Instead of the dying Old Regime, Schama presents an ebullientcountry, vital and inventive, infatuated with novelty andtechnology--a strikingly fresh view of Louis XVI's France. A NewYork Times bestseller in hardcover. 200 illustrations.

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.

A source of endless fascination and speculation, the subjectof countless biographies, novels, and films, Elizabeth I is nowconsidered from a thrilling new angle by the brilliant younghistorian Tracy Borman. So often viewed in her relationships withmen, the Virgin Queen is portrayed here as the product of women—themother she lost so tragically, the female subjects who worshippedher, and the peers and intimates who loved, raised, challenged, andsometimes opposed her. In vivid detail, Borman presents Elizabeth’s bewitching mother,Anne Boleyn, eager to nurture her new child, only to see her takenaway and her own life destroyed by damning allegations—which taughtElizabeth never to mix politics and love. Kat Astley, the governesswho attended and taught Elizabeth for almost thirty years, inviteddisaster by encouraging her charge into a dangerous liaison afterHenry VIII’s death. Mary Tudor—“Bloody Mary”—envied her youngersister’s popularity and threatened to destroy her altogether. Andanimosity dr

In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famousmoment in American military history, James Bradley has captured theglory, the triumph, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six menwho raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind theimmortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage andindomitable will of America. In February 1945, American Marines plunged into the surf at IwoJima—and into history. Through a hail of machine-gun and mortarfire that left the beaches strewn with comrades, they battled tothe island's highest peak. And after climbing through a landscapeof hell itself, they raised a flag. Now the son of one of the flagraisers has written a powerfulaccount of six very different young men who came together in amoment that will live forever. To his family, John Bradley never spoke of the photograph or thewar. But after his death at age seventy, his family discoveredclosed boxes of letters and photos. In Flags of Our Fathers ,James Bradley draws on those documents

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.

Writing with passion and intelligence, Said retraces thePalestinian Hejira, its disastrous flirtation with Saddam Hussein,and its ambitious peace accord with Israel. Said demolishes Westernstereotypes about the Muslim world and Islam's illusions aboutitself, leaving a masterly synthesis of scholarship and polemicwith the power to redefine the debate over the Middle East.

When the British wrested New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664,the truth about its thriving, polyglot society began to disappearinto myths about an island purchased for 24 dollars and acartoonish peg-legged governor. But the story of the Dutch colonyof New Netherland was merely lost, not destroyed: 12,000 pages ofits records–recently declared a national treasure–are now beingtranslated. Drawing on this remarkable archive, Russell Shorto hascreated a gripping narrative–a story of global sweep centered on awilderness called Manhattan–that transforms our understanding ofearly America. The Dutch colony pre-dated the “original” thirteen colonies, yetit seems strikingly familiar. Its capital was cosmopolitan andmulti-ethnic, and its citizens valued free trade, individualrights, and religious freedom. Their champion was a progressive,young lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck, who emerges in thesepages as a forgotten American patriot and whose political visionbrought him into conflict with Pete

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.

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

Amazon.com Review From primordial nothingness to this very moment, A Short Historyof Nearly Everything reports what happened and how humans figuredit out. To accomplish this daunting literary task, Bill Bryson useshundreds of sources, from popular science books to interviews withluminaries in various fields. His aim is to help people like him,who rejected stale school textbooks and dry explanations, toappreciate how we have used science to understand the smallestparticles and the unimaginably vast expanses of space. With hisdistinctive prose style and wit, Bryson succeeds admirably. ThoughA Short History clocks in at a daunting 500-plus pages and coversthe same material as every science book before it, it readssomething like a particularly detailed novel (albeit without aplot). Each longish chapter is devoted to a topic like the age ofour planet or how cells work, and these chapters are grouped intolarger sections such as "The Size of the Earth" and "Life Itself."Bryson chats with experts like Ri

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National BookAward Based on hitherto unexamined sources: interviews with ex-slaves,diaries and accounts by former slaveholders, this "rich andadmirably written book" (Eugene Genovese, The New York TimesBook Review ) aims to show how, during the Civil War and afterEmancipation, blacks and whites interacted in ways that dramatizednot only their mutual dependency, but the ambiguities and tensionsthat had always been latent in "the peculiar institution."

This classic remains one of Karl Popper's most wide-ranging and popular works, notable not only for its acute insight into the way scientific knowledge grows, but also for applying those insights to politics and to history.

