Product Description

The Mediterranean has nurtured three of the most dazzling civilisations of antiquity, witnessed the birth or growth of three of our greatest religions and links three of the world's six continents. To the peoples living around its periphery, it has served at various times as a cradle and a grave, a bond and a barrier, a blessing and a battlefield. It has inspired writers from Homer and Virgil to Norman Douglas and Patrick Leigh Fermor. Geographically, it is unlike any other sea in the world; in historical importance also, it stands alone. John Julius Norwich has visited every country around its shores; he has written histories of Norman Sicily, of Venice and of Byzantium. Now at last he tells the story of the Middle Sea itself - a story that begins with the Phoenicians and the Pharaohs and ends with the Treaty of Versailles. He takes us through the Arab conquests of Syria and North Africa; the Holy Roman Empire and the Crusades; Ferdinand and Isabella and the Spanish Inquisition; the great sieges of Rhodes and Malta by the Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent; the pirates of the Barbary Coast and the Battle of Lepanto; Nelson and Napoleon; the Greek War of Independence and the Italian Risorgimento. The story ends with the tragic Gallipoli campaign and the war in the desert which brought fame to the enigmatic T.E. Lawrence. Today, we sometimes see the Mediterranean principally as a playground: waters once stained with blood are polluted with cruise ships and suntan oil. Is this progress? Who knows. But the Middle Sea must never be taken for granted; and no reader of this book will ever do so again.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52609 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 784 pages

Independent
'the result is unbeatable entertainment for the intelligent
traveller.'

Sunday Telegraph
'Always entertaining'

Contemporary Review
`The book is a learned, and enjoyable romp through much of European history.'

Customer Reviews

THE MIDDLE SEA - JOHN JULIUS NORWICH
I'll be honest; I preferred Braudel's `The Mediterranean' and bought this solely on my enjoyment of Norwich's style. The former concentrates on a smaller time frame (The reign of the Hapsburg king Philip II) but looks at how geography, geology, topography have affected the lives of its inhabitants. The latter doing what the author does best concentrates more on personality zooming from ancient Greece to (curiously) Lawrence of Arabia

Mare Nostrum
John Julius Norwich is an outstanding and entertaining author. This book provided me with numerous hours of pleasure and is crammed with interesting and relevant facts. If I have a criticism it is that the early sections, up to the fall of Constantinople, are the best and most riveting. The later sections are still good and for me covered a period of history I was not familiar with. If you are travelling to the mediterranean then this will provide an excellent thought provoking companion.

Highly Recommended from a highly recommendable author
I have written reviews on other JJN works; this is yet another example of history writing at its best. Although the author tends to speed past the aspects of history he clearly hasnt any desire to tell (ie the Roman Empire in its heyday, but he does apologise for it)the rest of the writing is nevertheless highly entertaining while informative at the same time. An essential history.