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THOMAS.HUGH: : WORLD WITHOUT END: The Global Empire of Phlip II

LONDON.ALLEN LANE,2014.

ISBN 9781846140839.

UK,thick 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Complete number line 001.] FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright, crisp,clean,matt,part wrap-around colour pictorial illustrated front panel+spine /backstrip of dw/dj,with white lettering, rear panel with critics' reviews; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top +fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners, appears unread - apart from my own collation.Bright,crisp,clean, sharp-cornered,publisher's original plain dark blue cloth bds with bright,crisp,white ink stamped letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain maroon eps.UK,thick 8vo HB +dw/dj,1st edn,vii-xviiipp+1-463pp [paginated] includes separate contents, illustrations,maps lists/tables,an author's introduction,a prologue,Books 1-4 comprising 5,13, 5 and 5 (includes epilogue) chapters respectively,16pp contemporary 16thC colour reproduction illustrations and modern colour photographs (33) in 2 blocks of 8pp apiece,between pp174/5 and pp286/7 respectively,15 b/w maps,appendices (7),genealogies (4),a 38pp bibliography,notes and an index.Plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,prose extract (Sir Walter Raleigh - The History of the World),and 14pp blanks at the rear of the book. 'World Without End' is the climax of Hugh Thomas's great history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.It describes the conquest of Paraguay and the River Plate,of the Yucatan in Mexico and of Chile,battles with the French over Florida,and then,in the 165os,the extraordinary projection of Spanish power across the Pacific to conquer the Philippines.As significantly,it describes how the Spanish ran the greatest empire the world had seen since Rome. Besides the conquistadors,the book is peopled with viceroys,judges,nobles, bishops,inquisitors and administrators of many different kinds,often in conflict with one another,seeking to organize the native populations into towns,to build cathedrals,hospitals and universities. Behind them - sometimes ahead of them - came the religious orders,the Franciscans, Dominicans,Augustinarians,and finally the Jesuits,builders of convents and monastries,many of them of astonishing beauty and reminders of the pervasiveness of religion and the self-confidence of the age. Towering above them all,though moving rarely from the palace of the Escorial outside Madrid,is the art lover and collector King Philip II,the central figure in the book.The Venetian ambassador thought him 'the arbiter of the world'.Once the conquest of the Philippines had been completed,Philip's advisors proposed to him an invasion of China: the Jesuit Father Sanchez clled it 'the greatest emterprise which has ever been proposed to any monarch in the world'.It was an enterprise never undertaken,but never explicitly abandoned. Was it a great or terrible empire? In contrast to other empire builders,the Spaniards entered upon arguments with each other about their right to rule other peoples,and their ruthlessness was often tempered by humanity.Hugh Thomas's conclusion is unequivocal: 'The speed with which the sixteenth-century conquistadors conquered such large territories on two vast continents,and the comparable success of the missionaries with large populations of Indians,stands as one of the supreme epics of both valour and imagination by Europeans.' Since April 2013 and again in March 2015, and in 2016 too,the UK Post Office has altered it's Pricing in Proportion template,altering it's prices,weight allowances,dimensions and lowered it's qualifying compensation rates too! So,please contact seller,because of the weight/value of this item for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!

UK,thick 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.

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