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Vulcan Boys: From the Cold War to the Falklands: True Tales of the Iconic Delta V Bomber (The jet Age Ser. #6)
Par Tony Blackman, Martin Withers. 2015
An in-depth look at these Cold War–era bombers, in the words of those who flew them—includes photos. The Vulcan, the…
second of the three V bombers built to guard the United Kingdom during the Cold War, has become an aviation icon like the Spitfire, its delta shape as instantly recognizable as the howling noise it makes when the engines are opened for takeoff. Vulcan Boys is the first book about this bomber recounted completely firsthand by the operators themselves. It tells the story of the aircraft from its design conception through the Cold War, when it played out its most important job as Britain’s nuclear deterrent; it also reveals the significant role its bombs and missiles played in liberating the Falkland Islands, for which it gained much celebrity. These individual accounts detail how hours at a time were spent waiting to be scrambled to defend the country in the event of a third world war, and how pilots’ aggressive skills were honed by carrying out Lone Ranger sorties flying to the United States and westward around the world, and taking part in Giant Voice and Red Flag, competitive exercises against the US Strategic Air Command. The attacks in the Falklands using Shrike missiles are described accurately and in great detail for the first time, including the landing at Rio de Janeiro alongside a vivid account of Black Buck 2. Vulcan Boys is a fascinating and completely authentic read reminding us of the Cold War, how it was fought, and the considerable effort required to prevent all-out nuclear war.Patriots Twice: Former Confederates and the Building of America after the Civil War
Par Stephen M. Hood. 2020
A “timely” look at the roles played by ex-Confederates after the war, in politics, academia, the military, industry, and more…
(Midwest Book Review).The long and bloody American Civil War claimed the lives of more than 700,000 men. When it ended, former opponents worked to rebuild their reunified nation and move into the future together. Many people will find that surprising—especially in an era witnessing the destruction or removal of Confederate monuments and the desecration of Confederate cemeteries.In this unique and timely book, award-winning author Stephen M. Hood identifies more than three hundred former Confederate soldiers, sailors, and government officials who reintegrated into American society and attained positions of authority and influence in the federal government, the United States military, academia, science, commerce, and industry. Their contributions had a long-lasting and positive influence on the country we have today.For example, ten postwar presidents appointed former Confederates as Supreme Court justices, secretaries of the U.S. Navy, attorneys general, and a secretary of the interior. Dozens of former Southern soldiers were named U.S. ambassadors and consuls, and eight were appointed generals who commanded troops during the Spanish-American War. Former Confederates were elected mayors of such unlikely cities as Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Santa Fe, and served as governors of multiple non-Confederate states and territories.Ex-Southern soldiers became presidents of professional societies including the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association, to name only a few. Others paved the way in science and engineering by leading the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Chemical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Geological Society of America. One former Confederate co-founded the environmental preservation group Sierra Club, and another was president of the Society for Classical Studies.Former soldiers in gray founded or co-founded many colleges and universities—some exclusively for women and newly freed African-Americans. Other former Rebels served as presidents of prominent institutions, including the University of California, Berkeley, and taught at universities outside the South including Harvard, Yale, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Johns Hopkins, and Amherst College. Several others served on the governing boards of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.Every reader of Patriots Twice has benefited from the post-Civil War reconciliation when former combatants put down their swords, picked up their plowshares, and accepted the invaluable contributions of these (and thousands of other) former Confederates. The men who carried the bayonets found common cause and moved on together. This is an important concept everyone should—no, must—embrace to keep America united, strong, and free.Killing Rasputin: The Murder That Ended the Russian Empire
Par Margarita Nelipa. 2017
