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."
姚广孝是元末明初杰出的佛教人物，与姚广孝相关的历史遗迹，如姚广孝墓塔、天宁寺、汇通祠、永乐大钟、《永乐大典》等，多成为北京乃至全国的重要文物。姚广孝在政治、军事、文学、科技诸方面也有巨大成就，尤以参与策划“靖难之役”、辅佐燕王朱棣夺取帝位而名垂史册，后又拜为明两代帝王之师，成为中国历史上著名的“缁衣宰相”。由郑永华编著的《姚广孝史事研究》通过发掘与利用姚广孝的诗文、著述，以及碑刻、实录、文集等各种原始史料，对姚广孝的生平与交往进行了全面研究，就相关史事进行了详细考辨，更正了长期以来的讹误，为研究姚广孝这一重要的宗教与政治历史人物奠定了基础，具有较大的学术价值。又北京还长期流传许多与姚广孝相关的历史与人文传说，深入研究与北京历史有关的人物、弘扬北京历史文化，对建设“人文北京”
Forty years after his Hitler: A Study in Tyranny set astandard for scholarship of the Nazi era, Lord Alan Bullock givesreaders a breathtakingly accomplished dual biography that placesAdolf Hitler's origins, personality, career, and legacy alongsidethose of Joseph Stalin--his implacable antagonist and moral mirrorimage.
California has always been our Shangri-la–the promised land ofcountless pilgrims in search of the American Dream. Now the GoldenState’s premier historian, Kevin Starr, distills the entire sweepof California’s history into one splendid volume. From the age ofexploration to the age of Arnold, this is the story of a place atonce quintessentially American and utterly unique. Arguing that America’s most populous state has always beenblessed with both spectacular natural beauty and astonishing humandiversity, Starr unfolds a rapid-fire epic of discovery,innovation, catastrophe, and triumph. For generations, California’s native peoples basked in theabundance of a climate and topography eminently suited to humanhabitation. By the time the Spanish arrived in the early sixteenthcentury, there were scores of autonomous tribes were thriving inthe region. Though conquest was rapid, nearly two centuries passedbefore Spain exerted control over upper California through thechain of missions that s
With customary depth and insight, David Bain illumines theUnited States's nineteenth-century exploration of the Holy Land. Tolead the expedition, the navy tabbed William Francis Lynch, anofficer eager to enter the esteemed yet dangerous field ofVictorian exploration. Like many of his successful contemporaries,Lynch was well-read, and possessed an independent nature, but in aman who also preferred organization to chaos, and with a characterthat tended toward the obsessive. The expedition would force ajuxtaposition of the ancient world with the modern, as the world'snewest power attempted an exhaustive scientific study of the watersof the cradle of civilization. Beyond its fascinating topic, Bitter Waters is full of broadallusions from the period that demonstrate Bain's deepunderstanding of America, and serve to make the work appealing forgeneral scholars and lay readers. Heroically engaging unfamiliarterrain, hostile Bedouins, and ancient mysteries, Lynch and hisparty epitomize their nation's spirit of Man
“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.”
This painstakingly researched volume covers the armament andammunition that have served the SEALs, tracing each weapon from thedevelopment stage to its current form. Also included are exclusiveaccounts from those who first witnessed these weapons in action.Written with the cooperation of the UDT/SEAL Museum Association inFlorida, and packed with detailed information and photos, this bookoffers fresh insight into the technology that has for decadessustained the Navy SEALs as an unstoppable military force-andcontinues to make them the most dangerous warriors in theworld.
The author of the New York Times bestseller This Is Your Brain on Music reveals music's role in the evolution of human culture-and "will leave you awestruck" (The New York Times) Daniel J. Levitin's astounding debut bestseller, This Is Your Brain on Music, enthralled and delighted readers as it transformed our understanding of how music gets in our heads and stays there. Now in his second New York Times bestseller, his genius for combining science and art reveals how music shaped humanity across cultures and throughout history. Dr. Levitin identifies six fundamental song functions or types-friendship, joy, comfort, religion, knowledge, and love-then shows how each in its own way has enabled the social bonding necessary for human culture and society to evolve. He shows, in effect, how these "six songs" work in our brains to preserve the emotional history of our lives and species. Dr. Levitin combines cutting-edge scientific research from his music cognition lab at McGill University and work i
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.
During World War Two, 131 German cities and towns weretargeted by Allied bombs, a good number almost entirely flattened.Six hundred thousand German civilians died—a figure twice that ofall American war casualties. Seven and a half million Germans wereleft homeless. Given the astonishing scope of the devastation, W.G. Sebald asks, why does the subject occupy so little space inGermany’s cultural memory? On the Natural History of Destructionprobes deeply into this ominous silence.
