Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of Am...
M. William PhelpsFew Americans know much about Nathan Hale other than his famous last words: "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country."But who was the real Nathan Hale?M. William Phelps charts the life of this famed pat...
A Year in the Life of William Shakesp...
James ShapiroA 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...
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 ...
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...
How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne i...
Sarah BakewellThis 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...
Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of ...
Tracy BormanThomas 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...
A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from...
Clayborne CarsonA 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...
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Do...
Frederick DouglassThis 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...
In this remarkable dual biography of the two great lovers of the ancient world, Adrian Goldsworthy goes beyond myth and romance to create a nuanced and historically acute portrayal of his subjects, set against the political backdrop o...
Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, S...
Georgina HowellShe has been called the female Lawrence of Arabia, which, while not inaccurate, fails to give Gertrude Bell her due. She was at one time the most powerful woman in the British Empire: a nation builder, the driving force behind the cre...
Humorists: From Hogarth to Noel Cowar...
Paul JohnsonIn Intellectuals, Paul Johnson offered a fascinating portrait of the minds that have shaped the modern world. In Creators, he examined a host of outstanding and prolific creative spirits. And in Heroes, he brought together a galaxy of...
A Simon & Schuster audiobook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every listener.
Quarrel with the King: The Story of a...
Adam NicolsonThe renowned, bestselling author of God's Secretaries and Seize the Fire explores questions of loyalty, power, betrayal, and rebellion witnessed through the life and times of one of England's richest and most influential families.
Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of Am...
M. William PhelpsFew Americans know much about Nathan Hale other than his famous last words: "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country."But who was the real Nathan Hale?M. William Phelps charts the life of this famed pat...
Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Relivi...
Mo RoccaFrom beloved CBS Sunday Morning correspondent and humorist Mo Rocca, an entertaining and rigorously researched book that celebrates the dead people who have long fascinated him.Mo Rocca has always loved obituaries—reading about the ...
THE BOY WHO BECAME A REBEL. THE REBEL WHO BECAME A SOLDIER. THE SOLDIER WHO BECAME AN ICON. THE ICON WHO DISAPPEARED. Raised in Park Avenue privilege, J. D. Salinger sought out combat, surviving five bloody battles of World War II, an...
I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise o...
Richard SnowEvery century or so, our republic has been remade by a new technology: 170 years ago the railroad changed Americans' conception of space and time; in our era, the microprocessor revolutionized how humans communicate. But in the early ...
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Mo...
Jack WeatherfordThe Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in twenty-five years than the Romans did in four hundred. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication...
Final Victory: FDR's Remarkable World...
Stanley WeintraubBy the time the 1944 presidential election campaign geared up in the summer, Franklin D. Roosevelt had already been in office longer than any other president. Although he remained popular, the Republicans were determined to mount an e...
Two Rings: A Story of Love and War
Millie WerberTrapped in Poland in 1941, like many Jews, Millie Werber went from the Radom Ghetto to slave labor in an armaments factory, survived Auschwitz, and toiled in a second factory until liberation came on April 1, 1945. She faced death man...
One of America's finest historians shows us how Bob Dylan, one of the country's greatest and most enduring artists, still surprises and moves us after all these years. Growing up in Greenwich Village, Sean Wilentz discovered the mu...