A look into the life of the so-called “Mad Monk” of Imperial Russia, his murder, and the effects of his…
death on a dynasty, a people, and a country.Written in three parts, Killing Rasputin begins with a biography that describes how a simple unkempt “holy man” from the wilds of Siberia became a friend of Emperor Nicholas II and his empress, Alexandra, at the most crucial moment in Russian history. Part Two examines the infamous murder of Rasputin through the lens of a “cold case” homicide investigation. And lastly, the book considers the connection between a cold-blooded assassination and the revolution that followed; a revolution that led to civil war and the rise of the Soviet Union.Unique about this book on Rasputin, is that the author combines Russian heritage (her parents were forced out of Russia during World War II and arrived as refugees in Australia in 1948) with medical science and legal training. Nelipa relied on Russian-language sources that she translated rather than depend on the interpretations of others. Her primary sources include police documents and witness testimonies, an autopsy report, diaries, letters and memoirs written in their native language by the participants in these historic events. Secondary sources include Russian-languages newspapers and other publications from that era. The narrative is copiously referenced and augmented with photographs (including graphic forensic photographs) and other documents, some of them published here for the first time.Step into the imperial court of a 300-year-old dynasty in its final days with one of the most fascinating characters ever to grab our imaginations, judge whether Margarita Nelipa makes her case regarding his death, and if you agree that it was “the murder that ended the Russian empire.”Praise for Killing Rasputin“You can almost hear the whispering conspiracies and intrigues in the court of Nicholas and Alexandra. . . . A dramatic history with a touch of true crime.” —Steve Jackson, New York Times–bestselling author of BogeymanFrida Kahlo: An Illustrated Life
Par María Hesse. 2018
“A vibrantly illustrated biography of Kahlo . . . [Hesse’s] drawings and graphics [flow] seamlessly with the narration.” —Houston ChronicleOne of the most…
important artists of the twentieth century and an icon of courageous womanhood, Frida Kahlo lives on in the public imagination, where her popularity shows no signs of waning. She is renowned for both her paintings and her personal story, which were equally filled with pain and anguish, celebration and life. Thousands of words, including her own, have been written about Kahlo, but only one previous biography has recorded her fascinating, difficult life. Frida Kahlo by María Hesse offers a highly unique way of getting to know the artist by presenting her life in graphic novel form, with striking illustrations that reimagine many of Kahlo’s famous paintings.Originally published in Spanish in 2016, Frida Kahlo has already found an enthusiastic audience in the Spanish-speaking world, with some 20,000 copies sold in just a few months. This translation introduces English-language readers to Kahlo’s life, from her childhood and the traumatic accident that would change her life and her artwork, to her complicated love for Diego Rivera and the fierce determination that drove her to become a major artist in her own right. María Hesse tells the story in a first-person narrative, which captures both the depths of Frida’s suffering and her passion for art and life.“Despite the often light mood of the artwork, the book never shies from weighty consideration of the physical pain and personal loss that gave way—in fleeting but significant moments—to Kahlo’s artistic triumph.” —Publishers WeeklySpartacus (Revealing Antiquity)
Par Aldo Schiavone. 2013
Spartacus (109?–71 bce), the slave who rebelled against Rome, has been a source of endless fascination, the subject of myth-making…
in his own time, and of movie-making in ours. Hard facts about the man have always yielded to romanticized tales and mystifications. In this riveting, compact account, Aldo Schiavone rescues Spartacus from the murky regions of legend and brings him squarely into the arena of serious history. Schiavone transports us to Italy of the first century bce, where the pervasive institution of slavery dominates all aspects of Roman life. In this historic landscape, carefully reconstructed by the author, we encounter Spartacus, who is enslaved after deserting from the Roman army to avoid fighting against his native Thrace. Imprisoned in Capua and trained as a gladiator, he leads an uprising that will shake the empire to its foundations. While the grandeur of the Spartacus story has always been apparent, its political significance has been less clear. What were his ambitions? Often depicted as the leader of a class rebellion that was fierce in intent but ragtag in makeup and organization, Spartacus emerges here in a very different light: the commander of an army whose aim was to incite Italy to revolt against Rome and to strike at the very heart of the imperial system. Surprising, persuasive, and highly original, Spartacus challenges the lore and illuminates the reality of a figure whose achievements, and whose ultimate defeat, are more extraordinary and moving than the fictions we make from them.The World of Juliette Kinzie: Chicago before the Fire (Historical Studies of Urban America)
