To read most histories of art, you might be forgiven for supposing that great artists are superhuman, and the knowledge of different movements, periods and styles is essential to truly appreciate art.It's time to look at art in a new way.THE POWER OF ART delves into the stories behind remarkable acts of creation in fifteen global cities at pivotal moments of artistic brilliance. It shows how art is an integral part of our daily lives, embedded in the very fabric of our existence. From the enduring wonders of ancient Babylon to the menacing pastel architecture of contemporary Pyongyang, eminent curator Caroline Campbell intertwines the stories of artists with the broader social, cultural and political landscapes of their time.In each vivid episode, Campbell reveals how art, in all its forms, is a testament to humanity's inventiveness and ingenuity: it has served our fundamental needs for shelter, sustenance, spirituality, pleasure, order and community. But it can also evoke envy, anger, greed, and even be used as a means of social control.Spanning thousands of years of creativity, THE POWER OF ART will ignite your imagination and open your eyes to the art that surrounds us, whether it be a painting in a gallery, a public sculpture or an everyday object with hidden beauty. Read more

If you want to discover the captivating history of ancient Africa and the Kingdom of Kush, then keep reading...Two captivating manuscripts in one book:Ancient Africa: A Captivating Guide to Ancient African Civilizations, Such as the Kingdom of Kush, the Land of Punt, Carthage, the Kingdom of Aksum, and the Mali Empire with its TimbuktuThe Kingdom of Kush: A Captivating Guide to an Ancient African Kingdom in Nubia That Once Ruled EgyptAfrica is the continent where the first humans were born. They explored the vast land and produced the first tools. And although we migrated from that continent, we never completely abandoned it. From the beginning of time, humans lived and worked in Africa, leaving evidence of their existence in the sands of the Sahara Desert and the valleys of the great rivers, such as the Nile and Niger. Some of the earliest great civilizations were born there, and they give us an insight into the smaller kingdoms of ancient Africa.Egypt is the main source of knowledge of many neighboring kingdoms that were just as rich and developed. Unfortunately, they were forgotten in time, as other civilizations and kingdoms replaced them as the continent's power bases. Only recently are we rediscovering the might of the Kingdom of Aksum, the political prowess of Kush, and the richness of the mysterious Punt. The early medieval kingdoms of Ghana and Mali are still being researched due to their unique pre-Muslim culture and their own outlook on Islam.As the home of the many pharaohs, Queen Sheba, Hannibal Barca, and Mansa Musa, Africa deserves our full attention. It has stories to tell us and cultural riches to share with us. Africa is where paganism, Christianity, and Islam left their trails and created a cultural fusion that is unique to the continent. Some modern countries are popular tourist destinations, while others are war-torn lands still unable to industrialize. This polarity of Africa can be traced to ancient times, and the world-shaping events that occurred here need to be studied and understood.Some of the topics covered in part 1 of this book include:The Kingdom of KushThe Land of PuntCarthageThe Kingdom of AksumThe Ghana EmpireThe Mali EmpireAnd much, much more!Some of the topics covered in part 2 of this book include:Nubia and the Emergence of the Kingdom of KushFrom Alara to the Twenty-Fifth DynastyThe Rulers of the Twenty-Fifth DynastyRelations between Kush and Egypt ContinueKush between the 6th and 3rd CenturiesThe Meroitic DynastyThe Last Centuries of the Kingdom of KushThe Society of KushAnd much, much more!So if you want to learn more about ancient Africa and the Kingdom of Kush, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button! Read more

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO BOOK AWARDS 2024**An instant Sunday Times bestseller, Radio 4 Book of the Week and Guardian Best Summer Read* Selected as a book to look out for in 2024 by the Guardian and The Rest is PoliticsEveryone is originally from Africa, and this book is therefore for everyone.For too long, Africa’s history has been dominated by western narratives of slavery and colonialism, or simply ignored. Now, Zeinab Badawi sets the record straight.In this fascinating book, Badawi guides us through Africa’s spectacular history – from the origins of humanity, through ancient civilisations and medieval empires, to the miseries of conquest and the elation of independence. Visiting more than thirty African countries to interview countless historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and local storytellers, Badawi weaves together a gripping new history of the oldest inhabited continent on the planet, told through the voices of Africans themselves. Read more

