Italy Books - Page 12

The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus

translation by William Whiston

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Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> Bible Study -> General
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Josephus for Myself 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

For decades I've heard pastors or Bible teachers reference the Jewish historian, Josephus. But he was as legendary and unknowable as characters in the Bible. Now this book gives me my OWN insight into Josephus and history of the first-century Christian church. Not an easy read, but a tome every Christian should have in his or her library. Beautifully presented by Attic Books.

Editorial Review:

An exquistite reproduction of a circa-1850 large, single-volume collection of Flavius Josephus' complete literary works. A priest, scholar, and warrior, this Jewish historian was born just a few years after the death of Jesus Christ. Best known for his works The Antiquities of the Jews and The Jewish Wars, Josephus is an oft-cited source for students of biblical chronology and history.

Vespa

Valerio Boni

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Automotive -> Motorcycles -> General

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the fashion capitols of the world, the Vespa motorscooter is a necessary lifestyle accessory. And those who are not Vespa owners are Vespa admirers. From the classic romance of Roman Holiday to the defiant non-conformity of the Mod and Punk scenes, and today's hipsters, the Vespa has become an icon of adventure, style, and "coolness." Like so much Italian design, the Vespa's form is sensual and sleek, and even after 60 years, its retro lines continue to seduce and excite. This eco-friendly darling of fashionistas and celebrities (Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert DeNiro, and Lenny Kravitz all have one) is the perfect antidote to city congestion, and makes getting to your next gallery opening, movie premier, or market, fast and fun.Vespa is a celebration of the scooter's history. Containing over 200 images, the book covers the technical evolution of the Vespa-first built in 1946 by the aircraft manufacturer Piaggio-through 138 successive models and versions (including the short-lived Vespa car). The book is also a look at the iconic vehicle's significant role in society and its impact on popular culture through today. Vintage advertising, copiously reproduced throughout this treasure trove of all things Vespa, embodies the uniqely European aesthetic and Italian vitality that is at once exotic and familiar to everyone.

The Rage and The Pride

Oriana Fallaci

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 125 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

With The Rage and the Pride Oriana Fallaci breaks a ten year silence. The silence she kept until September 11's apocalypse in her Manhattan house. She breaks it with a deafening noise. In Europe this book has caused and causes a turmoil never registered in decades. Polemics, discussion, debates, hearty consents and praises, wild attacks. And a million copies sold in Italy where it still is at the bestsellers' top. Hundreds of thousands in France, in Germany, in Spain: the other countries where it has become the Number one Bestseller. Around a dozen translations will soon appear.

With her well-known courage Oriana Fallaci faces the themes unchained by the Islamic terrorism: the contrast and, in her opinion, incompatibility between the Islamic world and the Western world; the global reality of the Jihad and the lack of response, the lenience of the West. With her brutal sincerity she hurls pitiless accusations, vehement invectives, and denounces the uncomfortable truths that all of us know but never dare to express. With her rigorous logic, lucidity of mind, she defends our culture and blames what she calls our blindness, our deafness, our masochism, the conformism and the arrogance of the Politically Correct. With the poetry of a prophet like a modern Cassandra she says it in the form of a letter addressed to all of us.

The text is enriched by a dramatic preface in which Oriana Fallaci reveals how The Rage and the Pride was born, grew up, and detachedly calls it "my small book." In addition, a preface in which she tells significant episodes of her extraordinary life and explains her unreachable isolation, her demanding and inflexible choices. Because of this too, what she calls "my small book" is in reality a great book. A precious book, a book that shakes our conscience. It is also the portrait of a soul. Her soul. No doubt it will remain as a thorn pierced inside our brains and our hearts.

Sicily: Three Thousand Years of Human History

Sandra Benjamin

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Tourists, armchair travelers, and historians will all delight in this fluid narrative that can be read straight through, dipped into over time, or used as a reference guide to each period in Sicily’s fascinating tale. Emigration of people from Sicily often overshadows the importance of the people who immigrated to the island through the centuries. These have included several who became Sicily’s rulers, along with Jews, Ligurians, and Albanians. Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Goths, Byzantines, Muslims, Normans, Hohenstaufens, Spaniards, Bourbons, the Savoy Kingdom of Italy and the modern era have all held sway, and left lasting influences on the island’s culture and architecture. Sicily’s character has also been determined by what passed it by: events that affected Europe generally, namely the Crusades and Columbus’s discovery of the Americas, remarkably had little influence on Italy’s most famous island. Maps, biographical notes, suggestions for further reading, a glossary, pronunciation keys, and much more make this unique book as essential as it is enjoyable.

