{"title":"Norman Davies Books","description":"\u003cp\u003eBrowse the books by Norman Davies we have in stock, second-hand, in hardback and paperback. Mostly history and non-fiction. Every book ships from our own UK warehouse. Free UK delivery on orders of £10 or more.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"europe-a-history","title":"Europe: A History","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"In the beginning,\" writes Norman Davies, \"there was no Europe. All there was, for five million years, was a long, sinuous peninsula with no name, set like the figurehead of a ship on the prow of the world's largest land mass. To the west lay the ocean which no one had crossed. To the south lay two enclosed and interlinked seas, sprinkled with islands, inlets, and peninsulas of their own. To the north lay the great polar icecap, expanding and contracting across the ages like some monstrous, freezing jellyfish. To the east lay the land-bridge to the rest of the world, whence all peoples and all civilizations were to come.\" So begins Davies's magisterial Europe, a master work of history that stretches from the Ice Age to the Atomic Age, as it tells the story of Europe, East and West, from prehistory to the present day.\u003cbr\u003e Davies's absorbing narrative captures the full drama of European history, on a sweeping canvas filled with fascinating detail, analysis, and anecdotes. It is a glorious chronicle packed with momentous events: the rise and fall of Rome, the sweeping invasions of Alaric (leader of the Vandals) and Atilla (leader of the Huns), the Norman conquests of Sicily and England, the Papal struggles for power, the Crusades, the Black Death, the sack of Constantinople, the growth of cities such as Venice, Ghent, London, and Paris, the Renaissance and the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, Europe's rise to become the powerhouse of the world, and its eclipse in our own century, following two devastating World Wars. Davies omits nothing. We read not only of the great figures and events of European history--battles, usurpations, tyrants, and saints--but of philosophers, scientists, writers, and artists; the great explorations; the stateless nation and the nation-state. Minority communities, from heretics and lepers to Jews, Romanies, and Muslims, have not been forgotten in this vast tapestry. And Davies has also added 299 \"time-capsules,\" small, self-contained sections that focus intensely on an aspect of an age, to attain a greater sense of immediacy, a sharper picture of life as it was--articles that range from \"Erotic Graffiti at Pompeii,\" to \"Stradivarius,\" to \"Psychoanalyzing Hitler.\" And there are also twelve \"snapshots\"--fascinating glimpses of moments frozen in time, such as \"Knossos 1628 BC,\" or \"Constantinople AD 230,\" or \"Nuremberg 1945.\" And finally, the book features over one hundred superbly detailed maps and diagrams, and seventy-two black-and-white plates.\u003cbr\u003e Never before has such an ambitious history of Europe been attempted. In range and ambition, originality of structure and glittering style, Norman Davies's Europe represents one of the most important and illuminating histories to be published in recent years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"sb-details\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/norman-davies-books\"\u003eNorman Davies\u003c\/a\u003e (all their books in stock)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Hardback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1996\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1365\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Oxford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780195209129\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Poor Condition — £11.00","offer_id":47900512780465,"sku":"SB-0195209125-C4","price":11.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/2669\/5345\/files\/0195209125.jpg?v=1788841706"},{"product_id":"gods-playground-a-history-of-poland-vol-ii-1795-to-the-present","title":"God's Playground: a history of Poland, vol.II: 1795 to the present","description":"\u003cp\u003eHardcover in good condition - volume two. First UK edition. The jacket is sunned (most notably to the spine where the first part of the text has faded) and edgeworn; repaired tear on the spine head. A few bumps to the hardcover edges. Some foxing on the page block, also affecting some page edges. The binding is sound and all text is clear. CM\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"sb-details\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/norman-davies-books\"\u003eNorman Davies\u003c\/a\u003e (all their books in stock)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Hardback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1981\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 672\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Oxford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780198225928\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Standard Secondhand — £244.04","offer_id":47909529026737,"sku":"SB-019822592X-C3","price":244.04,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/2669\/5345\/files\/019822592X.jpg?v=1789450219"},{"product_id":"vanished-kingdoms-the-history-of-half-forgotten-europe","title":"Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Norman Davies has the gift of all great historians - the ability to make us rethink the past' \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 'The past is a foreign country' has become a truism, yet we often forget that the past is different from the present in many unfamiliar ways, and historical memory is extraordinarily imperfect. We habitually think of the European past as the history of countries which exist today - France, Germany, Britain, Russia and so on - but often this actually obstructs our view of the past, and blunts our sensitivity to the ever-changing political landscape.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEurope's history is littered with kingdoms, duchies, empires and republics which have now disappeared but which were once fixtures on the map of their age - 'the Empire of Aragon' which once dominated the western Mediterranean; the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, for a time the largest country in Europe; the successive kingdoms (and one duchy) of Prussia, much of whose history is now half-remembered at best. This book shows the reader how to peer through the cracks of mainstream history writing and listen to the echoes of lost realms across the centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHow many British people know that Glasgow was founded by the Welsh in a period when neither England nor Scotland existed? How many of us will remember the former Soviet Union in a few generations' time? Will our own United Kingdom become a distant memory too? As in his earlier celebrated books\u003ci\u003eEurope- aAhistory\u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Isles\u003c\/i\u003e, Norman Davies aims to subvert our established view of what seems familiar, and urges us to look and think again. This stimulating surprising book, full of unexpected stories, observations and connections, gives us a fresh and original perspective on the history of Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"sb-details\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/norman-davies-books\"\u003eNorman Davies\u003c\/a\u003e (all their books in stock)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Hardback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2011\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 830\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Allen Lane\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9781846143380\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen Lane","offers":[{"title":"Poor Condition — £1.70","offer_id":47917738852529,"sku":"SB-1846143381-C4","price":1.7,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/2669\/5345\/files\/1846143381.jpg?v=1789161560"},{"product_id":"red-winds-from-the-north","title":"Red Winds from the North","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"sb-details\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/norman-davies-books\"\u003eNorman Davies\u003c\/a\u003e (all their books in stock)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Able Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780907616450\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Davies, Norman","offers":[{"title":"Standard Secondhand — £754.80","offer_id":47962376077489,"sku":"SB-0907616453-C3","price":754.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/sellbooks.co.uk\/collections\/norman-davies-books.oembed","provider":"Sell Books .co.uk","version":"1.0","type":"link"}