John Keegan, whose many books, including classic histories ofthe two world wars, have confirmed him as the premier miltaryhistorian of our time, here presents a masterly look at the valueand limitations of intelligence in the conduct of war. Intelligence gathering is an immensely complicated and vulnerableendeavor. And it often fails. Until the invention of the telegraphand radio, information often traveled no faster than a horse couldride, yet intelligence helped defeat Napoleon. In the twentiethcentury, photo analysts didn’t recognize Germany’s V-2 rockets forwhat they were; on the other hand, intelligence helped lead tovictory over the Japanese at Midway. In Intelligence inWar , John Keegan illustrates that only when paired withforce has military intelligence been an effective tool, as it mayone day be in besting al-Qaeda.

Less than 100 years after its creation as a fragile republic,the United States more than quadrupled its size, making it theworld's third largest nation. No other country or sovereign powerhad ever grown so big so fast or become so rich and sopowerful. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Richard Kluger chronicles thisepic achievement in a compelling narrative, celebrating the energy,daring, and statecraft behind America's insatiable land hungerwhile exploring the moral lapses that accompanied it. Comprehensiveand balanced, Seizing Destiny is a revelatory, often surprisingreexamination of the nation's breathless expansion, dwelling onboth great accomplishments and the American people's tendency toconfuse opportunistic success with heaven-sent entitlement thatcame to be called manifest destiny.

Paul Cartledge, one of the world’s foremost scholars ofancient Greece, illuminates the brief but iconic life of Alexander(356-323 BC), king of Macedon, conqueror of the Persian Empire, andfounder of a new world order. Alexander's legacy has had a major impact on military tacticians,scholars, statesmen, adventurers, authors, and filmmakers.Cartledge brilliantly evokes Alexander's remarkable political andmilitary accomplishments, cutting through the myths to show why hewas such a great leader. He explores our endless fascination withAlexander and gives us insight into his charismatic leadership, hiscapacity for brutality, and his sophisticated grasp ofinternational politics. Alexander the Great is an engagingportrait of a fascinating man, and a welcome balance to the myths,legends, and often skewed history that have obscured the realAlexander.

In Lone Star Nation , Pulitzer Prize finalist H. W.Brands demythologizes Texas’s journey to statehood and restores thegenuinely heroic spirit to a pivotal chapter in Americanhistory. From Stephen Austin, Texas’s reluctant founder, to the alcoholicSam Houston, who came to lead the Texas army in its hour of crisisand glory, to President Andrew Jackson, whose expansionistaspirations loomed large in the background, here is the story ofTexas and the outsize figures who shaped its turbulent history.Beginning with its early colonization in the 1820s and taking inthe shocking massacres of Texas loyalists at the Alamo and Goliad,its rough-and-tumble years as a land overrun by the Comanches, andits day of liberation as an upstart republic, Brands’ livelyhistory draws on contemporary accounts, diaries, and letters toanimate a diverse cast of characters whose adventures, exploits,and ambitions live on in the very fabric of our nation.

In this imaginative book, Maya Jasanoff uncovers theextraordinary stories of collectors who lived on the frontiers ofthe British Empire in India and Egypt, tracing their exploits totell an intimate history of imperialism. Jasanoff delves beneaththe grand narratives of power, exploitation, and resistance to lookat the British Empire through the eyes of the people caught up init. Written and researched on four continents, Edge ofEmpire enters a world where people lived, loved, mingled, andidentified with one another in ways richer and more complex thanprevious accounts have led us to believe were possible. And as thisbook demonstrates, traces of that world remain tangible—andtopical—today. An innovative, persuasive, and provocative work ofhistory.

This paperback edition has a new introduction by the authorand updated content. This is the first volume of North Atlantic Books’ updatedpaperback edition of Dale Pendell’s Pharmako trilogy, anencyclopedic study of the history and uses of psychoactive plantsand related synthetics first published between 1995 and 2005. Thebooks form an interrelated suite of works that provide the readerwith a unique, reliable, and often personal immersion in thismedically, culturally, and spiritually fascinating subject. Allthree books are beautifully designed and illustrated, and arewritten with unparalleled authority, erudition, playfulness, andrange. Pharmako/Poeia: Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft includes anew introduction by the author and as in previous editions focuseson familiar psychoactive plant-derived substances and relatedsynthetics, ranging from the licit (tobacco, alcohol) to theillicit (cannabis, opium) and the exotic (absinthe, salviadivinorum, nitrous oxide). Each substance is expl

"A magnificent book...a nonfiction masterpiece." -- New YorkTimes Book Review . The Nazi siege of Leningrad from 1941 to 1944was one of the most gruesome episodes of World War II. Nearly threemillion people endured it; just under half of them died. Fortwenty-five years the distinguished journalist and historianHarrison Salisbury pieced together this remarkable narrative ofvillainy and survival, in which the city had much to fear-from bothHitler and Stalin.

