History

Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California. She was graduated from Smith College and worked for the OSS during World War II in Ceylon and China, where she met Paul Child. After they married they lived in Paris, where she studied at the Cordon Bleu and taught cooking with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, with whom she wrote the first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). In 1963, Boston's WGBH launched The French Chef television series, which made her a national celebrity, e... more info>>

What really happened during that early twilight zone of human existence after the last Ice Age? We live in the period called the Holocene, which began 11,000 years ago, and of which we know relatively little except for the past 5,000 years since writing was invented. But there are mysterious megaliths around the world, and other evidence that all is not what we may think. Will we ever find out the whole story?

Be a tourist in ancient Rome during the time of Diocletian. Savor the smells, the sights, the thrills of the ancient world capital as no standard history text can offer. First of two unforgettable parts crammed with detailed info and interesting explanations. Part 1 brings you from a rural villa to the outskirts of Rome. Part 2 (coming soon) walks you through the city itself. Infonana offers entertaining and informative nonfiction for digital readers on the go.

From the Crusades to the modern age of chemical warfare and smart bombs, history is littered with truly disastrous military campaigns. How to Lose a War chronicles some of the most remarkable strategic catastrophes and doomed military adventures of overreaching invaders and clueless defenders--whether the failure was a result of poor planning, miscalculations, monumental ego, or failed intelligence ... or just a really stupid idea to begin with. Alexander invades India--and ends up in deep vinda... more info>>

"More dramatic than fiction...THE GUNS OF AUGUST is a magnificent narrative--beautifully organized, elegantly phrased, skillfully paced and sustained....The product of painstaking and sophisticated research."--CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Tuchman has brought to life again the people and events that led up to Worl War I. With attention to fascinating detail, and an intense knowledge of her subject and its characters, Ms. Tuchman reveals, for the first time,... more info>>

FUNNY.OUTRAGEOUS.TRUE. Have you ever wondered why some of the biggest problems we face, from illegal immigration to global warming to poverty, never seem to get fixed? The reason is simple: the solutions just aren't very convenient. Fortunately, radio and television host Glenn Beck doesn't care much about convenience; he cares about common sense. Take the issue of poverty, for example. Over the last forty years, America's ten poorest cities all had one simple thing in common, but self-serving po... more info>>

Enjoy a walk through living, breathing ancient Rome during the rule of Diocletian. The smells, the sights, the sounds, all come to life in this final part of a two-part series filled with delightful detail and startling observation.

From the New York Times-bestselling author of In Harm's Way comes a true-life story of American soldiers overcoming great odds to achieve a stunning military victory.Horse Soldiers is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy across mountainous terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, whic... more info>>

The definitive account of Germany's malign transformation under Hitler's total rule and the implacable march to war... This magnificent second volume of Richard J. Evans's three-volume history of Nazi Germany was hailed by Benjamin Schwartz of the Atlantic Monthly as "the definitive English-language account... gripping and precise." It chronicles the incredible story of Germany's radical reshaping under Nazi rule. As those who were deemed unworthy to be counted among the German people were dealt... more info>>

The ship carrying the devout to Jerusalem has run into rough waters. Onboard is Manuila, controversial leader of the "Foundlings," a sect that worships him as the Messiah. But soon the polarizing leader is no longer a passenger or a prophet but a corpse, beaten to death by someone almost supernaturally strong. But not everything is as it seems, and someone else sailing has become enmeshed in the mystery: the seemingly slow but actually astute sleuth Sister Pelagia. Her investigation of the crime... more info>>

"What should we have for dinner?" To one degree or another this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore's dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn't--which mushrooms should be avoided, for example, and which berries we can enjoy. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore's dilemma... more info>>

In a battery of events that will make a hero out of an illiterate private, a young Richard Sharpe poses as the enemy to bring down a ruthless Indian dictator backed by fearsome French troops. The year is 1799, and Richard Sharpe is just beginning his military career. An inexperienced young private in His Majesty's service, Sharpe becomes part of an expedition to India to push the ruthless Tippoo of Mysore from his throne and drive out his French allies. To penetrate the Tippoo's city and make co... more info>>

One of the great secrets of the Cold War, hidden for decades, is revealed at last. Early in 1968 a nuclear-armed Soviet submarine sank in the waters off Hawaii, hundreds of miles closer to American shores than it should have been. Compelling evidence, assembled here for the first time, strongly suggests that the sub, K-129, sank while attempting to fire a nuclear missile, most likely at the naval base at Pearl Harbor. We now know that the Soviets had lost track of the sub; it had become a rogue.... more info>>

