On 22 June 1941, the German army invaded the Soviet Union, onehundred fifty divisions advancing on three axes in a surpriseattack that overwhelmed and destroyed whatever opposition theRussians were able to muster. The German High Command was under theimpression that the Red Army could be destroyed west of the DneprRiver and that there would be no need for conducting operations incold, snow, and mud. They were wrong. In reality, the extreme conditions of the German war in Russiawere so brutal that past experiences simply paled before them.Everything in Russia--the land, the weather, the distances, andabove all the people--was harder, harsher, more unforgiving, andmore deadly than anything the German soldier had ever facedbefore. Based on the recollections of four veteran German commanders ofthose battles, FIGHTING IN HELL describes in detail what happenedwhen the world's best-publicized "supermen" met the world's mostbrutal fighting. It is not a tale for the squeamish.

This acclaimed book on the Wright Brothers takes the readerstraight to the heart of their remarkable achievement, focusing onthe technology and offering a clear, concise chronicle of preciselywhat they accomplished and how they did it. This book deals withthe process of the invention of the airplane and how the brothersidentified and resolved a range of technical puzzles that othershad attempted to solve for a century. Step by step, the book details the path of invention (includingthe important wind tunnel experiments of 1901) which culminated inthe momentous flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, the first majormilestone in aviation history. Enhanced by original photos,designs, drawings, notebooks, letters and diaries of the WrightBrothers, Visions of a Flying Machine is a fascinating book thatwill be of interest to engineers, historians, enthusiasts, oranyone interested in the process of invention.

Despite five centuries of investigation by historians, thesinister deaths of the boy king Edward V and his younger brotherRichard, Duke of York, remain two of the most fascinating murdermysteries in English history. Did Richard III really kill “thePrinces in the Tower,” as is commonly believed, or was the murderersomeone else entirely? Carefully examining every shred ofcontemporary evidence as well as dozens of modern accounts, AlisonWeir reconstructs the entire chain of events leading to the doublemurder. We are witnesses to the rivalry, ambition, intrigue, andstruggle for power that culminated in the imprisonment of theprinces and the hushed-up murders that secured Richard’s claim tothe throne as Richard III. A masterpiece of historical research anda riveting story of conspiracy and deception, The Princes in theTower at last provides a solution to this age-old puzzle. Look for special features inside. Join the Circle for author chats and more. RandomHouseReadersCircle.com

This is the story of a small group of soldiers from the 101stAirborne Division’s fabled 502nd Infantry Regiment—a unit known as“the Black Heart Brigade.” Deployed in late 2005 to Iraq’sso-called Triangle of Death, a veritable meat grinder just south ofBaghdad, the Black Hearts found themselves in arguably thecountry’s most dangerous location at its most dangerous time. Hit by near-daily mortars, gunfire, and roadside bomb attacks,suffering from a particularly heavy death toll, and enduring achronic breakdown in leadership, members of one Black Heartplatoon—1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion—descended, overtheir year-long tour of duty, into a tailspin of poor discipline,substance abuse, and brutality. Four 1st Platoon soldiers would perpetrate one of the mostheinous war crimes U.S. forces have committed during the IraqWar—the rape of a fourteen-year-old Iraqi girl and the cold-bloodedexecution of her and her family. Three other 1st Platoon soldierswould be overrun at

Mining newspaper files and the deep archives and journalisticexpertise of the Newseum, an interactive museum of news located inWashington, D.C., Outrage, Passion and Uncommon Sense examinesdecisive issues and events in U.S. history through the nation'seditorial pages. Approximately fifty editorials are reprinted hereon topics ranging from suffrage and race to war and politics—evenChristmas—with probing analysis by Gartner. "Editorials are the soul of the newspaper," Gartner says in thebook's introduction. "Maybe the heart and the soul. And, on a goodnewspaper that knows and understands and loves its hometown, or itshome country, the editorial is the heart and the soul of the town,or the nation, as well." Readers will also see a visual account of the era throughtwo-color illustrations, showcasing editorial cartoons, photographsand typographic details from period newspapers. Outrage, Passionand Uncommon Sense is a vital, significant collection that portraysthe undeniable influence one edi

The distinguished historian of the Jewish people, Howard M.Sachar, gives us a comprehensive and enthralling chronicle of theachievements and traumas of the Jews over the last four hundredyears. Tracking their fate from Western Europe’s age of mercantilism inthe seventeenth century to the post-Soviet and post-imperialistIslamic upheavals of the twenty-first century, Sachar applies hisrenowned narrative skill to the central role of the Jews in many ofthe most impressive achievements of modern civilization: whether inthe rise of economic capitalism or of political socialism; in thediscoveries of theoretical physics or applied medicine; in “higher”literary criticism or mass communication and popularentertainment. As his account unfolds and moves from epoch to epoch, fromcontinent to continent, from Europe to the Americas and the MiddleEast, Sachar evaluates communities that, until lately, have beenunderestimated in the perspective of Jewish and world history—amongthem, Jews of Sephardic

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.

