| The prisoner in his palace: Saddam Hussein, his American guards, and what history leaves unsaid by Will BardenwerperDuring the last five months of 2006, 12 U.S. Army Military Police personnel drew the unusual assignment of guarding Saddam Hussein in Iraq from the beginning of his trial through his execution. Drawing on first-person accounts by the MPs and other officials, journalist Will Bardenwerper relates their impressions of Saddam as a man with two distinct personalities: passionately raving against the U.S. in court, and gentlemanly and kind to his guards in the prison quarters. The Prisoner in His Palace offers an unusual perspective on the dictator's character, as well as a compelling account of the guards' experiences. |
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| The trial of Adolf Hitler: The Beer Hall Putsch and the rise of Nazi Germany by David KingIn The Trial of Adolf Hitler, historian David King recounts the trial for treason that followed the November 8, 1923 "Beer Hall Putsch," in which Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders attempted to seize power in Bavaria. Making passionate speeches during the court proceedings, Hitler used national publicity about the trial to attract popular support for the Nazi party. To follow up on this absorbing narrative, check out Peter Ross Range's 1924, detailing the subsequent imprisonment during which Hitler wrote Mein Kampf. |
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Pirate women: The princesses, prostitutes, and privateers who ruled the Seven Seas
by Laura Sook Duncombe
Tells the story of women, both real and legendary, who through the ages sailed alongside and sometimes in command of their male counterparts. These women came from all walks of life but had one thing in common: a desire for freedom. History has largely ignored these female swashbucklers, until now. Here are their stories, from ancient Norse princess Alfhild and warrior Rusla to Sayyida al-Hurra of the Barbary corsairs; from Grace O'Malley, who terrorized shipping operations around the British Isles during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I; to Cheng I Sao, who commanded a fleet of four hundred ships off China in the early nineteenth century. Author Laura Sook Duncombe also looks beyond the stories to the storytellers and mythmakers. What biases and agendas motivated them? What did they leave out? Pirate Women explores why and how these stories are told and passed down, and how history changes depending on who is recording it. It's the most comprehensive overview of women pirates in one volume and chock-full of swashbuckling adventures that pull these unique women from the shadows into the spotlight that they deserve.
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The taste of Empire: How Britain's quest for food shaped the modern world
by Lizzie Collingham
A history of the British Empire told through twenty meals eaten around the world over the course of 450 years, from the Far East to the New World, historina Lizzie Collingham explains how Africans taught Americans how to grow rice, how the East India Company turned opium into tea, and how Americans became the best-fed people in the world. In The Taste of Empire, Collingham masterfully shows that only by examining the history of Great Britain's global food system, from sixteenth-century Newfoundland fisheries to our present-day eating habits, can we fully understand our capitalist economy and its role in making our modern diets.
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Meetings with remarkable manuscripts: Twelve journeys into the medieval world
by Christopher De Hamel
A remarkable examination of twelve illuminated manuscripts from the medieval period. Noted authority Christopher de Hamel invites the reader into intimate conversations with these texts to explore what they tell us about nearly a thousand years of medieval history - and sometimes about the modern world too. In so doing, de Hamel introduces us to kings, queens, saints, scribes, artists, librarians, thieves, dealers, and collectors. He traces the elaborate journeys which these exceptionally precious artifacts have made through time, shows us how they have been copied, who has owned them or lusted after them (and how we can tell), how they have been embroiled in politics, how they have been regarded as objects of supreme beauty and as symbols of national identity.
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The new Koreans: The story of a nation
by Michael Breen
In a fascinating look at the complex history and culture of a divided people, a writer and consultant who first went to Korea as a correspondent in 1982 provides compelling insight into this fascinating nation, in particular its division and its emergence as an economic super power.
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The stranger in the woods: The extraordinary story of the last true hermit
by Michael Finkel
Documents the true story of a man who endured a hardscrabble, isolated existence in a tent in the Maine woods, never speaking with others and surviving by stealing supplies from nearby cabins, for 27 years, in a portrait that illuminates the survival means he developed and the reasons behind his solitary life.
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| Meet me in Atlantis: Across three continents in search of the legendary sunken city by Mark AdamsWas Atlantis a real place? Examining this question, bestselling author Mark Adams, author of Turn Right at Machu Picchu, visited several countries to examine sites that could be the location of the island that sank beneath the waves. Traveling to Greece, Spain, Malta, Morocco, and other places, he documents his investigations, surveys the research of scientists and amateur explorers, and studies the clues left by the Greek philosopher Plato (who told us all that we know about Atlantis). Though Adams may not come up with a definitive answer, curious readers will enjoy this "fun, enthusiastic exploration" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| Sextant: A young man's daring sea voyage and the men who mapped the world's oceans by David BarrieIn Sextant, British scholar David Barrie recounts his experience as a young man who learned to use a sextant (a navigational aid invented in the 18th century) as he sailed across the Atlantic. Relating the history of the sextant along with his personal reminiscences, he also provides an engaging chronicle of the exploration and early mapping of the world. Relating the exploits of James Cook, George Vancouver, William Bligh, Ernest Shackleton, and others, Barrie fills his book with the challenges -- and romance -- of the sea. |
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Visions of empire: How five imperial regimes shaped the world
by Krishan Kumar
Visions of Empire offers new insights into the interactions between rulers and ruled, revealing how empire was as much a shared enterprise as a clash of oppositional interests. It explores how these empires differed from nation-states, particularly in how the ruling peoples of empires were forced to downplay or suppress their own national or ethnic identities in the interests of the long-term preservation of their rule.
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| Leaving orbit: Notes from the last days of American spaceflight by Margaret Lazarus Dean“What does it mean that we have been going to space for 50 years and have decided to stop?” In Leaving Orbit, Margaret Lazarus Dean, an English professor and lifelong fan of space flight, details the final three missions of NASA's space shuttle in 2011. Emphasizing the human elements of the programme, she recounts her trips to Cape Kennedy to witness these launches, drawing on the poetic as well as the technical to characterize NASA's culture and politics. Dean's compelling elegy to American space exploration is a must-read for those fascinated by the final frontier. |
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