Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East

The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East

by Robert Fisk

A sweeping and dramatic history of the last half century of conflict in the Middle East from an award-winning journalist who has covered the region for over thirty years, The Great War for Civilisation unflinchingly chronicles the tragedy of the region from the Algerian Civil War to the Iranian Revolution; from the American hostage crisis in Beirut to the Iran-Iraq War; from the 1991 Gulf War to the American... (more)

The Forever War

by Dexter Filkins

From the front lines of the battle against Islamic fundamentalism, a searing, unforgettable book that captures the human essence of the greatest conflict of our time. Through the eyes of Dexter Filkins, the prizewinning New York Times correspondent whose work was hailed by David Halberstam as “reporting of the highest quality imaginable,” we witness the remarkable chain of events that began with the rise of the... (more)

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

by Walter R. Borneman

In Polk , Walter R. Borneman gives us the first complete and authoritative biography of a president often overshadowed in image but seldom outdone in accomplishment. James K. Polk occupied the White House for only four years, from 1845 to 1849, but he plotted and attained a formidable agenda: He fought for and won tariff reductions, reestablished an independent Treasury, and, most notably, brought Texas into the... (more)

Warsaw 1920: Lenin's Failed Conquest of Europe

Warsaw 1920: Lenin's Failed Conquest of Europe

by Adam Zamoyski

In 1920 the new Soviet state was a mess, following a brutal civil war, and the best way of ensuring its survival appeared to be to export the revolution to Germany, itself economically ruined by defeat in World War I and racked by internal political dissension. Between Russia and Germany lay Poland, a nation that had only just recovered its independence after more than a century of foreign oppression. But it was... (more)

A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca

A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca

by Andre?s Rese?ndez

The gripping story of a doomed mission to North America--and the four survivors who journeyed for a decade across the new world just discovered by Christopher Columbus. In 1528, a mission set out from Spain to colonize Florida. But the expedition went horribly wrong: Delayed by a hurricane, knocked off course by a colossal error of navigation, and ultimately doomed by a disastrous decision to separate the men... (more)

Old Jules (Bison Book S.)

by Mari Sandoz

First published in 1935, Old Jules is unquestionably Mari Sandoz's masterpiece. This portrait of her pioneer father grew out of 'the silent hours of listening behind the stove or the wood box, when it was assumed, of course, that I was asleep in bed. So it was that I heard the accounts of the hunts, . . .of the fights with the cattlemen and the sheep-men, of the tragic scarcity of women, when a man had to 'marry... (more)

The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows

The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows

by G. S. Boritt

The words Abraham Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg comprise perhaps the most famous speech in history. Many books have been written about the Gettysburg Address and yet, as Lincoln scholar Gabor Boritt shows, there is much that we don't know about the speech. In The Gettysburg Gospel he tears away a century of myths, lies, and legends to give us a clear... (more)

The Art of War

by Thomas Cleary, John Minford, Ralph D. Sawyer, Khoo Keng-hor, James Gimian, Samuel B. Griffith, Sun Tzu, Mei-chun Sawyer, Stefan Rudnicki

The Art of War is one of the oldest books on military strategy in the world. It is also one of the most famous studies of strategy and has had a huge influence on Eastern and Western military planning, business tactics, and beyond. First translated into a European language in 1782 by French Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, and had possibly influenced Napoleon, and even the planning of Operation Desert Storm.... (more)

Berlin: The downfall, 1945

by Antony Beevor

'Fascinating, extraordinary, gripping' - Jeremy Paxman. The Storming of Berlin had been the Red Army's dream of vengeance ever since the German's invasion of Russia in the summer of 1941. Antony Beevor has reconstituted the experience of those millions caught up in the nightmare crescendo of the Third Reich's final defeat.

Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market

Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market

by Walter Johnson

Soul by Soul tells the story of slavery in antebellum America by moving away from the cotton plantations and into the slave market itself, the heart of the domestic slave trade. Taking us inside the New Orleans slave market, the largest in the nation, where 100,000 men, women, and children were packaged, priced, and sold, Walter Johnson transforms the statistics of this chilling trade into the human drama of... (more)

The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn: A Lakota History

The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn: A Lakota History

by Joseph Marshall

A gripping account of the legendary battle, told from the Lakota perspective The 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn has become known as the quintessential clash of cultures between the Lakota and white settlers. The men who led the battle—Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and Colonel George A. Custer—have become legends. Here award-winning Lakota historian Joseph Marshall reveals the nuanced complexities... (more)

Water in the Hispanic Southwest: A Social and Legal History, 1550-1850

Water in the Hispanic Southwest: A Social and Legal History, 1550-1850

by Michael C. Meyer

When Spanish conquistadores marched north from Mexico's interior, they encountered one harsh reality that eclipsed all others: the importance of water in an arid land. Covering a time when legal precedents were being set for many water rights laws, this study contributes much to an understanding of the modern Southwest, especially disputes involving Indian water rights. The paperback edition includes a new... (more)

From Tsar to Soviets: The Russian People and Their Revolution, 1917-21

From Tsar to Soviets: The Russian People and Their Revolution, 1917-21

by Christopher Read

This highly readable and authoritative new study of the 1917 Revolution restores to center stage the experiences of the ordinary men and women of Russia's towns and villages. By examining the revolution in the light of these experiences rather than the activities of central parties and politicians, the book challenges many commonly held assumptions and sheds new light on the realities of living through and... (more)

Londinopolis, c.1500 - c.1750: Essays in the Cultural and Social History of Early Modern London (Politics, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain)

Londinopolis, c.1500 - c.1750: Essays in the Cultural and Social History of Early Modern London (Politics, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain)

Events such as the Fire of London and the Plague, and historic locations like the Globe Theatre, are part of London's heritage. Yet until recently, the history of the city between 1500 and 1750 has been little studied. During this period London's population soared from around 50,000 to nearly half a million, transforming the city to a metropolis. London became a center of new social and sexual identities and a... (more)

American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond

American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond

by Michael Otterman

George W. Bush calls them an "alternative set of procedures": forcing victims to stand for forty hours; depriving them of sleep for weeks on end; and strapping prisoners to inclined boards, then flooding their mouths with water. These techniques are torture, and they are legal in the United States. Michael Otterman reveals the long history of U.S. torture. He shows how these procedures became standard practice in... (more)

The Frozen Water Trade: A True Story

by Gavin Weightman

Now in paperback, the fascinating story of America's vast natural ice trade which revolutionized the 19th century. On February 13, 1806, the brig Favorite left Boston harbor bound for the Caribbean island of Martinique with a cargo that few imagined would survive the month-long voyage. Packed in hay in the hold were large chunks of ice cut from a frozen Massachusetts lake. This was the first venture of a... (more)

A Most Holy War: The Albigensian Crusade and the Battle for Christendom

A Most Holy War: The Albigensian Crusade and the Battle for Christendom

by Mark Gregory Pegg

In January of 1208, a papal legate was murdered on the banks of the Rhone in southern France. A furious Pope Innocent III accused heretics of the crime and called upon all Christians to exterminate heresy between the Garonne and Rhone rivers--a vast region now known as Languedoc--in a great crusade. This most holy war, the first in which Christians were promised salvation for killing other Christians, lasted... (more)

Sabino's Map: Life in Chimayo's Old Plaza

Sabino's Map: Life in Chimayo's Old Plaza

by Donald J. Usner

Sabino's Map, quite simply, is the best history yet made of a northern New Mexico community. It is thorough, balanced, gracefully written, and blessed with an insider's access and affection. -- William de Buys, Author, River of Traps This most enthralling book, Sabino's Map by Don J. Usner, traces the history of a northern New Mexico village and captures the life of its residents across three... (more)

The Loss of Eldorado. A HistoryV S Naipaul

The Loss of Eldorado. A History

by V S Naipaul

A Murder in Virginia: Southern Justice on Trial

A Murder in Virginia: Southern Justice on Trial

by Suzanne Lebsock

"<Makes> history, with all its messiness, ugliness, and even humanity, come vividly alive."— Chicago Tribune It's 1895 in Virginia, and a white woman lies in her farmyard, murdered with an ax. Suspicion soon falls on a young black sawmill hand, who tries to flee the county. Captured, he implicates three women, accusing them of plotting the murder and wielding the ax. In vivid courtroom scenes, Bancroft... (more)

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Tags: non-fiction: history