KRISS KROSS PUZZLE BOOK FOR ADULTSBook Features:600+ Kriss Kross Puzzles20 words in one puzzle12.000+ words on completely different topicsIncludes FREE BONUS PUZZLES downloadableIncludes instructions and techniques for complete beginnersSize of the book: 8.5" x 11" inch (21.59 cm x 27.94 cm)Includes full solutions (end of the book)Premium Matte Color Cover Read more

KRISS KROSS PUZZLE BOOK FOR ADULTSBook Features: 500 Kriss Kross Puzzles20 words in one puzzle 10.000 words on completely different topics Includes FREE BONUS PUZZLES downloadableIncludes instructions and techniques for complete beginnersSize of the book: 8.5" x 11" inch (21.59 cm x 27.94 cm)Includes full solutions (end of the book)Premium Color Cover Read more

Think you know your history? This bumper collection of 51 fun, fiendish crossword puzzles will challenge your knowledge of everything from Ancient Rome to the Arab Spring, from the Aztecs to the internet, from the Stone Age to the Jazz Age, and from Timbuktu to outer space.Spanning centuries and ranging across continents, each crossword has something for everyone – whether you’re a keen quizzer, fancy yourself as a history expert, or are just fascinated by our shared past. Test yourself on historic battles, ancient cultures, earth-shaking revolutions and amazing inventions; play against the clock, or just against yourself. Open up a whole world of historical discovery. Let’s get puzzling!Absorbing puzzles on a large 17x17 gridA wide variety of questions across 14 history themesOver 860 quiz-style cluesClues and crossword grid are conveniently on the same page for each puzzleSolutions provided at the back of the bookFun facts every 2 puzzles to teach you something interesting you didn't know before!The perfect gift for adult history fansAll puzzles are in British EnglishGet 19 FREE bonus crosswords with this book! As a thank you for purchasing this book, we are giving away 19 FREE crosswords in a printable format for you test your history knowledge on hundreds more clues. The download link is provided in the book. Read more

New York Times 'Best Art Books' 2020'Essential' – Sunday Times'Brilliantly enraged' - New York Review of Books'A real game-changer'– EconomistWalk into any Western museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire. They sit behind plate glass: dignified, tastefully lit. Accompanying pieces of card offer a name, date and place of origin. They do not mention that the objects are all stolen.Few artefacts embody this history of rapacious and extractive colonialism better than the Benin Bronzes - a collection of thousands of metal plaques and sculptures depicting the history of the Royal Court of the Obas of Benin City, Nigeria. Pillaged during a British naval attack in 1897, the loot was passed on to Queen Victoria, the British Museum and countless private collections.The Brutish Museums sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums. Since its first publication, museums across the western world have begun to return their Bronzes to Nigeria, heralding a new era in the way we understand the collections of empire we once took for granted. Read more

If you want to discover the captivating history of ancient Africa and the Kingdom of Kush, then keep reading...Two captivating manuscripts in one book:Ancient Africa: A Captivating Guide to Ancient African Civilizations, Such as the Kingdom of Kush, the Land of Punt, Carthage, the Kingdom of Aksum, and the Mali Empire with its TimbuktuThe Kingdom of Kush: A Captivating Guide to an Ancient African Kingdom in Nubia That Once Ruled EgyptAfrica is the continent where the first humans were born. They explored the vast land and produced the first tools. And although we migrated from that continent, we never completely abandoned it. From the beginning of time, humans lived and worked in Africa, leaving evidence of their existence in the sands of the Sahara Desert and the valleys of the great rivers, such as the Nile and Niger. Some of the earliest great civilizations were born there, and they give us an insight into the smaller kingdoms of ancient Africa.Egypt is the main source of knowledge of many neighboring kingdoms that were just as rich and developed. Unfortunately, they were forgotten in time, as other civilizations and kingdoms replaced them as the continent’s power bases. Only recently are we rediscovering the might of the Kingdom of Aksum, the political prowess of Kush, and the richness of the mysterious Punt. The early medieval kingdoms of Ghana and Mali are still being researched due to their unique pre-Muslim culture and their own outlook on Islam.As the home of the many pharaohs, Queen Sheba, Hannibal Barca, and Mansa Musa, Africa deserves our full attention. It has stories to tell us and cultural riches to share with us. Africa is where paganism, Christianity, and Islam left their trails and created a cultural fusion that is unique to the continent. Some modern countries are popular tourist destinations, while others are war-torn lands still unable to industrialize. This polarity of Africa can be traced to ancient times, and the world-shaping events that occurred here need to be studied and understood.Some of the topics covered in part 1 of this book include:The Kingdom of KushThe Land of PuntCarthageThe Kingdom of AksumThe Ghana EmpireThe Mali EmpireAnd much, much more!Some of the topics covered in part 2 of this book include:Nubia and the Emergence of the Kingdom of KushFrom Alara to the Twenty-Fifth DynastyThe Rulers of the Twenty-Fifth DynastyRelations between Kush and Egypt ContinueKush between the 6th and 3rd CenturiesThe Meroitic DynastyThe Last Centuries of the Kingdom of KushThe Society of KushAnd much, much more!So if you want to learn more about ancient Africa and the Kingdom of Kush, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button! Read more

