
Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities
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Narrated by:
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Bettany Hughes
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By:
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Bettany Hughes
Istanbul has long been a place where stories and histories collide, where perception is as potent as fact. From the Koran to Shakespeare, this city with three names - Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul - resonates as an idea and a place, real and imagined. Standing as the gateway between East and West, North and South, it has been the capital city of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires. For much of its history it was the very center of the world, known simply as "The City," but, as Bettany Hughes reveals, Istanbul is not just a city, but a global story.
In this epic new biography, Hughes takes us on a dazzling historical journey from the Neolithic to the present, through the many incarnations of one of the world's greatest cities - exploring the ways that Istanbul's influence has spun out to shape the wider world. Hughes investigates what it takes to make a city and tells the story not just of emperors, viziers, caliphs, and sultans, but of the poor and the voiceless, of the women and men whose aspirations and dreams have continuously reinvented Istanbul. Written with energy and animation, award-winning historian Bettany Hughes deftly guides listeners through Istanbul's rich layers of history.
Based on meticulous research and new archaeological evidence, this captivating portrait of the momentous life of Istanbul is visceral, immediate, and authoritative - narrative history at its finest.
©2017 Bettany Hughes (P)2017 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
"A vibrant, sprawling portrait of a city as enigmatic as it is historically important...Hughes' entertaining narrative style with its visual details, dramatic archaeological discoveries, and cliffhanger chapter endings allows her erudition and exuberance to shine." (Booklist)
"Impressive. In Istanbul, Hughes plays intriguing, sophisticated games with time and space.... By making unlikely connections between well-described locations and events separated by eons, she gives voice to those witchy, diachronic feelings in a spectacular fashion." (The Economist)
"Hughes is not an argumentative historian. She avoids the debates of academe. She is a wistful and impassioned cosmopolitan who has produced a challenging story." (Financial Times)
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In- depth and super relevant
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Fascinating! You'll definitely want to visit
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loooong book but worth it
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Fascinating story
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breadth of history, dramatically presented by the author, beginning from the 5th century BC through to the 21st century.
An epic history, researched in depth, narrated by the captivating author.
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One of the best works of non-fiction I've read
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Not What I Was Looking For
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She also gives in to the modern woke alternative facts and mocks views that Europeans came out of Caucasus. There is vast modern research literature on that subject, providing ample evidence that this inconvenient truth is in fact accurate. DNA research suggests that European ancestors came out of Africa and first settled in Caucasus, as suggested by the vast diversity in DNA mutations in that region (DNA tends to mutate, so the more mutations, the longer it was there).
So, based on my read of the book and my knowledge of these two topics, Hughes is a good storyteller, but like all good storytellers tends to bend facts to her preferences.
Inaccuracies
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Great Book - Huge Scope Suceedes
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Bettany Hughes excellence
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