History - Books

Colonial Records of Virginia. [Edited by T. H. Wynne and W. S. Gilman.]

History

The HISTORY OF COLONIAL NORTH AMERICA collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This collection refers to the European settlements in North America through independence, with emphasis on the history of the thirteen colonies of Britain. Attention is paid to the histories of Jamestown and the early colonial interactions with Native Americans. The contextual framework of this collection highlights 16th century English, Scottish, French, Spanish, and Dutch expansion.

The Essential Mythology Collection

History

A collection (with an active table of contents) of books on myths, legends , and heroes from around the world: Bulfinch's Mythology Custom and Myth Legends of the Gods Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome Myths of Babylonia and Assyria American Hero-Myths

True Stories of Indian Captivities

History

This book contains true stories of the horror, hardship, bloody warfare, torture and loss of loved ones that the early pioneer settlers on the frontier endured during undoubtedly the most terrifying and trying time in the history of our country. These stories were gathered by the author Samuel G. Drake and published back in 1857. Some of the stories he gathered were taken directly from the mouths of the survivors. Warning: Very Graphic.

The Art of War

History

Twenty-five hundred years ago, Sun Tzu wrote this classic book of military strategy based on Chinese warfare and military thought. Since that time, all levels of military have used the teaching on Sun Tzu to warfare and civilization have adapted these teachings for use in politics, business and everyday life. The Art of War is a book which should be used to gain advantage of opponents in the boardroom and battlefield alike. This edition contains an extensive overview of the book.

The Art of War. Illustrated.

History

Written in the fifth century B.C. by Sun Tzu, a high-ranking military general, the Art of War still remain the most celebrated military treatise in the literature of China.

Italy with Sketches of Spain and Portugal

History

Most of these Letters were written in the bloom and heyday of youthful spirits and youthful confidence, at a period when the old order of things existed with all its picturesque pomps and absurdities; when Venice enjoyed her piombi and submarine dungeons; France her bastile; the Peninsula her holy Inquisition. To look back upon what is beginning to appear almost a fabulous era in the eyes of the modern children of light, is not unamusing or uninstructive; for, still better to appreciate the present, we should be led not unfrequently to recall the intellectual muzziness of the past.

The Spy and the Traitor

History

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The celebrated author of Double Cross and Rogue Heroes returns with a thrilling Americans-era tale of Oleg Gordievsky, the Russian whose secret work helped hasten the end of the Cold War.“The best true spy story I have ever read.”—JOHN LE CARRÉNamed a Best Book of the Year by The Economist • Shortlisted for the Bailie Giffords Prize in Nonfiction If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasingly paranoid at the United States's nuclear first-strike capabilities and brought the world closer to the brink of war. Desperate to keep the circle of trust close, MI6 never revealed Gordievsky's name to its counterparts in the CIA, which in turn grew obsessed with figuring out the identity of Britain's obviously top-level source. Their obsession ultimately doomed Gordievsky: the CIA officer assigned to identify him was none other than Aldrich Ames, the man who would become infamous for secretly spying for the Soviets. Unfolding the delicious three-way gamesmanship between America, Britain, and the Soviet Union, and culminating in the gripping cinematic beat-by-beat of Gordievsky's nail-biting escape from Moscow in 1985, Ben Macintyre's latest may be his best yet. Like the greatest novels of John le Carré, it brings readers deep into a world of treachery and betrayal, where the lines bleed between the personal and the professional, and one man's hatred of communism had the power to change the future of nations.

The Dead Media Notebook

History

From Pigeon Post to Magic Lanterns to the Talking View-Master, this book is a compendium of dead and forgotten media formats. In 1995, Bruce Sterling issued a challenge; “I'll personally offer a CRISP FIFTY-DOLLAR BILL for the first guy, gal, or combination thereof to write and publish THE DEAD MEDIA HANDBOOK.” The handbook would be “a book about media that have died on the barbed wire of technological advance, media that didn't make it, martyred media, dead media… a rich, witty, insightful, profusely illustrated, perfect bound, acid-free-paper coffee-table book... by some really with-it, cutting-edge early-21st century publisher. The kind of book that will appear in seventeen different sections of your local chain store: Political Affairs, Postmodern Theory, Computer Science, Popular Mechanics, Design Studies, the coffee table art book section, the remainder table.” Bruce appealed for help collecting stories and notes about dead media, and over the next five years, notes and suggestions accumulated at deadmedia.org. But the book never happened. The website has survived, gradually succumbing to link-rot as the Internet evolved and grew around it. Twenty years later, Bruce’s idea is more relevant than ever. As Benedict Evans said “For the first time ever, the tech industry is selling not just to big corporations or middle-class families but to four fifths of all the adults on earth - it is selling to people who don’t have mains electricity or running water and substitute spending on cigarettes for mobile.” The history of media is impossibly rich. For every cranky stillborn idea (“when the real hair wig on the crown of her hinged head was lifted up it contained a turntable for playing 3 1/2 inch records!”) there are successful lost media, around which industries were built, fortunes made and societies transformed. This collection is not The Dead Media Handbook. It is a lightly edited collection of those nearly 500 notes and contributions. Inside, you’ll find lists of early mainframe computers, speculations about the multi-dimensional mental images created by Peruvian knotted-string books, details of Timothy Leary’s experiential typewriter and a lengthy analysis of the View-Master and it’s competitors.

