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The tenth century dawned in violence and disorder. Charlemagne’s empire was in ruins, most of Spain had been claimed by Moorish invaders, and even the papacy in Rome was embroiled in petty, provincial conflicts. To many historians, it was a prime example of the ignorance and uncertainty of the Dark Ages. Yet according to historian Paul Collins, the story of the tenth century is the story of our culture’s birth, of the emergence of our civilization into the light of day.

On Christmas Eve 1914, a group of German soldiers laid down their arms, lit lanterns, and started to sing Christmas carols. The British troops in nearby trenches responded by singing songs of their own. The next day, men from both sides met in No Man's Land. They shook hands, took photos, and exchanged food and souvenirs. Some even played improvised football games, kicking around empty bully-beef cans and using helmets for goalposts. Both sides also saw the lull in fighting as a chance to bury the bodies of their comrades.

Die keltische Kultur erlebte viele Hochs und Tiefs. Auf die erste Hochphase im 7. Jh. v. Chr. folgte der Untergang, doch die Kelten richteten sich im 2. Jh. v. Chr. wieder auf, bis Julius Cäsar Gallien eroberte und die Kultur erneut erstarb. Erst nach ihrer dritten Blütezeit auf den Britischen Inseln waren die Kelten ein für allemal besiegt. Doch gerade ihre Niederlagen machen die Kelten nicht nur bei Asterix-Lesern und Druiden-Fans beliebt - es gibt so viel mehr zu erfahren über diese faszinierende, vergangene Zivilisation!

De l'émergence d'homo sapiens à nos jours, cette brève histoire de l'humanité est délibérément tournée vers l'intelligence du monde tel qu'il se recompose sous nos yeux. Or, c'est dans les profondeurs les moins conscientes de la vie sociale, celles auxquelles Emmanuel Todd a consacré sa vie de chercheur, que gît l'explication de ce qui nous apparaît aujourd'hui comme le grand désordre du monde.

Com estimem, els catalans? En l'imaginari col·lectiu han quedat enregistrades un munt de llegendes que en parlen. Històries fantàstiques que narren amors entre gegants i donzelles, dones d'aigua i hereus de masies, pastors i sirenes. Fruit de la passió d'aquests darrers amants nasqué l'Empordà. Sirenes que sovint eren dones desterrades del món aspre dels homes i que trobaren l'amor lliure al mar. No són poques, tampoc, les llegendes d'amor entre dones i pirates, entre sarraïns i cristianes, la qual cosa demostra que l'afecte pot fer superar qualsevol barrera.

¿Sabía que Cataluña fue una de las regiones más taurinas y donde se recogen los testimonios más antiguos de las corridas de toros en España? ¿O que una de las hijas de El Cid se casó con un conde de Barcelona? ¿Y que soldados catalanes lucharon para el Imperio español desde la Patagonia hasta Alaska? Las historias de los pueblos están llenas de tópicos, falsas leyendas… y olvidos. El Principado de Cataluña no podía ser menos.

The mysticism and fairy folklore of Celtic England, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Brittany, and Wales is explored in this production, which focuses on interviews conducted with everyday citizens about their beliefs, sightings, and encounters in the early 20th century, followed by an anthropological examination of evidence. It is an exploration of the spirit world, of the Sidhe, the "good people", who are claimed to interact mischievously with the populace - sometimes even abducting them and leaving only the victims' clothes behind, transporting them far distances, and killing livestock.

The histories of the first three SS corps are well known - the actions of I, II, and III (Germanic) SS-Panzerkorps and their subordinate divisions, including the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, Das Reich, Hitlerjugend, Hohenstaufen, Frundsberg, and Nordland divisions, have been thoroughly documented and publicized. Overlooked in this pantheon is another SS corps that never fought in the west or in Berlin but one that participated in many of the key battles fought on the Eastern Front during the last year of the war - the IV SS-Panzerkorps.

Committed Belgophile and road cycling obsessive Harry Pearson takes you on a journey across Flanders - through the lumpy horizontal rain, up the elbow-juddering cobbled inclines, past the fans dressed as chickens and the shop window displays of constipation medicines as he follows races big, small and even smaller, through one glorious, muddy spring. Ranging over 500 years of Flemish and European history, Pearson examines the characters, the myths and the rivalries that make Flanders a place where cycling is a religion and the riders its Lycra-clad priests.

