Synopses & Reviews
Chivalrywith its pageants, heraldry, and knights in shining armorwas a social ideal that had a profound influence on the history of early modern Europe. In this eloquent and richly detailed book, a leading medieval historian discusses the complex reality of chivalry: its secular foundations, the effects of the Crusades, the literature of knighthood, and its ethos of the social and moral obligations of nobility.
This is a rich book, making effective use of all sorts of documents and illustrations. Keen moves easily across Europe in search of the international spirit of chivalry. . . . The pageantry he presents is colorful and his conclusions uplifting.”David Herlihy, New York Times Book Review
An elegantly written, important book.”Carolly Erickson, Los Angeles Times Book Review
Splendid. . . . Keen is exemplary in the use he makes of many kinds of medieval literature, epic and lyric poetry, family and military histories, didactic treatises, translations into the vernacular of books of the Bible and of works from ancient Rome.”R.C. Smail, New York Review of Books
Original [and] beguiling.”Fiona MacCarthy, Times (London)
A most readable and comprehensive survey: stimulating, informative, a splendid creation of context.”Nicholas Orme, Times Higher Education Supplement
All historians of Western society . . . will do well to refer to this book.”Georges Duby, Times Literary Supplement
Review
“
Soldiers and Ghosts is a stunningly original contribution to our understanding of ancient warfare, written with great style and verve. It is one of those rare books that powerfully challenges received opinion and demands attention. At the same time, it is a wonderful read that should hold appeal for any layman with an interest in the Greeks and Romans or simply in the history of warfare.”Donald Kagan, author of
The Peloponnesian War“Soldiers and Ghosts offers a wholly original cultural history of Greek and Roman warfare. The book is hugely impressive in scope and ambition, often brilliant in interpretation, elegantly constructed and wonderfully written.”Hans van Wees, author of Greek Warfare: Myths and Realities
"Soldiers and Ghosts is a stunningly original contribution to our understanding of ancient warfare, written with great style and verve. It is one of those rare books that powerfully challenges received opinion and demands attention. At the same time, it is a wonderful read that should hold appeal for any layman with an interest in the Greeks and Romans or simply in the history of warfare."Donald Kagan, author of The Peloponnesian War
-- Donald Kagan
Review
“
Soldiers and Ghosts offers
a wholly original cultural history of Greek and Roman warfare. The book is hugely impressive in scope and ambition, often brilliant in interpretation, elegantly constructed and wonderfully written.”Hans van Wees, University College, London, author of
Greek Warfare: myths and realities -- Hans van Wees
Review
“
Soldiers & Ghosts is an excellent starting point for readers interested in the military histories of Greece and Rome.”
-- Nicholas E. Efstathiou
Review
"Soldiers and Ghosts stimulates the reader and has many interesting insights. I particularly like the bibliographic notes pointing to further research."Matthew Trundle, Ancient History -- Military History
Review
"Richly illustrated and based on a thorough an -- Laurence W. Marvin - Canadian Journal of History
Synopsis
An illustrated exploration of artists' depictions of war and warriors, from antiquity to modern times
How have artists across the millennia responded to warfare? In this uniquely wide-ranging book, Theodore Rabb blends military history and the history of art to search for the answers. He draws our attention to masterpieces from the ancient world to the twentieth century--paintings, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, engravings, architecture, and photographs--and documents the evolving nature of warfare as artists have perceived it.
The selected works represent landmarks in the history of art and are drawn mainly from the western tradition, though important examples from Japan, India, and the Middle East are also brought into the discussion. Together these works tell a story of long centuries during which warfare inspired admiration and celebration. Yet a shift toward criticism and condemnation emerged in the Renaissance, and by the end of the nineteenth century, glorification of the warrior by leading artists had ceased. Rabb traces this progression, from such works as the Column of Trajan and the Titian "Battle of Lepanto", whose makers celebrated glorious victories, to the antiwar depictions created by Brueghel, Goya, Picasso, and others. Richly illustrated and accessibly written, this book presents a study of unprecedented sweep and multidisciplinary interest.
