A Farther Shore
Ireland's Long Road to Peace
Written by Gerry Adams

Format: Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: March 8, 2005
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-76012-9 (0-375-76012-1)

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams remains resolute in his belief that peace is the only viable option for the Irish people. Adams led the oldest revolutionary movement in Ireland on an extraordinary journey from armed insurrection to active participation in government. Now he tells the story of the tumultuous series of... Read more >

Nazism and War

Written by Richard Bessel

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: November 14, 2006
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7557-4 (0-8129-7557-X)

The Second World War was the defining event of the twentieth century, leaving millions dead and redrawing the political map in ways that continue to affect nearly the entire human race. What was unprecedented, however, was not simply the war’s scale, but its causes. Unlike previous territorial or political clashes, the... Read more >

Lost to the West
The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization
Written by Lars Brownworth

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: June 1, 2010
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-40796-2 (0-307-40796-9)

In AD 476 the Roman Empire fell–or rather, its western half did. Its eastern half, which would come to be known as the Byzantine Empire, would endure and often flourish for another eleven centuries. Though its capital would move to Constantinople, its citizens referred to themselves as Roman for the entire... Read more >

How the Irish Saved Civilization

Written by Thomas Cahill

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: February 1, 1996
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-385-41849-2 (0-385-41849-3)

From the fall of Rome to the rise of Charlemagne—the “Dark Ages”—learning, scholarship, and culture all but vanished from the European continent. Thomas Cahill brings this pivotal era vibrantly back to life. He argues that had it not been for the holy men and women of unconquered Ireland, the great heritage... Read more >

The Reformation
A History
Written by Patrick Collinson

Format: Trade Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: September 5, 2006
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7295-5 (0-8129-7295-3)

The religious reformations of the sixteenth century were the crucible of modern Western civilization, profoundly reshaping the identity of Europe’s emerging nation-states. In The Reformation, one of the preeminent historians of the period, Patrick Collinson, offers a concise yet thorough overview of the drastic ecumenical revolution of the late medieval and... Read more >

The Age of Conversation

Written by Benedetta Craveri

Format: Trade Paperback, 508 pages
Publisher: New York Review Books
On Sale: August 1, 2006
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-1-59017-214-8 (1-59017-214-0)

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, between the reign of Louis XIII and the Revolution, French aristocratic society developed an art of living based on a refined code of good manners.

Conversation, which began as a way of passing time, eventually became the central ritual of social life. In the salons... Read more >

Empires of the Sea
The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World
Written by Roger Crowley

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: May 12, 2009
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7764-6 (0-8129-7764-5)

In 1521, Suleiman the Magnificent, Muslim ruler of the Ottoman Empire at the height of its power, dispatched an invasion fleet to the Christian island of Rhodes. This would prove to be the opening shot in an epic struggle between rival empires and faiths for control of the Mediterranean and the... Read more >

Faberge's Eggs
The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived an Empire
Written by Toby Faber

Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: October 7, 2008
Price: $30.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6550-9 (1-4000-6550-X)

In Stradivari’s Genius, Toby Faber charted the fascinating course of some of the world’s most prized musical instruments. Now, in this enthralling new book, he tells the story of objects that are, to many, the pinnacle of the jeweler’s art: the Fabergé imperial eggs.

The Easter presents that Russia’s last two czars... Read more >

Europe's Last Summer
Who Started the Great War in 1914?
Written by David Fromkin

Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 8, 2005
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-72575-3 (0-375-72575-X)

When war broke out in Europe in 1914, it surprised a European population enjoying the most beautiful summer in memory. For nearly a century since, historians have debated the causes of the war. Some have cited the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand; others have concluded it was unavoidable.

In Europe’s Last Summer... Read more >

Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

Written by Galileo
Translated by Drake Stillman
Foreword by Albert Einstein
Introduction by John Heilbron

Format: Trade Paperback, 640 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: October 2, 2001
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-75766-2 (0-375-75766-X)

Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in Florence in 1632, was the most proximate cause of his being brought to trial before the Inquisition.

Using the dialogue form, a genre common in classical philosophical works, Galileo masterfully demonstrates the truth of the Copernican system over the Ptolemaic one... Read more >

Fear
Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz
Written by Jan Gross

Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: August 14, 2007
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-6746-3 (0-8129-6746-1)

Poland suffered an exceedingly brutal Nazi occupation during the Second World War. Close to five million Polish citizens lost their lives as a result. More than half the casualties were Polish Jews. Thus, the second largest Jewish community in the world–only American Jewry numbered more than the three and a half... Read more >

Life and Fate

Written by Vasily Grossman
Introduction by Robert Chandler

Format: Trade Paperback, 896 pages
Publisher: NYRB Classics
On Sale: May 16, 2006
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-59017-201-8 (1-59017-201-9)

A book judged so dangerous in the Soviet Union that not only the manuscript but the ribbons on which it had been typed were confiscated by the state, Life and Fate is an epic tale of World War II and a profound reckoning with the dark forces that dominated the twentieth... Read more >

Apollo's Angels
A History of Ballet
Written by Jennifer Homans

Format: Trade Paperback, 672 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: November 29, 2011
Price: $20.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-6874-3 (0-8129-6874-3)

Finalist, 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
Named one of “The 10 Best Books of 2010” by the editors of the New York Times Book Review
A 2011 Choice "Outstanding Academic Title"
A 2012 American Library Association Notable Book for Adults (Nonfiction)

