Monarchy Books - Page 6

Diana, Princess of Wales: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)

Martin Gitlin

Amazon Price: $28.00 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Greenwood Press Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $21.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> Princess Diana

Editorial Review:

Long before her tragic death, Diana, Princess of Wales was a beloved modern icon, relatable to the general public in a way that transcended the barrier between royal and commoner. As a member of the royal family in an age of mass media, her fairy-tale wedding to, and painful divorce from, Prince Charles was played out on the world stage. Later, her humanitarian work for the Red Cross, her campaigns against landmines, and her work with the sick, especially AIDS victims, added a compassionate element to the royal family in the eyes of the world--and the world, ten years later, still hasn't gotten enough of Lady DI. This objective, accessible volume explores Diana's fascinating life, including her aristocratic upbringing, her whirlwind engagement to Prince Charles, their rocky marriage, her role as mother and her sons' coming of age in her absence, her post-divorce status as global humanitarian icon, the media's frenzied treatment of her death, and her charitable legacy. A timeline of key events, vibrant images, and a bibliography of print and nonprint sources supplement the work.

Feudalism In Japan

Peter Duus

Amazon Price: $37.81 Usually ships in 24 hours By: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages Amazon Marketplace: 31 new & used starting at $9.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> Japan
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> General
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Well written explination of Japanese Feudalism 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I read this book for a class entitled, "The History of East Asia before 1800." This book details from 6th century Japan up until the Meiji Restoration. The epilogue contains some useful insights into modern Japanese culture.

It's very well written, and outlines the rise and fall of Japanese Feudalism. To be sure, it's a broad overview of the rise and fall of Japanese Feudalism. It covers the broader details, and paints a good historical view of Japan.

Editorial Review:

This book offers a systematic comparison between Japanese and Western political institutions in the premodern period. It offers a brief discussion of the meaning and significance of the term Feudalism, and it suggests ways in which the term might be used for explorations in comparative history. Because of its brevity, it can be used as one of many paper backs in the premodern Japanese history course, or as background reading for courses on modern Japanese history and modern Japanese politics. Given its comparative approach, it can also be used as supplement in Western or world civilization course.

Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen

Joanna Denny

Amazon Price: $12.67 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Da Capo Press Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $4.24

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Irish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

twilight zone 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Ms Dennys unfortunately, through what can only be a very biased view, makes all her seemingly excellent research go to waste. She distorts it all to fit her point of view. I have few doubts she uncovered new evidence to prove that not all was "black and white", but with her determination to make Anne and her father true saints it just does not read true.
And agreeing with an excellent review I read here, to argue that Catherine of Aragon was a shrew (aactually treacherous!) for not accepting her marriage as not valid and her daughter as bastard, right at the beginning of the book, just makes one want to close the book and go do something more interesting.And somehow I also do not believe the idea that Boleyn also married the king in order to bring forth the new religion sticks, not with all that was known about Henry and his court

Editorial Review:

Joanna Denny reveals the truth about Anne Boleyn--intelligent, literate, and devout--and the truth about her king and his court--violent, scheming, and profane.

This powerful new biography presents a portrait of Anne Boleyn different from the unsavory and unflattering accounts of her that have come down through history. Instead, we learn about the real Anne--a woman who was highly literate, accomplished, an intellectual, and a devout defender of her Protestant faith. Anne's tragedy began when her looks and vivacious charm attracted the notice of England's violent and paranoid king whose love for her trapped her in the vicious politics of the Tudor court.

This compelling account of Anne Boleyn plunges the reader into the intrigue, romance, and danger of King Henry VIII's court and the turbulent times that would change England forever. It will forever change our perception of this much-maligned queen.

On Royalty: A Very Polite Inquiry into Some Strangely Related Families

Jeremy Paxman

Amazon Price: $16.33 List Price: $26.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: PublicAffairs Amazon Marketplace: 57 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A hugely entertaining look at the institution of monarchy by Britain's most combative and best-loved broadcaster.

The notable characteristic of the royal families of Europe is that they have so very little of anything remotely resembling true power. Increasingly, they tend towards the condition of pipsqueak principalities like Liechtenstein and Monaco--fancy-dress fodder for magazines that survive by telling us things we did not need to know about people we have hardly heard of.

