Lost to Time

The author has received many honours, including seven Emmys. In this fresh and fascinating collection of historical vignettes, Martin W. Sandler restores to memory important events, people and developments that have been lost to time. Though barely known today, these are major historical stories, from Ziryab, an eighth-century black slave whose influence on music, cuisine, fashion and manners still reverberates, to Cahokia, a 12th century city north of the Rio Grande, which at its zenith contained a population estimated to have been as high as 40,000 (more than any contemporary European city). These tales are far from trivia; they illuminate little-known achievements, ingenuity, heroics, blunders and tragedies that changed the course of history and resonate today.