Historical History

Take an unforgettable journey with the man George Bernard Shaw called "the only genius to come out of the movie industry" as he moves from his impoverished South London childhood to the heights of Hollywood wealth and fame; from the McCarthy-era investigations to his founding of United Artists to his "reverse migration" back to Europe.

In twelve luminous stories set across three centuries, The History of Sound examines the unexpected ways the past returns to us and how love and loss are entwined and transformed over generations. In Ben Shattuck's ingenious collection, each story has a companion story, which contains a revelation about the previous, paired story. Mysteries and murders are revealed, history is refracted, and deep emotional connections are woven through characters and families.

Our Crime Was Being Jewish contains 576 vivid memories of 358 Holocaust survivors. These are the true, insider stories of victims, told in their own words. They include the experiences of teenagers who saw their parents and siblings sent to the gas chambers; of starving children beaten for trying to steal a morsel of food; of people who saw their friends commit suicide to save themselves from the daily agony they endured.

When the American ace Major Jack Freeman - poster boy for the war against the Kaiser's undead army of shamblers - is shot down over enemy lines and taken captive, veteran Captain Michael "Madman" Burke is the only man brave and foolish enough to accept the mission to recover him. Burke assembles a team of disparate members - his right-hand man, Sergeant Moore, big-game-hunter-turned-soldier Clayton Manning, and Professor Dan Graves, one of Tesla's top men and the resident authority on all things supernatural, among them - to dare the impossible.

Ramachandra Guha takes us from Gandhi's birth in 1869 through his upbringing in Gujarat, his two years as a student in London, and his two decades as a lawyer and community organizer in South Africa. Guha has uncovered myriad previously untapped documents, including private papers of Gandhi's contemporaries. Using this wealth of material in an exuberant, brilliantly nuanced and detailed narrative, Guha describes the social, political, and personal worlds inside of which Gandhi began the journey that would earn him the honorific Mahatma: "Great Soul".

A tour-de-force novel set in ancient Japan filled with passion, fantasy, and feuding warlords. The first volume in the highly anticipated Tales of the Otori trilogy.

Often considered the highest achievement in Korean fiction, The Nine Cloud Dream poses the question: Will the life we dream of truly make us happy? Written in 17th-century Korea, this classic novel's wondrous story begins when a young monk living on a sacred Lotus Peak in China succumbs to the temptation of eight fairy maidens. For doubting his master's Buddhist teachings, the monk is forced to endure a strange punishment: reincarnation as the most ideal of men.

The Sumerians are widely regarded as the first people to develop civilization in the sense that modern humans understand the term. They were pioneers in a variety of fields, including language, government, architecture, and more. Before the Babylonians took control in 2004 BC, they ruled the region for close to 2,000 years, during which time they were successful in maintaining their dominance.

The definitive history of a powerful family dynasty who dominated Europe for centuries - from their rise to power to their eventual downfall.

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE VIDEO OF A VIETNAM HELICOPTER GUNSHIP IN LIVE COMBAT Experience intense combat from the Crew Chief/Door Gunner’s seat in a Stinger helicopter gunship.The author presents this book based on his personal experiences in the Vietnam War as a 18-year-old gunship Crew Chief/Door Gunner. He wants the reader to experience what it is like to kill dozens of enemy combatants and collaterally, non-combatants. How to live with the frequent near-death experiences and the constant high probability of being killed. Endure the frequent loss of fellow soldiers in combat. Witness a young ...

The mysterious boy king Tutankhamun came to the U.S. in 2008, bringing rare treasures, never before seen outside Egypt. For the millions of fans wanting a keepsake and chronicle of this magnificent new exhibition, this audiobook will delight. Created by world-renowned art historians under the guidance of Zahi Hawass - director of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and a well-known media personality - it surveys 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian history by focusing on the lives and lifestyles of great pharaohs.

For those looking for the real story behind the fictionalized movie account of the 47 Ronin story, this is the definitive, fascinating account of this unforgettable tale of a band of samurai who defied the Emperor to avenge the disgrace and death of their master, and faced certain death as a result. It led to one of the bloodiest episodes in Japanese history, and in the process, created a new set of heroes in Japan.

In this highly accessible discussion, Bart Ehrman examines the most recent textual and archaeological sources for the life of Jesus, along with the history of first-century Palestine, drawing a fascinating portrait of the man and his teachings. Ehrman shows us what historians have long known about the Gospels and the man who stands behind them. Through a careful evaluation of the New Testament (and other surviving sources, including the more recently discovered Gospels of Thomas and Peter), Ehrman proposes that Jesus can be best understood as an apocalyptic prophet.

For William Marshall, the greatest knight of the realm, serving royalty is an unpredictable business. Having survived the threat of beheading from Stephen as a child, Marshall rises from nothing to a place in court serving King Henry II. Accused of acting on his love for the beautiful Queen Margaret, William is saved by his trust and loyalty to the king. But the battle for the throne is relentless, and when Henry's own son John rises against him, William must decide if he can remain loyal to the crown.

A dashing master spy takes on the enemies of the Byzantine Empire and discovers impossible inventions like gunpowder and telescopes in a magnificent romp from the maestro of alternate-history science fiction.

The startling truth behind one of the most notorious dynasties in history is revealed in a remarkable new account by the acclaimed author of The Tudors and A World Undone. Sweeping aside the gossip, slander, and distortion that have shrouded the Borgias for centuries, G. J. Meyer offers an unprecedented portrait of the infamous Renaissance family and their storied milieu.

Everfair is a wonderful neo-Victorian alternate history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier. Fabian Socialists from Great Britian join forces with African American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo's "owner", King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary utopia for native populations of the Congo, as well as escaped slaves returning from America.

The year was 1877 and Reconstruction was working until Presidential politics removed the union troops from the South unleashing violent cold-blooded men to pray upon black Americans. Bertha and Tucker were raised in the ways of the Elders: maintain your dignity, know your history, and never compromise your values. Their children were more than sharecroppers. Junior, the oldest, was an astute businessman and new leader. Joan was a teacher. Joseph, the brother, no one wanted to fight. Rose fell in love with the wrong man. Gladys, the youngest, helped Rose through tough times. "If the Elders ...

Daughter of the nobility, cousin to a fallen Queen, Catherine Howard rose from the cluttered ranks of courtiers at the court of Henry VIII to become the King's fifth wife. But hers is a tale that starts long before the crown was placed on her head. A tale of tragedy and challenges, predators and prey; the story of a young girl growing up in a perilous time, facing dangers untold. The fifth wife of Henry VIII would end her life on the block, like her cousin Anne Boleyn...but where did her story begin?

The ancient Roman empire was the supreme arena, where emperors had no choice but to fight, to thrill, to dazzle. To rule as a Caesar was to stand as an actor upon the great stage of the world. No biographies invite us into the lives of the Caesars more vividly or intimately than those by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, written from the center of Rome and power, in the early 2nd century AD. By placing each Caesar in the context of the generations that had gone before, and connecting personality with policy, Suetonius succeeded in painting Rome’s ultimate portraits of power.