Popular History

Idi Amin ruled Uganda between 1971 and 1979, inflicting tremendous violence on the people of the country. How did Amin's regime survive for eight calamitous years? Drawing on recently uncovered archival material, Derek Peterson reconstructs the political logic of the era, focusing on the ordinary people—civil servants, curators and artists, businesspeople, patriots—who invested their energy and resources in making the government work.

In the gold rush era of Virginia City, Montana, crime was afoot and justice shaky. Lawlessness ran amok in the form of gamblers, saloonkeepers, miners, dance hall girls, and road agents - outlaws who ambushed travelers on the road for a chance to steal precious gold. Of all the road agents, Henry Plummer was their king and elected sheriff. Plummer’s notorious road-agent band terrorized the highways until a group of ordinary citizens resolved to take the responsibility of social governance into their hands.

In the 1970s, Paris fashion exploded like a champagne bottle left out in the sun. Amid sequins and longing, celebrities and aspirants flocked to the heart of chic, and Paris became a hothouse of revelry, intrigue, and searing ambition. At the center of it all were fashion’s most beloved luminaries - Yves Saint Laurent, the reclusive enfant terrible, and Karl Lagerfeld, the flamboyant freelancer with a talent for reinvention - and they divided Paris into two fabulous halves.

A Concise Literary English Translation When the day of judgement is nigh, there are those who would say with vehemence that the Qur’an is not from God. However, the Bible does contain passages that portend to the advent of Islam. The only woman in the Bible visited by an angel of the Lord to be told that she would be the mother of a great nation is not the mother of Israel but the mother of Ishmael, Hager. Thereafter Hager is the only woman in the Bible (Genesis 16:13) to afford God a name: El Roy, which means “God sees me” in Hebrew. Moreover, Ishmael, whose mother city is Baca (...

This program is read by Audie Award–winning actor Robert Petkoff. "[What stands out is] Petkoff's bravura performance, the fine sound quality, and the exceptional direction and editing. Indeed, this is an impressive audiobook" —Kirkus Reviews on Hitler's Last Days What has to change in...

The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind is a seminal work on crowd psychology by Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931), a French social psychologist. He observes that a crowd forms when an influential idea unites a number of individuals and prompts them to act towards a common goal. In a crowd, the conscious personality of the individual is submerged and dominated by the collective mind. Furthermore, every sentiment becomes contagious to a degree that individuals readily sacrifice their personal interest to the collective.

The definitive history of Japanese organized crime, from its origins in samurai-era black markets and gambling rings to the shadowy syndicates of the present. “The best book in English on this fascinating and misunderstood subject.” ―Richard Lloyd Parry, author of People Who Eat Darkness...

Our enduring love of vampires - the bad boys (and girls) of paranormal fantasy - has persisted for centuries. Despite being bloodthirsty, heartless killers, vampire stories commonly carry erotic overtones that are missing from other paranormal or horror stories. Even when monstrous teeth are sinking into pale, helpless throats - especially then - vampires are sexy. But why? Author Violet Fenn takes the listener through the history of vampires in "fact" and fiction, their origins in mythology and literature, and their enduring appeal on TV and film. 

Brought to you by Penguin. Journey through time and space with Bill Bryson in the best-selling popular science book of the 21st century, exploring the history of the Earth, the universe, and everything in between. NOW FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED IN THIS NEW ABRIDGED EDITION, READ BY THE AUTHOR...

We have entered an age where we now have instant, unlimited, free access to the history of recorded music. We have the ability to listen across genres and eras. This is a world-wide phenomenon. This book is a guide to taking advantage of this astonishing new power. This book is also a way to appreciate one of our great cultural legacies; one that is very alive today. It is about American popular song and the body of work referred to as the Great American Songbook. These tunes are appreciated and treasured by listeners all over the world. This book is an effort to introduce you to the songs,...

Yorktown: The Carrier That Saved Midway In the spring of 1942, the United States Navy had exactly four aircraft carriers left in the Pacific - and one of them was already burning. Yorktown tells the story of the ship that shouldn't have been at Midway at all. Battered at the Battle of the Coral Sea and given ninety days to heal in dry dock, she was patched, wired, and welded back together by fourteen hundred shipyard workers in just seventy-two desperate hours, then sent to sea with an air group thrown together from spare squadrons and unfamiliar faces. What she and her crew did next helped...

Every generation grows up believing that the world it knows is simply the world. The radio in the living room. The Saturday matinee. The lunch box carrying a television character to school. The record store, the mall, the video-rental shelf, the family computer, the Buddy List, the For You page. While these things are ordinary, they rarely look historical. Only later do they reveal how thoroughly they shaped what people could see, hear, want, share, and remember. AMERICAN POP: GENERATIONS traces eight generations of American life through the popular culture that surrounded them, from the ...

Quantum Mechanics and the Hidden Structure of Reality How Equations, Experiments, and Human Curiosity Changed Our Understanding of the Universe What if reality is far stranger than it appears? What if the world is not made of solid objects moving in simple ways, but of probabilities, invisible fields, mathematical structures, and rules so precise that the universe itself begins to look like code? Quantum Mechanics and the Hidden Structure of Reality tells the story of one of the greatest revolutions in human history: the discovery that the microscopic world does not obey common sense. From ...

Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR and GQ Joining the ranks of the classics Please Kill Me, Our Band Could Be Your Life, and Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, an intriguing oral history of the post-9/11 decline of the old-guard music industry and rebirth of the New York rock scene, led by a group of...

A gripping behind-the-scenes account of one of the most influential news programs in American history, featuring a foreword by veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, whose recent dismissal from CBS News has renewed national attention on the fight for journalistic integrity and preserving...

Featuring a special introduction written for the audiobook edition and read by the author A Radio 4 Book Club Selection. The ultimate eye-opening journey through time and space, A Short History of Nearly Everything is the biggest-selling popular science book of the 21st century and has sold over...

In 1954, a submarine slipped beneath the waves of Long Island Sound and stayed there — for hours, but for days, then weeks, then months at a time. USS Nautilus didn't just improve on the diesel boats that came before her. She made them obsolete overnight. Nautilus: The Submarine That Changed the World tells the story of how a handful of engineers, one famously abrasive admiral, and a wartime bomb-building program turned Jules Verne's fantasy into a working warship. It's the story of Hyman Rickover, who bullied and browbeat the U.S. Navy into building a reactor no one believed could fit ...

Are we truly destined to live in one happy relationship, till death do us part? Many believe that somewhere out there is our one and only soulmate, and that our love cannot be given to more than one person at a time. This is what we have been taught, but is it true? The Freedom to Choose is a brave book that broaches questions every person, and certainly every couple, should ask themselves. Masha Halevi (PhD), a couples' mediator, counselor and an expert on alternative relationships has decided to take a different path. Following 15 monogamous years with her husband, she is still happily ...

Livingstone's first book revolutionized the way European readers saw Africa and made him a hero in England. He returned again to the Zambesi with his brother Charles and others, this time with more equipment and funds. Again he faced hippopotami, crocodiles, impossible terrain, and disease, but his greatest enemies on this trip prove to be human. The British eventually lost faith in the expedition, but Livingstone proved in the end to have had tremendous foresight.

When Dungeon & Dragons made its debut in the mid-1970s, followed shortly thereafter by other, similar tabletop games, it sparked a renaissance in game design and critical thinking about games. D&D is now popularly considered to be the first role-playing game. But in the original rules, the term “role-playing” is nowhere to be found; D&D was marketed as a war game.