This is a veritable banquet of visual medieaeval sources from the collapse of the Roman Empire to the earliest Renaissance. Medieval Panorama has over 800 illustrations (612 in vibrant colour) drawn from archives, libraries and museums across the world (not just Europe) and all well organised into themed chapters.

There are eight sections in total covering everything from religion, political structure/knighthood/chivalry/ceremony, medieval art, sex/death, the inner world of alchemy, witchcraft, magic, courtly love and romance, to a final chapter on cultures outside mediaeval Europe. There are also succinct biographies of key personalities, from Charlemagne to Wycliffe, with timelines, maps and a stunning bibliography to accompany them.

The volume is beautifully presented with a glossy, gorgeous jacket and a sturdy green bound cloth underneath. The illustrations are accompanied by a scholarly text written by the accomplished Robert Bartlett. As usual he has truly outdone himself to shine within the field.

Bartlett is one of the world's most distinguished mediaeval historians, honoured for the scope and depth of his understanding. A better editor couldn't have been found. He weaves together all the tangled strands of mediaeval art, architecture and intellectual world with a seemingly effortless commentary.

A beautiful, grand project,..., for both scholar, student and those with a general interest. Buy your copy immediately and treasure it for years to come.

Wow! If you always wished for a sourse of information on medieval life, if you wished for hundreds upon hundreds of photographs, (most of them in color), Most of the of manuscripts. Then this is the book for you. When you are surprise with the wonder of this book, as you turn page after page, you will be surprised again and again, - behold many medieval maps too. Some Examples of what you will find:Contents:1) Prolohue: What Made the Middle Ages?30 - Introduction34 - Reading the classics36 - Classical revivals38 - Germanic invaders40 - From Constantine to Justinian42 - The politics of conversion44 - The image of......46 - 54 seperate topics2) Salvation of the Soul56 - Introduction60 - The hierarchy of the Church62 - The sevan sacraments 64 - The Eucharist66 - The Fellowship of the ..........68 - 80 = seperate topics3) Earthly Powes92 - Introduction96 - Empire and Papacy98 - Kingship100 - 126 seperate topics4) The Legacy of Medieval Art128 - Introduction132 - Arcitecture: the Romanesque prelude134 - The flowering of Gothic136 - Gothic:the last phase138 - Royal splendour, cival pride140 - Architechs and builders142 - 156 Seperate topics5) Everyday Life158 Introduction162 The world of childhood164 - Women:weakness and strength166 - Sex and sexuality168 - The discipline of marriage170 - The family at home172 - 188 seperate topicsThere is so much information, this is a mst for anyone interested in the researching the Middle Ages.The hardcover is excellently made and is worth the price.

Illustrations galore from different archives, museums, libraries around the world make this book a visual encyclopedia. I love this book for its exacting and rigorous research, direct descriptions, and brimming with nice features that readers like me greatly enjoyed, like cross references, maps and more maps, biographical sketches of leading historical personalities and time lines.

This volume delves deeply into the medieval mind, explaining developments in astronomy, medicine, the natural sciences, alchemy, magic, witchcraft, literature and theatre. For example, in medieval art, it surveys the unfolding of the Gothic style as well as in architecture. There are profiles of the important builders, architects and sculptors and examines the role of the medieval artist and craftsman.

It also examines the more controversial role and power of the papacy, what happened to Moorish Spain and why the Church ordered the Crusades and explores the issues and puzzles and then arriving at a proper conclusion in the fate of outsiders like Jews, blacks and other minorities in an overwhelmingly Christian environment. A section on castles and fortresses that dominated medieval warfare was most interesting and leads to discussions on heraldry and recreational life in the courts of the nobility.

Edited by the distinguished medieval scholar Robert Bartlett, reading this book is like walking thru a museum exhibit, a work which would be especially useful to students of the period, travellers and readers alike who enjoy a good historical blueprint of this fascinating period.

I have only had this book for a few months but every recipe I have tried from it is wonderful. I really like some of the desserts. The pictures are great and all of the recipes are really easy to follow. I am very picky about cookbooks, and I really like this one.

