In this groundbreaking work, leading historian FelipeFernández-Armesto tells the story of our hemisphere as a whole,showing why it is impossible to understand North, Central, andSouth America in isolation without turning to the intertwiningforces that shape the region. With imagination, thematic breadth,and his trademark wit, Fernández-Armesto covers a range ofcultural, political, and social subjects, taking us from the dawnof human migration to North America to the Colonial andIndependence periods to the “American Century” and beyond.Fernández-Armesto does nothing less than revise the conventionalwisdom about cross-cultural exchange, conflict, and interaction,making and supporting some brilliantly provocative conclusionsabout the Americas’ past and where we are headed.

In this path-breaking book Linda Colley reappraises the riseof the biggest empire in global history. Excavating the lives ofsome of the multitudes of Britons held captive in the lands theirown rulers sought to conquer, Colley also offers an intimateunderstanding of the peoples and cultures of the Mediterranean,North America, India, and Afghanistan. Here are harrowing, sometimes poignant stories by soldiers andsailors and their womenfolk, by traders and con men and by white aswell as black slaves. By exploring these forgotten captives – andtheir captors – Colley reveals how Britain’s emerging empire wasoften tentative and subject to profound insecurities andlimitations. She evokes how British empire was experienced by themass of poor whites who created it. She shows how imperial racismcoexisted with cross-cultural collaborations, and how the gulfbetween Protestantism and Islam, which some have viewed as centralto this empire, was often smaller than expected. Brilliantlywritten and richly ill

The Hellenistic Age chronicles the years 336 to 30 BCE, aperiod that witnessed the overlap of two of antiquity’s greatcivilizations, the Greek and the Roman. Peter Green’s remarkablyfar-ranging study covers the prevalent themes and events of thosecenturies: the Hellenization, by Alexander’s conquests, of animmense swath of the known world; the lengthy and chaotic partitionof this empire by rival Macedonian bands; the decline of thecity-state as the predominant political institution; and, finally,Rome’s moment of transition from republican to imperial rule. It isa story of war and power-politics, and of the developing fortunesof art, science, and statecraft, spun by an accomplished classicistwith an uncanny knack for infusing life into the distant past, andapplying fresh insights that make ancient history seem alarminglyrelevant to our own times. “Spectacular . . . [filled with] Mr. Green’s criticalacumen.” –The Wall Street Journal “Green draws upon a li

On June 6, 1944, American and British troops staged thegreatest amphibious landing in history to begin Operation Overlord,the battle to liberate Europe from the scourge of the Third Reich.With gut-wrenching realism and immediacy, Hastings reveals theterrible human cost that this battle exacted. Moving beyond just the storming of Omaha beach and D-Day, heexplores the Allies’ push inward, with many British and Americaninfantry units suffering near 100 percent casualties during thecourse of that awful summer. Far from a gauzy romanticizedremembrance, Hastings details a grueling ten week battle tooverpower the superbly trained, geographically entrenched GermanWehrmacht. Uncompromising and powerful in its depiction of wartime,this is the definitive book on D-Day and the Battle ofNormandy.

A useful, important book that reminds us, at the right time,how hard [European unity] has been, and how much care must be takento avoid the terrible old temptations. --Los Angeles Times Dark Continent provides an alternative history of the twentiethcentury, one in which the triumph of democracy was anything but aforgone conclusion and fascism and communism provided rivalpolitical solutions that battled and sometimes triumphed in aneffort to determine the course the continent would take. Mark Mazower strips away myths that have comforted us since WorldWar II, revealing Europe as an entity constantly engaged in abloody project of self-invention. Here is a history not ofinevitable victories and forward marches, but of narrow squeaks andunexpected twists, where townships boast a bronze of Mussolini onhorseback one moment, only to melt it down and recast it as a pairof noble partisans the next. Unflinching, intelligent, DarkContinent provides a provocative vision of Europ's past, present,and fut

In his first three Commanders books, Tom Clancy teamed withGenerals Fred Franks, Jr., Chuck Horner, and Carl Stiner to providemasterful blends of history, biography, you-are-there narrative,insight into the practice of leadership, and plain, old-fashionedstorytelling. Battle Ready is all of that-and it is also somethingmore. Marine General Tony Zinni was known as the "Warrior Diplomat"during his nearly forty years of service. As a soldier, hiscredentials were impeccable, whether leading troops in Vietnam,commanding hair-raising rescue operations in Somalia, or-asCommander in Chief of CENTCOM-directing strikes against Iraq and AlQaeda. But it was as a peacemaker that he made just as great amark-conducting dangerous troubleshooting missions all over Africa,Asia, and Europe; and then serving as Secretary of State ColinPowell's special envoy to the Middle East, before disagreementsover the 2003 Iraq War and its probable aftermath caused him toresign. Battle Ready follows the evolution of both G

The greatest military historian of our time gives a peerlessaccount of America’s most bloody, wrenching, and eternallyfascinating war. In this long-awaited history, John Keegan shares his original andperceptive insights into the psychology, ideology, demographics,and economics of the American Civil War. Illuminated by Keegan’sknowledge of military history he provides a fascinating look at howcommand and the slow evolution of its strategic logic influencedthe course of the war. Above all, The American Civil War gives an intriguing account of how the scope of the conflictcombined with American geography to present a uniquely complex andchallenging battle space. Irresistibly written and incisive in itsanalysis, this is an indispensable account of America’s greatestconflict.

Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson led the design of such crucialaircraft as the P-38 and Constellation, but he will be moreremembered for the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes. His extraordinaryleadership of the Lockheed “Skunk Works” cemented his reputation asa legendary figure in American aerospace management.

This groundbreaker by one of the premier historians of this century takes an anti-ethnocentric approach to the history of civilizations. This book focuses on the broad sweep of history rather than on the famous events. It covers historical developments in almost every corner of the globe, from the Muslim world and the Far East to Europe and the Americas. Includes maps.

They Came Before Columbus reveals a compelling,dramatic, and superbly detailed documentation of the presence andlegacy of Africans in ancient America. Examining navigation andshipbuilding; cultural analogies between Native Americans andAfricans; the transportation of plants, animals, and textilesbetween the continents; and the diaries, journals, and oralaccounts of the explorers themselves, Ivan Van Sertima builds apyramid of evidence to support his claim of an African presence inthe New World centuries before Columbus. Combining impressivescholarship with a novelist’s gift for storytelling, Van Sertimare-creates some of the most powerful scenes of human history: thelaunching of the great ships of Mali in 1310 (two hundred masterboats and two hundred supply boats), the sea expedition of theMandingo king in 1311, and many others. In They Came BeforeColumbus, we see clearly the unmistakable face and handprint ofblack Africans in pre-Columbian America, and their overwhelmingimpact on the civilizatio

National Bestseller New York Times Editors’ Choice Winner of the PEN Hessell Tiltman Prize Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize Silver Medalist for the Arthur Ross Book Award of the Council on Foreign Relations Finalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award For six months in 1919, after the end of “the war to end allwars,” the Big Three—President Woodrow Wilson, British primeminister David Lloyd George, and French premier GeorgesClemenceau—met in Paris to shape a lasting peace. In this landmarkwork of narrative history, Margaret MacMillan gives a dramatic andintimate view of those fateful days, which saw new politicalentities—Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Palestine, among them—born out ofthe ruins of bankrupt empires, and the borders of the modern worldredrawn.

When the British wrested New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664,the truth about its thriving, polyglot society began to disappearinto myths about an island purchased for 24 dollars and acartoonish peg-legged governor. But the story of the Dutch colonyof New Netherland was merely lost, not destroyed: 12,000 pages ofits records–recently declared a national treasure–are now beingtranslated. Drawing on this remarkable archive, Russell Shorto hascreated a gripping narrative–a story of global sweep centered on awilderness called Manhattan–that transforms our understanding ofearly America. The Dutch colony pre-dated the “original” thirteen colonies, yetit seems strikingly familiar. Its capital was cosmopolitan andmulti-ethnic, and its citizens valued free trade, individualrights, and religious freedom. Their champion was a progressive,young lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck, who emerges in thesepages as a forgotten American patriot and whose political visionbrought him into conflict with Pete

In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, only twenty-eight, set sail forEgypt with 335 ships, 40,000 soldiers, and a collection ofscholars, artists, and scientists to establish an eastern empire.He saw himself as a liberator, freeing the Egyptians fromoppression. But Napoleon wasn’t the first—nor the last—whotragically misunderstood Muslim culture. Marching across seeminglyendless deserts in the shadow of the pyramids, pushed to the limitsof human endurance, his men would be plagued by mirages, suicides,and the constant threat of ambush. A crusade begun in honor woulddegenerate into chaos. And yet his grand failure also yielded atreasure trove of knowledge that paved the way for modernEgyptology—and it tempered the complex leader who believed himselfdestined to conquer the world.

When the United States entered the Gilded Age after the CivilWar, argues cultural historian Christopher Benfey, the nation lostits philosophical moorings and looked eastward to “Old Japan,” withits seemingly untouched indigenous culture, for balance andperspective. Japan, meanwhile, was trying to reinvent itself as amore cosmopolitan, modern state, ultimately transforming itself, inthe course of twenty-five years, from a feudal backwater to aninternational power. This great wave of historical and culturalreciprocity between the two young nations, which intensified duringthe late 1800s, brought with it some larger-than-lifepersonalities, as the lure of unknown foreign cultures promptedpilgrimages back and forth across the Pacific. In The Great Wave, Benfey tells the story of the tightly knitgroup of nineteenth-century travelers—connoisseurs, collectors, andscientists—who dedicated themselves to exploring and preserving OldJapan. As Benfey writes, “A sense of urgency impelled them, forthe

In this luminous portrait of wartime Washington, Ernest B.Furgurson–author of the widely acclaimed Chancellorsville1863 , Ashes of Glory , and Not War butMurder --brings to vivid life the personalities and events thatanimated the Capital during its most tumultuous time. Here amongthe sharpsters and prostitutes, slaves and statesmen are detectiveAllan Pinkerton, tracking down Southern sympathizers; poet WaltWhitman, nursing the wounded; and accused Confederate spy AntoniaFord, romancing her captor, Union Major Joseph Willard. Here aregenerals George McClellan and Ulysses S. Grant, railroad crew bossAndrew Carnegie, and architect Thomas Walter, striving to finishthe Capitol dome. And here is Abraham Lincoln, wrangling withofficers, pardoning deserters, and inspiring the nation. FreedomRising is a gripping account of the era that transformedWashington into the world’s most influential city.

