Best 20th Century World History

A definitive account of World War II by America's preeminent military historian World War II was the most lethal conflict in human history. A Kirkus Best Book of 2017 " The Second World Wars by Victor Davis Hanson is breathtakingly magisterial: How can Mr. Hanson make so much we thought we knew so fresh and original?" "[Hanson's] organizational approach allows him to isolate and highlight observations that may surprise even some well-read WWII enthusiasts. "Dr. Hanson has written another well-researched and fascinating book.... [He] does an excellent job of placing World War II in the historical context of global conflict. "[Hanson's] unusual approach yields new insights about long-familiar events, making his experiments ingenious and successful.

A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Werner is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father’s life, until he discovers a knack for engineering. Yes, there is fear and fighting and disappearance and death, but the author’s focus is on the interior lives of his two characters. Never mind that their paths don’t cross until very late in the novel, this is not a book you read for plot (although there is a wonderful, mysterious subplot about a stolen gem). It is through their individual and intertwined tales that Doerr masterfully and knowledgeably re-creates the deprived civilian conditions of war-torn France and the strictly controlled lives of the military occupiers.High-Demand Backstory: A multipronged marketing campaign will make the author’s many fans aware of his newest book, and extensive review coverage is bound to enlist many new fans.

#1 New York Times Bestseller The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. "Timothy Snyder reasons with unparalleled clarity, throwing the past and future into sharp relief. He has written the rare kind of book that can be read in one sitting but will keep you coming back to help regain your bearings. A slim book that fits alongside your pocket Constitution and feels only slightly less vital. A memorable work that is grounded in history yet imbued with the fierce urgency of what now.” —Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post “Snyder knows this subject cold. It is impossible to read aphorisms like ‘post-truth is pre-fascism’ and not feel a small chill about the current state of the Republic. Read it carefully and be on the lookout for symptoms.” — Daniel W. Drezner, The New York Times Book Review. “Snyder is superbly positioned to bring historical thinking to bear on the current political scene. These unpretentious words remind us that political resistance isn’t a matter of action-movie heroics, but starts from a willingness to break from social expectations.” — Jeet Heer, The New Republic. These 128 pages are a brief primer in every important thing we might have learned from the history of the last century, and all that we appear to have forgotten.” — Tim Adams, The Guardian. Snyder detects dangerous trends in American politics that may be less visible to most citizens who cannot believe that our country, with its system of checks and balances, could succumb to illiberalism or authoritarianism.” — Darryl Holter, Los Angeles Review of Books. He is the author of Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin and Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning . Snyder is a member of the Committee on Conscience of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and a permanent fellow of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.

Lúcido e iluminador: la historia de la humanidad en un solo volumen. ¿Cómo llegamos a creer en dioses, en naciones o en los derechos humanos; a confiar en el dinero, en los libros o en las leyes? En De animales a dioses , Yuval Noah Harari traza una breve historia de la humanidad, desde los primeros humanos que caminaron sobre la Tierra hasta los radicales y a veces devastadores avances de las tres grandes revoluciones que nuestra especie ha protagonizado: la cognitiva, la agrícola y la científica. A partir de hallazgos de disciplinas tan diversas como la biología, la antropología, la paleontología o la economía, Harari explora cómo las grandes corrientes de la historia han modelado nuestra sociedad, los animales y las plantas que nos rodean e incluso nuestras personalidades. Yuval Noah Harari Nacido en 1976, es profesor de historia en la Universidad Hebrea de Jerusalén.

The World of Yesterday, mailed to his publisher a few days before Stefan Zweig took his life in 1942, has become a classic of the memoir genre. ( Publishers Weekly ). "When I opened it, I immediately felt that rare thrill one experiences when meeting a great book. In this remarkably fine new translation, Anthea Bell perfectly captures Stefan Zweig’s glorious evocation of a lost world, Vienna’s golden age, in which he grew up and flourished.”—Ronald Harwood, award-winning author, playwright, and screenwriter. (Ronald Harwood). “The very success with which this book evokes both the beauty of the past and the fatality of its passing is what gives it tragic effectiveness.

