I Wish I'D Been There, Book 2

The Authors and Essays in I Wish I’d Been There®, Book Two Josiah Ober ·At the Deathbed of Alexander the Great Tom Holland · Hannibal Crosses the Alps Theodore K. Rabb · Christmas Day in the Year 800 John Julius Norwich · Venice, July 24, 1177 Katherine Fischer Drew · Magna Carta and the King’s Men Barbara A. Hanawalt · Rebel Leader Confronts King at Smithfield in 1381 Lauro Martines · Ten Thousand Brutes in Renaissance Florence Geoffrey Parker · August 9, 1588: The Spanish Armada (almost) Surrenders Katherine Duncan-Jones · The Globe Theatre, February 7, 1601 John H. Elliott · With the Prince of Wales in Madrid, 1623 Mordechai Feingold · By Fits and Starts: The Making of Isaac Newton’s Principia Ellen T. Harris · Handel Is Fired William McNeill · Frederick the Great and the Propagation of Potatoes Paul Kennedy · The Battle of the Nile Ross King · The “Uncouth Riddle” of Édouard Manet: Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe at the 1863 Salon des Refusés Richard Pipes · Nicholas II Signs the October Manifesto Margaret MacMillan · Tunnels, Territory, and Broken Promises: France Betrayed by the Anglo-Saxons? Charles A. Riley II · Backstage at the Ballets Russes with Picasso Freeman Dyson · Exorcising Aristotle’s Ghost John Keegan · The German Surrender to Montgomery at Lüneburg Heath, May 1945 What is the scene or incident in European history that you would like to have witnessed—and why? This is the question that the editors posed to twenty superb historians, who each wrote a personal essay in response. The result is this engrossing book, a worthy sequel to the acclaimed volume on American history, I Wish I’d Been There. From the death of Alexander the Great to the German surrender ending World War II, these essays move across a wide geography for over two millennia and deal with politics, law, religion, peace and war, science and the arts, rebellion, and social change. In addition to adding immediacy, color, and vibrancy to well-known events, they also provide fresh illuminations and interpretations of vital moments in the history of Europe. I Wish I’d Been There®, Book Two is a marvelous idea, wonderfully and imaginatively executed. It offers a sense of the excitement, the passion, the drama, and the joys and tragedies that are the essence of history. See the back cover for a list of contributors and the events described.