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.

Tacitus' "Annals of Imperial Rome" recount the majorhistorical events from the years shortly before the death ofAugustus up to the death of Nero in AD 68. With clarity and vividintensity he describes the reign of terror under the corruptTiberius, the great fire of Rome during the time of Nero, and thewars, poisonings, scandals, conspiracies and murders that were partof imperial life. Despite his claim that the Annals were writtenobjectively, Tacitus' account is sharply critical of the emperors'excesses and fearful for the future of Imperial Rome, while alsofilled with a longing for its past glories.

In this well-written and well-researched social history F.R.Cowell succeeds in making Life in Ancient Rome alive and dynamic.The combination of acute historical detail and supplementaryillustrations makes this book perfectly suited for the studentpreparing to explore the classics, as well as the tourist preparingto explore twentieth-century Rome. Lucid and engaging, Life InAncient Rome is for anyone seeking familiarity with the greatnessthat was Rome.

From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Wealth and Poverty of Nations , a fascinatinglook at the crossroads of kin and coin David S. Landes has earned a reputation as a brilliant writer andiconoclast among economic historians. In his latest acclaimed work,he takes a revealing look at the quality that distinguishes a thirdof today's Fortune 500 companies: family ownership. From thebanking fortunes of Rothschild and Morgan to the automobile empiresof Ford and Toyota, Landes explores thirteen different dynasties,revealing what lay behind their successes-and how extravagance, badbehavior, and poor enterprise brought some of them to their knees.A colorful history that is full of surprising conclusions, Dynasties is an engrossing mix of ambition, eccentricity,and wealth.

Nine Greek biographies illustrate the rise and fall of Athens,from the legendary days of Theseus, the city's founder, throughSolon, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, andAlcibiades, to the razing of its walls by Lysander.

Mark Kurlansky, the bestselling author of Cod and The Basque History of the World , here turns his attention toa common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt.The only rock we eat, salt has shaped civilization from the verybeginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part ofthe history of humankind. A substance so valuable it served ascurrency, salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes andcities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspiredrevolutions. Populated by colorful characters and filled with anunending series of fascinating details, Kurlansky's kaleidoscopichistory is a supremely entertaining, multi-layered masterpiece.

"In the spring of 1984, I went to the northwest of France, toNormandy, to prepare an NBC documentary on the fortieth anniversaryof D-Day, the massive and daring Allied invasion of Europe thatmarked the beginning of the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.There, I underwent a life-changing experience. As I walked thebeaches with the American veterans who had returned for thisanniversary, men in their sixties and seventies, and listened totheir stories, I was deeply moved and profoundly grateful for allthey had done. Ten years later, I returned to Normandy for thefiftieth anniversary of the invasion, and by then I had come tounderstand what this generation of Americans meant to history. Itis, I believe, the greatest generation any society has everproduced." In this superb book, Tom Brokaw goes out into America, to tellthrough the stories of individual men and women the story of ageneration, America's citizen heroes and heroines who came of ageduring the Great Depression and the Second World War and went

This riveting work of investigative reporting and historyexposes classified government projects to build gravity-defyingaircraft--which have an uncanny resemblance to flyingsaucers. The atomic bomb was not the only project to occupy governmentscientists in the 1940s. Antigravity technology, originallyspearheaded by scientists in Nazi Germany, was another highpriority, one that still may be in effect today. Now for the firsttime, a reporter with an unprecedented access to key sources in theintelligence and military communities reveals suppressed evidencethat tells the story of a quest for a discovery that could prove aspowerful as the A-bomb. The Hunt for Zero Point explores the scientific speculation thata "zero point" of gravity exists in the universe and can bereplicated here on Earth. The pressure to be the first nation toharness gravity is immense, as it means having the ability to buildmilitary planes of unlimited speed and range, along with the mostdeadly weaponry the wo

"A finely written, brave, and very personal book."-Orhan Pamuk In 2001, Christopher de Bellaiguewrote a story for The New York Review of Books , in which hebriefly discussed the killing and deportation of half a millionArmenians from Turkey in 1915. These massacres, he suggested, werebest understood as part of the struggles that attended the end ofthe Ottoman Empire. Upon publication, the Review wasbesieged with letters asserting that this was not war but genocide.How had he gotten it so wrong? De Bellaigue set out for Turkey'stroubled southeast to discover what really happened. What emergedis both an intellectual detective story and a reckoning with memoryand identity. Rebel Land unravels the enigma of the Turkishtwentieth century-a time that contains the death of an empire, thefounding of a nation, and the near extinction of a people.

The Chronicles of Froissart (1337-1410) are one of thegreatest contemporary records of fourteenth-century England andFrance. Depicting the great age of Anglo-French rivalry from thedeposition of Edward II to the downfall of Richard II, Froissartpowerfully portrays the deeds of knights in battle at Sluys, Crecy,Calais and Poitiers during the Hundred Years War. Yet they are onlypart of this vigorous portrait of medieval life, which also vividlydescribes the Peasants' Revolt, trading activities and diplomacyagainst a backdrop of degenerate nobility. Written with the samesense of curiosity about character and customs that underlies theworks of Froissart's contemporary, Chaucer, the Chronicles are amagnificent evocation of the age of chivalry.

