New Bedford, Massachusetts, was fertile ground for this country’s first multimillion-dollar industry. Founded by assiduous Quaker merchants seeking refuge for their austere religion, the town also lent unparalleled access to the high seas. The combination would lead to what would become the most successful whaling industry in America, and with it, the world’s first oil hegemony. Oyl, or oil derived from whale blubber, revolutionized New England commerce. And as intrepid New Bedford whalers ventured farther into uncharted waters in search of untapped resources, the town saw incomparable wealth. But with all of the town’s resources tethered to this dangerous industry and the fickle sea, success was fragile.
Final Voyage is the story of one fateful whaling season that illuminates the unprecedented rise and devastating fall of America’s first oil industry. Peter Nichols deftly captures what New Bedford life was like for its Quaker inhabitants and, using a wealth of primary resources, has created a vivid picture of the evolution of whaling and how its demise was destined even before that devastating voyage.
A total and groundbreaking reassessment of the life of Adolf Eichmann—a superb work of scholarship that reveals his activities and notoriety among a global network of National Socialists following the collapse of the Third Reich and that permanently challenges Hannah Arendt’s notion of the “banality of evil.”
Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book’s categorization to be sure that ‘The Devil in the White City’ is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair’s construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. 
For readers of Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit and Unbroken, the dramatic story of the American rowing team that stunned the world at Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympics
A sharp-eyed exposé of the deadly politics, murderous plots, and cutthroat rivalries behind the first blood transfusions in seventeenth-century Europe.
A witty whistle-stop tour of York’s foul but fascinating history – complete with deadly diseases, vicious Vikings and creepy criminals like Dick Turpin and Guy Fawkes! A frightful map lets you plot your path into the perilous past, meeting at the Minster, ambling through the blood-soaked Shambles and then climbing up to Micklegate – where so many traitors headed off. Perilous plagues, horrendous highwaymen and angry invaders. It’s where York gets seriously yucky! 
History has never been so horrible, find out about: whose picked skin became a sought-after souvenier? – why it’s alright to spit on the High Street – how the pupils of Edinburgh High School got away with murder?. Plot your path to the past with the frightful fold-out map of the city – climb up to the cursed castle for tales of reckless raids, hit the High Street for a whole host of historical horrors and visit Holyroodhouse, the home of kidnapped kings and mysterious murders. 
Rotten Rulers gives you the lowdown on the world’s most loathsome leaders.From bizarre tsars and evil emperors to crazy kings and queens, people all around the world have suffered at the hands of their rulers for centuries. Whether they’re nutty or nasty, fat or foul, those in charge rarely get it right. Want to know: * Who gave the job of high priest to a donkey? * Who choked to death while eating a crow? * Who celebrated victory by eating his enemy’s head – curried! Read on for the power-crazed president who still rules from the grave and find out about the suffering slave who was ordered to collect 500 kilos of spider webs for his boss. Meet Genghis the Mongolian murderer and discover just how terrible Ivan really was. History has never been so horrible! 
This course is for students, young and old alike, who wish to understand the Constitution. It explores briefly the origins of our country, and the steps that led to the formation of the Constitution.
Could an Irish monk in the sixth century really have sailed all the way across the Atlantic in a small open boat, thus beating Columbus to the New World by almost a thousand years? Relying on the medieval text of St. Brendan, award-winning adventure writer Tim Severin painstakingly researched and built a boat identical to the leather curragh that carried Brendan on his epic voyage. He found a centuries-old, family-run tannery to prepare the ox hides in the medieval way; he undertook an exhaustive search for skilled harness makers (the only people who would know how to stitch the three-quarter-inch-thick hides together); he located one of the last pieces of Irish-grown timber tall enough to make the mainmast. But his courage and resourcefulness were truly tested on the open seas, including one heart-pounding episode when he and his crew repaired a dangerous tear in the leather hull by hanging over the side–their heads sometimes submerged under the freezing waves–to restitch the leather. A modern classic in the tradition of Kon-Tiki, The Brendan Voyage seamlessly blends high adventure and historical relevance. It has been translated into twenty-seven languages since its original publication in 1978.
