A masterly and beautifully written account of theimpact of Alexander von Humboldt on nineteenth-century Americanhistory and culture The naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859)achieved unparalleled fame in his own time. Today, however, he andhis enormous legacy to American thought are virtually unknown. In The Humboldt Current , Aaron Sachs traces Humboldt’spervasive influence on American history through examining the workof four explorers—J. N. Reynolds, Clarence King, George Wallace,and John Muir—who embraced Humboldt’s idea of a "chain ofconnection" uniting all peoples and all environments. A skillfulblend of narrative and interpretation that also discussesHumboldt’s influence on Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Melville, andPoe, The Humboldt Current offers a colorful, passionate, andsuperbly written reinterpretation of nineteenth-century Americanhistory.

Menzies makes the fascinating argument that the Chinese discovered the Americas a full 70 years before Columbus. Not only did the Chinese discover America first, but they also, according to the author, established a number of subsequently lost colonies in the Caribbean. Furthermore, he asserts that the Chinese circumnavigated the globe, desalinated water, and perfected the art of cartography. In fact, he believes that most of the renowned European explorers actually sailed with maps charted by the Chinese. Though most historical records were destroyed during centuries of turmoil in the Far East, he manages to cobble together some feasible evidence supporting his controversial conclusions. Sure to cause a stir among historians, this questionable tale of adventure on the high seas will be hotly debated in academic circles. Margaret Flanagan

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.

The rivalry that presaged the world’s most tenaciousconflict As the Arab -Israeli conflict continues to plaguethe Middle East, historian Ronald Florence offers extraordinary newinsights on its origins. This is the story of T. E. Lawrence, theyoung British officer who became famous around the world asLawrence of Arabia, Aaron Aaronsohn, an agronomist from Palestine,and the antagonism that divided them over the fate of the dyingOttoman Empire during World War I—a clash of visions that set Arabnationalism and Zionism on a direct collision course thatreverberates to this day.

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.

Lawyer, philosopher, statesman and defender of Rome'sRepublic, Cicero was a master of eloquence, and his pure literaryand oratorical style and strict sense of morality have been apowerful influence on European literature and thought for over twothousand years in matters of politics, philosophy, and faith. Thisselection demonstrates the diversity of his writings, and includesletters to friends and statesmen on Roman life and politics; thevitriolic Second Philippic Against Antony; and, his two most famousphilosophical treatises, "On Duties" and "On Old Age" - acelebration of his own declining years. Written at a time of brutalpolitical and social change, Cicero's lucid ethical writings formedthe foundation of the Western liberal tradition in political andmoral thought that continues to this day.

Case one: A little girl goes missing in the night. Case two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to amaniac's apparently random attack. Case three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of herown making - with a very needy baby and a very demanding husband -until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape. Thirty years after the first incident, as private investigatorJackson Brodie begins investigating all three cases, startlingconnections and discoveries emerge . . .

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.

The Complete Idiots Guide(r) to World War II, SecondEdition , will feature updated and expanded coverage of thefateful D-Day invasion, a critical timeline of major WW II events,and a WW II timeline highlighting the crucial and most importantevents of the war. It will include details about major battles onland, in the air, and on the sea-starting with Hitler's rise topower and his goal of European conquest; to Japan's bombing ofPearl Harbor; to the decisive battles such as D-Day and the Battleof the Midway, which turned they tides of the war toward theAllies.

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.

The 2007–08 subprime financial crisis is the jumping-off point for Smick's (Johnson Smick International) examination of current threats to global prosperity. He explains that although the subprime losses are small in the context of world financial markets, a lack of transparency has diminished investor confidence, dried up financial liquidity, and threatened the very foundations of our world financial system. He says that the growth of global financial markets has made it more difficult for central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve to intercede effectively in times of crisis. Smick compares the subprime crisis to past events like the UK's forced devaluation of the pound in 1992 and Japan's economic stagnation in the 1990s. He warns of pending dangers like an overheating of the Chinese development juggernaut and the present calls for protectionism by U.S. politicians. He favors a global financial system built on transparency and trust. Smick's role for some 30 years as an economic adviser to central banker

