Neil Oliver goes beyond their bloody reputation to search for the truth about the Vikings - from Newfoundland to Moscow, Iceland to Istanbul.

Viking artefacts discovered across a vast geographical range, from Russia and modern-day Turkey to Greenland and North America, bear witness to an artistic legacy that astonishes by its beauty, wealth and diversity. This work presents an art of immense sophistication, ranging from exquisite gold jewellery to superbly decorated weapons of war.

They were undoubtedly pillagers, raiders and terrifying warriors, but they were also great pioneers, artists and traders - a dynamic people, whose skill and daring in their exploration of the world has left an indelible impression a thousand years on.

For nearly three hundred years, from the end of the eighth century AD until approximately 1100, the Vikings set out from Scandinavia across the northern world a dramatic time that would change Europe forever. This book explores the Viking conquest and settlement across Britain and Ireland.

The Viking reputation is of bloodthirsty seafaring warriors. Yet Vikings were also traders, settlers, and farmers, with a complex artistic and linguistic culture. Using archaeological evidence, this book attempts to reveal the whole Viking world: their history, society and culture, and their expansion overseas for trade, colonization, and plunder.

Cultural commentator John Strausbaugh's The Village is the first complete history of Greenwich Village, the prodigiously influential and infamous New York City neighborhood. From the Dutch settlers and Washington Square patricians, to the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and Prohibition-era speakeasies;