Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empirecompresses thirteen turbulent centuries into an epic narrative shotthrough with insight, irony and incisive character analysis.Sceptical about Christianity, sympathetic to the barbarian invadersand the Byzantine Empire, constantly aware of how political leadersoften achieve the exact opposite of what they intend, Gibbon wasboth alert to the broad pattern of events and significant revealingdetails.

For the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, The Library ofAmerica re-issues the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant and WilliamTecumseh Sherman in a handsome, newly designed case. An ailingGrant wrote his Personal Memoirs to secure his family'sfuture. In doing so, the Civil War's greatest general won himself aunique place in American letters. John Keegan has called it"perhaps the most revelatory autobiography of high command to existin any language." The Library of America's edition of Grant's Memoirs includes 175 of his letters to Lincoln, Sherman, andhis wife, Julia, among others. Hailed as a prophet of modern warand condemned as a harbinger of modern barbarism, William T.Sherman is the most controversial general of the Civil War. "War iscruelty, and you cannot refine it," he wrote in fury to theConfederate mayor of Atlanta, and his memoir is filled with dozensof such wartime exchanges and a fascinating account of the famousmarch through Georgia and the Carolinas.

Edward Gibbon's six-volume History of the Decline and Fall ofthe Roman Empire (1776-88) is among the most magnificent andambitious narratives in European literature. Its subject is thefate of one of the world's greatest civilizations over thirteencenturies - its rulers, wars and society, and the events that ledto its disastrous collapse. Here, in volumes three and four, Gibbonvividly recounts the waves of barbarian invaders under commanderssuch as Alaric and Attila, who overran and eventually destroyed theWest. He then turns his gaze to events in the East, where even theachievements of the Byzantine emperor Justinian and the campaignsof the brilliant military leader Belisarius could not conceal thefundamental weaknesses of their empire.

The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only thefever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused thefever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one mustoperate within the framework of a whole society and try to discoverwhat moved the people in it. --Barbara W. Tuchman The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was atime when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxuryand the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, andits hate. The age was the climax of a century of the mostaccelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping ofdestiny. In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on societyrather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bingsto vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the yearsleading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the endof their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voicedthe protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed thr

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.

A memoir by a World War II ordinance officer offers abehind-the-scenes account of his ordnance inspections during theEuropean campaign, detailing his experiences on the front line andhis job coordinating the recovery and repair of damaged Americantanks. Reprint.

Celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuancedportrait of the father of our nation. With a breadth and depthmatched by no other onevolume life of George Washington, thiscrisply paced narrative carries the reader through his adventurousearly years, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, hispresiding over the Continental Convention, and his magnificentperformance as America's first president. In this groundbreakingwork, based on massive research, Chernow shatters forever thestereotype of a stolid, unemotional figure and brings to vivid lifea dashing, passionate man of fiery opinions and many moods.

Handsome, accomplished, and charming, Henry Stuart, LordDarnley, staked his claim to the English throne by marrying MaryStuart, who herself claimed to be the Queen of England. It was notlong before Mary discovered that her new husband was interestedonly in securing sovereign power for himself. Then, on February 10,1567, an explosion at his lodgings left Darnley dead; the intriguethickened after it was discovered that he had apparently beensuffocated before the blast. After an exhaustive reevaluation ofthe source material, Alison Weir has come up with a solution tothis enduring mystery. Employing her gift for vividcharacterization and gripping storytelling, Weir has written one ofher most engaging excursions yet into Britain’s bloodstained,power-obsessed past.

To understand Iraq, Charles Tripp's history is the book to read.Since its first appearance in 2000, it has become a classic in thefield of Middle East studies, read and admired by students,soldiers, policymakers and journalists. The book is now updated toinclude the recent American invasion, the fall and capture ofSaddam Hussein and the subsequent descent into civil strife. Whatis clear is that much that has happened since 2003 was foreshadowedin the account found in this book. Tripp's thesis is that thehistory of Iraq throughout the twentieth-century has made it whatit is today, but also provides alternative futures. Unless this isproperly understood, many of the themes explored in this book -patron-client relations, organized violence, sectarian, ethnic andtribal difference - will continue to exert a hold over the futureof Iraq as they did over its past.

From the deadly shores of North Africa to the invasion ofSicily to the fierce jungle hell of the Pacific, the contributionof the World War II Ranger Battalions far outweighed their numbers.They were ordinary men on an extraordinary mission, experiencingthe full measure of the fear, exhaustion, and heroism of combat innearly every major invasion of the war. Whether spearheading alanding force or scouting deep behind enemy lines, these highlymotivated, highly trained volunteers led the way for other soldiers-- they were Rangers. With first-person interviews, in-depth research, and a completeappendix naming every Ranger known to have served, author RobertBlack, a Ranger himself, has made the battles of WWII come to lifethrough the struggles of the men who fought to win the greatest warthe world has ever seen.

