Simon Schama

¿Fue la libertad la causa o el producto de la Revolución francesa? La mejor crónica sobre uno de los periodos estelares de la humanidad. Ciudadanos no es la versión trillada de un régimen muriendo de enfermedad y decrepitud, sino el reflejo de la transformacion que cambio la historia de Europa para siempre: el paso de hombres y mujeres de sujetos a ciudadanos. Partiendo de la idea de que la fe de los ciudadanos en la libertad fue la causa mas que el producto de la Revolucion francesa, Schama dibuja un pais en ebullicion en el que se derrumban las diferencias entre nobles y plebeyos, en un escenario de hambre, ira, terror y muerte. A traves de la historia social, cultural y politica, Schama encuentra el marco de su historia en imagenes y artefactos, ceramicas y calendarios y, con su particular punto de vista, nos acerca mas que nunca a la realidad humana de la Revolucion Francesa.Reseñas:El mejor libro que he leido sobre la Revolucion francesa.Richard Cobb Monumental, provocador y refinado. La descripcion que hace Schama de los primeros años de la gran Revolucion que se apodero de Francia y de las decadas que la precedieron, son dificiles de superar.Eugene Weber, The New York Times Book ReviewNo he leido nada que pueda compararse al epico relato de Schama que tiene la capacidad de sumergir al lector en los años mas violentos de ese "fermento universal" que fue la Revolucion.Christopher Hibbert, Sunday TimesDeslumbrante... supera todos los elogios. Schama describe en las paginas de este maravilloso libro las vicisitudes de ese mundo con una comprension, sabiduria, compasion y verdad inigualables.Bernard Levin Schamabrinda una imagen sin parangon de las corrientes y contradicciones que conformaron esta terrible secuencia de sucesos.Antont Beevor, Express La sabiduria de Schama es la causa del placer y la admiracion que provoca la lectura de esta obra. La humanidad de sus veredictos representa un logro formidable, a menudo conmovedor.George Steiner, The New Yorker Un brillante tour de force. Este extraordinario libro identifica y transmite la esencia de la Revolucion, lo atractivo de su llamada, el secreto de su poder y la razon de su eventual fracaso: la violencia.Tim Blanning, Independent A cambio, Ciudadanos cuenta la Historia enhebrando historias, relatos personales que matiza con la agudeza de la novela y eleva a algo mas, a un conocimiento historico nuevo, lleno de desmentidos y paradojas.Luis Alemany, El Mundo Imprescindible para quien busque una idea objetiva de esos años que decidieron el destino del mundo.Gabriel Albiac, ABC

In November 2008 the United States will elect a new President...

This dazzling, unconventional biography shows us why, more than three centuries after his death, Rembrandt continues to exert such a hold on our imagination. Deeply familiar to us through his enigmatic self-portraits, few facts are known about the Leiden miller's son who tasted brief fame before facing financial ruin (he was even forced to sell his beloved wife Saskia's grave). The true biography of Rembrandt, as Simon Schama demonstrates, is to be discovered in his pictures. Interweaving of seventeenth-century Holland, Schama allows us to see Rembrandt in a completely fresh and original way.

An epic story of humanity s struggle against pandemics from the renowned historian and broadcaster

This splendid and often moving work of history Schama has a gift for combining novelistically colourful detail serious analysis and wryly amusing asides Daily Telegraph Superb Observer Extraordinary A meticulous retelling of a terrible yet scientifically innovative period Makes an urgent case for building a better future on our toxic past Guardian This is history of the best sort humanly engaged but never sentimental Mail on Sunday Cities and countries engulfed by panic and death desperate for vaccines but fearful of what inoculation may bring This is what the world has just gone through with Covid 19 But as Simon Schama shows in his epic history of vulnerable humanity caught between the terror of contagion and the ingenuity of science it has happened before Characteristically with Schama the message is delivered through gripping page turning stories set in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries smallpox strikes London cholera hits Paris plague comes to India Threading through the scenes of terror suffering and hope in hospitals and prisons palaces and slums are an unforgettable cast of characters a philosopher playwright burning up with smallpox in a country chateau a vaccinating doctor paying house calls in Halifax a woman doctor in

