A Concise History of the Middle East provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of this region.Spanning from the pre-Islamic era to the present, it explores the evolution of Middle Eastern institutions and culture, the influence of European colonialism and Western imperialism, regional modernization efforts, the struggle of various peoples for political independence, the Arab–Israel conflict, the reassertion of Islamist values and power, the issu...

The world’s greatest war story for more than 2,700 years.In the final days of the decade-long Trojan War, the schemes of men and gods clash loudly, as plagues and bloodshed decimate both sides. The violence represented here in the actions of Achilles and Agamemnon, Helen and Hector, is relentless, but it serves a great purpose, as Homer uses this epic story to comment on the detriment of hubris, honor, and human folly.

A provocative manifesto arguing for a new understanding of the Jews’ peoplehoodToday there are two seemingly mutually exclusive notions of what “the Jews” are: either a religion or a nation/ethnicity. The widespread conception is that the Jews were formerly either a religious community in exile or a nation based on Jewish ethnicity. The latter position is commonly known as “Zionism,” and all articulations of a political theory of Zionism are taken to be variations of that view....

"Ah how shameless – the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone they say come all their miseries yes but they themselves with their own reckless ways compound their pains beyond their proper share.” – The OdysseyExperience the stunning Greek poetry of Homer in this collection of his two major works: The Iliad and The Odyssey. These epic poems are beloved for their presentation of Greek history and belief systems, their str...

The Minor Prophets dramatize the character of God as few other books in the Bible do.According to noted expositor James Montgomery Boice, the Minor Prophets particularly highlight three aspects of God’s character: his sovereignty, his holiness, and his love. The messages of the Minor Prophets and their pertinent application for our lives should not be dismissed.This is volume two of a two-volume expositional and inspirational commentary on the Minor Prophet...

An exploration of Maimonides, the medieval philosopher, physician, and religious thinker, author of The Guide of the Perplexed, from one of the world’s foremost bibliophilesMoses ben Maimon, or Maimonides (1138–1204), was born in Córdoba, Spain. The gifted son of a judge and mathematician, Maimonides fled Córdoba with his family when he was thirteen due to Almohad persecution of all non-Islamic faiths. Forced into a long exile, the family spent a decade in...

In 1980s New York City, young lawyer Nick Coleman meets free spirit Caroline Sedlak in an evening fiction writing course. A vivacious fixture at a Greenwich Village bar, she remains mysterious about her life until their teacher reads her story submission to the class, and Nick realizes that a darker past lurks beneath her happy-go-lucky exterior. Nick must confront demons of his own while struggling to prove himself to his colleagues as a young blind lawyer at an office that handles appeal...

In 1834, Osborne Russell joined an expedition from Boston, which proceeded to the Rocky Mountains to capitalize on the lucrative salmon and fur trade. Beginning at the age of twenty, he detailed the life of a trapper in his journal and recorded his adventures through treacherous terrain, encounters with dangerous wildlife, and confrontations with the natives of the Rockies.Osbourne would remain there—hunting, trapping, and living off the land—for the next nine years. Journal of...

Both a masterpiece of Russian populist writing and a parody of the entire genre, Poor People is an early example of Dostoevsky’s genius.Written as a series of letters, Poor People is the tragic tale of a petty clerk and his impossible love for a young girl. Longing to help her and her family, he sells everything he can, but his kindness leads him only into more desperate poverty, and ultimately into debauchery. As a typical “man of the underground,” he serves as t...

In 2006, Christianity Today voted The God Who Is There as one of the top fifty books that have shaped evangelicals.For decades, The God Who Is There has been the landmark book that changed the way the church sees the world. In Francis Schaeffer’s remarkable analysis, we learn where the clashing ideas about God, science, history, and art came from and where they are going. This edition includes a foreword by James W. Sire that places Schaeffer’s seminal wo...

With commanding skill, Thomas R. Martin tells the remarkable and dramatic story of how a tiny, poor, and threatened settlement grew to become, during its height, the dominant power in the Mediterranean world for five hundred years. Encompassing the period from Rome’s founding in the eighth century BC through Justinian’s rule in the sixth century AD, he offers a distinctive perspective on the Romans and their civilization by employing fundamental Roman values as a lens through which to view...

In this, his best-known work, the controversial American economist and social critic Thorstein Veblen appropriates Darwin’s theory of evolution to analyze the modern industrial system. For Veblen, the shallowness and superficiality observed in society results from the tendency to believe that true accomplishment lies in arriving at a condition of ostentatious wealth and status. In developing his thesis, Veblen traces the origins and development of ownership and property, offering extraordi...