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Simon Schama

    February 13, 1945

    Simon Schama is renowned for his captivating narrative style, bringing history and art to life with vibrant prose and compelling storytelling. His work is characterized by a flair for description that makes even arcane subjects accessible, drawing readers into the past with vivid detail and engaging language. While celebrated for his ability to connect with a broad audience, his approach sometimes invites criticism of subjectivity and populism from academic circles. Schama's method emphasizes the importance of narrative and stylistic flair, aiming to evoke the atmosphere and historical context rather than merely presenting facts.

    Simon Schama
    A History of Britain 3
    Rembrandt's Eyes
    Landscape and Memory
    Dead Certainties
    Death of a Harvard man
    Belonging. The Story of The Jews 1492-1900
    • Foreign Bodies

      • 480 pages
      • 17 hours of reading

      Cities and countries gripped by panic and death, desperate for vaccines yet fearful of inoculation—this mirrors the global experience during Covid-19. Simon Schama illustrates that history has seen similar crises before. Through compelling narratives set in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, he recounts the devastation of smallpox in London, cholera in Paris, and plague in India. The stories unfold in hospitals, prisons, palaces, and slums, featuring unforgettable characters: a philosopher-playwright suffering from smallpox in a chateau, a doctor making house calls in Halifax, and a woman doctor in India navigating her inoculator-carriage through devastated streets. The narrative also takes us into laboratories where life-saving breakthroughs occur in Paris, Hong Kong, and Mumbai. Central to this tale is Waldemar Haffkine, a Jewish student turned microbiologist at the Pasteur Institute, celebrated in England as 'the saviour of mankind' for vaccinating millions against cholera and bubonic plague in British India, despite facing rejection from the medical establishment. Creator of the first mass vaccine production line in Mumbai, he ultimately suffers a tragic injustice. This work traverses borders between east and west, rich and poor, politics and science, emphasizing the interconnectedness of humanity and nature. Schama asserts that as we confront modern challenges, "there are no foreigners, only familiars."

      Foreign Bodies2023
      3.6
    • Simon Schama, známý popularizátor umění, nás zve na procházku po Národní portrétní galerii v Londýně a zároveň po dějinách Velké Británie. Pohlédneme do tváře řady významných osobností – monarchů, šlechticů, umělců a dalších, kteří ve tváři ostrovního impéria zanechali výrazný otisk. Schama jako skvělý vypravěč podniká výpravy do hloubi dějin, koření je barvitými příběhy, každá kapitola je dobrodružnou cestou do vzdálenější i nedávné historie; najdeme v nich odpovědi na otázky, proč se portréty malují a jaký byl jejich význam ať už z uměleckého nebo třeba i z politického hlediska. Kniha je také pobídkou zamyslet se nad osobnostmi, které většinou známe z učebnic, nad jejich osudy, touhami a nad tím, čím se zapsaly do dějin.

      Tvář Británie : příběhy za národními portréty2023
      4.7
    • L'Histoire des Juifs

      De 1000 avant notre ère à 1452

      • 704 pages
      • 25 hours of reading

      L'histoire que Simon Schama entreprend de nous conter ici est à nulle autre pareille.Tout au long des dernières décennies, des découvertes archéologiques ont renouvelé notre vision de la manière dont a vu le jour la Bible, qui allait devenir le patrimoine d'une bonne partie de la planète. D'une extrémité du monde juif à l'autre ont été exhumées des mosaïques qui bouleversent notre idée de ce qu'étaient une synagogue et le culte juif, mais aussi de tout ce que cette religion, dans ses formes, partageait avec le paganisme et le christianisme primitif.Cette histoire s'étend sur les millénaires et les continents - de l'Inde à l'Andalousie, des bazars du Caire aux rues d'Oxford. Elle nous emmène d'un royaume juif dans les montagnes de l'Arabie du Sud à une synagogue syrienne aux murs peints étincelants, en passant par la colonie juive installée dans l'île d'Éléphantine, en Haute-Égypte, dès le vie siècle avant notre ère. Simon Schama nous conte avec maestria cette épopée où l'héroïsme de la vie quotidienne côtoie les grandes tragédies, et pose son regard d'historien de l'art sur les trésors qu'elle nous a légués. L'histoire des Juifs n'est pas, comme on l'imagine souvent, celle d'une culture à part, mais celle d'un monde juif immergé dans les peuples au milieu desquels il a vécu et marqué par eux, des Égyptiens aux Grecs, des Arabes aux chrétiens. C'est en cela qu'elle est l'histoire de tous.Première édition Fayard 2016.

      L'Histoire des Juifs2019
    • Wordy

      • 416 pages
      • 15 hours of reading

      A wide-ranging collection of essays written by the award-winning writer and historian over his forty-year career, chosen by the man himself.

      Wordy2019
      3.8
    • Belonging. The Story of The Jews 1492-1900

      • 784 pages
      • 28 hours of reading

      The words that failed were words of hope. But they did not fail at all times and everywhere. These gripping pages teem with words of defiance and optimism, sounds and images of tenacious life and adventurous modernism, music and drama, business and philosophy, poetry and politics.