Leading a Learning Revolution tells the compelling story of a learning revolution that took place within the U.S. Department of Defense. Written by practitioners who actually walked the walk, this account of the creation of Defense Acquisition University (DAU) provides a clear blueprint that others can follow. It shares, in detail, the best practices they developed, so that the thousands of training organizations worldwide striving to create premier corporate universities can catapult forward. Offering an insider s look at the process, the authors clearly explain how they transformed an outdated training provider into a world-class university. Step-by-step the book outlines the enduring principles that were pivotal to Defense Acquisition University s success and describes the environment, early victories, current methods, and subsequent results. The authors discuss how to establish a mission and vision, develop a performance-based strategic planning process, and tackle change initiative. They also expl

The remarkable life of Alexander the Great, one of thegreatest military geniuses of all time, vividly told by one of theworld's leading exp erts in Greek history. With all theintensity, insight, and narrative drive that made The Spartans sucha hit with critics and readers, Paul Cartledge's Alexander theGreat: glowingly 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. Cartledge, the distinguished scholarand historian long acknowledged as the leading internationalauthority on ancient Sparta and Greece, brilliantly evokesAlexander's remarkable political and military accomplishments,leads us along the geographical path of his victorious armies, andcompellingly charting the tremendous field of this warrior hero'sinfluence. Alexander's legacy has had an astounding impact onmilitary tacticians, scholars, and statesmen—in his own lifetimeand in ours. In various countries and at various times he has beenseen as

As a young boy he re-enacted historic battles with toysoldiers, as a soldier he saw action on three continents, and asthe Prime Minister only a direct edict from King George VI couldkeep him from joining the troops on D-Day. Churchill's War Lab reveals how Churchill's passion for militaryhistory, his unique leadership style, and his patronization ofradical new ideas would lead to new technology and new tactics thatwould save lives and enable an Allied victory. No war generatedmore incredible theories, more technical advances, more scientificleaps, or more pioneering work that lay the foundation for thepost-war computer revolution. And it was Churchill's doggeddetermination and enthusiasm for revolutionary ideas that fuelledthis extraordinary outpouring of British genius. From the coauthorof Cold War comes an exciting new take on Churchill's warleadership and the story of a complex, powerful and inventive warleader.

Acclaimed historian Niall Ferguson ranges across the entirehistory of America’s foreign entanglements and delves into all thedimensions of American power—military, economic, cultural, andpolitical. The result is a book whose conclusions are asconvincing, and troubling, as they are original. Fergusondemonstrates that America has always been an empire in denial andshows the fateful consequences of its special brand of imperialism.He examines the challenges to the United States from its principalrivals, the European Union and China, and offers a compellinganalysis of the connection between the country’s domestic economichealth and its foreign affairs—the bottom line of imperialism,American style. Colossus is a peerless reckoning withAmerican power that should be read by any thinking citizen of thisunspoken empire.

With a flaming holographic cover, the new GWR 2011 edition explodes with new and updated records. There's 100% new photography and hot new categories and features including TV's 75th anniversary, eye popping 3-D cinema, the historic Space Shuttle and a 270 city record-breaking GPS World Tour.

For nineteenth-century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt, theItalian Renaissance was nothing less than the beginning of themodern world - a world in which flourishing individualism and thecompetition for fame radically transformed science, the arts, andpolitics. In this landmark work he depicts the Italian city-statesof Florence, Venice and Rome as providing the seeds of a new formof society, and traces the rise of the creative individual, fromDante to Michelangelo. A fascinating de*ion of an era ofcultural transition, this nineteenth-century masterpiece was tobecome the most influential interpretation of the ItalianRenaissance, and anticipated ideas such as Nietzsche's concept ofthe 'Ubermensch' in its portrayal of an age of genius.

Now at last in a single, abridged paperback - the definitivelife. Ian Kershaw's two-volume biography of Hitler was greeted withuniversal acclaim as the essential work on one of the most malignfigures in history. Now this landmark biography is available in onesingle, abridged edition, tracing the story of how a bitter, failedart student from an obscure corner of Austria rose to unparalleledpower, destroying the lives of millions and unleashingArmageddon.

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.

“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.”

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.