Byzantine Empire

Danube (Panther)

by Claudio Magris  · 10 Jan 2011  · 459pp  · 154,280 words

Altai, crossed the Danube in the seventeenth century, led by Asparuh Khan, and established a powerful empire which several times proved the equal of the Byzantine Empire; but the Bulgars were gradually absorbed by the Slavs, who had arrived a century earlier, and whom they had subjugated. They amalgamated with their subjects

The 9/11 Wars

by Jason Burke  · 1 Sep 2011  · 885pp  · 271,563 words

against their co-religionists. While the legendary Saladin himself was busy eradicating the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, for example, he was closely aligned with the Byzantine Empire, the foremost representative of Christendom’s claim to universalism.’ ‘Muslims won’t play together’, New York Times, February 28, 2010. 5. The terms above are

Fortune's Bazaar: the Making of Hong Kong: The Making of Hong Kong

by Vaudine England  · 16 May 2023  · 308pp  · 122,100 words

Parsi to Canton, a Mr. Readymoney, in 1756. Armenia once stretched from the Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea before coming up against the Roman and Byzantine empires, the Seljuk Turks, then the Russian invasion of 1828, after which it was divided into Turkish, Persian, and Russian portions. At least a million Armenians

Greece Travel Guide

by Lonely Planet

the excellent museums. Head south to the captivating, World Heritage–listed ruins of Mystras. This massive ancient fortress town was the last stronghold of the Byzantine Empire. Continue south to the rugged and remote Mani, to encounter villages filled with fascinating architecture and the remnants of the unique Maniot culture. This region

…

. Athens declined and, between 1200 and 1450, was continually invaded – by the Franks, Catalans, Florentines and Venetians, all preoccupied with grabbing principalities from the crumbling Byzantine Empire. Ottoman Rule & Independence Athens was captured by the Turks in 1456, and nearly 400 years of Ottoman rule followed. The Acropolis became the home of

…

kingdom ruled by King Menelaus in Mycenaean times. It is home to legends, including the city of Sparta and the spectacular ruins of Mystras, the Byzantine Empire’s last stronghold. Dominating the landscape are two massive mountain ranges, the Taÿgetos Mountains in the west and the Parnonas Mountains in the east. These

…

a spur of the Taÿgetos Mountains 7km west of Sparta. It's among the most important historical sites in the Peloponnese. This is where the Byzantine Empire’s richly artistic and intellectual culture made its last stand before an invading Ottoman army, almost 1000 years after its foundation. Traveller facilities are split

…

. 1Sights oMystrasRUIN (%23315 25363; adult/concession €5/3; h8am-8pm) Spread over a steep, verdant mountainside of the Taÿgetos ranges, this former capital of the Byzantine Empire is the single most compelling set of medieval ruins in Greece. A classic fortified city, Mystras is surrounded by verdant olive and orange trees. Treading

…

natural rock fortress, where they founded the upper town that eventually spread downwards. By the 13th century, if Mystras was the spiritual centre of the Byzantine Empire, then Monemvasia was one of its biggest trade centres. It was famous throughout Europe for its highly praised malvasia-grape Malmsey wine; George, Duke of

…

the castle grounds. Believed to have been constructed under the orders of Thomas I d'Autremencourt, the first Lord of Salona, after division of the Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade, it was the fort for subsequent invaders, including the Romans, Catalans, Franks and Turks. All left their mark, as shown in

…

that would be absorbed by the Romans. Later, after their empire split into eastern and western halves in the 4th century AD, the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire emerged. Thessaloniki became Byzantium’s second city, a vital commercial, cultural and strategic centre on the Balkan trade routes. However, 6th- and 7th-century-AD

…

Cyrenaica, with Gortyna its capital. After the Roman Empire’s division in AD 395, Crete fell under the jurisdiction of Greek-speaking Constantinople – the emerging Byzantine Empire. Things went more or less fine until AD 824, when Arabs appropriated the island. In AD 961, though, Byzantine general emperor Nikiforas Fokas (AD 912

…

’s all here. The atmospheric Old Town of Rhodes is a maze of cobbled streets that will spirit you back to the days of the Byzantine Empire and beyond. Further south is the picture-perfect town of Lindos, a magical vision of sugar-cube houses spilling down to a turquoise bay. History

…

the Aegean, and it was colonised frequently, first by the Mycenaeans, then in succession by the Athenians, Romans and, during the Middle Ages, by the Byzantine Empire, which was based in Constantinopole (modern-day İstanbul). The island is named for a St Efstratios from that period, who arrived here in AD 813

…

end of the 3rd century BC, the Romans ruled the Ionian region. Following the decline of the empire, the islands suffered waves of invaders: the Byzantine Empire (until the fall of Constantinople), Venice, Napoleon (in 1797), Russia (from 1799 to 1807), Napoleon again. In 1815, after Napoleon’s downfall, the Ionians became

…

and Hadrian, Greece experienced a period of relative peace, the Pax Romana, which was to last until the middle of the 3rd century AD. The Byzantine Empire & the Crusades The Pax Romana began to crumble in AD 250 when the Goths invaded Greece, the first of a succession of invaders spurred on

…

continued pressure from the Persians and Arabs, but it managed to retain its stronghold over the region. It is ironic that the demise of the Byzantine Empire was accelerated by fellow Christians from the west – the Frankish Crusaders. The stated mission of the Crusades was to liberate the Holy Land from the