How then have kings and queens come to exercise the mesmeric hold they have upon our imaginations? In On Royalty renowned BBC journalist Jeremy Paxman examines the role of the British monarchy in an age when divine right no longer prevails and governing powers fall to the country's elected leaders. With intelligence and humor, he scrutinizes every aspect of the monarchy and how it has related to politics, religion, the military and the law. He takes us inside Buckingham Palace and illuminates the lives of the monarchs, at once mundane, absurd and magical. What Desmond Morris did for apes, Paxman has done for these primus inter primates: the royal families. Gilded history, weird anthropology and surreal reportage of the royals up close combine in On Royalty, a brilliant investigation into how an ancient institution struggles for meaning in a modern country.

A King's Story - The Memoirs of the Duke of Windsor

Edward Windsor, Duke of Windsor, HRH The Duke of Windsor

List Price: $17.56 By: Trafalgar Square Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 3 new & used starting at $39.59

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Irish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Fascinating historical document and surprisingly good read 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 20 people found this review helpful.

The Duke of Windsor wrote this book in the 1950s while living in Paris. Reading it you begin to get some sense that for all his faults here was an individual of extraordinary personal charm. It was certainly a singular life. Here was a boy who was led to believe he would inherit the throne of the greatest empire on earth but who ends up as a sad fixture on the international cocktail party circuit in the arms of an ageing American divorcee of uncertain past. What happened! The anecdotal style of this simply written book is very enjoyable to read. The passing of the certainties of the Victorian age, the Edwardian twilight, World War I, the thrill of all things new and American in the 20s and 30s: the would be Edward VIII is a uniquely placed witness. History increasingly casts the Duke and his bride as ridiculous even sinister figures. This book helps you to remember that they were human too, falliable, and at the mercy of political and world historical forces beyond their control.

Editorial Review:

"Given my character, my roving curiosity and independence, my life appeared to form a disconnected pattern--duty without decision, service without responsibility, pomp without power. Meanwhile, something had happened that, although I did not realise it at the time, was destined to change the whole course of my life. I met Wallis Warfield Simpson." Written in 1951, in his own hand, this is the story of a man raised to be king, a man who abdicated the throne to marry an American divorce. Theirs was to become the most famous love affair of this century. In this poignant, elegantly written memoir, the Duke recalls his austere upbringing, his days at Oxford, the Great War, his profound love for Wallis Simpson and the growing crisis over the affair, and the appalling dilemma that confronted him in the final months leading up to his abdication.

George III: America's Last King (The English Monarchs Series)

Jeremy Black

Amazon Price: $16.33 List Price: $22.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Yale University Press Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $16.33

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The sixty-year reign of George III (1760–1820) witnessed and participated in some of the most critical events of modern world history: the ending of the Seven Years’ War with France, the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars, the campaign against Napoleon Bonaparte and battle of Waterloo in 1815, and Union with Ireland in 1801. Despite the pathos of the last years of the mad, blind, and neglected monarch, it is a life full of importance and interest.
Jeremy Black’s biography deals comprehensively with the politics, the wars, and the domestic issues, and harnesses the richest range of unpublished sources in Britain, Germany, and the United States. But, using George III’s own prolific correspondence, it also interrogates the man himself, his strong religious faith, and his powerful sense of moral duty to his family and to his nation. Black considers the king’s scientific, cultural, and intellectual interests as no other biographer has done, and explores how he was viewed by his contemporaries. Identifying George as the last British ruler of the Thirteen Colonies, Black reveals his strong personal engagement in the struggle for America and argues that George himself, his intentions and policies, were key to the conflict.

Life: Remembering Grace (Life (Life Books))

Howell Conant

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Life Amazon Marketplace: 56 new & used starting at $6.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Portraits
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> General

Editorial Review:

Howell Conant (1917-1999) first met Grace Kelly on a 1955 modelling assignment, and the two found an instant easy rapport. From then until Grace's untimely death in September, 1982, Conant was always present in Grace's life - in New York City, in Jamaica, in Hollywood, in Monaco - to make the most intimate pictures of this astonishingly lovely person. (In fact, his attendance at the princess' funeral marked the very first time he travelled to Monaco without his camera.) Many of the sublime images in this book appeared in the pages of "Life", "Look", "Paris Match", "Collier's" and other magazines. Several of the photographs are published for the first time.Grace was Howell Conant's greatest subject, and he was her friend, confidante and perfect portraitist. She has been gone for over two decades now, but she-and their friendship will live forever in these pictures.

Alwaleed: Businessman, Billionaire, Prince

Riz Khan

Amazon Price: $19.14 List Price: $26.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: William Morrow Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $6.55

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Rich & Famous
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

There are few individuals as unique, enigmatic, and colorful as Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud.

