Novedades

1742: the famous dome atop Saint Peter's Basilica, designed by Michelangelo, is fractured and threatened with collapse. The dome is the pride of Italy and the largest of its kind anywhere in the world. And no one knows how to fix it. This engaging and colorful narrative tells the overlooked story of how Michelangelo's Dome was saved from disaster by three mathematicians and Pope Benedict XIV, who had asked them for help.

On August 25, 1944, Rose Valland, a woman of quiet daring, found herself in a desperate position. From the windows of her beloved Jeu de Paume museum, where she had worked and ultimately spied, she could see the battle to liberate Paris thundering around her. The Jeu de Paume, co-opted by Nazi leadership, was now the Germans’ final line of defense. Would the museum curator be killed before she could tell the truth—a story that would mean nothing less than saving humanity’s cultural inheritance?

In Plato and the Tyrant, acclaimed historian and classicist James Romm draws on personal letters of Plato to show how a philosopher helped topple the leading Greek power of the era: the opulent city of Syracuse. There, Plato encountered two authoritarian rulers, a father and son both named Dionysius, and tried to steer them toward philosophy. At the same time, he worked on his masterpiece, Republic, in which he conceived a ruler who unites perfect wisdom with absolute power.

Maria Theresa was the single most powerful woman in eighteenth-century Europe. At the age of just twenty-three she succeeded to the Habsburg domains only to find them contested by almost every power in Europe. In this engrossing biography, Richard Bassett traces Maria Theresa's life and complex legacy. Drawing on hitherto unpublished sources, Bassett reveals her keen sense of moderation and tolerance, innovative ideas on free trade and finance, and studied reluctance to resort to policies of territorial expansion.

Timothy M. Gay writes that four-time major champion Rory McIlroy is "golf's ageless Opie Taylor," a superstar whose charm transcends national boundaries and enlivens the game. His swing is so powerful that Tiger Woods is teaching his own son to mimic Rory's action. But a charismatic persona and a pretty swing don't translate into winning championships. Rory has failed to win another major and fallen short of achieving the career Grand Slam. Rory Land tells the saga of a compassionate superstar living in a world where "money has no conscience."

I moti del 1848 in Sicilia come pretesto per rivalse trasformistiche da parte del notabilato: in questo contesto si svolgono due efferate stragi sulle quali le autorità si affrettarono a stendere un velo di silenzio. La prima strage avvenne a Porto Empedocle, dove il maggiore Sarzana si liberò in un sol colpo di 114 detenuti, soffocandoli e bruciandoli vivi in una cella comune; la seconda ebbe luogo a Pantelleria, dove ad opera di mafiosi e proprietari furono giustiziati 15 contadini in base a pretestuose accuse.

This is the forgotten tale of MI6's top spy in Nazi Germany and his bid to stop the Second World War. In the world of espionage, where the accounts of renowned spies often dominate the narrative, this is a rare gem - an untold story of a completely unknown spy. Baron William de Ropp, a Baltic German aristocrat, wasn't just any ordinary spy; he was MI6's top secret agent in Nazi Germany from 1931 to 1939, managing to escape Berlin just before war broke out. This unsung hero had direct access to Adolf Hitler and an inside track on the Nazi regime.

The enduring image of World War I is of men stuck in muddy trenches, and of vast armies deadlocked in a fight neither could win. It was a war of barbed wire, poison gas, and horrific losses as officers led their troops on mass charges across No Man’s Land and into a hail of bullets. While these impressions are all too true, they hide the fact that trench warfare was dynamic and constantly evolving throughout the war as all armies struggled to find a way to break through the opposing lines.

The battle zone on and behind Sword witnessed on 6 June some of the most dramatic and tumultuous scenes, the greatest human stories, of the entire war in the West embracing 30,000 paratroopers, infantry, commandos and of course aircrew and sailors – not to mention the German and French participants. Although the core facts of Sword Beach are familiar, Max Hastings will explore new angles and fresh personalities in this new history of what was perhaps the supreme military achievement of the Western war.

Arguing that global communications have fragmented national cultures and that multiculturalism, intended to reduce social frictions, is today reinforcing them, Sacks argues for a new approach to national identity, making the case for "integrated diversity" within a framework of shared political values. Britain, he argues, will have to construct a national narrative as a basis for identity, reinvigorate the concept of the common good, and identify shared interests among currently conflicting groups.