Henry David Thoreau was just a few days short of histwenty-eighth birthday when he built a cabin on the shore of WaldenPond and began one of the most famous experiments in living inAmerican history. Apparently, he did not originally intend to writea book about his life at the pond, but nine years later, in Augustof 1854, Houghton Mifflin's predecessor, Ticknor and Fields,published Walden;or, a Life in the Woods. At the time the book waslargely ignored, and it took five years to sell out the firstprinting of two thousand copies. It was not until 1862, the year ofThoreau's death, that the book was brought back into print. Sincethen it has never been out of print. Published in hundreds ofeditions and translated into virtually every modern language,it hasbecome one of the most widely read and influential books everwritten, not only in this country but throughout the world. On the one hundred and fiftiethanniversary of the original publication of Walden, Houghton Mifflinis proud to present the most bea

Until World War II aircraft had played only a minor role incombat, but with the RAF and Luftwaffe fiercely dueling in theBattle of Britain it was apparent that air superiority would be thedeciding factor in the war. The Eighth Air Force quickly grew fromits first modest effort into the mightiest aerial armada inhistory, eventually launching thousand-plane raids. WhileFortresses and Liberators attacked factories, fuel supplies, andtransportation networks, Lightnings, Thunderbolts, and Mustangsshot enemy fighters from the skies. But the road to victory was paved with sacrifice. From itsinaugural mission on July 4, 1942, until V-E Day, the Eighth AirForce lost more men than did the entire United States Marine Corpsin all its campaigns in the Pacific. The Mighty Eighth chroniclesthe testimony of the pilots, bombardiers, navigators, and gunnerswho daily put their lives on the line. Their harrowing accountsrecall the excitement and terror of dogfights against Nazi aces,maneuvering explosive-laden aircr

Upon its original publication, Plagues and Peoples wasan immediate critical and popular success, offering a radically newinterpretation of world history as seen through the extraordinaryimpact--political, demographic, ecological, and psychological--ofdisease on cultures. From the conquest of Mexico by smallpox asmuch as by the Spanish, to the bubonic plague in China, to thetyphoid epidemic in Europe, the history of disease is the historyof humankind. With the identification of AIDS in the early 1980s,another chapter has been added to this chronicle of events, whichWilliam McNeill explores in his new introduction to this updatedediton. Thought-provoking, well-researched, and compulsively readable, Plagues and Peoples is that rare book that is as fascinatingas it is scholarly, as intriguing as it is enlightening. "Abrilliantly conceptualized and challenging achievement" (KirkusReviews), it is essential reading, offering a new perspective onhuman history.

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 singular collection is nothing less than a political,spiritual, and intensely personal record of America's tumultuousmodern age, as experienced by our foremost critics, commentators,activists, and artists. Joyce Carol Oates has collected a group ofworks that are both intimate and important, essays that move frompersonal experience to larger significance without severing theconnection between speaker and audience. From Ernest Hemingwaycovering bullfights in Pamplona to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s"Letter from Birmingham Jail," these essays fit, in the words ofJoyce Carol Oates, "into a kind of mobile mosaic suggest ing] wherewe've come from, and who we are, and where we are going." Amongthose whose work is included are Mark Twain, John Muir, T. S.Eliot, Richard Wright, Vladimir Nabokov, James Baldwin, Tom Wolfe,Susan Sontag, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Joan Didion, CynthiaOzick, Saul Bellow, Stephen Jay Gould, Edward Hoagland, and AnnieDillard.

In Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Marine Corps’ ground campaignup the Tigris and Euphrates was notable for speed andaggressiveness unparalleled in military history. Little has beenwritten, however, of the air support that guaranteed the drive’ssuccess. Paving the way for the rush to Baghdad was “the hammerfrom above”–in the form of attack helicopters, jet fighters,transport, and other support aircraft. Now a former Marine fighterpilot shares the gripping never-before-told stories of the Marineswho helped bring to an end the regime of Saddam Hussein. As Jay Stout reveals, the air war had actually been in theplanning stages ever since the victory of Operation Desert Storm,twelve years earlier. But when Operation Iraqi Freedom officiallycommenced on March 20, 2003, the Marine Corps entered the fightwith an aviation arm at its smallest since before World War II.Still, with the motto “Speed Equals Success,” the separate air andground units acted as a team to get the job done. Drawing

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

Renowned in her time for being the most beautiful woman inEurope, the wife of two kings and mother of three, Eleanor ofAquitaine was one of the great heroines of the Middle Ages. At atime when women were regarded as little more than chattel, Eleanormanaged to defy convention as she exercised power in the politicalsphere and crucial influence over her husbands and sons. In thisbeautifully written biography, Alison Weir paints a vibrantportrait of this truly exceptional woman, and provides new insightsinto her intimate world. Eleanor of Aquitaine lived a long life ofmany contrasts, of splendor and desolation, power and peril, and inthis stunning narrative, Weir captures the woman— and the queen—inall her glory. With astonishing historic detail, mesmerizingpageantry, and irresistible accounts of royal scandal and intrigue,she recreates not only a remarkable personality but a magnificentpast era.

An analysis of the Civil War, drawing on letters and diariesby more than one thousand soldiers, gives voice to the personalreasons behind the war, offering insight into the ideology thatshaped both sides. Reprint. PW.

rom one of the great political journalists of our time comes aboldly argued reinterpretation of the central event in ourcollective past--a book that portrays the American Revolution notas a clash of ideologies but as a Machiavellian struggle forpower.

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.

In this classic study, Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M.McPherson deftly narrates the experience of blacks--former slavesand soldiers, preachers, visionaries, doctors, intellectuals, andcommon people--during the Civil War. Drawing on contemporaryjournalism, speeches, books, and letters, he presents an eclecticchronicle of their fears and hopes as well as their essentialcontributions to their own freedom. Through the words of theseextraordinary participants, both Northern and Southern, McPhersoncaptures African-American responses to emancipation, the shiftingattitudes toward Lincoln and the life of black soldiers in theUnion army. Above all, we are allowed to witness the dreams of adisenfranchised people eager to embrace the rights and the equalityoffered to them, finally, as citizens.