Books published by Rowman & Littlefield

The newspaper advertisement for volunteers to accompany Ernest Shackleton on his planned traverse of Antarctica in 1914 was frank in its offering."Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success."Still, hundreds applied. There were few chances left to be the first to reach the last challenge on Earth.As the 20th Century came of age, explorers had uncovered most of the world's mysteries, sailing to the far corners of the globe, ascending many of its most forbidding peaks, crossing its greatest deserts and penetrating its thickest jungles.Frozen, alien, inhospitable, dangerous, and close to impossible to reach, there were only two tiny dots on the globe that human beings had not yet set foot on-the North and South Poles.The Greatest Polar Exploration Stories Ever Told is a visceral, exciting and stunning collection of twelve stories recounting the bravery, resoluteness, and strength of the men who willingly traversed frozen hells to be the first to reach the North or South Pole. It is a collection that will both inspire and inform-and answer questions about the limits of human endurance.Many men would die during their challenging, frozen journeys, and their deaths were not pleasant. Yet they continued to try again.Here are stories, wrought by the challenging landscape and weather, that made these explorers household names and heroes: Peary, Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton, Franklin, Cherry-Garrard, Scott, Kane, Cook-and others lost to history whose bravery was nonetheless as admirable.Each of these men knew success would bring glory for their countries and financial security and fame and eminent places in history for themselves. Each knew also the odds of success were slim and the chance of dying great.Nations held their collective breaths for news of each expedition and those years later were termed the Heroic Age of Exploration-there were simply no other endeavors that captured the world's attention the various races to the poles. The Greatest Polar Exploration Stories Ever Told recaptures the spirit, drama, and tragedy of a time in history that will never come again.

Sin City Gangsters: The Rise and Decline of the Mob in Las Vegas is a fast-paced account of how the mob created and controlled Las Vegas. It contains accounts of how the most powerful mobsters in the country built, bought, and controlled not only gambling casinos in Vegas, but also many important politicians, who did the mob's bidding. Some of the more notorious mobsters were Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Moe Dalitz, Sam Giancana, Tony Accardo, and Nick Civella, as well as the men they chose to carry out their plans, such as Tony Spilotro, Lefty Rosenthal, and Donald Angelini. Sin City Gangsters devotes a chapter to Jimmy Hoffa, and how the Teamsters Pension Fund financed the mob's casinos. The book also offers fascinating accounts of the roles of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley in Vegas. Another chapter is devoted to Howard Hughes, who arrived in the dead of night in a sealed, germ-free railroad car and did not leave his suite at the Desert Inn for years. During that time he bought one casino after another as if playing Monopoly. Following his exit and that of the mob, Vegas became the domain of Jay Sarno, Kirk Kerkorian, Steve Wynn, and Sheldon Adelson. They were visionaries who transformed Vegas into the entertainment capital of the world by building billion-dollars-plus resorts and hiring the most popular contemporary entertainers. Sin City Gangsters is the only book that charts Vegas from the first modest mob-owned casinos to the present billion-dollar-resorts; its cast of characters is an assembly of exceedingly ambitious risk takers who let nothing stand in their way of turning their dreams into stunning realities.

The first-hand account of life as a surfman by one of the most skilled boat handlers in the Coast Guard at one of the USCG¿s most dangerous stations, Cape Disappointment in the state of Washington.

The Last Wild Road is a raucous, gripping, sometimes terrifying, often hilarious, and deeply meditative journey through the heart of the outdoors in the modern world. Collected from more than 20 years of hunting and fishing cover stories, columns, and adventure tales written by T. Edward Nickens for Field & Stream, this book is a road trip that takes in a huge sweep of the North American landscape¿blackwater rivers in the wilds of eastern North Carolina, deserts and prairies of the American West, remote tundra of northern Canada, and the wildest rivers of Alaska. Along every rutted road and rough trail, with a rod, gun, and pen, Nickens meets unforgettable characters¿old French-speaking Cajuns at Louisiana squirrel camps, a one-armed fly-tyer in the ancient Appalachians, Pennsylvania brothers who lost their father in a hunting accident decades ago and return to the scene for a powerful, poignant encounter with history. He explores remote wilderness waters to chase trout and ducks, but finds rich meaning, too, in the familiar and close-to-home: fishing with his children, plumbing the forests of local farms, and butchering deer in his basement as a thanksgiving for the gifts of the outdoors.When it comes to hunting and fishing, writing often falls into the categories of where-to-go, the how-do-it, and the-what-to-bring. This book embarks on the question of ¿why.¿ Why does the pursuit of game and fish, and the travel to the wild places where they thrive, bring meaning and clarity to living in the modern world? Why do we laugh more, and live more deeply, far from the sidewalk? If yoüve ever felt that way, yoüll find yourself in The Last Wild Road.

Hiking Fire Lookouts New England details 40 hikes that lead to climbable lookouts in the region.

Harvard University rowing coach and long-time crew luminary Dan Boyne tells a tale of murder on the Charles River in Cambridge, MA. A wealthy man is murdered, and there are plenty of suspects within the rowing community in Cambridge. It's chockablock full of well-drawn characters, including cops, doctors, Cantabrigians, oarsmen, and a wily coxswain who may be having an affair with his wealthy stepmother. . .

The United States Government Internet Directory serves as a guide to the changing landscape of government information online. The Directory is an indispensable guidebook for anyone who is looking for official U.S. government resources on the Web.

This guide provides detailed information on over 300 public campgrounds in Wyoming and South Dakota's Black Hills, accessible by car. For tenters and RVers alike, this guide will lead you to the perfect campground.

This book follows renowned archaeologist Richard Freund's journey through some of the most fascinating archaeological sites of human history¿including the mysterious Atlantis, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls caves, and the long-buried Holocaust camp Sobibor. Each chapter takes readers through a different archaeological site.

Since 1957, Chase's Calendar of Events lists everything worth knowing and celebrating for each day of the year: 12,500 holidays, national days, historical milestones, famous birthdays, festivals, sporting events and more. "One of the most impressive reference volumes in the world." Publishers Weekly

Unlike existing college guidebooks, which contain easy-to-Google admissions statistics and anecdotal generalizations about campus life, Colleges Worth Your Money reveals where graduates work, salaries, grad school acceptances, internships and research opportunities, career services ratings, and data-rich, school-specific admissions strategies.

The book, written from the e-Health literacy perspective, is unique in its nuanced approach to misinformation. It draws on psychology and information science to explain human susceptibility to misinformation and discusses ways to engage with the public deeply and meaningfully, fostering trust and raising health and information literacy.

Using a constructivist approach, the book addresses international security studies' concerns about the relevance of moral reasoning to strategic and political thinking.

A Women's History of Sport and Society is an unapologetically new historical review that walks readers through the timeline of women and their fight for equality through the lens of sports, featuring some of the most exciting individuals never profiled in American history classes.

This book explores how a site can turn into a mummification of the past, displaying long-gone splendour, or a living, breathing treasure offering dynamic cultural and educational opportunities.