New Releases by Simon Schama

“Schama is a masterful stylist and storyteller.” —Boston Globe “A writer of gorgeous prose.” —Washington Post The ever erudite, always delightfully curious Simon Schama returns with Scribble, Scribble, Scribble, a wonderful compendium of thirty provocative, witty, enlightening, and stimulating essays previously published but collected in a single volume for the first time. One of our most distinguished historians and commentators, Schama, the acclaimed author of The American Future: A History, explores an amazing diversity of topics—from the political to the personal, from the earth-shaking to the mundane, from ice cream to Churchill to Hurricane Katrina and everything in-between. In Scribble, Scribble, Scribble, Simon Schama opens up his—and our—wide world to us.

The acclaimed historian and award-winning author offers an essential, historical, outsider''s perspective on the crucial 2008 presidential election and its importance for reclaiming America''s original ideal. It''s not business as usual. Cultural hostilities have divided America in two irreconcilable blocs more completely than at any time since the Civil War. In November 2008, the American people elected a new president, feeling more anxious about the future of the nation than at any time since Watergate. Our omnipotent military, the cornucopia of material comforts available, the security of borders, and the global economy all seem to be in question. In The American Future, historian Simon Schama takes a long look at the multiple crises besetting the United States and asks: How do these problems look in the mirror of time? In four crucial debates (wars, religion, race and immigration, and the relationship between natural resources and prosperity), Schama looks back to see more clearly into the future. Full of lost insights, The American Future showcases Schama''s acclaimed gift for storytelling, ensuring these voices will be heard again.

“El gran arte tiene unas maneras espantosas...” observa Simon Schama al comienzo de su magistral exploración sobre los momentos clave de la historia del arte. Un respetuoso paseo por un museo puede llevarnos a creer erróneamente que las obras maestras son piezas amables, objetos que nos sosiegan y seducen. Pero en realidad son otra cosa: las más grandes pinturas nos aprisionan, desmontan nuestros esquemas y luego reorganizan nuestro sentido de la realidad. Con esa misma fuerza, El poder del arte nos aleja de la comodidad del museo para ver esas obras bajo una nueva luz: Schama aborda los puntos de inflexiónn en las vidas de ocho artistas que, en situaciones extremas, crearon obras sin precedentes, alterando para siempre el curso de la historia del arte. Cada uno de estos héroes –Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso y Rothko- afrontó a la crisis de diferente manera, pero siempre con el pulso firme. Las obras maestras que crearon desafiaron las convenciones, destrozaron la autocomplacencia, invirtieron las conciencias y cambiaron nuestro modo de ver el mundo. Con un estilo narrativo poderosamente vivo, Schama explora las personalidades de los artistas y el espíritu de los tiempos en los que vivieron, capturando el extravagante teatro de la vida burguesa en Amsterdam, la pasión y la paranoia del París revolucionario o la carnicería y el patetismo en la España de la guerra civil. Ocho artistas Ocho historias clave en la historia del arte CARAVAGGIO CUANDO LA PINTURA SE MATERIALIZA BERNINI EL HACEDOR DE MILAGROS REMBRANDT LA CRUDA REALIDAD EN LOS SALONES DE LA CLASE ACAUDALADA DAVID EL AERÓGRAFO DE LA REVOLUCIÓN TURNER LA TORMENTA EN EL LIENZO VAN GOGH LA PLASMACIÓN DESDE EL INTERIOR DE LA MENTE PICASSO EL ARTE CONTEMPORÁNEO CONVERTIDO EN POLÍTICA ROTHKO LA MÚSICA DEL MÁS ALLÁ EN LA CIUDAD DEL RESPLANDOR

"Great art has dreadful manners," Simon Schama observes wryly at the start of his epic and explosive exploration of the power, and whole point, of art. "The hushed reverence of the gallery can fool you into believing masterpieces are polite things; visions that soothe, charm and beguile, but actually they are thugs. Merciless and wily, the greatest paintings grab you in a headlock, rough up your composure, and then proceed in short order to re-arrange your sense of reality. . . ." With the same disarming force, The Power of Art propels us on an eye-opening, breathtaking odyssey, zooming in on eight extraordinary masterpieces, from Caravaggio''s David and Goliath to Picasso''s Guernica. Jolting us far from the comfort zone of the hushed art gallery, Schama closes in on intense make-or-break turning points in the lives of eight great artists who, under extreme stress, created something unprecedented, altering the course of art forever. The embattled heroes—Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso and Rothko—each in his own resolute way, faced crisis with steadfast defiance, pitting passion and conviction against scorn and short-sightedness. The masterpieces they created challenged convention, shattered complacency, shifted awareness and changed the way we look at the world. With vivid storytelling and powerfully evocative descriptive passages, Schama explores the dynamic personalities of the artists and the spirit of the times they lived through, capturing the flamboyant theatre of bourgeois life in Amsterdam, the passion and paranoia of Revolutionary Paris, and the carnage and pathos of Civil War Spain. Most compelling of all, The Power of Art traces the extraordinary evolution of eight "eye-popping" world-class works of art. Created in a bolt of illumination, such works "tell us something about how the world is, how it is to be inside our skins, that no more prosaic source of wisdom can deliver. And when they do that, they answer, irrefutably and majestically, the nagging question of every reluctant art-conscript . . . ''OK, OK, but what''s art really for?''"

