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.

The myths of the ancient Greeks have inspired us for thousandsof years. Where did the famous stories of the battles of their godsdevelop and spread across the world? The celebrated classicistRobin Lane Fox draws on a lifetime’s knowledge of the ancientworld, and on his own travels, answering this question by pursuingit through the age of Homer. His acclaimed history explores how theintrepid seafarers of eighth-century Greece sailed around theMediterranean, encountering strange new sights—volcanic mountains,vaporous springs, huge prehistoric bones—and weaving them into themyths of gods, monsters and heroes that would become thecornerstone of Western civilization.

In AD 476 the Roman Empire fell–or rather, its western halfdid. Its eastern half, which would come to be known as theByzantine Empire, would endure and often flourish for anothereleven centuries. Though its capital would move to Constantinople,its citizens referred to themselves as Roman for the entireduration of the empire’s existence. Indeed, so did its neighbors,allies, and enemies: When the Turkish Sultan Mehmet II conqueredConstantinople in 1453, he took the title Caesar of Rome, placinghimself in a direct line that led back to Augustus. For far too many otherwise historically savvy people today, thestory of the Byzantine civilization is something of a void. Yet formore than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat ofChristian civilization. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages,Byzantium held fast against Muslim expansion, keeping Christianityalive. When literacy all but vanished in the West, Byzantium madeprimary education available to both sexes. Students debated themerits

Only now can the full scope of the war in the Pacific be fullyunderstood. Historian Ronald Spector, drawing on newly declassifiedintelligence files, an abundance of British and American archivalmaterial. Japanese scholarship and documents, and research andmemoirs of scholarly and military men, has written a stunning,complete and up-to-date history of the conflict.

In 1863, after surviving the devastating Battle of Corinth,Newton Knight, a poor farmer from Mississippi, deserted theConfederate Army and began a guerrilla battle against theConfederacy. For two years he and other residents of Jones Countyengaged in an insurrection that would have repercussions far beyondthe scope of the Civil War. In this dramatic account of an almostforgotten chapter of American history, Sally Jenkins and JohnStauffer upend the traditional myth of the Confederacy as a heroicand unified Lost Cause, revealing the fractures within Civil-Warera Southern society. No man better exemplified these complexitiesthan Newton Knight, a pro-Union sympathizer in the deep South whorefused to fight a rich man’s war for slavery and cotton.

It is a tale as familiar as our history primers: A derangedactor, John Wilkes Booth, killed Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre,escaped on foot, and eluded capture for twelve days until he methis fiery end in a Virginia tobacco barn. In the national hysteriathat followed, eight others were arrested and tried; four of thosewere executed, four imprisoned. Therein lie all the classicelements of a great thriller. But the untold tale is even morefascinating. Now, in American Brutus, Michael W. Kauffman, one of the foremostLincoln assassination authorities, takes familiar history to adeeper level, offering an unprecedented, authoritative account ofthe Lincoln murder conspiracy. Working from a staggering array ofarchival sources and new research, Kauffman sheds new light on thebackground and motives of John Wilkes Booth, the mechanics of hisplot to topple the Union government, and the trials and fates ofthe conspirators. Piece by piece, Kauffman explains and corrects commonmisperceptions and analy

In The Wall Street Journal, Victor Davis Hanson named With theOld Breed one of the top five books on epic twentieth-centurybattles. Studs Terkel interviewed the author for his definitiveoral history, The Good War. Now E. B. Sledge’s acclaimedfirst-person account of fighting at Peleliu and Okinawa returns tothrill, edify, and inspire a new generation. An Alabama boy steeped in American history and enamored of suchheroes as George Washington and Daniel Boone, Eugene B. Sledgebecame part of the war’s famous 1st Marine Division–3d Battalion,5th Marines. Even after intense training, he was shocked to bethrown into the battle of Peleliu, where “the world was a nightmareof flashes, explosions, and snapping bullets.” By the time Sledgehit the hell of Okinawa, he was a combat vet, still filled withfear but no longer with panic. Based on notes Sledge secretly kept in a copy of the NewTestament, With the Old Breed captures with utter simplicity andsearing honesty the experience of a soldier

