Describes how a small and quarrelsome band of Greek city states united to repel the might of the Persian empire. Frequently giving rise to colorful digressions, this book blends fact and legend to offer a compelling Greek view of the world of the fifth century BC.

More paints a vision of the customs and practices of a distant island, but Utopia means 'no place' and his narrator's name, Hythlodaeus, translates as 'dispenser of nonsense'. This tale masks what is a serious and subversive analysis of the failings of More's society.

How have major civilizations of the last two millennia treated people who were attracted to their own sex? Presenting the exploration of a rich and terrible past, this book chronicles the lives and achievements of homosexual men and women alongside a darker history of persecution.

Presents a contemporary account of the long life-and-death struggle between Athens and Sparta. This title compiles a factual record of this disastrous conflict.

A biography of Samuel Johnson which concerns the last twenty years of his life. It establishes Johnson's centrality in 18th century letters. It places him in a literary and cultural context.

Presents the moral stories of Rabelais that expose human follies with their mischievous and often obscene humour, while intertwining the realistic with carnivalesque fantasy.