Fall and Rise (2019) recounts the morning of September 11, 2001, a date when the world changed forever. Operating under the direction of Osama bin Laden, terrorists seized control of four commercial airliners, crashing them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It tells a story of fear, courage, and strength through the eyes …
History
The Pope at War (2022) follows the first years of Eugenio Pacelli’s papacy. Based on documents released by the Vatican in 2020, the book reveals the never-before-told story of the pope’s secret negotiations with Hitler. Introduction: Get a history lesson about a “great” pope and learn why sometimes silence is the worst crime of all. …
Fifth Sun (2019) recounts the epic rise and tragic fall of the Aztec Empire. Using powerful, firsthand accounts written by the Aztecs themselves as its source material, this summary provides a new narrative of the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica. It is the story of a people who resisted colonization and, although defeated militarily, never fully …
Dan Albert, PhD, writes about the past, present and future of cars for n+1 literary magazine. The automobile, Albert reports, changed everything in American life: roads, homes, shopping malls, businesses, even movie theaters. In the face of impending catastrophic climate change, he notes, Americans still won’t get rid of cars; instead, they’ll create driverless, electric …
The Fourth Turning (1997) presents a fascinating picture of history, past, present, and future. Though the people of modern Western societies tend to view history as a linear process, the reality might instead be cyclical, repeated regularly and predictably. By studying the ways in which history does indeed repeat itself, we can better prepare ourselves …
The Dawn of Everything (2021) is a reimagining of the history of humanity, based on new discoveries in the worlds of anthropology and archeology. According to the authors, new findings challenge what we thought we knew about hierarchies, inequality, property, and the state. Who is it for? Anyone who’s ever shaken their fist at bureaucracy …
Did you know that the land you stand on has shaped the society you’re living in? If this sounds a tad abstract, think of it this way: the geographic features and resources around you have strongly influenced your country’s economy, as well as how it has fared in the many wars that have been fought …
1491 (2005) is a study of the Western Hemisphere before 1492, the year in which an Italian sailor employed by the Spanish empire first set foot in the Americas. Within a century of Columbus’s “discovery” of the New World, some of humanity’s most sophisticated cultures had all but disappeared. In 1491, Charles Mann sets out …
Ancient Egypt is a historical anomaly: the Egyptians called upon women to lead their country more frequently than any other culture. Tracing their rise to power within the authoritarian system of divine kingship, When Women Ruled the World (2018) tells the stories of Egypt’s six most important female leaders – Merneith, Neferusobek, Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Tawosret …
Endurance (1959) is the epic saga of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expedition across the Antarctic continent on foot – a journey that became a race against time, the elements, and the harshest climate on earth to rescue his crew. Recommendation Alfred Lansing’s absorbing, timeless account of Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 expedition to Antarctica is a gripping true-adventure …