La Edad Media no fue esa época oscura llena de mugre, fanatismo y dragones (¡ojalá esto último fuera cierto!) que te ha contado tu cuñado y el cine, sino un periodo fascinante, diverso y crucial para la historia de la humanidad y para entender de dónde venimos. El youtuber y escritor Andoni Garrido Fernández desgrana los mil años del periodo medieval en Europa con su particular estilo riguroso a la par que desternillante y desvela las filias y las fobias de unos monarcas que querían reinar mucho, pero, a veces, no mandaban ni en su casa.

Después de sobrevivir por los pelos a una repetición de las plagas del Éxodo, Jeanne no quería saber nada más de pergaminos antiguos ni de leyendas sobre Magdalena. Lástima, porque la Magdalena todavía tiene asuntos pendientes con Jeanne. Ella había planeado tomarse unas vacaciones tranquilas y relajantes. En cambio, Jeanne se ve envuelta en un complicado y confuso juego del gato y el ratón con fanáticos de la Iglesia, un loco que cree en la Segunda Venida y una misteriosa hermandad. Los viejos amigos pueden convertirse en nuevos enemigos, mientras que algunos viejos enemigos ...

An unprecedented examination of the ways in which the uninhibited urban sexuality, sexual experimentation, and medical advances of pre-Weimar Berlin created and molded our modern understanding of sexual orientation and gay identity.

The Yesterdays of Crete, is designed to be an easy listen snapshot of this beautiful and now highly popular tourist island. The history of human occupation in Crete spans back for more than 130,000 years and at a time it was the prime source of Greek mythology through the periods of King Minos, the Minotaur and the Labyrinth. The island has been occupied by the Mycenaean's, Romans, Venetians, Ottomans and Nazi Germany to mention but a few.

Central Europe, 5000BC. The first farmers are advancing across the continent from the east. The age of the hunter-gatherer in Europe is drawing to a close. When a young, Mesolithic hunter is sent into the winter forest, he has no way of knowing his rite of passage will be different from those who had gone before. But the gods have other plans. Beyond the brutal wilderness, his path will lead him to a different people. People from distant lands, moving ever closer to his. And as his journey takes him further into their world, the plight of a child and a young girl will show him where his ...

Far-right groups are now the most regular perpetrators of terrorist activity in the UK according to Prevent and are more visible than ever: on the streets, in the corridors of power. But how much do we really know about the myriad shadowy political collectives that have insinuated themselves into every stratum of British society? Harry Shukman, a researcher with HOPE not hate, set out to explore this secretive world that seemingly hides from us in plain sight.

Die neuere Geschichte kennt nichts, was den Ereignissen des Frühjahrs 1945 vergleichbar wäre. Niemals zuvor sind im Untergang eines Reiches so viele Menschenleben vernichtet, so viele Städte ausgelöscht worden. Joachim Fest erinnert an ein Geschehen, das nicht nur politisch-historisch, sondern für ungezählte Mitlebende vor allem menschlich nichts anderes als ein Weltuntergang war.

Unlock the story of Rome like never before Step into the heart of the ancient world and experience the rise, reign, and remarkable transformation of one of history’s most powerful civilizations. Three manuscripts in one book: Roman Empire: An Enthralling Overview of Imperial Rome Roman Republic: An Enthralling Overview of the Rise and Fall The Byzantine Empire: An Enthralling Overview of the Byzantium Here’s just a tiny fraction of what you’ll discover inside: The dramatic rise of Augustus — and how he turned chaos into empire. Scandals, betrayals, and bloodshed in Rome’s ...

Exile continues the story of The Nationalists as Tony McAnthony, the journalist, settles into his new life in America and the timeline advances through the roaring twenties, the thirties, the war years, and the Kennedy years in the sixties and seventies. Many of the characters that appeared in The Nationalists will also play a role in this new work, in particular, that of Pairic O'Toole who left soldiering behind to become a Franciscan and who finds himself incarcerated in Auschwitz during the war years. New characters are also introduced like Big Emily, a teacher in the US with a new ...

This is the history of Scotland from the earliest times of human habitation to around the mid 14th century. This book details the long forgotten people and events that created the foundations of Scotland and, indeed, Britain - and explains why things are the way they are, exploring the roots of the long running antagonism between Scotland and England. Mistakes, successes, disasters, reasons as well as pinpointing the exact events that created such a long lasting rivalry between Scotland and its nearest neighbour. It also explains that after a bloody start forged in harsh times, how an ...