Bøger af Christopher Hibbert

Giuseppe Garibaldi was praised for his military genius, his courage, and his charisma. In this landmark biography, Christopher Hibbert reveals how this iconic figure and architect of Italian unification earned the adulation of not only his fellow Italians, but people across the globe.

This beautifully written, informative study is a portrait, a history and a superb guide book, capturing fully the seductive beauty and the many layered past of the Eternal City. It covers 3,000 years of history from the city s quasi-mythical origins, through the Etruscan kings, the opulent glory of classical Rome, the decadence and decay of the Middle Ages and the beauty and corruption of the Renaissance, to its time at the heart of Mussolini s fascist Italy. Exploring the city s streets and buildings, peopled with popes, gladiators, emperors, noblemen and peasants, this volume details the turbulent and dramatic history of Rome in all its depravity and grandeur.

At its height Renaissance Florence was a centre of enormous wealth, power and influence. A republican city-state funded by trade and banking, its often bloody political scene was dominated by rich mercantile families, the most famous of which were the Medici. This enthralling book charts the family s huge influence on the political, economic and cultural history of Florence. Beginning in the early 1430s with the rise of the dynasty under the near-legendary Cosimo de Medici, it moves through their golden era as patrons of some of the most remarkable artists and architects of the Renaissance, to the era of the Medici Popes and Grand Dukes, Florence s slide into decay and bankruptcy, and the end, in 1737, of the Medici line.

The Battle of Arnhem by Christopher Hibbert is a comprehensive account of one of the most significant and controversial battles of World War II. The book details the events leading up to the battle, the strategies employed by both the Allied and Axis forces, and the aftermath of the conflict.The Battle of Arnhem was fought in September 1944, when Allied forces attempted to secure a bridgehead over the Rhine River in the Netherlands. The operation was intended to provide a route into Germany for the Allies, but it ultimately failed, resulting in significant casualties on both sides.Hibbert's book provides a detailed analysis of the battle, drawing on a wide range of sources including official records, personal accounts, and interviews with surviving veterans. He examines the reasons for the Allied failure, including the lack of sufficient air support and the failure to secure key objectives.The book also explores the impact of the battle on the war as a whole, including its effect on the morale of both the Allied and Axis forces. Hibbert provides a vivid and engaging account of the battle, bringing to life the experiences of the soldiers who fought and died in this pivotal conflict.Overall, The Battle of Arnhem is a must-read for anyone interested in World War II history or military strategy. Hibbert's engaging writing style and meticulous research make this book a valuable addition to any library.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

In George III: A Personal History, British historian Christopher Hibbert reassesses the royal monarch George III (1738-1820). Rather than reaffirm George III's reputation as "Mad King George," Hibbert portrays him as not only a competent ruler during most of his reign, but also as a patron of the arts and sciences, as a man of wit and intelligence, indeed, as a man who "greatly enhanced the reputation of the British monarchy" until he was finally stricken by a rare hereditary disease. Teeming with court machinations, sexual intrigues, and familial conflicts, George III opens a window on the tumultuous, rambunctious, revolutionary eighteenth century. It is sure to alter our understanding of this fascinating, complex, and very human king who so strongly shaped England's "and America's" destiny.

Christopher Hibbert draws on every known contemporary source to provide a minutely detailed look at the fascinating writer Samuel Johnson. Using facts and anecdotes, Hibbert delivers intimate glimpses into Johnson's time as a schoolboy, his eccentricities as an undergraduate at Oxford, his struggle as a poor writer in London, and his slow rise to the legendary figure with a court of admirers and a steady stream of visitors. Hibbert combines personal stories with an examination Johnson's writing, offering a compelling and readable account.

With passion and wit, Christopher Hibbert details the crucial years that formed Dickens the writer and Dickens the man. He explains how Dickens transferred the smallest fragments of his experience to his fiction, and how he interpreted his youth for both himself and his readers, throwing a clear light on the creative process and sources of literary imagination. An illuminating look at a complex and baffling person, fans of literary biography will relish Hibbert's acclaimed style as he delivers the fascinating tale of Dickens' development.