Ben Macintyre’s Agent Zigzag was hailed as “rollicking,spellbinding” ( New York Times ), “wildly improbable butentirely true” ( Entertainment Weekly ), and, quite simply,“the best book ever written” ( Boston Globe ). In his newbook, Operation Mincemeat , he tells an extraordinary storythat will delight his legions of fans. In 1943, from a windowless basement office in London, two brilliantintelligence officers conceived a plan that was both simple andcomplicated— Operation Mincemeat. The purpose? To deceive the Nazisinto thinking that Allied forces were planning to attack southernEurope by way of Greece or Sardinia, rather than Sicily, as theNazis had assumed, and the Allies ultimately chose. Charles Cholmondeley of MI5 and the British naval intelligenceofficer Ewen Montagu could not have been more different.Cholmondeley was a dreamer seeking adventure. Montagu was anaristocratic, detail-oriented barrister. But together they were theperfect team and created an ingenious plan: Get a corp

In 1848, Europe was engulfed in a firestorm of revolution. Thestreets of cities from Paris to Bucharest and from Berlin toPalermo were barricaded and flooded by armed insurgents proclaimingpolitical liberties and national freedom. The conservative orderwhich had held sway since the fall of Napoleon in 1815 crumbledbeneath the revolutionary assault. This book narrates thebreathtaking events which overtook Europe in 1848, tracingbrilliantly their course from the exhilaration of the liberaltriumph, through the fear of social chaos to the final despair ofdefeat and disillusionment. The failures of 1848 would scarEuropean history with the contradictions of authoritarianism andrevolution until deep into the twentieth century.

One of our most provocative military historians, Victor DavisHanson has given us painstakingly researched and pathbreakingaccounts of wars ranging from classical antiquity to thetwenty-first century. Now he juxtaposes an ancient conflict withour most urgent modern concerns to create his most engrossing workto date, A War Like No Other. Over the course of a generation, the Hellenic city-states ofAthens and Sparta fought a bloody conflict that resulted in thecollapse of Athens and the end of its golden age. Thucydides wrotethe standard history of the Peloponnesian War, which has givenreaders throughout the ages a vivid and authoritative narrative.But Hanson offers readers something new: a complete chronologicalaccount that reflects the political background of the time, thestrategic thinking of the combatants, the misery of battle inmultifaceted theaters, and important insight into how these eventsecho in the present. Hanson compellingly portrays the ways Athens and Sparta fought onland and se

This streamlined revision of the breakthrough bestseller byrenowned child-development expert Dr. Harvey Karp will do even moreto help busy parents survive the “terrible twos” andbeyond.... In one of the most revolutionary advances in parenting of thepast twenty-five years, Dr. Karp revealed that toddlers often actlike uncivilized little cavemen, with a primitive way of thinkingand communicating that is all their own. In this revised edition ofhis parenting classic, Dr. Karp has made his innovative approacheasier to learn—and put into action—than ever before. Combining his trademark tools of Toddler-ese and the Fast-FoodRule with a highly effective new green light/yellow light/red lightmethod for molding toddler behavior, Dr. Karp provides fastsolutions for today’s busy and stressed parents. As you discoverways to boost your child’s good (green light) behavior, curb hisannoying (yellow light) behavior, and immediately stop hisunacceptable (red light) behavior you will learn how t

In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, the authorof the highly acclaimed The Winter People tells the moving, searingstory of the betrayal and brutal dispossession of the CherokeeNation. "(A) beautifully written and emotionally mature book . . .a must."--New York Newsday.

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.

In America Reborn, journalist and historian Martin Walkerdefines twentieth-century America through the portraits oftwenty-six American individuals whose accomplishments, innovationsand ideals propelled the United States to a position of globaldominance. Here are the thoughts and beliefs of politicians and performers,thinkers and doers, capitalists and revolutionaries, immigrants andthe native born. From Teddy Roosevelt's imperial ambitions to BillClinton's global vision; Emma Goldman’s radical ideals to WilliamF. Buckley's profound conservatism; Albert Einstein's eleganttheories to Katharine Hepburn's elegant delivery-the biographicalessays that make up this narrative show us the variety of Americanarchetypes and offer a vision of how strong individualism hasalways been the bedrock of (helped make up) the Americancharacter.