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The Venetian Empire
The Venetian Empire
Apr 5, 2025 9:27 PM

Author:Jan Morris

The Venetian Empire

For six centuries the Republic of Venice was a maritime empire, its sovereign power extending throughout much of the eastern Mediterranean – an empire of coasts, islands and isolated fortresses by which, as Wordsworth wrote, the mercantile Venetians 'held the gorgeous east in fee'.

Jan Morris reconstructs the whole of this glittering dominion in the form of a sea-voyage, travelling along the historic Venetian trade routes from Venice itself to Greece, Crete and Cyprus. It is a traveller's book, geographically arranged but wandering at will from the past to the present, evoking not only contemporary landscapes and sensations but also the characters, the emotions and the tumultuous events of the past. The first such work ever written about the Venetian ‘Stato da Mar’, it is an invaluable historical companion for visitors to Venice itself and for travellers through the lands the Doges once ruled.

Reviews

It's a book that seems more like a multi-volume history, so sweeping is it; yet lucid and captivating even in detailed areas... Fundamental to Lynch's approach is a sense of connection between now and then, however far back; he continuously shows how Scottish identity refashions its heroes and myths, yet clings to survival

—— Douglas Gifford

A monumental achievement

—— Times Literary Supplement

Breathtaking and absorbing

—— Scottish Field

Fascinating...it ought to be compulsory reading for all MPs, journalists and commentators before they were permitted to talk about European economic and political union

—— Tom Wilkie , Independent

A great swirling devil of a book and it is equal in every way to its vast subject - the black and white country of the heart

—— Don DeLillo

A magnificent book, an explosion of truth-telling

—— Times Literary Supplement

Unusual, vivid, raw and revealing

—— Donald Woods , Sunday Times

Many books are called "searing". This one really is. Rian Malan, a journalist of solid Afrikaner stock, explores deeper into the darkness of late apartheid South Africa than any other writer

—— Economist

Includes all of Charlotte's know how and insider tricks into a book, (this is the) ultimate go to guide on how to care for this type of hair

—— Hello Magazine

A long overdue bible on textured and curly hair (...) Good Hair begins with the history and sacredness of the afro hairstyle, the part it played in the Black Power Movement and Mensah's own story'

—— Psychologies Magazine

Toby Green's transformative book repositions West African history in an entirely new light. It brings into focus the region's fundamental place in shaping the modern world as well as the powerful and also difficult legacy of this today.

—— Paul Reid, Director, Black Cultural Archives

Very seldom do I pick up a history book and wish I had written it myself. Toby Green's A Fistful of Shells is one such book. Brilliantly conceptualized, beautifully written, it breaks with colonially configured regional boundaries - which work to re-create unintended silos of knowledge - to imagine a West and West Central African Atlantic history of money, power, religion, and inequality that is as rich as it is sound.

—— Professor Nwando Achebe, Michigan State University

This book represents an extraordinary and admirable archival and bibliographic undertaking.

—— Times Literary Supplement

A vital book that offers us new, complex narratives to view African countries and their relationships to Europe and the Global North. Faloyin's stylish, propulsive prose blends history, memoir and opinion, so that reading him has the impression of being at the knee of a great storyteller.

—— Jonathan Nunn, editor of Vittles

Demonstrates how that old saying - "this time is different" - is both so true and so wrong!

—— Lord Stephen Green , former CEO and Chairman of HSBC and UK Minister of State for Trade and Investment, 2011-2013

Crashes are an integral part of the history of capitalism. The last century has seen plenty of them. All crashes begin with debt-fuelled euphoria and end in disappointment. Yet how bad that disappointment turns out to be also depends on where in the economy the crash falls and how determined and credible are the responses. In this lively and blessedly brief book, Linda Yueh does a lovely job of explaining the history and drawing the necessary lessons

—— Martin Wolf , Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times

This excellent overview identifies the ingredients that are specific to each crisis and common to all. She provides a lucid assessment of the efficacy of policy responses, high-lighting credibility as a necessary condition for successful resolution

—— Lord Nick McPherson, , former Permanent Secretary of the UK Treasury, 2005-2016, and Chairman of C. Hoare & Co.

"Why did nobody notice?" Was the question the Queen asked about the 2008 financial crisis. It was a good question. All financial crises and crashes have their own characteristics but they also often involve certain common features:- Irrational exuberance, Speculative frenzy, Greed and over confidence usually supported by high levels of gearing.

Linda Yueh's new book will be a timely reminder to governments and regulators of the warning signs of future crises

—— Lord Norman Lamont , former Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1990-1993

Timely, entertaining and full of useful insights

—— Gideon Rachman , Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator, Financial Times

Renowned economist Dr Linda Yueh looks at past financial crashes - from the Wall Street Crash to the dot com boom and bust and the Covid pandemic - to explore what we can learn from them in this entertainingly written book.

—— i, Best New Books in May

Entertaining, well-written . . . [Yueh] has come up with a three-step framework to help spot when financial problems are brewing and identifies where the next may occur.

—— Ben Wright , Telegraph

A gifted writer (een begenadigd schrijver)

—— De Telegraaf
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