Gordon Beningfield went in search of traditional village life, finding special places with interesting architecture, wildlife and country characters. In this book he records, in words and pictures, what he found. Read more

KRISS KROSS PUZZLE BOOK FOR ADULTSYou are given a list of words you need to figure out where each of these words should fit and be written. If the words are inserted correctly in grids, their spelling will match when they intersect. Each word should be used once only. The easiest way to solve this Kriss Kross is to begin with shorter words. Then, continue solving by placing longer words.100 Kriss Kross PuzzlesOne Puzzle Per Page - LARGE PRINTFont size : 15 - 16 PT (Perfect for your Eyes)Includes FREE BONUS PUZZLES downloadableIncludes instructions and techniques for complete beginnersSize of the book: 8.5" x 11" inch (21.59 cm x 27.94 cm)Includes full solutions (end of the book) Read more

40 pictures (watercolours and a few line drawings) are published here for the first time. As his theme, Beningfield has sought out some of the quiet corners where English woodland continues to flourish in all its glory. Here are the pollarded beeches, the old oak trees with their enormous gnarled trunks, the primroses on mossy banks and the delicate wood anemones scattered across the woodland floor. Also celebrated in the book is the wildlife of the woods: tawny owls, woodpeckers, nuthatches, badgers, foxes, fallow deer and butterflies. Read more

The Slave Coast, situated in what is now the West African state of Benin, was the epicentre of the Atlantic Slave Trade. But it was also an inhospitable, surf-ridden coastline, subject to crashing breakers and devoid of permanent human settlement. Nor was it easily accessible from the interior due to a lagoon which ran parallel to the coast. The local inhabitants were not only sheltered against incursions from the sea, but were also locked off from it. Yet, paradoxically, it was this coastline that witnessed a thriving long-term commercial relation-ship between Europeans and Africans, based on the trans-Atlantic slave trade. How did it come about? How was it all organised? And how did the locals react to the opportunities these new trading relations offered them? The Kingdom of Dahomey is usually cited as the Slave Coast's archetypical slave raiding and slave trading polity. An inland realm, it was a latecomer to the slave trade, and simply incorporated a pre-existing system by dint of military prowess, which ultimately was to prove radically counterproductive. Fuglestad's book seeks to explain the Dahomean 'anomaly' and its impact on the Slave Coast's societies and polities. Read more

KRISS KROSS PUZZLE BOOK FOR ADULTSBook Features:200+ Kriss Kross Puzzles30 words in one puzzle4.000+ words on completely different topicsNow Updated 6000+ WordsIncludes instructions and techniques for complete beginnersSize of the book: 8.5" x 11" inch (21.59 cm x 27.94 cm)Includes full solutions (end of the book)Premium Matte Color Cover Read more

KRISS KROSS PUZZLE BOOK FOR ADULTSBook Features:400+ Kriss Kross Puzzles20 words in one puzzle8.000+ words on completely different topicsIncludes FREE BONUS PUZZLES downloadableIncludes instructions and techniques for complete beginnersSize of the book: 8.5" x 11" inch (21.59 cm x 27.94 cm)Includes full solutions (end of the book)Premium Color Cover Read more

‘Powerful and thoughtful. […] If you want to understand why the Benin Bronzes must be returned to Nigeria, read this book.’ — DAVID OLUSOGA, AUTHOR OF BLACK AND BRITISH’Audacious and brave.’ — RAFIA ZAKARIA, AUTHOR OF AGAINST WHITE FEMINISMAn incisive history revealing Britain’s conquest of the Kingdom of Benin and the plunder of its fabled Bronzes.The Benin Bronzes are among the British Museum’s most prized possessions. Celebrated for their great beauty, they embody the history, myth and artistry of the ancient Kingdom of Benin, once West Africa’s most powerful, and today part of Nigeria. But despite the Bronzes’ renown, little has been written about the brutal imperial violence with which they were plundered. Paddy Docherty’s searing new history tells that story: the 1897 British invasion of Benin.Armed with shocking details discovered in the archives, Blood and Bronze sets this assault in its late Victorian context. As British power faced new commercial and strategic pressures elsewhere, it ruthlessly expanded in West Africa. Revealing both the extent of African resistance and previously concealed British outrages, this is a definitive account of the destruction of Benin. Laying bare the Empire’s true motives and violent means, including the official coverup of grotesque sexual crimes, Docherty demolishes any moral argument for Britain retaining the Bronzes, making a passionate case for their immediate repatriation to Nigeria. Read more

