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“An entertaining, turbocharged race among the high mountain passes of six alpine countries.” —Liesl Schillinger, New York Times Book Review For centuries the Alps have been witness to the march of armies, the flow of pilgrims and Crusaders, the feats of mountaineers, and the dreams of engineers. In The Alps, Stephen O’Shea ("a graceful and passionate writer"—Washington Post) takes readers up and down these majestic mountains. Journeying through their 500-mile arc across France, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia, he explores the reality behind historic events and reveals how the Alps have profoundly influenced culture and society.
In 1300, the French region of Languedoc had been cowed under the authority of both Rome and France since Pope Innocent III 's Albigensian Crusade nearly a century earlier. That crusade almost wiped out the Cathars, a group of heretical Christians whose beliefs threatened the authority of the Catholic Church. But decades of harrowing repression-enforced by the ruthless Pope Boniface VIII , the Machiavellian French King Philip the Fair of France, and the pitiless grand inquisitor of Toulouse, Bernard Gui (the villain in The Name of the Rose)-had bred resentment. In the city of Carcassonne, anger at the abuses of the Inquisition reached a boiling point and a great orator and fearless rebel emer...
A rich and sobering exploration of war -- and of the meaning of history -- that will engage general readers and military buffs alike. The Western Front, the sinuous, deadly line of trenches that stretched from the English Channel to Switzerland during the First World War, also formed a scar on the imaginative landscape of our century. Back to the Front chronicles author, Stephen O'Shea's, 500-kilometre walk down what was once no man's land. In the process of making this singular trek through the old battlefields, O'Shea ruminates on the many meanings of the Front and on the nature of his own generation's - the Baby Boomer's - indifference to the past.
A shattering chronicle of the life and death of the Cathar movement -- one of Western civilization's great tragedies. At the beginning of the 13th century, the Cathars, a group of heretical Christians, thrived across what is now southern France, but was then a patchwork of city states and principalities beholden to neither king nor bishop. The Cathars held revolutionary beliefs that threatened the authority of the Catholic Church as well as the legitimacy of feudal law: they thought the idea of Hell, indeed the entire metaphysic constructed by the Church, to be a sham; they rejected all sacraments, including marriage; they thought private property an absurd notion and that all things worldly...
From the best-selling author of The Perfect Heresy, and in the spirit of Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror, a rich narrative account of the millennium of religious wars that destroyed the Byzantine Empire while shaping the Muslim/Christian conflict that haunts us still. The Medieval Mediterranean was a sea of two faiths: Christianity and Islam. Though bitter rivals, they shared a common history. Here are the epochal moments during that 1000-year struggle: the fall of the Christian Middle East at Yarmuk, Martel’s “wall of ice” at Poitiers, Byzantium’s rout at Manzikert, all the way through to Saladin at Jerusalem, Lazar at Kosovo and the suicidal defence of Malta against the Ottomans. Stephen O’Shea tells a riveting story, which stretches from Syria and Israel to France and Morocco. Today, the two faiths again collide. Sea of Faith is a magnificent work of popular history and a timely reminder of our shared past.
From the Land of Genesis is a profound collection of short stories centered on veterans whose lives have been permanently affected by the wars of Afghanistan and Iraq. Based on research and interviews that O'Shea conducted himself, these interwoven stories offer insight to the struggles that veterans face upon returning home. However, the stories also feature glimpses of hope amidst the despairing truths that make for beautiful stories veterans can relate to, and for civilian readers to experience vicariously the extremes of the human condition.
A basic Guide on Learning about cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is a type of digital currency that uses cryptography for security and anti-counterfeiting measures. Public and private keys are often used to transfer cryptocurrency between individuals. Want to know in depth about Cryptocurrency. So let's walk through the whole story. -What are cryptocurrencies? -Where did cryptocurrency originate? -Why should you learn about cryptocurrency? -And what do you need to know about cryptocurrency?
The Irish hero leaves his sick bed to assist in a kidnapping case.
When a ten-year-old boy finds an old book of magic in a bookshop in Ireland, the forces of good and evil gather to do battle over it.
Risk, Failure, Play illuminates the many ways in which competitive martial arts differentiate themselves from violence. Presented from the perspective of a dancer and writer, this book takes readers through the politics of everyday life as experienced through training in a range of martial arts practices such as jeet kune do, Brazilian jiu jitsu, kickboxing, Filipino martial arts, and empowerment self-defense. Author Janet O Shea shows how play gives us the ability to manage difficult realities with intelligence and demonstrates that physical play, with its immediacy and heightened risk, is particularly effective at accomplishing this task. Risk, Failure, Play also demonstrates the many ways...