Works from Les Misirables by Victor Hugo to Citizens by Simon Schama have been inspired by the French Revolution. Now available for the first time in years, The Days of the French Revolution brings to life the events that changed the future of Western civilization. As compelling as any fiction thriller, this real-life drama moves from the storming of the Bastille to the doomed court of Louis XVI, the salon of Madame Roland, and even the boudoir of Marie Antoinette. Hibbert recounts the events that swirled around Napoleon, Mirabeau, Danton, Marat, and Robespierre with eyewitness accounts and his "usual grace and flair for divulging interesting detail" (Booklist). This trade paperback edition has twenty-eight pages of black-and-white illustrations, and will be published in time for Bastille Day.

It was a dynasty with more wealth, passion, and power than the houses of Windsor, Kennedy, and Rockefeller combined. It shaped all of Europe and controlled politics, scientists, artists, and even popes, for three hundred years. It was the house of Medici, patrons of Botticelli, Michelangelo and Galileo, benefactors who turned Florence into a global power center, and then lost it all.The House of Medici picks up where Barbara Tuchman's Hibbert delves into the lives of the Medici family, whose legacy of increasing self-indulgence and sexual dalliance eventually led to its self-destruction. With twenty-four pages of black-and-white illustrations, this timeless saga is one of Quill's strongest-selling paperbacks.

The vivid account of how a brilliant plan turned into an epic tragedy - made into the BAFTA award-winning film A BRIDGE TOO FAR'Alive with the detail that evokes the smoking background' DAILY TELEGRAPH

Christopher Hibbert was an English author, historian and biographer. He has been called "probably the most widely-read popular historian of our time" and was the author of over 50 works of history.

A fresh look at the one-eyed, one-armed scoundrel of the seas, and the most celebrated admiral of all time.

Christopher Hibbert's acclaimed biography of Queen Victoria is as impressive and authoritative as the great woman herself.In 1837 an eighteen-year-old girl, raised by a German mother, inherited the throne of the United Kingdom. She was to reign as queen - and later Empress of India - for almost sixty-four years, presiding over twenty prime ministers and a period of unprecedented social and political change. Her era became synonymous with moral rigidity and colonial expansion, and this absorbing biography of Queen Victoria, the unlikely figurehead of a vast and powerful empire, explores how the young monarch transformed herself into a formidable matriarch and the epitome of an age.Embracing her life and family, her politics and personality, her love for Prince Albert and her relationship with John Brown, Hibbert's touching biography is a persuasive portrait of a remarkable woman.

Disraeli is one of the most fascinating men of the 19th century. This masterly biography, written by an outstanding popular historian, concentrates on his intriguing private life.Superb politician, orator, writer and wit, Benjamin Disraeli was - according to Queen Victoria - 'the kindest Minister' she had ever had, who 'reached the top of the greasy pole' [in his own words] despite considerable antisemitism. He enjoyed many scandalous affairs before marrying a widow twelve years older than himself - an extremely eccentric woman to whom he remained deeply and touchingly devoted for the rest of his life.Disraeli had never intended to be a politician. He had begun his astonishing career by working unenthusiastically in a lawyer's office; he had tried unsuccessfully to found a newspaper; he had written a novel which lay unproductively in the publisher's office. A conspicuous dandy, sprightly, attentive and witty, he was attractive to women, enjoying many liaisons until he contracted a venereal disease in a St James's Street brothel.He married in 1839. 'Dizzy married me for my money,' Mary Anne used to say. 'But, if he had the chance again, he would marry me for love.' They lived in a large country house, Hughenden Manor, near High Wycombe, which he bought with mostly borrowed money, and soon became one of the most gifted of parliamentarians and as celebrated as any politician in England. As an antidote to his grief at his wife's death in 1872 he threw himself back into the political life, becoming Prime Minister for the second time in 1874, displacing Gladstone much to the Queen's delight.

