Hugh Thomas - Böcker

Following Rivers of Gold and The Golden Age, World Without End is the conclusion of a magisterial three-volume history of the Spanish Empire by Hugh Thomas, its foremost worldwide authorityWorld Without End is the climax of Hugh Thomas's great history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. It describes the conquest of Paraguay and the River Plate, of the Yucatan in Mexico, the only partial conquest of Chile, and battles with the French over Florida, and then, in the 1580s, the extraordinary projection of Spanish power across the Pacific to conquer the Philippines. More significantly, it describes how the Spanish ran the greatest empire the world had seen since Rome - as well as conquistadores, the book is people with viceroys, judges, nobles, bishops, inquisitors and administrators of many different kinds, often in conflict with one another, seeking to organise the native populations into towns, to build cathedrals, hospitals and universities. Behind them - sometimes ahead of them - came the religious orders, the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and finally the Jesuits, builders of convents and monasteries, many of them of astonishing beauty, and reminders of the pervasiveness of religion and the self-confidence of the age.Towering above them all, though moving rarely from the palace of the Escorial outside Madrid, is the figure of King Philip II, the central figure in the book. The Venetian ambassador thought him 'the arbiter of the world'. Once the Philippines had been consolidated, Philip's advisors contemplated an invasion of China: the Jesuit Father Sanchez called it 'the greatest enterprise which has ever been proposed to any monarch in the world'. It was an enterprise never undertaken, but never explicitly abandoned.Was it a great or a terrible empire? In contrast to other empire builders, the Spaniards entered upon arguments with each other about their right to rule other peoples, and their ruthlessness was often tempered by humanity. Hugh Thomas's conclusion is unequivocal: 'The speed with which the sixteenth-century conquistadores conquered such large territories on two vast continents, and the comparable success of missionaries with large populations of Indians, stands as one of the supreme epics of both valour and imagination by Europeans.'

The first part of his trilogy on the Spanish Empire, Hugh Thomas's Rivers of Gold brings the rise of Spain's global empire vividly to life, capturing the spirit of an ebullient age. Inspired by hopes of both riches and of converting native people to Christianity, the Spanish adventurers of the fifteenth century convinced themselves that an Earthly Paradise existed in the Caribbean. This is the story of the hundreds of conquistadors who set sail on the precarious journey across the Atlantic - taking with them wheat, the horse, the guitar and the wheel as well as guns, malaria and slaves - to create an empire that made Spain the envy of the world. 'Affirms Hugh Thomas's record as one of the most productive and wide-ranging historians of modern times' The New York Times'Splendid ... bold and strong in its outlines, rich in fasinating details' Paul Johnson, Literary Review'So steeped is he in the spirit of the time, so familiar with its people and places that we almost feel he must have been there at the time' Sunday Telegraph'A vivid, dramatic and compelling narrative' Arthur Schlesinger, Jr'As a historian, Thomas is master of the big picture ... Rivers of Gold sweeps us restlessly on' Jonathan Keates, Spectator'An epic history of an extraordinary age' Michael Kerrigan, ScotsmanHugh Thomas is the author of, among other books, The Spanish Civil War (1962) which won the Somerset Maugham Award, Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés and the Fall of Old Mexico (1994), An Unfinished History of the World (1979) and The Slave Trade (1997). The second volume of his planned trilogy on the Spanish Empire, The Golden Age: The Spanish Empire of Charles V was published in 2011.

Moving between Spanish conquest abroad and the court of the astute Charles V, Hugh Thomas's The Golden Age: The Spanish Empire of Charles V is the second volume in a planned trilogy on the Spanish Empire.When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in South America in the sixteenth century, they swept across the continent in a blaze of imperial expansion and brutal savagery. Beginning with the return of the remnants of Magellan's circumnavigation in 1522 and ending with Charles's death in 1558, Hugh Thomas's masterful work brilliantly brings to life one of the most extraordinary periods of the Renaissance, revealing how the Spaniards were able to conquer Guatemala, Yucatan, Columbia, Venezuela, Peru and Chile; how the audacious conquistador Francisco de Orellana sailed down the Amazon, why Cabeza de Vaca walked from Florida to Mexico and what drove Hernando de Soto to pursue worldly riches in Florida, Mississippi and Georgia.While adventurers and explorers like Cortés and Pizarro build entire cities and amassed vast wealth from the treasures of the land, they also killed thousands, and left the indelible mark of Spain's language and religion for centuries to come.'Thomas tells the story of missionary zeal and military plunder with a zest worthy of a swashbuckling historical novelist'The Times'A riveting story of adventure and cruelty ... a considerable scholarly accomplishment'Ben Wilson, Daily Telegraph'This monumental history is an extraordinary achievement ... A beguilingly-written account of a fascinating subject'Alexander Samson, The Times Higher Education SupplementHugh Thomas is the author of, among other books, The Spanish Civil War (1962), which won the Somerset Maugham Award, Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom (1971), An Unfinished History of the World (1979), and the first volume of his Spanish Empire trilogy, Rivers of Gold (2003).

