History

The Ruin of the Roman Empire

by James J. O'Donnell

The dream Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar shared of uniting Europe, the Medi-terranean, and the Middle East in a single community shuddered and then collapsed in the wars and disasters of the sixth century....

We'll Always Have Paris

by John Baxter

For more than a century, pilgrims from all over the world seeking romance and passion have made their way to the City of Light. The seductive lure of Paris has long been irresistible to lovers, artists, epicureans,...

A Short History of the United States

by Robert V. Remini

Offering an abbreviated, accessible, and lively narrative history of the United States, this erudite volume contains the essential facts about the discovery, settlement, growth, and development of the American...

Lily Dale

by Christine Wicker

In Lily Dale, New York, the dead don't die. Instead, they flit among the elms and stroll along the streets. According to spiritualists who have ruled this community for five generations, the spirits never go...

Crossing the Continent 1527-1540

by Robert Goodwin

The true story of America's first great explorer and adventurer—an African slave named Esteban Dorantes

Crossing the Continent takes us on an epic journey from Africa to Europe and America as Dr. Robert Goodwin...

Unholy Business

by Nina Burleigh

In 2002, an ancient limestone box called the James Ossuary was trumpeted on the world's front pages as the first material evidence of the existence of Jesus Christ. Today it is exhibit number one in a forgery...

The Eve of Destruction

by Howard Blum

On October 6, 1973—Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar—the Arab world launched a bold and ingeniously conceived surprise attack against Israel. After three days of intense, bloody combat,...

The Brigade

by Howard Blum & Hardscrabble Entertainment

November 1944. The British government finally agrees to send a brigade of 5,000 Jewish volunteers from Palestine to Europe to fight the German army. But when the war ends and the soldiers witness firsthand the...

The Mental Floss History of the World

by Erik Sass, Steve Wiegand & Editors of Mental Floss

Pop quiz! Who said what about history?

History is . . .

(a) more or less bunk.

(b) a nightmare from which I am trying to awaken.

(c) as thoroughly infected with lies as a street whore with syphilis.

Match your answers:...

Quarrel with the King

by Adam Nicolson

Spanning the most turbulent and dramatic years of English history—from the 1520s through 1650—Quarrel with the King tells the remarkable saga of one of the greatest families in English history, the Pembrokes,...

The Years of Extermination

Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction 2008

by Saul Friedländer

The enactment of the German extermination policies that resulted in the murder of six million European Jews depended upon many factors, including the cooperation of local authorities and police departments,...

Seasons on Harris

by David Yeadon

The Outer Hebrides of Scotland epitomize the evocative beauty and remoteness of island life. The most dramatic of all the Hebrides is Harris, a tiny island formed from the oldest rocks on earth, a breathtaking...

Seasons in Basilicata

by David Yeadon

Award-winning travel writer and illustrator, David Yeadon embarks with his wife, Anne on an exploration of the "lost word" of Basilicata, in the arch of Italy's boot. What is intended as a brief sojourn turns...

Nazi Germany and the Jews

by Saul Friedländer

A great historian crowns a lifetime of thought and research by answering a question that has haunted us for more than 50 years: How did one of the most industrially and culturally advanced nations in the world...

Almond Eyes, Lotus Feet

by Sharada Dwivedi & Shalini Devi Holkar

A national bestseller in India, Almond Eyes, Lotus Feet is the fictional memoir of a wise Indian princess, who recalls the ways the women of the Indian court found friendship, faith, and love through their beauty...

The Snoring Bird

by Bernd Heinrich

Although Gerd Heinrich, a devoted naturalist, specialized in wasps, Bernd Heinrich tried to distance himself from his "old-fashioned" father, becoming a hybrid: a modern, experimental biologist with a naturalist's...

Misquoting Jesus

by Bart D. Ehrman

When world-class biblical scholar Bart Ehrman first began to study the texts of the Bible in their original languages he was startled to discover the multitude of mistakes and intentional alterations that had...

It Looked Good on Paper

by Bill Fawcett

A remarkable compendium of wild schemes, mad plans, crazy inventions, and truly glorious disasters

Every phenomenally bad idea seemed like a good idea to someone. How else can you explain the Ford Edsel or the...

Inside Gitmo

by Gordon Cucullu

The U.S. military detention center at Guantánamo Bay—known to the public as Gitmo—has been called the American Gulag, a scene of medieval horrors where innocent farmers and goat herders swept up in Afghanistan...

How to Lose a Battle

by Bill Fawcett

A remarkable compendium of the worst military

decisions and the men who made them

The annals of history are littered with horribly bad military leaders. These combat incompetents found amazing ways to ensure...