Synopsis
A major new history of battle in the ancient world, from the age of Homer through the decline of the Roman empire
Synopsis
What set the successful armies of Sparta, Macedon, and Rome apart from those they defeated? In this major new history of battle from the age of Homer through the decline of the Roman empire, J. E. Lendon surveys a millennium of warfare to discover how militaries changeand dont changeand how an armys greatness depends on its use of the past.
Synopsis
Sparta, Macedon, and Romehow did these nations come to dominate the ancient world? What set their armies apart? Noting this was an age that witnessed few technological advances, J. E. Lendon shows us that the most successful armies were those that made the most effective use of cultural tradition. Ancient combat moved forward by looking backward for inspirationthe Greeks, to Homer; the Romans, to the Greeks and to their own heroic past. The best ancient armies recruited soldiers from societies with strong competitive traditions; and the best ancient leaders, from Alexander to Julius Caesar, called upon those traditions to encourage ferocious competition at every rank.
Ranging from the Battle of Champions between Sparta and Argos in 550 B.C. through Julians invasion of Persia in A.D. 363, Soldiers and Ghosts brings to life the most decisive military contests of ancient Greece and Rome. Lendon places these battles, and the methods by which they were fought, in a sweeping narrative of ancient military history. On every battlefield, living soldiers fought alongside the ghosts of traditionghosts that would inspire greatness for almost a millennium before ultimately coming to stifle it.
Synopsis
This epic history compares the empires built by Spain and Britain in the Americas, from Columbuss arrival in the New World to the end of Spanish colonial rule in the early nineteenth century. J. H. Elliott, one of the most distinguished and versatile historians working today, offers us history on a grand scale, contrasting the worlds built by Britain and by Spain on the ruins of the civilizations they encountered and destroyed in North and South America.
Elliott identifies and explains both the similarities and differences in the two empires processes of colonization, the character of their colonial societies, their distinctive styles of imperial government, and the independence movements mounted against them. Based on wide reading in the history of the two great Atlantic civilizations, the book sets the Spanish and British colonial empires in the context of their own times and offers us insights into aspects of this dual history that still influence the Americas.
Synopsis
The early twentieth century is usually remembered as an era of rising nationalism and military hostility, culminating in the disaster of the First World War. Yet it was marked also by a vigorous campaign against war, a movement that called into question the authority of the nation-state. This book explores the role of artists and writers in the formation of a modern, secular peace movement in Britain, and the impact of ideas about "positive peace" on their artistic practice. From Grace Brockington's meticulous study emerges a rich and interconnected world of Hellenistic dance, symbolist stage design, marionettes, and book illustration, produced in conscious opposition to the values of an increasingly regimented and militaristic society, and radically different from existing narratives of British wartime culture.
Synopsis
An illustrated exploration of artists' depictions of war and warriors, from antiquity to modern times
Synopsis
How have artists across the millennia responded to warfare? In this uniquely wide-ranging book, Theodore Rabb blends military history and the history of art to search for the answers. He draws our attention to masterpieces from the ancient world to the twentieth centuryand#8212;paintings, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, engravings, architecture, and photographsand#8212;and documents the evolving nature of warfare as artists have perceived it.and#160;
The selected works represent landmarks in the history of art and are drawn mainly from the western tradition, though important examples from Japan, India, and the Middle East are also brought into the discussion. Together these works tell a story of long centuries during which warfare inspired admiration and celebration. Yet a shift toward criticism and condemnation emerged in the Renaissance, and by the end of the nineteenth century, glorification of the warrior by leading artists had ceased. Rabb traces this progression, from such works as the Column of Trajan and the Titian "Battle of Lepanto", whose makers celebrated glorious victories, to the antiwar depictions created by Brueghel, Goya, Picasso, and others.and#160;Richly illustrated and accessibly written, this book presents a study of unprecedented sweep and multidisciplinary interest.
About the Author
'This is a rich book, making effective use of all sorts of documents and illustrations. Keen moves easily across Europe in search of the international spirit of chivalry. . . . The pageantry he presents is colorful and his conclusions uplifting.”David Herlihy, New York Times Book ReviewOriginal [and] beguiling.”Fiona MacCarthy, Times (London)An elegantly written, important book.”Carolly Erickson, Los Angeles Times Book Review'