Ross King

Ross King is the author of The Shortest History of Italy, along with many bestselling books on Italian art and history, including Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling and Brunelleschi’s Dome. He lectures widelyon Renaissance art at museums and is a regular participant in Italian Renaissance seminars at the AspenInstitute including at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Frick Collection, and the National Gallery.

The Shortest History of Italy
3,000 Years from the Romans to the Renaissance to a Modern Republic—A Retelling for Our Times
by Ross King
Paperback | $16.95 US / $21.95 CAN

The calendar. The Senate. The university. The piano, the heliocentric model, and the pizzeria. It’s hard to imagine a world without Italian influence—and easy to assume that inventions like these could only come from a strong, stable peninsula, sure of … Continue reading →

The Shortest History of Ancient Rome
A Millennia of Western Civilization, from Kingdom to Republic to Empire—A Retelling for Our Times
by Ross King
Paperback | $16.95 US / $21.95 CAN

“For who is so indifferent or indolent as not to wish to know by what means the Romans succeeded in subjecting nearly the whole inhabited world to their sole government—a thing unique in history?”—Polybius, second century BCE Ancient Rome gave … Continue reading →