Historical & Political Biographies

Numbering 4,000 select officers and men, Combat Team 370 was part of n Europe during World War II the 92nd Infantry Division, the only all-Negro division to fight in Europe during World War II. In Black Warriors: The Buffalo Soldiers of World War II, author Ivan J. Houston recounts his experiences, when, as a nineteen-year-old California college student, he entered the US Army and served with the 3rd Battalion, 370th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Division of the US Fifth Army from 1943 to 1945. Drawn from minute-by-minute records of the unit's activities compiled by Houston during his deployment in Italy, this account describes both the historic encounters and the achievements of his fellow black soldiers during this breakthrough period in American military history. It tells of how the Buffalo Soldiers fought alongside other American troops, including Japanese Americans and soldiers from Great Britain, Brazil, South Africa, and India. With photos and maps included, Black Warriors: The Buffalo Soldiers of World War II provides a compelling, firsthand account of the segregated Buffalo Soldiers' experiences while they fought not only the power of the Nazi war machine but also racism and the widely held belief they were not up to the task. Their achievements prove otherwise.

Charting his rise to power, his struggle to unify the warring factions of his faith, and his battles to retake Jerusalem and expel Christian influence from Arab lands, Saladin explores the life and the enduring legacy of this champion of Islam, and examines his significance for the world today.

The life and times of the great eighteenth-century judge and statesman, whose legacy continues to influence Anglo-American law and society.

A warm, intimate account of the love between Eleanor Roosevelt and reporter Lorena Hickok—a relationship that, over more than three decades, transformed both women''s lives and empowered them to play significant roles in one of the most tumultuous periods in American historyIn 1932, as her husband assumed the presidency, Eleanor Roosevelt entered the claustrophobic, duty-bound existence of the First Lady with dread. By that time, she had put her deep disappointment in her marriage behind her and developed an independent life—now threatened by the public role she would be forced to play. A lifeline came to her in the form of a feisty campaign reporter for the Associated Press: Lorena Hickok. Over the next thirty years, until Eleanor’s death, the two women carried on an extraordinary relationship: They were, at different points, lovers, confidantes, professional advisors, and caring friends.    They couldn''t have been more different. Eleanor had been raised in one of the nation’s most powerful political families and was introduced to society as a debutante before marrying her distant cousin, Franklin. Hick, as she was known, had grown up poor in rural South Dakota and worked as a servant girl after she escaped an abusive home, eventually becoming one of the most respected reporters at the AP. Her admiration drew the buttoned-up Eleanor out of her shell, and the two quickly fell in love. For the next thirteen years, Hick had her own room at the White House, next door to the First Lady.    These fiercely compassionate women inspired each other to right the wrongs of the turbulent era in which they lived. During the Depression, Hick reported from the nation’s poorest areas for the WPA, and Eleanor used these reports to lobby her husband for New Deal programs. Hick encouraged Eleanor to turn their frequent letters into her popular and long-lasting syndicated column "My Day," and to befriend the female journalists who became her champions. When Eleanor’s tenure as First Lady ended with FDR''s death, Hick pushed her to continue to use her popularity for good—advice Eleanor took by leading the UN’s postwar Human Rights Commission. At every turn, the bond these women shared was grounded in their determination to better their troubled world.  Deeply researched and told with great warmth, Eleanor and Hick is a vivid portrait of love and a revealing look at how an unlikely romance influenced some of the most consequential years in American history.

The definitive biography of Tom Paine, published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of his death

'A stunning achievement . . .Neither sanitized nor mythologizing, Victoria: The Queen is a remarkably lucid, endlessly engaging account of Queen Victoria's life and rule' Amanda Foreman

The story of Gestapo officer Horst Kopkow, who was responsible for coordinating the tracking down of all British and Soviet parachute agents in Europe. He was directly implicated in the concentration camp murders of several hundred agents. Despite this, Kopkow was a consultant with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service for 20 years after the war.

A brilliant portrayal in graphic novel format of the career of the great war photographer during the Spanish Civil War and World War II.

Genghis Khan was by far the greatest conqueror the world has ever known, whose empire stretched from the Pacific Ocean to central Europe, including all of China, the Middle East and Russia. So how did an illiterate nomad rise to such colossal power, eclipsing Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon?

This is the extraordinary saga of Countess Evelina van Millingen Pisani, a modern woman who lived in the age of Queen Victoria. A friend of Henry James and Isabella Stewart Gardner, she led a rich but turbulent life that spanned from Rome to Constantinople and Venice.

A compelling and comprehensive history of the world's most successive secret service.

A classic biography of the man who was partly responsible for the development of modern tank warfare.

The definitive volume on one of the most important and controversial figures of the 20th century, a man who almost singlehandedly changed his country and the world.

