Henry David Thoreau was just a few days short of histwenty-eighth birthday when he built a cabin on the shore of WaldenPond and began one of the most famous experiments in living inAmerican history. Apparently, he did not originally intend to writea book about his life at the pond, but nine years later, in Augustof 1854, Houghton Mifflin's predecessor, Ticknor and Fields,published Walden;or, a Life in the Woods. At the time the book waslargely ignored, and it took five years to sell out the firstprinting of two thousand copies. It was not until 1862, the year ofThoreau's death, that the book was brought back into print. Sincethen it has never been out of print. Published in hundreds ofeditions and translated into virtually every modern language,it hasbecome one of the most widely read and influential books everwritten, not only in this country but throughout the world. On the one hundred and fiftiethanniversary of the original publication of Walden, Houghton Mifflinis proud to present the most bea

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 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

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 1975, at the height of Indira Gandhi’s “Emergency,” V. S.Naipaul returned to India, the country his ancestors had left onehundred years earlier. Out of that journey he produced this concisemasterpiece: a vibrant, defiantly unsentimental portrait of asociety traumatized by centuries of foreign conquest and immured ina mythic vision of its past. Drawing on novels, news reports, political memoirs, and his ownencounters with ordinary Indians–from a supercilious prince to anengineer constructing housing for Bombay’s homeless–Naipaulcaptures a vast, mysterious, and agonized continent inaccessible toforeigners and barely visible to its own people. He sees both theburgeoning space program and the 5,000 volunteers chanting mantrasto purify a defiled temple; the feudal village autocrat and theNaxalite revolutionaries who combined Maoist rhetoric with ritualmurder. Relentless in its vision, thrilling in the keenness of itsprose, India: A Wounded Civilization is a work of astonishinginsight an

A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an UnnecessaryWar Most Americans consider Abraham Lincoln to be the greatestpresident in history. His legend as the Great Emancipator has grownto mythic proportions as hundreds of books, a national holiday, anda monument in Washington, D.C., extol his heroism and martyrdom.But what if most everything you knew about Lincoln were false? Whatif, instead of an American hero who sought to free the slaves,Lincoln were in fact a calculating politician who waged thebloodiest war in american history in order to build an empire thatrivaled Great Britain's? In The Real Lincoln, author Thomas J.DiLorenzo uncovers a side of Lincoln not told in many history booksand overshadowed by the immense Lincoln legend. Through extensive research and meticulous documentation,DiLorenzo portrays the sixteenth president as a man who devoted hispolitical career to revolutionizing the American form of governmentfrom one that was very limited in scope and highly decentralize

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 war that started under questionable pretexts. A presidentwho is convinced of his country’s might and right. A military andpolitical stalemate with United States troops occupying a foreignland against a stubborn and deadly insurgency. The time is the 1840s. The enemy is Mexico. And the war is one ofthe least known and most important in both Mexican and UnitedStates history—a war that really began much earlier and whoseconsequences still echo today. Acclaimed historian David A. Clarypresents this epic struggle for a continent for the first time fromboth sides, using original Mexican and North Americansources. To Mexico, the yanqui illegals pouring into her territories ofTexas and California threatened Mexican sovereignty and security.To North Americans, they manifested their destiny to rule thecontinent. Two nations, each raising an eagle as her standard,blustered and blundered into a war because no one on either sidewas brave enough to resist the march into it. In Eagles and Empi

In this path-breaking book Linda Colley reappraises the riseof the biggest empire in global history. Excavating the lives ofsome of the multitudes of Britons held captive in the lands theirown rulers sought to conquer, Colley also offers an intimateunderstanding of the peoples and cultures of the Mediterranean,North America, India, and Afghanistan. Here are harrowing, sometimes poignant stories by soldiers andsailors and their womenfolk, by traders and con men and by white aswell as black slaves. By exploring these forgotten captives – andtheir captors – Colley reveals how Britain’s emerging empire wasoften tentative and subject to profound insecurities andlimitations. She evokes how British empire was experienced by themass of poor whites who created it. She shows how imperial racismcoexisted with cross-cultural collaborations, and how the gulfbetween Protestantism and Islam, which some have viewed as centralto this empire, was often smaller than expected. Brilliantlywritten and richly ill

