In 1616, an English adventurer, Nathaniel Courthope, stepped ashore on a remote island in the East Indies on a secret mission - to persuade the islanders of Run to grant a monopoly to England over their nutmeg, a fabulously valuable spice in Europe. This infuriated the Dutch, who were determined to control the world's nutmeg supply. For five years Courthope and his band of thirty men were besieged by a force one hundred times greater - and his heroism set in motion the events that led to the founding of Manhattan, the greatest city on earth. A beautifully told adventure story and a fascinating depiction of exploration in the seventeenth century, NATHANIEL'S NUTMEG sheds a remarkable light on history.

As remarkable as Columbus and the conquistador expeditions, the history of Portuguese exploration is now almost forgotten. But Portugal's navigators cracked the code of the Atlantic winds, launched the expedition of Vasco da Gama to India and beat the Spanish to the spice kingdoms of the East - then set about creating the first long-range maritime empire. In an astonishing blitz of thirty years, a handful of visionary and utterly ruthless empire builders, with few resources but breathtaking ambition, attempted to seize the Indian Ocean, destroy Islam and take control of world trade. Told with Roger Crowley's customary skill and verve, this is narrative history at its most vivid - an epic tale of navigation, trade and technology, money and religious zealotry, political diplomacy and espionage, sea battles and shipwrecks, endurance, courage and terrifying brutality. Drawing on extensive first-hand accounts, it brings to life the exploits of an extraordinary band of conquerors - men such as Afonso de Albuquerque, the first European since Alexander the Great to found an Asian empire - who set in motion five hundred years of European colonisation and unleashed the forces of globalisation.

Karen Blixen (who wrote under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen) knew the African countryside as intimately as her own face in the mirror. "The civilized people," she wrote, "have lost the aptitude of stillness, and must take lessons in silence from the wild before they are accepted by it." From her own wild heart she wrote this achingly beautiful book.

Reconfiguring the national myth of Jamestown's failure, Karen Kupperman shows how the settlement's distinctly messy first decade actually represents a period of ferment in which individuals were learning how to make a colony work. Despite the settlers' dependence on the Chesapeake Algonquians and strained relations with their London backers, they forged a tenacious colony that survived where others had failed. Indeed, the structures and practices that evolved through trial and error in Virginia would become the model for all successful English colonies, including Plymouth.

《被监押的帝国主义(英法在华企业的命运)》以1949至1954年为跨度，在英、法“后帝国的”衰退的背景之下，以中英、中法关系中的经济与商务因素为着眼点，介绍新成立初期政府当局对在华大企业的政策与处置。

extremely rare,very good condition

The Texas State Historical Association is pleased to offer a newedition of Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas, Gregg Cantrell's path-breaking biography of the founder of Anglo Texas.Cantrell's portrait goes beyond the traditional interpretation ofAustin as the man who spearheaded American Manifest Destiny.Cantrell portrays Austin as a borderlands figure who couldnavigate the complex cultural landscape of 1820s Texas, then aportion of Mexico.His command of the Spanish language, respect for the Mexicanpeople, and ability to navigate the shoals of Mexican politicsmade him the perfect advocate for his colonists and often for all ofTexas. Yet when conflicts between Anglo colonists and Mexicanauthorities turned violent, Austin's accommodationist stancebecame outdated.Overshadowed by the military hero Sam Houston, he died at theage of forty-three, just six months after Texas independence.Decades after his death, Austin's reputation was resurrected andhe became known as the "Father of Texas." More than just anicon, Stephen F. Austin emerges from these pages as a shrewd,complicated, and sometimes conflicted figure.

Hardly were the last shots fired at the Alamo before the Texas Revolution entered the realm of myth and controversy. French visitor Frederic Gaillardet called it a "Texian Iliad" in 1839, while American Theodore Sedgwick pronounced the war and its resulting legends "almost burlesque." In this highly readable history, Stephen L. Hardin discovers more than a little truth in both of those views. Drawing on many original Texan and Mexican sources and on-site inspections of almost every battlefield, he offers the first complete military history of the Revolution. From the war's opening in the "Come and Take It" incident at Gonzales to the capture of General Santa Anna at San Jacinto, Hardin clearly describes the strategy and tactics of each side. His research yields new knowledge of the actions of famous Texan and Mexican leaders, as well as fascinating descriptions of battle and camp life from the ordinary soldier's point of view. This award-winning book belongs on the bookshelf of everyone interested in Texas or military history.

南部非洲一度被认为是由英国殖民地、布尔共和国和非洲酋长领地组成的一锅一文不值的大杂烩，一个对外部世界来说无足轻重的麻烦地区。然而，勘探者偶然发现了世界上最丰富的钻石和黄金矿藏，这引发了英国人和布尔人之间争夺土地控制权的激烈斗争。其结果是英国进行了近一个世纪以来的最昂贵、最血腥、最屈辱的战争，以及布尔共和国的毁灭。《纽约客》把这些年的故事称为“一段精于算计的历史”。梅雷迪斯技巧娴熟地描绘了对钻石（以及黄金）的迫切需求如何为种族隔离奠定了基础。