"An extraordinary work of history, imaginatively conceived,thoroughly researched and absorbingly written. William Leach allowsus to see the production of mass consumer culture and to see itwhole, in its richness and its poverty. It is a fascinating andtroubling tale, and Leach tells it with exceptional skill andsensitivity." --Jean-Christophe Agnew, Yale University "A major reinterpretation of our cultural experience, Land ofDesire is a brilliant, evocative, and highly readable study by anoriginal, honest and courageous historian who has seen to the heartof American commercial culture. In a society in debt to thelicentious 1980s and unfortunately still attempting to achievesocial justice though endless growth, this is requiredreading."--Mary O. Furner, University of California, SantaBarbara

That Sweet Enemy brings bothBritish wit (Robert Tombs is a British historian) and Frenchpanache (Isabelle Tombs is a French historian) to bear on threecenturies of the history of Britain and France. From Waterloo toChirac’s slandering of British cooking, the authors chart thiscross-channel entanglement and the unparalleled breadth ofcultural, economic, and political influence it has wrought on bothsides, illuminating the complex and sometimes contradictory aspectsof this relationship—rivalry, enmity, and misapprehension mixedwith envy, admiration, and genuine affection—and the myriad ways ithas shaped the modern world. Written with wit and elegance, and illustrated with delightfulimages and cartoons from both sides of the Channel, That SweetEnemy is a unique and immensely enjoyable history, destined tobecome a classic.

The complete historical works of the greatest chronicler ofthe Roman Empire in a wholly revised and updated translation. A brilliant narrator and a master stylist, Tacitus served asadministrator and senator, a career that gave him an intimate viewof the empire at its highest levels, and of the dramatic, violent,and often bloody events of the first century. In the Annals, hewrites about Augustus Caesar’s death and observes the innerworkings of the courts of the emperors Tiberius and Nero. In theHistories, he describes an empire in tumult, four emperors reigningin one year, each overthrown by the next. The Agricola, a biographyof Tacitus’s father-in-law, Julius Agricola—the most celebratedgovernor of Roman Britain—is the first detailed account of theisland that would eventually rule over a quarter of the earth. Andin the Germania, the famed warrior-barbarians of ancient Germanycome richly to life.

The first authorized inside account of one of the mostdaring—and successful—military operations in recent history From the earliest days of his dictatorship, Saddam Hussein hadvowed to destroy Israel. So when France sold Iraq a top-of-the-linenuclear reactor in 1975, the Israelis were justifiablyconcerned—especially when they discovered that Iraqi scientists hadalready formulated a secret program to extract weapons-gradeplutonium from the reactor, a first critical step in creating anatomic bomb. The reactor formed the heart of a huge nuclear plantsituated twelve miles from Baghdad, 1,100 kilometers from Tel Aviv.By 1981, the reactor was on the verge of becoming “hot,” andIsraeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin knew he would have toconfront its deadly potential. He turned to Israeli Air Forcecommander General David Ivry to secretly plan a daring surgicalstrike on the reactor—a never-before-contemplated mission thatwould prove to be one of the most remarkable military operations ofall time. Written

This streamlined revision of the breakthrough bestseller byrenowned child-development expert Dr. Harvey Karp will do even moreto help busy parents survive the “terrible twos” andbeyond.... In one of the most revolutionary advances in parenting of thepast twenty-five years, Dr. Karp revealed that toddlers often actlike uncivilized little cavemen, with a primitive way of thinkingand communicating that is all their own. In this revised edition ofhis parenting classic, Dr. Karp has made his innovative approacheasier to learn—and put into action—than ever before. Combining his trademark tools of Toddler-ese and the Fast-FoodRule with a highly effective new green light/yellow light/red lightmethod for molding toddler behavior, Dr. Karp provides fastsolutions for today’s busy and stressed parents. As you discoverways to boost your child’s good (green light) behavior, curb hisannoying (yellow light) behavior, and immediately stop hisunacceptable (red light) behavior you will learn how t

For the first time in decades, here, in a single volume, is afresh look at the fabled Tudor dynasty, comprising some of the mostenigmatic figures ever to rule a country. Acclaimed historian G. J.Meyer reveals the flesh-and-bone reality in all its wildexcess. In 1485, young Henry Tudor, whose claim to the throne was so weakas to be almost laughable, crossed the English Channel from Franceat the head of a ragtag little army and took the crown from thefamily that had ruled England for almost four hundred years. Half acentury later his son, Henry VIII, desperate to rid himself of hisfirst wife in order to marry a second, launched a reign of terroraimed at taking powers no previous monarch had even dreamed ofpossessing. In the process he plunged his kingdom into generationsof division and disorder, creating a legacy of blood and betrayalthat would blight the lives of his children and the destiny of hiscountry. The boy king Edward VI, a fervent believer in reforming theEnglish church, died before

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 distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part inthe Algerian Nationalist Movement, Frantz Fanon was one of the mostimportant theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, andracial difference in history. Fanon's masterwork is a classicalongside Edward Said's Orientalism or The Autobiography of MalcolmX, and it is now available in a new translation that updates itslanguage for a new generation of readers. The Wretched of the Earthis a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized andtheir path to liberation. Bearing singular insight into the rageand frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence ineffecting historical change, the book incisively attacks the twinperils of post independence colonial politics: thedisenfranchisement of the masses by the elites on the one hand, andintertribal and interfaith animosities on the other. Fanon'sanalysis, a veritable handbook of social reorganization for leadersof emerging nations, has been reflected all too clearly in thecorru