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 >

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

Format: Hardcover, 208 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: July 7, 2009
Price: $22.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-64358-6 (0-679-64358-3)

The New York Times bestselling author of Paris 1919 and Nixon and Mao reveals lessons and insights from a lifetime of writing and teaching history, about how we live our lives as individuals and nations.

Acclaimed historian and “great storyteller” (The New York Review of Books) Margaret MacMillan explores the many ways... Read more >

Reagan and Gorbachev
How the Cold War Ended
Written by Jack Matlock

Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: November 8, 2005
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7489-8 (0-8129-7489-1)

In Reagan and Gorbachev, Jack F. Matlock, Jr., gives an eyewitness account of how the Cold War ended, with humankind declared the winner. As Reagan’s principal adviser on Soviet and European affairs, and later as the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R., Matlock lived history: He was the point person for Reagan’s... Read more >

Character Is Destiny
Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember
Written by John McCain and Mark Salter

Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: October 25, 2005
Price: $23.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6412-0 (1-4000-6412-0)

John McCain and Mark Salter have written three acclaimed bestsellers, but Character Is Destiny may be their most influential and enduring book yet–a work for parents to share with their children, and, for Americans of all ages to read for inspiration and guidance.

McCain has been called “one of the most inspiring... 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 >

Lost History
The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists
Written by Michael H. Morgan

Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: National Geographic
On Sale: June 19, 2007
Price: $26.00
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0092-2 (1-4262-0092-7)

In an era when the relationship between Islam and the West seems mainly defined by mistrust and misunderstanding, we often forget that for centuries Muslim civilization was the envy of the world. Essential reading for any student seeking to understand the major role played by the early Muslim world in influencing... Read more >

The Saint and the Sultan
The Crusades, Islam, and Francis of Assisi's Mission of Peace
Written by Paul Moses

Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Doubleday Religion
On Sale: September 29, 2009
Price: $26.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-52370-7 (0-385-52370-X)

An intriguing examination of the extraordinary–and little known¯meeting between St. Francis of Assisi and Islamic leader Sultan Malik Al-Kamil, with strong resonance in today’s divided world.

For many of us, St. Francis of Assisi is known as a poor monk and a lover of animals. However, these images are sadly incomplete... Read more >

The Coming Population Crash
and Our Planet's Surprising Future
Written by Fred Pearce

Format: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: April 5, 2011
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0122-6 (0-8070-0122-8)

A leading environmental writer looks at the unexpected effects–and possible benefits–of a shrinking, graying population

Over the last century, the world’s population quadrupled and fears of overpopulation flared, with baby booms blamed for genocide and terrorism, and overpopulation singled out as the primary factor driving global warming. Yet, surprisingly, it appears... Read more >

The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Volume I
(A Modern Library E-Book)
Written by Plutarch

Format: eBook, 800 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: November 1, 2000
Price: $14.99
ISBN: 978-0-679-64174-2 (0-679-64174-2)

Plutarch's "Parallel Lives," written at the beginning of the second century A.D., form a brilliant social history of the ancient world.  They were originally presented in a series of books that gave an account of one Greek and one Roman life, followed by a comparison of the two: Theseus and Romulus, Alcibiades... Read more >

The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Volume II
(A Modern Library E-Book)
Written by Plutarch

Format: eBook, 736 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: November 1, 2000
Price: $13.99
ISBN: 978-0-679-64175-9 (0-679-64175-0)

Plutarch's "Parallel Lives," written at the beginning of the second century A.D., form a brilliant social history of the ancient world.  They were originally presented in a series of books that gave an account of one Greek and one Roman life, followed by a comparison of the two: Theseus and Romulus, Alcibiades... Read more >

The Travels of Marco Polo

Written by Marco Polo
Edited by Manuel Komroff
Translated by William Marsden
Introduction by Jason Goodwin

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: December 4, 2001
Price: $13.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-75818-8 (0-375-75818-6)

Marco Polo’s account of his journey throughout the East in the thirteenth century was one of the earliest European travel narratives, and it remains the most important. The merchant-traveler from Venice, the first to cross the entire continent of Asia, provided us with accurate descriptions of life in China, Tibet, India... Read more >

The Afghan Campaign
A Novel
Written by Steven Pressfield

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Broadway Books
On Sale: June 5, 2007
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-7679-2238-8 (0-7679-2238-7)

Steven Pressfield, the bestselling novelist of ancient warfare, has written a riveting historical novel that re-creates Alexander the Great’s invasion of the Afghan kingdoms in 330 B.C.