This is a book aboutGermans and Jews, about power and money. It is a book focused onBismarck and Bleichroder, Junker and Jew, statesman and banker,collaborators for over thirty years. The setting is that of aGermany where two worlds clashed: the new world of capitalism andan earlier world with its ancient feudal ethos; gradually a new andbroadened elite emerged, and Bismarck's tie with Bleichroderepitomized that regrouping. It is the story of the founding of thenew German Empire, in whose midst a Jewish minority rose toembattled prominence.

Orville Prescott The New York Times One of the most important works of history of our time. Hugh Trevor-Roper The New York Times Book Review A splendid work of scholarship, objective in method, sound in judgment, inescapable in its conclusions. Theodore H. White A monumental work, a grisly and thrilling story. John Gunther One of the most spectacular stories ever told. 作者简介： William L. Shirer had a distinguished career as a foreign correspondent,news commentator, and historian of the contemporary world. He reported from Berlin for the Universal News Service and for CBS on the rise of the Nazis and he covered their fall as a war correspondent. Out of these reports grew his best-sellers Berlin Diary and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.Shirer authored many other best-selling books, including The Collapse of the Third Republic, Love and Hatred: The Stormy Marriage of Leo and Sonya Tolstoy, and an autobiography, 20th Century Journe

For this rousing,revisionist history, the former head of exhibitions at England'sNational Maritime Museum has combed original documents and recordsto produce a most authoritative and definitive account of piracy's"Golden Age." As he explodes many accepted myths (i.e. "walking theplank" is pure fiction), Cordingly replaces them with a truth thatis more complex and often bl... (展开全部) For this rousing, revisionist history, the formerhead of exhibitions at England's National Maritime Museum hascombed original documents and records to produce a mostauthoritative and definitive account of piracy's "Golden Age." Ashe explodes many accepted myths (i.e. "walking the plank" is purefiction), Cordingly replaces them with a truth that is more complexand often bloodier. 16 pp. of photos. Maps. From the Hardcover edition.

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.

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.

Here’s the real history of our country. How Capitalism SavedAmerica explodes the myths spun by Michael Moore, the liberalmedia, Hollywood, academia, and the rest of the anticapitalistestablishment. Whether it’s Michael Moore or the New York Times, Hollywood oracademia, a growing segment in America is waging a war oncapitalism. We hear that greedy plutocrats exploit the Americanpublic; that capitalism harms consumers, the working class, and theenvironment; that the government needs to rein in capitalism; andon and on. Anticapitalist critiques have only grown more fevered inthe wake of corporate scandals like Enron and WorldCom. Indeed, the2004 presidential campaign has brought frequent calls tore-regulate the American economy. But the anticapitalist arguments are pure bunk, as Thomas J.DiLorenzo reveals in How Capitalism Saved America. DiLorenzo, aprofessor of economics, shows how capitalism has made America themost prosperous nation on earth—and how the sort of governmentregulation th

The story of two World War II battalions--one German, oneAmerican--each cut off behind enemy lines in the same forest at thesame time, and the heroic efforts to save them--InfantryMagazine

Two of the most influential figures in American history. Twoopposing political philosophies. Two radically different visionsfor America. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were without question twoof the most important Founding Fathers. They were also the fiercestof rivals. Of these two political titans, it is Jefferson—–therevered author of the Declaration of Independence and our thirdpresident—–who is better remembered today. But in fact it isHamilton’s political legacy that has triumphed—–a legacy that hassubverted the Constitution and transformed the federal governmentinto the very leviathan state that our forefathers fought againstin the American Revolution. How did we go from the Jeffersonian ideal of limited governmentto the bloated imperialist system of Hamilton’s design? Acclaimedeconomic historian Thomas J. DiLorenzo provides the troublinganswer in Hamilton’s Curse. DiLorenzo reveals how Hamilton, first as a delegate to theConstitutional Convention and

