Naxos Books: 72 books

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is felt by many people to be the greatest composer who ever lived. Dominated and shaped by a highly intelligent but frustrated and ambitious father, his story sees the development of a unique genius, from precocious and often endearing childhood to liberated fulfilment, unexpected...

Which pirate incubated chickens in camel-dung? What would Blackbeard do if you didnt hand over your jewellery (it wasnt nice)? Which pirate was called The Exterminator? Wheres the treasure buried? Why were two women dressed as men on the same pirate ship? Who made the Jolly Roger famous? And who was...

Napoleon is one of the giants of modern history. From the last days of the French Revolution to the epochal battle of Waterloo, he bestrode the political landscape of Europe like a colossus, and the age to which he gave his name remains one of the most tumultuous in the history of the continent. But...

The Renaissance was one of the greatest moments in Western cultural history. It was the time of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo; architects such as Brunelleschi and Palladio; composers such as Palestrina and Tallis; as well as innovative writers and philosophers. It was a time of great social change...

Afghanistan has been a tinderbox for centuries. A major crossroads between East and West, it has seen many armies invade with impunity its rough and varied terrain from Alexander the Greats in the 4th century BC to the Soviet and Nato forces of our own time. This clear introduction covers Islam, the...

To the Western imagination, Tibet has always been a mysterious place. For centuries its capital, Lhasa, was known as a Forbidden City: it was ruled by a priest-king, and its medieval society was not welcoming to foreigners. But the exile of the Dalai Lama and his followers half a century ago, the destruction...

Which king liked to bathe while the band played Rule Britannia? Which queen was so fat she needed a hoist to get on the throne? Which prince shut his wife out of Westminster Abbey to prevent her from being crowned? Who was the blood-thirstiest monarch of them all? Kings and Queens of England is a no-holds-barred...

As the twentieth century approached, a new art form was developed, one that would go on to dominate the next hundred years. Though cinema began in silence, it quickly acquired sound and attracted musicians and composers. The new medium demanded a new approach, both aesthetically and technologically,...

The glory of ancient Greece is all around us, even in the 21st century, because Greece was the cradle of Western civilisation. We know about the gods and their characters Zeus, Athene, Apollo, Ares, Aphrodite and their heroes, both legendary (Heracles) and historical (Alexander the Great). Architecture,...

General interest in Buddhism has never been higher. The story and teachings of a man who lived 2,500 years ago have a special resonance for us today, perhaps because he taught a way of life that was not based on belief in a creator god but rather on personal experience. Test my words for yourself, he...

Great poetry can indeed outlast stone and the glory of princes, and the English poetic tradition is perhaps the richest in the world. This ebook tells the story of that tradition through its towering figures Spenser and Shakespeare, Milton and Dryden, Wordsworth and Tennyson, Whitman, Dickinson and...

The French Revolution marked the birth of modern Europe. From the storming of the Bastille to the horrors of the guillotine, the events of 1789 and after are among the most stirring and most disturbing in the continent's history. But what really happened in France during those turbulent closing years...

How did the great scientists make their remarkable discoveries? And what kind of men were they? This companion volume to Great Inventors and their Inventions introduces the work of nine men to younger readers, and ranges from the world of Ancient Greece to the 20th century discovery of DNA. Included...

This is the foundation of all: that we are not to imagine or suppose, but to discover what nature does, or may be made to do.'Thus did Francis Bacon, early in the 17th century, outline the future of science and technology. This drive for knowledge and power has now given us a world dominated by science,...