List Books » Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World
Authors: Roger Crowley
ISBN-13: 9780594008460, ISBN-10: 0594008468
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Date Published: July 2008
Edition: Bargain
JOHN LEE is a well-known herbalist, who practices in North Carolina and lectures widely.
Set during the height of the Ottoman Empire and with Christendom weakened and vulnerable, this is the story of the fifty-year battle for domination of the Mediterranean, centered around the titanic battles of Rhodes, Malta, and Lepanto-three of the most dramatic and decisive battles in world history.
Europe has witnessed some bitter conflicts in its time, but for sheer savagery and blind religious fervour, few can match the 16th-century struggle for the mastery of the Mediterranean between the Ottoman Turks and the loose association of Christian states sheltering under the Hapsburg flag. For nearly 60 years, between 1521 and 1580, these two implacable enemies, fired by the certainty of their spiritual calling and driven by the absolute otherness of their foes, slugged it out for strategic supremacy of the sea, matching atrocity with atrocity as they searched for the blow that would floor their opponent.
Prologue: Ptolemy's Map
Map: The Mediterranean c. 1560
Map: The Siege of Malta
Map: The Battle of Lepanto
Pt. 1 Caesars: The Contest for the Sea
Ch. 1 The Sultan Pays a Visit 3
Ch. 2 A Supplication 23
Ch. 3 The King of Evil 34
Ch. 4 The Voyage to Tunis 44
Ch. 5 Doria and Barbarossa 57
Ch. 6 The Turkish Sea 66
Pt. 2 Epicenter: The Battle for Malta
Ch. 7 Nest of Vipers 85
Ch. 8 Invasion Fleet 98
Ch. 9 The Post of Death 109
Ch. 10 The Ravelin of Europe 123
Ch. 11 The Last Swimmers 135
Ch. 12 Payback 142
Ch. 13 Trench Wars 156
Ch. 14 "Malta Yok" 173
Pt. 3 Endgame: Hurtling to Lepanto
Ch. 15 The Pope's Dream 191
Ch. 16 A Head in a Dish 204
Ch. 17 Famagusta 221
Ch. 18 Christ's General 231
Ch. 19 Snakes to a Charm 242
Ch. 20 "Let's Fight" 255
Ch. 21 Sea of Fire 266
Ch. 22 Other Oceans 278
Epilogue: Traces 289
Author's Note and Acknowledgments 293
Source Notes 297
Bibliography 311
Index 317