Joshua Slocum was the first man ever to sail around the world single-handedly. He completed his voyage in 1895, without radio and modern technology, when native pirates roamed the seas. It makes for an exciting tale-all 46,000 miles and three years of it.

Sailing Alone Around the World

Read The Climb, Anatoli Boukreev (portrayed by Ingvar Sigurðsson in the film Everest) and G. Weston DeWalt’s compelling account of those fateful events on Everest. In May 1996 three expeditions attempted to climb Mount Everest on the Southeast Ridge route pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Crowded conditions slowed their progress. Late in the day twenty-three men and women—including expedition leaders Scott Fischer and Rob Hall—were caught in a ferocious blizzard. Disoriented and out of oxygen, climbers struggled to find their way down the mountain as darkness approached. Alone and climbing blind, Anatoli Boukreev brought climbers back from the edge of certain death. “Powerful … a breath of brisk, sometimes bitter clarity … Boukreev did the one thing that denies the void. He took action. He chose danger, and he saved lives.”—The New York Times Book Review

The Climb

In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most fascinating of America's founders helped define our national character. Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. He explores the wit behind Poor Richard’s Almanac and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nation’s alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises that created a near-perfect Constitution. In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin’s amazing life, showing how he helped to forge the American national identity and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.

Benjamin Franklin

In this, companion volume to his worldwide bestseller, Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore offers a way of living in this new and confusing century. Drawing on faiths front all over tile world, as well as from his own vast well of knowledge and personal experience, Moore shows its ]low religion can be used to embrace others, rather than exclude them. He helps its become comfortable with our doubts, and reveals a, liberating truth -- it is in the dark corners of the soul Chat trite faith is born. Intimate and provocative, Moore writes with the compassion of a parent and the wisdom of a trite teacher.

The Soul's Religion

“It would sweeten a man’s temper at any time to read it,” wrote Charles Lamb some years after this book was first published in 1653. As the greatest classic on the art of fishing, The Compleat Angler has never been equaled. Filled with advice on the catching and cooking of fish, the efficiency of various baits, and the making of artificial flies, this work remains an invaluable guide. But it is also an eloquent portrait of the 17th century English countryside and the delightful life Walton and Cotton found there. No book, other than the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, has been reprinted more often than The Compleat Angler. “It unfolds the heart and soul of the angler … a man who loves books as well as his art …”—from the Introduction by John Buchan

The Compleat Angler

Blind since the age of three, young Louis Braille wanted to be able to read. He spent every spare moment punching holes in paper with a stylus until, by the age of 15, he had invented his own alphabet. This vivid biography, written by an award-winning author, allows young listeners the opportunity to identify with and to appreciate a real life hero.

Out of Darkness

The Battle of Antietam, fought on September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest single day in American history, with more than 6,000 soldiers killed--four times the number lost on D-Day, and twice the number killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks. In Crossroads of Freedom, America's most eminent Civil War historian, James M. McPherson, paints a masterful account of this pivotal battle, the events that led up to it, and its aftermath. As McPherson shows, by September 1862 the survival of the United States was in doubt. The Union had suffered a string of defeats, and Robert E. Lee's army was in Maryland, poised to threaten Washington. The British government was openly talking of recognizing the Confederacy and brokering a peace between North and South. Northern armies and voters were demoralized. And Lincoln had shelved his proposed edict of emancipation months before, waiting for a victory that had not come--that some thought would never come. Both Confederate and Union troops knew the war was at a crossroads, that they were marching toward a decisive battle. It came along the ridges and in the woods and cornfields between Antietam Creek and the Potomac River. Valor, misjudgment, and astonishing coincidence all played a role in the outcome. McPherson vividly describes a day of savage fighting in locales that became forever famous--The Cornfield, the Dunkard Church, the West Woods, and Bloody Lane. Lee's battered army escaped to fight another day, but Antietam was a critical victory for the Union. It restored morale in the North and kept Lincoln's party in control of Congress. It crushed Confederate hopes of British intervention. And it freed Lincoln to deliver the Emancipation Proclamation, which instantly changed the character of the war. McPherson brilliantly weaves these strands of diplomatic, political, and military history into a compact, swift-moving narrative that shows why America's bloodiest day is, indeed, a turning point in our history.

