Like his The Embarrassment of Riches and the bestselling Citizens, Simon Schama's latest book is both history and literature of immense stylishness and ambition. But Dead Certainties goes beyond these more conventional histories to address the deeper enigmas that confront a student of the past. In order to do so, Schama reconstructs -- and at times reinvents -- two ambiguous deaths: the first, that of General James Wolfe at the battle of Quebec in 1759; the second, in 1849, that of George Parkman, an eccentric Boston brahmin whose murder by an impecunious Harvard professor in 1849 was a grisly reproach to the moral sanctity of his society. Out of these stories -- with all of their bizarre coincidences and contradictions -- Schama creates a dazzling and supremely vital work of historical imagination.
Simon Schama is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University in New York. His publications include Patriots and Liberators, The Embarrassment of Riches, Citizens, Dead Certainties, Landscape and Memory, and Rembrandt's Eyes.
View titles by Simon Schama
Available for sale exclusive:
• Guam
• Minor Outl.Ins.
• North Mariana
• Puerto Rico
• Samoa,American
• US Virgin Is.
• USA
Not available for sale:
• Afghanistan
• Aland Islands
• Albania
• Algeria
• Andorra
• Angola
• Anguilla
• Antarctica
• Antigua/Barbuda
• Argentina
• Armenia
• Aruba
• Australia
• Austria
• Azerbaijan
• Bahamas
• Bahrain
• Bangladesh
• Barbados
• Belarus
• Belgium
• Belize
• Benin
• Bermuda
• Bhutan
• Bolivia
• Bonaire, Saba
• Bosnia Herzeg.
• Botswana
• Bouvet Island
• Brazil
• Brit.Ind.Oc.Ter
• Brit.Virgin Is.
• Brunei
• Bulgaria
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Cambodia
• Cameroon
• Canada
• Cape Verde
• Cayman Islands
• Centr.Afr.Rep.
• Chad
• Chile
• China
• Christmas Islnd
• Cocos Islands
• Colombia
• Comoro Is.
• Congo
• Cook Islands
• Costa Rica
• Croatia
• Cuba
• Curacao
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Dem. Rep. Congo
• Denmark
• Djibouti
• Dominica
• Dominican Rep.
• Ecuador
• Egypt
• El Salvador
• Equatorial Gui.
• Eritrea
• Estonia
• Ethiopia
• Falkland Islnds
• Faroe Islands
• Fiji
• Finland
• France
• Fren.Polynesia
• French Guinea
• Gabon
• Gambia
• Georgia
• Germany
• Ghana
• Gibraltar
• Greece
• Greenland
• Grenada
• Guadeloupe
• Guatemala
• Guernsey
• Guinea Republic
• Guinea-Bissau
• Guyana
• Haiti
• Heard/McDon.Isl
• Honduras
• Hong Kong
• Hungary
• Iceland
• India
• Indonesia
• Iran
• Iraq
• Ireland
• Isle of Man
• Israel
• Italy
• Ivory Coast
• Jamaica
• Japan
• Jersey
• Jordan
• Kazakhstan
• Kenya
• Kiribati
• Kuwait
• Kyrgyzstan
• Laos
• Latvia
• Lebanon
• Lesotho
• Liberia
• Libya
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Macau
• Macedonia
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Mali
• Malta
• Marshall island
• Martinique
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Mayotte
• Mexico
• Micronesia
• Moldavia
• Monaco
• Mongolia
• Montenegro
• Montserrat
• Morocco
• Mozambique
• Myanmar
• Namibia
• Nauru
• Nepal
• Netherlands
• New Caledonia
• New Zealand
• Nicaragua
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Niue
• Norfolk Island
• North Korea
• Norway
• Oman
• Pakistan
• Palau
• Palestinian Ter
• Panama
• PapuaNewGuinea
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Philippines
• Pitcairn Islnds
• Poland
• Portugal
• Qatar
• Reunion Island
• Romania
• Russian Fed.
• Rwanda
• S. Sandwich Ins
• Saint Martin
• San Marino
• SaoTome Princip
• Saudi Arabia
• Senegal
• Serbia
• Seychelles
• Sierra Leone
• Singapore
• Sint Maarten
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Solomon Islands
• Somalia
• South Africa
• South Korea
• South Sudan
• Spain
• Sri Lanka
• St Barthelemy
• St. Helena
• St. Lucia
• St. Vincent
• St.Chr.,Nevis
• St.Pier,Miquel.
• Sth Terr. Franc
• Sudan
• Suriname
• Svalbard
• Swaziland
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Syria
• Tadschikistan
• Taiwan
• Tanzania
• Thailand
• Timor-Leste
• Togo
• Tokelau Islands
• Tonga
• Trinidad,Tobago
• Tunisia
• Turkey
• Turkmenistan
• Turks&Caicos Is
• Tuvalu
• Uganda
• Ukraine
• Unit.Arab Emir.
• United Kingdom
• Uruguay
• Uzbekistan
• Vanuatu
• Vatican City
• Venezuela
• Vietnam
• Wallis,Futuna
• West Saharan
• Western Samoa
• Yemen
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe
"An infinitely beguiling book...a mind-teasing delight...Schama brings to bear an immense array of narrative elements."
-- The New York Times Book Review
"Intriguing and provocative... Dead Certainties inspires us throughout to examine our own assumptions about history and fiction"-- Newsday
"A virtuoso performance... in Schama's hands the past loses its remoteness and takes on the noise and clutter of experience....He has become one of the few contemporary historians who are read as much for themselves as for their subjects."
