Product Description: Many nations define themselves in terms of territory or people; China defines itself in terms of history. Taking into account the country's unrivaled, voluminous tradition of history writing, John Keay has composed a vital and illuminating overview of the nation's complex and vivid past...read more

Offers an in-depth look at the history of India through a chronological review of the major events that transformed its diverse cultures and traditions.

Product Description: A timely reissue of this classic collection, formerly titled The Mammoth Book of Explorers, contains over 40 fascinating first-hand accounts of exploration including the first crossing of North America, exploration of the Congo, and adventures in Machu Picchu...read more

The Spice Route is one of history’s greatest anomalies: shrouded in mystery, it existed long before anyone knew of its extent or configuration. Spices came from lands unseen, possibly uninhabitable, and almost by definition unattainable; that was what made them so desirable. Yet more livelihoods depended on this pungent traffic, more nations participated in it, more wars were fought for it, and more discoveries resulted from it than from any other global exchange. Epic in scope, marvelously detailed, laced with drama, The Spice Route spans three millennia and circles the world to chronicle the history of the spice trade. With the aid of ancient geographies, travelers’ accounts, mariners’ handbooks, and ships’ logs, John Keay tells of ancient Egyptians who pioneered maritime trade to fetch the incense of Arabia, Graeco-Roman navigators who found their way to India for pepper and ginger, Columbus who sailed west for spices, de Gama, who sailed east for them, and Magellan, who sailed across the Pacific on the exact same quest. A veritable spice race evolved as the west vied for control of the spice-producing islands, stripping them of their innocence and the spice trade of its mystique. This enthralling saga, progressing from the voyages of the ancients to the blue-water trade that came to prevail by the seventeenth century, transports us from the dawn of history to the ends of the earth.

A dramatic journey that both retraces the historic voyage of France's greatest 19th-century explorer up the mysterious Mekong river and paints a portrait of the river and its peoples today.

Product Description: The Western powers--Britain, France and the USA--discovered the imperatives for intervention that have plunged the Middle East region into crisis ever since. It was then, too, that most of the region's modern-day states were created and their regimes forged; and then that their management by the West earned abiding resentment...read more

The author rounds up first-hand accounts of adventure and exploration from six continents, including the Lewis and Clark expedition, Shackleton's trip home from Antarctica, and Livingstone's last days in Africa. Original.

Chronicles the nineteenth-century undertaking to accurately measure the earth's surface by following a meridian, or longitudinal arc, from the southern tip of India through the Himalayas, a harrowing journey that also culminated in the discovery of Mount Everest. Reprint. 15,000 first printing. (view table of contents)

Product Description: Completely revised and updated, a new edition of the definitive reference book on all things Scottish. Since its first publication in 1994, The Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland has established itself as the unrivalled reference book on the subject...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: India challenges the visitor like no other country. Vast, ancient, and impossibly demanding, it is never just a holiday or an assignment. Advertisements call it an experience; it changes people in unexpected ways. To comprehend and enjoy this experience, there is no better introduction to the traditions and inhibitions of the world's most complex society than Into India...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This text examines explorers of the Western Himalayas, from 1820 to 1895.

As the British prepare to disengage themselves from Hong Kong, a study of the involvement of Europe and America in the Far East explores more than five hundred years of Western colonial presence in Asia and speculates about the future of the region's political and economic geography. 15,000 first printing. (view table of contents)

Chronicles the history of the famous trading company, which dominated world trade, raised armies, demolished nations, and established one of the most extensive empires the world has ever known

Offers excerpts from first-hand accounts of expeditions to some of the world's remotest locations during the great age of exploration, including Burton's search for the source of the Nile and Robert Scott's tragic final expedition in Antarctica

Product Description: The majestic and sublime Himalayas have long exerted a powerful force on the imaginations of explorers and travelers. Indeed, as a challenge for these adventurous souls, the mountain wilderness that separates the Indian subcontinent from Inner Asia is unique: no similar region has ever aroused such intense interest...read more

Product Description: Two hundred years ago, India was seen as a place with little history and less culture.Today it is revered for a notable prehistory, a magnificent classical age and a cultural tradition unique in both character and continuity. How this extraordinary change in perception came about is the subject of this fascinating book...read more

Traces the exploration of the continents and regions of the world from earliest times to the present, and profiles outstanding explorers and travelers

Traces the exploits of seven extraordinary explorers, from Father Gifford Palgrave, the first Westerner to reach Riyadh, to Thomas Manning, the first European to visit the forbidden mountain fortress of Lhasa