More than two decades ago, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen arrived on the fashions scene when the business was in an artistic and economic rut. Both wanted to revolutionize fashion in a way no one had in decades. They shook the establishment out of its bourgeois, minimalist stupor with daring, sexy designs. They turned out landmark collections in mesmerizing, theatrical shows that retailers and critics still gush about and designers continue to reference. Their approach to fashion was wildly different—Galliano began as an illustrator, McQueen as a Savile Row tailor. Galliano led the way with his sensual bias-cut gowns and his voluptuous hourglass tailoring, which he presented in romantic storybook-like settings. McQueen, though nearly ten years younger than Galliano, was a brilliant technician and a visionary artist who brought a new reality to fashion, as well as an otherworldly beauty. For his first official collection at the tender age of twenty-three, McQueen did what few in fashion ever achieve: he invented a new silhouette, the Bumster. They had similar backgrounds: sensitive, shy gay men raised in tough London neighborhoods, their love of fashion nurtured by their doting mothers. Both struggled to get their businesses off the ground, despite early critical success. But by 1997, each had landed a job as creative director for couture houses owned by French tycoon Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH. Galliano’s and McQueen’s work for Dior and Givenchy and beyond not only influenced fashion; their distinct styles were also reflected across the media landscape. With their help, luxury fashion evolved from a clutch of small, family-owned businesses into a $280 billion-a-year global corporate industry. Executives pushed the designers to meet increasingly rapid deadlines. For both Galliano and McQueen, the pace was unsustainable. In 2010, McQueen took his own life three weeks before his womens' wear show. The same week that Galliano was fired, Forbes named Arnault the fourth richest man in the world. Two months later, Kate Middleton wore a McQueen wedding gown, instantly making the house the world’s most famous fashion brand, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened a wildly successful McQueen retrospective, cosponsored by the corporate owners of the McQueen brand. The corporations had won and the artists had lost. In her groundbreaking work Gods and Kings, acclaimed journalist Dana Thomas tells the true story of McQueen and Galliano. In so doing, she reveals the revolution in high fashion in the last two decades—and the price it demanded of the very ones who saved it.

Memorable Bible-Era Fiction From Award-Winning Author King Manaseh and his friend Joshua were nurtured together in the faith of their godly fathers. but anger toward God smolders in Manasseh's heart after his father's unexpected death, and his insecurity makes him easy prey for the false claims of sorcery and divination. When Joshua stands up for the truth, the battle lines are drawn, and Joshua must flee his life of privilege. Unable to understand why his boyhood friend has turned against him, and why he must stand alone in the face of such opposition, Joshua comes perilously close to losing his faith. Can Joshua rescue the faithful remnant from Manasseh's persecution? Has it all gone too far..or will he rediscover his father's God? Faith of My Fathers is a riveting story of intrigue, deception, danger, and suspense.

The islands of Britain have been a crossroads of gods, heroes, and kings-those of flesh as well as those of myth-for thousands of years. Successive waves of invasion brought distinctive legends, rites, and beliefs. The ancient Celts displaced earlier indigenous peoples, only to find themselves displaced in turn by the Romans, who then abandoned the islands to Germanic tribes, a people themselves nearly overcome in time by an influx of Scandinavians. With each wave of invaders came a battle for the mythic mind of the Isles as the newcomer's belief system met with the existing systems of gods, legends, and myths. In Gods, Heroes, and Kings, medievalist Christopher Fee and veteran myth scholar David Leeming unearth the layers of the British Isles' unique folkloric tradition to discover how this body of seemingly disparate tales developed. The authors find a virtual battlefield of myths in which pagan and Judeo-Christian beliefs fought for dominance, and classical, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Celtic narrative threads became tangled together. The resulting body of legends became a strange but coherent hybrid, so that by the time Chaucer wrote "The Wife of Bath's Tale" in the fourteenth century, a Christian theme of redemption fought for prominence with a tripartite Celtic goddess and the Arthurian legends of Sir Gawain-itself a hybrid mythology. Without a guide, the corpus of British mythology can seem impenetrable. Taking advantage of the latest research, Fee and Leeming employ a unique comparative approach to map the origins and development of one of the richest folkloric traditions. Copiously illustrated with excerpts in translation from the original sources,Gods, Heroes, and Kings provides a fascinating and accessible new perspective on the history of British mythology.

