Fifty years ago the word “Byzantine” was used as a synonym for all that was corrupt and decadent, and the tale of the East-Roman Empire was dismissed by modern historians as depressing and monotonous. The great Gibbon had branded the successors of Justinian and Heraclius as a series of vicious weaklings, and for several generations no one dared to contradict him. Two books have served to undeceive the English reader, the monumental work of Finlay, published in 1856, and the more modern volumes of Mr...

Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick , wealthy and powerful peer of England, was one of the leaders of the Wars of the Roses . He joined Richard, Duke of York in opposing the ineffectual and often incapacitated Lancastrian king, Henry VI. Falling out with York's son, King Edward IV, he switched sides and joined forces with Henry's exiled queen, Margaret of Anjou, but was killed at the Battle of Barnet. In this short biography, the British military historian, Charles Oman brings to life a consummate medieval warrior, who was also a politician ahead of his time.. - Summary by Pamela Nagami

This little book by the British military historian, Charles Oman, begins with the accession of the warrior king, Edward III, to the English throne in 1327 and ends with the downfall of Richard III at Bosworth Field in 1485. By carrying the story of the Hundred Years' War through the Wars of the Roses, Oman portrays this era of battle and plague within the larger context of the dynastic struggles and civil wars which destabilized England and left France vulnerable to invasion and conquest. Summary by Pamela Nagami.

While there are many general histories of the decline and fall of the Roman Republic, the Oxford historian, Charles Oman, writes that his little book is rather "a series of studies of the leading men of the century, intended to show the importance of the personal element in those miserable days of storm and stress." We hear of the tragic struggle of the brothers Gracchi to make farm ownership possible again for ordinary Romans, of Marius's reform of the army, and of the ruthless proscriptions of Sulla...