The popular primer to Latino life and culture—updatedfor 2008 Latinos represent the fastest-growing ethnic population in theUnited States. In an accessible and entertainingquestion-and-answer format, this completely revised 2008 editionprovides the most current perspective on Latino history in themaking, including: ? New Mexico governor Bill Richardson’s announced candidacy for the2008 presidential election ? Ugly Betty —the hit ABC TV show based on the Latinotelenovela phenomenon ? The number of Latino players in Major League baseball surpassingthe 25 percent mark ? Immigration legislation and the battle over the Mexicanborder ? The state of Castro’s health and what it means for Cuba More than ever, this concise yet comprehensive reference guide isthe ideal introduction to the vast and varied history and cultureof this multifaceted ethnic group.

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashedinto the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray ofdebris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the oceansurface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, theplane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pullinghimself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys ofthe Second World War. The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d beena cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses,brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, hehad channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigioustalent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sightof the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete hadbecome an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomedflight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leapingsharks, a foundering raft, t

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review ? The Washington Post ?Entertainment Weekly ? The Seattle Times ? St. LouisPost-Dispatch In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize–winning authorof American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life anextraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: TheArt of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, agreat and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of hisera. Philosophers think; politicians maneuver. Jefferson’s geniuswas that he was both and could do both, often simultaneously. Suchis the art of power. Thomas Jefferson hated confrontation, and yet his understandingof power and of human nature enabled him to move men and to marshalideas, to learn from his mistakes, and to prevail. Passionate aboutmany things—women, his family, books, science, architecture,gardens, friends, Monticello, and Paris—Jefferson loved Americamost, and he strove over an

Black Hawk Down is Mark Bowden's account of the longest sustained firefight involving American troops since the Vietnam War. On October 3, 1993, about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopters into the teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead they found themselves pinned down through a long and terrible night fighting against thousands of heavily armed Somalis. The following morning, eighteen Americans were dead and more than seventy badly injured.

More than one million Americans have served in Iraq andAfghanistan, but fewer than 500 from this group have earned aSilver Star, Navy Cross, Air Force Cross, Distinguished ServiceCross, or the Medal of Honor. These Americans have demonstratedextraordinary courage under fire—in the worst of circumstances.They come from all branches of the military. They also come fromall over the country and all walks of life, representing the entirespectrum of races and creeds. But what unites them are their deeds of consummate bravery,beyond the call of duty. Heroes Among Us tells theseextraordinary true stories of valor, honor and sacrifice.

This is the definitive visual guide to 5,000 years of Britishhistory. "The History of Britain Ireland" traces the keyevents that have shaped the British Isles. From the Elizabethan ageof Shakespeare to the Iraq and Afghan wars of the 21st century,this beautifully illustrated book offers a definitive visualchronicle of the most colourful and defining episodes in Britishhistory. Packed with visually arresting illustrations and clear,concise text, you can now explore the long and fascinating story ofthe British Isles. It includes profiles of key people in historysuch as Geoffrey Chaucer, Alfred the Great, Charles Dickens, QueenElizabeth I and Winston Churchill. "The History of Britain Ireland" is ideal as a family reference for the home as well as akey history companion for schools.

“Will shape our thinking about America and theMiddle East for years.”—Christopher Dickey, Newsweek This best-selling history isthe first fully comprehensive history of America’s involvement inthe Middle East from George Washington to George W. Bush. As NiallFerguson writes, “If you think America’s entanglement in the MiddleEast began with Roosevelt and Truman, Michael Oren’s deeplyresearched and brilliantly written history will be a revelation toyou, as it was to me. With its cast of fascinatingcharacters—earnest missionaries, maverick converts, wide-eyedtourists, and even a nineteenth-century George Bush— Power,Faith, and Fantasy is not only a terrific read, it is alsoproof that you don’t really understand an issue until you know itshistory.”

German general Erhard Raus was one of the most talented commanders to fight on the Eastern Front in Russia, where he was eventually appointed to army group command in early 1945. By the time the war ended, Raus had established a reputation as one of the German army's foremost tacticians of armored warfare, which made him a prized capture by U. S. Army intelligence. In American captivity, Raus wrote a detailed memoir of his service in Russia. His battlefield experience and keen tactical eye makes his memoir especially valuable. The Raus memoir-now translated, compiled, and edited by prominent World War II historian Steven H. Newton-covers the Russian campaign from the first day of the war to his being relieved of his command at Hitler's order in the spring of 1945. It includes a detailed examination of Raus's 6th Panzer Division's drive to Leningrad, his experiences in the Soviet winter counteroffensive around Moscow, the unsuccessful attempt to relieve Stalingrad and the final desperate battles inside

In 1936 Orwell went to Spain to report on the Civil War andinstead joined the fight against the Fascists. This famous accountdescribes the war and Orwell’s experiences. Introduction by LionelTrilling.

