The tomb of Christ at Jerusalem was a vital influence in the making of Western Europe. Pilgrimage there influenced the development of society and its structures. The desire to 'bring the Sepulchre to the West' in copies or memorials shaped art and religion, while the ambition to control Christ's to[...]
A "New York Times" Notable Book for 2011 Sometime around 1750, English entrepreneurs unleashed the astounding energies of steam and coal, and the world was forever changed. The emergence of factories, railroads, and gunboats propelled the West's rise to power in the nineteenth century, and the devel[...]
A "New York Times" Notable Book for 2011 Sometime around 1750, English entrepreneurs unleashed the astounding energies of steam and coal, and the world was forever changed. The emergence of factories, railroads, and gunboats propelled the West's rise to power in the nineteenth century, and the devel[...]
Toward the end of the thirteenth century, at about the time Marco Polo was being received by the great Khubilai Khan, a Nestorian Christian monk from China called Rabban Sauma was making the reverse journey from the Mongol capital (what is now Beijing) to Jerusalem. Upon reaching Baghdad - the first[...]
Summer of the Red Wolf is the story of a man struggling with the complexities and torments of everyday life who travels to Scotland to fight his inner demons and discovers love, honour and himself along the way. The novel brilliantly captures the feelings of restlessness so common in these modern ti[...]
Investigated, tortured and imprisoned by the Inquisition, Dominican monk Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for heresy on 17 February 1600. Now, four hundred years later, Morris West brings Bruno's story to life. Once considered his family, the Dominican monks and Catholic Church are now Bruno's[...]
Why does the West rule? Eminent Stanford polymath Ian Morris answers this provocative question, drawing uniquely on 15,000 years of history and archaeology, and the methods of social science. In the middle of the eighteenth century, British entrepreneurs unleashed the astounding energies of steam an[...]
From the moment she saw him, she knew the bear had come for her. How many times had she dreamt of the bear...Now, here he was, as if spelled from her dreams. "I will come with you, Bear," she said. It is the beginning of an extraordinary journey for the girl. First to the bear's secret palace in far[...]
"A superior novel, intricately worked out at several levels of human and spiritual quest . . . beautiful and impassioned."--"Commonweal"
"A reading experience of real emotional intensity."--"The New York Times"
"A unique cloak-and-dagger drama of the human soul."--"Saturday Review"
"The De[...]
The Pope has died, and the corridors of the Vatican hum with intrigue as cardinals from all over the world gather to choose his successor. Suddenly, the election is concluded with a surprise result. The new Pope is the youngest cardinal of all-and a Russian. Shoes of the Fisherman slowly unravels th[...]
What would happen if the members of the Roman Curia discovered that the Pope was about to publicly state that he had received a private revelation that the world was about to end? Pope Gregory XVII claims to have received a private revelation of the end of the world-an apocalypse coming not in some [...]