In the summer of 1936, James Agee and Walker Evans set out on assignment for Fortune magazine to explore the daily lives of sharecroppers in the South. Their journey would prove an extraordinary collaboration and a watershed literary ...

The story of the hero behind the attempt to kill Hitler, the subject of Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise, set for June 2008 release.By July of 1944, the Third Reich's days were numbered. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a general staff in...

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Secret Rooms, the extraordinary true story of the downfall of one of England's wealthiest families Fans of Downton Abbey now have a go-to resource for fascinating, real-life stories of...

A National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, this is "the perfect introduction to classical studies, and deserves to become something of a standard work" (Observer). Mary Beard, drawing on thirty years of teaching and writ...

A Kirkus Best Book of the Year In August 1862, after suffering decades of hardship, broken treaties, and relentless encroachment on their land, the Dakota leader Little Crow reluctantly agreed that his people must go to war. After si...

Ciudad Juárez lies just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. A once-thriving border town, it now resembles a failed state. Infamously known as the place where women disappear, its murder rate exceeds that of Baghdad or Moga...

 Castles, Battles, and Bombs reconsiders key episodes of military history from the point of view of economics—with dramatically insightful results. For example, when looked at as a question of sheer cost, the building of castles in...

In 1936, the British monarchy faced the greatest threats to its survival in the modern era-the crisis of abdication and the menace of Nazism. The fate of the country rested in the hands of George V's sorely unequipped sons:•a stammer...

A captivating exploration of the role in which Queen Victoria exerted the most international power and influence: as a matchmaking grandmother.As her reign approached its sixth decade, Queen Victoria's grandchildren numbered over thir...

This New York Times bestselling "deep dive into the terms of eight former presidents is chock-full of political hijinks—and deja vu" (Vanity Fair) and provides a fascinating look at the men who came to the office without b...

An action-packed memoir chronicles the combat adventures of a maverick young Air Corps pilot who, despite nearly being court-martialed for his high-flying antics, became his unit's only survivor of missions escorting bombers over heav...

Between the Confederacy and recognition by Great Britain stood one unlikely Englishman who hated the slave trade. His actions helped determine the fate of a nation. When Robert Bunch arrived in Charleston to take up the post of Briti...

Now in paperback—the "amazing"( James Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of Flags of Our Fathers) never-before-told story of the greatest escape of the Second World War.In 1944 the OSS set out to recover more than ...

A collection of fascinating anecdotes and colorful stories organized by topics and not by chronology, Civil War Curiosities offers a rare glimpse into unusual and often bizarre persons, attitudes, and events that enhance our understan...

Immense in scope, ferocious in nature, and epic in consequence, the Battle of Kursk witnessed (at Prokhorovka) one of the largest tank engagements in world history and led to staggering losses--including nearly 200,000 Soviet and 50,0...

Adrian Goldsworthy has received wide acclaim for his exceptional writing on the Roman Empire—including high praise from the acclaimed military historian and author John Keegan— and here he offers a new perspective on the Empire by...

Calvin Coolidge has long been dismissed as silent, and with little to say. This collection of over 250 quotations reveals the concise, direct, even eloquent way he stated his views on issues still relevant to the interests of contempo...

The Battered Bastards of Bastogne is the product of contributions by 530 soldiers who were on the ground or in the air over Bastogne. They lived and made this history and much of it is told in their own words.The material contributed ...

Lincoln's words ring with great rigor, clarity, and simplicity when compared to most of today's political utterances. Here we read his witty testimonial for a brand of soap, his sharp commentaries in the 'rat hole' letter to a New Yor...

Master storyteller Ben Macintyre's most ambitious work to date brings to life the twentieth century's greatest spy story.Kim Philby was the greatest spy in history, a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain's counterintel...

Code-named the Studies and Observations Group, SOG was the most secret elite U.S. military unit to serve in the Vietnam War-its very existence denied by the government. Composed entirely of volunteers from such ace fighting units as t...

On 28 June 1914, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was assassinated on a visit to Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist called Gavrilo Princip. The assassination set in motion the events that led to the outbreak of the First World W...

How do we know the stories told by historians are true? To what extent can we rely on their interpretations of the past?Histories and Fallacies is a primer on the conceptual and methodological problems in the discipline of history. Hi...

"As entertaining as it is thoughtful....Few contemporary writers have Weatherford's talent for making the deep sweep of history seem vital and immediate."THE WASHINGTON POSTAfter 500 years, the world's huge debt to the wisdo...

The Nile, like all of Egypt, is both timeless and ever-changing. In these pages, renowned Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson takes us on a journey downriver that is both history and travelogue. We begin at the First Nile Cataract, close to t...

New Hampshire's historic graveyards, from Portsmouth to North Conway, have bizarre and eerie stories to offer their visitors. Graveyards often invoke fear and superstition among the living, but the dead who rest within them may have m...

Detailed account of this man's remarkable life and the period during which he wrote the Declaration of Independence. A first draft of the document is included, as are Jefferson's comments on the Articles of Confederation, his experien...

His name has become a synonym for clairvoyance: Nostradamus, astrologer to the king of France, the most famous seer in Western history. But the real meaning of his prophecies has gone undetected, hidden in a secret alchemical code. Kn...

"Fascinating. . . . The Tusas' book is one of the best accounts I have read." —The New York Times Here is a gripping account of the major postwar trial of the Nazi hierarchy in World War II. The Nuremberg Trial brilliantl...

Based on firsthand accounts and published within weeks of the 1912 tragedy, this dramatic history stands as the most authoritative account of the great marine disaster. Illustrated by 43 vintage images, these reports from survivors fo...