Par Ann Durkin Keating. 2019
When Juliette Kinzie first visited Chicago in 1831, it was anything but a city. An outpost in the shadow of…
Fort Dearborn, it had no streets, no sidewalks, no schools, no river-spanning bridges. And with two hundred disconnected residents, it lacked any sense of community. In the decades that followed, not only did Juliette witness the city’s transition from Indian country to industrial center, but she was instrumental in its development. Juliette is one of Chicago’s forgotten founders. Early Chicago is often presented as “a man’s city,” but women like Juliette worked to create an urban and urbane world, often within their own parlors. With The World of Juliette Kinzie, we finally get to experience the rise of Chicago from the view of one of its most important founding mothers. Ann Durkin Keating, one of the foremost experts on nineteenth-century Chicago, offers a moving portrait of a trailblazing and complicated woman. Keating takes us to the corner of Cass and Michigan (now Wabash and Hubbard), Juliette’s home base. Through Juliette’s eyes, our understanding of early Chicago expands from a city of boosters and speculators to include the world that women created in and between households. We see the development of Chicago society, first inspired by cities in the East and later coming into its own midwestern ways. We also see the city become a community, as it developed its intertwined religious, social, educational, and cultural institutions. Keating draws on a wealth of sources, including hundreds of Juliette’s personal letters, allowing Juliette to tell much of her story in her own words. Juliette’s death in 1870, just a year before the infamous fire, seemed almost prescient. She left her beloved Chicago right before the physical city as she knew it vanished in flames. But now her history lives on. The World of Juliette Kinzie offers a new perspective on Chicago’s past and is a fitting tribute to one of the first women historians in the United States.The Giant of the French Revolution: Danton, A Life
Par David Lawday. 2009
One of the Western world’s most epic uprisings, the French Revolution ended a monarchy that had ruled for almost a…
thousand years. George-Jacques Danton was the driving force behind it. In the first biography of Danton in over forty years, David Lawday reveals the larger-than-life figure who joined the fray at the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and was dead five years later.To hear Danton speak, his booming voice a roll of thunder, excited bourgeois reformers and the street alike; his impassioned speeches, often hours long, drove the sans culottes to action and kept the Revolution alive. But as the newly appointed Minister of Justice, Danton struggled to steer the increasingly divided Revolutionary government. Working tirelessly to halt the bloodshed of Robespierre’s Terror, he ultimately became another of its victims. True to form, Danton did not go easily to the guillotine; at his trial, he defended himself with such vehemence that the tribunal convicted him before he could rally the crowd in his favor.In vivid, almost novelistic prose, Lawday leads us from Danton’s humble roots to the streets of Revolutionary Paris, where this political legend acted on the stage of the revolution that altered Western civilization.Firmenich
Par Pablo Waisberg, Felipe Celesia. 2010
Felipe Celesia y Pablo Waisberg develan los incontables mitos, polémicas y verdades a medias que fueron construyendo la leyenda de…
Mario Eduardo Firmenich. Pocas figuras de nuestro pasado reciente están envueltas en una atmósfera de sobreentendidos, silencios y suposiciones tan tupida como la que aún rodea a la imagen de Mario Eduardo Firmenich. En más de un sentido, el líder de Montoneros aparece como un "hombre maldito", a tal punto que, hasta este libro, no se concretaron los proyectos de publicar una biografía integral sobre su persona. Encumbrado, cuando aún no había cumplido 25 años, a la conducción de la principal organización armada de entonces, en poco más de una década su nombre se convirtió en uno de los rostros del "demonio" de esa violenta Argentina de los setenta, denostado por propios y extraños. "Asesino", "traidor", "elitista", "cruel", "militarista", "cobarde" y muchos otros calificativos similares suelen componer el rompecabezas de quien aparece como la "bestia negra" de la política argentina de los tiempos, por cierto totalitarios y extremos, en que tuvo alto