Ireland in the mid-1800s was primarily a population ofpeasants, forced to live on a single, moderately nutritious crop:potatoes. Suddenly, in 1846, an unknown and uncontrollable diseaseturned the potato crop to inedible slime, and all Ireland wasthreatened. Index.

Named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review Almost a decade in the making , this much-anticipated grandhistory of postwar Europe from one of the world’s most esteemedhistorians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all ofEurope, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages tosweep readers through thirty-four nations and sixty years ofpolitical and cultural change—all in one integrated, enthrallingnarrative. Both intellectually ambitious and compelling to read,thrilling in its scope and delightful in its small details, Postwar is a rare joy. * A Time and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book ofthe Year * Maps, photos, and cartoons throughout

Includes a complete copy of the Constitution.Fifty-five menmet in Philadelphia in 1787 to write a document that would create acountry and change a world. Here is a remarkable rendering of thatfateful time, told with humanity and humor. "The best popularhistory of the Constitutional Convention available."--LibraryJournal From the Paperback edition.

Award-winning historian Deborah Lipstadt gives us acom?pelling reassessment of the groundbreaking trial that hasbecome a touchstone for judicial proceedings throughout the worldin which victims of genocide confront its perpetrators. The capture of SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eich?mann by Israeliagents in Argentina in May of 1960 and his subsequent trial in TelAviv by an Israeli court electrified the world. The public debateit sparked on where, how, and by whom Nazi war criminals should bebrought to justice, and the international media cov?erage of thetrial itself, is recognized as a watershed moment in how thecivilized world in general and Ho?locaust survivors in particularfound the means to deal with the legacy of genocide on a scale thathad never been seen before. In The Eichmann Trial, award-winning historian Deborah Lipstadtgives us an overview of the trial and analyzes the dramatic effectthat the testimony of sur?vivors in a court of law—which was itselfnot without controversy—had o

The Gulag--a vast array of Soviet concentration camps that heldmillions of political and criminal prisoners--was a system ofrepression and punishment that terrorized the entire society,embodying the worst tendencies of Soviet communism. In thismagisterial and acclaimed history, Anne Applebaum offers the firstfully documented portrait of the Gulag, from its origins in theRussian Revolution, through its expansion under Stalin, to itscollapse in the era of glasnost. Applebaum intimately re-createswhat life was like in the camps and links them to the largerhistory of the Soviet Union. Immediately recognized as a landmarkand long-overdue work of scholarship, Gulag is an essentialbook for anyone who wishes to understand the history of thetwentieth century.

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

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

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.

In this vivid and compelling narrative, the Seven Years'War–long seen as a mere backdrop to the American Revolution–takeson a whole new significance. Relating the history of the war as itdeveloped, Anderson shows how the complex array of forces broughtinto conflict helped both to create Britain’s empire and to sow theseeds of its eventual dissolution. Beginning with a skirmish in the Pennsylvania backcountryinvolving an inexperienced George Washington, the Iroquois chiefTanaghrisson, and the ill-fated French emissary Jumonville,Anderson reveals a chain of events that would lead to worldconflagration. Weaving together the military, economic, andpolitical motives of the participants with unforgettable portraitsof Washington, William Pitt, Montcalm, and many others, Andersonbrings a fresh perspective to one of America’s most important wars,demonstrating how the forces unleashed there would irrevocablychange the politics of empire in North America.

No period in British history has more resonance and mysterytoday than the sixteenth century. New Worlds, Lost Worlds brings the atmosphere and events of this great epoch to life.Exploring the underlying religious motivations for the savageviolence and turbulence of the period-from Henry VIII's break withRome to the overwhelming threat of the Spanish Armada-Susan Brigdeninvestigates the actions and influences of such near-mythicalfigures as Elizabeth I, Thomas More, Bloody Mary, and Sir WalterRaleigh. Authoritative and accessible, New Worlds, LostWorlds , the latest in the Penguin History of Britain series,provides a superb introduction to one of the most important,compelling, and intriguing periods in the history of the Westernworld. This is a splendid piece of scholarship that engages thereader's imagination; Brigden's (history, Lincoln Coll., Oxford)extensive research has paid off in spades. While readers may findthemselves running to the OED to check words and concepts longforgotten, the chase is worth