Like his The Embarrassment of Riches and the bestselling Citizens, Simon Schama's latest book is both history and literature of immense stylishness and ambition. But Dead Certainties goes beyond these more conventional histories to address the deeper enigmas that confront a student of the past. In order to do so, Schama reconstructs -- and at times reinvents -- two ambiguous deaths: the first, that of General James Wolfe at the battle of Quebec in 1759; the second, in 1849, that of George Parkman, an eccentric Boston brahmin whose murder by an impecunious Harvard professor in 1849 was a grisly reproach to the moral sanctity of his society. Out of these stories -- with all of their bizarre coincidences and contradictions -- Schama creates a dazzling and supremely vital work of historical imagination.
Simon Schama is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University in New York. His publications include Patriots and Liberators, The Embarrassment of Riches, Citizens, Dead Certainties, Landscape and Memory, and Rembrandt's Eyes.
View titles by Simon Schama
Rights
Available for sale exclusive:
• Guam
• Minor Outl.Ins.
• North Mariana
• Puerto Rico
• Samoa,American
• US Virgin Is.
• USA
Not available for sale:
• Afghanistan
• Aland Islands
• Albania
• Algeria
• Andorra
• Angola
• Anguilla
• Antarctica
• Antigua/Barbuda
• Argentina
• Armenia
• Aruba
• Australia
• Austria
• Azerbaijan
• Bahamas
• Bahrain
• Bangladesh
• Barbados
• Belarus
• Belgium
• Belize
• Benin
• Bermuda
• Bhutan
• Bolivia
• Bonaire, Saba
• Bosnia Herzeg.
• Botswana
• Bouvet Island
• Brazil
• Brit.Ind.Oc.Ter
• Brit.Virgin Is.
• Brunei
• Bulgaria
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Cambodia
• Cameroon
• Canada
• Cape Verde
• Cayman Islands
• Centr.Afr.Rep.
• Chad
• Chile
• China
• Christmas Islnd
• Cocos Islands
• Colombia
• Comoro Is.
• Congo
• Cook Islands
• Costa Rica
• Croatia
• Cuba
• Curacao
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Dem. Rep. Congo
• Denmark
• Djibouti
• Dominica
• Dominican Rep.
• Ecuador
• Egypt
• El Salvador
• Equatorial Gui.
• Eritrea
• Estonia
• Ethiopia
• Falkland Islnds
• Faroe Islands
• Fiji
• Finland
• France
• Fren.Polynesia
• French Guinea
• Gabon
• Gambia
• Georgia
• Germany
• Ghana
• Gibraltar
• Greece
• Greenland
• Grenada
• Guadeloupe
• Guatemala
• Guernsey
• Guinea Republic
• Guinea-Bissau
• Guyana
• Haiti
• Heard/McDon.Isl
• Honduras
• Hong Kong
• Hungary
• Iceland
• India
• Indonesia
• Iran
• Iraq
• Ireland
• Isle of Man
• Israel
• Italy
• Ivory Coast
• Jamaica
• Japan
• Jersey
• Jordan
• Kazakhstan
• Kenya
• Kiribati
• Kuwait
• Kyrgyzstan
• Laos
• Latvia
• Lebanon
• Lesotho
• Liberia
• Libya
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Macau
• Macedonia
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Mali
• Malta
• Marshall island
• Martinique
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Mayotte
• Mexico
• Micronesia
• Moldavia
• Monaco
• Mongolia
• Montenegro
• Montserrat
• Morocco
• Mozambique
• Myanmar
• Namibia
• Nauru
• Nepal
• Netherlands
• New Caledonia
• New Zealand
• Nicaragua
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Niue
• Norfolk Island
• North Korea
• Norway
• Oman
• Pakistan
• Palau
• Palestinian Ter
• Panama
• PapuaNewGuinea
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Philippines
• Pitcairn Islnds
• Poland
• Portugal
• Qatar
• Reunion Island
• Romania
• Russian Fed.
• Rwanda
• S. Sandwich Ins
• Saint Martin
• San Marino
• SaoTome Princip
• Saudi Arabia
• Senegal
• Serbia
• Seychelles
• Sierra Leone
• Singapore
• Sint Maarten
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Solomon Islands
• Somalia
• South Africa
• South Korea
• South Sudan
• Spain
• Sri Lanka
• St Barthelemy
• St. Helena
• St. Lucia
• St. Vincent
• St.Chr.,Nevis
• St.Pier,Miquel.
• Sth Terr. Franc
• Sudan
• Suriname
• Svalbard
• Swaziland
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Syria
• Tadschikistan
• Taiwan
• Tanzania
• Thailand
• Timor-Leste
• Togo
• Tokelau Islands
• Tonga
• Trinidad,Tobago
• Tunisia
• Turkey
• Turkmenistan
• Turks&Caicos Is
• Tuvalu
• Uganda
• Ukraine
• Unit.Arab Emir.
• United Kingdom
• Uruguay
• Uzbekistan
• Vanuatu
• Vatican City
• Venezuela
• Vietnam
• Wallis,Futuna
• West Saharan
• Western Samoa
• Yemen
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe
Praise
"An infinitely beguiling book...a mind-teasing delight...Schama brings to bear an immense array of narrative elements."
-- The New York Times Book Review
"Intriguing and provocative... Dead Certainties inspires us throughout to examine our own assumptions about history and fiction"-- Newsday
"A virtuoso performance... in Schama's hands the past loses its remoteness and takes on the noise and clutter of experience....He has become one of the few contemporary historians who are read as much for themselves as for their subjects."