This biography of the world's fifth-richest man -- worth around $24 billion -- tells the story of a businessman who started out with a relatively modest bank loan and built an empire that embraces the best-known brands, from Citigroup and Disney to Apple Computers and the Four Seasons Hotels. Alwaleed, as he's known to most in the Middle East, is the largest single foreign investor in the U.S. economy, with interests in almost everything that touches the American lifestyle. Like investment guru Warren Buffett, Alwaleed became hugely successful through consecutive strategic high-profile investments, earning him the respect of Wall Street.

In this fascinating and uniquely insightful authorized biography, international journalist and broadcaster Riz Khan offers a revealing insider's view of this provocative business genius, focusing on issues including:

• his unique family history
• the origins of his powerful drive to succeed
• his phenomenal success in rescuing beleaguered companies such as America's giant Citigroup
• his investments in top brands including Four Seasons Hotels, Saks Fifth Avenue, and NewsCorp
• his unique approach to investing -- and some of his most lucrative strategies

Beyond the billionaire, jet-set lifestyle, Prince Alwaleed has a close and emotional relationship with the desert and its people. His identity sits on the fence separating the Arab world on one side, with tents, camels, and rifle-toting Bedouins ... and the fast-paced, hungry, pinstripe world of Wall Street, with limousines and designer labels.

Brilliant, charming, and extraordinarily hardworking, this billionaire's personal story unfolds in gripping detail, based on in-depth interviews with the Prince's family, entourage, and closest business associates -- including top names such as Sandy Weill, Rupert Murdoch, and Jimmy Carter.

Alwaleed is a revealing portrait of an unusual individual whose presence in the global economy is unmatched; a twenty-first-century ambassador who could be the ultimate bridge to connect the Middle East and the West.

Madame de Pompadour: A Life

Evelyne Lever

Amazon Price: $14.36 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: St. Martin's Griffin Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $2.97

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A riveting new biography of the legendary French queen Family life in Vienna, the wedding at Versailles to Louis XVI, the French court, boredom, hypocrisy, loneliness, allies, enemies, extravagant entertainment, scandal, intrigue, sex, birth and bereavement, lovers, peasant riots, the fall of the Bastille, the attack on Versailles, confinement in the Tuileries, escape and capture, mob rule in Paris, imprisonment, the guillotine. Marie Antoinette is a biographer's dream, and Evelyne Lever's account of the life of the inimitable (and last) French queen is a sumptuous, addictive delight. From Marie Antoinette's birth in Vienna in 1755--the fifteenth child of Austrian Archduchess Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I--through her turbulent and unhappy marriage to Louis XVI, the turmoil of the French Revolution, her trial for high treason (during which she was accused of incest), and her final beheading, Lever draws on a variety of resources, including diaries, letters, and firsthand accounts, to weave a gripping, fast-paced historical narrative that reads like expertly crafted fiction.

Mad Kings & Queens: History's Most Famous Raving Royals

Alison Rattle, Allison Vale

Amazon Price: $7.95 List Price: $7.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Sterling Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $3.15

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Some Interesting Pieces of European History 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a collection of forty mini-biographies of European royals who were insane or whose actions garnered them a reputation for insanity during their period in history. The book covers kings and queens who lived between the 14th and 19th centuries. Some of them would definitely be considered crazy and maniacal by today's standards (Erzsebet Bathory of Hungary bathed in the blood of young, virgin women in order to improve her complexion), but others were condemned by their peers for homosexuality or large libidos.

There is only a short 2-3 page section on each royal, so the entries are by no means all-inclusive. But they give a brief overview of each person's life, along with the main actions or events that indicate their insanity. In many cases, explanations are also given for their poor mental health, such as being abused as a child, hereditary mental illness, generations of inbreeding, or key events that led to an emotional or mental breakdown.

This is a very interesting book, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in European history. It serves a good overview of this topic, but if you'll have to read other books if you want to go more in depth. It would have also been nice if the authors had included some monarchs who weren't European. Were there really no rulers from other continents who would qualify? Still, it makes a nice addition to any collection of books on European history.

Editorial Review:

Throughout history, some royal rulers were wise and just; others, well, they were just plain loony. From the inbred and mentally deficient to the delusional and the criminally insane, those royal eccentrics come to life here. Some are well-known, like “Ivan the Terrible” of Russia, who enjoyed torturing both animals and people for sport. Others were less famous, but no less twisted, including Hungary’s Erzsebet Bathory, who believed she could improve her complexion by bathing in the blood of young girls. And before he became an unhinged sultan at age 25, Mustafa I of Turkey was kept in a cage by his ruling brother. Some 40 mad rulers are profiled in all, making this the greatest collection of raving royals ever assembled.