For more than four hundred years, the art of ballet has... Read more >

A Savage War of Peace
Algeria 1954-1962
Written by Alistair Horne

Format: Trade Paperback, 624 pages
Publisher: NYRB Classics
On Sale: October 10, 2006
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-1-59017-218-6 (1-59017-218-3)

Although war was never formally declared, the Algerian War lasted from 1954 to 1962. It caused six French governments to fall, led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic, brought De Gaulle back to power, and came close to provoking a civil war on French soil. More than a million Muslim... Read more >

The Age of Insight
The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present
Written by Eric Kandel

Format: Hardcover, 656 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: March 27, 2012
Price: $40.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6871-5 (1-4000-6871-1)

A brilliant book by Nobel Prize winner Eric R. Kandel, The Age of Insight takes us to Vienna 1900, where leaders in science, medicine, and art began a revolution that changed forever how we think about the human mind—our conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions—and how mind and brain relate to... Read more >

Searching for Schindler
A memoir
Written by Thomas Keneally

Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
On Sale: October 14, 2008
Price: $25.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-52617-3 (0-385-52617-2)

This is the captivating story behind Schindler’s List, the Booker Prize–winning book and the Academy Award–winning Spielberg film. Keneally tells the tale of the unlikely encounter that propelled him to write about Oskar Schindler and of the impact of his extraordinary account on people around the world.

Thomas Keneally met Leopold... Read more >

D-Day with the Screaming Eagles

Written by George Koskimaki

Format: Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: Presidio Press
On Sale: October 31, 2006
Price: $7.99
ISBN: 978-0-89141-892-4 (0-89141-892-X)

“A TRULY AMAZING COMPENDIUM.”
–Gerald J. Higgins, major general, U.S. Army (ret.), from the Foreword

In the predawn darkness of D-Day, an elite fighting force struck the first blows against Hitler’s Fortress Europe. Braving a hail of enemy gunfire and mortars, bold invaders from the sky descended into the hedgerow country and swarmed... Read more >

A Chosen Few
The Resurrection of European Jewry
Written by Mark Kurlansky

Format: Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books
On Sale: March 26, 2002
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-345-44814-9 (0-345-44814-6)

Telling the stories of European Jews in the aftermath of the Holocaust, Kurlansky's powerful narrative explores the lives of Jewish people who remained or returned to their homes in Europe after World War II. Now with a new introduction by the author, A Chosen Few explores the many reasons why Jews... Read more >

Agent Zigzag
A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal
Written by Ben Macintyre

Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: August 12, 2008
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-35341-2 (0-307-35341-9)

“Ben Macintyre’s rollicking, spellbinding Agent Zigzag blends the spy-versus-
spy machinations of John le Carré with the high farce of Evelyn Waugh.”
—William Grimes, The New York Times

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
A Washington Post Best Book of 2007
One of the Top 10 Best Books of 2007 (Entertainment Weekly)
New York... Read more >

Dangerous Games
The Uses and Abuses of History
Written by Margaret MacMillan

Format: Trade Paperback, 208 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: July 13, 2010
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7996-1 (0-8129-7996-6)

Acclaimed historian Margaret MacMillan explores here the many ways in which history affects us all. She shows how a deeper engagement with history, both as individuals and in the sphere of public debate, can help us understand ourselves and the world better. But she also warns that history can be misused... Read more >

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman

Written by Robert K. Massie

Format: Hardcover, 656 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: November 8, 2011
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-45672-8 (0-679-45672-4)

A 2011 Publishers Weekly Best Book (Top Ten Pick)
A 2011 New York Times Notable Book

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Romanovs returns with another masterpiece of narrative biography, the extraordinary story of an obscure young German princess who traveled to Russia at fourteen and... Read more >

Plagues and Peoples

Written by William McNeill

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: October 11, 1977
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-12122-4 (0-385-12122-9)

Upon its original publication, Plagues and Peoples was an immediate critical and popular success, offering a radically new interpretation of world history as seen through the extraordinary impact—political, demographic, ecological, and psychological—of disease on cultures. From the conquest of Mexico by smallpox as much as by the Spanish, to the bubonic... Read more >

Van Gogh
The Life
Written by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith

Format: Hardcover, 976 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: October 18, 2011
Price: $40.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-50748-9 (0-375-50748-5)

A 2011 New York Times Notable Book

Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith galvanized readers with their astonishing Jackson Pollock: An American Saga, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography, a book acclaimed for its miraculous research and overwhelming narrative power. Now Naifeh and Smith have written another tour de force—an exquisitely... Read more >

A Short History of Byzantium

Written by John Julius Norwich

Format: Trade Paperback, 496 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: December 29, 1998
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-77269-9 (0-679-77269-3)

In this magisterial adaptation of his epic three-volume history of Byzantium, John Julius Norwich chronicles the world's longest-lived Christian empire. Beginning with Constantine the Great, who in a.d. 330 made Christianity the religion of his realm and then transferred its capital to the city that would bear his name, Norwich follows... Read more >

The Anatomy of Fascism

Written by Robert O. Paxton

Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 8, 2005
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-3391-1 (1-4000-3391-8)

What is fascism? Many authors have proposed definitions, but most fail to move beyond the abstract. The esteemed historian Robert O. Paxton answers this question for the first time by focusing on the concrete: what the fascists did, rather than what they said. From the first violent uniformed bands beating up... Read more >