Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire - Softcover

Thomas, Hugh

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141034483 ISBN 13: 9780141034485

Publisher: Penguin, 2010

Synopsis

The first part of his trilogy on the Spanish Empire, Hugh Thomas's Rivers of Gold brings the rise of Spain's global empire vividly to life, capturing the spirit of an ebullient age.

Inspired by hopes of both riches and of converting native people to Christianity, the Spanish adventurers of the fifteenth century convinced themselves that an Earthly Paradise existed in the Caribbean. This is the story of the hundreds of conquistadors who set sail on the precarious journey across the Atlantic - taking with them wheat, the horse, the guitar and the wheel as well as guns, malaria and slaves - to create an empire that made Spain the envy of the world.

'Affirms Hugh Thomas's record as one of the most productive and wide-ranging historians of modern times'
  The New York Times

'Splendid ... bold and strong in its outlines, rich in fasinating details'
  Paul Johnson, Literary Review

'So steeped is he in the spirit of the time, so familiar with its people and places that we almost feel he must have been there at the time'
  Sunday Telegraph

'A vivid, dramatic and compelling narrative'
  Arthur Schlesinger, Jr

'As a historian, Thomas is master of the big picture ... Rivers of Gold sweeps us restlessly on'
  Jonathan Keates, Spectator

'An epic history of an extraordinary age'
  Michael Kerrigan, Scotsman

Hugh Thomas is the author of, among other books, The Spanish Civil War (1962) which won the Somerset Maugham Award, Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés and the Fall of Old Mexico (1994), An Unfinished History of the World (1979) and The Slave Trade (1997). The second volume of his planned trilogy on the Spanish Empire, The Golden Age: The Spanish Empire of Charles V was published in 2011.

About this title

About the Author

Hugh Thomas (1931-2017) was the author of, among other books, The Spanish Civil War (1961), which won the Somerset Maugham Award, The Suez Affair (1967), Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom (1971), An Unfinished History of the World (1979), Armed Truce (1986), Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés and the Fall of Old Mexico (1994), The Slave Trade (1997) and the first two volumes of his Spanish Empire trilogy, Rivers of Gold (2003) and The Golden Age (2010). From 1966 to 1976 he was Professor of History at the University of Reading, and from 1979 to 1991 chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies in London. In 2008 he was made a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France) and won the Gabarrón Prize; he received the Calvo Serer Prize, the Boccaccio Prize and the Nonino Prize in Italy in 2009. He was a member of the Academia de Buenas Letras in Seville and a Caballero of the Maestranza of Ronda, and in 1981 became a life peer as Lord Thomas of Swynnerton.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0141034483
• ISBN 13: 9780141034485
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 816