Showing results by narrator "Mark Norman" in All Categories

It is hard to find an island on the map more central than Sicily. It has rarely been governed as an independent, unified state. Nonetheless, the island has always occupied a front-row seat to some of the most important events in history, and nowhere is this more obvious than during antiquity. Modern Sicily: The History and Legacy of the Mediterranean Island Since the Middle Ages looks at one of the world’s most important and contested territories. You will learn about Sicily like never before.

In terms of geopolitics, perhaps the most seminal event of the Middle Ages was the successful Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1453. The city had been an imperial capital as far back as the fourth century, when Constantine the Great shifted the power center of the Roman Empire there, effectively establishing two almost equally powerful halves of antiquity’s greatest empire. The Rise of the Ottoman Empire chronicles the rise of one of history’s most influential empires. You will learn about the rise of the Ottoman Empire like never before.

The narrative of American history is incomplete without the inclusion of the Native Americans that lived on the continent before European settlers arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries. Among these groups, one of the most famous is the Mohawk, who refer to themselves as Kanien'kehá:ka ("People of the Place of Flint"), but pop culture has a very different image in mind when it comes to the Mohawk. Those unfamiliar with the group associate them with the conspicuous Mohawk haircut, and images of a warlike people who scalp their enemies are still evoked.

In late September 1863, the Confederates began laying siege to the Union Army of the Cumberland around Chattanooga in what would be their last gasp for supremacy in the West. Following the devastating Union defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 20, the army and its shaken commander, General William S. Rosecrans, began digging in around the city and waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

Steam's Indian Summer is a window into the great watershed period in Britain's railways; the change from steam haulage to diesel and electric traction. Highlights include the last years of the named expresses like 'Bristolian', plus visits to far-flung but legendary and unique corners of the national network, like the Cromford & High Peak Railway.