Historian Tom Holland is the author of the works of history
"Rubicon," "Persian Fire," and "The Forge of Christendom." He
reviews regularly for the "TLS," and has adapted Homer, Herodotus,
Thucydides, and Virgil for BBC Radio. "Rubicon" was short-listed
for the Samuel Johnson Prize and won the 2004 Hessell-Tiltman Prize
for History, and "Persian Fire" won the Anglo-Hellenic League's
2006 Runciman Award.
@holland_tom
www.tom-holland.org
www.doubleday.com
Praise for "In the Shadow of the Sword:
""[Tom Holland's] conclusions may be tentative, but they are
convincing. His book is elegantly written and refreshingly free
from specialist jargon. Marshaling its resources with dexterity, it
is a veritable tour de force."--Malise Ruthven, "Wall Street
Journal"
"Those unwilling to struggle through academic texts have long
needed a guide to the story of Islam as it's understood by those
with the fullest access to the latest linguistic and archaeological
evidence. Now at last in Tom Holland's "In the Shadow of the
Sword," they finally have it.... Holland--author previously of
"Rubicon" and "Persian Fire"--is about as exciting a stylist as we
have writing history today.... [This book is] accessible but
delightful...as fun to read as any thriller, and with far richer
intellectual nutritional content."--David Frum, "Daily Beast
"
"""The life of Muhammad and the rise of Islam are boldly
re-examined in this brilliantly provocative history.... [An]
ambitious and...important book.... Holland is a skilful and
energetic narrator, and while he guides us along the more intricate
twists and turns of the period, he also keeps our eyes on the
bigger story."--Anthony Sattin, "Guardian Observer" (London)
"""[An] elegant study of the roiling era of internecine religious
rivalry and epic strife that saw the nation of Islam rise and
conquer.... Holland confronts questions in the Quranic text
head-on, providing a substantive, fluid exegesis on the original
documents. Smoothly composed history and fine
scholarship."--"Kirkus Reviews
"
"This is a book of extraordinary richness. I found myself amused,
diverted and enchanted by turn. For Tom Holland has an enviable
gift for summoning up the colour, the individuals and animation of
the past, without sacrificing factual integrity. He writes with a
contagious conviction that history is not only a fascinating tale
in itself but is a well-honed instrument withe
Praise for "In the Shadow of the Sword: ""The life of Muhammad and
the rise of Islam are boldly re-examined in this brilliantly
provocative history.... [An] ambitious and...important book....
Holland is a skilful and energetic narrator, and while he guides us
along the more intricate twists and turns of the period, he also
keeps our eyes on the bigger story."--Anthony Sattin, "Guardian
Observer" (London) """[An] elegant study of the roiling era of
internecine religious rivalry and epic strife that saw the nation
of Islam rise and conquer.... Holland confronts questions in the
Quranic text head-on, providing a substantive, fluid exegesis on
the original documents. Smoothly composed history and fine
scholarship."--"Kirkus Reviews
"
"This is a book of extraordinary richness. I found myself amused,
diverted and enchanted by turn. For Tom Holland has an enviable
gift for summoning up the colour, the individuals and animation of
the past, without sacrificing factual integrity. He writes with a
contagious conviction that history is not only a fascinating tale
in itself but is a well-honed instrument with which we can
understand our neighbours and our own times, maybe even ourselves.
He is also a divertingly inventive writer with a wicked wit -
there's something of both Gibbon and Tom Wolfe in his writing...
[and] he possesses a falcon eye for detail.... [A] spell-bindingly
brilliant multiple portrait of the triumph of monotheism in the
ancient world."--Barnaby Rogerson, the "Independent" (London) "This
dramatic investigation of the origins of Islam is both a thrilling
narrative history and a compelling piece of detective work.... A
compelling detective story of the highest order, "In the Shadow of
the Sword" is also a dazzlingly colourful journey into the world of
late antiquity. We encounter brain-eating demons; a caliph with
such oral-hygiene problems that he could kill a fly with one
breath; and that old favourite, St
Simeo
Praise for "In the Shadow of the Sword:
"
"This is a book of extraordinary richness. I found myself amused,
diverted and enchanted by turn. For Tom Holland has an enviable
gift for summoning up the colour, the individuals and animation of
the past, without sacrificing factual integrity. He writes with a
contagious conviction that history is not only a fascinating tale
in itself but is a well-honed instrument with which we can
understand our neighbours and our own times, maybe even ourselves.
