This expansive book surveys the history of warfare from ancient Mesopotamia to the Gulf War in search of a deeper understanding of the origins of Western warfare and the reasons for its eminence today. Historian John France explores the experience of war...

In this monumental new book, award-winning author Mark Kurlansky has written his most ambitious work to date: a singular and ultimately definitive look at a pivotal moment in history.With 1968, Mark Kurlansky brings to teeming life the cultural and...

The magnum opus of one of America's most respected military historians, The Art of War in the Western World has earned its place as the standard work on how the three major operational components of war--tactics, logistics, and strategy--have evolved and...

From one of our greatest historians and public intellectuals, reflections on a twentieth century that is turning into ancient history, when it's not being displaced by myth or forgotten entirely, with unprecedented speed and at great cost The...

Examines the work of international relief organizations, such as UNICEF, CARE, the Red Cross, OXFAM, and the World Council of Churches, in Cambodia

Throughout history, human societies have been organized preeminently as territories―politically bounded regions whose borders define the jurisdiction of laws and the movement of peoples. At a time when the technologies of globalization are eroding...

How only violence and catastrophes have consistently reduced inequality throughout world historyAre mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is...

"We may love books, but do we know what lies behind them? In The Book, Keith Houston reveals that the paper, ink, thread, glue and board from which a book is made tell as rich a story as the words on its pages--of civilisations, empires, human ingenuity...

A moving exploration of the origins and fate of the little-known Chinese passengers aboard the Titanic—and how they survived against all odds.When RMS Titanic sank on a cold night in 1912, barely seven hundred people escaped with their lives. Among them...

When people experience a traumatic event, such as war or the threat of annihilation, they often turn to history for stories that promise a positive outcome to their suffering. During World War II, the French took comfort in the story of Joan of Arc and...

An engaging, accessible introduction to war, from ancient times to the present and into the future "Forty short chapters . . . describe war from the ancient world to the present day. . . . A Short History of War offers an expansive and often evocative...

Aveni (astronomy and anthropology, Colgate) traces the development of Western timekeeping systems, comparing it to those of pre-Columbian America and of tribal societies. Discusses linear and cyclic approaches, and the relationship between timekeeping...

Manipulation of the past and forced erasure of memories have been global phenomena throughout history, spanning a varied repertoire from the destruction or alteration of architecture, sites, and images, to the banning or imposing of old and new practices...

Ariès traces Western man's attitudes toward mortality from the early medieval conception of death as the familiar collective destiny of the human race to the modern tendency, so pronounced in industrial societies, to hide death as if it were an...