…

pickings than Jerusalem and struck a deal with Venice, which had helped prop up the Crusades. Constantinople was sacked in 1204 and much of the Byzantine Empire was partitioned into fiefdoms ruled by self-styled ‘Latin’ (mostly Frankish or western-Germanic) princes. The Venetians, meanwhile, had also secured a foothold in Greece

…

the dominant Turkish tribe. The Muslim Ottomans began to rapidly expand the areas under their control and by the mid-15th century were harassing the Byzantine Empire on all sides. On 29 May 1453, Constantinople fell under Turkish Ottoman rule (referred to by Greeks as turkokratia). Once more Greece became a battleground

…

to a slow demise. 1453 Greece becomes a dominion of the Ottoman Turks after they seize control of Constantinople, sounding the death knell for the Byzantine Empire. 1460 By 1460, the Venetian stronghold of Morea (Peloponnese) falls to the Turks and centuries of power struggles between the Turks and Venetians follow. 1541

The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean

by David Abulafia  · 4 May 2011  · 1,002pp  · 276,865 words

). This enabled them to maintain communications in the Aegean and a little way beyond, but the situation was more parlous on the fringes of the Byzantine Empire, notably in the Adriatic. Their difficulties in this zone began not with the Arabs, whose seizure of Bari came relatively late, so much as with

…

duli, or subjects. The most precious and controversial of his presents was a grant of the right to trade free of taxation anywhere in the Byzantine Empire, excluding the Black Sea and Cyprus. The emperor wanted to preserve the special role of Constantinople as the link between the Mediterranean, from which it

…

pirates, and had carved out a dominion of their own in Sardinia; meanwhile, the Venetians had won what would become a unique position within the Byzantine Empire. Muslim domination of the Mediterranean could no longer be taken for granted, especially once the armies and navies of the First Crusade began to move

…

, and that they were hoping to secure trade privileges in whatever lands the crusaders conquered comparable to those the Venetians had recently acquired in the Byzantine Empire. Yet they could not foresee the outcome of the crusade; they were willing to suspend their trading activities and pump all their energy into the

…

time: ‘to Spain, then to Sicily or Provence or Genoa, from Provence to Genoa or Sicily, or if he wishes from Sicily to Romania [the Byzantine Empire] and then to Genoa, or from Sicily to Genoa’.51 Great Genoese patricians eagerly invested money in Solomon’s expedition to Egypt, ignoring a clause

…

left. May God frustrate his designs, and may he not achieve his ends!’ He began to realize that the destination of this fleet was the Byzantine Empire, for everyone in Sicily was talking about the young man whom King William kept at his court and whom he intended to set on the

…

beyond in extraordinary detail. Propaganda was matched by action. In 1147–8, at the time of the Second Crusade, he turned his attention to the Byzantine Empire. The crusade was summoned by the pope in 1147, following the fall to the Muslims of the crusader principality of Edessa in northern Syria; Roger

…

captain to send a message to Mahdia telling the emir that, while it was true a Sicilian fleet had sailed, it was bound for the Byzantine Empire. Al-Hasan thought this was highly plausible, and was horrified when he saw the Sicilian ships crossing the horizon at dawn on 22 June 1148

…

as a fighter for Christ against both the Muslims and the Greeks. His most ambitious campaign, in 1185, took the Sicilian fleet deep into the Byzantine Empire. He could hope for support from the Italian merchants for, in 1182, in an ugly outburst of violence openly encouraged by the new emperor, Andronikos

…

captured and sacked with the help of the royal fleet, sent all the way round the Peloponnese. The fall of the second city in the Byzantine Empire electrified the Greeks.22 The Sicilians proved unable to hold Thessalonika, but their attack only deepened Byzantine hatred for westerners.23 While William’s ambitions

…

1261.43 Venice, on the other hand, proclaimed itself ‘lord of a quarter and half a quarter of the empire of Romania’ (that is, the Byzantine Empire). The Venetian share grew, at least in theory, when Boniface, who was under as much pressure as Emperor Baldwin, decided to raise 1,000 silver

…

Acre where, as has been seen, they squabbled viciously between 1256 and 1261. The Genoese deeply resented Venetian control over the trade of the former Byzantine Empire, and it is no surprise that they offered their naval support to Michael Palaiologos when he recaptured Constantinople in 1261, in return for handsome favours

…

. Charles saw himself as a crusader against the Muslims, whether in Tunis or the East, but his primary concern in the East was the former Byzantine Empire. He claimed lands acquired in Albania by the Hohenstaufen, and seized Dyrrhachion; then, with the approval of a number of Albanian warlords, he assumed the

Greece

by Korina Miller  · 1 Mar 2010

Games. South of Dimitsana is the World Heritage–listed Mystras, the massive ruins of an ancient fortress town that was the last stronghold of the Byzantine Empire. If you enjoy stretching your legs, head south to the rugged and remote Mani. Explore the Taÿgetos Mountains and tiny, isolated coves. Walk out to

…

the spread of Christianity in this part of the world came with the conversion of the Roman emperors and the rise of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, which blended Hellenic culture with Christianity. In 394 Christianity emerged as the state’s official religion under Emperor Theodosius I. He outlawed the worship of

