Tourism History

How can a city grow into a nation’s largest metropolis in less than 500 years? This is the story of one of the greatest cities in the world. New York. A city that has grown economically and culturally beyond imagining into a prosperous metropolis with one of the most diverse populations in the nation. A city that fought for equality and civil rights and has been the epicenter of social progress and a source of inspiration throughout the world. With New York: Guide to NYC: History of New York - Where the Most Important People, Places, and Events Shaped the History of New York City, Raymond C. Nelson takes readers on a tour through time of the Big Apple.

One morning on the outskirts of Damascus, two starving friends were walking through their war-ravaged city. They entered a once familiar street that had now been turned to rubble - concrete bridges towered over them like tombs, and houses were turned inside out. One of them, Aeham, turned to the only comfort he had left - his piano - and composed a song of hope. It was a song that would reach beyond the rubble and bring a message of solidarity to his fellow Syrians and all those suffering the devastation of war.

Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated by castles. Their history, the part they have played in the development of history through the centuries, the magnificent architecture and feats of ancient engineering and construction. Not only that, castles are great places to visit for a day trip to learn more about them and see the spectacle.

I Wouldn't Start From Here is Andrew Mueller's personal memoir of the 21st century so far. It features any number of exotic locations, and a cast of revolutionaries, rock stars, politicians, hitmen, warmongers and peacemakers. Between ducking for cover in Gaza, running roadblocks in Iraq, getting arrested in Cameroon and hanging out with Hezbollah, this is a search for an answer to perhaps the key question of our time: "What is it with these people?"

Take four friends, put them on two Ural motorcycles (complete with sidecars), send them off on a 2,500-mile odyssey retracing history’s most famous retreat, add what some might consider an excessive amount of Vodka, and you’ve got Sylvain Tesson’s Berezina, a riotous and erudite book that combines travel, history, comradery, and adventure.

Frank Conroy first visited Nantucket with a gang of college friends in 1955. They came on a whim, and for Conroy it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with this "small, relaxed oasis in the ocean." This audiobook, part travel diary, part memoir, is a hauntingly evocative and personal journey through Nantucket: its sweeping dunes, rugged moors, remote beaches, secret fishing spots, and hidden forests and cranberry bogs.

A chronicle of life on the resplendent island. Adele Barker and her son, Noah, settled into the central highlands of Sri Lanka for an 18-month sojourn, immersing themselves in the customs, cultures, and landscapes of the island: its elephants, birds, and monkeys; its hot curries and sweet mangoes; the cacophony of its markets; the resonant evening chants from its temples. When, having returned home to Tucson, Barker awakes on December 26, 2004, to see televised images of the island's southern shore disappearing into the ocean, she decides she must go back.

For "Darwin Year," a fresh-eyed and enchanting journey through South America in his footsteps. One snowy day in Ushuaia, Argentina, the self-proclaimed "southernmost city in the world," writer Eric Simons picked up a copy of Charles Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle. Simons had just hiked the mountains overlooking Beagle Channel, and he found himself engrossed in Darwin's account.

In Roadside Americans, Jack Reid traces the rise and fall of hitchhiking, offering vivid accounts of life on the road and how the act of soliciting rides from strangers, and the attitude toward hitchhikers in American society, evolved over time in sync with broader economic, political, and cultural shifts. In doing so, Reid offers insight into significant changes in the United States amid the decline of liberalism and the rise of the Reagan Era.

Want to learn more about the state of Ohio? How much do you really know about the Buckeye State? There’s so much to learn about the state that even natives don’t know! In this audiobook, you’ll learn more about Ohio’s history, pop culture, folklore, sports, and so much more! This audiobook is packed with trivia facts about Ohio. Some of the facts are surprising, some of them are strange, and some of them are goosebumps-inducing, but all of them are fascinating.

"What journey within our immediate world today would be remotely as interesting, enchanting, instructive and exciting as that to Russia? While our Europe, and especially the capitals, are subject to the inexorably contemporary process of mutual assimilation and resemblance, Russia remains utterly unparalleled." Stephen Zweig, 1928. After Stefan Zweig's bourgeois world collapsed with the First World War, he went searching for alternative forms of society, which culminated in a journey through the at that time still young Soviet Union.

Do you consider yourself a history buff? Do you enjoy discovering interesting facts about the world? Would you love to uncover North Carolina’s riveting and relevant time period? If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, then you’re a very wise person! This trivia audiobook doesn’t just cover North Carolina’s history and sports, but also its natural wonders, amazing plants and animals, music, movies, and television, and more. With short questions throughout, you can truly test your knowledge and make your listening experience more fun and stimulating!

Norwegian adventurer, philosopher and acclaimed author Erling Kagge ventured to the North Pole in 1990. Blending memoir from that intrepid journey, along with history, philosophy and a stark warning about melting ice, comes a profound meditation about nature and our place within it. The North Pole is for anyone who’s gazed out at the horizon – and wondered what happens if you keep walking.

China, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq...God is at work. Christians are testifying. The gospel is advancing. In this captivating travelogue, a veteran missions mobilizer leads listeners to experience global Christianity, exploring the faith and lives of Christians living in some of the world's most perilous countries. The incredible accounts recorded here - stories that span the globe from China to Afghanistan - highlight the bold faith and sacrificial bravery of God's people.

Every journey has its stories. Beginning with Enid Blyton and childhood in the Isle of Purbeck, Peter Fiennes embarks on a unique exploration of Britain. He follows in the footsteps of some our greatest writers, tracing the paths recorded in their books, journals and diaries, and looks for the country they knew. How much has time changed us? And has it been for better, or worse? Are we trapped in the past?

Like most Americans at the time, Plennie Wingo was hit hard by the effects of the Great Depression. When the bank foreclosed on his small restaurant in Abilene, he found himself suddenly penniless with nowhere left to turn. After months of struggling to feed his family on wages he earned digging ditches in the Texas sun, Plennie decided it was time to do something extraordinary - something to resurrect the spirit of adventure and optimism he felt he'd lost. He decided to walk around the world - backward.

This thoughtful examination of a century of travel writing about the American West overturns a variety of popular and academic stereotypes. Looking at both European and American travelers' accounts of the West, from de Tocqueville's Democracy in America to William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways, David Wrobel offers a counternarrative to the nation's romantic entanglement with its Western past and suggests the importance of some long-overlooked authors, lively and perceptive witnesses to our history who deserve new attention.

At the heart of this book is a highway. The A1; The Great North Road. A 400-mile multiplicity of ancient trackway, Roman road, pilgrim path, coach route and motorway that has run like a backbone through Britain for the last 2,000 years. In this genre-defying and profoundly personal book, Cowen follows this ghost road from beginning to end on a journey through history, place, people and time. Weaving his own histories and memories with the layered landscapes he moves through, this is the story of an age, of coming to terms with time past and time passing.

For almost 500 years, human beings have been finding ways to circle the Earth - by sail, steam, or liquid fuel; by cycling, driving, flying, going into orbit, even by using their own bodily power. The story begins with the first centuries of circumnavigation, when few survived the attempt: In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan left Spain with five ships and 270 men, but only one ship and 35 men returned, not including Magellan, who died in the Philippines. Starting with these dangerous voyages, Joyce Chaplin takes us on a trip of our own as we travel with Francis Drake, William Dampier, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, and James Cook.

Jeff Shaara, America's premier Civil War novelist, gives a remarkable guided tour of one of the Civil War battlefields every American should visit. He captures the true meaning and magnitude of the conflict.