Sàpiens. Una breu història de la humanitat

History

Fa cent mil anys, l’Homo sapiens era un animal insignificant que s’ocupava de les seves coses en un racó de l’Àfrica i compartia el planeta amb almenys cinc espècies més d’humans. El seu paper en l’ecosistema no era gaire més important que el de les cuques de llum o els goril·les. De sobte, però, fa setanta mil anys, un canvi misteriós i profund en les seves habilitats cognitives el va convertir en l’amo del món. Avui dia només hi ha una espècie humana a la Terra. Nosaltres. L’Homo sapiens. Com s’ho va fer l’Homo sapiens per aconseguir extingir la resta de les espècies d’humans i gairebé la meitat dels mamífers terrestres més grans del món? Per què els nostres vantpassats es van reunir i organitzar per crear ciutats i regnes? Com vam arribar a creure en els déus, les nacions i els drets humans; a confiar en els diners, els llibres o les lleis. Per què es van convertir en esclaus de la burocràcia, els horaris i el consumisme? Els humans, som més feliços a mesura que la història progressa? Com serà el nostre món d’aquí mil anys? Informativa, divulgativa, audaç, intel·ligent, Sàpiens. Una breu història de la humanitat posa en qüestió tot allò que sabíem sobre l’ésser humà. Una obra brillant que ofereix una nova perspectiva de la humanitat i ens permet connectar els fets del passat amb les preocupacions actuals.

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

History

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass is Frederick Douglass' third autobiography, published in 1881, revised in 1892. The emancipation of American Slaves during and following the Civil War allowed Douglass to go into greater specifics of both his life as as slave and his escape from slavery in this volume than he could in his two previous autobiographies (which would have put both himself and his family in danger). It is also the only of Douglass' autobiographies to discuss his life during and after the Civil War, including his encounters with American Presidents such as Lincoln and Garfield, his account of the ill-fated "Freedman's Bank," and his career as the United States Marshall of the District of Columbia.— Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Dead Wake

History

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania“Both terrifying and enthralling.”—Entertainment Weekly“Thrilling, dramatic and powerful.”—NPR“Thoroughly engrossing.”—George R.R. MartinOn May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then in service—and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger’s U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small—hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more—all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history. It is a story that many of us think we know but don’t, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour and suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Woodrow Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love. Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster whose intimate details and true meaning have long been obscured by history.Finalist for the Washington State Book Award • One of the Best Books of the Year: The Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Miami Herald, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, LibraryReads, Indigo

The Chosen Few

History

The never-before-told story of one of the most decorated units in the war in Afghanistan and its fifteen-month ordeal that culminated in the 2008 Battle of Wanat, the war's deadliest A single company of US paratroopers--calling themselves the "Chosen Few"--arrived in eastern Afghanistan in late 2007 hoping to win the hearts and minds of the remote mountain people and extend the Afghan government's reach into this wilderness. Instead, they spent the next fifteen months in a desperate struggle, living under almost continuous attack, forced into a slow and grinding withdrawal, and always outnumbered by Taliban fighters descending on them from all sides. Month after month, rocket-propelled grenades, rockets, and machine-gun fire poured down on the isolated and exposed paratroopers as America's focus and military resources shifted to Iraq. Just weeks before the paratroopers were to go home, they faced their last--and toughest--fight. Near the village of Wanat in Nuristan province, an estimated three hundred enemy fighters surrounded about fifty of the Chosen Few and others defending a partially finished combat base. Nine died and more than two dozen were wounded that day in July 2008, making it arguably the bloodiest battle of the war in Afghanistan.The Chosen Few would return home tempered by war. Two among them would receive the Medal of Honor. All of them would be forever changed.