…

, Greece experienced a period of relative peace, the Pax Romana (Click here), which was to last until the middle of the 3rd century AD. The Byzantine Empire & the Crusades The Pax Romana began to crumble in AD 250 when the Goths invaded Greece, the first of a succession of invaders spurred on

…

pressure from the Persians and Arabs, but it managed to retain its stronghold over the region. But it is ironic that the demise of the Byzantine Empire was accelerated by fellow Christians from the west – the Frankish Crusaders. The stated mission of the Crusades was to liberate the Holy Land from the

…

pickings than Jerusalem and struck a deal with Venice, who had helped prop up the Crusades. Constantinople was sacked in 1204 and much of the Byzantine Empire was partitioned into fiefdoms ruled by self-styled ‘Latin’ (mostly Frankish or western-Germanic) princes. The Venetians, meanwhile, had also secured a foothold in Greece

…

the dominant Turkish tribe. The Muslim Ottomans began to expand rapidly the areas under their control and by the mid-15th century were harassing the Byzantine Empire on all sides. On 29 May 1453, Constantinople fell under Turkish Ottoman rule (referred to by Greeks as turkokratia). Once more Greece became a battleground

…

Peloponnese). 1453 Greece becomes a dominion of the Ottoman Turks after they seize control of Constantinople (modern-day İstanbul), sounding the death knell for the Byzantine Empire. 1460 By 1460 the Morea falls to the Turks and centuries of power struggles between the Turks and Venetians follows. 1684–87 The Venetians expel

…

remained an important cultural and intellectual centre until Emperor Justinian closed its schools of philosophy in 529. The city declined into an outpost of the Byzantine Empire. Between 1200 and 1450, Athens was continually invaded – by the Franks, Catalans, Florentines and Venetians, all opportunists preoccupied with grabbing principalities from the crumbling

…

Byzantine Empire. Ottoman Rule & Independence Athens was captured by the Turks in 1456, and nearly 400 years of Ottoman rule followed. The Acropolis became the home of

…

kingdom ruled by King Menelaus in Mycenaean times. It is home to legends, including the city of Sparta and the spectacular ruins of Mystras, the Byzantine Empire’s last stronghold. Dominating the landscape are two massive mountain ranges, the Taÿgetos Mountains in the west and the Parnonas Mountains in the east. These

…

spur of the Taÿgetos Mountains 7km west of Sparta. The site is among the most important, historically speaking, in the Peloponnese. This is where the Byzantine Empire’s richly artistic and intellectual culture made its last stand before an invading Ottoman army, almost 1000 years after its foundation. Note: most facilities for

…

by the Romans. Later, after the empire split into eastern and western halves in the 4th century AD, the society emerged as the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire. Thessaloniki became Byzantium’s second city, a vital commercial, cultural and strategic centre on the crossroads of Balkan trade routes. However, 6th- and 7th-century

…

AD 395, Epiros became the westernmost province of the Byzantine (Eastern) Empire. Later, it was a vital stronghold of Hellenism after Latin Crusaders overthrew the Byzantine Empire in 1204; refugees from noble Byzantine families escaped to Ioannina and the mountains, establishing a key Byzantine successor state there. Although the empire was partially

…

raided by the Normans during the first stages of an East–West antagonism that peaked in 1204, when Latin Crusaders sacked Constantinople and dismembered the Byzantine Empire. Numerous illustrious Greek families fled to Epiros, where an important Byzantine successor state developed under nobleman Michael I Komnenos Doukas. The Greeks remained in control

…

the empire’s division in AD 395 Crete, along with most of the Balkan Peninsula, fell under the jurisdiction of Greek-speaking Constantinople – the emerging Byzantine Empire. Things went more or less fine until AD 824, when Arabs appropriated the island, making it an emirate. Relatively little is known about this period

…

language of the new religion, Christianity; its use as the official language of the Eastern Roman Empire; and its proclamation as the language of the Byzantine Empire (380–1453). Greek maintained its status and prestige during the rise of the European Renaissance and was employed as the linguistic perspective for all contemporary

…

bouzouki – long-necked, stringed lutelike instrument associated with rembetika music bouzoukia – any nightclub where the bouzouki is played and low-grade blues songs are sung Byzantine Empire – characterised by the merging of Hellenistic culture and Christianity and named after Byzantium, the city on the Bosphorus that became the capital of the Roman

…

Empire; when the Roman Empire was formally divided in AD 395, Rome went into decline and the eastern capital, renamed Constantinople, flourished; the Byzantine Empire (324 BC-AD 1453) dissolved after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 caïque – small, sturdy fishing boat often used to carry passengers

Italy

by Damien Simonis  · 31 Jul 2010

king, Charlemagne, the title of Holy Roman Emperor. He was crowned by Leo III on Christmas Day 800. The bond between the papacy and the Byzantine Empire was thus broken and political power in what had been the Western Roman Empire shifted north of the Alps, where it would remain for more

…

body, so glorifying God rather than man or the state. In Italy, the Byzantine virtuosity with mosaics was showcased in Ravenna, the capital of the Byzantine Empire’s western regions in the 6th century. Three churches were built or endowed by the Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora. These churches, with the

…

beginning of chapter ART IN THE MIDDLE AGES The Italian Middle Ages have often been regarded as simply a ‘dark’ age between the Roman and Byzantine Empires and the Renaissance. However, to ignore this period would make it very difficult to understand all subsequent Italian history. This is because Italy as we