Told with urgency and sharp political insight, Nixonland recaptures America's turbulent 1960s and early 1970s and reveals how Richard Nixon rose from the political grave to seize and hold the presidency. Perlstein's epic account begins in the blood and fire of the 1965 Watts riots, nine months after Lyndon Johnson's historic landslide victory over Barry Goldwater appeared to herald a permanent liberal consensus in the United States. Yet the next year, scores of liberals were tossed out of Congre... more info>>

Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of finance, from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on what he calls Planet Finance. Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot, lucre, moolah, readies, the wherewithal: Call it what you like, it matters. To Christians, love of it is the root of all evil. To generals, it's the sinews of war. To revolutionaries, it's the chains of labor. But in The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson shows that finance is in fac... more info>>

In 1967, a young E. Michael Helms boarded a bus to the legendary grounds of Parris Island, where mere boys were forged into hardened Marines--and sent to the jungles of Vietnam. It was the first stop on a journey that would forever change him--and by its end, he would be awarded the Purple Heart Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation, Navy Unit Citation, and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry. From the brutality and endurance-straining ordeals of boot camp to the endless horror of c... more info>>

Three hundred years after his adventures at sea, Captain Kidd is still the best known pirate in the English-speaking world. But what historians, novelists and the general public do not know is that Kidd was not a cardboard-cutout villain, a Blackbeard with firecrackers in his hair. In fact, he wasn't even a pirate. He was a successful NY sea-captain hired by the Lords of London to chase pirates, and the man he wanted to capture more than any other was a long-forgotten rogue by the name of Robert... more info>>

The Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments to it). Also included are the Declaration of Independence, the 17 subsequent amendments to the Constitution, and brief biographies of the 55 of the Founding Fathers (those who were delegates from each of the thirteen original states except Rhode Island, which did not send any delegates, to the Constitutional Convention, which was held in Philadelphia in 1787). This historical edition of the Constitutution is a ... more info>>

Six Days of War was a New York Times Bestseller and Washington Post Best Book Award Winner in 2002. The book has been widely recognized as the definitive telling of the Six Day War in a context which is relevant today.

Winner of the National Book Award for nonfiction, this extraordinary bestseller is still the most incisive, thought-provoking book ever written about the Middle East. Thomas L. Friedman, three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Foreign Affairs Columnist for The New York Times, drew on his extensive experience in the region to write a book that The Wall Street Journal called "a sparkling intellectual guideBook ... an engrossing journey not to be missed." As the conflict in the Middle East... more info>>

There is no story in twentieth-century history more important to understand than Hitler's rise to power and the collapse of civilization in Nazi Germany. With The Coming of the Third Reich, Richard Evans, one of the world's most distinguished historians, has written the definitive account for our time. A masterful synthesis of a vast body of scholarly work integrated with important new research and interpretations, Evans's history restores drama and contingency to the rise to power of Hitler and... more info>>

A richly detailed and dramatic account of one of the greatest achievements of humankindAt 9:32 A.M. on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 rocket launched in the presence of more than a million spectators who had gathered to witness a truly historic event. It carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins to the last frontier of human imagination: the moon.Rocket Men is the thrilling story of the moon mission, and it restores the mystery and majesty to an event that may have become too familiar ... more info>>

A richly imagined novel of the Old West, as spare and vivid as a high plains sunset, from one of the world's most talented performers. It was a long time ago, now, and there were many gunfights to follow, but I remember as well as I remember anything the first time I saw Virgil Cole shoot. Time slowed down for him. Always steady, and never fast ... When it comes to writing, Robert B. Parker knows no boundaries. From the iconic Spenser detective series and the novels featuring Sunny Randall and J... more info>>

No Ordinary Time is a monumental work, a brilliantly conceived chronicle of one of the most vibrant and revolutionary periods in the history of the United States. With an extraordinary collection of details, Goodwin masterfully weaves together a striking number of story lines--Eleanor and Franklin's marriage and remarkable partnership, Eleanor's life as First Lady, and FDR's White House and its impact on America as well as on a world at war. Goodwin effectively melds these details and stories in... more info>>

It was the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold. In 1985, at a heated auction by Christie's of London, a 1787 bottle of Chateau Lafite Bordeaux--one of a cache of bottles unearthed in a bricked-up Paris cellar and supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson--went for $156,000 to a member of the Forbes family. The discoverer of the bottle was pop-band manager turned wine collector Hardy Rodenstock, who had a knack for finding extremely old and exquisite wines. But rumors about the bottle soon arose. ... more info>>