In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, only twenty-eight, set sail forEgypt with 335 ships, 40,000 soldiers, and a collection ofscholars, artists, and scientists to establish an eastern empire.He saw himself as a liberator, freeing the Egyptians fromoppression. But Napoleon wasn’t the first—nor the last—whotragically misunderstood Muslim culture. Marching across seeminglyendless deserts in the shadow of the pyramids, pushed to the limitsof human endurance, his men would be plagued by mirages, suicides,and the constant threat of ambush. A crusade begun in honor woulddegenerate into chaos. And yet his grand failure also yielded atreasure trove of knowledge that paved the way for modernEgyptology—and it tempered the complex leader who believed himselfdestined to conquer the world.

A masterly and beautifully written account of theimpact of Alexander von Humboldt on nineteenth-century Americanhistory and culture The naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859)achieved unparalleled fame in his own time. Today, however, he andhis enormous legacy to American thought are virtually unknown. In The Humboldt Current , Aaron Sachs traces Humboldt’spervasive influence on American history through examining the workof four explorers—J. N. Reynolds, Clarence King, George Wallace,and John Muir—who embraced Humboldt’s idea of a "chain ofconnection" uniting all peoples and all environments. A skillfulblend of narrative and interpretation that also discussesHumboldt’s influence on Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Melville, andPoe, The Humboldt Current offers a colorful, passionate, andsuperbly written reinterpretation of nineteenth-century Americanhistory.

There has been a great deal written on the secret longings andsexual hypocrisy of the Victorian era's upper crust, but almostnothing has chronicled the erotic desires and sexuality of London'sworking class. Now, in this painstakingly researched book, theirtouching and emotional stories can be told.

In this brilliant synthesis of social, political, and culturalhistory, Antony Beevor and Artemis Cooper present a vivid andcompelling portrayal of the City of Lights after its liberation.Paris became the diplomatic battleground in the opening stages ofthe Cold War. Against this volatile political backdrop, everyaspect of life is portrayed: scores were settled in a rough and uneven justice, black marketers grewrich on the misery of the population, and a growing number ofintellectual luminaries and artists— including Hemingway, Beckett,Camus, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Cocteau, andPicasso—contributed new ideas and a renewed vitality to this extraordinary moment intime.

In the 1930s Orwell was sent by a socialist book club toinvestigate the appalling mass unemployment in the industrial northof England. He went beyond his assignment to investigate theemployed as well-”to see the most typical section of the Englishworking class.” Foreword by Victor Gollancz.

In 1648, Europe was essentially a medieval society. By 1815, itwas the powerhouse of the modern world. In exuberant prose, TimBlanning investigates ?“the very hinge of European history?”( The New York Times ) between the end of the Thirty Y ears?’War and the Battle of Waterloo that witnessed five of the modernworld?’s great revolutions: scientific, industrial, American,French, and romantic. Blanning renders this vast subject digestibleand absorbing by making fresh connections between the most mundanedetails of life and the major cultural, political, andtechnological transformations that birthed the modern age.

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

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.

An innovative work of biography, social history, and literaryanalysis, this Pulitzer Prize-winning book presents the story oftwo men, William Cooper and his son, the novelist James FennimoreCooper, who embodied the contradictions that divided America in theearly years of the Republic. Taylor shows how Americans resolvedtheir revolution through the creation of new social forms and newstories that evolved with the expansion of our frontier. ofphotos.

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.

The 2007–08 subprime financial crisis is the jumping-off point for Smick's (Johnson Smick International) examination of current threats to global prosperity. He explains that although the subprime losses are small in the context of world financial markets, a lack of transparency has diminished investor confidence, dried up financial liquidity, and threatened the very foundations of our world financial system. He says that the growth of global financial markets has made it more difficult for central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve to intercede effectively in times of crisis. Smick compares the subprime crisis to past events like the UK's forced devaluation of the pound in 1992 and Japan's economic stagnation in the 1990s. He warns of pending dangers like an overheating of the Chinese development juggernaut and the present calls for protectionism by U.S. politicians. He favors a global financial system built on transparency and trust. Smick's role for some 30 years as an economic adviser to central banker