Istanbul Travel Guide

by Lonely Planet

1261, when soldiers under Michael VIII Palaeologus, a Byzantine aristocrat in exile who had risen to become co-emperor of Nicaea, successfully recaptured it. The Byzantine Empire was restored. The Empress Theodora makes a great subject in Stella Duffy's rollicking biographical novel Theodora: Actress. Empress. Whore. (2010) and the palace intrigues

…

Heraclius I (r 610–41) changes the official language of the eastern empire from Latin to Greek, inaugurating what we now refer to as 'The Byzantine Empire'. 717 Leo III, a Syrian, becomes emperor after deposing Theodosius III; he introduces edicts against the worship of images, ushering in the age of iconoclasm

…

its treasures. 1261 Constantinople is recaptured by Michael VIII Palaeologus, a Byzantine aristocrat in exile who had risen to become co-emperor of Nicaea; the Byzantine Empire is restored. 1432 Mehmet II, son of the Ottoman sultan Murad II, is born in Edirne; he succeeds his father as sultan twice – once in

Lonely Planet Turkey (Travel Guide)

by Lonely Planet, James Bainbridge, Brett Atkinson, Steve Fallon, Jessica Lee, Virginia Maxwell, Hugh McNaughtan and John Noble  · 31 Jan 2017  · 2,313pp  · 330,238 words

gems and prime sights. Begin with a few days among mosques, palaces and some 14 million folk in İstanbul, former capital of the Ottoman and Byzantine empires. Next, head east to Safranbolu, with its winding streets of Ottoman mansions, before turning north to Amasra, where Turkish holidaymakers wander the Byzantine castle and

…

and Byzantium was the capital of a series of empires. The Aya Sofya, a church-turned-mosque-turned-museum, is the grandest remnant of the Byzantine Empire; Ottoman landmarks include the Blue Mosque and Topkapı Palace. Beyoğlu Bars Beyoğlu is an exhilarating melting pot between the dusk and dawn calls to prayer

…

1261, when soldiers under Michael VIII Palaiologos, a Byzantine aristocrat in exile who had risen to become co-emperor of Nicaea, successfully recaptured it. The Byzantine Empire was restored. GREAT PALACE OF BYZANTIUM Constantine the Great built the Great Palace soon after he declared Constantinople to be the capital of the Roman

…

Justinian I (AD 527–65), Nicaea's buildings and defensive walls were renovated. In 1204, when Constantinople fell during the Fourth Crusade, Nicaea became a Byzantine empire-in-exile, one of three successor states (along with Trebizond/Trabzon on the Black Sea and Epiros in Greece). In 1331 Sultan Orhan conquered the

…

faced down a Byzantine army at Manzikert. The nimble Turkish cavalry prevailed, laying Anatolia open to wandering Turkic bands and beginning the demise of the Byzantine Empire. Not everything went the Seljuks' way, however. The 12th and 13th centuries saw incursions by Crusaders, who established short-lived statelets at Antioch (modern-day

…

diplomats. Meanwhile, a Greek force pushed out from İzmir. The Greeks saw an opportunity to realise their megali idea (great idea) of re-establishing the Byzantine Empire. They took Bursa and Edirne – just the provocation that Mustafa Kemal needed to galvanise Turkish support. After initial skirmishes, the Greeks pressed on for Ankara

Adriatic: A Concert of Civilizations at the End of the Modern Age

by Robert D. Kaplan  · 11 Apr 2022  · 500pp  · 115,119 words

Roman eagles.”[5] Following the downfall of Rome in the West in A.D. 476 and rule by the Ostrogoths, Justinian annexed Dalmatia to the Byzantine Empire in the early sixth century, so that Dalmatia was now governed from Constantinople. But Constantinople was far away and Dalmatia continued to be influenced by

…

members of the Senate in 1611–1612, labeling them according to their various factions.)[37] Medieval Dubrovnik’s original and recurrent problem was that the Byzantine Empire proved a “somewhat unreliable protector,” explains British expert Robin Harris in Dubrovnik: A History. “Consequently, the Ragusans [early on] had to reach their own arrangements

…

Albania) forms a frontier of the Orthodox world, whose heartland remains in Greece and Russia. Indeed, Eastern Orthodox Christianity constitutes the world of the former Byzantine Empire (before the arrival of the Ottomans) and its Slavic shadow zones to the north. Though I encountered the artistic and spiritual remnants of Orthodoxy in

…

Greek identity with Georgios Gemistos Plethon, alongside whose tomb outside the church in Rimini I began this journey. For as the Ottomans were overrunning the Byzantine Empire—with Mistra in the Despotate of the Morea being one of the last remnants of Eastern Rome still standing—in the early fifteenth century Plethon

…

banner of the Megali Idea, or Great Idea, which was no less than a wild dream on the part of the Greeks to reconstitute the Byzantine Empire.[11] Anarchy hence became a feature of modern Greek life amid constant territorial disputes with the Ottoman Empire and Slav nationalists to the north. Emotions

…

-leaf darkness of the Orthodox Church, as distant in spirit from the Protestant and Catholic West as it is from Islam. Not only was the Byzantine Empire essentially Greek, so too was the Ottoman Turkish Empire, often ruled as it was through Greek diplomats and local governors. “Greece,” writes the late Philip

