Historical

The New York Times bestselling author returns with a biography examining the dramatic life and unparalleled leadership of England's greatest medieval king.

The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400....

Leonardo da Vinci created the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and engineering....

Robert Caro's monumental book makes public what few outsiders knew: that Robert Moses was the single most powerful man of his time in the City and in the State of New York....

Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us - an ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings....

From National Book Award winner Ron Chernow, a landmark biography of George Washington....

In The Faithful Executioner, Harrington vividly re-creates a life filled with stark contrasts, from the young apprentice's rigorous training under his executioner father....

On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention....

In her international bestseller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome. Now she shines her spotlight on the emperors who ruled the Roman empire....

Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton....

Erik Larson has been widely acclaimed as a master of narrative non-fiction, and in his new book, turns his hand to a remarkable story set during Hitler’s rise to power....

Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist....

The first Plantagenet king inherited a blood-soaked kingdom from the Normans and transformed it into an empire stretched at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem. In this epic history, Dan Jones vividly resurrects this fierce and seductive royal dynasty and its mythic world....

The definitive biography of the great soldier-statesman by the New York Times best-selling author of The Storm of War....

This instant New York Times bestselling “dynamic detective story” (The New York Times) reveals the hidden history Rudolf Diesel, one of the world’s greatest inventors, and his mysterious disappearance on the eve of World War I.

From New York Times bestselling historian and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Charles King comes the moving untold story of the eighteenth-century men and women behind the making of Handel’s Messiah.

In this powerful, epic biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life-journey of John Adams....

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time. Described by the Chicago Tribune as "a classic", The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt stands as one of the greatest biographies of our time....

Hailed by critics as an American masterpiece, David McCullough's sweeping biography of Harry S. Truman captured the heart of the nation....

J. Robert Oppenheimer, an iconic figure of the 20th century, was a brilliant physicist who led efforts to build an atomic bomb but later confronted the moral consequences of scientific progress....

The incredible story of the first African-American military pilot, who went on to become a Paris nightclub impresario, a spy in the French Resistance and an American civil rights pioneer....

This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country....

Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time....

"El hombre en busca de sentido" es el estremecedor relato en el que Viktor Frankl nos narra su experiencia en los campos de concentración...

Left unfinished at the time of his death, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin has endured as one of the most well-known and influential autobiographies ever written....

Royal intrigue takes center stage in The Abyssinians, a gripping new audio drama starring Danielle Deadwyler (Till, The Piano Lesson) delivering a masterful performance as a cunning queen navigating treacherous political waters and scheming sons. In the wake of King Ezana’s death, his brash widow Queen Yodit (Deadwyler) must decide which of her twin sons will ascend to the throne. Clashing beliefs about religion, duty, and the rights of a ruler collide in this unforgettable story about a royal house at a crossroads in history.

Unearth the Rise and Fall of England’s Most Ambitious Cardinal Step into the volatile world of the Tudor court, where power was fleeting, alliances were fragile, and ambition could lead to either glory or ruin. Cardinal Wolsey for Beginners: Henry VIII's Right Hand and His Downfall reveals the gripping tale of Thomas Wolsey, a man who defied his humble beginnings to become one of the most powerful figures in English history—until it all came crashing down. Meet the Mastermind Behind the Throne: Discover how Wolsey rose from the son of a butcher to become Henry VIII’s trusted advisor, ...

The 25-Day Vice-President: Alabama's Rufus King documents the life and times of an often overlooked 19th Century statesman. Born to wealth and privilege in North Carolina, a well-educated King became an attorney before Tarheel voters elected him to serve in the State Legislator and later the U.S. Congress. From that point forward, he devoted his life to public service. King eventually migrated to the rapidly growing Alabama Territory and established himself as a leader in the affluent cotton planter aristocracy. He also helped construct a new city, Selma, which King himself named in honor ...

Delve into the intricate tapestry of European history with "The Iron Chancellor," an enlightening exploration of the life and legacy of Otto von Bismarck. From his formative years to his eventual rise as the architect of German unification, this compelling eBook takes readers on a journey through key historical moments that shaped the modern world. Begin your adventure with a look into Bismarck's early years, uncovering the familial, educational, and political influences that set the stage for his emergence onto the political scene. Chart his meteoric ascent to power as he navigated complex...