protagonismo. ¿Qué hizo Firmenich para merecer esa condena? Felipe Celesia y Pablo Waisberg tienen una respuesta para esa pregunta. Para encontrarla, reconstruyeron el derrotero personal y político de este hombre que cuando tuvo que hablar calló y que, en más de una ocasión, habló cuando debía callar. Con una minuciosa investigación que recurre a extensas fuentes documentales y testimonios originales, los autores develan los incontables mitos, polémicas y verdades a medias que fueron construyendo una leyenda. Al hacerlo, no sólo indagan en la trayectoria y la personalidad del líder montonero, sino que además contribuyen con un valiosísimo aporte para la comprensión de una época conflictiva y, lo que es de tanta o mayor relevancia, para la memoria colectiva de los argentinos sobre un tiempo muy cercano, cuyas huellas aún siguen candentes.Stalin: From the Caucasus to the Kremlin (Routledge Historical Biographies)
Par Christopher Read. 2017
This new biography of Stalin offers an accessible and up-to-date representation of one of the twentieth-century’s defining figures, as well…
as new insights, analysis and illumination to deepen our understanding of his actions, intentions and the nature of the power that he wielded. Christopher Read examines Stalin’s contribution to and impact on Russian and world events in the first half of the twentieth century. The biography brings together the avalanche of sources and scholarship which followed the collapse of the system Stalin constructed, including the often neglected writings and speeches of Stalin himself. In addition to a detailed narrative and analysis of Stalin’s rule, chapters also cover his early years and humble beginnings in a small town at a remote outpost of the Russian Empire, his role in the revolution, his relationships with Lenin, Trotsky and others in the 1920s, and his rise to become one of the most powerful figures in human history. The book closes with an account of Stalin’s afterlife and legacy, both in the immediate aftermath of his death and in the decades since. This concise account of Stalin’s life is the perfect introduction for students of modern Russian history.I am Albert Einstein (Ordinary People Change the World)
Par Brad Meltzer. 2014
"We can all be heroes" is the message entertainingly told in this New York Times Bestselling picture-book biography series, with…
this one highlighting Albert Einstein (Cover may vary)Each picture book in this series is a biography of a significant historical figure, told in a simple, conversational, vivacious way, and always focusing on a character trait that made the person heroic. The heros are depicted as children throughout, telling their life stories in first-person present tense, which keeps the books playful and accessible to young children. And each book ends with a line of encouragement, a direct quote, and photos on the last page. This biography focuses on Albert Einstein's never-ending curiosity and how it helped him be a better scientist. This friendly, fun biography series inspired the PBS Kids TV show Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum. One great role model at a time, these books encourage kids to dream big. Included in each book are: • A timeline of key events in the hero&’s history • Photos that bring the story more fully to life • Comic-book-style illustrations that are irresistibly adorable • Childhood moments that influenced the hero • Facts that make great conversation-starters • A virtue this person embodies: Albert Einstein's curiosity led him to become a world-renowned scientist. You&’ll want to collect each book in this dynamic, informative series!Hitler's Court: The Inner Circle of The Third Reich and After
Par Heike B. Görtemaker. 2022
This revelatory history examines the loyal inner circle that followed—and enabled—Hitler’s rise to power and continued on after WWII.Hitler was…
not a lonely, aloof dictator. Throughout his rise in the NSDAP, he gathered a loyal circle around him, and was surrounded by people who celebrated, flattered and intrigued him. Who belonged to this inner circle around Hitler? What function did this court fulfill? And how did it influence the perception of history after 1945? Using previously unknown sources, Heike Görtemaker explores Hitler’s private environment and shows how this inner circle made him who he was. Hitler’s inner circle, the Berghof Society, was his private retreat. But the court was more than that. It provided him with the support he needed to take on the role of “Führer” at all, while at the same time allowing him to use its members as political front men. Most of all, it represented a conspiratorial community whose lowest common denominator was anti-Semitism. In this book, Heike Görtemaker asks new questions about the truth behind Hitler’s inner circle and, for the first time, also examines the “circle without leaders”; the networking of the inner circle after 1945.Churchill and the King