…

York: W. W. Norton, 2008. Logoreci, Anton. The Albanians: Europe’s Forgotten Survivors. London: Victor Gollancz, 1977. Luttwak, Edward N. The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. McCarthy, Mary. Venice Observed. New York: Penguin Books, (1956) 1972. McEvedy, Colin. The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History

Discover Greece Travel Guide

by Lonely Planet

The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World―and Globalization Began

by Valerie Hansen  · 13 Apr 2020

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World

by Peter Frankopan  · 26 Aug 2015  · 1,042pp  · 273,092 words

Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise and Fall of States and Nations

by Norman Davies  · 30 Sep 2009  · 1,309pp  · 300,991 words

Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World

by Anthony Sattin  · 25 May 2022  · 412pp  · 121,164 words

The Rough Guide to Cyprus (Travel Guide eBook)

by Rough Guides  · 30 Apr 2019

Arabs: A 3,000 Year History of Peoples, Tribes and Empires

by Tim Mackintosh-Smith  · 2 Mar 2019

Strolling Through Istanbul

by Sumner-Boyd, Hilary.; Freely, John  · 8 Jan 2011  · 521pp  · 167,816 words

Europe: A History

by Norman Davies  · 1 Jan 1996

Lonely Planet Cyprus

by Lonely Planet, Jessica Lee, Joe Bindloss and Josephine Quintero  · 1 Feb 2018

Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe

by Norman Davies  · 27 Sep 2011

Jerusalem: The Biography

by Simon Sebag-Montefiore  · 27 Jan 2011  · 1,364pp  · 272,257 words

The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession

by Peter L. Bernstein  · 1 Jan 2000  · 497pp  · 153,755 words

The Map of Knowledge: How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found: A History in Seven Cities

by Violet Moller  · 21 Feb 2019

Insight Guides Pocket Turkey (Travel Guide eBook)

by Insight Guides  · 31 Jul 2019  · 176pp  · 43,283 words

Venice: A New History

by Thomas F. Madden  · 24 Oct 2012  · 466pp  · 146,982 words

A History of Western Philosophy

by Aaron Finkel  · 21 Mar 1945  · 1,402pp  · 369,528 words

The Ages of Globalization

by Jeffrey D. Sachs  · 2 Jun 2020

The Rough Guide to Cyprus

by Rough Guides  · 2 Feb 2025

The the Rough Guide to Turkey

by Rough Guides  · 15 Oct 2023

Pocket Rough Guide Istanbul

by Rough Guides  · 26 Nov 2023

Queens of Jerusalem: The Women Who Dared to Rule

by Katherine Pangonis  · 17 Feb 2021  · 332pp  · 105,387 words

The Eternal City: A History of Rome

by Ferdinand Addis  · 6 Nov 2018

The Rough Guide to Jerusalem

by Daniel Jacobs  · 10 Jan 2000

The Story of Work: A New History of Humankind

by Jan Lucassen  · 26 Jul 2021  · 869pp  · 239,167 words

Lonely Planet Southern Italy

by Lonely Planet

The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution

by Francis Fukuyama  · 11 Apr 2011  · 740pp  · 217,139 words

Lonely Planet Turkey

by Lonely Planet  · 1,236pp  · 320,184 words

Egypt Travel Guide

by Lonely Planet

Escape From Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity

by Walter Scheidel  · 14 Oct 2019  · 1,014pp  · 237,531 words

Fall of Civilizations: Stories of Greatness and Decline

by Paul Cooper  · 31 Mar 2024  · 583pp  · 174,033 words

Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems

by Martin Kleppmann  · 16 Mar 2017  · 1,237pp  · 227,370 words

The Rough Guide to Egypt (Rough Guide to...)

by Dan Richardson and Daniel Jacobs  · 1 Feb 2013

Why the West Rules--For Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future

by Ian Morris  · 11 Oct 2010  · 1,152pp  · 266,246 words

The Outcast Blade

by Jon Courtenay Grimwood  · 26 Mar 2012  · 444pp  · 103,367 words

To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science

by Steven Weinberg  · 17 Feb 2015  · 532pp  · 133,143 words

The Secret World: A History of Intelligence

by Christopher Andrew  · 27 Jun 2018

A History of Judaism

by Martin Goodman  · 25 Oct 2017  · 768pp  · 252,874 words

Cyprus Travel Guide

by Lonely Planet

The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty

by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson  · 23 Sep 2019  · 809pp  · 237,921 words

The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World

by Tim Marshall  · 14 Oct 2021  · 383pp  · 105,387 words

Lonely Planet Greek Islands

by Lonely Planet, Alexis Averbuck, Michael S Clark, Des Hannigan, Victoria Kyriakopoulos and Korina Miller  · 31 Mar 2012

