{"title":"Books by Dr Neil MacGregor","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780241951774","title":"A History of the World in 100 Objects","description":"\u003cb\u003eNeil MacGregor's\u003ci\u003e A History of the World in 100 Objects \u003c\/i\u003etakes a bold, original approach to human history, exploring past civilizations through the objects that defined them.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  Encompassing a grand sweep of human history, \u003ci\u003eA History of the World in 100 Objects \u003c\/i\u003ebegins with one of the earliest surviving objects made by human hands, a chopping tool from the Olduvai gorge in Africa, and ends with objects which characterise the world we live in today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  Seen through MacGregor's eyes, history is a kaleidoscope - shifting, interconnected, constantly surprising, and shaping our world today in ways that most of us have never imagined. A stone pillar tells us about a great Indian emperor preaching tolerance to his people; Spanish pieces of eight tell us about the beginning of a global currency; and an early Victorian tea-set speaks to us about the impact of empire. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  An intellectual and visual feast, this is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books published in years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  'Brilliant, engagingly written, deeply researched' Mary Beard, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  'A triumph: hugely popular, and rightly lauded as one of the most effective and intellectually ambitious initiatives in the making of 'public history' for many decades'\u003ci\u003e Sunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  'Highly intelligent, delightfully written and utterly absorbing ' Timothy Clifford, \u003ci\u003eSpectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   'This is a story book, vivid and witty, shining with insights, connections, shocks and delights' Gillian Reynolds \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201656619186,"sku":"9780241951774","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241951774_65ea2fe7-5214-445e-9a83-36f13aaf4bde.jpg?v=1786012274"},{"product_id":"9780141986258","title":"Living with the Gods","description":"\u003cb\u003eA panoramic exploration of peoples, objects and beliefs over 40,000 years from the celebrated author of \u003ci\u003eA History of the World in 100 Objects \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eGermany\u003c\/i\u003e, following the new BBC Radio 4 documentary and British Museum exhibition. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne of the central facts of human existence is that every society shares a set of beliefs and assumptions - a faith, an ideology, a religion - that goes far beyond the life of the individual. These beliefs are an essential part of a shared identity. They have a unique power to define - and to divide - us, and are a driving force in the politics of much of the world today. Throughout history they have most often been, in the widest sense, religious.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYet this book is not a history of religion, nor an argument in favour of faith. It is about the stories which give shape to our lives, and the different ways in which societies imagine their place in the world. Looking across history and around the globe, it interrogates objects, places and human activities to try to understand what shared beliefs can mean in the public life of a community or a nation, how they shape the relationship between the individual and the state, and how they help give us our sense of who we are.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor in deciding how we live with our gods, we also decide how to live with each other.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'The new blockbuster by the museums maestro Neil MacGregor ... The man who chronicles world history through objects is back ... examining a new set of objects to explore the theme of faith in society' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56225022902645,"sku":"9780141986258","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141986258_4e276b59-175f-4111-a193-5b129e5ec72d.jpg?v=1786011115"},{"product_id":"9780718195700","title":"Shakespeare's Restless World","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe  Elizabethan age was a tumultuous time, when long-cherished certainties  were crumbling and life was exhilaratingly uncertain. \u003ci\u003eShakespeare's Restless World\u003c\/i\u003e  uncovers the extraordinary stories behind twenty objects from the  period to re-create an age at once distant and yet surprisingly  familiar. From knife crime to belief in witches, religious battles to  the horizons of the New World, Neil MacGregor brings the past to life in  a fresh, unexpected portrait of a dangerous and dynamic era.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Fascinating  ... filled with anecdotes and insights, eerie, funny, poignant and  grotesque ... another brilliant vindication of MacGregor's understanding  of physical objects to enter deep into our fore­fathers' mental and  spiritual world'  Christopher Hart, \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Enjoyable  and intriguing, an absorbing evocation ... he draws us into the minds  of the Elizabethan and Jacobean audience. Next time you see one of the  plays reading this book will make those first audiences seem real to  you'  Peter Lewis, \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'How gripping are these  tales from a lost world. And what a world Shakespeare's was -  adventurous, melancholy, rich and plagued by beggary, courteous and  quarrelsome, sceptical and credulous'\u003ci\u003e  Daily Telegraph\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e'Elegant, informative ... provides stimulating insights'  Anne Somerset, \u003ci\u003eSpectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56296785641845,"sku":"9780718195700","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780718195700_b3c29f8f-d685-4ed7-9633-0b927e31dc4f.jpg?v=1786014662"},{"product_id":"9780141979786","title":"Germany","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom Neil MacGregor, the author of \u003ci\u003eA History of the World in 100 Objects, \u003c\/i\u003ethis is a view of Germany like no other\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor the past 140 years, Germany has been the central power in continental Europe. Twenty-five years ago a new German state came into being. How much do we really understand this new Germany, and how do its people now understand themselves?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNeil MacGregor argues that uniquely for any European country, no coherent, over-arching narrative of Germany's history can be constructed, for in Germany both geography and history have always been unstable. Its frontiers have constantly floated. Königsberg, home to the greatest German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, is now Kaliningrad, Russia; Strasbourg, in whose cathedral Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany's greatest writer, discovered the distinctiveness of his country's art and history, now lies within the borders of France. For most of the five hundred years covered by this book Germany has been composed of many separate political units, each with a distinct history. And any comfortable national story Germans might have told themselves before 1914 was destroyed by the events of the following thirty years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGerman history may be inherently fragmented, but it contains a large number of widely shared memories, awarenesses and experiences; examining some of these is the purpose of this book. Beginning with the fifteenth-century invention of modern printing by Gutenberg, MacGregor chooses objects and ideas, people and places which still resonate in the new Germany - porcelain from Dresden and rubble from its ruins, Bauhaus design and the German sausage, the crown of Charlemagne and the gates of Buchenwald - to show us something of its collective imagination. There has never been a book about Germany quite like it.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311575609717,"sku":"9780141979786","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141979786_ddb6439b-1aed-479b-b742-632b020fbee9.jpg?v=1786011777"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-dr-neil-macgregor.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}