Across 1400 years and six continents (sorry, Australia), Impossible Histories examines pivotal moments in history from both sides—what happened and what would have happened had things gone differently. The results are by turns strange, hilarious, tragic…and always fascinating.Imagine a world in which...- Hitler builds a thousand-year Reich- Columbus gets driven from the Americas by mounted knights- Robespierre decapitates Caesar Augustus- The Inca Empire...

Congratulations on your acceptance to the Apprentice Academy, one of the world’s finest institutions for knightly education. Your course of study here will prepare you for a career as a knight, samurai, Viking, or really any type of sword-swinging warrior. Swinging a sword is inherently dangerous, but this guide will help you complete your education while minimizing the twin risks of 1. getting maimed and 2. working too hard.Learn how to:• Fight people!• Fight dragons...

Meet the snoligoster, who feeds on the shadows of its victims. The whirling whimpus, who once laid low an entire Boy Scout troop. And the hoop snake, who can chase prey at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour and then, with one sting of its venomous tail, cause it to turn purple, swell up, and—alas—die.These and 17 other fearsome creatures are among the most fantastical beasts in American folklore. Their stories, as narrated by one of the last surviving cryptozoologists, are best enjoy...

For readers who have always wanted to enroll in a school for magic--be it Hogwarts with Harry Potter or Camp Halfblood with Percy Jackson! Wizard lovers will delight in pretending they’re learning magic from a cheat-sheet handbook from an elite school for sorcery.Welcome to the Apprentice Academy. Congratulations on your acceptance to one of the world’s finest institutions for sorcery. Your course of study here will be long and perilous, but this book of sorcery skills and fascinat...

Meet the monsters in this who’s who of the baddest of the bad!Like those supernatural beasts everyone knows and fears—the bloodsucking vampire, Count Dracula, and that eight-foot-tall mash-up of corpses, Frankenstein’s Monster. Or that scariest of mummies, Cheops, who scientists revived after 4,700 years—big mistake! Or more horrifying yet, the Horla, an invisible, havoc-wreaking creature that herds humans like cattle and feeds of their souls.Drawn from the...

Welcome to the Apprentice Academy. Congratulations on your acceptance to one of the world’s finest institutions for sorcery. Your course of study here will be long and perilous, but this book of sorcery skills and fascinating tales from the world of magic will help you along the way—ideally with all your limbs and wits intact.Learn how to:· Read minds!· Prophesize!· Perform a love spell!· Choose an animal familiar!· Turn anything into gold!...

From celebrated author Jane Yolen comes this inspiring collection of folktales from around the world, all featuring strong female heroes.These fifteen folktales have one thing in common: brainy, bold, brave women—and not one damsel in distress! There is Bradamante, the fierce medieval knight; Li Chi, the Chinese girl who slays a dreaded serpent and saves her town; Makhta, a female warrior who leads her Sioux tribe into battle; and many more women who use their cunn...

Spies, Sadists and Sorcerers unveils the history you were never taught at school. With a breath-taking sweep spanning Rome to the modern day, popular historian and author Dominic Selwood challenges the traditional version of some of the best-known events of the past. From ancient Christianity to the voyages of Columbus, and from the medieval Crusades to ISIS and the modern Middle East, this book debunks dozens of historical myths.You will learn that:– Magna Carta was an inf...

Myths and Legends from Around the World brings you some of the most influential stories ever told. Encompassing the vast range of human experience, they perhaps tell us all we need to know about ourselves.The tales are drawn from many different literary and cultural traditions - from Scandinavia, the Americas, Japan, Africa, and Europe - and are re-told with the modern reader in mind. Within these pages you will find the passions, the sacrifices, the dilemmas, the tribulations, the...

Celebrated historian John Hirst offers a fascinating exploration of the qualities that made Europe a world-changing civilisation.The Shortest History of Europe begins with a rapid overview of European civilisation, describing its birth from an unlikely mixture of classical learning, Christianity and German warrior culture. Over the centuries, this unstable blend produced highly distinctive characters pious knights and belligerent popes, romantics spouting folklore and revolutionaries imita...

“A brisk and cheerfully traditional trip through our history, from homo erectus to George W. Bush.” —Kirkus ReviewsIn The Human Story, James C. Davis takes us on a journey to ancient times, telling how peoples of the world settled down and founded cities, conquered neighbors, and established religions, and continues over the course of history, when they fought two nearly global wars and journeyed into space.Davis's account is swift and clear, never dull or dry. He lightens ...

What are the key 50 events you really need to understand to grasp the developments of our world?In this highly entertaining read Hugh Williams distils world history into an insightful overview. By selecting fifty key people, places, battles, objects and events, he casts a clear eye over the way the world has developed and how we live today.Injecting life into familiar historical landmarks as well as bringing lesser-known events to the forefront, Hugh shapes the fifty things ...