History's Daybook

A History of the World in 366 Quotations

Every day of the year carries the memory of great and terrible events. From the founding of Rome to the 21st century's war on terror, History's Daybook presents a vivid, day-by-day perspective on 2,500 years of human history through the medium of 366 quotations, each of which is tied to the anniversary of a celebrated historical event, capturing its essence with the immediacy of the eye-witness or the narrative flair of the chronicler. In History's Daybook, every day becomes a window on the past: on March 15, 44 BC, blood flows in the Roman Senate as Julius Caesar falls victim to the thrusting daggers of Brutus and his co-conspirators; May 1, 1851 brings a visit to London's Great Exhibition in the company of the novelist Charlotte Brontë; on June 28, 1919, in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles, brokenspirited, German delegates sign the Treaty that brings the Great War to its fateful conclusion; on August 16, 1665, we walk the silent streets of plague-ravaged London with the diarist Samuel Pepys; and on September 11, 2001 we watch in horror as the Twin Towers topple and the world changes forever. History's Daybook embraces a wide range of voices, moods, and registers, from the powerful to the impoverished, the revolutionary to the reactionary, the propagandist to the idealist, and the joyful to the grief-stricken. Both engrossing anthology and informative overview of world history, History's Daybook offers the reader entertainment and instruction in equal measure: it is the ideal gift book for the history buff.