At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book—that string of confused, alien ciphers—shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you,... gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader. Noted essayist Alberto Manguel moves from this essential moment to explore the 6000-year-old conversation between words and that magician without whom the book would be a lifeless object: the reader. Manguel lingers over reading as seduction, as rebellion, as obsession, and goes on to trace the never-before-told story of the reader's progress from clay tablet to scroll, codex to CD-ROM.

Covering the long history of literacy in the Western World, a wide variety of experts comments on the role of books and reading in shaping culture,... politics, public opinion, and mores from antiquity to the present.

A HISTORY OF ROMAN ART is a new authoritative and lavishly-illustrated survey of the art of Rome and the Roman Empire from the time of Romulus to the... death of Constantine, presented in its historical, political, and social context. All aspects of Roman art and architecture are treated, including private art and domestic architecture, the art of the Eastern and Western provinces, the art of freedmen, and the so-called minor arts, including cameos, silverware, and coins. The book is divided into four parts-Monarchy and Republic, Early Empire, High Empire, and Late Empire-and traces the development of Roman art from its beginnings in the 8th century BCE to the mid fourth century CE, with special chapters devoted to Pompeii and Herculaneum, Ostia, funerary and provincial art and architecture, and the earliest Christian art.

A HISTORY OF ROMAN ART, ENHANCED EDITION is a lavishly-illustrated survey of the art of Rome and the Roman Empire from the time of Romulus to the death... of Constantine, presented in its historical, political, and social context. This ENHANCED EDITION has added coverage on Etruscan art in the beginning of the text. All aspects of Roman art and architecture are treated, including private art and domestic architecture, the art of the Eastern and Western provinces, the art of freedmen, and the so-called minor arts, including cameos, silverware, and coins. The book is divided into four parts-Monarchy and Republic, Early Empire, High Empire, and Late Empire-and traces the development of Roman art from its beginnings in the 8th century BCE to the mid fourth century CE, with special chapters devoted to Pompeii and Herculaneum, Ostia, funerary and provincial art and architecture, and the earliest Christian art. The original edition of this text was warmly received in the market based on a high level of scholarship, comprehensive contents, and superb visuals.

Spanning 1,300 years, this popular history of Rome has been thoroughly revised and updated, reinforcing its stature as an indispensable resource on the... history and enduring influence of one of the world's greatest empires. New format: two-color text throughout; new pedagogical features, such as glossary terms in margins; chronological tables and genealogies are made clearer for student useIncludes revised text throughout, updated guides to further reading, and new sources for Roman historyExpands coverage of the late Republic periodRetains its emphasis on the importance of multi-disciplinary interpretations of literary sources and new archaeological evidence

'...a unique achievement in its genre: a masterly synthesis of a huge mass of material. It deals with the political, military, social and cultural... aspects of Roman civilisation, extending over a millennium.' - KLEIO '...we must indeed be grateful for what we have been given, which is immense. It is not often that a new edition of an old book can be hailed as a major event but this is the exception.' - Times Literary Supplement 'Almost nothing has escaped Scullard's attention, including some extremely recent items...it will be an ideal work of reference for students.' - Times Higher Education Supplement

Now completely revised in this eighth edition, A History of Russia covers the entire span of the country's history, from ancient times to the... post-communist present. Keeping with the hallmark of the text, Riasanovsky and Steinberg examine all aspects of Russia's history--political, international, military, economic, social, and cultural--with a commitment to objectivity, fairness, and balance, and to reflecting recent research and new trends in scholarly interpretation. New chapters on politics, society, and culture since 1991 explore Russia's complex experience after communism and discuss its chances of becoming a more stable and prosperous country in the future.Widely acclaimed as the best one-volume history available, A History of Russia is also available in two split volumes--the first covers early Russia through the nineteenth century and the second ranges from 1855 to the present. Volume II features an additional introductory chapter that links Russia's modern history to the events that preceded it.New to this Edition:* Greater attention to social and cultural history * Updated to cover the Putin and Medvedev administrations* Increased coverage of women and everyday life * Expanded treatment of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century* Completely redesigned maps with new full-color reference maps

This is a history of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia from the time of the first inhabitants of the region up to the break up of the Mongol Empire in... 1260AD.