Crossroads of Freedom

From the author of Undaunted Courage and D-Day comes this celebration of male friendship, taken both from the pages of history and from Ambrose’s own life. Acclaimed historian Stephen Ambrose begins his examination with a glance inward—he starts this book with his brothers, his first and forever friends, and the shared experiences that join them for a lifetime, overcoming distance and misunderstandings. He writes of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a golden gift for friendship and who shared a perfect trust with his younger brother Milton in spite of their apparently unequal stations. With great feeling, Ambrose brings to life the relationships of the young soldiers of Easy Company who fought and died together from Normandy to Germany, and he describes with admiration three who fought in different armies on different sides in that war and became friends later. He recounts the friendships of Lewis and Clark and of Crazy Horse and He Dog, and he tells the story of the Custer brothers who died together at the Little Big Horn. Comrades concludes with the author’s moving recollection of his own friendship with his father. “He was my first and always most important friend. I didn’t learn that until the end, when he taught me the most important thing, that the love of father-son-father-son is a continuum, just as love and friendship are expansive.”

Comrades

LA Times Book Award winner and expert on the past and present Japan, Ian Buruma examines the transformation of a country. Following Japan's history from its opening to the West in 1853 to its hosting of the 1964 Olympics, Buruma focuses on how figures such as Commodore Matthew Perry, Douglas MacArthur, and Emperor Mitsushito helped shape this complex country.

Inventing Japan

The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling biography of America’s founding father and second president that was the basis for the acclaimed HBO series, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough. In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second president of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; who was learned beyond all but a few and regarded by some as “out of his senses”; and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abigail Adams is one of the moving love stories in American history. This is history on a grand scale—a book about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, John Adams is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.

John Adams

The Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Harry S. Truman, whose presidency included momentous events from the atomic bombing of Japan to the outbreak of the Cold War and the Korean War, told by America’s beloved and distinguished historian. The life of Harry S. Truman is one of the greatest of American stories, filled with vivid characters—Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Wallace Truman, George Marshall, Joe McCarthy, and Dean Acheson—and dramatic events. In this riveting biography, acclaimed historian David McCullough not only captures the man—a more complex, informed, and determined man than ever before imagined—but also the turbulent times in which he rose, boldly, to meet unprecedented challenges. The last president to serve as a living link between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, Truman’s story spans the raw world of the Missouri frontier, World War I, the powerful Pendergast machine of Kansas City, the legendary Whistle-Stop Campaign of 1948, and the decisions to drop the atomic bomb, confront Stalin at Potsdam, send troops to Korea, and fire General MacArthur. Drawing on newly discovered archival material and extensive interviews with Truman’s own family, friends, and Washington colleagues, McCullough tells the deeply moving story of the seemingly ordinary “man from Missouri” who was perhaps the most courageous president in our history.

Truman

The National Book Award–winning biography that tells the story of how young Teddy Roosevelt transformed himself from a sickly boy into the vigorous man who would become a war hero and ultimately president of the United States, told by master historian David McCullough. Mornings on Horseback is the brilliant biography of the young Theodore Roosevelt. Hailed as “a masterpiece” (John A. Gable, Newsday), it is the winner of the Los Angeles Times 1981 Book Prize for Biography and the National Book Award for Biography. Written by David McCullough, the author of Truman, this is the story of a remarkable little boy, seriously handicapped by recurrent and almost fatal asthma attacks, and his struggle to manhood: an amazing metamorphosis seen in the context of the very uncommon household in which he was raised. The father is the first Theodore Roosevelt, a figure of unbounded energy, enormously attractive and selfless, a god in the eyes of his small, frail namesake. The mother, Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt, is a Southerner and a celebrated beauty, but also considerably more, which the book makes clear as never before. There are sisters Anna and Corinne, brother Elliott (who becomes the father of Eleanor Roosevelt), and the lovely, tragic Alice Lee, TR’s first love. All are brought to life to make “a beautifully told story, filled with fresh detail” (The New York Times Book Review). A book to be read on many levels, it is at once an enthralling story, a brilliant social history and a work of important scholarship which does away with several old myths and breaks entirely new ground. It is a book about life intensely lived, about family love and loyalty, about grief and courage, about “blessed” mornings on horseback beneath the wide blue skies of the Badlands.

