In 1683, two empires - the Ottoman, based in Constantinople, and the Habsburg dynasty in Vienna - came face to face in the culmination of a 250-year power struggle: the Great Siege of Vienna. Within the city walls the choice of resistance over surrender to the largest army ever assembled by the Turks created an all-or-nothing scenario: every last ...
The Habsburgs have been described at one extreme as demons - responsible for a 'long history of atrocities'; and, at the other, as dodos - living fossils unable to adapt to the modern world. In reality, the flamboyant royal family appear, in many ways, to have behaved much like most other monarchies. Their story, however, is none the less ...
Without resort to hindsight, this study looks at why the world's greatest powers were at war 60 years ago. It aims to recapture the concerns, anxieties and prejudices of the statesmen of the 30s and the people they led.
The emergence of the Gulf States as important players on the world stage has been one of the most significant historical economic events of the modern era, and among the Gulf States the development of the State of Bahrain in this century is quite remarkable. Bahrain has pioneered sustained social development over a period of more than half a ...
This text examines those men and women who have shaped the course of war. It concentrates on all those periods about which the reader is likely to want information - the 18th-century wars in Europe, the American Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and the major conflicts of the 19th-century. There is full coverage of World Wars I and II, and the many ...
The author teases out those qualities which were uniquely Ottoman - not Turkish, not Middle Eastern or even a shadowy echo of the West, they were born warriors from the steppes of Central Asia who became a singular urban culture. Their legacy still lives on in the Middle East and parts of Europe and the author recovers their long-forgotten and ...
In this dazzlingly-written, pull-no-punches account of the long conflict between Christianity and Islam, Wheatcroft delves beneath stereotypes, and looks incisively at how images and ideas, as well as politics, religion, and conquest, fueled a seemingly unquenchable enmity and hostility on both sides across centuries.
The Ottoman Empire was a "mystery wrapped inside the enigma". This book aims to unravel the mystery in two ways. Firstly, it looks at the Ottomans and their world in terms relevant to an eastern Islamic society, with its own principles and practices that seemed merely barbaric to the West. The book also comes to terms with the West's expectations ...
How did we learn to hate or despise? Simply, because we were taught to. In 638, the Christian Patriarch of the holy city of Jerusalem called the Muslim Caliph's presence an abomination in the sight of God. Christians and Muslims have since regarded each other warily and have silently thought of each other as "infidels". This work traces the long ...
This comprehensive reference looks at those people who have shaped the course of war. Broad in geographical and chronological scope, it concentrates on all the major periods and conflicts in history, from 1453 up to the present day. The book provides: detailed biographies of the most interesting and important figures in military history; a series ...
In the years between the two great wars, the nations of the world, ravaged by war and depression, struggled to maintain a delicate peace. Torn between pressing social needs - record-setting unemployment and the threat of revolutions, Western Europe played for time in which to repair its economies and to strengthen its governments. No one wanted ...
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