The secretive Mysteries conducted at Eleusis in Greece fornearly two millennia have long puzzled scholars with strangeaccounts of initiates experiencing otherworldly journeys. In thisgroundbreaking work, three experts—a mycologist, a chemist, and ahistorian—argue persuasively that the sacred potion given toparticipants in the course of the ritual contained a psychoactiveentheogen. The authors then expand the discussion to show thatnatural psychedelic agents have been used in spiritual ritualsacross history and cultures. Although controversial when firstpublished in 1978, the book’s hypothesis has become more widelyaccepted in recent years, as knowledge of ethnobotany has deepened.The authors have played critical roles in the modern rediscovery ofentheogens, and The Road to Eleusis presents an authoritativeexposition of their views. The book’s themes of the universality ofexperiential religion, the suppression of that knowledge byexploitative forces, and the use of psychedelics to reconcile theh

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.

A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an UnnecessaryWar Most Americans consider Abraham Lincoln to be the greatestpresident in history. His legend as the Great Emancipator has grownto mythic proportions as hundreds of books, a national holiday, anda monument in Washington, D.C., extol his heroism and martyrdom.But what if most everything you knew about Lincoln were false? Whatif, instead of an American hero who sought to free the slaves,Lincoln were in fact a calculating politician who waged thebloodiest war in american history in order to build an empire thatrivaled Great Britain's? In The Real Lincoln, author Thomas J.DiLorenzo uncovers a side of Lincoln not told in many history booksand overshadowed by the immense Lincoln legend. Through extensive research and meticulous documentation,DiLorenzo portrays the sixteenth president as a man who devoted hispolitical career to revolutionizing the American form of governmentfrom one that was very limited in scope and highly decentralize

For this rousing,revisionist history, the former head of exhibitions at England'sNational Maritime Museum has combed original documents and recordsto produce a most authoritative and definitive account of piracy's"Golden Age." As he explodes many accepted myths (i.e. "walking theplank" is pure fiction), Cordingly replaces them with a truth thatis more complex and often bl... (展开全部) For this rousing, revisionist history, the formerhead of exhibitions at England's National Maritime Museum hascombed original documents and records to produce a mostauthoritative and definitive account of piracy's "Golden Age." Ashe explodes many accepted myths (i.e. "walking the plank" is purefiction), Cordingly replaces them with a truth that is more complexand often bloodier. 16 pp. of photos. Maps. From the Hardcover edition.

In 1975, at the height of Indira Gandhi’s “Emergency,” V. S.Naipaul returned to India, the country his ancestors had left onehundred years earlier. Out of that journey he produced this concisemasterpiece: a vibrant, defiantly unsentimental portrait of asociety traumatized by centuries of foreign conquest and immured ina mythic vision of its past. Drawing on novels, news reports, political memoirs, and his ownencounters with ordinary Indians–from a supercilious prince to anengineer constructing housing for Bombay’s homeless–Naipaulcaptures a vast, mysterious, and agonized continent inaccessible toforeigners and barely visible to its own people. He sees both theburgeoning space program and the 5,000 volunteers chanting mantrasto purify a defiled temple; the feudal village autocrat and theNaxalite revolutionaries who combined Maoist rhetoric with ritualmurder. Relentless in its vision, thrilling in the keenness of itsprose, India: A Wounded Civilization is a work of astonishinginsight an

