Focusing on the period between 1870 and 1920, the book examines the intricate relationship between agriculture, development, and poverty under British rule in India's Patna Division, Bihar. It analyzes how British policies shaped the economy and explores the effects of legal, administrative, and scientific interventions on rural life and societal norms, providing a comprehensive understanding of colonial influence on local conditions.
The controversial, ground-breaking biography of Caravaggio
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year From the author of M and A Death in Brazil comes Midnight in Sicily . South of mainland Italy lies the island of Sicily, home to an ancient culture that--with its stark landscapes, glorious coastlines, and extraordinary treasure troves of art and archeology--has seduced travelers for centuries. But at the heart of the island's rare beauty is a network of violence and corruption that reaches into every corner of Sicilian life: Cosa Nostra, the Mafia. Peter Robb lived in southern Italy for over fourteen years and recounts its sensuous pleasures, its literature, politics, art, and crimes.
een barokke collage van reizen, geschiedenis, cultuur en politiek
Combining travel, history, culture, and his own memories of twenty years of Brazilian life, the author of Midnight in Sicily delves into the past and present of a country that affects our imagination like few other places on earth From his own near murder in Rio at the hands of an intruder twenty years ago and continuing through the recent slaying of a former president's bagman who looted the country of more than a billion dollars, violent death poses a steady threat in Peter Robb's brilliant travelogue through modern-day Brazil. It's not death, however, that leaves a lasting impression but the exuberant life force that emanates from the country and its people. Seeking to understand how extreme danger and passion can coexist in a nation for centuries, Robb travels from the cobalt blue shores of southern Brazil to the arid mountains of the northeast recounting four centuries of Brazilian history from the days of slavery to the recent election of the country's first working-class president. Much more than a journey through history, Robb renders in vivid detail the intoxicating pleasures of the food, music, and climate of the country and references the work of Brazil's greatest writers to depict a culture unlike any other. With a stunning prose style and an endlessly inquisitive intellect, Robb builds layer upon layer of history, culture, and personal reminiscence into a deeply personal, impressionistic portrait of a nation. The reader emerges from A Death in Brazil not just with more knowledge about the country but with a sense of having experienced it and with a deep understanding of its turbulent soul.
L'intera esistenza di Michelangelo Merisi, noto come 'il Caravaggio', resta ancora oggi un enigma ricco di fascino. Grazie alla sua sensibilità e alle sue lunghe ricerche su documenti di prima mano, Peter Robb fa rivivere in queste pagine l'uomo e l'artista in tutta la sua potente drammaticità. Dall'infanzia in Lombardia al lungo periodo trascorso a Roma, fino ai trionfi professionali e alla catastrofe esistenziale degli ultimi anni; la condanna per omicidio, la fuga a Napoli e a Malta, il carcere, l'evasione e la misteriosa scomparsa. Rifiutando infatti le classiche versioni sulla morte di Caravaggio, Robb la inserisce in un inquietante contesto di vendetta sessuale, tradimenti, collusioni di stato, rivelando il nome di chi fu, con ogni probabilità, il mandante dell'assassinio del pittore. M non è una biografia tradizionale - è la storia vera dell'uomo che ha cambiato per sempre l'arte, liberandola dalle catene dell'ideologia e riuscendo a dipingere la realtà in modo brutale e sconvolgente.
A journey into the heart of Sicily, using art, food, history and literature to shed light on southern Italy's legacy of political corruption and violent crime. The book takes as its starting point the ongoing trial of seven-times Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.