These two authors write stunning books of delightful, easy-to-follow recipes, with lush, evocative photographs, and great attention to detail on the culinary fundamentals of each recipe. The only problem is that they keep recycling and republishing the same recipes/photos over and over again. I got burned three times. I bought the book "A Taste Of The Mediterranean", which I liked so much that, impetuously, I went online and bought three more titles by the same two authors, Jacqueline Clark and Joanna Farrow. I got "The Mediterranean Cookbook" (the one with the close-up photo of some ripe tomatoes on the cover). It turns out that this is the exact book as "A Taste Of The Mediterranean", but with illustrations in place of the photographs. The third book I received was "Mediterranean Country Kitchen", which while it is a lovely book, is nothing more than a condensed version of the same recipes/photos from "A Taste Of The Mediterranean". Lastly I bought the newer hardback book "Mediterranean : A Taste Of The Sun". This is an outstanding, lengthy book (500+ pages), but about half of it is "A Taste Of The Mediterranean" recycled in its entirety. I would certainly recommend the new one "Mediterranean : A Taste Of The Sun" as the finest and most complete of Clark and Farrow's sumptuous books on subject. But I'm feeling angry and a bit duped at buying the same book over and over again. Buy the new one, skip the earlier, cleverly-disguised retreads.

I received this book as a Christmas present from my boyfriend and I love it. Within the first couple of weeks of owning the book, we have already made five recipies from it - unlike as with some books I have purchased which looked great but proved daunting. Every recipe we have tried has been simple and elegant. Even better, they and made with ingredients that are not expensive or hard to find. For example, we made the Spanish Garlic Soup with a Parmesean Risotto for a group of 6 people: it took us about one hour total and only cost $10. Plus, each recipe is accompanied by at least one picture.

Memoirs of a 1000 Year Old Woman is a book that should be read by everyone. It details everyday life in Nazi Germany through the eyes of a young girl. Ms. McBride meticulously takes us through her day-to-day activities with careful attention to detail. We see what life was like for the ordinary citizen, caught up in the maelstrom of war.The author relates the problems of living with rationing, bombing raids, restrictions imposed by the government, etc. Ms. McBride's courage, strength, humor, and independence shine through the pages. This book is a wonderful historical record of the times. I highly recommend it!

Memoirs is an easy to read account of a girl growing up in Berlin during WWII. The book includes contemporary news sources, song lyrics, recipes, and other interesting information about that time. A good read for those interested in women's history.

Memoirs of a 1000-year-old woman is a compelling account of life in berlin during WWII. The author provides a wealth of fascinating information about life in Nazi Germany. By taking the perspective of an ordinary girl growing up in berlin, the author enables the reader to imagine what it would have been like to live at that time and place and gain an understanding of the psyche of the people of WWII berlin. Memoirs is an important historical and sociological text that will be of great interest to readers.

This work by Peter Kropotkin's is, I say this without reservations, a work of genius and an amazing reflection on the life of an amazing man. Kropotkin's stories of his childhood and his relations with his servants and other lower-calss individuals (he was born a prince) are very interesting, as are his tales of exploration. His version of anarcho-socialism is very intriguing, largely because he bears no hate or grudge towards anyone and he is a very gentle man. In his book, it becomes clear (without him saying it, of course) that he did not recognize just how unique of a man he was. This book is filled with marvelous anecdotes, from cutting political commentary to fascinating stories of journeys down the Amur River to a splendid little collection of stupid Russian Spy stories. This book is fantastic.

Prince Piotr Alekseyevich Kropotkin, 1842-1921, was a Russian geographer and anarchist. He came from a wealthy princely family and as a boy was a page to the czar. Repelled by court life, he obtained permission to serve as an army officer in Siberia, where his explorations and scientific observations established his reputation as a geographer. After returning to European Russia, he became an adherent of the Bakuninist faction of the narodniki and engaged in clandestine propaganda activities until arrested in 1874. Two years later he escaped to Western Europe, where he worked with various anarchist groups until his imprisonment in France (1883). Pardoned in 1886, partly as the result of the popular clamor for his release, he moved to England and spent the next 30 years mainly as a scholar and writer developing a coherent anarchist theory. In his most famous book, Mutual Aid (1902), he attacked T. H. Huxley and the Social Darwinists for their picture of nature and human society as essentially competitive. He insisted that cooperation and mutual aid were the norms in both the natural and social worlds. From this perspective he developed a theory of social organizationin Fields, Factories and Workshops (1898) and elsewherethat was based upon communes of producers linked with each other through common custom and free contract. Returning to Russia following the February Revolution of 1917, he attempted to engender support for a continued Russian effort in World War I and to combat the rising influence of Bolshevism. Following the Bolshevik triumph in the October Revolution (1917), he retired from active politics. Consistently nonviolent in his anarchist beliefs, Kropotkin,as both thinker and man, was admired and acclaimed by many far removed from anarchist circles.

