“There is no doubt that history is written by the victors,” spoke a eulogizer at Pancho Villa’s funeral, “but it is also true that legends are written by the people. For that reason, the name of Francisco Villa has remained en...

The riveting story that inspired Kipling's classic tale and a John Huston movieThe true story of Josiah Harlan, a Pennsylvania Quaker and the first American ever to enter Afghanistan, has never been told before. Soldier, spy, doctor, ...

The greatest statesman of his age, Benjamin Franklin was also a pioneering scientist, a successful author, the first American postmaster general, a printer, a bon vivant. In addition, he was a man of vast contradictions. This best-sel...

A lavishly detailed portrait of a year in the life of the bard traces his career in 1599, which marked the building of the Globe Theater, the English invasion of Ireland, and the creation of the plays, Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You L...

One of the twentieth century's most extraordinary Americans, Pearl Buck was the first person to make China accessible to the West. She recreated the lives of ordinary Chinese people in The Good Earth, an overnight worldwide bestselle...

The New York Times bestselling biography of Lincoln's closest adviser and friend William Henry Seward was one of the most important Americans of the nineteenth century. Progressive governor of New York, outspoken United States senator...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader's Circle for author chats and more.Many are familiar with the story of the much-married King Henry VIII of England and the celebrated reign o...

John Milton, Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, and William Shakespeare are among the personalities investigated by Aubrey in this classic work of biographical shorts. At once gossipy and scholarly, these biographies draw a vivid picture ...

A fresh look at this astute, likably quirky statesman, by the author of the Pulitzer Award-winning Founding Brothers. 'The most lovable and most laughable, the warmest and possibly the wisest of the founding fathers, John Adams knew h...

Dante's vision, The Divine Comedy, has profoundly affected every generation since it first appeared in the early 14th century. This brief account sets the known facts of Dante's life against the turmoil of the times, and puts the very...

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow Clicquot comes an extraordinary and gripping account of Irena Sendler—the "female Oskar Schindler"—who took staggering risks to save 2,500 children from death and d...

In this spirited United Kingdom bestseller, Starkey presents a brilliant examination of the formative years of the 'Virgin Queen, ' recreating a host of extravagant characters, mad-cap schemes, and tragic plots, while using original d...

How the three inaugural First Ladies defined the role for future generations, and carved a space for women in AmericaAmerica's first First Ladies―Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and Dolley Madison―had the challenging task of pla...

On June 2, 1919, bombs exploded simultaneously in nine American cities, and the nation suddenly found itself facing a new threat-radical terrorism. Then-Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer vowed a crackdown to be led by his youngest a...

More than 10,000 women and children. That's how many civilian prisoners of the Japanese were packed into Tjideng, reportedly the worst Japanese concentration camp in Java during World War II. Among these 10,000 mostly Dutch women and ...

The psychiatrist's insight and storyteller's skill offer an absorbing tale.'-Elie Wiesel 'A work of art.'-'The New York Times Book Review' 'A book to read again and again with the same piety with which it has been written.'-Primo Levi...

This question obsessed Renaissance writers, none more than Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, perhaps the first recognizably modern individual. A nobleman, public official, and winegrower, he wrote free-roaming explorations of his thought an...

For readers enchanted by the bestsellers The Astronaut Wives Club, The Girls of Atomic City, and Summer at Tiffany's, an absorbing tale of romance and resilience—the true story of four British women who crossed the Atlantic for love...

Thomas Cromwell has long been reviled as a Machiavellian schemer who stopped at nothing in his quest for power. As Henry VIII's right-hand man, Cromwell was the architect of the English Reformation, secured Henry's divorce from Cather...

In April of 1846, Sarah Graves was twenty-one and in love with a young man who played the violin. But she was torn. Her mother, father, and eight siblings were about to disappear over the western horizon forever, bound for California...

Queen Elizabeth I and England's First Spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham's official title was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I, but in fact this pious, tight-lipped Puritan was England's first spymaster. A ruthless, fiercely lo...

Perfect for fans of Jane Austen, this updated edition of Paula Byrne's debut book includes new material that explores the history of Austen stage adaptations, why her books work so well on screen, and what that reveals about one of th...

A collection of historic live recordings King's sermons, delivered in churches around the country, as well as a selection of his inspirational civil rights speeches, is accompanied by introductions by noted ministers and theologians f...

THE SINS OF JACK SAUL The true story of Dublin Jack and the Cleveland Street scandal. The Cleveland Street scandal, involving a homosexual brothel reputedly visited by the Queen's grandson, shocked Victorian Britain in 1889. This is t...

The First Emperor In 1974, Chinese peasants made the discovery of the century… Thousands of terracotta soldiers guarding the tomb of a tyrant. Ying Zheng was born to rule the world, claiming descent from gods, crowned king while st...

Franklin "Rooster" Cogburn was born in 1866 in Fancy Hill, Arkansas, the descendant of pioneers and moonshiners. Six foot three, dark eyed, and a dead shot with a rifle, he was as hard as the rocky mountain ground his family...

The Kennedys may well be the most photographed, written about, talked about, admired, hated, and controversial family in American history. But for all the words and pictures, the real story was not told until Peter Collier and David H...

Gala opera evenings. Sudden wealth and fame. Dangerous undercover missions into the heart of Nazi Germany. Standing up to the perils of the Blitz. No one would have predicted such glamorous and daring lives for Ida and Louise Cook—t...

This memoir written by writer, orator, and former slave Frederick Douglass describes, in gripping detail, the circumstances of his upbringing, his brutal treatment at the hands of slave-owners, and his narrow escape from Maryland to f...

Ever since Howard Carter uncovered King Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, the young pharaoh has become a symbol of the wealth and mystery of ancient Egypt. Now, a two-and-a-half-year-long museum exhibit of Tut's treasures is touring major c...