Revue des Deux Mondes septembre 2016

History

Dossier : L’Occident face à la Syrie→ Henry Laurens : « Les jeux d’ingérence et d’interaction existent en Syrie depuis deux cents ans »Henry Laurens retrace l’histoire des accords Sykes-Picot qui, selon lui, ne sont pas responsables de l’instabilité chronique en Syrie et en Irak.→ Renaud Girard : « La France doit sortir de son aveuglement néoconservateur au plus vite »Après avoir examiné les politiques américaines, russes et françaises en Syrie, Renaud Girard décrypte les manœuvresturques et saoudiennes.→ Palmyre entre deux mondes par Maurice SartreDepuis la destruction de Palmyre par Daesh en 2015, beaucoup d’informations approximatives ont circulé sur la cité mythique. Maurice Sartre rétablit la vérité et décrit la ville, son histoire, sa culture, ses dieux.→ Les ressorts de l’intervention russe en Syrie par Thomas GomartD’après Thomas Gomart, l’intervention russe en Syrie révèle davantage une vision du monde qu’un projet politique.→ Minorités syriennes par Richard MilletLa question proche-orientale ne peut pas être réduite à l’opposition entre sunnites et chiites. Richard Millet se penche sur les minorités religieuses en Syrie et plus particulièrement sur la situation des chrétiens.→ Yassin al-Haj Saleh : « Il faut traduire Bachar al-Assad en justice »Figure de l’opposition, Yassin al-Haj Saleh fut emprisonné pendant 16 ans par le régime syrien. Pour lui, aucun avenir n’est possible tant que Bachar al-Assad sera au pouvoir.→ Gérard Chaliand : « Aucune puissance ne souhaite un Kurdistan indépendant »Les Kurdes jouent un rôle essentiel dans la lutte contre Daesh en Irak et en Syrie. Gérard Chaliand revient sur l’histoire et le destin d’un peuple dont les origines remontent au VIIe siècle.→ Et aussi François d’Orcival, Isabelle Hausser, Richard Labévière, Bassma Kodmani, Samar Yazbek, Bruno Deniel-Laurent et Juliette Minces. Littérature→ Maurice G. Dantec, dernière rencontre : « La vraie littérature est dangereuse »Maurice G. Dantec est mort le 25 juin 2016. Un mois plus tôt, il avait accordé un long entretien dans lequel il partageait ses lectures et son appréhension de l’écriture.→ Inédit. Karine Tuil : « La littérature est aussi une réparation »Karine Tuil raconte la genèse de l’Insouciance, un roman de la rentrée littéraire (Gallimard). Sa découverte du monde militaire a été déterminante.

The Bridge at Andau

History

The Bridge at Andau is James A. Michener at his most gripping. His classic nonfiction account of a doomed uprising is as searing and unforgettable as any of his bestselling novels. For five brief, glorious days in the autumn of 1956, the Hungarian revolution gave its people a glimpse at a different kind of future—until, at four o’clock in the morning on a Sunday in November, the citizens of Budapest awoke to the shattering sound of Russian tanks ravaging their streets. The revolution was over. But freedom beckoned in the form of a small footbridge at Andau, on the Austrian border. By an accident of history it became, for a few harrowing weeks, one of the most important crossings in the world, as the soul of a nation fled across its unsteady planks. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from James A. Michener's Hawaii. Praise for The Bridge at Andau “Precise, vivid . . . immeasurably stirring.”—The Atlantic Monthly “Dramatic, chilling, enraging.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Superb.”—Kirkus Reviews “Highly recommended reading.”—Library Journal

Thunderstruck

History

A true story of love, murder, and the end of the world’s “great hush.”In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men—Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication—whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.Set in Edwardian London and on the stormy coasts of Cornwall, Cape Cod, and Nova Scotia, Thunderstruck evokes the dynamism of those years when great shipping companies competed to build the biggest, fastest ocean liners; scientific advances dazzled the public with visions of a world transformed; and the rich outdid one another with ostentatious displays of wealth. Against this background, Marconi races against incredible odds and relentless skepticism to perfect his invention: the wireless, a prime catalyst for the emergence of the world we know today. Meanwhile, Crippen, “the kindest of men,” nearly commits the perfect murder.With his unparalleled narrative skills, Erik Larson guides us through a relentlessly suspenseful chase over the waters of the North Atlantic. Along the way, he tells of a sad and tragic love affair that was described on the front pages of newspapers around the world, a chief inspector who found himself strangely sympathetic to the killer and his lover, and a driven and compelling inventor who transformed the way we communicate.