Israel & the Palestinian Territories Travel Guide

by Lonely Planet

Egypt Travel Guide

by Lonely Planet

Empire of the Scalpel: The History of Surgery

by Ira Rutkow  · 8 Mar 2022  · 509pp  · 142,456 words

Seapower States: Maritime Culture, Continental Empires and the Conflict That Made the Modern World

by Andrew Lambert  · 1 Oct 2018  · 618pp  · 160,006 words

Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science

by Jim Al-Khalili  · 28 Sep 2010  · 467pp  · 114,570 words

A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World

by William J. Bernstein  · 5 May 2009  · 565pp  · 164,405 words

Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation

by Serhii Plokhy  · 9 Oct 2017  · 476pp  · 138,420 words

Pocket Rough Guide Istanbul (Travel Guide eBook)

by Rough Guides  · 24 May 2019

Horizons: The Global Origins of Modern Science

by James Poskett  · 22 Mar 2022  · 564pp  · 168,696 words

Lonely Planet Western Balkans

by Lonely Planet, Peter Dragicevich, Mark Baker, Stuart Butler, Anthony Ham, Jessica Lee, Vesna Maric, Kevin Raub and Brana Vladisavljevic  · 1 Oct 2019  · 990pp  · 250,044 words

After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire Since 1405

by John Darwin  · 5 Feb 2008  · 650pp  · 203,191 words

The Exiled Blade

by Jon Courtenay Grimwood  · 1 Apr 2013  · 354pp  · 98,404 words

Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Shaped the Modern World - and How Their Invention Could Make or Break the Planet

by Jane Gleeson-White  · 14 May 2011  · 274pp  · 66,721 words

The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans

by David Abulafia  · 2 Oct 2019  · 1,993pp  · 478,072 words

Shadow of the Silk Road

by Colin Thubron  · 1 Jan 2006  · 419pp  · 124,522 words

Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire

by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri  · 1 Jan 2004  · 475pp  · 149,310 words

The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous

by Joseph Henrich  · 7 Sep 2020  · 796pp  · 223,275 words

Fodor's Essential Israel

by Fodor's Travel Guides  · 2 Aug 2023  · 695pp  · 189,074 words

The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World

by Catherine Nixey  · 20 Sep 2017

Cyprus - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

by Constantine Buhayer  · 24 Feb 2022  · 125pp  · 35,820 words

Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible

by William N. Goetzmann  · 11 Apr 2016  · 695pp  · 194,693 words

Croatia

by Anja Mutic and Vesna Maric  · 1 Apr 2013

The Last Lingua Franca: English Until the Return of Babel

by Nicholas Ostler  · 23 Nov 2010  · 484pp  · 120,507 words

The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality From the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century

by Walter Scheidel  · 17 Jan 2017  · 775pp  · 208,604 words

The Evolution of God

by Robert Wright  · 8 Jun 2009

More: The 10,000-Year Rise of the World Economy

by Philip Coggan  · 6 Feb 2020  · 524pp  · 155,947 words

Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems

by Martin Kleppmann  · 17 Apr 2017

The Secret Lives of Buildings: From the Ruins of the Parthenon to the Vegas Strip in Thirteen Stories

by Edward Hollis  · 10 Nov 2009  · 444pp  · 107,664 words

THE MINI ROUGH GUIDE TO CYPRUS

by Rough Guides  · 26 Mar 2022

Bosnia and Herzegovina

by Tim. Clancy  · 15 Mar 2022  · 716pp  · 209,067 words

Egypt

by Matthew Firestone  · 13 Oct 2010

Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order

by Parag Khanna  · 4 Mar 2008  · 537pp  · 158,544 words

Mysteries of the Mall: And Other Essays

by Witold Rybczynski  · 7 Sep 2015  · 342pp  · 90,734 words

A History of the Bible: The Story of the World's Most Influential Book

by John Barton  · 3 Jun 2019  · 904pp  · 246,845 words

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks From the Stone Age to AI

by Yuval Noah Harari  · 9 Sep 2024  · 566pp  · 169,013 words

Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World

by Margaret Macmillan; Richard Holbrooke; Casey Hampton  · 1 Jan 2001

Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks

by Keith Houston  · 23 Sep 2013

Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship in the West, From the Ancients to Fake News

by Eric Berkowitz  · 3 May 2021  · 412pp  · 115,048 words

Rough Guide DIRECTIONS Venice

by Jonathan Buckley

Civilization: The West and the Rest

by Niall Ferguson  · 28 Feb 2011  · 790pp  · 150,875 words

Rome

by Lonely Planet

Life Is Simple: How Occam's Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the Universe

by Johnjoe McFadden  · 27 Sep 2021

The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking

by Saifedean Ammous  · 23 Mar 2018  · 571pp  · 106,255 words

The Dollar Meltdown: Surviving the Coming Currency Crisis With Gold, Oil, and Other Unconventional Investments

by Charles Goyette  · 29 Oct 2009  · 287pp  · 81,970 words

What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response

by Bernard Lewis  · 1 Jan 2001

Frommer's Egypt

by Matthew Carrington  · 8 Sep 2008

Lonely Planet Morocco (Travel Guide)

by Lonely Planet, Paul Clammer and Paula Hardy  · 1 Jul 2014  · 2,020pp  · 267,411 words