This splendid and often moving work of history Schama has a gift for combining novelistically colourful detail serious analysis and wryly amusing asides Daily Telegraph Superb Observer Extraordinary A meticulous retelling of a terrible yet scientifically innovative period Makes an urgent case for building a better future on our toxic past Guardian This is history of the best sort humanly engaged but never sentimental Mail on Sunday Cities and countries engulfed by panic and death desperate for vaccines but fearful of what inoculation may bring This is what the world has just gone through with Covid 19 But as Simon Schama shows in his epic history of vulnerable humanity caught between the terror of contagion and the ingenuity of science it has happened before Characteristically with Schama the message is delivered through gripping page turning stories set in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries smallpox strikes London cholera hits Paris plague comes to India Threading through the scenes of terror suffering and hope in hospitals and prisons palaces and slums are an unforgettable cast of characters a philosopher playwright burning up with smallpox in a country chateau a vaccinating doctor paying house calls in Halifax a woman doctor in

One of the great landmarks of modern history publishing, simon schamas citizens: a chronicle of the french revolution is the most authoritative social, cultural and narrative history of the french revolution ever produced.. monumental ... provocative and stylish, simon schamas account of the first few years of the great revolution in france, and of the decades that led up to it, is thoughtful, informed and profoundly revisionist eugen weber, the new york times book review. the most marvellous book i have read about the french revolution richard cobb, the times. dazzling - beyond praise - he has chronicled the vicissitudes of that world with matchless understanding, wisdom, pity and truth, in the pages of this marvellous book bernard levin, sunday times. provides an unrivalled impression of the currents and contradictions which made up this terrible sequence of events antony beevor, express. simon schama is university professor in art history and history at columbia university in new york, and one of the best-known scholars in britain in any field. he is the prize-winning author of numerous books, including dead certainties (unwarranted speculations), landscape and memory, rembrandts eyes and three volumes of a history of britain. he is also the writer-presenter of historical and art-historical documentaries for bbc television. he lives outside new york city with his wife and children.

Ever wondered if there s any truth behind planting by the moon Or why wassailing is still a common folk practice in some parts of the world In Gardener s Folklore the record of these practices is unveiled with plenty of tips and tricks to try in your own 21st century garden for blooming bushes and plentiful potatoes

Con un estilo narrativo poderosamente vivo, Schama explora las personalidades de los artistas y el espíritu de los tiempos en los que vivieron, capturando el extravagante teatro de la vida burguesa en Amsterdam, la pasion y la paranoia del Paris revolucionario o la carniceria y el patetismo en la España de la Guerra Civil.

Historia y ficción se entrelazan en este libro, que contiene dos narraciones sobre dos muertes violentas. La primera parte se centra en la muerte en el campo de batalla del general Wolfe, en Quebec, en 1759, acontecimiento historico abordado por varios personajes: un anonimo soldado; el pintor Benjamin West, autor de un famoso lienzo sobre este tema, y el historiador Francis Parkman. La segunda muerte es la del tio del historiador, el doctor George Parkman, asesinado en 1849 por un pacifico profesor de quimica de la Universidad de Harvard endeudado con el, que despues troceo el cuerpo; un macabro crimen que conmovio a la sociedad bostoniana de la epoca. La obra recrea estos dos hechos estrictamente historicos desde una multiplicidad de puntos de vista, entremezclando realidad y ficcion. Pero no estamos ante una tipica novela historica al uso, sino ante una propuesta mucho mas osada. El libro es un extraordinario experimento en los limites entre el ensayo historico y la novela, una narracion de gran virtuosismo literario que contiene, ademas, una sugestiva reflexion sobre la historia y sus interpretaciones. Escrita con el concurso de diversas tecnicas literarias, que incluyen la biografia, el ensayo, la epistola, la cronica policial..., la obra es una atrevida apuesta a caballo entre dos generos. En ella se suceden documentos autenticos (incluido abundante material grafico) y reconstrucciones puramente imaginarias de los hechos, dando como resultado un libro lleno de ingenio, cuya lectura resulta apasionante.