Anne Boleyn has mesmerized the general public for centuries. Her tragic execution at the Tower of London on the 19th of May, 1536—orchestrated by her own husband—never ceases to intrigue. While many stories of Anne’s downfall have been told, few have truly traced the origins of her grim fate. In Thorns, Lust, and Glory, Estelle Paranque takes us back to where it all started: to France, where Anne learned the lessons that would set her on the path to becoming one of England's most infamous queens.

Benjamin Franklin was one of the preeminent scientists of his time. Driven by curiosity, he conducted cutting-edge research on electricity, heat, ocean currents, weather patterns, chemical bonds, and plants. But today, Franklin is remembered more for his political prowess and diplomatic achievements than his scientific creativity. In this incisive and rich account of Benjamin Franklin's life and career, Richard Munson recovers this vital part of Franklin's story.

Born into slavery in Maryland, Frederick Douglass escaped bondage to become an abolitionist leader, orator and politician, and one of the most famous African-Americans of the 19th century. His autobiographical Narrative, an immediate bestseller in 1845, was soon acknowledged as a pivotal text in the struggle against slavery. In this moving and beautifully written account, he lays bare a system that brutalised everyone it touched.

As King James I’s favorite, Buckingham was also his confidant, gatekeeper, advisor and lover. When Charles I succeeded his father, he was similarly enthralled and made Buckingham his best friend and mentor. A dazzling figure on horseback and a skilful player of the political game, Buckingham rapidly transformed the influence his beauty gave him into immense wealth and power. He became one of the most flamboyant and enigmatic Englishmen at the heart of seventeenth-century royal and political life.

Roy Bean was an American saloon-keeper and Justice of the Peace in Texas, who called himself "The Only Law West of the Pecos". He and his three brothers set out from Kentucky in the mid 1840s, heading into the American frontier to find their fortunes. Their lifetimes of triumphs, tragedies, laurels, and scandals will play out on the battlefields of Mexico, in shady dealings in California city halls, inside eccentric saloon courtrooms of Texas, and along the blood-soaked Santa Fe Trail from Missouri to New Mexico. They will kill men, and murder will likewise stalk them.

In this masterful account, renowned true-crime historian Harold Schechter takes you into the life and crimes of convicted murderer John Caldwell Colt, drawing parallels between John's rise to notoriety and his brother Samuel Colt's rise to fame as the inventor of the legendary revolver. With a killing that made headlines around the nation, John Colt became a cultural touchstone whose shocking villainy inspired and provoked such writers as Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and Herman Melville.

We cannot control when hardships in life happen, but we can control how we overcome them. Born in 1935 while the Great Depression was in full swing, Dudley M. Sims had no idea the incredible life full of obstacles as well as blessings he would live. Through a series of stories and completed by his wife, Andrea K. Sims, after his passing, Overcoming the Odds of Life illuminates the strength he had to be an overcomer, the love he and his wife shared that she continues to feel to this day, and the unforgettable legacy he left behind.

History has not forgotten their names but you probably have little idea of the friendship that penned a brilliant collection of America's finest legends & delivered them to the public as succinct true stories as relevant today as then. Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924) & Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) met when the two young men first arrived in Washington D.C. at the advent of their public service careers.

À travers le succès constant des Pensées pour moi-même, ouvrage qui a aidé des millions de lecteurs à vivre, la figure de l’empereur romain Marc Aurèle (121-180), popularisée par Gladiator, le film culte de Ridley Scott, nous interpelle : comment le dirigeant de l’un des plus grands empires du monde a-t-il pu conserver la sérénité au milieu du tumulte des guerres, des trahisons, des épidémies ou des catastrophes naturelles qui secouèrent son règne pendant près de deux décennies ?

Seven Virginians, the culmination of a lifetime of erudition by one of America's leading historians, reveals the integral role played by seven major Virginians before, during, and after the American Revolution: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, George Mason, Patrick Henry, and John Marshall.

Londres, 1938. Zweig présente Dalí à Freud. Londres, 19 juillet 1938. Stefan Zweig et Salvador Dalí rendent visite à Sigmund Freud, tout juste exfiltré de l'Autriche nazie. Proche de l'analyste, et lui aussi réfugié, Zweig a organisé ce rendez-vous sur l'insistance de son ami peintre, qui idolâtre Freud et trépigne de lui montrer une de ses toiles. Accompagnés de Gala, l'épouse de Dalí, et de son agent, ils sont accueillis par Anna Freud.