From award-winning historian Hugh Thomas, Cuba: A History is the essential work for understanding one of the most fascinating and controversial countries in the world.Hugh Thomas's acclaimed book explores the whole sweep of Cuban history from the British capture of Havana in 1762 through the years of Spanish and United States domination, down to the twentieth century and the extraordinary revolution of Fidel Castro. Throughout this period of over two hundred years, Hugh Thomas analyses the political, economic and social events that have shaped Cuban history with extraordinary insight and panache, covering subjects ranging from sugar, tobacco and education to slavery, war and occupation. Encyclopaedic in range and breathtaking in execution, Cuba is surely one of the seminal works of world history.'An astonishing feat ... the author does more to explain the phenomenon of Fidel's rise to power than anybody else has done so far' Spectator'Brilliant'The New York Times'Immensely readable. Thomas's notion of history's scope is generous, for he has not limited himself to telling old political and military events; he describes Cuban culture at all stages ... not merely accessible but absorbing. His language is witty but never mocking, crisp but never harsh' New Yorker'Thomas seems to have talked to everybody not dead or in jail, and read everything. He is scrupulously fair' TimeHugh Thomas is the author of, among other books, The Spanish Civil War (1962), which won the Somerset Maugham Award, Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom (1971), An Unfinished History of the World (1979), and the first two volumes of his Spanish Empire trilogy, Rivers of Gold (2003) and The Golden Age (2010).

A dramatic biography of the extraordinary Spanish industrialist and entrepreneur Eduardo BarreirosBorn in an impoverished region of Galicia, possessed of little education and less money, Eduardo Barreiros (1919–1992) rose to become an immensely successful entrepreneur and one of Spain’s most prominent industrialists. In this engaging biography, the first on a Spanish entrepreneur in English, Hugh Thomas recounts Barreiros’s origins as an auto mechanic, his success in the motor industry, his tragic alliance with the Chrysler Corporation, and his little-known role as a motor industry founder in 1980s Cuba. Drawing on an unrivaled knowledge of Spanish history, Lord Thomas also brings to light Barreiros’s critical role in the modernization of the Spanish economy in the post–Civil War years.The book offers a detailed portrait of Don Eduardo’s personality, character, and numerous entrepreneurial endeavors, as well as a full account of the difficulties the Franco-era government threw in the path of his capitalist activities. The relationship between Barreiros and the Chrysler Corporation is also described, along with the failed Dodge Dart project that ultimately cost Barreiros his business. Finally, the book recounts Don Eduardo’s late-in-life efforts to help establish a motor industry in Castro’s Cuba—a paradoxical conclusion for a great capitalist.

A vivacious account of the journey to Spain that inspired The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of SevilleIn 1764-65 the irrepressible playwright Beaumarchais traveled to Madrid, where he immersed himself in the life and society of the day. Inspired by the places he had seen and the people he had met, Beaumarchais returned home to create The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro, plays that became the basis for the operas by Rossini and Mozart that continue to delight audiences today. This book is a lively and original account of Beaumarchais’s visit to Madrid (he never went to Seville) and a re-creation of the society that fired his imagination. Drawing on Beaumarchais’s letters and commentaries, translated into English for the first time, Hugh Thomas investigates the full range of the playwright’s activities in Madrid. He focuses particular attention on short plays that Beaumarchais attended and by which he was probably influenced, and he probes the inspirations for such widely recognized characters as the barber-valet Figaro, the lordly Count Almaviva, and the beautiful but deceived Rosine. Not neglecting Beaumarchais’s many other pursuits (ranging from an endeavor to gain a contract for selling African slaves to an attempt to place his mistress as a spy in the bed of King Charles III), Lord Thomas provides a highly entertaining view of a vital moment in Madrid’s history and in the creative life of the energetic Beaumarchais.

The events of the period 1485 - 1660 were decisive in the development of modern Wales and, in Hugh Thomas' first in the four-volume "Welsh History Text Books" series, students are presented with a scholarly, balanced and informative discussion. From the crowning of Henry Tudor as King of England in 1485 to the profoundly transformed religious, cultural and economic conditions at the end of the period under survey, Wales and Welsh society would stride forward in a committed partnership within a greater Britain.

