In Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce’s vastly outnumbered Scottish troops spectacularly defeated the English army led by Edward II. This groundbreaking book brings the battle to life with colorful detail and fresh insights, explaining what happened in the years leading to 1314, how the battle unfolded, and the impact of its legacy in both Scotland and England.

This major new biography by a distinguished British historian offers a remarkably comprehensive portrait of a leader whose actions changed the course of Western history and resonate some two thousand years later.

This groundbreaking book uncovers the lost story of the Comanche Indians and the vast and powerful empire they built in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The volume challenges the idea of indigenous peoples as victims of European expansion and offers a new perspective on the history of the colonization of North America.

What was going on in Europe (a relatively minor peninsula in world terms) that enabled it by 1000 A.D. to become a driving global force? This sensational interdisciplinary work by a leading archaeologist reorients our understanding of Old Europe’s success, uncovering a set of complex factors that have gone unrecognized until now.

This lively, illustrated history of Himalayan mountaineering recounts the stories of the outsized individuals who have tackled the world’s highest peaks since the 1890s. The book looks at the circumstances that inspired expeditions and why the expeditionary culture that once emphasized teamwork and fellowship among climbers is no longer the norm.

This portrait of Fred Astaire, widely acclaimed as America’s greatest male dancer, explores his life, his unforgettable movie performances with Ginger Rogers and other great dance partners, and how he came to represent the very essence of style, class, and charm.

A full account of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign of WWI, this book sets aside the many myths about the Allied operation and arrives at the devastating conclusion that nearly 390,000 troops died in vain.

In this major new account of the fall of the Roman Empire, prizewinning author Adrian Goldsworthy examines the painful centuries of the superpower’s decline. Bringing history to life through the stories of the men, women, heroes, and villains involved, the author uncovers surprising lessons about the rise and fall of great nations.

Translated into seventeen languages since its first publication in 1936, E. H. Gombrich’s bestselling history of the world is at last available in English. Gombrich tells the story of mankind from the Stone Age to the atomic bomb, focusing not on small detail but on the sweep of human experience, the extent of human achievement, and the depth of its frailty.

A groundbreaking biography focusing on the young Napoleon and his improbable rise to power. Debunking many of the myths that Napoleon himself promulgated as an early manipulator of the media, Dwyer’s book sheds new light on Napoleon’s inner life and character, and on the twisting path that led from his boyhood in Corsica to the coup that gave him leadersh...

A vivid new biography of South American revolutionary José de San Martín, an enigmatic leader who liberated Chile and Peru from Spain but died an exile in France.

This stunning exposé of Soviet espionage in the U.S. during the 1930s and 40s is based on extensive KGB archives never revealed before. With new information on Alger Hiss, Robert Oppenheimer, the Rosenbergs, and many others, the book for the first time documents the secret world of Stalin’s spies and the Americans who worked with them.

Remembered today mainly for a question he never uttered (“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”), Henry Morton Stanley was in truth a brilliant adventurer who overcame a nightmarish childhood to become Africa’s greatest explorer. Drawing on previously closed archives, this grand and colorful biography presents the first accurate picture of Stanley and his ex...

Books on Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss abound, as countless scholars have labored to uncover the facts behind Chambers’s shocking accusation before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the summer of 1948—that Alger Hiss, a former rising star in the State Department, had been a Communist and engaged in espionage. In this highly origina...

This beautifully written biography of the internationally renowned Palestinian poet Taha offers a compelling portrait of the man as well as a nuanced, deeply human view of the tragedy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Taha’s story, like his poetry, is at once profoundly local and utterly universal.

This book is the first to collect the best columns and essays of Henry Fairlie, the colorful political and cultural commentator renowned for his brilliant style, original ideas, and fearless criticism of those in power on both sides of the Atlantic.

Ali A. Allawi—a respected Iraqi statesman and thinker who has served the postwar government in several posts—offers a bold analysis of today’s crisis in the Islamic world. He offers proposals that will surprise some and anger others, but they cannot be ignored by anyone concerned about the future of Islamic civilization.

Tackling one of the world’s most perplexing and divisive issues, renowned historian Benny Morris considers the legacy of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, previous proposed solutions to the conflict between Palestinians and Israel, and the viability of various options for the future. His conclusions inspire hope for a just solution in a region where it is most sorely ...

Marking the tenth anniversary of the Euro, this book takes a look at its tumultuous history, its status in global economics and politics, and the pressures that present enormous challenges for the Euro’s future. The author offers unique insights into the multi-national intrigues that gave birth to the Euro and underscores its vital role in world monetary affair...

A renowned critic demolishes the insistent claims of atheists and others who assert that science has rendered God and faith obsolete. Seasoning his serious book with humor, Terry Eagleton reexamines God, Jesus, free will, scientific thought, and liberalism to arrive at the conclusion that reason and faith are by no means mutually exclusive.

This book recounts the colorful history of America’s love-hate relationship with Wall Street. Steve Fraser frames his fascinating analysis around the roles of four iconic Wall Street types—the aristocrat, the confidence man, the hero, and the immoralist—all recurring figures who yield surprising insights about how the nation has wrestled, and still ...

Every day we make decisions on topics ranging from the personal investments we select to the schools we pick for our children to the foods we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, as authors Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein astutely observe, we don’t always choose well. The reason, the authors explain, is that we all are susceptible to cognitive b...

In this gripping book, a U.S. Army brigade commander offers an unprecedented on-the-ground account of the crucial first year of the war in Iraq. Colonel Peter Mansoor assesses the successes and failures of military operations against the insurgency and underscores the critical lessons to be learned from them.

This reader-friendly quotation book is unique in its focus on modern and American quotations.  It is also the first to use state-of-the-art research methods to capture famous quotations and to trace sources of quotations to their true origins.  It contains more than 12,000 entries not only from literary and historical sources but also from popular culture, sports, computers, po...

Ivan Brunetti presents an exciting new anthology focusing on some of the most original comic artists working today. Featuring creations by Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, and dozens of other prominent or emerging artists, the book shows how today’s cartoonists are expanding and transforming the genre.

Inspired by the process of creating a library for his fifteenth-century home near the Loire, in France, Alberto Manguel, the acclaimed writer on books and reading, has taken up the subject of libraries. “Libraries,” he says, “have always seemed to me pleasantly mad places, and for as long as I can remember I’ve been seduced by their labyrinthi...

The prodigiously gifted Isaac Rosenfeld, Saul Bellow’s closest friend and most brilliant rival, died abruptly at 38, leaving his early promise unfulfilled. This book is the first to explore the genius of this unjustly forgotten writer, his place in Jewish letters, and the cost of choosing a writer’s life.

A lively and entertaining history of the hamburger and why it is no mere sandwich in America, but an icon. Josh Ozersky uncovers an array of facts and stories about the hamburger’s evolution and chronicles how the burger has reflected—and even shaped—American business and culture.

This anthology presents a selection of 50 stories, recollections, essays, and poems featured in the Yale Anglers’ Journal during its first remarkable decade. Accompanied by original artwork from James Prosek, these writings all celebrate fish and the experience of fishing.

In this appealing book, acclaimed photographer Ralph Gibson offers more than 60 intimate black-and-white portraits of guitar masters playing their instruments.

A collection of off-stage photographs of rock & roll superstars––among them Elvis, Eric Clapton, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix––by the most talented photographers of the era.