¿Fue la libertad la causa o el producto de la Revolución francesa?La mejor crónica sobre uno de los periodos estelares de la humanidad.Ciudadanosno es la versión trillada de un régimen muriendo de enfermedad y decrepitud, sino el reflejo de la transformacion que cambio la historia de Europa para siempre: el paso de hombres y mujeres de sujetos a ciudadanos. Partiendo de la idea de que la fe de los ciudadanos en la libertad fue la causa mas que el producto de la Revolucion francesa, Schama dibuja un pais en ebullicion en el que se derrumban las diferencias entre nobles y plebeyos, en un escenario de hambre, ira, terror y muerte.A traves de la historia social, cultural y politica, Schama encuentra el marco de su historia en imagenes y artefactos, ceramicas y calendarios y, con su particular punto de vista, nos acerca mas que nunca a la realidad humana de la Revolucion Francesa.Reseñas:El mejor libro que he leido sobre la Revolucion francesa.Richard CobbMonumental, provocador y refinado. La descripcion que hace Schama de los primeros años de la gran Revolucion que se apodero de Francia y de las decadas que la precedieron, son dificiles de superar.Eugene Weber,The New York Times Book ReviewNo he leido nada que pueda compararse al epico relato de Schama que tiene la capacidad de sumergir al lector en los años mas violentos de ese "fermento universal" que fue la Revolucion.Christopher Hibbert,Sunday TimesDeslumbrante... supera todos los elogios. Schama describe en las paginas de este maravilloso libro las vicisitudes de ese mundo con una comprension, sabiduria, compasion y verdad inigualables.Bernard LevinSchama brinda una imagen sin parangon de las corrientes y contradicciones que conformaron esta terrible secuencia de sucesos.Antont Beevor,ExpressLa sabiduria de Schama es la causa del placer y la admiracion que provoca la lectura de esta obra. La humanidad de sus veredictos representa un logro formidable, a menudo conmovedor.George Steiner,The New YorkerUn brillante tour de force. Este extraordinario libro identifica y transmite la esencia de la Revolucion, lo atractivo de su llamada, el secreto de su poder y la razon de su eventual fracaso: la violencia.Tim Blanning,IndependentA cambio,Ciudadanos cuenta la Historia enhebrando historias, relatos personales que matiza con la agudeza de la novela y eleva a algo mas, a un conocimiento historico nuevo, lleno de desmentidos y paradojas.Luis Alemany,El MundoImprescindible para quien busque una idea objetiva de esos años que decidieron el destino del mundo.Gabriel Albiac,ABC

"El gran arte tiene unas maneras espantosas...” observa Simon Schama al comienzo de su magistral exploración sobre los momentos clave de la historia del arte. Un respetuoso paseo por un museo puede l

"While Britain was losing an empire it was finding itself". Award-winning historian Simon Schama completes his monumental three-volume history of Britain, which accompanies the acclaimed television epic. In The Fate of Empire, Schama illuminates the period of British history from 1770 to 2000 through a variety of historical themes and key British characters. Britain never had the kind of revolution experienced by France in 1789, but it did come close. In the mid-1770s the country was intoxicated by a great surge of political energy. Re-discovering England''s wildernesses, the intellectuals of the ''Romantic generation'' also discovered the plight of the common man, turning Nature into a revolutionary force. This power of the cult of nature enabled two things - to make man see and explore Britain in a way unimaginable a generation before, and to pit democrat cosmopolitans against patriots. From the politics of wildness, A History of Britain moves to the Victorian era and it''s question of how to create a better world in the face of upheaval. As the Victorian era began, the massive advance of technology and industrialisation was rapidly reshaping both the landscape and the social structure of the whole country. To a much greater extent than ever before women would take a centre stage role in shaping society. From political campaigners like Harriet Stuart Mill to writers like Elizabeth Gaskell whose novels highlighted the plight of the industrial working class and Mary Seacole, the heroine and nurse of the Crimea War, ''Victoria''s sisters'' would from now on ensure that it was no longer purely a man''s world. (...)