Mornings on Horseback

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Pulitzer Prize–winning classic about the relationship between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, and how it shaped the nation while steering it through the Great Depression and the outset of World War II. 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 into an unforgettable and intimate portrait of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt and of the time during which a new, modern America was born.

No Ordinary Time

In Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore explored the importance of nurturing the soul and struck a chord nationwide—the book became a long-term bestseller, topping charts across the country. Building on that book’s wisdom, Soul Mates explores how relationships of all kinds enhance our lives and fulfill the needs of our souls. Moore emphasizes the difficulties that inevitably accompany many relationships and focuses on the need to work through these differences in order to experience the deep reward that comes with intimacy and unconfined love.

Soul Mates

Using the same blend of narrative and rhetorical brilliance that made his critically acclaimed debut history so successful, Andro Linklater begins with premier U.S. surveyor Andrew Ellicott calculating the Pennsylvania-Virginia border in 1784- using telescope, chronograph, and astronomical tables. As pioneers move westward, Ellicott and his kind create property which hastens the formation of stabilizing government.

Fabric of America

Theodore Roosevelt was a colorful adventurer, statesman, and president. But he always felt that the most essential role he played was that of father to his six children. In A Bully Father, noted historical editor Joan Paterson Kerr brings together a collection of his letters—spanning the years between 1898 and 1919—which convey all the boundless affection he felt for his family. Although Roosevelt’s responsibilities often took him far from home, he remained keenly interested in the daily lives of his four sons and two daughters. Even as he watched steam shovels dig the Panama Canal, he wrote letters filled with vivid, accessible anecdotes to his children. Countless questions about their adventures, friendships, and activities sprinkle the pages. Always a prolific reader and writer, Roosevelt composed an astonishing 150,000 letters by the time he died in 1919. Jean Paterson Kerr’s perceptive biographical essay helps the listener see this lively, carefully selected part of the collection as an absorbing family chronicle.

A Bully Father

David Lamb, critically-acclaimed author of The Arabs, spent four years in Africa as a news correspondent, traveling through 48 of its countries. Written in 1983, The Africans is a remarkable and very personal commentary on the people of this vast continent. It offers colorful, close-up views of presidents, peasants, guerilla leaders, and merchants while tracing a vivid history of one of the most varied populations on earth. Everyone interested in world cultures will find The Africans a fascinating experience.

The Africans

In the early 1960s Donald McCaig left his job at a hot New York advertising agency and his Greenwich Village apartment for a rustic farm in a remote county in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. This is McCaig's story of farming in contemporary America, a timely tribute to a dying way of life.

An American Homeplace

Tim Newark's lively narrative answers the most commonly asked questions about the Dark Ages. Who were the Vandals and the Goths? What were Attila the Hun and Charlemagne really like? From surviving contemporary literature and artifacts now shrouded in myth and legend, Newark reconstructs the battles, campaigns, sieges, and legendary leaders of one of the most mysterious eras of European history.

The Barbarians

Author of fourteen biographies, Axel Madsen chronicles the people who shaped the 20th century. In The Deal Maker, he sheds light on a man whose tireless optimism led to the formation of the first super-corporation. A charismatic salesman in the late 19th century, William Durant started a cart-building business after accepting an especially comfortable ride one day. By the time he turned forty, he was a millionaire wondering what to do with the rest of his life. When he was approached by retired plumber David Buick and a group of friends from his hometown of Flint, Michigan, Durant had only ridden in an automobile twice. His ensuing creation of General Motors essentially invented modern-day corporate America, gaining and losing him three fortunes in the process. Durant's story highlights the uneasy relationship between inventors and those who control the capital to exploit those inventions. Nelson Runger's narration takes listeners to a time when men like Durant, Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan, and Pierre du Pont were making decisions that would shape America's future.

The Deal Maker

Noted historian Robert Hendrickson has written more than 40 books and has earned critical acclaim for his meticulous historical research and highly readable style. In The Road to Appomattox, by weaving together passages from diaries, military reports, and newspapers, Hendrickson creates a vivid, firsthand account of the final year of the Civil War. Putting down their arms and flags, Lee's Confederate troops made a formal surrender at Appomattox on April 12, 1865. Leading up to that day, however, was a wide path of bloody battles that ultimately claimed the lives of one out of every 50 Americans. Bringing the Civil War to an end required extraordinary logic from Generals Grant, Sherman Sheridan, Lee, and others. Join Robert Hendrickson as he traces the military strategies and engagements that preceded that grey morning at Appomattox. As you walk beside both Northern and Southern fighting men and officers, their voices will ring in your ears.

