As a young boy he re-enacted historic battles with toysoldiers, as a soldier he saw action on three continents, and asthe Prime Minister only a direct edict from King George VI couldkeep him from joining the troops on D-Day. Churchill's War Lab reveals how Churchill's passion for militaryhistory, his unique leadership style, and his patronization ofradical new ideas would lead to new technology and new tactics thatwould save lives and enable an Allied victory. No war generatedmore incredible theories, more technical advances, more scientificleaps, or more pioneering work that lay the foundation for thepost-war computer revolution. And it was Churchill's doggeddetermination and enthusiasm for revolutionary ideas that fuelledthis extraordinary outpouring of British genius. From the coauthorof Cold War comes an exciting new take on Churchill's warleadership and the story of a complex, powerful and inventive warleader.

The French Revolution marks the foundation of the modernpolitical world. It was in the crucible of the Revolution that thepolitical forces of conservatism, liberalism and socialism began tofind their modern form, and it was the Revolution that firstasserted the claims of universal individual rights, on which ourcurrent understandings of citizenship are based. But the Terrorwas, as much as anything else, a civil war, and such wars arealways both brutal and complex. The guillotine in Paris claimedsome 1,500 official victims, but executions of capturedcounter-revolutionary rebels ran into the tens of thousands, anddeaths in the areas of greatest conflict probably ran into sixfigures, with indiscriminate massacres being perpetrated by bothsides. The story of the Terror is a story of grand politicalpronouncements, uprisings and insurrections, but also a story ofsurvival against hunger, persecution and bewildering ideologicaldemands, a story of how a state, even with the noblest ofintentions, can turn on its

The illuminating national bestseller: "Vertiginouslyexciting…vibrantly imagined….[Krauss is] a prodigioustalent."—Janet Maslin, New York Times A long-lost book reappears, mysteriously connecting an old mansearching for his son and a girl seeking a cure for her widowedmother's loneliness. Leo Gursky is just about surviving, tapping his radiator eachevening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. Butlife wasn't always like this: sixty years ago, in the Polishvillage where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. Andthough Leo doesn't know it, that book survived, inspiring fabulouscircumstances, even love. Fourteen-year-old Alma was named after acharacter in that very book. And although she has her handsfull—keeping track of her brother, Bird (who thinks he might be theMessiah), and taking copious notes on How to Survive in theWild—she undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save herfamily. With consummate, spellbinding skill, Nicole Kraussgradually draws

There is no story in twentieth-century history more important tounderstand than Hitler’s rise to power and the collapse ofcivilization in Nazi Germany. With The Coming of the Third Reich,Richard Evans, one of the world’s most distinguished historians,has written the definitive account for our time. A masterfulsynthesis of a vast body of scholarly work integrated withimportant new research and interpretations, Evans’s historyrestores drama and contingency to the rise to power of Hitler andthe Nazis, even as it shows how ready Germany was by the early1930s for such a takeover to occur. The Coming of the ThirdReich is a masterwork of the historian’s art and the book bywhich all others on the subject will be judged.

A visually stunning collection that brings the soldiers'experience to vivid photographic life- includes a DVD. The Aviation Photographic Unit was a military unit unlike anyother in World War II. Founded and led by legendary photographerEdward Steichen, the photographers in this unit gave Americans onthe home front memorable and dramatic images of the people fightingthe Navy's battles in the Pacific theater. Beginning with just halfa dozen intrepid shutterbugs and expanding to ten battle-seasonedphotographers, the unit covered everything from early aircraftraids to amphibious landings to the surrender in Tokyo Bay. With anestimated 14,000 images in the collection of the National Archives,the work of this talented photographic unit is historicallysignificant not only as a visual record of the war, but also forits influence on generations of postwar photographers. Faces of Waris a tribute to the vision of Edward Steichen, as well as the menwho served under him, and most importantly to their subjects

The popular primer to Latino life and culture—updatedfor 2008 Latinos represent the fastest-growing ethnic population in theUnited States. In an accessible and entertainingquestion-and-answer format, this completely revised 2008 editionprovides the most current perspective on Latino history in themaking, including: ? New Mexico governor Bill Richardson’s announced candidacy for the2008 presidential election ? Ugly Betty —the hit ABC TV show based on the Latinotelenovela phenomenon ? The number of Latino players in Major League baseball surpassingthe 25 percent mark ? Immigration legislation and the battle over the Mexicanborder ? The state of Castro’s health and what it means for Cuba More than ever, this concise yet comprehensive reference guide isthe ideal introduction to the vast and varied history and cultureof this multifaceted ethnic group.

