In this book the author transports readers to the dawn of the Renaissance and chronicles the life of an intrepid book lover who rescued the Roman philosophical text On the Nature of Things from certain oblivion. In this work he has crafted both a work of history and a story of discovery, in which one manuscript, plucked from a thousand years of neglect, changed the course of human thought and made possible the world as we know it. Nearly six hundred...

A "tapestry of one Baby Boomer's life and the trio of unforgettable women who have changed it"--

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • An "extraordinary ... profoundly moving" history (The New York Times Book Review) of the American Civil War that reveals the ways that death on such a scale changed not only individual lives but the life of the nation.

An estiated 750,000 soldiers lost their lives in the American Civil War. An equivalent proportion of today's population would...

Traveling through the French Pyrenees to process the horrors of World War I, Freddie meets a lovely young woman also in mourning with whom he exchanges stories that unravel a centuries-old mystery.

From the bestselling author of Assassination Vacation and The Partly Cloudy Patriot, an insightful and unconventional account of George Washington’s trusted officer and friend, that swashbuckling teenage French aristocrat the Marquis de Lafayette.  

Chronicling General Lafayette’s years in Washington’s army, Vowell reflects on the ideals of the American Revolution versus the reality of

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"While in the short term--militarily--the North won the Civil War, in the long term--ideologically--victory went to the South. The continual expansion of the Western frontier allowed a Southern oligarchic ideology to find a new home and take root. Even with the abolition of slavery and the equalizing power of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and the ostensible equalizing of economic opportunity afforded by Western expansion, anti-democratic practices...

On June 6, 1924, two men set out from a camp perched at 23,000 feet on an ice ledge just below the lip of Everest's North Col. Neither of them returned. Drawing on more than a decade of prodigious research, the author re-creates the heroic efforts of Mallory and Irvine, and their fellow climbers as they pursue their efforts to conquer the highest peak as a powerful symbol of national redemption, personal achievement and hope. [From publisher's description]...

A critically acclaimed historian describes the first World War in terms of its lasting impact on politics, diplomacy, and economics as well as art and literature across the twentieth century and not just as a precursor to World War II.

"This strikingly illustrated edition presents Joyce's epic novel in a new, more accessible light, while showcasing the incredible talent of a leading Spanish artist. The neo-figurative artist Eduardo Arroyo (1937-2018), regarded today as one of the greatest Spanish painters of his generation, dreamed of illustrating James Joyce's Ulysses. Although he began work on the project in 1989, it was never published during his lifetime: Stephen James Joyce,...

Veteran journalist Ifill sheds new light on the impact of Barack Obama's presidential victory and introduces the emerging African American politicians forging a new path to political power. Ifill argues that the Black political structure formed during the Civil Rights movement is giving way to a generation who are the direct beneficiaries of the struggles of the 1960s. She offers detailed profiles of such prominent leaders as Newark Mayor Cory Booker,...