In an era of seemingly instant change, it's easy to think that today's revolutions - in communications, business, and many areas of daily life - are unprecedented. Today's changes may be new and may be happening faster than ever before. But our ancestors at times were just as bewildered by rapid upheavals in what we now call “networks” - the physical links that bind any society together.

In this short essay, Mark Twain discusses the patriot William Tell, the city of Interlaken, and the Jungfrau mountain. He describes the beauty of the landscape with great admiration.

"Dramatisk fortættede, skæbnesvangre timer, hvor en varig afgørelse fremtvinges på een dag, i een time, ofte i et enkelt minut, er sjældne i en enkeltpersons liv og sjældne i historiens løb." - Fra bogens forord Det er skildringer af den slags øjeblikke, der udgør Stjernestunder, og alle er de fortalt med Stefan Zweigs vid og kunstneriske snilde, der i denne bog på elegant vis forenes med en næsten journalistisk præcision.

When they fell in love in 1928, Rika and Waldemar could have not been more different. She was a thirty-seven-year-old Dutch-born mother, estranged from her husband. He was her immigrant boarder, not yet twenty, and a wealthy Surinamese descendant of slaves. The child they have together, brown skinned and blue eyed, brings the couple great joy yet raises some eyebrows. Until the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands explodes their promising life. What unfolds is more than the astonishing story of a love that prevailed over convention. It’s also the quest of a young boy.

The rise and fall of the Roman Republic occupies a special place in the history of Western civilization. From humble beginnings on the seven hills beside the Tiber, the city of Rome grew to dominate the ancient Mediterranean. Led by her senatorial aristocracy, Republican armies defeated Carthage and the successor kingdoms of Alexander the Great, and brought the surrounding peoples to east and west into the Roman sphere. Yet the triumph of the Republic was also its tragedy.   

The 20th century in Europe was an urban century: it was shaped by life in, and the view from, the street. Women were not liberated in legislatures, but liberated themselves in factories, homes, nightclubs, and shops. In Streetlife, Leif Jerram presents a totally new history of the 20th century, with the city at its heart, showing how everything distinctive about the century, from revolution and dictatorship to sexual liberation, was fundamentally shaped by the great urban centres which defined it.

In a series of revolts starting in 1820, four military officers rode forth on horseback from obscure European towns to bring political freedom and a constitution to Spain, Naples, and Russia; and national independence to the Greeks. The men who launched these exploits from Andalusia to the snowy fields of Ukraine - Colonel Rafael del Riego, General Guglielmo Pepe, General Alexandros Ypsilanti, and Colonel Sergei Muraviev-Apostol - all hoped to overturn the old order.

The dream of capturing and organizing knowledge is as old as history. From the archives of ancient Sumeria and the Library of Alexandria to the Library of Congress and Wikipedia, humanity has wrestled with the problem of harnessing its intellectual output. The timeless quest for wisdom has been as much about information storage and retrieval as creative genius. In Cataloging the World, Alex Wright introduces us to a figure who stands out in the long line of thinkers and idealists who devoted themselves to the task.

Martin Luther's posting of the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, is one of the most famous events of Western history. It inaugurated the Protestant Reformation and has for centuries been a powerful and enduring symbol of religious freedom of conscience and of righteous protest against the abuse of power. But did it actually really happen? In this engagingly written, wide-ranging, and insightful work of cultural history, leading Reformation historian Peter Marshall reviews the available evidence and concludes that very probably, it did not.

El Reino de Bélgica es un país de Europa Noroccidental de clima caluroso en donde la mezcla de las culturas germánicas y francesas ha producido un bilingüismo en la mayor parte de los 10 millones y medio de habitantes, quienes hablan holandés y francés. Esta diversidad cultural ha sido motivo de conflictos dentro de la historia política del país. El territorio belga ha sido protagonista de importantes hechos históricos convirtiéndose en el campo de batalla de Europa.

America in the 1920s was a place of drama, tension and hedonism. It glittered and seduced: jazz, flappers, the birth of Hollywood, and a glamorous gangster- led crime scene flourishing under prohibition. But it was also punctuated by momentous events such as the political show trials and the huge Ku Klux Klan march. But it also produced a splendid array of writers, musicians and film stars, from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Bessie Smith and Charlie Chaplin.