The Road to Appomattox

Historian H.W. Brands' acclaimed, comprehensive biography of Ben Franklin--the first in over 60 years--made the New York Times best-seller list, was a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination. The New Yorker hails, "Like its subject, this biography is both solid and enchanting." Many consider Franklin the most fascinating American man who ever lived. A scientist, businessman, diplomat, author, inventor, philosopher and politician, he is America's original Renaissance man. His remarkable and varied accomplishments include the discovery of electricity and the modernization of the postal system. Brilliant and bawdy, a master statesman and a cultural icon, Franklin was so important and popular in his day that, according to the author, "... only Washington mattered as much." Drawing from a wealth of sources, including previously unpublished letters to and from Franklin, Brands creates an unforgettable tribute to a man for the ages. Nelson Runger's narration highlights the incredible events and fascinating personality traits that made Franklin a legend.

The First American

"There is no human being on the face of this earth exempt from the Jewish influence. For as long as there has been history, the Jew has wandered through it, shaping it at times, riding the current silently at other times, but always leaving his mark. History without the Jew? It is inconceivable."-Howard Fast This popular history brings the history of the Jewish people into focus, from Genesis to contemporary times.

The Jews

He's been called the first modern general-the first military leader to understand that in the future, wars would be won not by fighting, but by the movement of troops. His memoirs rank with Grant's as the greatest of the Civil War. In vigorous, frank, and powerful prose, Sherman reveals his strategic planning for battles such as Bull Run, Shiloh, and Vicksburg and delivers classic lessons-and military philosophies-about this war.

The Memoirs of William T. Sherman—Excerpts

Elizabeth was not just Queen, she was ruler. In an age of male supremacy she, by sheer force of character, became not only the unchallenged leader of the English but also the first leader of an empire upon which the sun never set. Erickson's biography tells the truth about this extraordinary woman and profiles some amazing people-their personalities and culture.

The First Elizabeth

With the thoroughness of a newspaper of the era, Smith retells the old familiar stories and legends surrounding our nation's first president during the years preceding and during his terms in office. Patriarch brings George Washington to life as few historical accounts have before-showing our country's most celebrated father occupied with the business of the day, and carrying the weight of a nation.

Patriarch

Throughout the devastating years of the Civil War, the Union Army of the Potomac seldom marched in step. In this provocative book, acclaimed historian and award-winning author Stephen W. Sears takes a fascinating look at some of the intriguing Union generals and the controversies that swirled around them. Delving into historical documents and the personal papers of military officers, Sears shares the compelling stories of oft-maligned Generals McClellan and Hooker, the shocking court-martial of patriotic General Stone, the failed plots to kidnap Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and more. As the facts come to light, the Union’s renowned leaders stand revealed as what they really were: ordinary men in the grip of extraordinary times. An authority on the Civil War, Sears skillfully paints a remarkable portrait of the personalities and events that shaped our nation’s greatest crisis.

Controversies &  Commanders

Her Little Majesty is a fresh and fascinating portrait of the diminutive monarch who ruled the vast British empire for over 60 years. Award-winning biographer and historian, Carolly Erickson, transports you behind the walls of Buckingham Palace to introduce you to the quirky, loveable Queen Victoria-revealed only to her closest associates. Emotionally deprived, inadequately educated, and socially isolated for much of her life, young Victoria felt ill-prepared to ascend the throne. But the 19-year-old queen met her coronation day with outward dignity and confidence-then went home to bathe her pet dog. Even though her frequent temper tantrums and neurotic obsessions would have critics repeatedly fearing for her sanity, she became a powerful ruler, relentlessly leading her country through devastating wars and sweeping political reform. Carolly Erickson draws on diaries, letters, and historical documents to pen this dramatic account of England's popular matriarch and the turbulent era that carries her name. Narrator Nelson Runger will hold you enthralled as the glory and the adversities of the Victorian age unfold.

