This intimate biography of Francesco di Marco Datini offers fascinating insights into the methods of medieval trade and vibrancy of Italian life in 14th-century Tuscany.“For God and Profit” is how the medieval merchant Francesco di Marco Datini headed a notebook in which he kept track of his business dealings, and these were certainly his guiding lights. Born in the 1330s in the Tuscan town of Prato, Datini set out at the age of 15 for Avignon, where over the cours...

“Remarkably moving” diaries about life in Tuscany during the German occupation of WWII—with stunning rediscovered photographs (The New York Times).“A compelling story of heroism, compassion.” —The Washington PostIn the Second World War, Italy was torn apart by German armies, civil war, and the Allied invasion. In a corner of Tuscany, one woman—born in England, married to an Italian—kept a record of daily life in a country ...

This recently discovered “trenchant, intelligent” follow-up to the British expatriate’s classic memoir, War in Val d’Orcia, chronicles life in Italy in the year leading up to WW2 (New Yorker).This insightful diary provides a vivid, ground-level account of how Mussolini decided on a course of action that would devastate his country and ultimately destroy his regime. In 1939 it was not a foregone conclusion that Mussolini would enter World War II on...

An extraordinary memoir by Iris Origo, who chronicled political life in A Chill in the Air and War in Val d'Orcia, and now turns inward to describe her own family, the work of writing, and the transcience of memory.Images and Shadows, Iris Origo’s autobiographical account of her early life, is as perceptive and humane and beautifully written as her celebrated memoir War in Val d’Orcia. Origo’s father came from an old and moneyed ...

'Origo's diaries, trenchantly and pithily written, are a glory' SpectatorIris Origo, one of the twentieth century's great diarists, was born in England in 1902. As a child, she moved between England, Ireland, Italy and America, never quite belonging anywhere. It was only when she married an Italian man that she came to rest in one country. Fifteen years later, that country would be at war with her own.With piercing insight, Origo documents the grim ...

With “characteristic wisdom and grace” (Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author) Robert W. Merry explores a critical lesson about our nation that is as timely today as ever demonstrating how the country came apart during the enveloping slavery crisis of the 1850s.The Mexican War brought vast new territories to the United States, which precipitated a growing crisis over slavery. The new territories seemed unsuitable for the type of agriculture that depended on sl...

Religion, oil, and war bent to the House of Saud’s will to dominate Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle EastIn recent years the ruling family in Saudi Arabia, the House of Saud, has promoted the oil-rich kingdom as an open, liberalizing nation that has invested in culture, tourism, and social innovation to become a beacon for the region. International political manoeuvring, sports sponsorship, and the Vision 2030 programme with its vast architectural planning declare...

**ONE OF THE ATLANTIC'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEARA NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW  EDITORS' CHOICE PICK AND 2024 NOTABLE BOOKAN NPR FAVORITE READ OF 2024“Peri’s joint biography is a thrilling, haunting yarn of the sort that the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson himself became famous for—and couldn’t have written without his wife.” —The AtlanticThe extraordinary story of the creative and romantic partnership between Robert Louis Stev...

**NAMED ONE OF THE TOP 5 BOOKS OF 2024 ON CBS SUNDAY MORNINGONE OF *THE WASHINGTON POST'*S TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2024A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK“Vivid, revelatory, and politically unpredictable…What bothers Abrahamian, in the end, isn’t the anarchic but the unfair; if capital is free, people deserve the same respect.” *—*Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker"A season of unrest looms ahead, and The Hidden Globe lays out the unvarn...

What is and isn't antisemitism?'I cannot wait for Off-White to be read, debated and put into practice.' Naomi Klein, author of DoppelgangerAs claims of antisemitism continue to distort our politics at home and abroad, it has become almost impossible to talk about constructively, even in private. Instead, we find ourselves in a storm of misinformation, political mudslinging and bad-faith accusations.There is, howeve...

**One of Washington Post's 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction From 2024The first volume in a two-book series about each of the atomic bomb drops that ended the Pacific War based on years of irreplicable personal interviews with survivors to tell a story of devastation and resilience**In this vividly rendered historical narrative, M. G. Sheftall layers the stories of hibakusha—the Japanese word for atomic bomb survivors—in harrowing detail, to give a minute-by-...

"A hugely entertaining achievement." –Esquire“An engaging survey through a period of intellectual history that reveals as much about people who wear watches as the objects on their wrists." – Wall Street Journal"As impeccably crafted and precisely engineered as any of the watches on which the author has worked so lovingly over the years, this book is a joy to behold and a wonder to enjoy.” –Simon Winchester, author...