Par Kenneth Weisbrode. 2013
For fans of The King's Speech, the intriguing bond between monarch and prime minister and its crucial role during World…
War IIThe political and personal relationship between King George VI and Winston Churchill during World War II is one that has been largely overlooked throughout history, yet the trust and loyalty these men shared helped Britain navigate its perhaps most trying time.Despite their vast differences, the two men met weekly and found that their divergent virtues made them a powerful duo. The king's shy nature was offset by Churchill's willingness to cast himself as the nation's savior. Meanwhile, Churchill's complicated political past was given credibility by the king's embrace and counsel. Together as foils, confidants, conspirators, and comrades, the duo guided Britain through war while reinspiring hope in the monarchy, Parliament, and the nation itself.Books about these men as individuals could fill a library, but Kenneth Weisbrode's study of the unique bond between them is the first of its kind.Pat and Dick
Par Will Swift. 2014
When Americans remember the controversial Nixons, they usually focus on the political triumphs, the turbulent White House years, and the…
humiliating public downfall. But a very different image of the polarizing president emerges in this fascinating portrait of his relationship with Pat. Now, the couple's recently released love letters and other private documents reveal that as surely as unremitting adversity can fray the fabric of a marriage, devotion can propel it to surmount disgrace and defeat. In Pat and Dick, biographer Will Swift brings his years of experience as a historian and as a marital therapist to this unique examination of a long-misunderstood marriage. Nixon the man was enormously complicated: brilliant, insecure, sometimes coldly calculating, and capable of surprising affection with his wife. Much less is known about Pat. With the help of personal writings and interviews with family and friends, Swift unveils a woman who was warm and vivacious, yet much shrewder and more accomplished than she has been given credit for. From Dick's unrelenting crusade to marry the glamorous teacher he feared was out of his league through the myriad crises of his political career, the Nixons' story is filled with hopes and disappointments, both intimate and global. This remarkable biography shows us the couple at their most human: a wife walking a delicate line between self-sacrifice and healthy love while her husband struggles to balance global ambitions and personal intimacy. The Nixons came to represent the best and worst of American life and culture. But though their union was tested by all manner of trials, they managed to find the strength, courage, and resilience to sustain a true connection for more than half a century.Landbridge: life in fragments
Par Y-Dang Troeung. 2023
The inaugural title from Alchemy by Knopf Canada: A searing account by an exquisite writer who came to Canada as…
a baby, escaping war in Cambodia.In 1980, Y-Dang Troeung and her family were among the last of the 60,000 refugees from Cambodia that then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pledged to relocate to Canada. As the final arrivals, their landing was widely documented in newspapers, with photographs of the PM shaking Y-Dang's father's hand, reaching out to pat baby Y-Dang's head. Forty years later, in her brilliant, astonishing book, Y-Dang returns to this moment, and to many others before and after, to explore the tension between that public narrative of happy &“arrival,&” and the multiple, often hidden truths of what happened to the people in her family. In precise, beautiful prose accompanied by moving black-and-white visuals, Y-Dang weaves back and forth in time to tell stories about her parents and two brothers who lived through the Cambodian genocide, about the lives of her grandparents and extended family, about her own childhood in the refugee camps and in rural Ontario, and eventually about her young son&’s illness and her own diagnosis with a terminal disease. Through it all, Y-Dang looks with bracing clarity at refugee existence, refusal of gratitude, becoming a scholar, and love.The Maverick: George Weidenfeld and the Golden Age of Publishing
Par Thomas Harding. 1890
The captivating story of the famed publisher George Weidenfeld, from his struggles as an Austrian-Jewish refugee in London to his…