This intelligent and kind man all too often falls through the cracks of history. People forget that there was a completely different school of socialist thought that existed concurrently with the ideas of Marx. Kropotkin, like many others who believed in the ability of people to make their own economic relations, had the distinction of being persecuted by people on both sides of the political spectrum. Yet his book is remarkable for its lack of self-pity or resentment. The book is dense and full of the musings of a highly educated man of the late 19th century who indulged many other interests besides politics. His journey is remarkable, and we can only hope that he will become better known.

When a collector bought a ragged book of maps in a secondhand Belgian bookstore in 1967, he had no idea he had turned up a lost cartographic treasure: an early atlas created by the sixteenth-century cartographer Gerardus Mercator. The 17 maps, reprinted for the first time - in exquisite, full-size facsimiles tucked with an opulent book into a slipcase - are justifiably pricey. Margaret Foley, "Discover" magazine, June 1998

...Those not able to visit the relic in person can examine a facsimile of the one-of-a-kind atlas, compiled by Mercator around 1570, with an inaugural release by Walking Tree Press. The seventeen replica maps are accompanied by a richly illustrated, large-format book - published previously in French and Dutch - featuring essays by an international team of map scholars.

The authors leave no aspect of the fascinating history of the "Atlas of Europe" unexamined...The seventeen frameable facsimile maps are newly color-corrected and expertly printed. The text illustrations are drawn from collections throughout Europe and the United States. The hefty volume, stored in its own green slipcase, provides readers with a tactile adventure --something that tends to be overlooked in modern publishing - as well as a feast for the eyes and mind. Walking Tree's elegant edition combines the high art of maps with first-rate scholarly pursuits - a marvelous union Mercator would endorse. --- "Mercator's World" November/December 1997

Born Gerhard Kremer of German parents in the town of Rapelmonde near Antwerp on March 5, 1512, Gerardus Mercator (like many other intellectuals of his time, very early in his life Latinized his German name) was a mapmaker, scholar, and religious thinker whose interests ranged from mathematics to calligraphy to the origin of the universe.

In 1544 he fell victim to the Inquisition, partly due to his Protestant beliefs and partly due to suspicions aroused by his wide travels in search of data for his maps. He was fortunate to be released after seven months with the charges of heresy lifted and his head and limbs still intact.

His 1564 wall map of the British Isles (included in his atlas) was the first detailed and accurate geographical picture of those islands -- and was used by a Scottish traitor to help France and Spain invade Britain and overthrow the Protestant Tudors. Mercator was one of the first mapmakers to cut up maps and bind them inside boards, later coining the term 'atlas' to refer to such collection of maps. One of the most revolutionary inventions in the history of cartography, Mercator's cylindrical world map projections (first used in 1569) enabled navigators to plot a long course in straight lines and has greatly influenced our image of the world to this very day.

In 1967 an anonymous buyer purchased a large, tattered book of maps in a second-hand bookshop in Belgium and unknowingly brought to the present a long-lost atlas by this renowned 16th century cartographer. The Mercator Atlas of Europe: Facsimile of the Maps By Gerardus Mercator Contained In The Atlas Of Europe, Circa 1570-1572 is a beautiful book showcasing seventeen facsimile map prints (suitable for framing) and a large-format 96-page book with 100 illustrations (80 in color). The Mercator Atlas of Europe is an ideal and highly recommended memorial fund acquisition selection for academic and community libraries.

