Knowledge = Power

How American race law provided a blueprint for Nazi Germany Nazism  triumphed in Germany during the high era of Jim Crow laws in the United  States. Did the American regime of racial oppression in any way inspire  the Nazis? The unsettling answer is yes. In Hitler’s American Model ,  James Whitman presents a detailed investigation of the American impact  on the notorious N...

From the New York Times bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan, named one of the world’s Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine, comes a riveting journey through one of Europe’s frontier  countries—and a potent examination of the forces that will determine  Europe’s fate in the postmodern age. Robert Kaplan first  visited Romania in the 1970s, when he was a young journalist...

Tracing the extraordinary trajectory of Julius Caesar's life, Adrian  Goldsworthy covers not only the great Roman emperor's accomplishments as  charismatic orator, conquering general, and powerful dictator but also  lesser-known chapters. Ultimately, Goldsworthy realizes the full  complexity of Caesar's character and shows why his political and  military leadership continu...

“[ The Rising Sun ] is quite possibly the most readable, yet informative account of the Pacific war.”— Chicago Sun-Times This  Pulitzer Prize–winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic  rise  and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria  and China to the  atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from  the Japanese perspective, The...

A blend of Manhunt , Killing Pablo , and Zero Dark Thirty ,  Andrew Hogan and Douglas Century's sensational investigative high-tech  thriller - soon to be a major motion picture from Sony - chronicles a  riveting chapter in the 20th-century drug wars: the exclusive inside  story of the American lawman and his dangerous eight-year hunt that  captured El Chapo - the world's...

Though it is the fastest growing religion in the world, Islam remains  shrouded by ignorance and fear. What is the essence of this ancient  faith? Is it a religion of peace or war? How does Allah differ from the  God of Jews and Christians? Can an Islamic state be founded on  democratic values such as pluralism and human rights? A writer and  scholar of comparative religio...

The surprising rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches story of how Michael Jackson grew a billion-dollar business. Michael  Jackson is known by many as the greatest entertainer of all time, but  he was also a revolutionary when it came to business. In addition to  famously buying the Beatles' publishing catalogue, Jackson was one of  the first pop stars to launch his own clothing lin...

Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the number-one New York Times best seller Outliers , reinvents the audiobook in this immersive production of Talking to Strangers , a powerful examination of our interactions with people we don’t know. How  did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville  Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler?...

The general public has a glorified  view of the pursuit of scientific research. However, the idealized  perception of science as a rule-based, methodical system for  accumulating facts could not be further from the truth. Modern science  involves the idiosyncratic, often bumbling search for understanding in  uncharted territories, full of wrong turns, false findings, and t...

This program includes an introduction read by the author. No  recent scientific enterprise has proved as alluring, terrifying, and  filled with extravagant promise and frustrating setbacks as artificial  intelligence. The award-winning author Melanie Mitchell, a leading  computer scientist, now reveals its turbulent history and the recent  surge of apparent successes, gran...

When Lee Kuan Yew speaks, presidents, prime ministers, diplomats, and CEOs listen. Lee,  the founding father of modern Singapore and its prime minister from  1959 to 1990, has honed his wisdom during more than fifty years on the  world stage. Almost single-handedly responsible for transforming  Singapore into a Western-style economic success, he offers a unique  perspectiv...

The special assistant to Boris Yeltsin radically alters the traditional  image of Lenin with a biography based on secret Soviet archives,  revealing the Founding Father as a cruel, totalitarian leader who was  responsible for the worst excesses of the Soviet state.

The first full account, based on access to key players who have never  before spoken, of the Munich Massacre and the Israeli response–a lethal,  top secret, thirty-year-long antiterrorism campaign to track down the  killers. 1972. The Munich Olympics. Palestinian members of the Black  September group murder eleven Israeli athletes. Nine hundred million  people watch the cr...

The first comprehensive yet  accessible history of the state of Israel from its inception to present  day, from Daniel Gordis, "one of the most respected Israel analysts" ( The Forward ) living and writing in Jerusalem. Israel  is a tiny state, and yet it has captured the world's attention, aroused  its imagination, and lately, been the object of its opprobrium. Why  does...

In The Story of Christianity: Volume 1 , Justo L. González, author of the highly praised three-volume History of Christian Thought ,  presents a narrative history of Christianity, from the Early Church to  the Dawn of the Protestant Reformation. From Jesus’ faithful apostles to  the early reformist John Wycliffe, González skillfully traces core  theological issues and developme...

Dubbed the "pirate queen" by the Vatican and Spain's Philip II,  Elizabeth I was feared and admired by her enemies. Extravagant,  whimsical, and hot-tempered, Elizabeth was the epitome of power. Her  visionary accomplishments were made possible by her daring merchants,  gifted rapscallion adventurers, astronomer philosophers, and her  stalwart Privy Council, including Sir...

"Human beings have always been mythmakers.” So begins best-selling writer  Karen Armstrong’s concise yet compelling investigation into myth: what  it is, how it has evolved, and why we still so desperately need it. She  takes us from the Paleolithic period and the myths of the hunters right  up to the “Great Western Transformation” of the last five hundred years  and the d...

“[A] tale of power, perseverance and passion . . . 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  &...

'A learned, wise, wonderfully written single volume history of a civilisation that I knew I should know more about' Tom Holland 'Masterful and engrossing...well-paced, eminently readable and  well-timed. A must-read for those who want – and need – to know about  the China of yesterday, today and tomorrow' Peter Frankopan China’s  story is extraordinarily rich and dramatic. Now Micha...

'Of the "Great Powers" that dominated Europe from the eighteenth to the  twentieth centuries, Prussia is the only one to have vanished … Iron Kingdom is not just good: it is everything a history book ought to be … The  nemesis of Prussia has cast such a long shadow that German historians  have tiptoed around the subject. Thus it was left to an Englishman to  write what is surel...

An ideal introduction to the history of Buddhism. Andrew Skilton - a  writer on and practitioner of Buddhism - explains the development of the  basic concepts of Buddhism during its 2,500 years of history and  describes its varied developments in India, Buddhism’s homeland, as well  as its spread across Asia, from Mongolia to Sri Lanka and from Japan to  the Middle East. A...

Of all our great presidents,  Theodore Roosevelt is the only one whose greatness increased out of  office. When he toured Europe in 1910 as plain “Colonel Roosevelt”, he  was hailed as the most famous man in the world. Crowned heads vied to  put him up in their palaces. “If I see another king,” he joked, “I think  I shall bite him.” Had TR won his historic “Bull Moose” &nb...

Misha Glenny's groundbreaking  study of global organized crime is now the inspiration for an eight-part  AMC crime drama starring James Norton ( War and Peace ), Juliet Rylance, and David Strathairn. With  the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the  deregulation of international financial markets in 1989, governments and  entrepreneurs alike bec...

At its height, Renaissance Florence was a center of enormous wealth,  power, and influence. A republican city-state funded by trade and  banking, its often bloody political scene was dominated by rich  mercantile families, the most famous of which were the Medici. This  enthralling book charts the family's huge influence on the political,  economic, and cultural history of...

From the best-selling author of Islam: A Short History comes an important addition to the Eminent Lives book series. A former Roman Catholic nun and winner of a Muslim Public  Affairs Council Media Award, Karen Armstrong shows how Muhammad's life  can teach us a great deal about our world. More is known about Muhammad  than any other major religion founder, yet he remains mysterious...