Here is the dramatic story of Great Britain in the sixteen turning points that over the centuries shaped the country's destiny: from the Magna Carta, the crude bill of rights that became the "irrepealable fundamental statue" of England law, to the Hundred Years War, which saw the power and prestige of France repeatedly humbled and the European standing of England greatly enhanced; from victories in West Africa, the West Indies, the North Atlantic, the battlefields of Europe and India, and ...

Here is the dramatic story of France in fifteen events, the key turning points that over the course of centuries shaped the country's destiny: from the rise of Joan of Arc to the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve, from the reigns of the Bourbon kings to the bloody days of the French Revolution, and from the victory of Napoleon Bonaparte to Charles de Gaulle's return to power.

Here, in this compelling book, historian Derek B. Lange uses the Kremlin as the focal point for a sweeping, panoramic history of Russia and the men and women who made it the nation that it is today - among them, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and Nicholas Romanov.

Here is the epic story of ancient Egypt and the pharaohs who made it great. Historian Ian MacAlister uses the pyramids and their mute, enigmatic sentinel, the Sphinx as the focal point for a sweeping yet human view of 3,000 years of Egyptian history.

Winston Churchill had genius as a leader, statesman, orator, and writer, but as Henry Grunwald writes in this extraordinary book, "one of his greatest talents was being a man - a man both legendary and loved, admirable and amusing, larger than life and closer to Earth than most great figures." Here, John D. Eisenhower, Pamela C. Harriman, John Lukacs, Kenneth McArdle, William Manchester, and A. L. Rowse bring Churchill vividly to life, assessing his place in history and exploring his relat...

Franklin Delano Roosevelt led the United States through two of the most critical periods in our history - the Great Depression and World War II. And in those twelve years, he did more than any president except Abraham Lincoln to change America. Here, some of the country's greatest historians - James MacGregor Burns, Thomas Fleming, John Kenneth Galbraith, Richard Ketchum, John Lukacs, Allan Nevins, Joe Persico, William vanden Heuvel, and Geoffrey Ward - bring FDR vividly to life, assessing...

Acclaimed art historian and Metropolitan Museum of Art lecturer Olivier Bernier brings vividly to life the dramatic, little-told stories of the great princes and princesses of Renaissance Italy - men and women named Borgia, Este, Farnese, and Medici.

Here, from historian David Ross Campbell, are the extraordinary stories of five of the most important of the independent monarchs who ruled parts of Germany during the many centuries before it finally united into a single nation. From bloody battles to fairy-tale castles, from brutal madness to patronage of the arts, each of these kings - Otto the Great, Albert of Bavaria, Augustus the Strong, Frederick the Great, and Mad King Ludwig - played a vital role in creating the Germany that exist...

New Orleans has been decimated from time to time by disease, fire, and hurricanes. In 1788, 900 buildings burned to the ground because the church bells used to summon firefighters had been stilled in deference to Good Friday. It is the birthplace of jazz and the Mardi Gras, and at one time, was described as having too many banks and ballrooms and too few bathrooms and Protestant churches. Since its founding in 1718, New Orleans has balanced disaster with joy. Frederick Law Olmsted was begu...

Here, in this stirring, vivid book, historian Derek B. Lange uses The Hague as the focal point for a sweeping, panoramic history of the Netherlands. One seventeenth-century visitor called The Hague "the mightiest village in Europe" - an epithet that could still be used today to describe this seat of Dutch government and home to its royal family. That same visitor also called it one of the most beautiful villages in Europe - no less correct - for the same circumstances that rendered The Hag...

In December 1606, when they set sail from London for the Virginia coast, the people aboard the three ships anticipated the best. They would establish a British colony, find gold, and discover a water route to Asia. But what awaited them was far different - fire, hunger, sickness, death, even cannibalism. Here, from the noted historian Marshall W. Fishwick, is the dramatic story of Jamestown and the struggle of its leader, Captain John Smith, who, with the help of Pocahontas, daughter of th...

From our modern perspective, it's difficult to imagine a time when the earth still contained mysteries and men headed out in wooden boats on journeys into the unknown. But that was not the case during the Age of Exploration. The Great Explorers tells the dramatic stories of the four men whose expeditions helped define this era: Bartolomeu Dias, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Ferdinand Magellan. They were demanding and imperfect leaders, single-minded in the pursuit of their goals...