A completely revised edition of James W. Loewen’s classic retelling of American history, based on six new textbooks and including an all-new chapter on the recent past Since its first publication in 1995, Lies My Teacher Told Me has gone on to win an American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship, and has sold over a million copies in its various editions. To make learning more compelling, Loewen urges authors, publishers and teachers to highlight the drama inherent in history by presenting students with different viewpoints and stressing that history is an ongoing process, not merely a collection of—often misleading—factoids. To account for the deplorable situation, he offers this quasi-Marxist explanation: "Perhaps we are all dupes, manipulated by elite white male capitalists who orchestrate how history is written as part of their scheme to perpetuate their own power and privilege at the expense of the rest of us." Certainly students' appalling ignorance of history is troublesome, and broken families and excessive TV viewing are at least the equals of white male conspirators as the cause.

a great story in the hands of a master storyteller.”— The Wall Street Journal 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 German princess who became one of the most remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in history. “[A] compelling portrait not just of a Russian titan, but also of a flesh-and-blood woman.”— Newsweek “An absorbing, satisfying biography.”— Los Angeles Times “Juicy and suspenseful.”— The New York Times Book Review “A great life, indeed, and irresistibly told.”—Salon NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times • The Washington Post • USA Today • The Boston Globe • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • Newsweek/ The Daily Beast. • Salon • Vogue • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Providence Journal • Washington Examiner • South Florida Sun-Sentinel • BookPage • Bookreporter • Publishers Weekly BONUS: This edition contains a Catherine the Great reader's guide. In 1744, at the age of 14, she was taken by her ambitious mother--removed from her family, her religion, and her country--to a foreign land with a single goal: marry a prince and bear him an heir. Massie, a former president of the Authors Guild, is a seasoned biographer of the 400-year Romanov dynasty, most notably with Peter the Great: His Life and World , which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 and remains one of the most arresting biographies I've even encountered. Married to an incompetent man-child who was unwilling or unable to help her fulfill her primary role--giving birth to a son--she ultimately grew to become a trailblazer among monarchs: friend of philosophical giants, incomparable patron of the arts, prosecutor of multiple wars, pioneer of public health, maker of kings, and prodigious serial lover. Indeed, her accomplishments and shortcomings as an autocrat and a woman make for a remarkable saga, but that's not to say that just any author could do justice to Catherine's lasting legacy. Massie situates Catherine's early life and three-decade reign as empress amidst the tumult of the European Enlightenment, enriching his own narrative with telling excerpts of her letters and rich discussions of her political environment and personal motivations. ” —The Wall Street Journal “Dense and detailed, enriched by pages of full-color illustrations, Massie’s latest will transport history lovers .” —People. He understands plot—fate—as a function of character, and the narrative perspective he establishes and maintains, a vision tightly aligned with that of his subject, convinces a reader he’s not so much looking at Catherine the Great as he is out of her eyes.

Their champion was a progressive, young lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck, who emerges in these pages as a forgotten American patriot and whose political vision brought him into conflict with Peter Stuyvesant, the autocratic director of the Dutch colony. Mining a trove of recently translated 17th-century records of New Netherland, Shorto reconstructs, in fascinating detail, the little-told story behind the Dutch settlement and its capital, Manhattan. Shorto, author of two previous books and articles published in the New Yorker and the New York TimesMag azine, presents an outstanding and revealing chronicle of the Dutch presence on Manhattan Island. Shorto also highlights the contributions of Andriaen van der Donck, an energetic, charismatic man who played an integral part in creating a dynamic, diverse, and tolerant society that appears refreshing when compared to the neighboring Puritan-dominated colony in Massachusetts.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Eric Metaxas comes a brilliant and inspiring biography of the most influential man in modern history, Martin Luther, in time for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. On All Hallow’s Eve in 1517, a young monk named Martin Luther posted a document he hoped would spark an academic debate, but that instead ignited a conflagration that would forever destroy the world he knew. A beautifully balanced separation of fact from fiction.” —Hugh Hewitt “If you had to make a list of five people who shaped the modern West, Martin Luther would be on it. With a light and rapid touch that nonetheless is capable of conveying deep truths and insights, Metaxas deftly blends these many elements into a narrative that reads as compellingly as a novel. I imagine that Luther himself—not an easy man to please—would be deeply impressed by this master portraiture.” —Mark Helprin, bestselling author of Winter’s Tale and A Soldier of the Great War. With his customary verve and elegance, profound reverence, and biting wit, Metaxas’s Martin Luther is an education in the meaning of man’s relation to God. Gerald L. Schroeder, lecturer and teacher at College of Jewish Studies Aish HaTorah’s Discovery Seminar “This massive but eminently readable biography of Luther deserves no less an adjective than ‘formidable.’ Eric Metaxas is to religious biographers what Pixar is to cartoons.” —Peter Kreeft, author of Catholics and Protestants: What Can We Learn from Each Other? “If you wish to know why Martin Luther is remembered as one of the most consequential figures in history, and why Eric Metaxas has emerged as one of the most prominent storytellers of our generation, you’ll find the answers in this book. Eric’s skill as a writer and biographer are on full display here, even as he corrects the myths and secures the history of a monk who changed the world.” —John Stonestreet, president of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. “A biography designed to peel back the myths and reveal Luther as the fascinating and influential man he was . the author’s fast-paced style and attention to interesting details sets this 450-page book apart.” —Institute for Faith, Work & Economics “Turns some centuries-long legends upside down.” —The Blaze “A masterful portrait of a seminal figure.” — Booklist (starred review) “A meaty autobiography of the Reformation leader. Bold, fast-paced, and magisterial like its hero, yet always stylish and witty like its author, this account blows the cobwebs off long-settled expectations, and helps us to understand the man who shook the medieval world and helped to shape the modern world.” —Os Guinness, author of Impossible People “When Martin Luther made it possible to read the Bible for yourself, he did more than anyone else to create the future. Read this book for yourself to understand the story we’re all still living through.” —Peter Thiel, cofounder of PayPal, entrepreneur, and author of Zero to One “Eric Metaxas has blessed us with yet another indispensable biography. With his customary verve and elegance, profound reverence, and biting wit, Metaxas’s Martin Luther is an education in the meaning of man’s relation to God. Gerald L. Schroeder, lecturer and teacher at College of Jewish Studies Aish HaTorah’s Discovery Seminar “This massive but eminently readable biography of Luther deserves no less an adjective than ‘formidable.’ Eric Metaxas is to religious biographers what Pixar is to cartoons.” —Peter Kreeft, author of Catholics and Protestants: What Can We Learn from Each Other? A tour de force.” —Johnnie Moore, Jr., founder of The Kairos Company “If you wish to know why Martin Luther is remembered as one of the most consequential figures in history, and why Eric Metaxas has emerged as one of the most prominent storytellers of our generation, you’ll find the answers in this book. Eric’s skill as a writer and biographer are on full display here, even as he corrects the myths and secures the history of a monk who changed the world.” —John Stonestreet, president of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview.