Kingdom of Benin Short Stories use delightful characters to explore aspects of life in the kingdom of Benin in its hay days. In Diary of an Edo Princess, the vulnerable Princess Iyomon finds growing up fun and a challenge; her experiences are those that most children can identify with today. This book is suitable for Key Stage 2: ages 7- 11.Other Kingdom of Benin stories by the same author:1.Ehi Edo Warrior Chief2.Uki at Ukpe FestivalDownload the reading comprehension questions and activities booklet from the website:http://www.kingdomofbenin.com/downloads.htmlA copy of this book is held in each of the UK Legal Deposit Libraries: the British Library, the Bodleian Library, Oxford University, The Cambridge University Library, National Library of Scotland, National Library of Wales and Trinity College Dublin. Read more

The Yoruba: A New History  is the first transdisciplinary study of the two-thousand-year journey of the Yoruba people, from their origins in a small corner of the Niger-Benue Confluence in present-day Nigeria to becoming one of the most populous cultural groups on the African continent. Weaving together archaeology with linguistics, environmental science with oral traditions, and material culture with mythology, Ogundiran examines the local, regional, and even global dimensions of Yoruba history. The Yoruba: A New History  offers an intriguing cultural, political, economic, intellectual, and social history from ca. 300 BC to 1840. It accounts for the events, peoples, and practices, as well as the theories of knowledge, ways of being, and social valuations that shaped the Yoruba experience at different junctures of time. The result is a new framework for understanding the Yoruba past and present. Read more

An NPR Best Book of the Year The incredible true story of the last ship to carry enslaved people to America, the remarkable town its survivors founded after emancipation, and the complicated legacy their descendants carry with them to this day—by the journalist who discovered the ship’s remains.Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, the Clotilda became the last ship in history to bring enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship was scuttled and burned on arrival to hide evidence of the crime, allowing the wealthy perpetrators to escape prosecution. Despite numerous efforts to find the sunken wreck, Clotilda remained hidden for the next 160 years. But in 2019, journalist Ben Raines made international news when he successfully concluded his obsessive quest through the swamps of Alabama to uncover one of our nation’s most important historical artifacts. Traveling from Alabama to the ancient African kingdom of Dahomey in modern-day Benin, Raines recounts the ship’s perilous journey, the story of its rediscovery, and its complex legacy. Against all odds, Africatown, the Alabama community founded by the captives of the Clotilda, prospered in the Jim Crow South. Zora Neale Hurston visited in 1927 to interview Cudjo Lewis, telling the story of his enslavement in the New York Times bestseller Barracoon. And yet the haunting memory of bondage has been passed on through generations. Clotilda is a ghost haunting three communities—the descendants of those transported into slavery, the descendants of their fellow Africans who sold them, and the descendants of their American enslavers. This connection binds these groups together to this day. At the turn of the century, descendants of the captain who financed the Clotilda’s journey lived nearby—where, as significant players in the local real estate market, they disenfranchised and impoverished residents of Africatown. From these parallel stories emerges a profound depiction of America as it struggles to grapple with the traumatic past of slavery and the ways in which racial oppression continue to this day. And yet, at its heart, The Last Slave Ship remains optimistic—an epic tale of one community’s triumphs over great adversity and a celebration of the power of human curiosity to uncover the truth about our past and heal its wounds. Read more

KRISS KROSS PUZZLE BOOK FOR ADULTSBook Features:300 Kriss Kross PuzzlesEasy to Hard ( Easy, Medium, Hard)6.000 words on completely different topicsUpdated Now (7500 words)Includes FREE BONUS PUZZLES downloadableIncludes instructions and techniques for complete beginnersSize of the book: 8.5" x 11" inch (21.59 cm x 27.94 cm)Includes full solutions (end of the book)Premium Color Cover Read more