The Earl of Clarendon describes 17th century bullfights; Salvador Dali plays a surrealist joke on a snooty barman at the Ritz; Rubens visits the Alc�zar; Manet is at the Prado; generals and anarchists meet in the Puerta del Sol. Hugh Thomas has chosen these and other vivid snapshots of Madrid's history from diaries, letters, memoirs and novels across five centuries to evoke the city's drama and life.
The History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440-1870
After many years of research, award-winning historian Hugh Thomas portrays, in a balanced account, the complete history of the slave trade. Beginning with the first Portuguese slaving expeditions, he describes and analyzes the rise of one of the largest and most elaborate maritime and commercial ventures in all of history. Between 1492 and 1870, approximately eleven million black slaves were carried from Africa to the Americas to work on plantations, in mines, or as servants in houses. "The Slave Trade" is alive with villains and heroes and illuminated by eyewitness accounts. Hugh Thomas's achievement is not only to present a compelling history of the time but to answer as well such controversial questions as who the traders were, the extent of the profits, and why so many African rulers and peoples willingly collaborated. Thomas also movingly describes such accounts as are available from the slaves themselves.
'World Without End' is the conclusion of a magisterial three-volume history of the Spanish Empire by Hugh Thomas, its foremost worldwide authority. It tells the story of life in a conquered territory that stretched from Cuba to Peru, and of the final conquests of the greatest empire that the world had then seen since the fall of Rome 1,000 years before.
Since its first publication, Hugh Thomas's The Spanish Civil War has become established as the definitive one-volume history of a conflict that continues to provoke intense controversy today.What was it that roused left-wing sympathizers from all over the world to fight against Franco between 1936 and 1939? Why did the British and US governments refuse to intervene? And why did the Republican cause collapse so violently? Now revised and updated, Hugh Thomas's classic account presents the most objective and unbiased analysis of a passionate struggle where fascism and democracy, communism and Catholicism were at stake - and which was as much an international war as a Spanish one.
Tells the story of the hundreds of conquistadors who set sail on the precarious journey across the Atlantic - taking with them wheat, the horse, the guitar and the wheel as well as guns, malaria and slaves - to create an empire that made Spain the envy of the world.
Beginning with the return of the remnants of Magellan's circumnavigation in 1522 and ending with Charles' death in 1558, the author brings to life the periods of the Renaissance, revealing how the Spaniards were able to conquer Guatemala, Yucatan, Columbia, Venezuela, Peru and Chile and why Cabeza de Vaca walked from Florida to Mexico.
My Dad had an extraordinary life. Born in Hungary in 1933, his early childhood was idyllic in many ways, Hungary being an independent nation at that point. He then experienced the Nazi occupation during WW2 which was immediately followed by another even more brutal regime under the Russians. In 1956 he became involved in the Hungarian uprising as a freedom fighter against the might of Russia and became an unintentional hero when he assisted many people to escape Hungary, probably saving many lives in the process, before reaching the safety of England as an almost fatally wounded refugee. The intention of this introduction is to outline how this book came about.
The book explores China's historical journey of innovation, highlighting its early advancements and the failure to industrialize in the 19th century. It examines the Communist Party's efforts to revitalize the economy in the 20th century, leading to a robust intellectual property system today. The narrative emphasizes the crucial role of state planning in major projects like high-speed rail, while also showcasing the significant contributions of the private sector and the importance of collaboration between foreign multinational corporations and government policies in fostering innovation.