As a youth in Saigon's Chinatown of the 1960s and 70s, Paul Au was greatly affected by American 'hippie' culture and Rock & Roll. He was smuggled into Hong Kong in 1974 to escape the South Vietnamese military draft. At first living in rooftop squats, he started to trade used vinyl records on the streets of Kowloon, and finally established an underground reputation for his eclectic blend and unending supply of recorded music.

Former BBC correspondent's graphic personal account of National Service with the Suffolk Regiment in the 1950s based on the letters he wrote home to his family at the time.

The classic, bestselling account of the infamous Kray twins, now a major film, starring Tom Hardy.

Winner of the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-FictionA New York Times Notable Book of 2015 A painstakingly researched, revelatory biography of Svetlana Stalin, a woman fated to live her life in the shadow of one of history's most monstrous dictators - her father, Josef Stalin.

* Remarkable biography of the complex and tragic 'First Lady' of the Third Reich, Magda Goebbels

Patrice Lumumba was the foremost leader of the African independence movement. After his execution in 1961, when he had been prime minister of the newly-liberated Congo for only seven months, he became an icon of anti-imperialist struggle. Zeilig tells the story of Lumumba's transition from nationalist to international symbol of African liberation.

Bruce Barton's 1925 effort to reconfigure Jesus for the Roaring Twenties turned into one of the great best-sellers of the century. No Puritan or Prohibitionist, here was Christ as the world's first advertising man, a great business executive who "picked up twelve men from the bottom ranks of business and forged them into an organization that conquered the world." In his Introduction, Richard M. Fried explores the book's rich insights into the culture of the 1920s.

Before publishing his book How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis (1849-1914) spent his first years in the US as an immigrant and itinerant laborer, until he landed a job as a muckraking reporter. This book places Jacob Riis' images in historical context. It explores Riis' reporting and activism within the gritty specifics of Gilded Age New York.

"Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is among the most enigmatic and influential figures of the twentieth century. While his life and work are crucial to any understanding of modern history and the socialist movement, generations of writers on the left and the right have seen fit to embalm him endlessly with superficial analysis or dreary dogma. Now, after the fall of the Soviet Union and 'actually-existing' socialism, it is possible to consider Lenin afresh, with sober senses trained on his historical context and how it shaped his theoretical and political contributions. Reconstructing Lenin, four decades in the making and now available in English for the first time, is an attempt to do just that. Tamaas Krausz, an esteemed Hungarian scholar writing in the tradition of Gyeorgy Lukaacs, Ferenc Tiokei, and Istvaan Maeszaaros, makes a major contribution to a growing field of contemporary Lenin studies. This rich and penetrating account reveals Lenin busy at the work of revolution, his thought shaped by immediate political events but never straying far from a coherent theoretical perspective. Krausz balances detailed descriptions of Lenin's time and place with lucid explications of his intellectual development, covering a range of topics like war and revolution, dictatorship and democracy, socialism and utopianism. Reconstructing Lenin will change the way you look at a man and a movement; it will also introduce the English-speaking world to a profound radical scholar"--Provided by publisher.

Presents the fascinating life of the father of the New Germany. This book tells how, in an astonishing political career that spanned six decades including fourteen years as chancellor of West Germany, Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967) was instrumental in shaping the modern political landscape, both of his own country and of Europe.

A catalogue of history's greatest military leaders - from the Classical Age to the Napoleonic Era - and what drove them to victory.

';A superb biography, not to be missed either by armchair explorers or students of human naturereveals the famed missionary and explorer as he really was.'Cleveland Plain DealerDavid Livingstone is revered as one of history's greatest explorers and missionaries, the first European to cross Africa, and the first to find Victoria Falls and the source of the Congo River. In this exciting new edition of his biography, Tim Jeal, author of the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Stanley, draws on fresh sources and archival discoveries to provide the most fully rounded portrait of this complicated mandogged by failure throughout his life despite his full share of success.Using Livingstone's original field notebooks, Jeal finds that the explorer's problems with his African followers were far graver than previously understood. From recently discovered letters he elaborates on the explorer's decision to send his wife, Mary, back home to England. He also uncovers fascinating information about Livingstone's importance to the British Empire and about his relationship with the journalist-adventurer Henry Morton Stanley. In addition, Jeal here evokes the full pathos of the explorer's final journey. This masterful, updated biography also features an excellent selection of new maps and illustrations.';Fascinating.'Los Angeles Times';A thrilling and in the end moving workThe Livingstone who emerges is a man of terrifying dimensions.'Irish Press

When the First Emperor of China died 2,000 years ago, he was buried in a giant tomb. In 1974, this tomb was discovered along with an army of over 6,000 terracotta warriors. Discover the army for yourself and the reason they were buried with the Emperor.