When we first looked at this map, we didn't think it would be accurate. Once we arrived in Scotland, we realized that it was extremely accurate, there are just not that many roads there as we are used to in the US. I would recommend this to anyone traveling in Scotland.

Set to the same scale as a lot of the very good Michelin maps, this map covers all of Scotland with enough detail to make traveling the country easy. It can give you a sense of how far Loch Ness really is from Edinburgh, points out the scenic roads, main roads, back roads; has good detail on the islands; and covers from the border with England up to the top of the country. Any specific city like Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, etc, will require a more detailed map, obtained locally, but this map is very good for planning and getting around. Main thing to remember, you can end up going much slower in the Highlands than you think, in some areas 25 mph average speed because of the roads twisting or being single track. On the other hand, I was going 70 for a while, keeping up with traffic, in a glen above Loch Lommond. The roads are in good condition, and driving on the left is not the hardest thing about driving in Britian; it is getting used to how narrow the lanes are.
The roads are safe, the countryside more beautiful than you think, even if you rent a car only for one day to head out it is worth it, and this map is excellent.

Get this - you'll need it.........

Trust Michelin, the best name in travel, to offer the most complete and up to date maps available. I am currently on a driving tour of Italy and this map has been reliable and extremely helpful. New routes and road construction areas are marked and possible detours are also shown. In addition to the excellent mapping of the roads much information is given on places of interest and tourist attractions.

If you or anyone you know is planning on driving in Sicily, this map is essential. It has saved me much time and trouble and also assisted me with planning my driving routes. In fact, I have used it so much it is beginning to wear out!

I recommended it very highly!

This map with the "Michelin Green Guide to Sicily" are the best buddies for the Sicily exploration!

The best friend of who love to tour Sicily with car. Really complete and with many touristic informations. It is in 4 languages: Italia, French, German and English.

Spent 1 week last summer touring around in central France with a car, my girlfriend as the navigator sitting right next to me reading this atlas. She could told me, by following the details on the atlas, when there should be a road junction on left or right hand side, or there going to be a round-about a head. Even on the smallest D road or a tiny village. Just one sentence in summary, this Michelin atlas is INCREDIBLE!

We took this along with us on our first trip to France and used it to drive from Paris to Provence. I cannot say how detailed this map is, even better than any map of the US I have ever seen. In one collection it shows everything from major highways to single lane dirt tracks last used by goat farmers.

So far, I have spent only 2 weeks 'motoring' through France and the only negative thing I can say about this atlas is that some of the pages are torn from heavy use. It looks like the 2000 version is hardcover, which may help eliminate this problem. I wish Michelin would come up with a binding method that would allow me to remove and replace pages. Then it would be perfect. As for examples of how one uses this atlas .. Last September I was in France and for the first time I had torn up my tour books and brought only the relevant sections. After arriving in Chamonix, I realized this was not worth a 2 night stay (thanks, Rick Steves!), so I decided on a last minute detour to Burgundy. Forunately, I had this atlas and my Michelin Red Guide (with it's indespensible town and city maps and suggested sites). Sitting in my car, I planned my route for the next 2 days, which included stopovers in Tournus (a little difficult to find a room) and Beaune (no problem finding a room). Since I had no textual guidebooks for Burgundy with me, I bought a Green Guide in Tournus. With this guide and my trusty atlas, I easily planned a drive through the Burgundy countryside and visits to a chateau, abbey, wineries, and panoramic viewpoints. I drove into and out of Beaune and Dijon without any problem. Besides using the atlas for navigation, I also have used it to find spectacular and often unexpected viewpoints and scenery in locations as varied as the Corniche roads between Nice and Monaco, the Gorges of Verdun/Lac de Ste Croix, perched villages in the Luberon, very green farmland in the Indus River Valley, ruined/untouristed castles overlooking Colmar, a moving WWI battlesite and cemetary (Le Linge) in the Vosges. This atlas is for travellers who want their trips between destinations to be as unforgettable as the destinations themselves.