Rough Crossings turns on a single huge question: if you were black in America at the start of the Revolutionary War, whom would you want to win? In response to a declaration by the last governor of Virginia that any rebel-owned slave who escaped and served the King would be emancipated, tens of thousands of slaves -- Americans who clung to the sentimental notion of British freedom -- escaped from farms, plantations and cities to try to reach the British camp. This mass movement lasted as long as the war did, and a military strategy originally designed to break the plantations of the American South had unleashed one of the great exoduses in American history. With powerfully vivid storytelling, Schama details the odyssey of the escaped blacks through the fires of war and the terror of potential recapture at the war''s end, into inhospitable Nova Scotia, where thousands who had served the Crown were betrayed and, in a little-known hegira of the slave epic, sent across the broad, stormy ocean to Sierra Leone.

A professor of social history shares a lifetime of insights into the metaphysics of the body by retracing the emergence of a renaissance understanding of the body and the fading notion of a soul contained within it. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

In May 2005 Penguin will publish 70 unique titles to celebrate the company''s 70th birthday. The titles in the Pocket Penguins series are emblematic of the renowned breadth of quality of the Penguin list and will hark back to Penguin founder Allen Lane''s vision of good books for all''. whose books and TV series have enthralled huge audiences through their gripping storytelling. Citizens, his award-winning account of the French Revolution, has continued to be one of Penguin''s most popular history titles since it was first published in 1989. This extract takes us into the heart of the revolution''s ferment as the angry crowd storm the Bastille

"This is a personal selection of his articles from amongst other publications, ''The New Yorker'', contains pieces on artists as diverse as David Hockney, Rembrandt and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and on such subjects as the ''unforgettable perculiarity'' of Stanley Spencer." --cover.

Simon Schama nos cuenta aquí la historia del auge y decadencia de Gran Bretaña y de su imperio, entre 1776 y 2000, de una forma nueva y original, convenciendo al lector, como ha dicho Roy Porter, de que tiene una buena historia que contar y de que va a di

Dans un livre à facettes multiples crépitant d''énergie intellectuelle, le grand historien Simon Schama s''attache à montrer comment Rembrandt est devenu Rembrandt, comment celui qui voulait être le Rubens de la Hollande - et qui a échoué dans cette ambition - est devenu peu à peu le maître admirable que nous mettons aujourd''hui au-dessus du peintre d''Anvers, mais au prix d''une gloire décroissante auprès de ses contemporains, qui lui préférèrent des artistes de second ordre et le laissèrent terminer sa vie dans la pauvreté. L''étude de ce parcours est minutieuse, se fonde sur un examen très fouillé de nombreux tableaux et dessins, d''un ton singulièrement personnel et passionné, d''une autorité aussi convaincante que provocante. Jamais livre ne nous a pareillement plongés dans l''œuvre d''un peintre. Dans l''œuvre et la vie de deux peintres, devrait-on dire, car Schama étudie successivement le modèle puis le disciple, Rubens, puis Rembrandt. Du même coup, il fait revivre leur environnement, la lutte acharnée qui a donné naissance aux Pays-Bas catholiques et aux Provinces-Unies protestantes. De telle sorte que la vie et l''œuvre de ces deux peintres s''encadrent dans une fresque historique et sociale d''une magnifique ampleur.

Après Giacometti en 2001, Matisse/Kelly en 2002 et Otto Dix en 2003, Gallimard et le Centre Pompidou publient un nouvel ouvrage, consacré aux seuls dessins de Cy Twombly, né en 1928. Au début des années 1950, Twombly séjourne au Black Mountain College où l''avant-garde artistique américaine se retrouve dans un climat unique d''émulation et d''échanges inspiré par le Bauhaus européen de l''entre-deux guerres. Si Twombly a été averti des expériences récentes de l''Action Painting et des possibilités nouvelles du geste pictural et de l''automatisme, qu''il explore pendant ces années, il choisit de s''installer, en 1957, à Rome, où il vit et travaille encore aujourd''hui. Depuis 1992, il partage son temps entre l''Italie et la Virginie. La renommée internationale de Twombly se confirme lors de son exposition au Whitney Museum of American Art à New York en 1979. Après la grande rétrospective européenne qui fut présentée à Zurich, Madrid, Londres, Düsseldorf et au Centre Pompidou en 1988, ce fut au Museum of Modern Art de New York, en 1994, de célébrer Cy Twombly. En 1995, un musée dessiné par Renzo Piano, entièrement dédié à son œuvre , ouvre ses portes à Houston. Cet ouvrage, réalisé pour accompagner l''exposition du Centre Pompidou, comprend des essais de Simon Schama et de Jonas Storsve, commissaire de l''exposition, ainsi qu''un texte de Roland Barthes.