      Belonging. The Story of The Jews 1492-19002017
      4.4
    • It is a story like no other: an epic of endurance against destruction, of creativity in oppression, joy amidst grief, the affirmation of life against the steepest of odds. It spans the millennia and the continents âe" from India to Andalusia and from the bazaars of Cairo to the streets of Oxford. It takes you to unimagined places: to a Jewish kingdom in the mountains of southern Arabia; a Syrian synagogue glowing with radiant wall paintings; the palm groves of the Jewish dead in the Roman catacombs. And its voices ring loud and clear, from the severities and ecstasies of the Bible writers to the love poems of wine bibbers in a garden in Muslim Spain. Within these pages, the Talmud burns in the streets of Paris, massed gibbets hang over the streets of medieval London, a Majorcan illuminator redraws the world; candles are lit, chants are sung, mules are packed, ships loaded with spice and gems founder at sea. And a great story unfolds. Not âe" as often imagined âe" of a culture apart, but of a Jewish world immersed in and imprinted by the peoples among whom they have dwelled, from the Egyptians to the Greeks, from the Arabs to the Christians. Which makes the story of the Jews everyoneâe(tm)s story, too.

      The story of the Jews : finding the words 1000 BCE - 1492 CE2013
      4.1
    • Scribble, Scribble, Scribble

      • 464 pages
      • 17 hours of reading

      Passionate, provocative, entertaining and informative, Scribble, Scribble, Scribble ranges far and wide: from cookery and family to Barack Obama, from preaching and Shakespeare to Victorian sages, from Charlotte Rampling and Hurricane Katrina to 'The Fate of Eloquence in the Age of The Osbournes'.

      Scribble, Scribble, Scribble2011
      3.6
    • In November 2008 the United States of America will elect a new president. But the imminent collapse of 20 years of Republican conservatism means the country is already conducting an intense self-examination about the trajectory of its history. This book provides a timely & masterful history of this, the world's most controversial superpower. Origin.

      The American future: a history from the founding fathers to Barack Obama2008
      3.7
    • The Power of Art

      • 448 pages
      • 16 hours of reading

      Traces the extraordinary evolution of eight world-class works of art. Created in a bolt of illumination, such works tell us something about how the world is, how it is to be inside our skins, that no more prosaic source of wisdom can deliver

      The Power of Art2007
      4.0
    • Hang-Ups

      • 352 pages
      • 13 hours of reading

      Pre-eminent author and art historian Simon Schama has written widely on art for many years to great acclaim.

      Hang-Ups2005
      4.0
    • Rough Crossings

      Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution

      • 496 pages
      • 18 hours of reading

      Rough Crossings turns on a single huge question: if you were black in America at the start of the Revolutionary War, whom would you want to win? In response to a declaration by the last governor of Virginia that any rebel-owned slave who escaped and served the King would be emancipated, tens of thousands of slaves -- Americans who clung to the sentimental notion of British freedom -- escaped from farms, plantations and cities to try to reach the British camp. This mass movement lasted as long as the war did, and a military strategy originally designed to break the plantations of the American South had unleashed one of the great exoduses in American history.With powerfully vivid storytelling, Schama details the odyssey of the escaped blacks through the fires of war and the terror of potential recapture at the war's end, into inhospitable Nova Scotia, where thousands who had served the Crown were betrayed and, in a little-known hegira of the slave epic, sent across the broad, stormy ocean to Sierra Leone.

      Rough Crossings2005
      4.0
    • The Bastille falls

      • 55 pages
      • 2 hours of reading

      In May 2005 Penguin will publish 70 unique titles to celebrate the company's 70th birthday. The titles in the Pocket Penguins series are emblematic of the renowned breadth of quality of the Penguin list and will hark back to Penguin founder Allen Lane's vision of good books for all'. whose books and TV series have enthralled huge audiences through their gripping storytelling. Citizens, his award-winning account of the French Revolution, has continued to be one of Penguin's most popular history titles since it was first published in 1989. This extract takes us into the heart of the revolution's ferment as the angry crowd storm the Bastille

      The Bastille falls2005
      3.5
    • The Future Dictionary of America

      • 400 pages
      • 14 hours of reading

      Imagine what a dictionary might look like about thirty years hence, when all of the world's problems are solved and our current dictionaries are a distant memory. Dave Eggers, Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss have lined up an incredible array of writers to bring you that futuristic dictionary and a vision of the world as it might be. Think of it as a dictionary of language for describing what the future could look like a dictionary that is both useful and romantic, hopeful and necessary, pragmatic and idealistic, and frequently funny. This is science fiction but with a difference.

      The Future Dictionary of America2004
      3.5
    • A History of Britain

      The Fate of Empire 1776-2000

      • 576 pages
      • 21 hours of reading

      Simon Schama’s dramatic, broad-ranging, and immensely readable epic history of Britain reaches its triumphant conclusion in this third and final volume, which stretches from the American Revolution to the present.

