SIMON SCHAMA is an internationally acclaimed historian, political commentator, and art critic. He is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University, and the award-winning author of seventeen books, including Rough Crossings and The Story of the Jews. He is also the writer-presenter of fifty documentaries of art, history, and literature for BBC2 and has written and presented more than thirty television documentaries for PBS, the BBC, and the History Channel. He is currently working on Civilizations, a television history of world art.