Presents a controversial view of the origins of fascism, locating them in the eighteenth century with the advent of the Anti-Enlightenment, a far earlier date than most historians. This book contends that J G Herder, Edmund Burke, and Joseph de Maistre can be connected to the origins of the Anti-Enlightenment.

WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2008'The world's most controversial classicist debunks our movie-style myths about the Roman town with meticulous scholarship and propulsive energy' Laura Silverman, Daily MailThe ruins of Pompeii, buried by an explosion of Vesuvius in 79 CE, offer the best evidence we have of everyday life in the Roman empire. This remarkable book rises to the challenge of making sense of those remains, as well as exploding many myths: the very date of the eruption, probab...