A brief history of Germany, Second edition provides a clear, lively, and comprehensive account of the history of Germany from ancient times to the present day.

Following the collapse of the western Roman Empire, the Franks established in northern Gaul one of the most enduring of the Germanic barbarian kingdoms. They produced a legal code (which they called the Salic law) at approximately the same time that the Visigoths and Burgundians produced theirs, but the Frankish code is the least Romanized and most Germanic of the three. Unlike Roman law, this code does not emphasize marriage and the family, inheritance, gifts, and contracts; rather, Lex Salica is largely devoted to establishing fixed monetary or other penalties for a wide variety of damaging acts such as "killing women and children," "striking a man on the head so that the brain shows," or "skinning a dead horse without the consent of its owner." An important resource for students and scholars of medieval and legal history, made available once again in Katherine Fischer Drew's expert translation, the code contains much information on Frankish judicial procedure. Drew has here rendered into readable English the Pactus Legis Salicae, generally believed to have been issued by the Frankish King Clovis in the early sixth century and modified by his sons and grandson, Childbert I, Chlotar I, and Chilperic I. In addition, she provides a translation of the Lex Salica Karolina, the code as corrected and reissued some three centuries later by Charlemagne.

This book presents a detailed historical account of the Nuremberg Trials, the military tribunals orchestrated by the Allied forces after World War II and held in Nuremberg, Germany. A fascinating and insightful exploration of the historical Nazi trials, "The Story of Nuremberg" is highly recommended for those with an interest in WWII and nineteenth-century European history. Contents include: "Development of Nuremberg", "Nuremberg and the Reformation", "Nuremberg and the Thirty Years War", "The Castle, the Walls and Mediæval Fortifications", "The Council and the Council House-Nuremberg Tortures", "Albert Durer and the Arts and Crafts of Nuremberg", "The Meistersingers and Hans Sachs", et cetera. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction. First published in 1901.

Gibbon offers an explanation for why the Roman Empire fell, a task made difficult by a lack of comprehensive written sources, though he was not the only historian to tackle the subject. Most of his ideas are directly taken from what few relevant records were available: those of the Roman moralists of the 4th and 5th centuries.