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All over the world people look forward to a perfect future, when the forces of good will be finally victorious over the forces of evil. Once this was a radically new way of imagining the destiny of the world and of mankind. How did it originate, and what kind of world-view preceded it? In this engrossing book, the author of the classic work The Pursuit of the Millennium takes us on a journey of exploration, through the world-views of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India, through the innovations of Iranian and Jewish prophets and sages, to the earliest Christian imaginings of heaven on earth.Until around 1500 B.C., it was generally believed that once the world had been set in order by the gods, it was in essence immutable. However, it was always a troubled world. By means of flood and drought, famine and plague, defeat in war, and death itself, demonic forces threatened and impaired it. Various combat myths told how a divine warrior kept the forces of chaos at bay and enabled the world to survive. Sometime between 1500 and 1200 B.C., the Iranian prophet Zoroaster broke from that static yet anxious world-view, reinterpreting the Iranian version of the combat myth. For Zoroaster, the world was moving, through incessant conflict, toward a conflictless statecosmos without chaos. The time would come when, in a prodigious battle, the supreme god would utterly defeat the forces of chaos and their human allies and eliminate them forever, and so bring an absolutely good world into being. Cohn reveals how this vision of the future was taken over by certain Jewish groups, notably the Jesus sect, with incalculable consequences.Deeply informed yet highly readable, this magisterial book illumines a major turning-point in the history of human consciousness. It will be mandatory reading for all who appreciated The Pursuit of the Millennium.

A ';gripping [and] splendidly readable' portrait of the battle within the British War Cabinetand Churchill's eventual victoryas Hitler's shadow loomed (The Boston Globe). From May 24 to May 28, 1940, members of Britain's War Cabinet debated whether to negotiate with Hitler or to continue what became known as the Second World War. In this magisterial work, John Lukacs takes us hour by hour into the critical events at 10 Downing Street, where Winston Churchill and his cabinet painfully considered their responsibilities. With the unfolding of the disaster at Dunkirk, and Churchill being in office for just two weeks and treated with derision by many, he did not have an easy time making his casebut the people of Britain were increasingly on his side, and he would prevail. This compelling narrative, a Washington Post bestseller, is the first to convey the drama and world-changing importance of those days. ';[A] fascinating work of historical reconstruction.'The Wall Street Journal ';Eminent historian Lukacs delivers the crown jewel to his long and distinguished career.'Publishers Weekly (starred review) ';A must for every World War II buff.'Cleveland Plain Dealer ';Superbcan be compared to such classics as Hugh Trevor-Roper's The Last Days of Hitler and Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August.'Harper's Magazine

Security depends on intelligence, and in this book a leading authority discusses basic problems in American intelligence and how to fix them. For this edition he provides a new preface in which he assesses the security recommendations of the recently released Congressional committee report on 9/11.

The best short biography of Franklin ever written.Gordon S. WoodBenjamin Franklin is perhaps the most remarkable figure in American history: the greatest statesman of his age, he played a pivotal role in the formation of the American republic. He was also a pioneering scientist, a bestselling author, the countrys first postmaster general, a printer, a bon vivant, a diplomat, a ladies man, and a moralistand the most prominent celebrity of the eighteenth century.Franklin was, however, a man of vast contradictions, as Edmund Morgan demonstrates in this brilliant biography. A reluctant revolutionary, Franklin had desperately wished to preserve the British Empire, and he mourned the break even as he led the fight for American independence. Despite his passion for science, Franklin viewed his groundbreaking experiments as secondary to his civic duties. And although he helped to draft both the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution, he had personally hoped that the new American government would take a different shape. Unraveling the enigma of Franklins character, Morgan shows that he was the rare individual who consistently placed the public interest before his own desires.Written by one of our greatest historians, Benjamin Franklin offers a provocative portrait of Americas most extraordinary patriot.

One of the founders of existentialism, the eminent philosopher Karl Jaspers, here presents for the general reader an introduction to philosophy. In doing so, he also offers a lucid summary of his own philosophical thought. The foreword provides a brief overview of Jaspers' life and achievement.

An examination of the rise of Islam, the life of Muhammad, and the Islamic principles of faith. Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair describe the golden age of the Abbasids, the Mongol invasions, and the great Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires that emerged in their wake.

An analysis of the enduring conflict in Ireland. It contends that the roots of "the troubles" are inescapably religious and shows that the persistent conflict can only be understood in the context of five centuries of failed attempts by the English to impose Protestantism on the Irish state.

This is Frederick Douglass's account of his life in bondage as a slave and his triumph over oppression, originally published in 1845. This edition includes a chronology of Douglass's life, an introduction by a Douglass scholar, historical notes, and reader responses to the 1845 edition.

Based on the 1854 edition of "Walden", this work includes emendations taken from Thoreau's draft manuscripts, with his own markings on page proofs, and notes in his personal copy of the book. This work includes: Introduction, which places Thoreau's life and achievement in context; Notes on the Text; an Afterword by the editor; and, a Bibliography.

Michael Walzer is one of the world’s most eminent philosophers on the subject of war and ethics. Now, for the first time since his classic Just and Unjust Wars was published almost three decades ago, this volume brings together his most provocative arguments about contemporary military conflicts and the ethical issues they raise.The essays in the book are divided into three sections. The first deals with issues such as humanitarian intervention, emergency ethics, and terrorism. The second consists of Walzer’s responses to particular wars, including the first Gulf War, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. And the third presents an essay in which Walzer imagines a future in which war might play a less significant part in our lives. In his introduction, Walzer reveals how his thinking has changed over time.Written during a period of intense debate over the proper use of armed force, this book gets to the heart of difficult problems and argues persuasively for a moral perspective on war.