Her Little Majesty

The dramatic and enthralling story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the world’s longest suspension bridge at the time, a tale of greed, corruption, and obstruction but also of optimism, heroism, and determination, told by master historian David McCullough. This monumental book is the enthralling story of one of the greatest events in our nation’s history, during the Age of Optimism—a period when Americans were convinced in their hearts that all things were possible. In the years around 1870, when the project was first undertaken, the concept of building an unprecedented bridge to span the East River between the great cities of Manhattan and Brooklyn required a vision and determination comparable to that which went into the building of the great cathedrals. Throughout the fourteen years of its construction, the odds against the successful completion of the bridge seemed staggering. Bodies were crushed and broken, lives lost, political empires fell, and surges of public emotion constantly threatened the project. But this is not merely the saga of an engineering miracle; it is a sweeping narrative of the social climate of the time and of the heroes and rascals who had a hand in either constructing or exploiting the surpassing enterprise.

The Great Bridge

With the children away, and the death of Franklin's mother, it looked as if it would be a gloomy Christmas. Then the maid discovered something quite remarkable in the walk-in refrigerator: a corpse.

Eleanor Roosevelt Mysteries

The White House Pantry Murder

Written with wit and narrative force, Honey, Mud, Maggots and Other Medical Marvels is an enriching excursion into the world of folk medicine. The award-winning team of Robert and MichelE Root-Bernstein provide a fascinating glimpse into the evolution of medical traditions. In addition to the honey, mud, and maggots used in wound therapy, the Root-Bernsteins unearth cures that range from ancient Egypt to the rain forests of contemporary Latin America. Whether it's the medicinal use of clay or the components of urine, all the cures in this book have one thing in common: they have stood the test of time because they work. With Nelson Runger's dynamic and sensitive narration, this studied collection of entertaining anecdotes about some weird-sounding-even stomach-churning-old remedies is in fact much more. It is a dazzling step into the closely-guarded secrets of medicine.

Honey, Mud, Maggots, and Other Medical Marvels

In lively, absorbing prose that rivals the finest literary fiction, prize-winning historian Carolly Erickson recreates the life of the notorious Tudor king, Henry VIII. In his youth as a charming national hero, his reign as a monstrous king, and his final days as a tottering old man, Erickson draws a thoroughly convincing portrait of one of English history's most notorious characters.

Great Harry

At various times in a span of fifteen years, John McPhee made geological field surveys in the company of Eldridge Moores, a tectonicist at the University of California at Davis. The result of these trips is Assembling California, a cross-section in human and geologic time, from Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada through the golden foothills of the Mother Lode and across the Great Central Valley to the wine country of the Coast Ranges, the rock of San Francisco, and the San Andreas family of faults. The two disparate time scales occasionally intersect—in the gold disruptions of the nineteenth century no less than in the earthquakes of the twentieth—and always with relevance to a newly understood geologic history in which half a dozen large and separate pieces of country are seen to have drifted in from far and near to coalesce as California. McPhee and Moores also journeyed to remote mountains of Arizona and to Cyprus and northern Greece, where rock of the deep-ocean floor has been transported into continental settings, as it has in California. Global in scope and a delight to read, Assembling California is a sweeping narrative of maps in motion, of evolving and dissolving lands. “A delicious field manual on the creation of the Golden State going back a few hundred million years.”—Peter Stack, The San Francisco Chronicle

From Annals of the Former World

Assembling California

Witty, informative, and devilishly shrewd, this work is a must-listen for anyone interested in politics and power. The world-renowned philosopher's classic treatise reveals the techniques and strategies for gaining and keeping political control. "How we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin than his preservation. Therefore, it is necessary to learn how not to be good," wrote Machiavelli.

The Prince

Xenophon records the history of the Peloponnesian War beginning in 411 with the final years of the struggle between Athens and Sparta for mastery of Greece. His tales are portraits of democracy in crisis; of military dominance; of fratricidal strife; of the beginning of the slow, inexorable decline of the culture-that of Homer, and the Greek philosophers and tragedians-whose legacy serves as a foundation for the democratic values of the West.

Stories from Xenophon—Excerpts

Four classic short stories-The Great Stone Face; The Ambitious Guest; The Great Carbuncle and Sketches from Memory-by one of America's greatest 19th-century novelists.