From the New York Times bestselling author and master of martial fiction comes the definitive, illustrated history of one of the greatest battles ever fought—a riveting nonfiction chronicle published to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s last stand. In his first work of nonfiction, Bernard Cornwell combines his storytelling skills with a meticulously researched history to give a riveting chronicle of every dramatic moment, from Napoleon’s daring escape from Elba to the smoke and gore of the three battlefields and their aftermath. With historical accounts like this, who needs novels for excitement?” ( Wall Street Journal ). “Waterloo may be a well-mined topic, but this new presentation is bound to satisfy lovers of military history…. “Bernard Cornwell proceeds at a brisk canter and his descriptions of the fighting are as gripping as any in his splendid Sharpe novels.” ( The Times (London)). “Brings a shrewd military historian’s mind to his subject…thrilling to read…Cornwell’s is from start to finish a gripping account, red in tooth and claw. “As you would expect from a writer who is the acknowledged expert on the Napoleonic Wars he is superb on the tiny details as well as on the bigger picture.” ( Daily Express (London)). “Cornwell has found deserved popularity with his Sharpe series of historically accurate novels set in the Napoleonic Wars. In his first work of nonfiction, Bernard Cornwell combines his storytelling skills with a meticulously researched history to give a riveting chronicle of every dramatic moment—from Napoleon’s daring escape from Elba to the smoke and gore of the three battlefields and their aftermath. Cornwell brings to life how it actually felt to fight those famous battles—as well as the moments of amazing bravery on both sides that left the outcome hanging in the balance until the bitter end.

His fellow American warriors, whom he protected with deadly precision from rooftops and stealth positions during the Iraq War, called him “The Legend”; meanwhile, the enemy feared him so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. American Sniper is a compelling read.” (CLINT EASTWOOD). “An amazingly detailed account of fighting in Iraq--a humanizing, brave story that’s extremely readable.” (PATRICIA CORNWELL, New York Times Book Review ). A brave warrior and patriot, Chris Kyle writes frankly about the missions, personal challenges, and hard choices that are part of daily life of an elite SEAL Sniper. His fellow American warriors, whom he protected with deadly precision from rooftops and stealth positions during the Iraq War, called him “The Legend”; meanwhile, the enemy feared him so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle, who was tragically killed in 2013, writes honestly about the pain of war—including the deaths of two close SEAL teammates—and in moving first-person passages throughout, his wife, Taya, speaks openly about the strains of war on their family, as well as on Chris.