Audiobook15 hours
World Without End: Spain, Philip II, and the First Global Empire
Written by Hugh Thomas
Narrated by Shaun Grindell
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
The legacy of imperial Spain was shaped by many hands. Chief among them is the towering figure of King Philip II, the cultivated Spanish monarch whom a contemporary once called "the arbiter of the world." Cheerful and pious, he inherited vast authority from his father, but nevertheless felt himself unworthy to wield it. His forty-two-year reign changed the face of the globe forever. Alongside Philip we find the entitled descendants of New Spain's original explorers-men who, like their king, came into possession of land they never conquered and wielded supremacy they never sought. Here too are the Roman Catholic religious leaders of the Americas, whose internecine struggles created possibilities that the emerging Jesuit order was well-positioned to fill.
With the sublime stories of arms and armadas, kings and conquistadors come tales of the ridiculous: the opulent parties of New Spain's wealthy hedonists and the unexpected movement to encourage Philip II to conquer China. Finally, Hugh Thomas unearths the first indictments of imperial Spain's labor rights abuses in the Americas-and the early attempts by its more enlightened rulers and planters to address them.
Written in the brisk, flowing narrative style that has come to define Hugh Thomas's work, the final volume of this acclaimed trilogy stands alone as a history of an empire making the transition from conquest to inheritance-a history that Thomas reveals through the fascinating lives of the people who made it.
With the sublime stories of arms and armadas, kings and conquistadors come tales of the ridiculous: the opulent parties of New Spain's wealthy hedonists and the unexpected movement to encourage Philip II to conquer China. Finally, Hugh Thomas unearths the first indictments of imperial Spain's labor rights abuses in the Americas-and the early attempts by its more enlightened rulers and planters to address them.
Written in the brisk, flowing narrative style that has come to define Hugh Thomas's work, the final volume of this acclaimed trilogy stands alone as a history of an empire making the transition from conquest to inheritance-a history that Thomas reveals through the fascinating lives of the people who made it.
Author
Hugh Thomas
Hugh Thomas is a surgeon and forensic expert of international repute. His 1979 book, ‘The Murder of Rudolf Hess’, caused a world-wide furore as it alleged that the prisoner in Spandau Gaol was not Rudolf Hess. His second book ‘Hess: A Tale of Two Murders’ precipitated a six month Scotland Yard inquiry which saw its report immediately suppressed.
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Reviews for World Without End
Rating: 4.090909018181819 out of 5 stars
4/5
11 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is the last of a three volume history of the Spanish Empire.At first I feared I would be overwhelmed by all myriad facts the author inserts within the text (as well as in footnotes). I very quickly found that the author completely and successfully intertwined directly into his main text all of the material cited in the footnotes. This is History successfully told as a novel ! It is also history told as biography in as the author tells his story by detailed summaries of each historical figure. The result is a joy to read. It is how all History should be told. Yet all the supporting details are fully supported by copious & meaningful footnotes. There are copious pictures, appendices, maps, bibliography, glossary and notes.