KGB

History

Plongez au coeur du plus fascinant des services secrets : le KGB. Trente ans ont passé depuis que l'URSS s'est effondrée, en décembre 1991. Depuis cette date, à Moscou, les archives se sont ouvertes, les témoignages personnels se sont multipliés, les révélations ont succédé aux révélations. Notamment à propos du plus secret des piliers du système soviétique : le KGB.Depuis la fondation de la police politique bolchevique, en décembre 1917, jusqu'à sa tentative ratée de sauver le régime, en août 1991, il était devenu indispensable de reprendre, corriger, compléter et conclure le récit foisonnant de ses campagnes, de ses exploits, de ses métamorphoses, de ses crimes et de ses échecs. Quelle riche histoire que la sienne : la Tcheka, la guerre civile, la GPU (dernier avatar avant la fondation du KGB proprement dit), les procès staliniens, le Goulag, la guerre froide, la dissidence ! Combien de personnages hors du commun l'ont incarnée au fil des années : Lénine, Dzerjinski, Iagoda, Iejov, Beria, Staline, Serov, Andropov ! Et combien de silhouettes ambiguës et romanesques ont traversé ce formidable théâtre d'ombres : Münzenberg, Mercader, Philby, Trepper, Kravchenko, Fuchs, Rosenberg, sans parler d'un certain... Vladimir Poutine !D'une plume enlevée et nourrie aux meilleures sources, Bernard Lecomte nous révèle la véritable histoire des services secrets soviétiques.

The Phantom Atlas

History

Discover the mysteries within ancient maps — Where exploration and mythology meetThis richly illustrated book collects and explores the colorful histories behind a striking range of real antique maps that are all in some way a little too good to be true.Mysteries within ancient maps: The Phantom Atlas is a guide to the world not as it is, but as it was imagined to be. It's a world of ghost islands, invisible mountain ranges, mythical civilizations, ship-wrecking beasts, and other fictitious features introduced on maps and atlases through mistakes, misunderstanding, fantasies, and outright lies.Where exploration and mythology meet: Author Edward Brooke-Hitching is a map collector, author, writer for the popular BBC Television program QI and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He lives in a dusty heap of old maps and books in London investigating the places where exploration and mythology meet.Cartography’s greatest phantoms: The Phantom Atlas uses gorgeous atlas images as springboards for tales of deranged buccaneers, seafaring monks, heroes, swindlers, and other amazing stories behind cartography's greatest phantoms.If you are a fan of this popular genre and a reader of books such as Prisoners of Geography, Atlas of Ancient Rome, Atlas Obscura, What If, Book of General Ignorance, or Thing Explainer, your will love The Phantom Atlas

The Righteous

History

“Important. . . . The very fact that there were so many tales of courage is reason to take heed of this heartening aspect of one of history’s darkest moments.” —Publishers WeeklyDrawing from twenty-five years of original research, eminent historian Sir Martin Gilbert re-creates the remarkable stories of non-Jews who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust.According to Jewish tradition, “Whoever saves one life, it is as if he saved the entire world.” Non-Jews who helped save Jewish lives during World War II are designated Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust archive in Jerusalem. In The Righteous, distinguished historian Sir Martin Gilbert, through extensive interviews, explores the courage of those who-throughout Germany and in every occupied country from Norway to Greece, from the Atlantic to the Baltic-took incredible risks to help Jews whose fate would have been sealed without them. Indeed, many lost their lives for their efforts.Those who hid Jews included priests, nurses, teachers, neighbors and friends, employees and colleagues, soldiers and diplomats, and, above all, ordinary citizens. From Greek Orthodox Princess Alice of Greece, who hid Jews in her home in Athens, to the Ukrainian Uniate Archbishop of Lvov, who hid hundreds of Jews in his churches and monasteries, to Muslims in Bosnia and Albania, many risked, and lost, everything to help their fellow man.“One of the book’s virtues is Gilbert’s ability to set the local context briefly before recounting the personal stories, thus keeping the human dimension paramount.” —Library Journal“This emotionally stirring book is an essential addition to Holocaust collections.” —Booklist