In THE AFGHAN CAMPAIGN, Pressfield brings to life the confrontation between an invading Western army and fierce Eastern warriors determined at all costs to defend... Read more >

The Black Count
Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
Written by Tom Reiss

Format: Hardcover, 432 pages
Publisher: Crown
On Sale: September 18, 2012
Price: $27.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-38246-7 (0-307-38246-X)

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE

By the author of the internationally bestselling biography The Orientalist, The Black Count brings to life one of history’s great forgotten heroes: a man almost unknown today yet with a personal story that is strikingly familiar. His swashbuckling exploits appear in The Three Musketeers, and his triumphs... Read more >

Alexander
The Ambiguity of Greatness
Written by Guy Maclean Rogers

Format: Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: October 11, 2005
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7271-9 (0-8129-7271-6)

For nearly two and a half millennia, Alexander the Great has loomed over history as a legend–and an enigma. Wounded repeatedly but always triumphant in battle, he conquered most of the known world, only to die mysteriously at the age of thirty-two. In his day he was revered as a god... Read more >

The Xingyi Quan of the Chinese Army
Huang Bo Nien's Xingyi Fist and Weapon Instruction
Written by Dennis Rovere

Format: Trade Paperback, 176 pages
Publisher: Blue Snake Books
On Sale: December 2, 2008
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-58394-257-4 (1-58394-257-2)

Huang Bo Nien’s Xingyi Fist and Weapon Instruction was the first manual to systematically adapt a traditional Chinese martial art for modern military training. When it was first published in Chinese in 1928, it was heralded as an exciting new approach to martial arts; today, it remains an important work for... Read more >

The Victory of Reason
How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success
Written by Rodney Stark

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: September 26, 2006
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7233-7 (0-8129-7233-3)

In The Victory of Reason, Rodney Stark advances a revolutionary, controversial, and long overdue idea: that Christianity and its related institutions are, in fact, directly responsible for the most significant intellectual, political, scientific, and economic breakthroughs of the past millennium.
In Stark’s view, what has propelled the West is not the... Read more >

Rivers of Gold
The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan
Written by Hugh Thomas

Format: Trade Paperback, 720 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: May 31, 2005
Price: $20.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7055-5 (0-8129-7055-1)

From one of the greatest historians of the Spanish world, here is a fresh and fascinating account of Spain’s early conquests in the Americas. Hugh Thomas’s magisterial narrative of Spain in the New World has all the characteristics of great historical literature: amazing discoveries, ambition, greed, religious fanaticism, court intrigue, and... Read more >

Warriors of Medieval Japan

Written by Stephen Turnbull

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
On Sale: May 22, 2007
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-1-84603-220-2 (1-84603-220-2)

The fearless, elite warriors of medieval Japan were loyal comrades but deadly foes. Whether foot soldier, samurai or trained assassin, these men were driven by strict codes of honor and bound by deep allegiances of rank, family or religion.

This book examines the military lives of four formidable warrior types, covering the... Read more >

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Written by Jack Weatherford

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Broadway Books
On Sale: March 22, 2005
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-609-80964-8 (0-609-80964-4)

The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in twenty years than the Romans did in four hundred. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization. Vastly more progressive than his European or... Read more >

Meeting the Family
One Man's Journey Through His Human Ancestry
Written by Donovan Webster
Foreword by Spencer Wells

Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
Publisher: National Geographic
On Sale: April 20, 2010
Price: $26.00
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0573-6 (1-4262-0573-2)

Donovan Webster brings his vivid journalistic gifts to a new subject, tracing our deep genealogy using cutting-edge DNA research to map our eons-old journey from prehistoric Africa into the modern world. With the same genetic haplotype as many white American males, Webster makes an ideal subject–he is a genuine Everyman. While... Read more >

Eleanor of Aquitaine
A Life
Written by Alison Weir

Format: Trade Paperback, 480 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books
On Sale: April 3, 2001
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-345-43487-6 (0-345-43487-0)

Renowned in her time for being the most beautiful woman in Europe, the wife of two kings and mother of three, Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the great heroines of the Middle Ages. Despite the fact that she lived in an age in which women were regarded as little more... Read more >

Sailing from Byzantium
How a Lost Empire Shaped the World
Written by Colin Wells

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press
On Sale: July 31, 2007
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-553-38273-0 (0-553-38273-X)

Byzantium: the successor of Greece and Rome, this magnificent empire bridged the ancient and modern worlds for more than a thousand years. Without Byzantium, the works of Homer and Herodotus, Plato and Aristotle, Sophocles and Aeschylus, would never have survived. Yet very few of us have any idea of the enormous... Read more >

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt

Written by Toby Wilkinson

Format: Hardcover, 656 pages
Publisher: Random House
On Sale: March 15, 2011
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-0-553-80553-6 (0-553-80553-3)

In this landmark work, one of the world’s most renowned Egyptologists tells the epic story of this great civilization, from its birth as the first nation-state to its final absorption into the Roman Empire—three thousand years of wild drama, bold spectacle, and unforgettable characters.

In The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt... Read more >

Hitler's War on Russia

Written by Charles Winchester

Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
On Sale: August 21, 2007
Price: $12.95
ISBN: 978-1-84603-195-3 (1-84603-195-8)

The Russian front was the decisive theater of World War II with the great mass of the German army and Luftwaffe locked in battle with the Red Army in the largest land campaign in history. On a 1,200-mile front from the Arctic Circle to the Caspian Sea, in baking summer heat... Read more >

God's Soldiers
Adventure, Politics, Intrigue, and Power--A History of the Jesuits
Written by Jonathan Wright

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Image
On Sale: October 18, 2005
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-50080-7 (0-385-50080-7)

Throughout history members of the Society of Jesus, popularly known as Jesuits, have been accused of killing kings and presidents, have traveled as missionaries to every corner of the globe, founded haciendas in Mexico, explored the Mississippi and Amazon rivers, and served Chinese emperors as map makers, painters, and astronomers. As... Read more >