Did Eisenhower avoid a showdown with Stalin by not takingBerlin before the Soviets? What might have happened if JFK hadn'tbeen assassinated? This new volume in the widely praised seriespresents fascinating "what if..." scenarios by such prominenthistorians as: Robert Dallek, Caleb Carr, Antony Beevor, JohnLukacs, Jay Winick, Thomas Fleming, Tom Wicker, Theodore Rabb,Victor David Hansen, Cecelia Holland, Andrew Roberts, Ted Morgan,George Feifer, Robert L. O'Connell, Lawrence Malkin, and John F.Stacks. Included are two essential bonus essays reprinted from theoriginal New York Times bestseller What If? (tm)-DavidMcCullough imagines Washington's disastrous defeat at the Battle ofLong Island, and James McPherson envisions Lee's successfulinvasion of the North in 1862.

The first complete history of the Caribbean islands--updatedthrough the year 2000. This comprehensive volume takes the reader and student throughmore than five hundred years of Caribbean history, beginning withColumbus's arrival in the Bahamas in 1492. A Brief History of theCaribbean traces the people and events that have marked thisconstantly shifting region, encompassing everything from economicbooms and busts to epidemics, wars, and revolutions, and bringingto life such important figures as Sir Francis Drake, Blackbeard,Toussaint Louverture, Fidel Castro, the Duvaliers, andJean-Bertrand Aristide. This superbly written history, revised and updated, with newchapters that reflect the islands' most recent social, economic,and political developments, is a work of impeccable scholarship.Featuring maps, charts, tables, and photographs, it remains theideal guide to the region and its people. "A veritable sourcebook of information . . . analysis,de*ion, interpretation . . . interesting and

On 2 August 1944, Winston Churchill mocked Adolf Hitler in theHouse of Commons by the rank he had reached in the First World War.'Russian success has been somewhat aided by the strategy of HerrHitler, of Corporal Hitler', Churchill jibed. 'Even military idiotsfind it difficult not to see some faults in his actions'. AndrewRoberts' previous book "Masters and Commanders" studied thecreation of Allied grand strategy; "The Storm of War" now analyzeshow Axis strategy evolved. Examining the Second World War on everyfront, Roberts asks whether, with a different decision-makingprocess and a different strategy, the Axis might even have won.Were those German generals who blamed everything on Hitler afterthe war correct, or were they merely scapegoating their formerFuhrer once he was safely beyond defending himself? The book isfull of illuminating sidelights on the principle actors that bringtheir characters and the ways in which they reached decisions intofresh focus.

In this widely praised history of an infamous institution,award-winning scholar Marcus Rediker shines a light into thedarkest corners of the British and American slave ships of theeighteenth century. Drawing on thirty years of research in maritimearchives, court records, diaries, and firsthand accounts, TheSlave Ship is riveting and sobering in its revelations,reconstructing in chilling detail a world nearly lost to history:the “floating dungeons” at the forefront of the birth of AfricanAmerican culture.

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), who led the Macedonian armyto victory in Egypt, Syria, Persia and India, was perhaps the mostsuccessful conqueror the world has ever seen. Yet although no otherindividual has attracted so much speculation across the centuries,Alexander himself remains an enigma. Curtius' History offers agreat deal of information unobtainable from other sources of thetime. A compelling narrative of a turbulent era, the work recountsevents on a heroic scale, detailing court intrigue, stirringspeeches and brutal battles - among them, those of Macedonia'sgreat war with Persia, which was to culminate in Alexander's finaltriumph over King Darius and the defeat of an ancient and mightyempire. It also provides by far the most plausible and hauntingportrait of Alexander we possess: a brilliantly realized image of aman ruined by constant good fortune in his youth.

A trusted member of the Byzantine establishment, Procopius wasthe Empire's official chronicler, and his "History of the Wars ofJustinian" proclaimed the strength and wisdom of the Emperor'sreign. Yet all the while the dutiful scribe was working on a verydifferent - and dangerous - history to be published only once itsauthor was safely in his grave. "The Secret History" portrays the'great lawgiver' Justinian as a rampant king of corruption andtyranny, the Empress Theodora as a sorceress and whore, and thebrilliant general Belisarius as the pliable dupe of his schemingwife Antonina. Magnificently hyperbolic and highly opinionated,"The Secret History" is a work of explosive energy, depicting holyByzantium as a hell of murder and misrule.