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

This stimulating book asks key questions about the twentiethcentury's leading American generals and, by analysing theircharacter and personality, outlines the qualities which went intomaking officers such as Patton, Eisenhower and Schwarzkopfdistinctive and successful in combat. Based on frank discussionsand interviews with American generals and their staffs, and adetailed analytical study of official records and personalrecollections, American Generalship pinpoints how well eachparticular general responded to the demands of war in World War II,Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War. Edgar Puryear examines how eachcommander stood up to the heavy responsibility of command, overcamethe rigours of campaign and performed on the field of battle. Heconcludes that, despite different techniques and conditions,outstanding American generals all had 'character' in common andshone because of their personal qualities and strength ofpersonality.

Though it lasted for only six tense days in June, the 1967Arab-Israeli war never really ended. Every crisis that has rippedthrough this region in the ensuing decades, from the Yom Kippur Warof 1973 to the ongoing intifada, is a direct consequence of thosesix days of fighting. Michael B. Oren’s magnificent Six Days ofWar, an internationally acclaimed bestseller, is the firstcomprehensive account of this epoch-making event. Writing with a novelist’s command of narrative and a historian’sgrasp of fact and motive, Oren reconstructs both the lightning-fastaction on the battlefields and the political shocks thatelectrified the world. Extraordinary personalities—Moshe Dayan andGamal Abdul Nasser, Lyndon Johnson and Alexei Kosygin—rose andtoppled from power as a result of this war; borders were redrawn;daring strategies brilliantly succeeded or disastrously failed in amatter of hours. And the balance of power changed—in the MiddleEast and in the world. A towering work of history and anenthral

Going beyond even the expertise of archaeologists andhistorians, world-class engineer Craig B. Smith explores theplanning and engineering behind the incredible Great Pyramid ofGiza. How would the ancient Egyptians have developed their buildingplans, devised work schedules, managed laborers, solved specificdesign and engineering problems, or even improvised on the job? Theanswers are here, along with dazzling, one-of-a-kind colorphotographs and beautiful hand-drawn illustrations of tools,materials, and building techniques the ancient masters used. In hisforeword to the book, Egypt's Undersecretary of State for the GizaMonuments Zahi Hawass explains the importance of understanding theGreat Pyramid as a straightforward construction project.

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.

The secret diaries of a twenty-three-year-old White Russianprincess who worked in the German Foreign Office from 1940 to 1944and then as a nurse, these pages give us a unique picture ofwartime life in that sector of German society from which the 20thof July Plot -- the conspiracy to kill Hitler -- was born.

THE CIA IN ITS GLORY DAYS and the mad confidence that led todisaster in Vietnam are the subjects of Roger Warner's prizewinninghistory, Shooting at the Moon: The CIA's War in Laos (firstpublished as Back Fire, Simon Schuster, 1995). For a fewyears in the early 1960s the CIA seemed to be running a perfectcovert war in Laos - quiet, inexpensive, just enough arms to helpMeo tribesmen defend their home territory from the Communist PathetLao. Then the big American war next door in Vietnam spilled acrossthe border. How the perfect covert war ballooned into sorrow anddisaster is the story Roger Warner tell in Shooting at the Moon,awarded the Cornelius Ryan Award for 1995's Best Book on ForeignAffairs by the Overseas Press Club. Warner describes his characters with a novelist's touch -soldiers and diplomats busy with war-making; CIA field officersfrom bareknuckle warriors to the quiet men pulling strings in theshadows; and above all the Meo as they realized they had been leddown the garden path.

The Roman Empire did not meet its end when barbarians sackedthe City of Seven Hills, but rather a thousand years later with thefall of Constantinople, capital of the surviving Eastern Empire.The Ottoman Turks who conquered the city aslo known to us asByzantium would force a tense centruy of conflict in theMediterranean culminating in the famous Battle of Lepanto. Thefirst book in a triptych depicting this monumental confrontationbetween a Muslim empire and Christendom, The Fall of Constantinoplebrilliantly captures a defning moment in the two creeds' historytoo often eclipsed by the Crusades.