Chivalry--with its pageants, heraldry, and knights in shining armor--was a social ideal that had a profound influence on the history of early modern Europe. In this eloquent and richly detailed book, a leading medieval historian discusses the complex reality of chivalry: its secular foundations, the effects of the Crusades, the literature of knighthood, and its ethos of the social and moral obligations of nobility.

A powerful case for the global market economy

A selection of Leonardo da Vinci's writings on painting. Martin Kemp and Margaret Walker have edited material not only from his so-called "Treatise on Painting" but also from his surviving manuscripts and from other primary sources.

Written over a seven-year period to Charles V of Spain, Hernan Cortes's letters provide a narrative account of the conquest of Mexico from the founding of the coastal town of Veracruz until Cortes's journey to Honduras in 1525. The two introductions set the letters in context.

A re-evaluation of the life of the legendary 15th-century Portuguese prince, Henry the Navigator. It examines the full range of the Prince's activities as an imperialist and as a maritime, cartographical and navigational pioneer.

An account of wartime Greece, exploring the impact of Nazi Occupation upon the lives and values of ordinary people. It seeks to offer a vividly human picture of resistance fighters and black marketeers, teenage German conscripts and Gestapo officers, Jews and starving villagers.

The authoritative edition of Franklin's autobiography, now with a new foreword by the eminent Franklin scholar Edmund S. Morgan

How reliable is our intuition? How much should we depend on gut-level instinct rather than rational analysis when we play the stock market, choose a mate, hire an employee, or assess our own abilities? In this engaging and accessible book, David G. Myers shows us that while intuition can provide us with useful—and often amazing—insights, it can also dangerously mislead us.Drawing on recent psychological research, Myers discusses the powers and perils of intuition when:• judges and jurors determine who is telling the truth;• mental health workers predict whether someone is at risk for suicide or crime;• coaches, players, and fans decide who has the hot hand or the hot bat;• personnel directors hire new employees;• psychics claim to be clairvoyant or to have premonitions;• and much more.

Spain's transition from the Franco dictatorship to a democratic state has been widely regarded as exemplary. In this narrative, Paddy Woodworth analyzes what happens when a democracy abandons the rule of law, showing how state terror has strengthened revolutionary terrorism.

A biography of the influential jazz pianist, Bill Evans. Peter Pettinger, himself a concert pianist, describes Evans's life, his personal tragedies and commercial successes, his music making, his technique and compositional methods, his approach to ensemble playing, and his legacy.

John Wilmot, the notorious Earl of Rochester, was the darling of the profligate court of Charles II. He was one of the finest poets of the Restoration and model for countless witty young rakes in Restoration comedies. This edition of his poetry is annotated and introduced by David M. Vieth.

A summary of mediaeval aesthetic ideas, by Italian novelist and playwright Umberto Eco. Juxtaposing theology and science, poetry and mysticism, Eco explores the relationship that existed between the aesthetic theories and the artistic experience and practice of mediaeval culture.

The authors have chosen to document what they consider to be the ten medical discoveries that have most affected humanity's welfare. This text aims to interest the general reader and contains entertaining stories of ambition, jealously, lies and fraud in the name of science.

This fascinating book explores the evolution of religious dualism, the doctrine that man and cosmos are constant battlegrounds between forces of good and evil. It traces this evolution from late Egyptian religion and the revelations of Zoroaster and the Orphics in antiquity through the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Mithraic Mysteries, and the great Gnostic teachers to its revival in medieval Europe with the suppression of the Bogomils and the Cathars, heirs to the age-long teachings of dualism. Integrating political, cultural, and religious history, Yuri Stoyanov illuminates the dualist religious systems, recreating in vivid detail the diverse worlds of their striking ideas and beliefs, their convoluted mythologies and symbolism.  Reviews of an earlier edition:"e;A book of prime importance for anyone interested in the history of religious dualism. The author's knowledge of relevant original sources is remarkable; and he has distilled them into a convincing and very readable whole."e;-Sir Steven Runciman"e;The most fascinating historical detective story since Steven Runciman's Sicilian Vespers."e;-Colin Wilson"e;A splendid account of the decline of the dualist tradition in the East . . . both strong and accessible. . . . The most readable account of Balkan heresy ever."e;-Jeffrey B. Russell, Journal of Religion "e;Well-written, fact-filled, and fascinating . . . has in it the making of a classic."e;-Harry T. Norris, Bulletin of SOAS

Following a facsimile of the 1609 Quatro printed in parallel with a conservatively edited, modernized text, Stephen Booth offers an analytic commentary that ranges from brief glosses to substantial critical essays.

Harry Kelsey paints the picture of Drake as an amoral privateer at least as interested in lining his own pockets with Spanish booty as in forwarding the political goals of his country, a man who became a captain general of the English navy, but never waged traditional warfare with any success.

A critical biography of Paul Celan, a German-speaking East European Jew who was one of Europe's most compelling postwar poets. It tells the story of his life, offers new translations of his poems, and illuminates the connection between Celan's lived experience and his poetry.

A biography of James Murray, the first editor of the "Oxford English Dictionary". It provides an account of his life, along with how the dictionary was written, the personalities of the people working on it and the endless difficulties that nearly led to the whole enterprise being abandoned.