 1381

Lauro Martines · Ten Thousand Brutes in Renaissance Florence

Geoffrey Parker · August 9, 1588: The Spanish Armada (almost) Surrenders

Katherine Duncan-Jones · The Globe Theatre, February 7, 1601

John H. Elliott · With the Prince of Wales in Madrid, 1623

Mordechai Feingold · By Fits and Starts: The Making of Isaac Newton’s Principia

Ellen T. Harris · Handel Is Fired

William McNeill · Frederick the Great and the Propagation of Potatoes

Paul Kennedy · The Battle of the Nile

Ross King · The “Uncouth Riddle” of Édouard Manet: Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe at the 1863 Salon des Refusés

Richard Pipes · Nicholas II Signs the October Manifesto

Margaret MacMillan · Tunnels, Territory, and Broken Promises: France Betrayed by the Anglo-Saxons?

Charles A. Riley II · Backstage at the Ballets Russes with Picasso

Freeman Dyson · Exorcising Aristotle’s Ghost

John Keegan · The German Surrender to Montgomery at Lüneburg Heath, May 1945

What is the scene or incident in European history that you would like to have witnessed—and why? This is the question that the editors posed to twenty superb historians, who each wrote a personal essay in response. The result is this engrossing book, a worthy sequel to the acclaimed volume on American history, I Wish I’d Been There. From the death of Alexander the Great to the German surrender ending World War II, these essays move across a wide geography for over two millennia and deal with politics, law, religion, peace and war, science and the arts, rebellion, and social change. In addition to adding immediacy, color, and vibrancy to well-known events, they also provide fresh illuminations and interpretations of vital moments in the history of Europe.

I Wish I’d Been There®, Book Two is a marvelous idea, wonderfully and imaginatively executed. It offers a sense of the excitement, the passion, the drama, and the joys and tragedies that are the essence of history.

See the back cover for a list of contributors and the events described.

WITH ALEXANDER, NAPOLEON, AND PICASSO is a marvelous idea, wonderfully and imaginatively executed. The result is an historical pageant of characters and events that will delight all readers of history.

THEODORE K. RABB is a professor of history emeritus at Princeton University. He is the author of The Struggle for Stability in Early Modern Europe and The Last Days of the Renaissance, among other books. Rabb was the principal historical adviser and commentator for the Emmy-nominated PBS series Renaissance and wrote the series’scompanion book, Renaissance Lives.