MVR 350
Throughout history, maps have been fundamental in shaping our view of the world, and our place in it. But far from being purely scientific objects, maps of the world are unavoidably ideological and subjective, intimately bound up with the systems of power and authority of particular times and places.
Mapmakers do not simply represent the world, they construct it out of the ideas of their age. In this scintillating book, Jerry Brotton examines the significance of 12 maps – from the almost mystical representations of ancient history to the satellite-derived imagery of today. He vividly recreates the environments and circumstances in which each of the maps was made, showing how each conveys a highly individual view of the world.
Brotton shows how each of his maps both influenced and reflected contemporary events and how, by considering it in all its nuances and omissions, we can better understand the world that produced it.
Although the way we map our surroundings is more precise than ever before, Brotton argues that maps today are no more definitive or objective than they have ever been. Readers of this beautifully illustrated and masterfully argued book will never look at a map in quite the same way again.
Published in 2014.
ISBN: 9780143126027
MVR 280
A deeply engaging new history of how European settlements in the post-Colombian Americas shaped the world, from the bestselling author of 1491. Presenting the latest research by biologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians, Mann shows how the post-Columbian network of ecological and economic exchange fostered the rise of Europe, devastated imperial China, convulsed Africa, and for two centuries made Mexico City—where Asia, Europe, and the new frontier of the Americas dynamically interacted—the center of the world.
In this history, Mann uncovers the germ of today’s fiercest political disputes, from immigration to trade policy to culture wars. In 1493, Mann has again given readers an eye-opening scientific interpretation of our past, unequaled in its authority and fascination.
Published in 2012.
ISBN: 9780307278241
MVR 470
In Empires of the Sea and City of Fortune, New York Times bestselling author Roger Crowley established himself as our generation’s preeminent historian of the great European seafaring empires, and the go-to author for post-Crusade clashes of East and West.
Now, in Conquerors, Crowley gives us the epic story of the emergence of Portugal, a small, poor nation that enjoyed a century of maritime supremacy thanks to the daring and navigational skill of its explorers—a tactical advantage no other country could match. Portugal’s discovery of a sea route to India, campaign of imperial conquest over Muslim rulers, and domination of the spice trade would forever disrupt the Mediterranean and build the first global economy.
Crowley relies on letters and eyewitness testimony to tell the story of tiny Portugal’s rapid and breathtaking rise to power. Conquerors reveals the Império Português in all of its splendor and ferocity, bringing to life the personalities of the enterprising and fanatical house of Aviz. Figures such as King Manuel “the Fortunate,” João II “the Perfect Prince,” marauding governor Afonso de Albuquerque, and explorer Vasco da Gama juggled their private ambitions and the public aims of the empire, often suffering astonishing losses in pursuit of a global fortune. Also central to the story of Portugal’s ascent was its drive to eradicate Islamic culture and establish a Christian empire in the Indian Ocean. Portuguese explorers pushed deep into the African continent in search of the mythical Christian king Prester John, and they ruthlessly besieged Indian port cities in their attempts to monopolize trade.
The discovery of a route to India around the horn of Africa was not only a brilliant breakthrough in navigation but heralded a complete upset of the world order. For the next century, no European empire was more ambitious, no rulers more rapacious than the kings of Portugal. In the process they created the first long-range maritime empire and set in motion the forces of globalization that now shape our world. At Crowley’s hand, the complete story of the Portuguese empire and the human cost of its ambition can finally be told.
Published on 1 December 2015.
ISBN: 9780812994001
MVR 280
The fall of Jerusalem in 1099 to an army of exhausted and starving western European soldiers was one of the most extraordinary events in history—with a legacy that remains controversial more than nine centuries later. This remarkable collection contains firsthand accounts from the knights, religious leaders, and peasants who experienced the First Crusade in all its cruelty and strangeness.
Edited with an introduction and notes by one of the foremost experts on the Crusades, Chronicles of the First Crusade is a comprehensive look at the climax of Christian fervor and the record of an ultimately futile attempt to implant a European kingdom in an overwhelmingly Muslim world.