The first volume in this history of Britain tells the story of Britain from the time of the earliest settlements, discovered in the Orkneys, to the death of Queen Elizabeth I. Each chapter focuses on a major theme.

Foreword by Mikhail Piotrovsky. Introduction by Simon Schama.

Beat is Anya Gallaccio''s site-specific installation for the Duveen Galleries at Tate Britain. It responds specifically to both the dramatic space and scale of the Duveen Galleries and the tradition of British landscape painting represented in the Tate Collection.

The second installment of Schama''s epic three-part history of Britain is a complete chronicle of the eventful years from 1603 to 1776. 150 color photos. 10 color maps.

Studie over denken en handelen van voornamelijk de middenklasse in de Republiek der Nederlanden.

The compelling opening words to The Fate of Empire set the tone and agenda for the final stage of Simon Schama''s epic voyage around Britain, her people and past. Spanning two centuries, crossing the breadth of the empire, and covering a vast expanse of topics -- from the birth of feminism to the fate of freedom -- he explores the forces that shaped British culture and character, from 1776 to 2000. The story opens on the eve of a bloody revolution, but not a British one. The French Revolution never actually crossed the Channel, though its spirit of fiery defiance and Romantic idealism did, sparking off a round of radical revolts and reforms that gathered momentum over the coming century -- from the Irish Rebellion to the Chartist Petition. If the British Empire helped to make Britain stable and rich, did it live up to its promise to help the ruled as well as the rulers? The Fate of Empire makes stops at celebrations, like the Great Exhibition, and catastrophes, like the Irish potato famine and the Indian Mutiny. Amidst the military and economic shocks and traumas of the twentieth century, and through the voices of Churchill, Orwell, and H.G. Wells, Schama asks the question that still haunts the British -- is the immense weight of British history a blessing or a curse or a millstone around the neck of the future?

For Rembrandt as for Shakespeare, all the world was indeed a stage, and he knew in exhaustive detail the tactics of its performance; the strutting and mincing; the wardrobe and the face paint; the full repertoire of gesture and grimace; the flutter of hands and the roll of the eyes; the belly laugh and the half-stifled sob. He knew what it looked like to seduce, to intimidate, to wheedle, and to console; to strike a pose or preach a sermon; to shake a fist or uncover a breast; how to sin and how to atone; how to commit murder and how to commit suicide. No artist had ever been so fascinated by the fashioning of personae, beginning with his own. No painter ever looked with such unsparing intelligence or such bottomless compassion at our entrances and our exits and the whole rowdy show in between. More than three centuries after his death, Rembrandt remains the most deeply loved of all the great masters of painting, his face so familiar to us from the self-portraits painted at every stage in his life, yet still so mysterious. As with Shakespeare, the facts of his life are hard to come by; the Leiden miller''s son who briefly found fame in Amsterdam, whose genius was fitfully recognized by his contemporaries, who fell into bankruptcy and died in poverty. So there is probably no other painter whose life has engendered more legends, nor to whom more unlikely pictures have been attributed (a process now undergoing rigorous reversal). Rembrandt''s Eyes, about which Simon Schama has been thinking for more than twenty years, shows that the true biography of Rembrandt is to be discovered in his pictures. Though a succession of superbly incisive descriptions and interpretations of Rembrandt''s paintings threaded into his narrative, he allows us to see Rembrandt''s life clearly and to think about it afresh. But this book moves far beyond the bounds of conventional biography or art history. With extraordinary imaginative sympathy, Schama conjures up the world in which Rembrandt moved -- its sounds, smells and tastes as well as its politics; the influences on him of the wars of the Protestant United Provinces against Spain, of the extreme Calvinism of his native Leiden, of the demands of patrons and the ambitions of contemporaries; the importance of his beloved Saskia and, after her death (Rembrandt was later forced to sell her grave, so complete was his ruin), of his mistress Hendrickje Stoffels; and, above all, the profound effect on him of the great master of the immediately preceding generation, the Catholic painter from Antwerp, Peter Paul Rubens: "the prince of painters and the painter of princes" with whom Rembrandt was obsessed for the first part of his life, and whose career was the shaping force that drove Rembrandt to test the farthest reaches of his own originality. Rembrandt''s Eyes shows us why Rembrandt is such a thrilling painter, so revolutionary in his art, so penetrating of the hearts of those who have looked for three hundred years at his pictures. Above all, Schama''s understanding of Rembrandt''s mind and the dynamic of his life allows him to re-create Rembrandt''s life on the page. Through a combination of scholarship and literary skill, Schama allows us to actually see that life through Rembrandt''s own eyes. In overcoming the paucity of conventional historical evidence, it is the most intelligently true biography of Rembrandt that has ever been written, and the most dazzling achievement to date of the art historian whose work has been hailed as "marvelously rich and eloquent" ... "rare, imaginative" ... "provocative" ... "astoundingly learned with verve, humor, and an unflagging sense of delight" ... that of "a master storyteller ... and a master of history."* Quotes from the New York Times Book Review, Time, the New York Times, The Independent on Sunday, and Nature, respecti