The end of the world

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The Romans at Pompeii, the Confederates at Richmond, the German Jews in 1938 -- all had reason to believe the world was coming to an end. This fascinating collection contains works by such diverse historians as Plato, Thucydides, da Vinci, Mencken and Picasso. Famous episodes of human tragedy are recounted by those who lived them. Jack London describes the great earthquake of San Francisco in 1906; a Bolshevik watches the Winter Palace fall in 1917; a Polish poet fights for food in Auschwitz. Soldiers from ancient Rome to Vietnam march toward death; a writer toils while the Black Plague rages around him; a monk watches the Aztec Empire fall to the Spaniards.