Bøger af Arthur Cotterell

De fleste symboler og billeder i moderne litteratur, film og kultur er hentet direkte fra de tre klassiske vestlige mytologier - romersk, keltisk og nordisk. Derfor er et solidt kendskab til disse mytologiers historier og persongalleri et godt udgangspunkt for enhver uddannelse. Bogen her samler alle de tre vigtigste mytologier i en omfattende hvem-er-hvem håndbog over de vigtigste figurer og legender fra vores fortid. Den er nem at benytte (også som opslagsværk) og fuld af medrivende historier, imponerende kunstværker og illustrationer fra de seneste femten århundreder.

In recent decades, there has been a dramatic transformation around the Pacific Rim. Japan has become an economic superpower and Korea and the People's Republic of China are close behind, flooding the world market with computers, automobiles, and electronic components. It is even predicted that by the next century East Asia will be the workshop of the world. No longer the Far East - that exotic, mysterious land at the distant fringe of western consciousness - East Asia today commands the attention of the world. In East Asia, Arthur Cotterell condenses into a short, highly readable book an immense amount of historical knowledge, placing this remarkable economic boom in its proper perspective - an Asian one. To do this, Cotterell ranges from the dawn of Chinese civilization, to the rise of the Mongols and the Manchus, to Japan's emergence as the first East Asian nation to develop an industrial economy. And he brings his history up to the present, examining America's setbacks in the Korean and Vietnam War, Japan's rise as an economic superpower, and the recent histories of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, reunited Vietnam, socialist Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Cotterell not only provides insight into the past of this burgeoning region, but he offers a provocative view of the future as well. He suggests for instance that Japan, the present leader of the Pacific Rim, will eventually be overtaken by its neighbors, now engaged in a hectic pace of development (seen especially in the People's Republic of China, which has only just begun to compete as an exporter). He concludes that the relations between the Chinese and the Japanese will determine the future of EastAsia. By providing an in-depth historical perspective on the most dramatic transformations taking place in the world today, Cotterell performs an invaluable service for all those who need to have a deeper understanding of our newest trading partners.

Bloody fighting between rival tribes and clans has existed since the dawn of Homo sapiens, but war as we knew it began to take the more organized forms we recognize today in the ancient Near East, starting in the vital region near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (modern Iraq) and ultimately extending west to the Mediterranean Sea through what became the Holy Land of the Bible, a region eventually contested by Egypt, the Roman Empire, and others, and extending north and east into the mountains of Persia (modern Iran). In this informed and accessible history, Arthur Cotterell tells the story of how the story of the development of civilization is also the story of the development of organized warfareThis story begins around 4,000 to 3,000 BC with the Sumerians, one of the first dominant civilizations of fertile Mesopotamia, and their wars with their neighbors. The Sumerians eventually gave way to the Babylonians, whose period of dominance saw rudimentary ';great power' rivalries begin to form with the likes of Egypt and the Hittites and the Battle of Kadesh (1274 BC). This period resolved with the fall of Babylon and the rise of other powers, ultimately the Persian Empire of Cyrus and Darius, one of the great ancient dynasties, which battled the Greeks directly (as chronicled in Herodotus) and indirectly as rival Persian factions battled each other (e.g., as chronicled in Xenophon's account of the storied Ten Thousand).In the period that followed, the Near East was dominated by Alexander the Great, whose legendary campaigns conquered Persia and ventured east into modern India. This era saw the refinement of the Greek hoplite tactics that remained standard for many hundreds of years. After Alexander the Great, and the rise of the Seleucids and Parthians where Persians once reigned, the Roman Empire began to exert its power in the region, especially at its colonies in Judea and Syria.Spanning some 4,000 years and drawing anecdotes and quotations from ancient sources, Where War Began is a lively narrative of the origins of war in a region that is still afflicted by war and that still shapes global politics.

From the cosmological foundations of the first capital to the politics of empire and cataclysmic civil wars, this work offers a level of insight indispensable for understanding of China today.

A lavishly illustrated history of Ancient Assyria and Babylon for the general reader.

A sweeping, erudite, and accessible cultural history of the lands of the Near East, from the Sumerians to beyond the end of World War II.

Cultural history of island idyll.

The essential volume on the history of maritime and mainland Southeast Asia from earliest recorded times until the present day - by acclaimed historian Arthur Cotterell.

Provides a look at the global convulsions - like the rise and fall of Assyria and Persia, the medieval states that flourished after the advent of Islam, and the transformations triggered by the lightning conquests of imperial Japan - that have shaped the continent.

A comprehensive reference source to the ancient world's most fascinating mythologies, bringing together the Classical legends of ancient Greece and Rome; the fairytale myths of the Celtic world; and from Northern Europe, tales of Germanic gods, Nordic warriors and giants.

Offers the cultural history that ranges from prehistoric times to the present - from the disunity of Pre-Imperial China to the renaissance of the Sung and Tang dynasties, from the Mongol conquest to Tiananmen Square and the 1989 student revolt.