rise as a world-renowned literary figure. After arriving in London just before World War Two as a penniless Austrian-Jewish refugee, George Weidenfeld went on to transform not only the world of publishing but the culture of ideas. The books that he published include momentous titles such as Lolita, Double Helix, The Group, and The Hedgehog and the Fox, with authors he championed ranging from Joan Didion, Mary McCarthy, JD Salinger, and Edna O&’Brien to Henry Miller, Harold Wilson, Saul Bellow, and Henry Kissinger. His role as publisher brought him into the orbit of influential figures such as George Bush, Ann Getty, Donald Trump, and LBJ. In this first biography, Thomas Harding provides a full, unvarnished, and at times difficult history of this complex and fascinating character. Throughout his long career, he was written about in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, Vanity Fair, and other publications. Was he, as described by some, the &“greatest salesperson,&” &“the world&’s best networker,&” &“the publisher&’s publisher,&” and &“a great intellectual&”? Was his lifelong effort to be the world&’s most famous host a cover for his desperate loneliness? Who, in fact, was the real George Weidenfeld and how did he rise so successfully within the ranks of New York and London society? Drawing on author correspondence, internal memos, and other documents buried deep in the secret publishing files of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Harding crafts a portrait of the publisher's life that is inextricable from the efforts and intricacies of putting a book into the world. Structured around twenty books associated with George Weidenfeld, and intercut with explorations of contemporary concerns such as cancel culture, the right to publish, freedom of speech, and separating the art from the artist, The Maverick tells the captivating story behind the life of this iconic publisher.100 American Women Who Shaped American History (100 Series)
Par Deborah G. Felder. 2022
Learn all about the fascinating lives and tremendous impact of 100 extraordinary women in America with this fact-filled biography collection…
for kids!Educational and engaging, this brand new edition of 100 American Women Who Shaped American History features:Simple, easy-to-read text that has been freshly updatedIllustrated portraits of each figureFascinating facts about famous and lesser-known women in historyA timeline, trivia questions, project ideas, and more!From Martha Washington to Rose Fortune, Gertrude Stein to Florence Price, Dolly Parton to Simone Biles and many more, readers will dive into the lives of 100 female artists activists, scientists, and icons who left their mark on history. Organized chronologically, this thoroughly researched biography collection offers a look at how the discoveries, talents, and ideas of these women have helped guide the country since its very beginnings.100 Artists Who Shaped World History (100 Series)
Par Barbara Krystal. 2023
Learn all about the fascinating lives and tremendous impact of 100 extraordinary artists from around the world with this fact-filled…
biography collection for kids 8 and upThis easy-to-read biography collection includes:100 one-page biographies: Find out how artists from around the world made history!Illustrated portraits: Each biography includes an illustration to help bring history to life!A timeline, trivia questions, project ideas, and more: Boost your learning and test your knowledge with fun activities and resources!From Leonardo Da Vinci to Vincent van Gogh to Andy Warhol and many more, readers will be introduced to painters, sculptors, photographers throughout history. Organized chronologically, 100 Artists Who Shaped World History offers a look at how the lives, techniques, advancements, and great works of artists have influenced culture and society for thousands of years.Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
Par Jon Meacham. 2012
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review * The Washington Post…
* Entertainment Weekly * The Seattle Times * St. Louis Post-Dispatch * Bloomberg BusinessweekIn this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era. Philosophers think; politicians maneuver. Jefferson's genius was that he was both and could do both, often simultaneously. Such is the art of power. Thomas Jefferson hated confrontation, and yet his understanding of power and of human nature enabled him to move men and to marshal ideas, to learn from his mistakes, and to prevail. Passionate about many things--women, his family, books, science, architecture, gardens, friends, Monticello, and Paris--Jefferson loved America most, and he strove over and over again, despite fierce opposition, to realize his vision: the creation, survival, and success of popular government in America. Jon Meacham lets us see Jefferson's world as Jefferson himself saw it, and to appreciate how Jefferson found the means to endure and win in the face of rife partisan division, economic uncertainty, and external threat. Drawing on archives in the United States, England, and France, as well as unpublished Jefferson presidential papers, Meacham presents Jefferson as the most successful political leader of the early republic, and perhaps in all of American history. The father of the ideal of individual liberty, of the Louisiana Purchase, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and