Augustus

Augustus

Anthony Everitt

History / Biography

He found Rome made of clay and left it made of marble. As Rome's first emperor, Augustus transformed the unruly Republic into the greatest empire the world had ever seen. His consolidation and expansion of Roman power two thousand years ago laid the foundations, for all of Western history to follow. Yet, despite Augustus's accomplishments, very few biographers have concentrated on the man himself, instead choosing to chronicle the age in which he lived. Here, Anthony Everitt, the bestselling author of Cicero, gives a spellbinding and intimate account of his illustrious subject. Augustus began his career as an inexperienced teenager plucked from his studies to take center stage in the drama of Roman politics, assisted by two school friends, Agrippa and Maecenas. Augustus's rise to power began with the assassination of his great-uncle and adoptive father, Julius Caesar, and culminated in the titanic duel with Mark Antony and Cleopatra.The world that made Augustus--and...
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Primetime Propaganda

Primetime Propaganda

Ben Shapiro

Politics / History / Nonfiction

The inside story of how the most powerful medium of mass communication in human history has become a propaganda tool for the LeftPrimetime Propaganda is the story--told in their own words--of how television has been used over the past sixty years by Hollywood writers, producers, actors, and executives to promote their liberal ideals, to push the envelope on social and political issues, and to shape America in their own leftistimage.In this thoroughly researched and detailed history of the television industry, conservative columnist and author Ben Shapiro argues that left-leaning entertainment kingpins in Los Angeles and New York have leveraged--and continue to use--their positions and power to push liberal messages and promote the Democratic Party while actively discriminating against their opponents on the right. According to Shapiro, television isn't just about entertainment--it's an attempt to convince Americans that the social, economic, and...
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Death on a Longship

Death on a Longship

Marsali Taylor

Mystery & Thrillers / History / Women & Gender Studies

When she wangles the job of skippering a Viking longship for a film, Cass Lynch thinks her big break has finally arrived - even though it means returning home to the Shetland Islands, which she ran away from as a teenager. Then the 'accidents' begin - and when a dead woman turns up on the boat's deck, Cass realises that she, her family and her past are under suspicion from the disturbingly shrewd Detective Inspector Macrae. Cass must call on all her local knowledge, the wisdom she didn't realise she'd gained from sailing and her glamorous, French opera singer mother to clear them all of suspicion - and to catch the killer before Cass becomes the next victim.
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At Day's Close

At Day's Close

A. Roger Ekirch

History / Nonfiction / Science

"Remarkable....Ekirch has emptied night's pockets, and laid the contents out before us."—Arthur Krystal, The New YorkerBringing light to the shadows of history through a "rich weave of citation and archival evidence" (Publishers Weekly), scholar A. Roger Ekirch illuminates the aspects of life most often overlooked by other historians—those that unfold at night. In this "triumph of social history" (Mail on Sunday), Ekirch's "enthralling anthropology" (Harper's) exposes the nightlife that spawned a distinct culture and a refuge from daily life.Fear of crime, of fire, and of the supernatural; the importance of moonlight; the increased incidence of sickness and death at night; evening gatherings to spin wool and stories; masqued balls; inns, taverns, and brothels; the strategies of thieves, assassins, and conspirators; the protective uses of incantations, meditations, and prayers; the nature of our predecessors' sleep and...
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Lost and Found

Lost and Found

Mark Elliott

Cultural / China / History

As two clever boys exploit a clerical oversight, each one discovers new perspectives on selfhood, friendship, and honesty.Identical twins Ray and Jay Grayson are moving to a new town. Again. But at least they'll have each other's company at their new school. Except, on the first day of sixth grade, Ray stays home sick, and Jay quickly discovers a major mistake: No one knows about his brother. Ray's not on the attendance lists and doesn't have a locker, or even a student folder. Jay decides that this lost information could be very...useful. And fun. Maybe even a little dangerous.
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Speak Softly My Love

