Showing results for "James" in Historical

The founder of modern science and the embodiment of the conflict between science and faith, Galileo remains the most fascinating figure of his age. In this biography, James Reston Jr. provides a lively, vivid portrait of Galileo, taking the listener to the heart of this passionate, embattled, arrogant, and brilliant man.

Jack London was born a working-class, fatherless San Franciscan in 1876. In his youth, he was a boundlessly energetic adventurer on the bustling west coast—by and by playing the role of hobo, sailor, and oyster pirate. From his vantage point at the margins of Gilded Age America, he witnessed such iniquity and abuses that he became a life long socialist and advocate for reform. Award-winning western historian James L. Haley paints a vivid portrait of London—adventurer, social reformer, and the most well-known American writer of his generation.

Named a Best Book of the Year by Library Journal and Daily Mail (London) A groundbreaking and insightful exploration of King James I, enigmatic successor to Queen Elizabeth I, from the “meticulous researcher” (The Wall Street Journal) and author of the “enjoyable and readable” (Philippa...

In this brilliant biography T. J. Stiles offers a new understanding of the legendary outlaw Jesse James. Although he has often been portrayed as a Robin Hood of the old west, in this ground-breaking work Stiles places James within the context of the bloody conflicts of the Civil War to reveal a much more complicated and significant figure.

This program is read by the author. What Truth Sounds Like is a timely exploration of America's tortured racial politics that continues the conversation from Michael Eric Dyson's New York Times bestseller Tears We Cannot Stop. President Barack Obama: "Everybody who speaks after Michael Eric...

James Bond has nothing on Dusko Popov. A double agent for the Abwehr, MI5 and MI6, and the FBI during World War II, Popov seduced numerous women, spoke five languages, and was a crack shot, all while maintaining his cover as a Yugoslavian diplomat....

Cook, an 18th-century explorer, lived during a time when humankind was yet naive and inexperienced in terms of understanding their environment. His legacy is quite astounding, given the fact that mankind had only begun to develop instrumentation. The people from Europe had never before seen Hawaii, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, nor crossed the Antarctic circle.

Acclaimed Irish novelist Colm Tóibín first read James Baldwin just after turning eighteen. He had completed his first year at an Irish university and was struggling to free himself from a religious upbringing. Inspired by the novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, Tóibín found a writer who would be a lifelong companion and exemplar.

In the three decades since April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot to death in Memphis, scores of books and articles have questioned whether James Earl Ray, King's killer, acted alone or was part of a larger conspiracy. Now, based on explosive new interviews, confidential files, and previously undisclosed evidence, best-selling author Gerald Posner finally resolves the simple truth of the last great political murder mystery of the 1960s, definitively proving that Ray acted alone.

Wright's long imperial career delicately balanced dual loyalties to Crown and colony and offers a new perspective on loyalism and the American Revolution. Through this lens, Greg Brooking connects several important contexts in recent early American and British scholarship, including imperial and Atlantic history, Indigenous borderlands, race and slavery, and popular politics.

More than any other individual, James Stevenson-Hamilton can be credited with the creation of the Kruger National Park in South Africa. In 1902, when the South African War ended, Stevenson-Hamilton swapped his military career for the more uncertain calling of a game warden. Under his supervision the small, neglected and war-ravaged Sabi Game Reserve expanded in stature and size. By the time he retired in 1946, the Kruger National Park had become one of the great national parks of the world.

You know the name. You’ve heard the legends. But who was Nikola Tesla, really? This book cuts through the noise to reveal the human mind behind the myth. From wireless energy to earthquake machines, from communing with pigeons to decoding the structure of reality itself—Tesla wasn’t a man of his time. He was tuned to something else. Inside, you’ll find: The true story of Tesla’s war with Edison, the dreams behind Wardenclyffe and the death ray, lost inventions, buried patents, and classified seizures. A deep look into the myth-making, conspiracies, and rediscovery of Tesla in the 21st century.

Plato wasn’t just a philosopher, he was the architect of the mind. Born into a collapsing democracy, haunted by the death of Socrates, and obsessed with a world that didn’t yet exist, Plato set out to do the impossible: rebuild reality from scratch.

Acclaimed biographer Susan Ronald reveals the truth about Joseph P. Kennedy's shockingly controversial tenure as Ambassador to Great Britain on the eve of World War II. On February 18, 1938, Joseph P. Kennedy was sworn in as US Ambassador to the Court of St. James. To say his appointment to the...

James Edward Oglethorpe turned his back on Oxford University, his family's Jacobite schemes, and a career as courtier to a prince to settle as an English country squire. But history was not to let him stay unnoticed. As a member of Parliament in the eighteenth century, Oglethorpe fought for debtors? rights and prison reform, and when he gained them, volunteered to found a new colony in America. Under his direction, settlements were established, strong bonds were formed with the Creek Indians, and the colony of Georgia flourished.

He was crowned in gold and buried under a toilet. And in between, the world called him God. Haile Selassie ruled Ethiopia for over four decades — a modernizing monarch who stood toe-to-toe with Mussolini, walked out of exile like a prophet, and became the spiritual messiah of an entire global movement. To some, he was Africa’s last true emperor. To others, he was Jah Himself. From the smoke-filled hills of Jamaica to the lyrics of Bob Marley, The Lion of Judah lived on — not just as a man, but as a myth. This is the story of power, prophecy, betrayal, and rebirth. Crowned by men.

James Capen Adams roamed the Sierra Nevada when California was wild. He slept on the ground, ate what he could kill, mended his own wounds, and made friends with the Native Americans he encountered. Adams captured animals in elaborate traps he built by hand and delivered his prey to zoos, museums, and certain famous exhibitions. Many of his stories became the inspiration for a popular TV show in the 1980s, featuring a mountain man and his pet bear. This is the true story behind the legend, as told by Adams to respected California historian Theodore Hittell.

He claimed descent from Genghis Khan. He claimed to fight for God. But what he really worshipped… was conquest. This is the story of Timur, the man who turned Central Asia into a slaughterhouse and ruled an empire stitched together with blood, bone, and fear. From Persia to Delhi, Baghdad to Ankara, no civilization was safe. He left cities in ash, pyramids of skulls in his wake, and a myth that outlived his empire. He defeated the Ottomans. He threatened the Ming. He wrote letters to kings and Popes while stuffing emperors in cages.

Character is often built from the latter and can carry men through the toughest of times. In fact, history shows us that a little bit of grit and determination can go a long way toward building something greater than oneself. This is what makes some people titans. In addition, people must often think outside the box to accomplish this greatness. In other words, greatness is achieved by taking risks and by doing something different than the everyday. It is this boldness that makes history. Take a journey into the minds of the titans who created the American empire.

Leonardo takes you inside the brain of a man who painted the most famous face on Earth, sketched helicopters in the 1400s, dissected corpses to understand beauty, and wrote in mirrored code while inventing robots no one would build for centuries. He didn’t separate art and science. He didn’t follow disciplines. He followed truth. And he left behind a world forever warped by the intensity of his attention.