When He came to earth, Jesus Christ was rejected in every quarter in which He stepped. The Creator was rejected by His own creation. “He came to His own and His own received Him not,” said John. For this reason, Jesus Christ had “no where to lay His head.” There was one exception, however. A little village just outside of Jerusalem named Bethany. Bethany was the only place on earth where Jesus was completely received. God’s Favorite Place on Earth is a retelling of Jesus’ many visits to Bethany and a relaying of the message it holds for us today. Frank Viola presents a beautifully crafted narrative from the viewpoint of Lazarus, one of the people who lived in Bethany with his two sisters. This incomparable story not only brings the Gospel narratives to life, but it addresses the struggle against doubt, discouragement, fear, guilt, rejection, and spiritual apathy that challenges countless Christians today. In profoundly moving prose, God’s Favorite Place on Earth will captivate your heart with its beauty, charm, and depth. In this book you will discover how to live as a “Bethany” in our world today, being set free to love and follow Jesus like never before.

The most up-to-date sourcebook on warfare in the ancient Near East Fighting for the King and the Gods provides an introduction to the topic of war and the variety of texts concerning many aspects of warfare in the ancient Near East. These texts illustrate various viewpoints of war and show how warfare was an integral part of life. Trimm examines not only the victors and the famous battles, but also the hardship that war brought to many. While several of these texts treated here are well known (i.e., Ramses II's battle against the Hittites at Qadesh), others are known only to specialists. This work will allow a broader audience to access and appreciate these important texts as they relate to the history and ideology of warfare. Features References to recent secondary literature for further study Early Greek and Chinese illustrative texts for comparisons with other cultures Indices to help guide the reader

Fleeing King Manasseh's tyranny, Joshua leads the faithful remnant to their new home in Egypt. But as years pass, Joshua's desire for vengeance becomes an obsession. Blinded by hatred, he makes rash decisions, placing his loved ones in jeopardy. Amid Joshua's turmoil comes an unexpected awakening of love--a love that burns so intensely it draws him from the dark inner seclusion where he often retreats. But what will it take for him to grasp the great love his Heavenly Father has for him...and for the chosen people of Judah? (Chronicles of the King Book 5)

The book covers ancient history of the world between 3000 and 1500 BC.

This is that story as told through the eyes of a boy raised in the faith of God, yet-through drug and alcohol use, along with a wayward rock and roll dream-falls away from the man he wanted to be. When a tragic loss strikes, he loses himself and his sanity. Eventually, the legal system condemns him as a man not fit to be among others. As he hits bottom, he wants it back: his sanity, his life, his dreams, and his faith in a God to which he still clings. Of Gods, Angels, and Kings is a story of a man who emerges from substance abuse issues and an incurable mental illness. At long last, he perceives God's hand in his life and that-as long as he continues to challenge himself to improve daily and grow in the Spirit-his life will bear the fruits.

"Gods, Sages and Kings presents a remarkable accumulation of evidence pointing to the existence of a common spiritual culture in the ancient world from which present civilization may be more of a decline than an advance. The book is based upon new interpretation of the ancient Vedic teachings of India, and brings out many new insights from this unique source often neglected and misinterpreted in the West. In addition, it dicussses recent archaeological discoveries in India whose implications are now only beginning to emerge."--Publisher.

The rich and evocative bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat have captured the imagination of travelers, artists, and scholars for centuries. Built for the Khmer king Suryavarman II in the twelfth century, the enormous temple complex consists of an outer enclosure surrounded by a moat, with three further concentric rectangular enclosures inside it. The bas-reliefs featured in this book are carved on the walls of the third enclosure. Jaroslav Poncar has brilliantly captured the detail of these huge reliefs, measuring more than two meters in height and five hundred meters in overall length, using the high-precision technique of slit-scan photography. One hundred full-page panoramic photographs bring readers within the very walls of Angkor. Scenes from the great Indian epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata are expansively explained and interpreted by Angkor expert Thomas S. Maxwell.