Great Stone Face and Other Tales

Europe was in the long slumber of the Middle Ages, the Roman Empire was in tatters, and the Greek language was all but forgotten, until a group of twelfth-century scholars rediscovered and translated the works of Aristotle. His ideas spread like wildfire across Europe, offering the scientific view that the natural world, including the soul of man, was a proper subject of study. The rediscovery of these ancient ideas sparked riots and heresy trials, caused major upheavals in the Catholic Church, and also set the stage for today's rift between reason and religion. In Aristotle's Children, Richard Rubenstein transports us back in history, rendering the controversies of the Middle Ages lively and accessible-and allowing us to understand the philosophical ideas that are fundamental to modern thought.

Aristotle's Children

Fabulously entertaining and filled with the intriguing trivia of life, Irons in the Fire is another impeccably crafted collection of seven essays by John McPhee. His peerless writing-punctuated with a sharp sense of humor and fascinating detail-has earned him legions of fans across the country. Whether he's riding with a cattle brand inspector in wild and wide-open eastern Nevada, or following Plymouth Rock through its various sizes, shapes and resting places, McPhee provides the listener with an intimate glimpse into ordinary people and the extraordinary interests that shape their lives. These delightful pieces-including Irons in the Fire, Travels of the Rock, Release, In Virgin Forest, The Gravel Page, Duty of Care, and Rinard at Manheim-reveal the fascinating worlds hiding right under our noses. Narrator Nelson Runger's studied voice conveys McPhee's understated and thought-provoking writing. If you have never sampled McPhee's inspired prose, this audiobook will turn you into a lifelong fan.

Irons in the Fire

Coming into the Country is an unforgettable account of Alaska and Alaskans. It is a rich tapestry of vivid characters, observed landscapes, and descriptive narrative, in three principal segments that deal, respectively, with a total wilderness, with urban Alaska, and with life in the remoteness of the bush. Readers of McPhee's earlier books will not be unprepared for his surprising shifts of scene and ordering of events, brilliantly combined into an organic whole. In the course of this volume we are made acquainted with the lore and techniques of placer mining, the habits and legends of the barren-ground grizzly, the outlook of a young Athapaskan chief, and tales of the fortitude of settlers—ordinary people compelled by extraordinary dreams. Coming into the Country unites a vast region of America with one of America's notable literary craftsmen, singularly qualified to do justice to the scale and grandeur of the design.

Coming into the Country

It was the largest campaign ever attempted in the Civil War: the Peninsula campaign of 1862. General George McClellan planned to advance from Yorktown up the Virginia Peninsula and destroy the Rebel army in its own capital. But with Robert E. Lee delivering blows to the Union army, McClellan's plan fell through at the gates of Richmond. Now, in a study of the great Civil War engagement that weaves together narrative, military analysis, and eyewitness accounts drawn from the diaries and letters of soldiers, historian Stephen W. Sears showcases all the reasons why Ken Burns, the producer of the PBS series The Civil War, calls Sears "one of our best Civil War historians."

To the Gates of Richmond

In this erudite and enjoyable Los Angeles Times best-seller, Joel Kotkin explores the history of cities around the globe. He argues that urban areas must be places where there is a shared feeling of sacredness, civic identity, and moral order. These exciting concentrations of ideas and energy have long been and should continue to be meaningful in our daily lives. "... an accessible general introduction to the history of urban life, culture and spaces."-Publishers Weekly

The City

Six months after the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was all but lost. A powerful British force had routed the Americans at New York, occupied three colonies, and advanced within sight of Philadelphia. Yet, as David Hackett Fischer recounts in this riveting history, George Washington--and many other Americans--refused to let the Revolution die. On Christmas night, as a howling nor'easter struck the Delaware Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand men. A second battle of Trenton followed within days. The Americans held off a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis's best troops, then were almost trapped by the British force. Under cover of night, Washington's men stole behind the enemy and struck them again, defeating a brigade at Princeton. The British were badly shaken. In twelve weeks of winter fighting, their army suffered severe damage, their hold on New Jersey was broken, and their strategy was ruined. Fischer's richly textured narrative reveals the crucial role of contingency in these events. We see how the campaign unfolded in a sequence of difficult choices by many actors, from generals to civilians, on both sides. While British and German forces remained rigid and hierarchical, Americans evolved an open and flexible system that was fundamental to their success. The startling success of Washington and his compatriots not only saved the faltering American Revolution, but helped to give it new meaning.

