Publisher Description

Across the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Nile Delta, awe-inspiring, monstrous ruins are scattered across the landscape - vast palaces, temples, fortresses, shattered statues of ancient gods, carvings praising the eternal power of long-forgotten dynasties. These ruins - the remainder of thousands of years of human civilization - are both inspirational in their grandeur, and terrible in that their once teeming centres of population were all ultimately destroyed and abandoned. In this major book, Richard Miles recreates these extraordinary cities, ranging from the Euphrates to the Roman Empire, to understand the roots of human civilization. His challenge is to make us understand that the cities which define culture, religion and economic success and which are humanity's greatest invention, have always had a cruel edge to them, building systems that have provided both amazing opportunities and back-breaking hardship. This exhilarating book is both a pleasure to read and a challenge to us all to think about our past - and about the present.

Fascinating study examines Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, Israelites, Persians, others. "...a valuable introduction, perhaps the best available in English." — American Historical Review. 32 halftones. 5 figures. 1 map.

Greeks and Barbarians examines ancient Greek conceptions of the "other." The attitudes of Greeks to foreigners and there religions, and cultures, and politics reveals as much about the Greeks as it does the world they inhabited. Despite occasional interest in particular aspects of foreign customs, the Greeks were largely hostile and dismissive viewing foreigners as at best inferior, but more often as candidates for conquest and enslavement.

First published in 1936, Western Civilization in the Near East traces the spread and growth of Western civilization in the countries of the Levant and their immediate hinterland. The author argues that modern civilization took birth in Western Europe and then slowly spread to the rest of Europe and to all other parts of the earth, leading to the Europeanization of mankind. While Europe’s modern civilization initially enabled it to dominate the world economically and political, it also provided non-European people with the resources to ultimately resist and reject Europe’s control. This universal acculturation and the ensuing birth of a coherent and closely-knit humanity, facing similar social, economic, and cultural problems determined the new trends of world history. This book only focuses on the European contact with the Muslim East and the consequences of the contact. The language used is a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this republication. This book will be of interest to students of history, political science, international relations, and geography.

From the bestselling author of The Ascent of Money and The Square and the Tower “A dazzling history of Western ideas.” —The Economist “Mr. Ferguson tells his story with characteristic verve and an eye for the felicitous phrase.” —Wall Street Journal “[W]ritten with vitality and verve . . . a tour de force.” —Boston Globe Western civilization’s rise to global dominance is the single most important historical phenomenon of the past five centuries. How did the West overtake its Eastern rivals? And has the zenith of Western power now passed? Acclaimed historian Niall Ferguson argues that beginning in the fifteenth century, the West developed six powerful new concepts, or “killer applications”—competition, science, the rule of law, modern medicine, consumerism, and the work ethic—that the Rest lacked, allowing it to surge past all other competitors. Yet now, Ferguson shows how the Rest have downloaded the killer apps the West once monopolized, while the West has literally lost faith in itself. Chronicling the rise and fall of empires alongside clashes (and fusions) of civilizations, Civilization: The West and the Rest recasts world history with force and wit. Boldly argued and teeming with memorable characters, this is Ferguson at his very best.