With his signature insight and compelling style, Christopher Hibbert explains the extraordinary complexities and contradictions that characterized Benito Mussolini. Hibbert traces his unstoppable rise to power, examines his legacy and reveals why he continues to be both revered and reviled by the Italian people.

There can be few military victories so complete, or achieved against such heavy odds, as that won by Henry V on 25 October 1415 against Charles VI's army at Agincourt. In the words of one contemporary French chronicler, it was the 'most disgraceful event that had ever happened to the Kingdom of France'.Christopher Hibbert's wonderfully concise account draws on the unusual number of contemporary sources available to historians to describe in lucid detail not only what happened, but how it happened. His classic account of the crushing defeat of the French at Agincourt combines historical rigour with a vigorous and very readable narrative style.

Concise, convincing and exciting, this is Christopher Hibbert s brilliant account of the events that shook eighteenth-century Europe to its foundation. With a mixture of lucid storytelling and fascinating detail, he charts the French Revolution from its beginnings at an impromptu meeting on an indoor tennis court at Versailles in 1789, right through to the coup d etat that brought Napoleon to power ten years later. In the process he explains the drama and complexities of this epoch-making era in the compelling and accessible manner he has made his trademark.Writing in The Times, Richard Holmes described the book as A spectacular replay of epic action while The Good Book Guide called it, Unquestionably the best popular history of the French Revolution .

This book is as captivating as the city itself. Hibbert's gift is weaving political, social and art history into an elegantly readable and marvellously lively whole. The author's book on Florence will also be at once a history and a guide book and will be enhanced by splendid photographs and illustrations and line drawings which will describe all teh buildings and treasures of the city.

The name Borgia is synonymous with the corruption, nepotism, and greed that were rife in Renaissance Italy. The powerful, voracious Rodrigo Borgia, better known to history as Pope Alexander VI, was the central figure of the dynasty. Two of his seven papal offspring also rose to power and fame - Lucrezia Borgia, his daughter, whose husband was famously murdered by her brother, and that brother, Cesare, who served as the model for Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince. Notorious for seizing power, wealth, land, and titles through bribery, marriage, and murder, the dynasty's dramatic rise from its Spanish roots to its occupation of the highest position in Renaissance society forms a gripping tale.Erudite, witty, and always insightful, Hibbert removes the layers of myth around the Borgia family and creates a portrait alive with his superb sense of character and place.

To his mother, Queen Victoria, he was "poor Bertie," to his wife he was "my dear little man," while the President of France called him "a great English king," and the German Kaiser condemned him as "an old peacock." King Edward VII was all these things and more, as Hibbert reveals in this captivating biography. Shedding new light on the scandals that peppered his life, Hibbert reveals Edward's dismal early years under Victoria's iron rule, his terror of boredom that led to a lively social life at home and abroad, and his eventual ascent to the throne at age 59. Edward is best remembered as the last Victorian king, the monarch who installed the office of Prime Minister.

First time in paperback: An intimate biography of a larger-than-life persona-and a radical reassessment of a monarch we thought we knew.

The last year in the life of British general James Wolfe.

Nineteenth century missionary and explorer David Livingstone recalls his extensive journeys through Africa, his close calls with wild predators, and his confrontations with the slave trade.

The years of Elizabeth's childhood were troubled - fraught with danger and beset with the political and religious plots of those around her. At the age of two her mother, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded by her father, Henry VIII; Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and banished from the royal court. This title presents an account of Elizabeth's life.

Africa Explored collects the amazing tales of Europeans in Africa before the wave of colonialism.

In this fresh look at the American Revolution, Hibbert portrays the realities of a war that thousands of George Washington's fellow countrymen condemned and one he came close to losing. This work presents a vivid picture of the "cruel, accursed" war that changed the world forever.