From the founding of Rome to the twenty-first century's war on terror, History Day by Day presents an original perspective on over two millennia of human history through the medium of 366 quotations, each of which is tied to the anniversary of a celebrated historical event, capturing its essence with the immediacy of the eye-witness or the narrative flair of the chronicler.
Every day becomes a window on the past: on 15 March 44 bc, blood flows in the Roman Senate as Julius Caesar falls victim to the thrusting daggers of Brutus and his co-conspirators; 1 May 1851 brings a visit to London's Great Exhibition in the company of the novelist Charlotte Bront?; on 28 June 1919, in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles, broken-spirited German delegates sign the Treaty that brings the Great War to its fateful conclusion; on 16 August 1665, we walk the silent streets of plague-ravaged London with the diarist Samuel Pepys; and on 11 September 2001 we watch in horror as the Twin Towers topple and the world changes forever.
History Day by Day embraces a wide range of voices, moods and registers, from the powerful to the impoverished, the revolutionary to the reactionary, the propagandist to the idealist and the joyful to the grief-stricken. Both engrossing anthology and informative overview of world history, History Day by Day offers the reader entertainment and instruction in equal measure: it is the ideal gift book for the history buff.
