'I have committed many acts of cruelty and had an incalculable number of men killed, never knowing whether what I did was right. But I am indifferent to what people think of me.'
- Genghis Khan
A spine-chilling chronicle of dictators and their crimes against humanity, Tyrants introduces the most bloodthirsty madmen - and women - ever to wield power over their unfortunate fellow human beings.
From Herod the Great, persecutor of the infant Jesus, to Adolf Hitler, mass murderer and instigator of the most devastating war the world has ever known, this book examines history's most infamous despots and tells in vivid detail the story of the lives they led, their ruthless climb to the top and the destruction and sorrow they left in their wake.
Unflinching in its coverage, Tyrants is a gripping and compelling portrait of the darker side of politics and power, revealing the strange and grisly stories behind the world's most infamous autocrats.
Vietnam was the longest war in American history. US ground troops and their Australian, New Zealand and Korean allies were committed there for eight long years. In all, the American commitment in Southeast Asia lasted 15 years. During that time over 46,000 US servicemen died in battle. The Australian and New Zealand troops who fought there lost 496 dead and 2,398 wounded. But these figures pale beside Vietnamese losses, which totalled over a million.
Vietnam was the first war America lost. It left the country bitterly divided. Many of the 2.7 million Americans who served there suffered psychologically for decades to come and the USA discovered that, for all its might and technological superiority, it could not defeat the ill-equipped peasant army of a small and fiercely determined enemy.
In this concise account, historian Nigel Cawthorne traces the conflict from its inception to its traumatic end. He looks at the political events that led to the war and examines its impact upon both the Americans and the Vietnamese, whose battle for the independence of their country was to leave lingering scars upon the American psyche. Vietnam: A War Lost and Won is an even-handed assessment of a conflict whose wounds would take a generation to heal.
Pirates have an almost mythical status in the public imagination - we think of rogue heroes riding the high seas and 'X marks the spot'. But this image is flawed at best.
Using contemporary sources, Nigel Cawthorne turns the spotlight on the reality of pirate life, revealing the truth behind the legends. It gives us an insight into infamous the men and women who plundered ship and shore, including Captain Kidd, Blackbeard and Mary Read. We learn of the hazy distinction between pirates and state-approved privateers who were used to maintain empire, as well as the Port Royal pirate base in Jamaica - known as the 'wickedest city in the world'.
Including details of various pirate exploits, as well as their weapons, ships and unhappy victims, this fascinating read will divide fact from slippery fiction.
Great battles mark history's turning points, occurring where cultures and ideologies clash. While some battles have been won by the superior force, others have been won by a sheer dogged refusal to surrender in the face of overwhelming odds. Superior weaponry has sometimes brought victory, as at Plassey, while the extraordinary generalship of a Napoleon, a Wellington, or a Marlborough has won the day on other occasions.
From the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, when the vastly-outnumbered Athenian army turned back an invasion of the mighty Persian empire, up to the Vietnamese defeat of the French army at the battle of Dien Bien Phu, the battles in this book demonstrate that fate is not always on the side of the big battalions.
When bigotry and power-mania take control, disaster always follows for subjugated persons - even when the power is wielded by the Church.
Witchcraft was viewed as devil-worship. Between 1450 and 1750, one hundred thousand people were accused, subject to the most bestial tortures and usually executed. Witches examines the wildfire-spread of witch hunting across Europe and America, revealing the disturbing and brutal realities of these witch hunts and their roots in misogyny and religious persecution.
It includes:
• Letters and trial testimonies from those charged with witchcraft, as well as some from self-proclaimed witches
• Biographic detail of key witch hunters, such as Matthew Hopkins (the so-called Witchfinder General) who was responsible for hundreds of executions
• Accounts of famous witch trials, from Chelmsford to Salam
Nigel Cawthorne doesn't shy away from the violent details of this persecution, exploring the events as they transpired, the contexts that triggered them and tracing it back to its source.
Please note: This audiobook contains descriptions of a violent and sexual nature and is not intended for younger listeners. Discretion is advised.
Kings & Queens of England is an entertaining account of the larger-than-life characters that have ruled England through the ages. Divided into easy-reference chapters based on the ruling dynasties of England, it follows the fascinating history of monarchs from the first Saxon kings to the Windsors of the present day.
Author Nigel Cawthorne paints vivid portraits of a mixed bunch of rulers ranging from the drunken and debauched merry monarch Charles II to the idealized domesticity and colonial ambition of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
