As a young guardsman, Grigory Potemkin caught the eye ofCatherine the Great with a theatrical act of gallantry during thecoup that placed her on the throne. Over the next thirty years hewould become her lover, co-ruler, and husband in a secret marriagethat left room for both to satisfy their sexual appetites. Potemkinproved to be one of the most brilliant statesmen of the eighteenthcentury, helping Catherine expand the Russian empire and deftlymanipulating allies and adversaries from Constantinople toLondon. This acclaimed biographyvividly re-creates Potemkin’s outsized character andaccomplishments and restores him to his rightful place as acolossus of the eighteenth century. It chronicles the tempestuousrelationship between Potemkin and Catherine, a remarkable loveaffair between two strong personalities that helped shape thecourse of history. As he brings these characters to life,Montefiore also tells the story of the creation of the Russianempire. This is biography as it is meant to be: both inti
Originally published in six volumes, Sandburgs Abraham Lincolnwas called the greatest historical biography of our generation.Sandburg distilled this work into one volume that became thedefinitive life of Lincoln. Index; photographs.
An erudite history of medicine...a welcome addition to anymedical collection. -- Booklist How does medical science advance? Popular historians would have usbelieve that a few heroic individuals, possessing superhumantalents, lead an unselfish quest to better the human condition. Butas renowned Yale surgeon and medical historian Sherwin B. Nulandshows in this brilliant collection of linked life portraits, thetheory bears little resemblance to the truth. Through the centuries, the men and women Who have shaped theworld of medicine have been not only very human people but alsovery much the products of their own times and places. Presentingcompelling studies of great medical innovators and pioneers,Doctors gives us the extraordinary story of the development ofmodern medicine -- told through the lives of thephysician-scientists whose deeds and determination paved the way.Ranging from the legendary Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, toAndreas Vesalius, whose Renaissance masterwork on anatomy offeredinval
The true story of a mathematical mystery, a million-dollarprize, and the fate of genius in today's world. In 2006, an eccentric Russian genius named Grigori Perelman solvedPoincare's Conjecture, one of seven great unsolved mathamaticalmysteries, the solution to any of which the Clay Institute, foundedby Boston businessman Landon Clay in 2000 to promote mathematics,promised a million-dollar prize. It is widely expected that thefirst Clay Prize will be awarded to Perelman in October 2009, andit is equally widely expected that he will decline it. Why? Masha Gessen set out to find out. In the manner of Nabokov's Real Life of Sebastian Knight , or more recently andaccessibly, Sylvia Nasar's A Beautiful Mind , or evenElizabeth Gilbert's The Last American Man , Gessen exploresthe nature of Perelma's mind and the reasons for his unusual,increasingly isolated behavior. Drawing on interviews with Perelman's teachers, classmates,coaches, teammates, and colleagues in Russia and the US, Gessen hasconstructed a gripp
Countless books have been written about Abraham Lincoln, yet fewhistorians and biographers have taken Lincoln seriously as athinker or attempted to place him in the context of majorintellectual traditions. In this refreshing, brilliantly arguedportrait, Michael Lind examines the ideas and beliefs that guidedLincoln as a statesman and shaped the United States in its time ofgreat crisis.In a century in which revolutions against monarchy anddictatorship in Europe and Latin America had failed, Lincolnbelieved that liberal democracy must be defended for the good ofthe world. During an age in which many argued that only whites werecapable of republican government, Lincoln insisted on theuniversality of human rights and the potential for democracyeverywhere. Yet he also held many of the prejudices of his time;his opposition to slavery was rooted in his allegiance to theideals of the American Revolution, not support for racial equality.Challenging popular myths and capturing Lincoln’s strengths andflaws, Lind offe