He is also a divertingly inventive writer with a wicked wit -
there's something of both Gibbon and Tom Wolfe in his writing...
[and] he possesses a falcon eye for detail.... [A] spell-bindingly
brilliant multiple portrait of the triumph of monotheism in the
ancient world."--Barnaby Rogerson, the "Independent" (London) "This
dramatic investigation of the origins of Islam is both a thrilling
narrative history and a compelling piece of detective work.... A
compelling detective story of the highest order, "In the Shadow of
the Sword" is also a dazzlingly colourful journey into the world of
late antiquity. We encounter brain-eating demons; a caliph with
such oral-hygiene problems that he could kill a fly with one
breath; and that old favourite, St
Simeon Stylites, rotting away on his pillar but still managing to
miraculously cure a man with unfeasibly large testicles, "like a
pair of clay jars." Every bit as thrilling a narrative history as
Holland's previous works, "In the Shadow of the Sword" is also a
profoundly important book. It makes public and popular what
scholarship has been
discovering for several decades now: and those discoveries suggest
a wholesale revision of where Islam came from and what it
is."--Christopher Hart, "Sunday Times" (London)
"[M]agnificent...and brave....The historian and author of "Rubicon"
and "Persian Fire" has now, after five years' work, come up with
"In the Shadow of the Sword." His story is so compellingly tol
Praise for "The Forge of Christendom"
"An entertaining account of the fraught last years of the Dark
Ages."-- "The""Wall Street Journal
"
"An enjoyable and exuberantly argued book . . . Holland combines
sound scholarly credentials with a gift for storytelling on a
magisterial scale . . . In a tightly woven and sometimes witty
narrative, [Holland demonstrates] the subtle interplay of genuine
religious sentiment and cynical power politics."--"The
Economist"
"[This] is narrative history in the grand manner, written with the
panache and confidence we associate with the great historians of
the 18th and 19th centuries."--Allan Massie, "The""Daily
Telegraph
"
"A superb, fascinating and erudite medieval banquet."
--Simon Sebag-Montefiore, "Evening Standard"
Praise for "Persian Fire"
"Excellent . . . Holland is a cool-headed historian who writes here
no less authoritatively and engagingly on classical Greece than he
did on ancient Rome in his last book, "Rubicon"."--Mary Beard, "The
Times Literary Supplement"
"It is . . . a testament to Holland's superlative powers as a
narrative historian that he brings this tumultuous, epoch-making
period dazzlingly to life, and makes the common reader familiar
again with one of the most thrilling periods in world history."
--William Napier, "The""Independent
"Praise for "Rubicon"
"Not since Ronald Syme's "The Roman Revolution" has there been such
an original and enlivening piece of Roman history. Tom Holland has
the rare gift of making deep scholarship accessible and exciting. A
brilliant and completely absorbing study."--A.N. Wilson
"A book that really held me, in fact, obsessed me . . . Narrative
history at its best." -Ian McEwan, "The""Guardian", Books of the
Year
"Richly resonant. . . . Ancient history lives in this vivid
chronicle."--"Booklist" (starred review)
Praise for "The Forge of Christendom"
"An entertaining account of the fraught last years of the Dark
Ages."-- "The""Wall Street Journal
"
"An enjoyable and exuberantly argued book . . . Holland combines
sound scholarly credentials with a gift for storytelling on a
magisterial scale . . . In a tightly woven and sometimes witty
narrative, [Holland demonstrates] the subtle interplay of genuine
religious sentiment and cynical power politics."--"The
Economist"
"[This] is narrative history in the grand manner, written with the
panache and confidence we associate with the great historians of
the 18th and 19th centuries."--Allan Massie, "The""Daily
Telegraph
"
"A superb, fascinating and erudite medieval banquet."
--Simon Sebag-Montefiore, "Evening Standard"
Praise for "Persian Fire"
"Excellent . . . Holland is a cool-headed historian who writes here
no less authoritatively and engagingly on classical Greece than he
did on ancient Rome in his last book
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