Engelska

<p> <strong>From the international bestselling author and notable journalist Aldo Cazzullo comes a brilliantly researched and extremely accessible journey through the history and legacy of the Roman Empire.</strong> </p> <p> <em>"The only way to narrate over a thousand years of history is to understand what it has left us. To tell the reasons, the things and the stories, thanks to which Roman civilization is alive".</em> </p> <p>From its mythical foundations and epic construction to its enduring historical and cultural impact, the ancient Roman Empire has long fascinated readers across the world. In <em>The Neverending Empire</em> esteemed Italian journalist Aldo Cazzullo describes an exciting new historical perspective: that the Roman Empire never fell. In fact, its influence reaches further and deeper than ever.</p> <p>Beginning with the origins of Rome, and the literary myth of Aeneas and Romulus, Cazzullo takes the reader on a page-turning voyage through ancient history, bringing to life the most captivating moments and characters of a dominant Empire: the republican age, with heroic men and women willing to die for their country. The adventure of coup plotters like Catiline and revolutionaries like Spartacus, the slave who inspired rebels of every age. The extraordinary stories of Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus, two of the greatest leaders to have lived.</p> <p>Cazzullo goes on to draw fascinating parallels between the ancient and modern world, revealing how Rome lives on, across every facet of life and society. The ancient Romans have inspired poets, and artists, from Dante to Hollywood. They have dictated the rules of war, architecture, language and law. They have inspired America's democratic influence and the digital revolution led by Mark Zuckerberg, a great admirer of Emperor Augustus: the first man to lead a multi-ethnic community of people who didn't know each other but shared language, images and culture.</p> <p>From the Napoleonic to the British regimes, the ideas and philosophies of ancient Rome have been much imitated, but never surpassed. This is the remarkable story of an enduring Empire. An Empire that never died. An Empire that lives on, forever.</p>

<p>Alkemins etymologiska rötter återfinns både i de arabiska och grekiska språken, och syftar på den process av transmutation som leder till en fullständig återförening med den gudomliga ursprungsformen. Dock sträcker sig det esoteriska utövandet av alkemi ända till Indien och Kina och har praktiserats åtminstone sedan 300-talet. </p><p>Under medeltiden lockade alkemi många av tidens mest framstående lärda. Starkt influerade av den klassiska elementläran drev alkemisterna sina hypoteser utifrån Aristoteles idé att allt går att skapa genom olika proportioner av de fyra elementen. Från 1800-talet och framåt har alkemin felaktigt reducerats till en primitiv pseudovetenskap med det enda målet att omvandla oädla metaller till guld. Denna snäva tolkning bortser dock från alkemins verkliga komplexitet och ignorerar dess djupa filosofiska och religiösa aspekter, samt dess avgörande bidrag till kemins framväxt. </p><p>I denna rikt illustrerade antologi presenteras en mångfald av perspektiv på hur ömsesidighet, metafysiska kopplingar och relationen mellan makrokosmos och mikrokosmos utgör kärnan i alkemins filosofi. Några av världens mest framstående forskare och akademiker samlas för att analysera den alkemistiska världsbilden och utforska hur esoteriska tankeströmningar har format kultur, samhälle och vetenskap. Boken finns även i svensk utgåva.</p>

Let Only Red Flowers Bloom [Bok / Inbunden]

'Shaun Walker skilfully shows how Russia's modern-day election meddling is rooted in the subterfuge and trickery of the bad old days. This is a fascinating read.' Oliver Bullough In 2010, two decades after the Cold War had ended, ten Russian spies were arrested in America, having hidden their true identities from their friends, neighbours and even their children. They were part of a spy programme that had begun nearly a century earlier, when the revolutionary Bolshevik government began sending Soviet citizens abroad to pose as foreign aristocrats, merchants and students. These deep-cover missions - some remarkable feats of espionage, others high-profile failures - could last for decades. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, as well as newly discovered archival material, Shaun Walker brings this history to life in a page-turning tour de force that goes to the heart of what became the most ambitious espionage programme in history. As Moscow continues to infiltrate illegals across the globe, The Illegals shines new light on the long arc of the Soviet experiment and its messy aftermath - and on how that hidden history shaped Russia and the West.

<p><b>'A journey of discovery that never fails to be engaging . . . A natural storyteller' Helen King, author of <i>Immaculate Forms</i></b><br/><b><br/>'A blast of fresh air, presenting a perspective on cultural history that is breath-taking in its scope' Jane Draycott, author of <i>Cleopatra's Daughter</i></b><br/><br/><b>What was it like to live on the edges of ancient empires, at the boundaries of the known world? </b><br/><br/>When Ovid was exiled from Rome to a border town on the Black Sea, he despaired at his new bleak and barbarous surroundings. Like many Greeks and Romans, Ovid thought the outer reaches of his world was where civilisation ceased to exist. Our fascination with the Greek and Roman world, and the abundance of writing that we have from it, means that we usually explore the ancient world from this perspective too. Was Ovid's exile really as bad as he claimed? What was it truly like to live on the edges of these empires, on the boundaries of the known world?<br/><br/>Thanks to archaeological excavations, we now know that the borders of the empires we consider the 'heart' of civilisation were in fact thriving, vibrant cultures - just not ones we might expect. This is where the boundaries of 'civilised' and 'barbarians' began to dissipate; where the rules didn't always apply; where normally juxtaposed cultures intermarried; and where nomadic tribes built their own cities.<br/><br/>Taking us along the sandy caravan routes of Morocco to the freezing winters of the northern Black Sea, from Co-Loa in the Red River valley of Vietnam to the rain-lashed forts south of Hadrian's Wall, Owen Rees explores the powerful empires and diverse peoples in Europe, Asia and Africa beyond the reaches of Greece and Rome. In doing so, he offers us a new, brilliantly rich lens with which to understand the ancient world.</p>