Basic Water Treatment, now in its sixth edition, is an accessible and practical guide to all aspects of potable water quality and treatment. Focusing on the issues of most interest to practising engineers, it provides examples of good practice, summarises key issues and criteria, and includes additional theory to explain and support the treatment processes considered.This new edition has been fully updated and has also been expanded to cover additional processes and topics, and to take account of developing concerns relating to emerging contaminants. It includes new chapters on activated carbon adsorption and water re-use to reflect the increasing importance of these subjects, and significant updates to sections on disinfection, emerging contaminants, membrane processes, desalination and advanced oxidation processes.Basic Water Treatment is an essential resource for water engineers at all levels - a textbook for students, a handbook for engineers or chemists who are new to the industry, and an indispensable guide full of updated practical information for the established practitioner.

The rise and fall of the business of slave trading - by a bestselling historianThe Atlantic slave trade was one of the largest and most elaborate maritime and commercial ventures. Between 1492 and about 1870, ten million or more black slaves were carried from Africa to one port or another of the Americas.In this wide-ranging book, Hugh Thomas follows the development of this massive shift of human lives across the centuries until the slave trade's abolition in the late nineteenth century.

The charm of Madrid is elusive, but for those who know how to find it, Madrid has magic. Its magic can be found in the shadow cast over the present by the past. In this Traveller's Reader, a city that was once the seat of power for perhaps the most ambitious political enterprise the western world had seen since the fall of Rome, the Spanish Empire, is brought to life in vivid diaries, letters, memoirs and histories.The Earl of Clarendon describes seventeenth-century bullfights; Salvador Dali plays a surrealist joke on a snooty barman at the Ritz; Rubens visits the Alcázar; Manet is at the Prado; generals and anarchists meet in the Puerta del Sol. The many stories included here evoke for today's tourist the dramas and personalities of a city's past, by drawing on the eyewitness accounts and commentaries of visitors and residents of earlier centuries. Hugh Thomas has chosen these and other vivid snapshots of Madrid's history from diaries, letters, memoirs and novels across five centuries to delight and fascinate the armchair and prospective traveller alike.

The Memoirs of the AMS is devoted to the publication of new research in all areas of pure and applied mathematics. The Memoirs is designed particularly to publish long papers of groups of cognate papers in book form, and is under the supervision of the Editorial Committee of the AMS journal Transactions of the American Mathematical Society. All papers are peer-reviewed.

First serious examination of the curious demise of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler that also investigates an extraordinary web of secret deals and international intrigue.On 23 May 1945 Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS and architect of the Holocaust, committed suicide in Allied custody. So why was MI6's most talented secret agent Kim Philby unconvinced by the story of Himmler's suicide?Hugh Thomas set out to answer Philby's question and has uncovered a maze of corruption, high finance, political gambles and international intrigue.

The continuing success of the Asian Miracle relies on an entrepreneurial revolution that has increased the productivity and flexibility of economies across the region. Yet this revolution has largely been necessity-driven, traditional and vulnerable to erosion as the region becomes increasingly prosperous and well educated. How to educate the next wave of entrepreneurs is a pressing Asian question that resonates around the world and is the subject of this volume. Hugh Thomas and Donna Kelley draw on 24 scholars from 15 institutions to report on regional entrepreneurship education. They identify problems encountered by educators and describe solutions that stimulate students to create value. The approaches are hands-on, project-based and multidisciplinary, geared to develop educator-to-business entrepreneurial ecosystems. The entrepreneurial programs described in this book involve inter-cultural experience: working with major corporations, consulting to small and medium sized enterprises, traveling to distant lands, addressing environmental and social problems, and reaching out to the disadvantaged. Social entrepreneurship is combined with for-profit entrepreneurship in programs that extend the concept of value creation to activities. This book eloquently and expertly describes how entrepreneurship education - whether in Vietnam, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, China or elsewhere on the globe - can combine with community to help youth create a better world. Students and scholars the world over, along with administrators, researchers, and all those with an interest in education and entrepreneurship, will find much of interest in this enlightening volume.Contributors: G. Abe, P. Adriaens, D. Chang, G. Du, V. Duong TE, T. Faley, S. Guan, D. Kelley, B. Koo, H. Lingyu, J.J. Lee, J. Levie, L. Liu, A.C. Martinez, P. Mohan, T. Ohe, R.J. Sæmundsson, T. Schøtt, S. Tih, Y. Wang, K. Wilson, L. Xu, J. Yu