Ronald Martin – författare

Addressing the history of the earth in terms of geological process and the resolution of the fossil record, Ronald Martin presents a report on the current state of knowledge on a group of interconnected themes - process, scale and hierarchy, and the methodologies of historical sciences. He examines several questions about geological history: What is the evidence for processes that occur over long periods of geologic history? Why are these long term earth processes significant to the human race? How does one test hypotheses using the fossil record? And what, at the present rate of knowledge, are the limits of that record? As Martin explains, the project of the geologist is to interpret natural phenomena by integrating data into large contexts and constructing a historical narrative. Through the critical examination of these narratives, geologists can determine how the earth evolved into its present state. However, the scale employed in measurement can cause wide variations in the results of any inquiry into geologic process. Martin addresses a wide range of topics, including taphonomy, bioturbation, cycles of carbon dioxide, global cooling, and extinction.He supplements the theatrical framework with explanations of concepts and definitions of key terminology.

Addressing the history of the earth in terms of geological process and the resolution of the fossil record, Ronald Martin presents a report on the current state of knowledge on a group of interconnected themes - process, scale and hierarchy, and the methodologies of historical sciences. He examines several questions about geological history: What is the evidence for processes that occur over long periods of geologic history? Why are these long term earth processes significant to the human race? How does one test hypotheses using the fossil record? And what, at the present rate of knowledge, are the limits of that record? As Martin explains, the project of the geologist is to interpret natural phenomena by integrating data into large contexts and constructing a historical narrative. Through the critical examination of these narratives, geologists can determine how the earth evolved into its present state. However, the scale employed in measurement can cause wide variations in the results of any inquiry into geologic process. Martin addresses a wide range of topics, including taphonomy, bioturbation, cycles of carbon dioxide, global cooling, and extinction.He supplements the theatrical framework with explanations of concepts and definitions of key terminology.

Books V and VI of Tacitus’ Annals, when complete, carried the narrative of Tiberius’ reign from AD 29 to 37. Unfortunately most of Book V has been lost, and, with it, Tacitus’ account of the sensational events that led to the execution on 18 October in AD 31 of Aelius Sejanus. Nevertheless, Annals VI contains a fascinating variety of incidents both at Rome and on Capri, to which Tiberius had retired permanently in AD 27. But, in addition to all the material that portrays Tiberius in a highly unfavourable light, there is much in Annals VI that shows a very different side to his character. Whereas Suetonius talks of an elderly emperor who discarded all interest in public affairs from the time he retired to Capri, Tacitus portrays a more complex character – one in which cruelty and vice stand alongside a deep concern for Rome’s prosperity at home and abroad. Annals VI provides an absorbing account of the varied aspects of the behaviours and personality of Rome’s most enigmatic emperor during the final years of his life. Latin text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.

The first edition of this study of the greatest and most original of Roman historians appeared in 1981 and was enthusiastically received by reviewers as the most ambitious book on Tacitus to appear since Sir Ronald Syme's great work thirty years ago. This is the second paperback edition, incorporating corrections and an up-to-date bibliography.