In mid-1943 James Megellas, known as “Maggie” to his fellowparatroopers, joined the 82d Airborne Division, his new “home” forthe duration. His first taste of combat was in the rugged mountainsoutside Naples. In October 1943, when most of the 82d departed Italy to preparefor the D-Day invasion of France, Lt. Gen. Mark Clark, the FifthArmy commander, requested that the division’s 504th ParachuteInfantry Regiment, Maggie’s outfit, stay behind for a daring newoperation that would outflank the Nazis’ stubborn defensive linesand open the road to Rome. On 22 January 1944, Megellas and therest of the 504th landed across the beach at Anzio. Followinginitial success, Fifth Army’s amphibious assault, OperationShingle, bogged down in the face of heavy German counterattacksthat threatened to drive the Allies into the Tyrrhenian Sea. Anzioturned into a fiasco, one of the bloodiest Allied operations of thewar. Not until April were the remnants of the regiment withdrawnand shipped to England to r

In the summer of 1846, the Army of the West marched throughSanta Fe, en route to invade and occupy the Western territoriesclaimed by Mexico. Fueled by the new ideology of “ManifestDestiny,” this land grab would lead to a decades-long battlebetween the United States and the Navajos, the fiercely resistantrulers of a huge swath of mountainous desert wilderness.In Bloodand Thunder , Hampton Sides gives us a magnificent history ofthe American conquest of the West. At the center of this sweepingtale is Kit Carson, the trapper, scout, and soldier whoseadventures made him a legend. Sides shows us how this illiteratemountain man understood and respected the Western tribes betterthan any other American, yet willingly followed orders that wouldultimately devastate the Navajo nation. Rich in detail and spanningmore than three decades, this is an essential addition to ourunderstanding of how the West was really won.

This sweeping history provides the reader with a betterunderstanding of America’s consumer society, obsession withshopping, and devotion to brands. Focusing on the advertisingcampaigns of Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s, Wrigley’s, Gillette, and Kodak,Strasser shows how companies created both national brands andnational markets. These new brands eventually displaced genericmanufacturers and created a new desire for brand-name goods. Thebook also details the rise and development of department storessuch as Macy’s, grocery store chains such as A P and PigglyWiggly, and mail-order companies like Sears Roebuck and MontgomeryWard.

In a remarkably vibrant narrative, Michael Stürmer blends highpolitics, social history, portraiture, and an unparalleled commandof military and economic developments to tell the story ofGermany’s breakneck rise from new nation to Continental superpower.It begins with the German military’s greatest triumph, theFranco-Prussian War, and then tracks the forces of unification,industrialization, colonization, and militarization as theycombined to propel Germany to become the force that fatallydestabilized Europe’s balance of power. Without The GermanEmpire ’s masterly rendering of this story, a full understandingof the roots of World War I and World War II is impossible.

“WEIR’S BOOK OUTSHINES ALL PREVIOUS STUDIES OF HENRY.Beautifully written, exhaustive in its research, it is a gem. . . .She succeeds masterfully in making Henry and his six wives . . .come alive for the reader.” –Philadelphia Inquirer Henry VIII, renownedfor his command of power and celebrated for his intellect, presidedover one of the most magnificent–and dangerous–courts inRenaissance Europe. Never before has a detailed, personal biographyof this charismatic monarch been set against the cultural, social,and political background of his glittering court. Now Alison Weir,author of the finest royal chronicles of our time, brings tovibrant life the turbulent, complex figure of the King. Packed withcolorful de*ion, meticulous in historical detail, rich inpageantry, intrigue, passion, and luxury, Weir brilliantly rendersKing Henry VIII, his court, and the fascinating men and women whovied for its pleasures and rewards. The result is an absolutelyspellbinding read.

In 1942, a dashing young man who liked nothing so much as aheated game of poker, a good bottle of scotch, and the company of apretty girl hopped a merchant ship to England. He was Robert Capa,the brilliant and daring photojournalist, and Collier's magazinehad put him on assignment to photograph the war raging in Europe.In these pages, Capa recounts his terrifying journey through thedarkest battles of World War II and shares his memories of the menand women of the Allied forces who befriended, amused, andcaptivated him along the way. His photographs are masterpieces --John G. Morris, Magnum Photos' first executive editor, called Capa"the century's greatest battlefield photographer" -- and hiswriting is by turns riotously funny and deeply moving. From Sicily to London, Normandy to Algiers, Capa experienced someof the most trying conditions imaginable, yet his compassion andwit shine on every page of this book. Charming and profound,Slightly Out of Focus is a marvelous memoir told in words andpictur