Material culture historian Dorothy Armstrong's sweeping and well-researched world history details the practical and symbolic roles carpets have played in shaping human civilization by spotlighting 12 individual carpets woven between 500 BCE and the present. Try this next: Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization by Tim Queeney.
Award-winning historian Scott Ellsworth's compelling and well-researched latest focuses on the final year of the American Civil War, revealing how John Wilkes Booth may have been part of a long-planned Confederate conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Further reading: Lincoln's Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War by Michael Vorenberg.
Former Guardian journalist Charlie English evocatively chronicles the CIA's successful efforts to weaken Soviet censorship and control by distributing subversive and pro-democracy literature to Eastern Europe in the 1980s. Try this next: The Book Collectors: A Band of Syrian Rebels and the Stories That Carried Them Through a War by Delphine Minoui.
In her incisive debut, journalist Megan Greenwell draws upon her own experience as a former writer for Deadspin to investigate the damaging impact private equity firms have on American workers and communities. Further reading: These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs — and Wrecks — America by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner.
Traces the history of the Great Wagon Road, a major 18th-century migration route from Philadelphia to Georgia, exploring its role in frontier settlement, war, industry, and democracy through field research, historical analysis, and the author's personal connection to its enduring legacy. Map(s).
Recounts the perilous expedition into the Himalayas to find the elusive panda undertaken by the two eldest sons of Theodore Roosevelt in 1928, chronicling their scientific achievements, physical hardships, and the broader impact of their journey on Western conservation efforts. Illustrations.
Drawing on extensive interviews and research, this book looks at the novelist's Vietnam War service, his evolution as a writer, and his broader cultural impact, intertwining his personal history with historical events and offering insights into his creative process and literary legacy.