{"product_id":"europes-babylon-the-rise-and-fall-of-antwerps-golden-age-hardcover","title":"Europe's Babylon: The Rise and Fall of Antwerp's Golden Age - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMichael Pye\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA revelatory history of Antwerp--from its rise to a world city to its fall in the Spanish Fury--by the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003eNotable author of \u003ci\u003eThe Edge of the World.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBefore Amsterdam, there was a dazzling North Sea port at the hub of the known world: the city of Antwerp. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the Age of Exploration, Antwerp was sensational like nineteenth-century Paris or twentieth-century New York. It was somewhere anything could happen or at least be believed: killer bankers, easy kisses, a market in secrets and every kind of heresy. For half the sixteenth century, it was the place for breaking rules--religious, sexual, intellectual. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAnd it was a place of change--a single man cornered all the money in the city and reinvented ideas of what money meant. Another gave the city a new shape purely out of his own ambition. Jews fleeing the Portuguese Inquisition needed Antwerp for their escape, thanks to the remarkable woman at the head of the grandest banking family in Europe. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThomas More opened \u003ci\u003eUtopia\u003c\/i\u003e there, Erasmus puzzled over money and exchanges, William Tyndale sheltered there and smuggled out his Bible in English until he was killed. Pieter Bruegel painted the town as \u003ci\u003eThe Tower of Babel.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut when Antwerp rebelled with the Dutch against the Spanish and lost, all that glory was buried and its true history rewritten. The city that unsettled so many now became conformist. Mutinous troops burned the city records, trying to erase its true history. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eEurope's Babylon, \u003c\/i\u003eMichael Pye sets out to rediscover the city that was lost and bring its wilder days to life using every kind of clue: novels, paintings, songs, schoolbooks, letters and the archives of Venice, London and the Medici. He builds a picture of a city haunted by fire, plague, and violence, but one that was learning how to be a power in its own right as it emerged from feudalism. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn astounding and original narrative that illuminates this glamorous and bloody era of history and reveals how this fascinating city played its role in making the world modern.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Pye\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Drowning Room, The Pieces from Berlin, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Edge of the World\u003c\/i\u003e, all three of which were \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Notable Books of the Year. He lives in Amsterdam.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 272\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.7 x 9.1 x 5.9 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 07, 2021\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51767885168928,"sku":"9781643137773","price":28.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/41bb88dd2b187670e128920f718d7f7c.webp?v=1780319407","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/europes-babylon-the-rise-and-fall-of-antwerps-golden-age-hardcover","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}