"Walker here pairs off proto-architect Filippo Brunelleschi and doormaker Lorenzo Ghiberti in an often engaging version of Quattrocento Smackdown." — Library JournalJoining the bestsellers Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, this is a lively and intriguing tale of two artists whose competitive spirit brought to life one of the world's most magnificent structures and ignited the Renaissance.The dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore, the gr...

Joining the bestsellers Longitude and Galileo’s Daughter, a lively and intriguing tale of two artists whose competitive spirit brought to life one of the world’s most magnificent structures and ignited the RenaissanceThe dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore, the great cathedral of Florence, is among the most enduring symbols of the Renaissance, an equal to the works of Leonardo and Michelangelo. Its designer was Filippo Brunelleschi, a temperamental architect and inventor who rediscov...

Despite the painful arthritis in his elbow, Sandy Koufax pitched the 1965 Dodgers team to a World Series victory.

Beethoven composed his Ninth Symphony without being able to hear it—or the wild applause of its first audience.

At a ceremony in the desert, the United States was joined by rail.

Highlights presents A Coaching Legend written by Paul Robert Walker. Knute Rockne plays for Notre Dame in the early 1900s.

Leonardo da Vinci developed plans for an "aerial screw" four hundred years before it actually took flight.

In the Beginning, James. Orphaned, bullied, lonely, and unloved as a boy, in time the young King of Scots overcame his troubled beginnings to ascend the English throne at the height of EnglandÆs Golden Age. In an effort to pacify rising tensions in the Anglican Church, and to reflect the majesty of his new reign, he spearheaded the most important literary undertaking in Western historyùthe translation of the Bible into a beautiful, lyrical, and accessible English.David TeemsÆs narrative cr...

We don't think anymore, like the ancient Chinese did, that the world was hatched from an egg, or, like the Maori, that it came from the tearing apart of a love embrace. The Greeks told of a tempestuous Hera and a cunning Zeus, but we now use genes and natural selection to explain fear and desire, and physics to demystify the workings of the universe.Evolutions brings to life the latest scientific thinking on the birth of the universe and the solar system, the journey from ...

Everybody knows the picture: a man, meticulously rendered by Leonardo daVinci, standing with arms and legs outstretched in a circle and asquare. Deployed today to celebrate subjects as various as the grandeurof art, the beauty of the human form, and the universality of the humanspirit, the drawing turns up just about everywhere: in books, on coffeecups, on corporate logos, even on spacecraft. It has, in short, becomethe world's most famous cultural...

The acclaimed medieval historian chronicles the rise of Templar powers in the Levant—and the saga of their destruction.Founded on Christmas Day 1119 in Jerusalem, the Knights Templar was a religious order dedicated to defending the Holy Land and its Christian pilgrims in the decades after the First Crusade. Legendary for their bravery and dedication, the Templars became one of the wealthiest and most powerful bodies of the medieval world—and the chief defenders of ...

"In this thought-provoking, handsomely illustrated book, Italian neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso considers the fundamental differences between plants and animals and challenges our assumptions about which is the ‘higher’ form of life.” —The Wall Street Journal“Fascinating…full of optimism…this quick, accessible read will appeal to anyone with interest in how plants continue to surprise us.” —Library JournalDo plants...