Change, sometimes gentle and subtle, more often shocking and violent-shattering ideals and shifting perspectives-is again the dynamic of this, the second volume of Schama''s refreshing and compelling history of Britain. ''The British wars began on the morning of July 23 1637, and the first missiles launched were stools. They flew down the nave of St. Giles'' Cathedral in Edinburgh and their targets were the Dean and Bishop of Edinburgh...'' The first round of the British wars had been fired, and fired on grounds of faith. over the next 200 years, other battles on other battlegrounds would be waged and would rage-both at home and abroad, on sea and on land, up and down the length of burgeoning Britain, and across three continents-Europe,America and India. Most of the British wars would be wars of faith - waged on wide-ranging grounds of political or religious conviction-between Republicans and Royalists, Catholics and Protestants, Tories and Whigs, colonialists and natives. Many of the British battles would be fought on battlefields far from Britain, as far afield as Quebec and Calcutta. Yet the wars of the British remain essentially British wars-fought by the British, for the British and between the British. But who exactly were the British and what were they fighting for ? The answers unravel as the the story of ''The Wars of the British'' unfolds. It is a story of revolution and reaction, of inspiration and disillusion, of progress and catastrophe, of huge gains and massive losses, of battles fought against the odds, as when Robert Clive stood at Plassey, of James Wolfe fell at Quebec. (...)

"History clings tight but it also kicks loose" writes Simon Schama at the outset of this, his first volume of his epic two volume journey into Britain's past "Disruption as much as persistence is its proper subject. So although the great theme of British history seen from the twentieth century is endurance, it's counterpoint seen from the twenty-first must be alteration". Change - sometimes gentle and subtle sometimes shocking and violent - is the dynamic of Schama's unapologetically personal, grippingly written history, especially the changes that wash over custom and habit, transforming our loyalties. At the heart of his history lies a question of compelling importance for our future as well as our past: what makes or breaks a nation: to whom we give our allegiance and why ? And where do the boundaries of our community lie - in our hearth and home, our village oor city, tribe or faith ? What is Britain, one country or many, one culture or several ? has British history unfolded "at the edge of the world" or right at the heart of it ? All these themes are delivered to the reader in the stories which Schama loves to tell, and in a form that is at once traditional and excitingly fresh. (...)

Simon Schama follows the success of A History of Britain with his explosive new series and book on the history of creativity. Taking as his starting point eight famous painters and their great masterpieces, Schama transports the reader back to the intense moment in history when these works were conceived and born. In each case the artist - Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso and Rothko - is backed into a corner, facing a crisis; given a chance to confound his rivals, enemies and critics one more time. But this is more than a story about art and artists. As Schama takes us back to the birthplace of these masterpieces - to the murderous, messianic world of Baroque Rome; paranoid, revolutionary Paris; the madhouses and brothels of Provence and the carnage of civil war Spain - a very modern history of the Western world unfolds. Schamas epic story of the unfolding force of the visual imagination will make you look at art in a way youve never looked before...

Simón Schama, profesor de la Universidad de Columbia, en Nueva York, y uno de los historiadores más leídos de nuestro tiempo, nos cuenta aquí la historia del auge y decadencia de Gran Bretaña y de su imperio, entre 1776 y 2000, de una forma nueva y original, convenciendo al lector, como ha dicho Roy Porter, de que tiene una buena historia que contar y de que va a disfrutar cada minuto de ella.Schama se aparta de los esquemas habituales para contruir una ambiciosa narracion que aborda los grandes problemas -la amenaza de la Revolucion francesa, el triunfo de la industrializacion, las buenas intenciones y los malos resultados del imperio, la larga lucha por la emancipacion de la mujer, el impacto de las dos guerras mundiales...-, pero lo hace en una dimension humana, dando un papel central a algunos personajes que le permiten mostrar como estos problemas se traducen en sus vidas.Como han dicho los criticos, Schama es un gran narrador que acierta a contar la historia con una brillantez y una amenidad capaces de apasionar al lector menos interesado en lo que entendemos tradicionalmente por historia.