FREDERICKSBURG TO MERIDIAN "Gettysburg...is described with such meticulous attention toaction, terrain, time, and the characters of the various commandersthat I understand, at last, what happened in that battle.... Mr.Foote has an acute sense of the relative importance of events and anovelist's skill in directing the reader's attention to the men andthe episodes that will influence the course of the whole war,without omitting items which are of momentary interest. Hisorganization of facts could hardly bebetter."-- Atlantic

On June 6, 1944, American and British troops staged thegreatest amphibious landing in history to begin Operation Overlord,the battle to liberate Europe from the scourge of the Third Reich.With gut-wrenching realism and immediacy, Hastings reveals theterrible human cost that this battle exacted. Moving beyond just the storming of Omaha beach and D-Day, heexplores the Allies’ push inward, with many British and Americaninfantry units suffering near 100 percent casualties during thecourse of that awful summer. Far from a gauzy romanticizedremembrance, Hastings details a grueling ten week battle tooverpower the superbly trained, geographically entrenched GermanWehrmacht. Uncompromising and powerful in its depiction of wartime,this is the definitive book on D-Day and the Battle ofNormandy.

This handsomely illustrated volume commemorates AbrahamLincoln’s 200th birthday and gives rare insight into the Presidentwho shook the world—and whose words and example endure today innations from Siberia to Mexico to Pakistan. This is the officialbook of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM)in Springfield, Illinois that has welcomed more than one millionvisitors since its 2005 opening. Using the exhibition halls as a launching point, this book offersstories, anecdotes, and never-before-seen images and artifacts fromthe museum’s vault. It positions Lincoln as a man of his century, atime ripe with Industrial Revolution, travel and culture,abolition, and war. Worldwide events figure into the story:Britain’s emergence as a democracy, Russia’s freeing of the serfs,Japan’s opening to foreign trade, Germany’s unity underBismarck. Every page reflects the humor, integrity, and unique style ofleadership that made Abe Lincoln a legend. Quote boxes reveal hissayings

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.

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.

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.

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.

National Bestseller New York Times Editors’ Choice Winner of the PEN Hessell Tiltman Prize Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize Silver Medalist for the Arthur Ross Book Award of the Council on Foreign Relations Finalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award For six months in 1919, after the end of “the war to end allwars,” the Big Three—President Woodrow Wilson, British primeminister David Lloyd George, and French premier GeorgesClemenceau—met in Paris to shape a lasting peace. In this landmarkwork of narrative history, Margaret MacMillan gives a dramatic andintimate view of those fateful days, which saw new politicalentities—Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Palestine, among them—born out ofthe ruins of bankrupt empires, and the borders of the modern worldredrawn.

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

The illuminating national bestseller: "Vertiginouslyexciting…vibrantly imagined….[Krauss is] a prodigioustalent."—Janet Maslin, New York Times A long-lost book reappears, mysteriously connecting an old mansearching for his son and a girl seeking a cure for her widowedmother's loneliness. Leo Gursky is just about surviving, tapping his radiator eachevening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. Butlife wasn't always like this: sixty years ago, in the Polishvillage where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. Andthough Leo doesn't know it, that book survived, inspiring fabulouscircumstances, even love. Fourteen-year-old Alma was named after acharacter in that very book. And although she has her handsfull—keeping track of her brother, Bird (who thinks he might be theMessiah), and taking copious notes on How to Survive in theWild—she undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save herfamily. With consummate, spellbinding skill, Nicole Kraussgradually draws

Hailed on publication in 1957 as "probably the only book published this year that will outlive the century," this is a brilliant of the idea that there are fixed laws in history and that human beings are able to predict them.

I have never read a better, more vivid, more understandableaccount of the savage battling between Grant's and Lee's armies....Foote stays with the human strife and suffering, and unlike mostSouthern commentators, he does not take sides. In objectivity, inrange, in mastery of detail in beauty of language and feeling forthe people involved, this work surpasses anything else on thesubject.... It stands alongside the work of the best ofthem.-- New Republic

Covering the dramatic rise of German science in the nineteenthcentury, its preeminence in the early twentieth, and thefrightening developments that led to its collapse in 1945, this isthe compelling story of German scientists under Hitler’s regime.Weaving the history of science and technology with the fortunes ofwar and the stories of men and women whose discoveries brought bothbenefits and destruction to the world, Hitler’s Scientists raises questions that are still urgent today. As science becomesembroiled in new generations of weapons of mass destruction and thewar against terrorism, as advances in biotechnology outstriptraditional ethics, this powerful account of Nazi science forms acrucial commentary on the ethical role of science.

Mann is well aware that much of the history he relates isnecessarily speculative, the product of pot-shard interpretationand precise scientific measurements that often end up beingradically revised in later decades. But the most compelling of hiseye-opening revisionist stories are among the best-founded: thestories of early American-European contact. To many of those whowere there, the earliest encounters felt more like a meeting ofequals than one of natural domination. And those who came later andfound an emptied landscape that seemed ripe for the taking, Mannargues convincingly, encountered not the natural and unchangingstate of the native American, but the evidence of a suddencalamity: the ravages of what was likely the greatest epidemic inhuman history, the smallpox and other diseases introducedinadvertently by Europeans to a population without immunity, whichswept through the Americas faster than the explorers who broughtit, and left behind for their discovery a land that held only ashadow of the

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.