The Fallen Blade: Act One of the Assassini

by Jon Courtenay Grimwood  · 27 Jan 2011  · 470pp  · 118,051 words

Water: A Biography

by Giulio Boccaletti  · 13 Sep 2021  · 485pp  · 133,655 words

Lonely Planet Andalucia: Chapter From Spain Travel Guide

by Lonely Planet  · 31 May 2012

The Survival of the City: Human Flourishing in an Age of Isolation

by Edward Glaeser and David Cutler  · 14 Sep 2021  · 735pp  · 165,375 words

Open: The Story of Human Progress

by Johan Norberg  · 14 Sep 2020  · 505pp  · 138,917 words

A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging

by Lauren Markham  · 13 Feb 2024  · 234pp  · 74,626 words

Great Continental Railway Journeys

by Michael Portillo  · 21 Oct 2015

The Rough Guide to Morocco (Travel Guide eBook)

by Rough Guides  · 23 Mar 2019  · 1,058pp  · 302,829 words

Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities

by Vaclav Smil  · 23 Sep 2019

A Place for Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order

by Judith Flanders  · 6 Feb 2020  · 404pp  · 110,942 words

Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization

by Parag Khanna  · 18 Apr 2016  · 497pp  · 144,283 words

The Full Catastrophe: Travels Among the New Greek Ruins

by James Angelos  · 1 Jun 2015  · 278pp  · 93,540 words

Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb  · 20 Feb 2018  · 306pp  · 82,765 words

Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry

by Peter Warren Singer  · 1 Jan 2003  · 482pp  · 161,169 words

The Rough Guide to Morocco

by Rough Guides

Florence & Tuscany

by Lonely Planet  · 928pp  · 159,837 words

Sardinia Travel Guide

by Lonely Planet  · 890pp  · 133,829 words

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor

by David S. Landes  · 14 Sep 1999  · 1,060pp  · 265,296 words

The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America

by Victor Davis Hanson  · 15 Nov 2021  · 458pp  · 132,912 words

The Years of Rice and Salt

by Kim Stanley Robinson  · 2 Jun 2003  · 762pp  · 246,045 words

The Human Cosmos: A Secret History of the Stars

by Jo Marchant  · 15 Jan 2020  · 544pp  · 134,483 words

The Passenger: Greece

by The Passenger  · 11 Aug 2020  · 213pp  · 57,595 words

The End of Big: How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath

by Nicco Mele  · 14 Apr 2013  · 270pp  · 79,992 words

The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity

by Toby Ord  · 24 Mar 2020  · 513pp  · 152,381 words

Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future

by Ian Goldin, Geoffrey Cameron and Meera Balarajan  · 20 Dec 2010  · 482pp  · 117,962 words

Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy

by Francis Fukuyama  · 29 Sep 2014  · 828pp  · 232,188 words

The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity

by Kwame Anthony Appiah  · 27 Aug 2018  · 285pp  · 83,682 words

Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization

by Tim Queeney  · 11 Aug 2025  · 264pp  · 88,907 words

How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance

by Parag Khanna  · 11 Jan 2011  · 251pp  · 76,868 words

Age of the City: Why Our Future Will Be Won or Lost Together

by Ian Goldin and Tom Lee-Devlin  · 21 Jun 2023  · 248pp  · 73,689 words

Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World

by Fareed Zakaria  · 5 Oct 2020  · 289pp  · 86,165 words

Lonely Planet Florence & Tuscany

by Lonely Planet, Virginia Maxwell and Nicola Williams  · 1 Dec 2013  · 874pp  · 154,810 words

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

by Michael Lewis  · 2 Oct 2011  · 180pp  · 61,340 words

Architecture: A Very Short Introduction

by Andrew Ballantyne  · 19 Dec 2002  · 162pp  · 42,595 words

The Atlas of Disease

by Sandra Hempel  · 15 Sep 2018

The Rough Guide to Paris

by Rough Guides  · 1 May 2023  · 688pp  · 190,793 words

A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East

by David Fromkin  · 2 Jan 1989  · 681pp  · 214,967 words

Mr Five Per Cent: The Many Lives of Calouste Gulbenkian, the World's Richest Man

by Jonathan Conlin  · 3 Jan 2019  · 604pp  · 165,488 words

The Rough Guide to Sweden (Travel Guide eBook)

by Rough Guides  · 1 Nov 2019

The Wars of Afghanistan

by Peter Tomsen  · 30 May 2011  · 1,118pp  · 309,029 words

The Right Side of History

by Ben Shapiro  · 11 Feb 2019  · 270pp  · 71,659 words

Origins: How Earth's History Shaped Human History

by Lewis Dartnell  · 13 May 2019  · 424pp  · 108,768 words

Some Remarks

by Neal Stephenson  · 6 Aug 2012  · 335pp  · 107,779 words

In Europe

by Geert Mak  · 15 Sep 2004

The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co.

by William D. Cohan  · 25 Dec 2015  · 1,009pp  · 329,520 words

An Edible History of Humanity

by Tom Standage  · 30 Jun 2009  · 282pp  · 82,107 words

Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders

by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras and Ella Morton  · 19 Sep 2016  · 1,048pp  · 187,324 words

Built: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures

by Roma Agrawal  · 8 Feb 2018  · 277pp  · 72,603 words

The Rise and Fall of Nations: Forces of Change in the Post-Crisis World

by Ruchir Sharma  · 5 Jun 2016  · 566pp  · 163,322 words

The New Rules of War: Victory in the Age of Durable Disorder

by Sean McFate  · 22 Jan 2019  · 330pp  · 83,319 words

Berlitz: Sardinia Pocket Guide (Berlitz Pocket Guides)

by Apa  · 1 Feb 2012  · 126pp  · 32,936 words

End the Fed

by Ron Paul  · 5 Feb 2011

The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History

by Kassia St Clair  · 3 Oct 2018  · 480pp  · 112,463 words

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson  · 20 Mar 2012  · 547pp  · 172,226 words