I would like to start out by saying that I am a huge fan of Bernard Lewis. All of his books I have gotten my hands on thus far have been superb and this is no exception. In this case, Lewis opted to collect various writings and excerpts showing the interplay between the Middle East and the "west". After starting out with misconceptions and prejudices (on both sides), he goes on to show differing views on travel, government, society, arts, science and even food and drink. Interestingly enough, relatively little focused on the early period, despite the immense glory of Egypt, Persia, Mesopotamia and other Middle Eastern nations. There is a great deal of historical material though, including the early Islamic era, the Byzantine Empire and even the Roman Empire. Much of the material focused on the last few centuries though, which I suppose is natural given the increased contact between Europe and the Middle East. The sources come from a truely vast array. There are excerpts from the Qu'ran and the Bible, as well as sayings attributed to the Prophet Mohammad. These stand beside the works of Shakespeare, commentary by T.E. Lawerence ("Lawerence of Arabia") and Sir Richard Francis Burton, and messages delivered by Imam Khomeini. However, not all historical figures would be so well known to western ears. Excerpts from the great traveller ibn Battuta and the historian/philosopher ibn Khaldun also appear here. The vast amount of events and places is astounding. It records the Ottoman Empire at its height (indeed, many of the excerpts do deal with the Ottoman Turks), Napolean's entering north Africa, the Crimean War and the Crusades. Indeed, theres a small selection of passages dealing with the Assassin sect, of which Lewis has written an entire book. In addition, theres even a few pages which give some examples of words of Arabic, Turkish and Persian origin which have made their way into the English language.
The sheer volume of material contained within this book is simply amazing. Although they don't give as much information as one might like, the passages, excerpts and quotes included in this book provide windows into Middle Eastern life and history. Ultimately, I must strongly recommend that any student of Middle Eastern or Islamic history at least give this book a look. You won't regret it.

I love this book. You read main primary sources from the last 2000 years, reflecting on West Europe-Islamic Asia/Africa relations and perceptions. The book can be read eclectically. It shed lights on how things were, and how they led us to where we are today!

Dr. Lewis has written yet another informative compilation about the Middle East. I only wish that he could have included more about Sultan Bayezid II and his acceptance of the Spanish Jews expelled by Ferdinand and Isabel; the Afghan Jewish community in Herat; or the travels of Joseph Wolf, 1795-1862.

This book is a witty gem with great relevance for today. Trotsky points out that the military practice that defended the Russian Revolution against imperialist invasion was based on a political orientation-one that we can understand and fight for today, the workers and farmers alliance. He brilliantly defends this alliance against the ultralefts who unknowingly threatened it with their foolishness. He also debunks the so-called science of the reactionary stuffed shirts-like those military figures we see briefing the press today with their talk about smart bombs and surgically precise warfare. Read it, as a worker who wants to clarify your thinking about war.

This book is a selection of the best of Trotsky's many writings, speeches, and debates on the military strategy that won the Russian civil war and defeated not only the Russian counterrevolutionaries, but 21 different capitalist nations including the USA that sent troops to aid them. Some of these writings come from the public debates in the leaders of the Soviet Government with other political parties or within the leadership of the Communist Party. All of them illustrate the triumphant strategy of advancing politics, the politics of the liberation and empowerment of working people, oppressed nationalities, and peasants as the key to military victory. This should be read for the battles of the future.

This is a fascinating collection of articles and speeches by Leon Trotsky, one of the central leaders of the 1917 Russian revolution. Trotsky was assigned to organize and lead the new Red Army that defended revolutionary Russia (later the Soviet Union) from foreign capitalist intervention and counterrevolutionary civil war from 1918-1923.

Here, Trotsky takes up questions about political and military strategy and tactics posed in wide-ranging debates that went on in the Bolshevik Party and Red Army at that time. He provides though-provoking analysis of the shifting relations among the major world powers in the early 1900s, especially under the impact of WWI and the Russian Revolution, and the necessary decisions made at different points by the leaders of the Soviet workers and peasants.

Best of all, this is a detailed example of the Marxist method of orienting oneself in face of changing circumstances and figuring out what to do next, the art of politics as well as war. Trotsky stresses that this cannot be done by hasty generalizations or simplifications, or by finding and just applying a few general principles. It takes hard work, careful attention to facts and details, and accurate assessment of the relations between different social classes, starting on a world scale.

Workers today can learn a lot from this rich experience!