Speeches That Changed the World

In 1935, with a doctorate in art history and no prospect of a job, the 26-year-old Ernst Gombrich was invited to attempt a history of the world for younger readers. Amazingly, he completed the task in six weeks, and Eine kurze Weltgeschichte fur junge Leser was published in Vienna. This book presents his history to English-language readers.

Although in a way, history is being made every day, some stand out in the memory or learning more than others. These are the days that had the most impact on the people who witnessed them and the greatest consequences for society in the months and years to follow. This work helps you see the days when history was made.

Contains over 50 momentous speeches from a wide range of historical eras and nations. This book includes biographies of each speaker, the history of why each speech was significant and what happened as a result. Black and white photography illustrates these key figures and moments in history.

Presents in chronological order, readable portraits of 101 sinister individuals who shared a relish for the brutal exercise of pitiless, unbounded power, a delight in imposing pain and suffering, and a contempt for human life.

Presents a narrative history that shows the basic facts of human existence on this planet can be viewed from a very different angle: from the account of the evolution of the species to the occult roots of science, from the secrets of the Flood to the esoteric motives behind American foreign policy.

How old is the universe? How are humans related to a sponge? Where did most of the world's water come from? How much would a complete T Rex skeleton cost? Where did the Himalayas come from? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Recreates the excitement, brutality and adventure of the British Empire. This book is a major reinterpretation of the British Empire as one of the world's modernising forces. It shows how the British Empire in the 19th Century spearheaded real globalisation with steampower, telegraphs, guns, engineers, missionaries and millions of settlers.

Includes over 50 momentous and thought-provoking speeches from a wide range of historical eras and nations. This book provides the biographies of various speakers, the history of why each speech was significant and what happened as a result.

Tells the date of the ancient Roman law that made it legal to break wind at banquets; the name of the defunct medieval pope whose putrefying corpse was subjected to the humiliation of a trial before a court of law; and the identity of the priapic monarch who sired more bastards than any other king of England.

This work abandons the conventional distinctions between history and science. Diamond focuses on what ancient people were endowed with in the way of land, animals and plants, and on the confrontations between less and more advanced people to see how this led to today's inequalities.