本书为公版书，为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品，供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。

Because of their enormous size, elephants have long been irresistible for kings as symbols of their eminence. In early civilizations – such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Civilization, and China – kings used elephants for royal sacrifice, spectacular hunts, public display of live captives, or the conspicuous consumption of ivory – all of them tending toward the elephant's ext...(展开全部)

Because of their enormous size, elephants have long been irresistible for kings as symbols of their eminence. In early civilizations – such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Civilization, and China – kings used elephants for royal sacrifice, spectacular hunts, public display of live captives, or the conspicuous consumption of ivory – all of them tending toward the elephant's ext...(展开全部)

A Nobel Prize-winning playwright's classic tale of tragic decisions in a traditional African culture. Based on events that took place in Oyo, an ancient Yoruba city of Nigeria, in 1946, Wole Soyinka's powerful play concerns the intertwined lives of Elesin Oba, the king's chief horseman; his son, Olunde, now studying medicine in England; and Simon Pilkings, the colonial distric...(展开全部)

In 1506, Michelangelo – a young but already renowned sculptor – is invited by the sultan of Constantinople to design a bridge over the Golden Horn. The sultan has offered, alongside an enormous payment, the promise of immortality, since Leonardo da Vinci’s design was rejected: ‘You will surpass him in glory if you accept, for you will succeed where he has failed, and you will g...(展开全部)

A brilliant new history that dramatically reassesses how far the Viking world extended. Dr Cat Jarman exposes the unexpected routes that Viking travel and trade took - and how these kings of the river were frequent travellers of the Middle East and the Silk Road. One June day late in the eighth century, Norse seafarers arrived at the English island of Lindisfarne. They waged a ...(展开全部)

斯蒂芬·R. 鲍恩（Stephen R. Bown），畅销书作家，著有十余本关于科学史、探索史和思想史的非虚构书籍，作品被翻译成九种语言，并多次获奖，如不列颠哥伦比亚图书奖、阿尔伯塔图书奖、威廉·米尔斯极地图书奖。擅长在写作中结合传记和叙事，用富有创造性的语言刻画生动的人物形象，讲述精彩的历史，著有《1494：瓜分世界的条约与大航海时代的来临》（1494: How a Family Feud in Medieval Spain Divided the World in Half）、《贸易与殖民：霸权公司三百年（1600—1900）》（Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, 1600-1900）等著作。 于振洋，复旦大学历史学系博士后，东北师范大学世界中古史研究所博士，研究方向为中世纪晚期英国经济...(展开全部)

In anthropology as much as in popular imagination, kings are figures of fascination and intrigue, heroes or tyrants in ways presidents and prime ministers can never be. This collection of essays by two of the world’s most distinguished anthropologists—David Graeber and Marshall Sahlins—explores what kingship actually is, historically and anthropologically. As they show, kings a...(展开全部)

沃尔・索因卡，尼日利亚诗人、小说家、剧作家，一九三四年出生于约鲁巴族聚居的阿贝奥库塔。 一九五七年取得英国利兹大学英文学士学位，毕业后于英国皇家宫廷剧院任剧本编审，一九六○三月回国，尼日利亚于同年十月脱离英国独立。他先后创立“一九六○假面”剧团和“欧瑞森剧团”，制作并演出自己的剧作，其后陆续受邀至剑桥、耶鲁等大学讲学。一九六六年，尼日利亚内战爆发，索因卡于一九六七年遭军政府逮捕，入狱一年十个月。被捕之前，他是尼日利亚伊巴丹大学戏剧学院的院长。一九七三年获利兹大学荣誉博士学位。一九八六年获诺贝尔文学奖，成为第一位获此殊荣的非洲作家。 蔡宜刚，台湾中原大学电机系毕业，台湾清华大学社会学研究所毕业。译有《行动有者的归来》及《非凡小人物》。