In 480 BC, Xerxes, the King of Persia, led an invasion ofmainland Greece. Its success should have been a formality. Forseventy years, victory - rapid, spectacular victory - had seemedthe birthright of the Persian Empire. In the space of a singlegeneration, they had swept across the Near East, shattering ancientkingdoms, storming famous cities, putting together an empire whichstretched from India to the shores of the Aegean. As a result ofthose conquests, Xerxes ruled as the most powerful man on theplanet. Yet somehow, astonishingly, against the largestexpeditionary force ever assembled, the Greeks of the mainlandmanaged to hold out. The Persians were turned back. Greece remainedfree. Had the Greeks been defeated at Salamis, not only would theWest have lost its first struggle for independence and survival,but it is unlikely that there would ever have been such and entityas the West at all. Tom Holland's brilliant new book describes thevery first 'clash of Empires' between East and West. Once again hehas

"Books XXXI to XLV" cover the years from 201 B.C. to 167 B.C.,when Rome emerged as ruler of the Mediterranean.

In this "informative and inspiring volume" (Chicago Tribune),Robert Harvey reconstructs in vivid detail the gripping story ofLatin America's independence and those who made it possible.Treated with contempt by their Spanish overlords, given todissipation and grandiose proclamations, these fearless mennonetheless achieved military feats unsurpassed elsewhere inhistory. The aristocratic Simón Bolívar led his guerilla armiesthrough swamp, jungle, and Andean ice to surprise his enemies andliberate most of northern South America. The inarticulate SanMartín joined Bernardo O'Higgins, illegitimate son of a Spanishviceroy, to do the same in the south. These and five others wagedthe war for freedom against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars,the American Revolution, the collapse of the Spanish Empire, andthe revolutionary ferment of the nineteenth century. Despite thesuccess of their revolutions, all seven liberators died in poverty,disgrace, or oblivion. This fascinating and dramatic story takes in a

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.

According to tradition Cervantes first conceived his comic masterpiece in jail - his avowed intent being to debunk the romances of chivalry. From first publication Don Quixote was a best-seller, initially taken as a knockabout account of a mad Spanish gentleman and his cowardly peasant squire, but later reinterpreted as an enlightenment text, a representation of universal human nature, a myth of a tragic hero defending man's nobler aspirations, a study in alienation, a spiritual autobiography, a metaphor for Spain's imperial decline, an experimental novel that shaped later prose fiction, a tragedy and comedy in one, and a demonstration that ambiguity and uncertainty can lie at the centre of great art and that great art can be comic. Smollet's vigorous and lively translation brilliantly catches the feeling and tone of the Spanish original. It is a comic novelist's homage to a comic novelist.

Finally available in paperback, Ralph D. Sawyer's incomparablestudy of ancient Chinese warfare. One of the most profound studies of warfare ever written, TheSeven Military Classics of Ancient China presents us with anEastern tradition of strategic thought that emphasizes outwittingone's opponent through speed, stealth, flexibility, and a minimumof force--an approach very different from that stressed in theWest, where the advantages of brute strength have overshadowed moresubtle methods. Safeguarded for centuries by the ruling elites of imperial China,even in modern times these writings have been known to only ahandful of Western specialists. In this volume are seven separateessays, written between 500 B.C. and A.D. 700, that preserve theessential tenets of strategy distilled from the experience of themost brilliant warriors of ancient China. This accurate translation remedies a serious gap in Westernknowledge of Asian thought. Based on the best available classicalChinese manu*s, some

In this widely praised history of an infamous institution,award-winning scholar Marcus Rediker shines a light into thedarkest corners of the British and American slave ships of theeighteenth century. Drawing on thirty years of research in maritimearchives, court records, diaries, and firsthand accounts, TheSlave Ship is riveting and sobering in its revelations,reconstructing in chilling detail a world nearly lost to history:the “floating dungeons” at the forefront of the birth of AfricanAmerican culture.