Greeks & Romans Bearing Gifts: How the Ancients Inspired the Founding Fathers

Carl J. Richard

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Editorial Review:

This lively and engaging book is the only popular work to explore the profound impact of Ancient Greece and Rome on the founding fathers. Recounting the stirring stories the founders encountered in their favorite histories of Greece and Rome, renowned scholar Carl J. Richard explores what they learned from these vivid tales and how they applied these lessons to their own heroic quest to win American independence and establish a durable republic.

Venice from the Ground Up (From the Ground Up)

James H. S. McGregor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Venice came to life on spongy mudflats at the edge of the habitable world. Protected in a tidal estuary from barbarian invaders and Byzantine overlords, the fishermen, salt gatherers, and traders who settled there crafted an amphibious way of life unlike anything the Roman Empire had ever known. In an astonishing feat of narrative history, James H. S. McGregor recreates this world-turned-upside-down, with its waterways rather than roads, its boats tethered alongside dwellings, and its livelihood harvested from the sea.

McGregor begins with the river currents that poured into the shallow Lagoon, carving channels in its bed and depositing islands of silt. He then describes the imaginative responses of Venetians to the demands and opportunities of this harsh environment—transforming the channels into canals, reclaiming salt marshes for the construction of massive churches, erecting a thriving marketplace and stately palaces along the Grand Canal. Through McGregor’s eyes, we witness the flowering of Venice’s restless creativity in the elaborate mosaics of St. Mark’s soaring basilica, the expressive paintings in smaller neighborhood churches, and the colorful religious festivals—but also in theatrical productions, gambling casinos, and masked revelry, which reveal the city’s less pious and orderly face.

McGregor tells his unique history of Venice by drawing on a crumbling, tide-threatened cityscape and a treasure-trove of art that can still be seen in place today. The narrative follows both a chronological and geographical organization, so that readers can trace the city’s evolution chapter by chapter and visitors can explore it district by district on foot and by boat.

(20061101)

Josephus: The Jewish War

Flavius Josephus, E. Mary Smallwood

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Jewish War Was a Bloody Wars. 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 7 people found this review helpful.

The Jewish War recorded by Josephus (not the second war; 132-135) but the first one is masterfully recorded in this edition. At the same time, I don't wnat to sound as though I read it simply for the sake of reading a 'materpiece of literature' but because I sincerely wanted to know, from a first hand perspective, what is was like for someone to go through this. Since were don't have many poor and average people's accounts, we have to settle for Joseph who does a pretty good job.

The Barbary shown in the war is attrocious; rape, canniblism, fanatacism, pillaging, turning on one's own friends, etc. Josephus himself tells a story about how he basically convinced 40-some of his friends to kill themselves so that he could escape. The fact of the matter is that a lot of reading between the lines is needed in this book because of the way he writes. I highly recommend it, though. At the same time, not for evyerone.

Editorial Review:

Josephus' account of a war marked by treachery and atrocity is a superbly detailed and evocative record of the Jewish rebellion against Rome between AD 66 and 70. Originally a rebel leader, Josephus changed sides after he was captured to become a Rome-appointed negotiator, and so was uniquely placed to observe these turbulent events, from the siege of Jerusalem to the final heroic resistance and mass suicides at Masada. His account provides much of what we know about the history of the Jews under Roman rule, with vivid portraits of such key figures as the Emperor Vespasian and Herod the Great. Often self-justifying and divided in its loyalties, "The Jewish War" nevertheless remains one of the most immediate accounts of war, its heroism and its horrors, ever written.

La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience

Jerre Mangione

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Want to know who the *real* Sacco and Vanzetti were? 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Did you know the largest mass lynching in American history was of Italian Americans?