      A History of Britain2002
      4.1
    • A History of Britain 3

      The Fate of Empire 1776-2000

      • 576 pages
      • 21 hours of reading

      This work takes us from the mid-1770s when the country was intoxicated by a great surge of political energy through to the massive advances of technology and industrialisation during the Victoria era, and the burgeoning of the British Empire

      A History of Britain 32002
      4.2
    • The British Wars is a compelling chronicle of the changes that transformed every strand and strata of British life, faith and thought from 1603 to 1776. It explores the forces that tore Britain apart during two centuries of dynamic change

      A History of Britain. The British Wars 1603-17762001
      4.1
    • A History of Britain 1

      At The Edge of The World 3000 BC-AD 1603

      • 416 pages
      • 15 hours of reading

      'History clings tight but it also kicks loose,' writes Simon Schama at the outset of At the Edge of the World?, the first book in his three-volume journey into Britain's past. And change - sometimes gentle and subtle, sometimes shocking and violent - is the dynamic of Schama's unapologetically personal and grippingly written history.

      A History of Britain 12000
      4.1
    • Rembrandt's Eyes

      • 750 pages
      • 27 hours of reading

      The great 17th-century Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn created numerous self-portraits throughout his life, making his distinctive visage a familiar sight in galleries across Europe and North America. Yet, he remains an enigma. Known for his difficult personality and risk-taking in both life and art, Rembrandt's aspirations for a grand Amsterdam lifestyle ultimately led to his bankruptcy and death in relative poverty. His personal belongings and cherished collection were sold off, leaving historians with limited records to construct his biography. In this work, Simon Schama, a leading historian dedicated to Dutch history, vividly brings to life the painter of masterpieces like The Night Watch. Returning to the vibrant Dutch world he previously explored, Schama masterfully intertwines Rembrandt's life with the rich tapestry of 17th-century Low Countries' politics and commerce, navigating the complexities of faith and power struggles. The narrative contrasts Rembrandt's journey with that of his contemporary, Peter Paul Rubens, whose successful career highlights Rembrandt's troubled relationship with fame. This beautifully illustrated book, printed on high-gloss paper, offers a captivating narrative that engages readers with its blend of history, emotion, and artistry.

      Rembrandt's Eyes1999
      4.2
    • Dead Certainties

      Unwarranted Speculations

      • 352 pages
      • 13 hours of reading

      Simon Schama, the author of "The Embarrassment of Riches" and "Citizens", sets out to tell the history of two certainties, of two deaths. In discussing the "speculations" surrounding them, he finds himself involved in a history he cannot classify - the unpredictable history of stories. On 13 September 1759, General James Wolfe, having led the British troops up the St Lawrence to victory in the Battle of Quebec, died on the Heights of Abraham. Schama examines this death, and how Wolfe was made to die again - through the spectacular painting by Benjamin West, and through the writings of the 19th-century historian Francis Parkman. Schama's second death concerns Parkman's uncle, George Parkman of Harvard Medical College, who disappeared in 1849 in mysterious circumstances and who was rumoured to have been murdered by a colleague. Through these incidents, Schama sheds light on the writing of history, the history of history, and the relationship of "story" to "history".

      Dead Certainties1998
      4.0
    • Landscape and Memory

      • 652 pages
      • 23 hours of reading

      An extraordinary book that explores how the earth itself has shaped the Western imagination and how, as a result, our interaction with the environment is far richer and more complex than today's doomsayers would have us believe.

      Landscape and Memory1995
      4.2
    • A Tale of Two Cities

      • 90 pages
      • 4 hours of reading

      Set during the French Revolution, the two cities in question are Paris and London and the tale is one of the tragedies that take place therein.

      A Tale of Two Cities1993
      3.9
    • Death of a Harvard man

      • 252 pages
      • 9 hours of reading

      Simon Schama sets out to discover which story, if any story, is the story of the many stories of the disappearance of Doctor George Parkman, the perfect Yankee. Plus: William Boyd, Geoffrey Wolff, Louise Erdrich, Don DeLillo, Amitav Ghosh, and Martin Amis’s Time’s Arrow (part two).

      Death of a Harvard man1990
      4.0
    • A narrative history of the French Revolution by the author of "Patriots and Liberators" and "The Embarrassment of Riches". Drawing on resources of social and cultural history, Schama focuses on the transformation of the initial euphoric vision of the Revolution into the reality of the Terror.

      Citizens1989
      4.0
    • Overvloed en onbehagen

      De Nederlandse cultuur in de Gouden Eeuw

      • 682 pages
      • 24 hours of reading

      Studie over denken en handelen van voornamelijk de middenklasse in de Republiek der Nederlanden.

      Overvloed en onbehagen1988
    • Patriots and Liberators

      • 768 pages
      • 27 hours of reading

      A reissue of Simon Schama's landmark study of the Netherlands from 1780-1813, this is a tale of a once-powerful nation's desparate struggle to survive the treacheries and brutality of European war and politics.

      Patriots and Liberators1977
      3.7