Books in the The Landmark Library series

The remarkable story of the Ancient Olympic Games, narrated in invigorating style by a leading classical scholar and translator.

From an award-winning scholar, the extraordinary sixty-thousand-year history of how the Pacific islands were settled. A Wall Street Journal Book of the Year'Highlights a dizzying burst of new research' The Economist'Takes readers on a narrative odyssey' Wall Street Journal'I would not be surprised if, after reading this masterpiece, many readers are compelled to take up voyaging themselves' Science MagazineThousands of islands, inhabited by a multitude of different peoples, are scattered across the vastness of the Pacific. The first European explorers to visit Oceania, from the sixteenth century on, were astounded and perplexed to find populations thriving so many miles from the nearest continents. Who were these people? Where did they come from? And how were they able to reach islands dispersed over such immense tracts of ocean?In Voyagers, the distinguished anthropologist Nicholas Thomas charts the course of the seaborne migrations that populated the islands between Asia and the Americas. From the third millennium BC, the Philippines, Indonesia, Micronesia and Melanesia were settled by Austronesian peoples of the western Pacific littoral. Later movements of Polynesian peoples took them even further afield, as far as Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, the Marquesas, Easter Island and - eventually - New Zealand, up to AD 1250.Drawing on the latest research, including insights gained from linguistics, archaeology, and the re-enactment of voyages, Thomas provides a dazzling account of these long-distance migrations, the sea-going technologies that enabled them, and the societies that they left in their wake.

A concise, authoritative and fast-paced telling of how the railways changed the world.

A beautifully produced account of the history and importance of Hadrian's Wall.

The story of the seventh- and eighth-century Muslim conquests, when armies inspired by the new religion of Islam burst out of Arabia to build the Islamic Empire. 'This book delivers drama through sublime writing, but mainly through marvellous images... As sharp as the Arabian desert in the midday sun' Gerard DeGroot, The Times, Books of the Year'An excellent prelude to Marozzi's previous books' Spectator'Thoroughly good fun... The narration moves swiftly but gracefully from episode to episode' Sunday TimesBy the time of his death in 632, the Prophet Mohammed had united the feuding tribes of Arabia at the point of his sword. In the decades that followed, armies inspired by the new religion of Islam burst out of Arabia to subjugate the Levant, southwest and Central Asia, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula.The Arab Conquests lasted until 750, by which time several generations of marauding Muslim armies had carved out an Islamic empire, soon to be centred on Baghdad, which in size and population rivalled that of Rome at its zenith, extending from the shores of the Atlantic in the west to the borders of China in the east. In the process they had completely crushed one great empire (the old empire of Byzantium), and hollowed out another (that of the Iranian Sasanids).These conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries represent one of the greatest feats of arms in history. Justin Marozzi charts their lightning progress across the Middle East and vast tracts of Asia and explains how an unknown and radically militant faith swept out of the Arabian desert to change the world for ever.

Peter Conrad explores the phenomenon of Shakespeare, and assesses Shakespeare's global legacy across every continent and across every genre of the creative arts.

The story of the first great skyscraper, and the transformation of the modern city.

A concise history of one of the world's greatest and most comprehensive museum collections, from its founding in 1753 to the present day.

A short and controversial new interpretation of arguably the most important revolution of all time: the event that made the rights of man and the demand for liberty, equality and fraternity central to modern politics.

A concise account of the painting often described as the most important work of art produced in the twentieth century.

The story behind the scandalous first performance of one of the most influential works in the history of music.

An account of the reinvention of Paris in the mid-nineteenth century as the most beautiful, exciting city in the world - a position it has never relinquished.

A concise, beautifully illustrated account of the history and archaeology of an iconic feature of the English landscape.

A biography of the great epic poem.

The story of the composition, first performances and cultural afterlife of one of the best-loved and most widely performed works in the entire history of music.

A beautifully produced account of the signing, impact and legacy of Magna Carta, a document that became one the most influential statements in the history of democracy.