Undeniably one of Rome's most important historians, Tacituswas also one of its most gifted. The Agricola is both aportrait of Julius Agricola-the most famous governor of RomanBritain and Tacitus's respected father-in-law-and the first knowndetailed portrayal of the British Isles. In the Germania ,Tacitus focuses on the warlike German tribes beyond the Rhine,often comparing the behavior of "barbarian" peoples favorably withthe decadence and corruption of Imperial Rome.

Hailed on publication in 1957 as "probably the only book published this year that will outlive the century," this is a brilliant of the idea that there are fixed laws in history and that human beings are able to predict them.

Finally available in paperback, Ralph D. Sawyer's incomparablestudy of ancient Chinese warfare. One of the most profound studies of warfare ever written, TheSeven Military Classics of Ancient China presents us with anEastern tradition of strategic thought that emphasizes outwittingone's opponent through speed, stealth, flexibility, and a minimumof force--an approach very different from that stressed in theWest, where the advantages of brute strength have overshadowed moresubtle methods. Safeguarded for centuries by the ruling elites of imperial China,even in modern times these writings have been known to only ahandful of Western specialists. In this volume are seven separateessays, written between 500 B.C. and A.D. 700, that preserve theessential tenets of strategy distilled from the experience of themost brilliant warriors of ancient China. This accurate translation remedies a serious gap in Westernknowledge of Asian thought. Based on the best available classicalChinese manu*s, some

More dramtatic than fiction...THE GUNS OF AUGUST is amagnificent narrative--beautifully organized, elegantly phrased,skillfully paced and sustained....The product of painstaking andsophisticated research. CHICAGO TRIBUNE Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Tuchman hasbrought to life again the people and events that led up to Worl WarI. With attention to fascinating detail, and an intense knowledgeof her subject and its characters, Ms. Tuchman reveals, for thefirst time, just how the war started, why, and why it could havebeen stopped but wasn't. A classic historical survey of a time anda people we all need to know more about, THE GUNS OF AUGUST willnot be forgotten.

In the 6th century AD, the Near East was divided between twovenerable empires: the Persian and the Roman. A hundred years on,and one had vanished forever, while the other seemed almostfinished. Ruling in their place were the Arabs: an upheaval soprofound that it spelt, in effect, the end of the ancient world. InThe Shadow of the Sword, Tom Holland explores how this came about.Spanning Constantinople to the Arabian desert, and starring some ofthe most remarkable rulers who ever lived, he tells a story vividwith drama, horror and startling achievement.

Vivid, powerful and absorbing, this is a first-person accountof one of the most startling military episodes in history: theoverthrow of Montezuma's doomed Aztec Empire by the ruthless HernanCortes and his band of adventurers. Bernal Diaz del Castillo,himself a soldier under Cortes, presents a fascinatingly detailedde*ion of the Spanish landing in Mexico in 1520 and theiramazement at the city, the exploitation of the natives for gold andother treasures, the expulsion and flight of the Spaniards, theirregrouping and eventual capture of the Aztec capital.

The only surviving works from one of the world's earliesthistorians, in important new translations Sallust's first published work, Catiline's War, contains thememorable history of the year 63, including his thoughts onCatiline, a Roman politician who made an ill-fated attempt tooverthrow the Roman Republic. In The Jugurthine War, Sallust dwellsupon the feebleness of the Senate and aristocracy, having collectedmaterials and compiled notes for this work during his governorshipof Numidia.

Black Hawk Down is Mark Bowden's account of the longest sustained firefight involving American troops since the Vietnam War. On October 3, 1993, about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopters into the teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead they found themselves pinned down through a long and terrible night fighting against thousands of heavily armed Somalis. The following morning, eighteen Americans were dead and more than seventy badly injured.

Pliny's "Natural History" is an astonishingly ambitious workthat ranges from astronomy to art and from geography to zoology.Mingling acute observation with often wild speculation, it offers afascinating view of the world as it was understood in the firstcentury AD, whether describing the danger of diving for sponges,the first water-clock, or the use of asses' milk to removewrinkles. Pliny himself died while investigating the volcaniceruption that destroyed Pompeii in AD 79, and the natural curiositythat brought about his death is also very much evident in the"Natural History" - a book that proved highly influential right upuntil the Renaissance and that his nephew, Pliny the younger,described 'as full of variety as nature itself'.