Early History

Two rival sects. One battle for the soul of Judaism. A legacy that shaped the world. For centuries, the Essenes and the Pharisees stood on opposite ends of a religious and political divide—one withdrawing into the wilderness, the other entrenching itself in power. Their conflict would ripple far beyond the borders of ancient Judea, influencing the rise of Christianity, reshaping Jewish thought, and leaving behind a legacy still debated today. The Essenes—mystics, ascetics, and the mysterious keepers of the Dead Sea Scrolls. They abandoned society, awaiting the end of days and the coming...

Step into the world of a scholar whose influence spans over a millennium, shaping not just the church, but the very fabric of Western civilization. Meet the Man Behind the Knowledge Isidore of Seville was more than just a bishop; he was a visionary who saw the power of knowledge to transform society. His life and work offer a window into a time when the preservation of wisdom was nothing short of heroic. This book invites you to explore the mind of a man who became the intellectual backbone of the early Middle Ages. Unlock the Secrets of the Etymologiae Discover how Isidore’s greatest ...

Jesus asked his heavenly Father to make his followers completely one “so that the world may know that you have sent me.” (John 17:20-23). The Father granted his Son’s prayer. The history of the Church records how Christians, in unity, have recounted the Lord’s teachings, passion, and resurrection, celebrated the holy sacraments instituted by Christ, and made disciples of all peoples. In fact, the unity of the Church offers a compelling witness to the truth of the gospel. Reflecting on the amazing survival and expansion of the early Church, Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), ...

Red is a brilliantly told, captivating history of red hair throughout the ages. An audiobook that breaks new ground, dispels myths, and reinforces the special nature of being a redhead, with a look at multiple disciplines, including science, religion, politics, feminism and sexuality, literature, and art. With an obsessive fascination that is as contagious as it is compelling, author Jacky Colliss Harvey (herself a redhead) begins her exploration of red hair in prehistory and traces the redhead gene as it made its way out of Africa with the early human diaspora.

Unlock the Lost Legends and Hidden Kingdoms of Ancient Africa. Think you know African history? While most people picture the pyramids of Giza, few realize that ancient Nubia built over two hundred pyramids — more than anywhere else on Earth. Ancient Africa: Pyramids, Pharaohs, Lost Cities, and Powerful Kingdoms takes you on an unforgettable journey through the overlooked empires, captivating cultures, and brilliant innovations that shaped a continent.

Today it's routine to take photos from an airplane window, use a camera underwater, or watch a movie or view an X-ray. But the photographic innovations more than a century ago that made such things possible were experimental, revelatory, and sometimes dangerous. In Flashes of Brilliance, New York Times photo editor Anika Burgess engagingly blends art, science, and social history to reveal the most dramatic developments in photography from its birth in the 1830s to the early twentieth century.

With the same ability to make personalities and events come alive that characterizes his classic Skid Road, Murray Morgan here tells the colorful story of Tacoma, "the City of Destiny," and southern Puget Sound, where many major events of Washington's history took place. Drawing upon original journals and reports, Morgan builds Puget's Sound around individuals, interweaving portraits of well-known historical figures with a raucous parade of saloonkeepers, politicians, union organizers, schemers, and swindlers.

Mecklenburgh Square has always been a radical address. Nestled in the heart of Bloomsbury, these townhouses have borne witness to the lives of some of the century's most revolutionary cultural figures - many of whom were extraordinary women. United by their desire to experiment with new ways of living - and, therefore, of being - these authors and thinkers were trailblazers in their commitment to creative independence.

A historical fiction book set in Virginia and the early United States during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Journey into the heart of America's untamed wilderness with "A Son of the West," where the spirit of exploration collides with the intimate complexities of love and familial bonds. Experience the life of Meriwether Lewis—not just as a celebrated explorer, but as a son shaped by his mother's enduring influence and a man grappling with his myriad passions and ambitions against the backdrop of a young nation. As the narrative unfolds, we meet Widow Lewis, a figure steeped in ...

In early modern England, murder truly was most foul. Trials were gossipy events packed to the rafters with noisome spectators. Executions were public proceedings which promised not only gore, but desperate confessions and the grandest, most righteous human drama. Bookshops saw grisly stories of crime and death sell like hot cakes. This history unfolds the true stories of murder, criminal investigation, early forensic techniques, high court trials and so much more.

A historical exploration book set along the Colorado River in the American West during the 16th to 19th centuries. Embark on an unforgettable journey through "Colorado River Chronicle," where the fierce waters of the Colorado River become a steep barrier to discovery for early European explorers. This captivating narrative uncovers the epic quests of brave conquistadors, who dared to conquer the treacherous terrains shaped by this mighty river. With tales of heroism, tragedy, and relentless ambition, the book unravels the challenges faced by those who navigated this formidable landscape in ...

The Foundations of Faith series features important writings from the early Christian Church, with modernized language to make these influential works more accessible to today's reader. Included in Volume 1 are the following works: The Didache (The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) The First and Second Epistles of Clement The Epistle of Barnabas The Odes of Solomon The Epistle of Polycarp The Martyrdom of Polycarp The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus The Seven Prison Epistles of Ignatius Ignatius to the Ephesians Ignatius to the Magnesians Ignatius to the Trallians Ignatius to the Romans ...

In Frontier Country, Patrick Spero addresses one of the most important and controversial subjects in American history: the frontier. Countering the modern conception of the American frontier as an area of expansion, Spero employs the eighteenth-century meaning of the term to show how colonists understood it as a vulnerable, militarized boundary. The Pennsylvania frontier, Spero argues, was constituted through conflicts not only between colonists and Native Americans but also among neighboring British colonies.

From classics such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid to fifth-century Christian apocrypha, narratives that described guided tours of the afterlife played a major role in shaping ancient notions of morality and ethics. In this new account, acclaimed author Bart Ehrman contextualizes early Christian narratives of heaven and hell within the broader intellectual and cultural worlds from which they emerged.

The Dīghanikāya or Long Discourses of the Buddha is one of the four major collections of teachings from the early period of Buddhism. Its 34 suttas (in Sanskrit, sutras) demonstrate remarkable breadth in both content and style, forming a comprehensive collection. The Art of Listening gives an introduction to the Dīghanikāya and demonstrates the historical, cultural, and spiritual insights that emerge when we view the Buddhist suttas as oral literature.

In life and in death, slaves were commodities, their monetary value assigned based on their age, gender, health, and the demands of the market. The Price for Their Pound of Flesh is the first book to explore the economic value of enslaved people through every phase of their lives—including preconception, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, the senior years, and death—in the early American domestic slave trade.

The powers-that-be in auto racing in the 1920s, namely the American Automobile Association's Contest Board, prohibited everyone who wasn't a White male from the sport. Dewey Gaston, a Black man who went by the name Rajo Jack, broke into the epicenter of racing in California, refusing to let the pervasive racism of his day stop him from competing against entire fields of White drivers. In The Brown Bullet, Bill Poehler uncovers the life of a long-forgotten trailblazer and the great lengths he took to even get on the track.

American Indians remain familiar as icons, yet poorly understood as historical agents. In this ambitious book that ranges across Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and eastern California (a region known as the Great Basin), Ned Blackhawk places Native peoples squarely at the center of a dynamic and complex story as he chronicles two centuries of Indian and imperial history that profoundly shaped the American West.

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What does it mean for Jesus to be “deified” in early Christian literature? Litwa’s samples take us beyond the realm of abstract theology to dwell in the second- and third-century imagination of what it meant to be a god and shows that the Christian depiction of Christ was quite at home there.