Rome’s famed historian illuminates the twilight of the oldRoman Republic from 157 to 43 BC in succinct accounts of thegreatest politicians and statesmen of the classical period.

Completed in 1136, "The History of the Kings of Britain"traces the story of the realm from its supposed foundation byBrutus to the coming of the Saxons some two thousand years later.Vividly portraying legendary and semi-legendary figures such asLear, Cymbeline, Merlin the magician and the most famous of allBritish heroes, King Arthur, it is as much myth as it is historyand its veracity was questioned by other medieval writers. ButGeoffrey of Monmouth's powerful evocation of illustrious men anddeeds captured the imagination of subsequent generations, and hisinfluence can be traced through the works of Malory, Shakespeare,Dryden and Tennyson.

The roar of frenzied spectators inside the Coliseum during abattle between gladiators. A crowd of onlookers gathered around aslave driver. The wondrous plenty of banquets where flamingos areroasted whole and wine flows like rivers. The silence of the bathsand the boisterous taverns . . . Many books have dealt with thehistory of ancient Rome, but none has been able to bring itsreaders so near to daily life in the Imperial capital. This extraordinary voyage of exploration, guided by Alberto Angelawith the charm of a born story- teller, lasts twenty- four hours,beginning at dawn on an ordinary day in the year 115 A.D., withImperial Rome at the height of its power. The reader wakes in arich patrician home and discovers frescoes, opulent furnishings andrichly appointed boudoirs. Strolling though the splendors of theRoman Forum, one overhears both erudite opinions from learnedorators and local ribaldry floating out from the public latrines.One meets the intense gazes of Roman matriarchs strolling thestreets, look

A renowned historian contends "that the Americanwarrior, not technology, wins wars." (Patrick K. O'Donnell, authorof Give Me Tomorrow ) John C. McManus coverssix decades of warfare in which the courage of American troopsproved the crucial difference between victory and defeat. Based onyears of archival research and personal interviews with veterans,Grunts demonstrates the vital, and too often forgotten, importanceof the human element in protecting the American nation, andadvances a passionate plea for fundamental change in ourunderstanding of war.

“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

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 Red Army's invasion of Berlin in January 1945 was one of themost terrifying examples of fire and sword in history. Frenzied byterrible memories of Wehrmacht and SS brutality, the Russianswreaked havoc, leaving hundreds of thousands of civilians dead andmillions more fleeing westward. Drawing upon newly availablematerial from former Soviet files, as well as from German,American, British, French, and Swedish archives, bestselling authorAntony Beevor vividly recounts the experiences of the millions ofcivilians and soldiers caught up in the nightmare of the ThirdReich's final collapse. The Fall of Berlin 1945 is aheartrending story of pride, stupidity, fanaticism, revenge, andsavagery, yet it is also one of astonishing human endurance,self-sacrifice, and survival against all odds.

Indispensible biographies of major figures in Romanhistory. A mathematician and philosopher, Plutarch was also an acclaimedbiographer and historian. Bringing together nine biographies fromhis Parallel Lives series, Rome in Crisis examines the lives ofsome of the most important people in the roman empire- TiberiusGracchus, Gaius Gracchus, Sertorius, Lucullus, Younger Cato,Brutus, Antony, Galba, and Otho, a reckless young noble whoconsorted with the tyrannical, debauched emperor Nero beforebriefly becoming emperor himself. Each biography is preceded by aninsightful introduction by the distinguished historian ChristopherPelling. Taken together, these portraits provide a wonderfullycompelling picture of the ancient world.

Encyclopedic and panoramic in its scope, this fascinating workchronicles the rich spiritual, political, and cultural institutionsof Arab history through 13 centuries.

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

In 1940, as Hitler plotted to conquer Europe, only one nationposed a serious threat to the Third Reich's domination: France. TheGerman command was wary of taking on the most powerful armed forceon the continent. But three low-ranking generals-Eric von Manstein,Heinz Guderian, and Erwin Rommel-were about to change the face ofmodern warfare. By grouping tanks into juggernauts to slam through enemy lines,the blitzkrieg was born. With this aggressive, single-minded plan,the Nazis bypassed the supposedly impenetrable Maginot Line,charged into the heart of France, and alerted the world that thedeadly might of Germany could no longer be ignored.

“What is the scene or incident in European history that youwould like to have witnessed-and why?” In this companion to I Wish I'd Been There: Twenty HistoriansBring to Life the Dramatic Events that Changed America , some ofour finest historical writers now turn their attention to Europe,with lively and detailed accounts of some of the most dramaticevents in history. Guided by peerless scholars such as PaulKennedy, John Keegan, Ross King, Freeman Dyson, and KatherineDuncan-Jones, readers will be transported to the signing of MagnaCarta, the Versailles Conference, the German surrender in WWII onLuneburg Heath, and other key turning points in the drama ofEuropean history. These essays encompass two millenia and an entirecontinent, addressing issues of politics, law, religion, peace andwar, science and the arts, and social change, all telescoped intofinely observed narratives. The result is an historical pageant ofcharacters and episodes that will attract and delight all readersof history.

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.