History's Daybook: A History of the World in 366 Quotations

Description

Every day of the year carries the memory of great and terrible events... From the founding of Rome to the twenty-first century's war on terror, History's Daybook presents a vivid, day-by-day perspective on 2500 years of human history through the medium of 366 quotations, each of which is tied to the anniversary of a celebrated historical event, capturing its essence with the immediacy of the eye-witness or the narrative flair of the chronicler. In History's Daybook, every day becomes a window on the past: on 15 March 44 BC, blood flows in the Roman Senate as Julius Caesar falls victim to the thrusting daggers of Brutus and his co-conspirators; 1 May 1851 brings a visit to London's Great Exhibition in the company of the novelist Charlotte Bronte; on 28 June 1919, in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles, brokenspirited German delegates sign the Treaty that brings the Great War to its fateful conclusion; on 16 August 1665, we walk the silent streets of plague-ravaged London with the diarist Samuel Pepys; and on 11 September 2001 we watch in horror as the Twin Towers topple and the world changes forever. History's Daybook embraces a wide range of voices, moods and registers, from the powerful to the impoverished, the revolutionary to the reactionary, the propagandist to the idealist and the joyful to the grief-stricken. Both engrossing anthology and informative overview of world history, History's Daybook offers the reader entertainment and instruction in equal measure: it is the ideal gift book for the history buff.

Peter Furtado was the editor of History Today from 1998 to 2008. An author and publisher, he has also edited many reference works on world history, including Cassell's Atlas of World History, and recently founded Historyfm, a consultancy and historical talent agency. In 2009 he was awarded an Honorary D.Litt. by Oxford Brookes University in recognition of his work in the promotion of history.