A gripping intellectual adventure story, Sailing fromByzantium sweeps you from the deserts of Arabia to the dark forestsof northern Russia, from the colorful towns of Renaissance Italy tothe final moments of a millennial city under siege…. Byzantium: the successor of Greece and Rome, this magnificentempire bridged the ancient and modern worlds for more than athousand years. Without Byzantium, the works of Homer andHerodotus, Plato and Aristotle, Sophocles and Aeschylus, wouldnever have survived. Yet very few of us have any idea of theenormous debt we owe them. The story of Byzantium is a real-life adventure of electrifyingideas, high drama, colorful characters, and inspiring feats ofdaring. In Sailing from Byzantium, Colin Wells tells of themissionaries, mystics, philosophers, and artists who against greatodds and often at peril of their own lives spread Greek ideas tothe Italians, the Arabs, and the Slavs. Their heroic efforts inspired the Renaissance, the golden age ofIslamic lear

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

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.

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 a journey across four continents, acclaimed science writerSteve Olson traces the origins of modern humans and the migrationsof our ancestors throughout the world over the past 150,000 years.Like Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, Mapping Human Historyis a groundbreaking synthesis of science and history. Drawing on awide range of sources, including the latest genetic research,linguistic evidence, and archaeological findings, Olson reveals thesurprising unity among modern humans and "demonstrates just hownaive some of our ideas about our human ancestry have been"(Discover).Olson offers a genealogy of all humanity, explaining,for instance, why everyone can claim Julius Caesar and Confucius asforebears. Olson also provides startling new perspectives on theinvention of agriculture, the peopling of the Americas, the originsof language, the history of the Jews, and more. An engaging andlucid account, Mapping Human History will forever change how wethink about ourselves and our relations with others.

Advance praise for The Memoirs of Catherine the Great “Superb. The translation of the Memoirs is fluid, accessible, andidiomatic, while remaining accurate and as delightful as theoriginal. Students will heartily enjoy this excursion into thehistorical and literary world of the great empress.” –Cynthia Hyla Whittaker, professor and chair, Department ofHistory, Baruch College/CUNY “Several translations of the memoirs of Catherine the Great havebeen published before, but none of them can compare with thislatest edition. Mark Cruse and Hilde Hoogenboom have produced amasterpiece. Their translation fairly sings, capturing withstunning virtuosity all the beguiling wit and charm that make thesememoirs one of the most fascinating works ever penned by a Europeanmonarch.” –Douglas Smith, editor and translator of Love and Conquest:Personal Correspondence of Catherine the Great and Prince GrigoryPotemkin “Catherine the Great’s memoirs are a classic

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.

From the author of the widely acclaimed King Leopold's Ghostcomes the taut, gripping account of the world's first grass-rootshuman rights movementthe fight to free the British Empire's slaves.In early 1787, twelve mena printer, a lawyer, a clergyman, andothers united by their hatred of slaverycame together in a Londonprinting shop and, combining fiery devotion with cool practicality,began one of the most brilliantly organized campaigns of all time.Masterfully stoking public opinion, the movement's leaderspioneered a variety of techniques used by citizens" movements eversince, from consumer boycotts to posters and lapel buttons tocelebrity endorsements. A deft account of the precipitous rise ofthis popular crusade and its fierce, powerful enemies, Bury theChains delivers all the drama, sweep, and surprise of Hochschild'sprevious histories.

“Reads like a novel. A fast-paced page-turner, it haseverything: sex, wit, humor, and adventures. But it is animpressively researched and important story.” —David Fromkin, author of Europe’s Last Summer Vienna, 1814 is an evocative and brilliantly researched accountof the most audacious and extravagant peace conference in modernEuropean history. With the feared Napoleon Bonaparte presumablydefeated and exiled to the small island of Elba, heads of some 216states gathered in Vienna to begin piecing together the ruins ofhis toppled empire. Major questions loomed: What would be done withFrance? How were the newly liberated territories to be divided?What type of restitution would be offered to families of thedeceased? But this unprecedented gathering of kings, dignitaries,and diplomatic leaders unfurled a seemingly endless stream ofpersonal vendettas, long-simmering feuds, and romanticentanglements that threatened to undermine the crucial work athand, even as their hard-fought policy dec

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