“…The fact that teaching and research could be kept up in Hamburg until 1933 and resumed in London from 1934 onward, speaks for the personal commitment of the employees and above all for Saxl;s intellectual courage and sense for practical solutions. …”

“…Only from the 11th and 12th centuries A.D. onwards does the surface material again corroborate the existence of a settlement at the site. …”

“…Napoleonic occupation, the revolution of 1848, the constitutional as well as the economic and social changes from the middle of the 19th century onwards, the final end of the position as "Reichshaupt- und Residenzstadt" (capital and residential city of the Austro-Hungarian empire) at the end of World War I, the challenging and complicated inter-war-period, Vienna's fate under Nazi-domination, the air raid of World War II and its end as well as the years after 1945 so far never described in such a comprehensive manner - all these events establish the chronological screen for the description and mark decisive incidents being treated here. …”

“…The only break in this linear narrative is the account of the civil wars from the age of the Gracchi onward, recounted all together in Book 2 for the sake of clarity. …”

“…It is important to emphasise that, from Hallstatt Period onwards we know a highly developed textile art and there is evidence of a well organised textile production - on household level and possibly specialised craft and the first mass production in workshops. …”

“…The fifth chapter traces demographic and economic changes that transformed the islands from the 1520s onward, as gold mining declined and an agricultural economy based on sugar production and stock raising expanded and began to account for an increasing percentage of transatlantic exports. …”