I minored in Italian American studies as an undergrad. As you may imagine, there isn't that much literature out there that comprehensively covers "the Italian American experience", so La Storia was a recurring staple of the curricula for more than a few of my classes.

The information contained in this book is for the most part helpful, a great introduction from the beginnings of Italian Americana to the late 20th century. Many people today (regardless of heritage) do not know enough about Italian culture, although it is a huge part of the fabric of America. Also discussed is the political and economical history of 19th century Italy (something many Americans know nothing about), providing a nice starting point from which to put the Italian American experience into perspective. Although the authors mention the well-knowns like Al Capone and Fiorello Laguardia, what's great about La Storia is Mangione's and Morreale's inclusion of so many important personages of Italian heritage that have become lost in the sands of time.

My issue with this book is not its length but its density. So much information is crowded into every chapter, it's hard to retain all of it (and Mangione's excruciatingly wordy prose doesn't help). There are also some statistics and information nuggets that are uncited, but to the casual reader this won't be of any concern whatsoever.

La Storia is essentially the Bible of Italian American studies; a great cultural and historical overview, and a great introduction to the field. Ultimately, if you know next to nothing about Italian Americana, if you would like to enrich your knowledge, or if you just want to learn more about your cultural heritage, I recommend you buy this book.

Editorial Review:

From the early Italian adventurers who played an important role in the European expansion across the Atlantic to the political and business leaders of the 1990s, this book tells a dramatic story. The heart of the story is the mass migration that took place between 1880 and 1924, when a whole culture left its ancient roots to settle in the cities and towns of America.

Vanilla Beans & Brodo: Real Life in the Hills of Tuscany

Isabella Dusi

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Quite enjoyable reading. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

If you love all things Italian, you'll enjoy reading Isabella Dusi's
"Vanilla Beans & Brodo". You will feel what it's like to live in a hill town in Tuscany. Isabella intersperses her everyday life in Motalcino with a little history of the area. It made me to want to visit the town again and to personally address all of the people in her book that she encounters in her everyday life. The book is a little slow going at first, but does get better as you get into the book.

Editorial Review:

Isabella Dusi, a native Australian, settled in Montalcino, a beautiful mountain eyrie famous for its wine and the proud nature of its inhabitants. Her acceptance into this close-knit community was a hard-won thing and has inspired Isabella to capture the true spirit of Montalcino. Vanilla Beans & Brodo tells of the violent history of this medieval village, which has lefts its mark on the character traits of the Montalcinese, and also offers a rare insight into the anxiety, joy, fun, and pressure of daily life as it unfolds with the seasons. An evocative story of the rivalry between village neighborhoods, of football fever and festival pageantry, Isabella Dusi destroys the myth that Tuscan villages are tranquil places, and instead reveals a life infinitely rich and full of dramas.

Hannibal's Last Battle: Zama and the Fall of Carthage

Brian Todd Carey

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Decisive Engagement Between Rome and Carthage that Determined the Future of the Mediterranean World

In 202 BC, near the North African city of Zama, the armies of two empires clashed. The Romans under Scipio Africanus won a bloody, decisive victory over Hannibal's Carthaginians. Scipio's victory signalled a shift in the balance of power in the ancient world. Thereafter, Rome became the dominant civilization of the Mediterranean. Zama also saw the eclipse of one legendary commander, Hannibal, the scourge of Rome and the preeminent general of the Second Punic War, by Scipio, one of the greatest leaders Rome ever produced. Brian Todd Carey's compelling, original reconstruction of the battle, the grueling skirmishes that led up to it, and its aftermath--including Hannibal's exile and suicide, Scipio's triumph, and the epic Roman siege that destroyed Carthage forever as a Mediterranean power--gives a fascinating insight into the Carthaginian and Roman methods of waging war. In addition to discussing the military organization and equipment and the tactics the armies employed, the book examines the lives and military careers of Hannibal and Scipio and offers critical assessment of their contrasting leadership styles. Carey's concise account of this climactic confrontation at Zama--a pivotal episode in ancient warfare--is complemented by the detailed maps of cartographers Joshua B. Allfree and John Cairns. Hannibal's Last Battle: Zama and the Fall of Carthage will appeal to readers of military history and is an essential text for all students of the classical period.