Excerpt from Iberia Won: But we weak minstrels of a laggard day, Skilled but to imitate an elder page, Timid and raptureless, can we repay The debt thou claim’st in this exhausted age? Thou giv’st our lyres a theme, that might engage Those that could send thy name o’er sea and land, While sea and land shall last; for Homer’s rage A theme; a theme for Milton’s mighty hand— How much unmeet for us, a faint degenerate band!

This poem by T.M Hughes presents a lyrical account of the military achievements of England of the six-year Peninsular War, whose atrocities he had witnessed. But even while celebrating the most magnificent military accomplishments, he made sure to teach everyone the horrors of War. He was able to present this historical poem with such accuracy because he had lived for those six years in Peninsula. He has lived amid rebellions, revolutions, military actions, and even portions of three sieges of Seville and Barcelona in 1843 and that of Almeida in Portugal in 1844. The poem consists of 12 incredibly written Cantos that illustrate the subject vividly. The descriptions of the battle ground are so accurate after personal observations that Hughes made himself. The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military dispute in the Iberian Peninsula fought by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars.

Western powers are addicted to stealing and warmongeringand their days at the top of civilization are numbered. To prove this point, Rocky M. Mirza, Ph.D., traces the rise of the Western powers from the Greek and Roman empires through the Portuguese, Spanish, British, French, German, Italian, and American empires. He argues that the West has: promoted private property over communal property, which has created huge inequalities of wealth. encouraged the production and consumption of goods instead of preserving our planet. exploited Third World workers to satisfy obese citizens addicted to super-size portions. From the time Portugal found a sea route to India and Spain rediscovered the New World, the West has sought to steal and kill. At first, Muslims in the Middle East and powerful countries in Asia thwarted Western ambitions, but the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century changed the landscape. Instead of building mutually beneficial relationships, Western empiresfrom the Portuguese to the Americanhave sought to solely look out for their own interests. Find out how the balance is shifting in How the West was Won and Lost.

Lisbon and the Pyrenees form the basis of this lively collection of firsthand accounts of travel within Portugal and Spain in the early nineteenth century.

There's just nowhere else but South Louisiana to find real knee-slapping, crowd-hooting Zydeco music. Even the big-city chefs can't cook up a Cajun meal the way they do at the roadside restaurants deep in the bayous of Acadiana. Likewise, no other guide matches the amount of in-depth information presented in Cajun Country Guide. It's a study of Cajuns that tells visitors how to find the sights, sounds, and flavors of one of America's most culturally unique regions. Take a vacation to a part of our own country that, in some places, didn't even speak English until nearly fifty years ago. While modern technology is weeding out some of the one-of-a-kind qualities of this subculture, not all of them are gone, or even hard to find, if you know how to hunt for them. And there are no better hunters than authors Macon Fry and Julie Posner. With the handy maps, reviews, and recommendations packed into the Cajun Country Guide, a trip to the bayous won't leave one feeling like a visitor, but more like a native who has come back home.