Modern Europe

What is sex exactly? Does everyone agree on a definition? And does that definition hold when considering literary production in other times and places? We cannot simply transfer our contemporary notions of what constitutes a sex act into the past and expect them to be true for the people who were then reading literature and watching plays.

Today, it is difficult to imagine a living room without a sofa. When the first sofas on record were delivered in 17th-century France, the result was a radical reinvention of interior space. Symptomatic of a new age of casualness and comfort, the sofa ushered in an era known as the golden age of conversation; as the first piece of furniture designed for two, it was also considered an invitation to seduction. With the sofa came many other changes in interior space we now take for granted: private bedrooms, bathrooms, and the original living rooms.

For over 50 years scholars and philosophers alike have attempted to make some sense of the Third Reich and its "Final Solution" campaign. Historian Robert Wistrich takes listeners on a guided tour through the death camps and meticulously details the events that led to this horrific tragedy and the lasting repercussions it had on the world community.

This book will also take you on a whirlwind tour of the Napoleon Era, where you'll get up close and personal with the little general who almost conquered the world—if only the Russians hadn't been so darn cold. You'll learn about his rise and fall, his brilliant strategies, and his complicated love life, all told in a way that'll make you feel like you're right there in the thick of things.

En El mapa fantasma se cuenta la historia de la aterradora epidemia de cólera que envolvió Londres en 1854 y sus dos héroes poco probables: el anestesista doctor John Snow y el afable clérigo, el reverendo Henry Whitehead, quienes derrotaron la enfermedad mediante una combinación de conocimiento local, investigación científica y elaboración de mapas.

From jointed, wood-carved figures of Christ, saintly marionettes that performed hagiographical dramas, experimental puppets and automata in Cervantes' Don Quixote, and the mechanical sets around which playwright Calderón de la Barca devised secular magic shows to deconstruct superstitions, these historical and fictional artifacts reenvisioned religious, artistic, and social notions that led early modern society to critically wrestle with enchantment and disenchantment.

Renowned scholar Patrick Collinson is Regius Professor of Modern History, Emeritus, Cambridge. He states, "The Reformation (and Counter Reformation) was the blast furnace in which the modern state was forged." This engaging work offers a concise overview of the ecumenical revolution of the late medieval and Renaissance periods. Narrator John McDonough's presentation of the spiritual and the secular elements that led to religious reform will captivate listeners.

The Napoleonic Wars radically altered the old, established European power dynamics, and in 1795, the British, now emerging as the globe’s naval superpower, assumed control of the Cape as part of the spoils of war. In doing so, they recognized the enormous strategic value of the Cape as global shipping routes were developing and expanding. Possession passed back and forth once or twice, but more or less from that point onward, the British established their presence at the Cape, which they held until the unification of South Africa in 1910.

From late 1872 to 1876, H.M.S. Challenger explored the world's oceans. Conducting deep sea soundings, dredging the ocean floor, recording temperatures, observing weather, and collecting biological samples, the expedition laid the foundations for modern oceanography. Following the ship's naturalists and their discoveries, earth scientist Doug Macdougall engagingly tells a story of Victorian-era adventure and ties these early explorations to the growth of modern scientific fields.

Today, we take for granted that a telescope allows us to see galaxies millions of light years away. But before its invention, people used nothing more than their naked eye to fathom what took place in the visible sky. So how did four men in the 1500s - of different nationality, age, religion, and class - collaborate to discover that the Earth revolved around the Sun? With this radical discovery that went against the Church, they created our contemporary world. Heaven on Earth is an intimate examination of this scientific family.

France, 1180 to 1600. A tale of power, intrigue, and change. Kings and queens ruled with ambition. Wars raged across the land. Culture flourished. Society evolved.

Greek arts, philosophy, science, and political discourse were a true gift to the world. In this audiobook, you will explore the ancient Greeks, the Byzantine Empire, the Greek War of Independence, the Megali Idea, the military junta, and modern-day governance - this audiobook covers Greek history from start to finish.

Alistair Horne is a leading scholar of French history. Here he trains his sights on one of the most compelling figures of the 19th century, Napoleon Bonaparte. Far from a mere dictator, Napoleon was a military, political and social visionary whose legacy can still be felt in France and all over the world. Horne examines the one-time emperor at his most human, from his greatest triumphs to his disastrous failures.

If you want to discover the captivating history of Greece, then pay attention...Three captivating manuscripts in one audiobook: History of Greece, Classical Greece, and Modern Greece. The ancient Greeks loom large in legend and lore. In ancient myth, names such as Hercules, Achilles, and Prometheus scream out to us from the primordial past. Who are these strange, mysterious figures? More importantly, who were they to the Greeks? Greek mythology provides a key to Greek culture itself.

In this audiobook, read by Paul Spera, each historical event is replaced into context and presented in clear and easy-to-read snippets, so that younger and older readers can deepen their understanding of how modern France came to be and broaden their culture.

Nonfiction master Russell Freedman illuminates for young readers the complex and rarely discussed subject of World War I. The tangled relationships and alliances of many nations, the introduction of modern weaponry, and top-level military decisions that resulted in thousands upon thousands of casualties all contributed to the “great war”, which people hoped and believed would be the only conflict of its kind.

In Nature and Culture in the Early Modern Atlantic, historian Peter C. Mancall reveals how Europeans and Native Americans thought about a natural world undergoing rapid change in the century following the historic voyages of Christopher Columbus. Through innovative use of oral history and folklore maintained for centuries by Native Americans as well as original use of manuscript atlases, paintings that depict European representations of nature, and texts that circulated across the ocean, he reveals how the encounter between the old world and the new changed the fate of millions.

Conosci il paese dove fioriscono i limoni? Mille volte ripetuta, la domanda che è nel verso di Goethe conserva ancora lo stupore di chi la pone e la nostalgia di chi la riceve. Viaggio tra i più famosi dei tanti che vanno a comporre la biblioteca del Grand Tour, quello del grande scrittore tedesco ha, più degli altri, il colore sentimentale di un ritorno al luogo da cui tutti siamo partiti.

Provinciale. Ambizioso. Intelligente. Questo è il generale Napoleone Bonaparte nel 1795, quando ha appena ventisei anni. All'epoca nessuno è disposto a scommettere su di lui. Eppure, appena un anno dopo, Napoleone si impone come una stella di prima grandezza. Siamo nel 1796, è l'inizio di una storia memorabile di vertiginosa ascesa e di sconvolgente caduta; potere, glamour, amori esotici o impossibili, brutalità, tradimenti e grandi realizzazioni si intrecciano e si confondono nella vita di Bonaparte. Che segna un'epoca.

"Il 6 maggio abbiamo preso d'assalto Roma, ucciso seimila persone, saccheggiato le case, preso quello che abbiamo trovato nelle chiese e alla fine incendiato buona parte della città". Così un lanzichenecco descrive il saccheggio che le truppe imperiali infliggono a Roma. Le truppe a difesa della città sono deboli, le mura e l'artiglieria non bastano a fermare gli assedianti. Clemente VII riesce a riparare a Castel Sant'Angelo solo grazie al sacrificio dell'intera Guardia svizzera.