History

May 29, 1453: one of the world's great empires breathed its last breath and died under a pounding by the world's first super siege gun. That empire was the ancient Roman Empire--its surviving Eastern half, which outlived the Rome of the West by a thousand years. The people of Constantinople wouldn't know what 'Byzantine' meant--they considered themselves to be Romans. Orban's great bombard, named Basilica, pounded the impregnable walls for weeks. It was capable of tossing stone balls weighing ne... more info>>

From ancient Roman religion, and from studies of Ice Age and Neolithic people, we learn that the great religions of history (and pre-history) have more in common than we thought. In many Christian churches, for example, the motifs of bread and wine along the communion rail directly relate to the Neolithic miracles of grain and fermentation. The earliest kings were scapegoats, ritually killed to atone for their people's sins. Ice Age caverns of more than 20,000 years ago were animist cathedrals i... more info>>

What really happened during that early twilight zone of human existence--after the last Ice Age, but before people started writing things down? We live in an epoch called the Holocene, which began about 12,000 years ago, and of which we know relatively little except for the past 6,000 years since writing was invented. But there are mysterious megaliths around the world, and strange cities built by skull cultists who kept their dead around--and other evidence that all is not what we may think. Wi... more info>>

Torn from home and family, beautiful, gentle Indian woman Winsome is plunged into the wild, and sometimes brutal, Viking life. Brand Bjornson's single-minded pursuit of Viking justice is interrupted when he captures a lovely Indian woman who rejects his advances and insists on her right to give herself only to the man she marries. His sense of honor heightened, can Brand find a way to pursue justice and still keep the one woman he desires?

Global warming is a reality, not for the first time in the past 130,000 years. The only question is how much of it is caused by nature, and how much by mankind. We examine the counterintuitive possibility that global warming may lead to an ice age, starting as early as our lifetimes. Our current epoch, the Holocene, began about 12,000 years ago. The Holocene has witnessed at least two warming episodes and several coolings. The European Medieval Warming Period was an anomaly lasting from 850 to 1... more info>>

When Adolf Hitler promised the German nation he would make them in to a thousand year Reich, a Third Reich, he was not just chattering. He was a shrewd manipulator of public opinion, who recognized the suffering of his adopted people (he was Austrian, not German) after their massive losses and defeat in World War I. He made many promises, including a return to the original First Reich--the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. This article traces the history of the First Reich, and its surpris... more info>>

Alone in the annals of history stands a super-weapon that terrorized Paris during Germany's last desperate campaign to win World War I. The Paris Gun was a marvel of technology. It required the work of astronomers, geographers, physicists, chemists, and other scientific experts to create a weapon that could fire on Paris from behind German lines--a range of 81 miles (130 kilometers). The shell traveled through the edge of space, and calculations had to be made to account for the earth's rotation... more info>>

The broad scope and exquisite details of Japanese storytelling. The stories, beliefs, and poetry of Japan are presented in a higly-organized format. Dozens of legends grouped by type (Animals, Trees, Insects, etc.)--including a number of categories unique to Japanese lore, such as Bells, Mount Fuji, and Fox Legends. Creation myths, hero tales, festivals, gods and goddesses, ghosts and superstitions, and lots more.

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.

The Most Evil Man in Italy? Cesare Borgia served as Machiavelli's model of the ideal ruler for The Prince. The illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI, he was a cardinal at age 22. He lived hard and died hard, murdering his enemies, seizing power in Florence, and marrying off his sister Lucretia for political gain, not once but three times. This is his remarkable story.

The inscription is found in ruins around the former Roman Empire: Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas. From a military headquarters at Dura Europos (in modern Syria) to a sports complex in ancient Pompeii to the towns of Manchester and Cirencester in Great Britain, the mysterious saying appears to have been an aphorism or a spell of extraordinary importance in Classical Roman society. Since at least 1880, generations of scholars have been working to solve it, in various disciplines, and until now nobo... more info>>

The true life story of the frontier scout Martha Jane Cannary, who was known as "Calamity Jane." Calamity Jane scouted for General Custer, delivered the mail for the Pony Express, went to Deadwood with Wild Bill Hickock, and ended her career as an entertainer in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Shows. In this story of her own life she tells of her exciting adventures. This is a low reading level book with high interest for people seeking authentic narratives by historical women.

