Normans History

April 19, 1775, was the most momentous day in American history. Over the course of nearly 18 hours, a morning that began with midnight riders spreading an alarm about a British raid headed for Concord, would lead to the British column fleeing for their lives, back to the vicinity of Boston, as thousands of militiamen headed to cut them off and surround them. By the time the sun went down, 10 years of strife between the 13 colonies and Great Britain finally boiled over into pitched battle, and a revolution.

It is hard to find an island on the map more central than Sicily. Located at the crossroads between Europe and Africa, and between the eastern and western Mediterranean, Sicily has rarely been governed as an independent, unified state. Nonetheless, the island has been the seat of some of the most important events in history, and nowhere is this more obvious than during antiquity.

The famous conqueror from the European continent came ashore with thousands of men, ready to set up a new kingdom in England. The Britons had resisted the amphibious invasion from the moment his forces landed, but he was able to push forward. In a large winter battle, the Britons’ large army attacked the invaders, but was eventually routed, and the conqueror was able to set up a new kingdom.

Over 50 years after his death, Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) is celebrated as the greatest rock guitarist of all time. But before he was setting guitars and the world aflame, James Marshall Hendrix was a shy kid in Seattle, plucking at a broken ukulele and in fear of a father who would hit him for playing left-handed. Bringing Jimi’s story to vivid life against the backdrop of mid-century rock, and with a wealth of new information, acclaimed music biographer Philip Norman delivers a captivating and definitive portrait of a musical legend.

Fighting for justice, for freedom of speech, and sometimes even for their own lives, some of history's most significant figures demonstrate the finest resources of language in the service of the most dramatic issues of their day.

Have you ever thought about your own surname? Wondered about the stories behind them, especially if they are unusual?This Amazon NUMBER 1 BESTSELLING BOOK (Genealogy) tells the engaging story of when our surnames first came into use, why they were necessary and how people acquired them. After spending decades writing and researching the history of names, William Lewis presents in ‘What’s in your Surname?’ a journey through the quite diverse origins of English surnames citing hundreds of examples along the way. On this engaging journey you will discover the origin of last names, from ...

Drogen im Dritten Reich: Norman Ohler geht den Tätern von damals buchstäblich unter die Haut und schaut direkt in ihre Blutbahnen hinein. Arisch rein ging es darin nicht zu, sondern chemisch deutsch – und ziemlich toxisch. Wo die Ideologie für Fanatismus und "Endsieg" nicht mehr ausreichte, wurde hemmungslos nachgeholfen. Als Deutschland 1940 Frankreich überfiel, standen die Soldaten der Wehrmacht unter 35 Millionen Dosierungen Pervitin. Das Präparat – heute als Crystal Meth bekannt – machte den Blitzkrieg erst möglich.

Fatal Colours includes a cast of strong and compelling characters: a warrior queen, a ruthless king-making earl, even a papal legate who excommunicates an entire army. And at its center is the first full explanation for the crippling incapacity of the enduringly childlike Henry VI - founder of Eton and King's College, Cambridge. With a substantive and sparkling introduction by David Starkey, Fatal Colours brings to life a vibrant and violent age.

The narrative of American history is incomplete without the inclusion of the Native Americans that lived on the continent before European settlers arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries. Among these groups, one of the most famous is the Mohawk, who refer to themselves as Kanien'kehá:ka ("People of the Place of Flint"), but pop culture has a very different image in mind when it comes to the Mohawk. Those unfamiliar with the group associate them with the conspicuous Mohawk haircut, and images of a warlike people who scalp their enemies are still evoked.

The Apocrypha of the Bible examines the history of the books excluded from the Bible, the characters and events told by the books, and the discoveries that have influenced Biblical studies in the last few centuries.

Fort Worth has been called The City Where the West Begins, Cowtown, and the silent partner in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. None of these descriptions quite tells the story of this city and its people. Since its founding in the mid nineteenth-century as a military outpost, Fort Worth has gone through many phases - cattle, oil, aviation, and tourist. The little village on the Trinity has grown up to become a global city that is a melting pot of economic forces and diverse cultures.

In 1204, the great Angevin Empire was fragmenting under King John's rule. Unable to withstand France's invasion of Normandy, John also faced difficult relations with the papacy, and rising dissent among his barons. By the time John died in 1216, the failed Magna Carta gave way to civil conflict, and more than half of the country had fallen to the dauphin of France. These troubles were then passed, along with the crown, to John's nine-year-old son, Henry III.

University of Miami football is more than national championships, 30-game winning streaks, and being a pipeline to the NFL. It’s the Gator Flop, defeating Tulane on a fifth down, and playing three games in eight days. It’s converting third and 44 against Notre Dame, Michael Irvin talking smack with Florida State’s Deion Sanders, and Vinny Testaverde being sacked by hamburgers.

In this succinct portrait of Alexander the Great, distinguished scholar and historian Norman Cantor draws on the major writings of Alexander's contemporaries, as well as the most recent psychological and cultural studies to illuminate this most legendary of men - a great figure in the ancient world whose puzzling personality greatly fueled his military accomplishments.

How did descendants of Viking marauders came to dominate Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East? It is a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce freebooters, of fortunes made and fortunes lost. The Normans made their influence felt across all of western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to North Africa, and Lisbon to the Holy Land. In Empires of the Normans we discover how they combined military might and political savvy with deeply held religious beliefs and a profound sense of their own destiny.

On a small farm in Iowa, from the age of seven Norman would rise before dawn and work the fields. He and his two younger sisters would raise cattle, pigs, and chickens; he would fish and hunt and tend to the corn and oat fields. It was grueling labor, and he hated it. In 1933, Norman left the farm and headed for Minneapolis with $61 in his pocket. He was a determined student and majored in agriculture-forestry at the University of Minnesota. First in Mexico, and then in India, Norman would travel the globe offering his unique knowledge.

In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, David Norman discusses how dinosaurs were first discovered and interpreted and how our understanding of them has changed over the past 200 years. He looks at some of the amazing discoveries that have enabled us to gain new and unexpected insights into dinosaurs as animals with natural histories and behaviors and considers some of the biggest questions in dinosaur biology, such as the implications of them having warm blood.

A great American voice narrates a poignant tribute to our most outstanding monument. One of Charles Kuralt's last projects, Our Lady of the Freedoms is a full-scale production of writer-director Norman Corwin's account of how the Statue of Liberty came to New York harbor.

The study of the apocryphal gospels, documents about the life or sayings of Jesus that did not become part of the New Testament, is a popular discipline among scholars that now fills several shelves of any respectable library. However, few consider the question of whether the Old Testament, also known as the Hebrew Bible, is "complete" and whether in antiquity there were other books besides "Genesis", the "Exodus" or "Judges", with different histories and unknown characters, that were excluded from the canon and got lost in the sands of time.

The Mexican War introduced vast new territories into the United States, among them California and the present-day Southwest. When gold was discovered in California in the great Gold Rush of 1849, the population swelled, and settlers petitioned for admission to the Union. But the U.S. Senate was precariously balanced with 15 free states and 15 slave states. Up to this point, states had been admitted in pairs, one free and one slave, to preserve that tenuous balance in the Senate.