Published on 29 May 2012.
ISBN: 9780241955222
MVR 280
Two famous, firsthand accounts of the holy war in the Middle Ages translated by Caroline Smith
Originally composed in Old French, the two chronicles brought together here offer some of the most vivid and reliable accounts of the Crusades from a Western perspective. Villehardouin’s Conquest of Constantinople, distinguished by its simplicity and lucidity, recounts the controversial Fourth Crusade, which descended into an all-out attack on the Eastern Christians of Byzantium.
In Life of Saint Louis, Joinville draws on his close attachment to King Louis IX of France to recall his campaigning in the Holy Land. Together these narratives comprise a fascinating window on events that, for all their remoteness, offer startling similarities to our own age.
Published on 31 May 2009.
ISBN: 9780140449983
MVR 420
For fans of Unbroken, the remarkable, untold story of World War II American Air Force turret-gunner Staff Sergeant Arthur Meyerowitz, who was shot down over Nazi-occupied France and evaded Gestapo pursuers for more than six months before escaping to freedom.
Bronx-born top turret-gunner Arthur Meyerowitz was on his second mission when he was shot down in 1943. He was one of only two men on the B-24 Liberator known as “Harmful Lil Armful” who escaped death or immediate capture on the ground.
After fleeing the wreck, Arthur knocked on the door of an isolated farmhouse, whose owners hastily took him in. Fortunately, his hosts not only despised the Nazis but had a tight connection to the French resistance group Morhange and its founder, Marcel Taillandier. Arthur and Taillandier formed an improbable bond as the resistance leader arranged for Arthur’s transfers among safe houses in southern France, shielding him from the Gestapo.
Based on recently declassified material, exclusive personal interviews, and extensive research into the French Resistance, The Lost Airman tells the tense and riveting story of Arthur’s trying months in Toulouse—masquerading as a deaf mute and working with a downed British pilot to evade the Nazis—and of his hair-raising journey to freedom involving a perilous trek over the Pyrenees and a voyage aboard a fishing boat with U-boats lurking below and Luftwaffe fighters looming above. With photographs and maps included, this is a never-before-told true story of endurance, perseverance, and escape during World War II.
Published on 19 January 2016.
ISBN: 9781592409297
MVR 690 MVR 750
This book is written by a historian who later got elected as the Maldives' first democratically elected President.
Please be advised that the dust jackets on these books have air bubble tunnels running across them. Other than that, these books are in excellent condition.
Blurb on dust jacket:
The Kingdom of Maldives has had a long recorded history of statehood. This statehood embodied not only total sovereignty in its governance but also a well-defined set of traditions that formulated its polity.
A political system perhaps can best be understood not so much from a discussion of its theoretical composition but more from its de facto operations. Mohamed Nasheed in this book cuts into the very thick of the actions and events of the 1800's Maldivian political history which has allowed him to exemplify the boundaries and the conduct that polity and as further given his room to show the interactions that led up to the major events in the Dhivehi polity.
Author biographical blurb on the dust jacket:
Published in 2003.
ISBN: 9789559098638
Weight: 0.5 kg.
If you're visiting this website from out of Maldives and wish to buy this book, please send us an email (mail@whiteheronbooks.com) and we will be in touch with you on how to proceed with placing your order.
MVR 310 MVR 350
If you're visiting this website from out of Maldives and wish to buy this book, please send us an email (mail@whiteheronbooks.com) and we will be in touch with you on how to proceed with placing your order.
The narrative and observations of the author who toured the Indian Ocean Islands of Mauritius, then known as the Isle of France. The book is full of rich detail and the author express on paper all that he saw and experienced.
The seafaring information, the fishes, the local inhabitants, their customs, rituals, religion, their land, its produce are all described. The author travelled between 1768-1771.
The book is a reprint of the edition published in 1800.
Published in 1999.
Weight: 0.4 kg.