Washington's Crossing

The inspirational story of three international runners attempting to achieve what no one had managed—to break the four-minute mile barrier. It was the ultimate test of endurance, and the human drama that unfolded is told here for the first time. In sport, running the four-minute mile was the elusive Holy Grail, considered by most to be beyond the limits of human endeavour. Then in late 1952, shortly after the Helsinki Olympics, three men set out to challenge the record books: Roger Bannister, the Oxford medical student, the great British hero who epitomized the ideal of the amateur athlete; John Landy, the tireless Australian, the romantic who trained night and day in search of perfection; and the American Wes Santee, son of a Kansas ranch hand, a natural runner and the quickest of the three ('I was just born to run fast'). Three men, each of contrasting character, competing thousands of miles apart, but all with the same valedictory goal. The Perfect Mile is the stirring account of their quest for sporting martyrdom, charting their journey through triumph and failure, culminating in the moment when Bannister broke the record in a monumental run at the Iffley Road cinder track in Oxford in May 1954. It was a feat that became one of the most celebrated in the history of British sport. Far from bringing an end to the rivalry, this watershed moment turned out to be merely the prelude to a final climactic battle three months later—the ultimate head-to-head between Bannister and Landy in what was dubbed ‘the mile of the century’ at the Vancouver Empire Games. Bascomb provides a fascinating account of what happened and an invaluable insight into the motivations and characters of three amazing achievers. This audiobook includes an interview with the author.

The Perfect Mile

Alan Axelrod is a Business Week best-selling author. A respected authority on business and management topics, he has also written works of historical biography. In Elizabeth I CEO, his varied skills converge to produce an important book that is both informative and entertaining. When Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558, England was the laughing stock of Europe. Economic, political, and religious calamities were numerous, and Elizabeth endured constant criticism. But by the end of her 45-year reign, England was one of the world's mightiest nations. Axelrod uses the legendary Queen's life as a model for modern leadership, and a powerful example of how one person can make an extraordinary difference. Elizabeth I CEO is an indispensable guide for today's business managers and leaders. It is also an inspiring read for those taking their first steps up the corporate ladder, or those who simply love history. Nelson Runger's narration gives a renewed energy to Elizabeth's lessons, which are as relevant today as they were four centuries ago.

Elizabeth I CEO

The plague of 1665 was followed by the Great Fire of London in 1666: great disasters evoking great responses. Those events re-fashioned the London landscape, and Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year re-fashioned English literature.

A Journal of the Plague Year

Over one hundred years ago, Reverend Charles Sheldon stepped up to the pulpit to deliver a sermon to his little flock of Congregationalists. Little did he know that his humble parable would evolve into a novel that would be published in 45 languages and affect the lives of at least 15 million people. A desperate, unemployed printer, looking for help in the mythical town of Raymond, is ignored until he's on the verge of dying. His last words, as he collapses in front of a church congregation, point out the difference between believing in Christianity and actually living it. The death of the homeless man becomes the catalyst for a year-long pact. What happens when an entire congregation decides to stop before every decision and ask itself, "What would Jesus do?" In His Steps is a book about life. Few books, other than the Bible, have been so widely circulated. Since its first publication, this inspirational classic has never been out of print. Its simple message transcends literature, theology, and religion.

Christian Classics

In His Steps

The National Book Award–winning epic chronicle of the creation of the Panama Canal, a first-rate drama of the bold and brilliant engineering feat that was filled with both tragedy and triumph, told by master historian David McCullough. From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Truman, here is the national bestselling epic chronicle of the creation of the Panama Canal. In The Path Between the Seas, acclaimed historian David McCullough delivers a first-rate drama of the sweeping human undertaking that led to the creation of this grand enterprise. The Path Between the Seas tells the story of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing an aquatic passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is a story of astonishing engineering feats, tremendous medical accomplishments, political power plays, heroic successes, and tragic failures. Applying his remarkable gift for writing lucid, lively exposition, McCullough weaves the many strands of the momentous event into a comprehensive and captivating tale. Winner of the National Book Award for history, the Francis Parkman Prize, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award, and the Cornelius Ryan Award (for the best book of the year on international affairs), The Path Between the Seas is a must-read for anyone interested in American history, the history of technology, international intrigue, and human drama.

Path Between the Seas

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