Speak Softly My Love

Louis Shalako

Science Fiction & Fantasy / History / Humor

To fall in love is to be young again. To count the cost is to die a little bit inside. In Speak Softly My Love, Inspector Gilles Maintenon goes out for a quart of milk and stumbles across a dead man. The trouble is, when the dead get up and walk away. They have one too many missing-person reports, too many wives, girlfriends and other mysterious blondes.
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The Battle of Borodino: Napoleon Against Kutuzov

The Battle of Borodino: Napoleon Against Kutuzov

Alexander Mikaberidze

Cultural / Russia / History

On 7 September 1812 at Borodino, 75 miles west of Moscow, the armies of the Russian and French empires clashed in one of the climactic battles of the Napoleonic Wars. This horrific - and controversial - contest has fascinated historians ever since. The survival of the Russian army after Borodino was a key factor in Napoleon's eventual defeat and the utter destruction of the French army of 1812. In this thought-provoking new study, Napoleonic historian Alexander Mikaberidze reconsiders the 1812 campaign and retells the terrible story of the Borodino battle as it was seen from the Russian point of view. His original and painstakingly researched investigation of this critical episode in Napoleon's invasion of Russia provides the reader with a fresh perspective on the battle and a broader understanding of the underlying reasons for the eventual Russian triumph. REVIEWS "Alexander Mikaberidze is one of the most important young Napoleonic scholars in the US, and this book is just another reason why that is the case. ... does an outstanding job of telling the story. ... ...will be interesting to scholars and the 'just interested' alike. ... augmented by some outstanding graphics. ... What makes this book especially important, is the incredible breadth of sources used to produce it. ...gives readers at any level everything they could possibly want--and more. It belongs in anyone's Napoleonic library. " J. David Markham, Historian/Author, www.NapoleonicHistory.com
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Forsaking Hope

Forsaking Hope

Beverley Oakley

History / Romance

Two years ago, she missed their secret assignation and disappeared without a trace.Now the divine "Miss Hope" is in Felix Durham’s bed - a gift to lift his spirits, sourced by friends from London's most exclusive brothel.Felix can't lose her again, but Hope Merriweather is bound to her new life by dark secrets and a twisted code.Having sacrificed everything, she must choose again: Honour or her heart's desire?Only, this time she must face the truth. It's not her heart, alone, that will be broken.
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Leningrad

Leningrad

Anna Reid

History / Nonfiction / War

On September 8, 1941, eleven weeks after Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, his brutal surprise attack on the Soviet Union, Leningrad was surrounded. The siege was not lifted for two and a half years, by which time some three quarters of a million Leningraders had died of starvation. Anna Reid's Leningrad is a gripping, authoritative narrative history of this dramatic moment in the twentieth century, interwoven with indelible personal accounts of daily siege life drawn from diarists on both sides. They reveal the Nazis' deliberate decision to starve Leningrad into surrender and Hitler's messianic miscalculation, the incompetence and cruelty of the Soviet war leadership, the horrors experienced by soldiers on the front lines, and, above all, the terrible details of life in the blockaded city: the relentless search for food and water; the withering of emotions and family ties; looting, murder, and cannibalism- and at the same time, extraordinary bravery and self-sacrifice...
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Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II

Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II

Belton Y. Cooper

History / Military / Military History

“Cooper saw more of the war than most junior officers, and he writes about it better than almost anyone. . . . His stories are vivid, enlightening, full of life—and of pain, sorrow, horror, and triumph.”—STEPHEN E. AMBROSE From his Foreword“In a down-to-earth style, Death Traps tells the compelling story of one man’s assignment to the famous 3rd Armored Division that spearheaded the American advance from Normandy into Germany. Cooper served as an ordnance officer with the forward elements and was responsible for coordinating the recovery and repair of damaged American tanks. This was a dangerous job that often required him to travel alone through enemy territory, and the author recalls his service with pride, downplaying his role in the vast effort that kept the American forces well equipped and supplied. . . . [Readers] will be left with an indelible impression of the importance of the support troops and how dependent combat forces were on them.”—Library Journal“[DEATH TRAPS] FILLS A CRITICAL GAP IN WW2 LITERATURE. . . . IT’S A TRULY UNIQUE AND VALUABLE WORK.”—G.I. JournalFrom the Paperback edition.
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