The Devil's Atlas

History

Packed with strange stories and spectacular illustrations, The Devil's Atlas leads you on an adventure through the afterlife, exploring the supernatural worlds of global cultures to form a fascinating traveler's guide quite unlike any other. From the author of the critically acclaimed bestsellers The Phantom Atlas, The Sky Atlas, and The Madman's Library comes a unique and beautifully illustrated guide to the heavens, hells, and lands of the dead as imagined throughout history by cultures and religions around the world. Packed with colorful maps, paintings, and captivating stories, The Devil's Atlas is a compelling tour of the geography, history, and supernatural populations of the afterworlds of cultures around the globe. Whether it's the thirteen heavens of the Aztecs, the Chinese Taoist netherworld of "hungry ghosts," Islamic depictions of Paradise, or the mysteries of the Viking mirror world, each is conjured through astonishing images and a highly readable trove of surprising facts and narratives, stories of places you'd hope to go, and those you definitely would not. A traveler's guide to worlds unseen, here is a fascinating visual chronicle of our hopes, fears, and fantasies of what lies beyond. DISCOVER THE BEYOND: From the depths of underworlds to the heights of heavens and everywhere else a life after death may be spent, this atlas explores the geography, history, and supernatural populations of the afterworlds of global mythologies. A GLOBAL SURVEY: From the demon parliament of the ancient Maya, to the eternal globe-spanning quest to find the Earthly Paradise, to the "Hell of the Flaming Rooster" of Japanese Buddhist mythology (in which sinners are tormented by an enormous fire-breathing cockerel), The Devil's Atlas gathers together a wonderful variety of beliefs and representations of life after death. UNUSUAL AND UNSEEN: These afterworlds are illustrated with an unprecedented collection of images. They range from the marvelous "infernal cartography" of the European Renaissance artists attempting to map the structured Hell described by Dante and the decorative Islamic depictions of Paradise to the various efforts to map the Garden of Eden and the spiritual vision paintings of nineteenth-century mediums. EXPERT AUTHOR: Edward Brooke-Hitching is a master of taking visually–driven deep dives into unusual historical subjects, such as the maps of imaginary geography in The Phantom Atlas, ancient pathways through the stars in The Sky Atlas, and the literary oddities lining the metaphorical shelves of The Madman's Library. Perfect for:Obscure history and mythology enthusiastsAnyone with an interest in the occultSpiritual curiosity seekersMap lovers

Revue des Deux Mondes septembre 2017

History

Dossier : Un nouvel ordre mondiale→ Entretien avec Hubert Védrine : « Emmanuel Macron réveille l’idée d’une politique étrangère française »Pour Hubert Védrine, les rapports de force entre les USA et la Russie ne signent pas les prémices d’une nouvelle guerre froide. L’ancien ministre brosse le tableau géopolitique de la nouvelle ère Trump/Poutine et se réjouit des premiers pas d’Emmanuel Macron sur la scène internationale.→ La France face aux trois Grands (États-Unis, Chine et Russie) par Thomas GomartThomas Gomart décrit les relations entretenues par la France avec les trois grandes puissances. Si le pays aspire à orienter le cours de la mondialisation, il ne doit pas perdre de vue son ancrage européen.→ Washington-Moscou : soixante-dix ans de crises par André KaspiAndré Kaspi détaille les crises successives traversées par la Russie et les USA depuis la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.→ Les quatre piliers de la diplomatie russe par Renaud GirardD’après Renaud Girard, quatre principes fondent la politique étrangère russe : l’indépendance, l’ouverture sur le monde, la sécurité nationale et l’attachement au droit international classique.→ Ceux qui murmurent à l’oreille de Trump par Laure MandevilleEnvisager Trump comme une marionnette serait bien mal connaître le nouveau président qui s’entoure d’opinions contradictoires pour envisager toutes les alternatives et prendre sa propre décision.→ L’interminable crise coréenne : un « Cuba à rebours » par Jean-François Di MeglioJean-François Di Meglio met en parallèle la crise de Cuba et l’actuelle crise coréenne. Selon le rôle que jouera la Chine, l’empire du Milieu pourrait affermir sa grandeur et son caractère incontournable dans les processus diplomatiques.Et aussi Nicolas Arpagian et Veronika Dorman.Littérature→ Inédit. Pauline Dreyfus : « Le poids du nom »L’auteure du Déjeuner des barricades (Grasset, rentrée littéraire 2017) relate sa rencontre avec l’arrière-arrière petite fille de Victor Hugo, Léopoldine.

History Books