{"title":"Catherine Fletcher","description":"Catherine Fletcher is a historian of Renaissance and early modern Europe. Her previous works include The Divorce of Henry VIII and The Black Prince of Florence. She teaches History and Heritage at Swansea University in the UK and has held research fellowships in London, Florence, and Rome.","products":[{"product_id":"the-beauty-and-the-terror-the-italian-renaissance-and-the-rise-of-the-west-hardcover","title":"The Beauty and the Terror: The Italian Renaissance and the Rise of the West - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA new account of the birth of the West through its birthplace--Renaissance Italy\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe period between 1492--resonant for a number of reasons--and 1571, when the Ottoman navy was defeated in the Battle of Lepanto, embraces what we know as the Renaissance, one of the most dynamic and creatively explosive epochs in world history. Here is the period that gave rise to so many great artists and figures, and which by its connection to its classical heritage enabled a redefinition, even reinvention, of human potential. It was a moment both of violent struggle and great achievement, of Michelangelo and da Vinci as well as the Borgias and Machiavelli. At the hub of this cultural and intellectual ferment was Italy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Beauty and the Terror\u003c\/em\u003e offers a vibrant history of Renaissance Italy and its crucial role in the emergence of the Western world. Drawing on a rich range of sources--letters, interrogation records, maps, artworks, and inventories--Catherine Fletcher explores both the explosion of artistic expression and years of bloody conflict between Spain and France, between Catholic and Protestant, between Christian and Muslim; in doing so, she presents a new way of witnessing the birth of the West.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51367720419551,"sku":"9780190908492","price":36.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/xVYUSSujKh9780190908492.webp?v=1789113373"},{"product_id":"the-roads-to-rome-a-history-of-imperial-expansion-hardcover","title":"The Roads to Rome: A History of Imperial Expansion - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eInspired by original research and filled with color and drama, this is an exploration of two thousand years of history as seen through one the greatest imperial networks ever built.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"All roads lead to Rome\" is a medieval proverb, but it's also true: today's European roads still follow the networks of the ancient empire--and these ancient roads continue to grip our modern imaginations as a physical manifestation of Rome's extraordinary greatness. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Over the two thousand years since they were first built, these roads have been walked by crusaders and pilgrims, liberators and dictators, but also by tourists and writers, refugees and artists. As channels of trade and travel--and routes for conquest and creativity--Catherine Fletcher reveals how these roads forever transformed the cultures, and intertwined the fates, of a vast panoply of people across Europe and beyond. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Roads to Rome\u003c\/i\u003e is a magnificent journey into a past that remains intimately connected to our present. Traveling from Scotland to Cádiz to Istanbul and back to Rome, the reader meanders through a series of nations and empires that have risen and fallen. Along the way, we encounter spies, bandits, scheming innkeepers, a Byzantine noblewoman on the run, young aristocrats on their Grand Tour, a conquering Napoleon, John Keats, the Shelleys, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and even Mussolini on his motorbike. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Reflecting on his own walk on the Appian Way, Charles Dickens observed that here is \"a history in every stone that strews the ground.\" Based on vibrant original research, this is the first narrative history to tell the full story of life on the roads that lead to Rome.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51368276295903,"sku":"9781639367603","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/OH0QjC37_f9781639367603.webp?v=1789125165"},{"product_id":"the-firearm-revolution-from-renaissance-italy-to-the-european-empires-hardcover","title":"The Firearm Revolution: From Renaissance Italy to the European Empires - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA groundbreaking account of how firearms changed Europe and the world\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn Renaissance Italy, the gun was not only a tool of war but also a desirable object, a luxury item carried at court. Guns were in use on the battlefield by 1440; later in that century Leonardo da Vinci sketched a design for a faster-firing, more portable handgun that could be hidden beneath a cloak. As the gun proliferated in society, it became both a means of self-defence and a threat to civic order. In \u003ci\u003eThe Firearm Revolution\u003c\/i\u003e, historian Catherine Fletcher explores the emergence of firearms in Renaissance Italy and beyond, describing the social transformations that accompanied the evolution of the handgun from innovative military technology to widely used personal accessory. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFletcher shows that as guns became smaller and the new wheellock mechanism made concealed carry possible, Italian states increasingly tried to control their use--even as they viewed firearms as necessary for their militias. In the end, Fletcher reports, the importance of civic defence trumped the concern for social order. As guns became ever more acceptable, stories of how firearms aided Europeans' overseas conquests created a new and more positive image for a weapon once considered the devil's work. Debates over the regulation of firearms five centuries ago--which included arguments over the restriction of gun ownership, the use of guns for self-defence and the regulation of an armed militia--in many ways anticipate discussions about gun control today. Fletcher's groundbreaking account sheds new light on how governments weighed the competing priorities of defence and social order as they set out to build empires.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51368977367263,"sku":"9780691272672","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/mDZzdQF26T9780691272672.webp?v=1789135988"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/catherine-fletcher.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}