The Fire and the Darkness: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945

by Sinclair McKay

Sweden Travel Guide

by Lonely Planet

The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World

by Adrian Wooldridge  · 2 Jun 2021  · 693pp  · 169,849 words

Rethinking Money: How New Currencies Turn Scarcity Into Prosperity

by Bernard Lietaer and Jacqui Dunne  · 4 Feb 2013

The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System

by James Rickards  · 7 Apr 2014  · 466pp  · 127,728 words

A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

by Adam Rutherford  · 7 Sep 2016

The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977

by Gershom Gorenberg  · 1 Jan 2006  · 600pp  · 165,682 words

Rethinking Islamism: The Ideology of the New Terror

by Meghnad Desai  · 25 Apr 2008

And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East

by Richard Engel  · 9 Feb 2016  · 251pp  · 67,801 words

Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are

by Rebecca Boyle  · 16 Jan 2024  · 354pp  · 109,574 words

Bosnia & Herzegovina--Culture Smart

by Elizabeth Hammond  · 11 Jan 2011  · 105pp  · 33,036 words

Bitcoin Internals: A Technical Guide to Bitcoin

by Chris Clark  · 16 Jun 2013  · 52pp  · 13,257 words

The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid

by Lawrence Wright  · 7 Jun 2021  · 391pp  · 112,312 words

China: A History

by John Keay  · 5 Oct 2009

Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War

by Raj M. Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff  · 8 Jul 2024  · 272pp  · 103,638 words

A Short History of Progress

by Ronald Wright  · 2 Jan 2004  · 225pp  · 54,010 words

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

by Jared Diamond  · 2 Jan 2008  · 801pp  · 242,104 words

Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea

by Mark Kurlansky  · 7 Apr 2008  · 186pp  · 57,798 words

On Grand Strategy

by John Lewis Gaddis  · 3 Apr 2018  · 461pp  · 109,656 words

The Journey of Humanity: The Origins of Wealth and Inequality

by Oded Galor  · 22 Mar 2022  · 426pp  · 83,128 words

The Next Decade: Where We've Been . . . And Where We're Going

by George Friedman  · 25 Jan 2011  · 249pp  · 79,740 words

Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted

by Daniel Sokatch  · 18 Oct 2021  · 556pp  · 95,955 words

1494: How a Family Feud in Medieval Spain Divided the World in Half

by Stephen R. Bown  · 15 Feb 2011  · 295pp  · 92,670 words

Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Gobal Crisis

by James Rickards  · 10 Nov 2011  · 381pp  · 101,559 words

Super Continent: The Logic of Eurasian Integration

by Kent E. Calder  · 28 Apr 2019

Slowdown: The End of the Great Acceleration―and Why It’s Good for the Planet, the Economy, and Our Lives

by Danny Dorling and Kirsten McClure  · 18 May 2020  · 459pp  · 138,689 words

Collapse

by Jared Diamond  · 25 Apr 2011  · 753pp  · 233,306 words

The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks

by Joshua Cooper Ramo  · 16 May 2016  · 326pp  · 103,170 words

The Hour of Fate

by Susan Berfield

Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters

by Brian Klaas  · 23 Jan 2024  · 250pp  · 96,870 words

Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals

by Tyler Cowen  · 15 Oct 2018  · 140pp  · 42,194 words

The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention

by William Rosen  · 31 May 2010  · 420pp  · 124,202 words

Paper Promises

by Philip Coggan  · 1 Dec 2011  · 376pp  · 109,092 words

Empire of Ants: The Hidden Worlds and Extraordinary Lives of Earth's Tiny Conquerors

by Susanne Foitzik and Olaf Fritsche  · 5 Apr 2021  · 335pp  · 86,900 words

More Joel on Software

by Joel Spolsky  · 25 Jun 2008  · 292pp  · 81,699 words

Turing's Cathedral

by George Dyson  · 6 Mar 2012

Seasteading: How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor, Cure the Sick, and Liberate Humanity From Politicians

by Joe Quirk and Patri Friedman  · 21 Mar 2017  · 441pp  · 113,244 words

Bean Counters: The Triumph of the Accountants and How They Broke Capitalism

by Richard Brooks  · 23 Apr 2018  · 398pp  · 105,917 words

The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalization

by Richard Baldwin  · 14 Nov 2016  · 606pp  · 87,358 words

My Glorious Defeats: Hacktivist, Narcissist, Anonymous: A Memoir

by Barrett Brown  · 8 Jul 2024  · 332pp  · 110,397 words

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World (Hardback) - Common

by Alan Greenspan  · 14 Jun 2007

Jerusalem: A Cookbook

by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi  · 15 Oct 2012

Home Sweet Anywhere: How We Sold Our House, Created a New Life, and Saw the World

by Lynne Martin  · 14 Apr 2014  · 299pp  · 97,378 words

Project Azorian: The CIA and the Raising of the K-129

by Norman Polmar and Michael White  · 1 Dec 2010  · 241pp  · 64,424 words

Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel

by Matti Friedman  · 5 Mar 2019  · 220pp  · 69,282 words

The Joy of Clojure

by Michael Fogus and Chris Houser  · 28 Nov 2010  · 706pp  · 120,784 words