Now completely revised in this seventh edition, A History of Russia covers the entire span of the country's history, from ancient times to the... postcommunist present. Featuring a new coauthor, Mark Steinberg, this edition offers extensively updated material based on the most current research, including documents from recently opened archives. Keeping with the hallmark of the text, Riasanovsky and Steinberg examine all aspects of Russia's history--political, international, military, economic, social, and cultural--with a commitment to objectivity, fairness, and balance. This seventh edition contains a wealth of new images and a fully revised bibliography and reading list. Two new chapters on politics, society, and culture since 1991 explore Russia's complex experience after communism and discuss its chances of becoming a more stable and prosperous country in the future. Widely acclaimed as the best one-volume history available, A History of Russia is being offered in paperback for the first time. In addition to the one-volume version, it is now also available in two separate volumes--Volume I covers early Russia through the nineteenth century and Volume II ranges from 1855 to the present. Volume II also features an additional introductory chapter that links Russia's modern history to the events that preceded it.

Since its initial publication in 1993, "A History of Russian Architecture" has remained the most comprehensive study of the topic in English, a volume... that defines the main components and sources for Russia's architectural traditions in their historical context, from the early medieval period to the present. This edition includes a new prologue and an elegant photographic essay drawn from the author's research and fieldwork over the past decade in remote areas of the Russian north and Siberia. Subject to influences from east and west, Russian architecture's distinctive approaches to building are documented in four parts of this definitive study: early medieval Rus up to the Mongol invasion in the mid-twelfth century; the revival of architecture in Novgorod and Muscovy from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries; Peter the Great's cultural revolution, which extended through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; and the advent of modern, avant-garde, and monumental Soviet architecture. Beautifully illustrated and carefully researched, "A History of Russian Architecture" provides an invaluable cultural history that will be of interest to scholars and general audiences alike.

Film emerged in pre-Revolutionary Russia to become the “most important of all arts” for the new Bolshevik regime and its propaganda machine. The... 1920s saw a flowering of film experimentation, notably with the work of Eisenstein, and a huge growth in the audience for film, which continued into the 1930s with the rise of musicals. The films of the World War II and Cold War periods reflected a return to political concerns in their representation of the “enemy.” The 1960s and 1970s saw the rise of art-house films. With glasnost came the collapse of the state-run film industry and an explosion in the cinematic treatment of previously taboo topics. In the new Russia, cinema has become genuinely independent, as a commercial as well as an artistic medium.A History of Russian Cinema is the first complete history from the beginning of film to the present day and presents an engaging narrative of both the industry and its key films in the context of Russia's social and political history.

This magisterial work, written by one of the world's foremost Slavic scholars, presents a survey of Russian literature from its beginning in the... eleventh century to modern times. Victor Terras argues eloquently that Russian literature has reflected, defined, and shaped the nation's beliefs and goals, and he sets his survey against a background of social and political developments and religious and philosophic thought. Terras traces a rich literary heritage that encompasses Russian folklore of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, medieval literature that in style and substance drew on the Byzantine tradition, and literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Russia passed through a succession of literary schools-neoclassicism, sentimentalism, romanticism, and realism-imported from the West. Terras then moves on to the masterful realist fiction of Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoi during the second half of the nineteenth century, showing how it was a catalyst for the social and cultural advances following the reforms of Alexander II. In discussing the period preceding the revolution of 1917, Terras links the literary movements with parallel developments in the theater, music, and the visual arts, explaining that these all placed Russia in the forefront of European modernism. Terras divides Russian literature after the revolution into émigré and Soviet writing, and he demonstrates how the latter acted as a propaganda tool of the Communist party. He concludes his survey with the dissident movement that followed Stalin's death, arguing that the movement again made literature a leader in the struggle for freedom of thought, genuine relevance, and communion with Western culture.

Francis Maes's comprehensive and imaginative book introduces the general public to the scholarly debate that has revolutionized Russian music history... over the past two decades. Based on the most recent critical literature, A History of Russian Music summarizes the new view of Russian music and provides a solid overview of the relationships between artistic movements and political ideas. The revision of Russian music history may count as one of the most significant achievements of recent musicology. The Western view used to be largely based on the ideas of Vladimir Stasov, a friend and confidant of leading nineteenth-century Russian composers who was more a propagandist than a historian. With the deconstruction of Stasov's interpretation, stereotyped views have been replaced by a fuller understanding of the conditions and the context in which composers such as Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Stravinsky created their oeuvres. Even the more recent history of Soviet music, in particular the achievement of Dmitry Shostakovich, is being assessed on new documentary grounds. A more complex conception of Russian music develops as Maes explores the cultural and historical milieu from which great works have emerged. Questioning and re-examining traditional views, the author considers the personal development of composers, the relationship of art to social and political ideals in Russia, and the ideologies behind musical research.