Aspects of Roman History, AD 14–117 charts the history of the Roman Imperial period, from the establishment of the Augustan principate to the reign of Trajan, providing a basic chronological framework of the main events and introductory outlines of the major issues of the period. The first half of the book outlines the linear development of the Roman Empire, emperor by emperor, accenting the military and political events. The second half of the book concentrates on important themes which apply to the period as a whole, such as the religious, economic and social functioning of the Roman Empire.
This study is based on a fresh reading of the primary sources and, by integrating the findings of recent scholarship on the subject, presents a unified narrative of Sufism's historical development. His innovative analytical framework reveals the emergence of mystical currents in Islam during the ninth century and traces the rapid spread of Iraq-based Sufism to other regions of the Islamic world.
Soup Through the Ages: A Culinary History with Period Recipes
As cooking advanced from simply placing wild grains, seeds, or meat in or near a fire to following some vague notion of food as a pleasing experience, soup--the world's first prepared dish--became the unpretentious comfort food for all of civilization. This book provides a comprehensive and worldwide culinary history of soup from ancient times. Appendices detail vegetables and herbs used in centuries-old soup traditions and offer dozens of recipes from the medieval era through World War II.
Music lovers who have watched the "authenticity" (period instrument) wars of the 1980s and 1990s could be excused for forgetting that Richard Taruskin is a musicologist and professor by trade, not a professional critic. For it is as an essayist and critic (if not a professional gadfly) that he has made a real impact on American musical culture. Indeed, in early-music circles, and even in the marketing of period-instrument performances by record labels, the word authentic has been abandoned almost entirely--and this is due largely to Taruskin's impassioned arguments (and his ability to get them published in places like The New York Times).
This little book is the fruit of some years of travel and study in the Near East. Its publication was interrupted by the War, but was finished during a period of convalescence.The original intention was to relate the story of Serbia from the revival of her independence in the nineteenth century until the period just before the Balkan War of 1 912, at which past history evidently melts into present politics. The aim was to show how the diplomacy of the Great Powers affected the destinies of Serbia in the nineteenth century...