Propelled by the discovery of an ancient book and a cache ofyellowing letters, a young woman plunges into a labyrinth where thesecrets of her family's past connect to an inconceivable evil: thedark reign of Vlad the Impaler and a time-defying pact that mayhave kept his awful work alive through the ages. The search for thethe truth becomes an adventure of monumental propportions, takingus from monasteries and dusty libraries to the captitals of EasternEurope - in a feat of storytelling so rich, so exciting, sosuspenseful that it has enthralled readers around he world.
If not for today's news stories about piracy on the high seas,it'd be easy to think of pirating as a romantic way of life longgone. But nothing is further from the truth. Pirates have existedsince the invention of commerce itself, and they reached the zenithof their power during the 1600s, when the Mediterranean was thecrossroads of the world and pirates were the scourge of Europe.Historian and author Adrian Tinniswood brings this exciting andsurprising chapter in history alive, revealing that the history ofpiracy is also the history that has shaped our modern world.
In America Reborn, journalist and historian Martin Walkerdefines twentieth-century America through the portraits oftwenty-six American individuals whose accomplishments, innovationsand ideals propelled the United States to a position of globaldominance. Here are the thoughts and beliefs of politicians and performers,thinkers and doers, capitalists and revolutionaries, immigrants andthe native born. From Teddy Roosevelt's imperial ambitions to BillClinton's global vision; Emma Goldman’s radical ideals to WilliamF. Buckley's profound conservatism; Albert Einstein's eleganttheories to Katharine Hepburn's elegant delivery-the biographicalessays that make up this narrative show us the variety of Americanarchetypes and offer a vision of how strong individualism hasalways been the bedrock of (helped make up) the Americancharacter.
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.
Gibbon’s masterpiece, which narrates the history of the RomanEmpire from the second century a.d. to its collapse in the west inthe fifth century and in the east in the fifteenth century, iswidely considered the greatest work of history ever written. Thisabridgment retains the full scope of the original, but in a compassequivalent to a long novel. Casual readers now have access to thefull sweep of Gibbon’s narrative, while instructors and studentshave a volume that can be read in a single term. This uniqueedition emphasizes elements ignored in all other abridgments—inparticular the role of religion in the empire and the rise ofIslam.
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
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
In Absolute War, acclaimed historian and journalist ChrisBellamy crafts the first full account since the fall of the SovietUnion of World War II's battle on the Eastern Front, one of thedeadliest conflicts in history. The conflict on the Eastern Front, fought between the SovietUnion and Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945, was the greatest,most costly, and most brutal conflict on land in human history. Itwas arguably the single most decisive factor of the war, and shapedthe postwar world as we know it. In this magisterial work, Bellamyoutlines the lead-up to the war, in which the fragile alliancebetween the two dictators was unceremoniously broken, and examinesits far-reaching consequences, arguing that the cost of victory wasultimately too much for the Soviet Union to bear. With breadth ofscope and a surfeit of new information, this is the definitivehistory of a conflict whose reverberations are still felttoday.
Cyrla's neighbors have begun to whisper. Her cousin, Anneke,is pregnant and has passed the rigorous exams for admission to theLebensborn, a maternity home for girls carrying German babies. ButAnneke's soldier has disappeared, and Lebensborn babies are onlyever released to their fathers' custody--or taken away.And then inthe space of an afternoon, life falls apart. A note is left underthe mat. Someone knows that Cyrla, sent for safekeeping with herDutch relatives, is Jewish. She must choose between certaindiscovery in her cousin's home and taking Anneke's place in theLebensborn--Cyrla and Anneke are nearly identical. If she takesrefuge in the enemy's lair, can Cyrla escape before they discovershe is not who she claims? Mining a lost piece of history, SaraYoung takes us deep into the lives of women living in the worst oftimes. Part love story and part elegy for the terrible choices wemust often make to survive, "My Enemy's Cradle "keens for what welose in war and sings for the hope we sometimes find.
With Mussolini ’s Italy , R.J.B. Bosworth—the foremostscholar on the subject writing in English—vividly brings to lifethe period in which Italians participated in one of the twentiethcentury’s most notorious political experiments. Il Duce’s Fascistswere the original totalitarians, espousing a cult of violence andobedience that inspired many other dictatorships, Hitler’s firstamong them. But as Bosworth reveals, many Italians resisted itsideology, finding ways, ingenious and varied, to keep Fascism fromtaking hold as deeply as it did in Germany. A sweeping chronicle ofstruggle in terrible times, this is the definitive account ofItaly’s darkest hour.
In a remarkably vibrant narrative, Michael Stürmer blends highpolitics, social history, portraiture, and an unparalleled commandof military and economic developments to tell the story ofGermany’s breakneck rise from new nation to Continental superpower.It begins with the German military’s greatest triumph, theFranco-Prussian War, and then tracks the forces of unification,industrialization, colonization, and militarization as theycombined to propel Germany to become the force that fatallydestabilized Europe’s balance of power. Without The GermanEmpire ’s masterly rendering of this story, a full understandingof the roots of World War I and World War II is impossible.
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.
