Isabel Archer rejects one man after another. With the inheritance from a wealthy relative, she can fulfill her dream of an independent life. She travels to Italy. In Florence, she meets the American expatriate and art collector Gilbert Osmond. He has charm and taste, but that's pretty much all she knows about him. Despite her friends' warnings, she says yes when he proposes. Unlike others, bound by conventions, Osmond gives the impression of being...

"In 1784, travel wrenched Thomas Jefferson out of the darkest period of his life. He sailed to France a broken man, but on the road, he rediscovered a world of hidden beauty and penned a guide he called Hints for Americans Traveling in Europe. During a crisis of his own, Derek Baxter dares himself to follow Jefferson's route. On a series of journeys (piloting a Dutch canal boat, hiking the French Alps, and fishing in the Atlantic), Baxter follows...

"The New York Times bestselling author of Infidel, Nomad, and Heretic argues that waves of Muslim immigration are transforming sexual politics in Europe in ways that threaten to undermine the hard-won rights of Western women"--

From the author of the international bestseller On Tyranny, the definitive history of Hitler's and Stalin's politics of mass killing, explaining why Ukraine has been at the center of Western history for the last century.   Americans call the Second World War "the Good War." But before it even began, America's ally Stalin had killed millions of his own citizens-and kept killing them during and after the war. Before Hitler was defeated, he had...

The powerful and moving story of three royal mothers whose quest for power led to the downfall of their daughters. Queen Isabella of Castile, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, and Queen Victoria of England were respected and admired rulers whose legacies continue to be felt today. Their daughters-Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England; Queen Marie Antoinette of France; and Vicky, the Empress Frederick of Germany-are equally legendary for the tragedies...

The tenth century dawned in violence and disorder. Charlemagne's empire was in ruins, most of Spain had been claimed by Moorish invaders, and even the papacy in Rome was embroiled in petty, provincial conflicts. To many historians, it was a prime example of the ignorance and uncertainty of the Dark Ages. Yet according to historian Paul Collins, the story of the tenth century is the story of our culture's birth, of the emergence of our civilization...

"The word "medieval" conjures images of the Dark Ages--centuries of ignorance, superstition, stasis, savagery, and poor hygiene. But the myth of darkness obscures the truth; this was a remarkable period in human history. The Bright Ages recasts the European Middle Ages for what it was, capturing this 1,000-year era in all its complexity and fundamental humanity, bringing to light both its beauty and its horrors.--

"A solid introduction and useful survey of slaving activity by the Muslims of North Africa over the course of several centuries." —Chronicles
Everybody knows about the transatlantic slave trade, which saw black Africans snatched from their homes, taken across the Atlantic Ocean and then sold into slavery. However, a century before Britain became involved in this terrible business, whole villages and towns in England, Ireland,...