Experience history as the American public heard it on the radio during those eventful and dramatic years of the Great Depression and the Second World War. Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the American public 30 times over the radio between 1933 and 1944. These addresses are collected here with other Roosevelt speeches, a timeline fitting these addresses into events of the day, and 30 historic photographs.

  Updated with New Information and Additional Patches   They’re on the shoulders of all military personnel: patches showing what a soldier’s unit does. But what if that’s top secret?   “A glimpse of [the Pentagon’s] dark world through a revealing lens—patches—the kind worn on military uniforms. . . The book offers not only clues into the nature of the secret programs, but also a glimpse of zealous male bonding among the presumed elite of... more info>>

T.R. Fehrenbach is a native Texan, military historian and the author of several important books about the region, but none as significant as this work, arguably the best single volume about Texas ever published. His account of America's most turbulent state offers a view that only an insider could capture. From the native tribes who lived there to the Spanish and French soldiers who wrested the territory for themselves, then to the dramatic ascension of the republic of Texas and the saga of the ... more info>>

"We had to destroy the village in order to save it." On July 17, 1944, two ammo ships blew up at the docks of the Port Chicago Naval Magazine on the south shore of Suisun Bay east of San Francisco. The blast killed 320 people, injured 390, and caused millions of dollars in damage up to 35 miles away. Port Chicago, population about 1,500, a mile south of the piers, sustained property damage and a few injuries. In 1967, claiming fear of a repeat explosion, the Navy tried to buy the town and evacua... more info>>

Lincoln was never murdered, and the U.S. never fought in WWI ... and Germany has the atomic bomb! Iry Atherton fights for freedom in the Civil War, and becomes America's longest-serving soldier! A must read for alternative history buffs who take it with a twist!

An Enthralling True Adventure. Ernest Shackleton was an expert Arctic explorer and a veteran of Scott's expedition to the North Pole when he sailed the Endurance toward Antarctica, but only one day's journey from the continent, the ship became trapped in ice. Marooned for ten months, the expedition members contended with inhuman cold, diminishing supplies, and the simple perils of mistakes resulting from boredom and isolation. Shackleton tells the whole story from the perspective of a leader who... more info>>

These speeches touch the pulse of a nation like no other documents in history. Compiled herein are the stepping stones of Liberty as delivered by each President of the United States of America. In this volume: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams.

These speeches touch the pulse of a nation like no other documents in history. Compiled herein are the stepping stones of Liberty as delivered by each President of the United States of America. In this volume: Andrew Jackson, Martin van Buren, John Tyler, James Polk, Zachary Taylor.

A chance discovery in Syria reveals answers to the mystery of the ancient Egyptian sun-king, the heretic Akhenaten and his beautiful wife Nefertiti. Inscriptions in the tomb of his sister Beketaten, otherwise known as Scarab, tell a story of life and death, intrigue and warfare, in and around the golden court of the kings of the glorious 18th dynasty. The narrative of a young girl growing up at the centre of momentous events - the abolition of the gods, foreign invasion and the fall of a once-... more info>>

Understanding North Korea through its propaganda What do the North Koreans really believe? How do they see themselves and the world around them?Here B.R. Myers, a North Korea analyst and a contributing editor of The Atlantic, presents the first full-length study of the North Korean worldview. Drawing on extensive research into the regime's domestic propaganda, including films, romance novels and other artifacts of the personality cult, Myers analyzes each of the country's official myths in turn-... more info>>

In 1943, the SS Corydon Snow sails from Pearl Harbor on a voyage that will take it to the most dangerous battle areas of the Pacific.

A compelling and readable account of the four thousand year history of a people that spans the globe and transcends the ages. From the ancient and simple faith of a small tribe to a global religion with adherents in every nation, the path of the Jews is traced through countless expulsions and migrations, the great tragedy of the Holocaust, and the joy of founding a homeland in Israel. Putting the struggle of a persecuted people into perspective, Max Dimont asks whether the tragic sufferings of t... more info>>

One of the most fascinating works of history ever written, Winston's Churchill's monumental The Second World War is a six-volume account of the struggle of the Allied powers in Europe against Germany and the Axis. Told through the eyes of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, The Second World War is also the story of one nation's singular, heroic role in the fight against tyranny. Pride and patriotism are evident everywhere in Churchill's dramatic account and for good reason. Having learned ... more info>>