of the settling of the West, Jefferson recognized that the genius of humanity--and the genius of the new nation--lay in the possibility of progress, of discovering the undiscovered and seeking the unknown. From the writing of the Declaration of Independence to elegant dinners in Paris and in the President's House; from political maneuverings in the boardinghouses and legislative halls of Philadelphia and New York to the infant capital on the Potomac; from his complicated life at Monticello, his breathtaking house and plantation in Virginia, to the creation of the University of Virginia, Jefferson was central to the age. Here too is the personal Jefferson, a man of appetite, sensuality, and passion. The Jefferson story resonates today not least because he led his nation through ferocious partisanship and cultural warfare amid economic change and external threats, and also because he embodies an eternal drama, the struggle of the leadership of a nation to achieve greatness in a difficult and confounding world.Praise for Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power "This is probably the best single-volume biography of Jefferson ever written."--Gordon S. Wood "A big, grand, absorbing exploration of not just Jefferson and his role in history but also Jefferson the man, humanized as never before."--Entertainment Weekly"[Meacham] captures who Jefferson was, not just as a statesman but as a man. . . . By the end of the book . . . the reader is likely to feel as if he is losing a dear friend. . . . [An] absorbing tale."--The Christian Science Monitor"This terrific book allows us to see the political genius of Thomas Jefferson better than we have ever seen it before. In these endlessly fascinating pages, Jefferson emerges with such vitality that it seems as if he might still be alive today."--Doris Kearns GoodwinFrom the Hardcover edition.Constantius III: Rome's Lost Hope
Par Ian Hughes. 2022
The acclaimed historian &“rescues from an undeserved obscurity one of Rome&’s emperors . . . A simply fascinating and extraordinary historical study&” (Midwest…
Book Review). Constantius is an important, but almost forgotten, figure. He came to the fore in or around 410 when he was appointed Magister Militum (Master of Troops) to Honorius, the young Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. His predecessor, Stilicho, had been murdered by his own troops and much of Gaul and Hispania had been overrun by barbarians or usurpers. One by one Constantius eliminated the usurpers and defeated or came to terms with the various invading groups. Most notoriously, he allowed the Visigoths to settle in Gaul in return for their help in defeating the Vandals and Alans who had seized parts of Hispania, a decision with far-reaching consequences. Constantius married Honorius&’ sister and was eventually proclaimed his co-emperor. However, the Eastern Roman Emperor, Honorius&’ nephew, refused to accept his appointment and Constantius was preparing a military expedition to enforce this recognition when he died suddenly, having been emperor for just seven months. Ian Hughes considers his career, assessing his actions in the context of the difficult situation he inherited.Alexander the Great versus Julius Caesar: Who was the Greatest Commander in the Ancient World?
Par Simon Elliott. 2022
An exhaustive comparison of two great leaders, using seven traits to judge their military successes with the Macedonian Army and…
the Republican Roman Army. In the annals of ancient history the lights of Alexander the Great and Gaius Julius Caesar shine brighter than any other, inspiring generations of dynasts and despots with their imperial exploits. Each has been termed the greatest military leader of the ancient world, but who actually was the best? In this book Dr Simon Elliott first establishes a set of criteria by which to judge the strategic and tactical genius of both. He then considers both in turn in brand-new, up-to-date military biographies, starting with Alexander, undefeated in battle and conqueror of the largest empire the world had seen by the age of 26. Next Caesar, the man who played the crucial role in expanding Roman territory to the size which would later emerge as the Empire under his great nephew, adopted son and heir Augustus. The book&’s detailed conclusion sets each of their military careers against the criteria set out earlier to finally answer the question: who was the greatest military leader in the ancient world? &“Takes the attributes of the lives of these two great individuals of history and compares each man against each other . . . beautifully written . . . an informed and comprehensive read.&” —UK Historian &“A truly fantastic book . . . makes the history that Elliott teaches us fun and engaging as we follow these great generals on their exploits . . . It is one of the best ancient history books I have read.&” —History with Jackson