Hannibal is often considered the finest general the world has ever known. Setting out from Carthaginian-dominated Spain with a small army of select troops, he fought his way over the Pyrenees and crossed the Alps with elephants and a full baggage train. Descending into Italy, he destroyed the main Roman army at Lake Trasimeno and came close to conquering Rome itself. At Cannae, Hannibal’s brilliant cavalry tactics enabled him to destroy a reassembled Roman army, and his subsequent defeats ...

For almost three decades at the end of the fifth century BC the ancient world was torn apart in a conflict that was, within its historical context, as dramatic, divisive, and destructive as the great world wars of the twentieth century. The Peloponnesian War pitted Greek against Greek: the Athenians, with their glorious empire, rich legacy of democracy and political rights, and extraordinary cultural achievement, against the militaristic, oligarchic Spartan state. The result was a period o...

Beyond its importance as a literary work of unvarnished genius, Geoffrey Chaucer’s unfinished epic poem is also one of the most beloved works in the English language—and for good reason: it is lively, absorbing, perceptive, and outrageously funny. But despite the brilliance of Chaucer’s work, the continual evolution of our language has rendered his words unfamiliar to many of us. Esteemed poet, translator, and scholar Burton Raffel’s magnificent new unabridged translation brings Chaucer’s ...

"These are the 'know your value' conversations that we need to have. These women--their challenges, choices, and successes--are all of us." --Mika BrzezinskiOver the last sixty years, women's lives have transformed radically from generation to generation. Without a template to follow--a way to peek into the future to catch a glimpse of what leaving this job or marrying that person might mean to us decades from now--women make important decisions blindly, groping fo...

General Robert E. Lee was the most heroic figure of the Civil War, but to many, he is a solitary figure. This book fleshes out the man and reveals the workings of a great military mind and a warm, understanding, and generous human being. It shows all the facets of the general during the war; at the conclusion, when he was an outspoken proponent of a reasonable peace which would allow the South to rejoin the Union; and after the war, when he served as president of Washington College, and be...

One out of five people in the world is Muslim; only 18 percent of those, however, are Arab. Ernst moves away from a Middle Eastern bias, addressing the pluralistic nature of Muslim societies and thought. Framing his argument in terms of religious studies, Ernst describes how Protestant definitions of religion and anti-Muslim prejudice have affected views of Islam in Europe and America. Ernst also covers the contemporary importance of Islam in both its traditional settings and its new locat...

The Four Just Men, dedicated to ridding the world of unpunished criminals and profiteers, take their campaign into the treacherous, aristocratic world of gambling, horse-racing and high finance, where blackmail, poison and murder are commonplace. Working outside the law, the Four take it upon themselves to clean things up in their own way.

Praise for Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace"James Wallace offers many tales of . . . temper tantrums, antitrust tussles with the Justice Department, and general dirty tricks Microsoft has allegedly played on its competitors." -The New York Times Book ReviewPraise for James Wallace's Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire"A stupendous success story. This is the...

The former editor-in-chief of the Economist returns to the territory of his bestselling The Sun Also Sets to lay out a fresh analysis of the growing rivalry between China, India, and Japan—what it will mean for America, the global economy, and the twenty-first-century world.Closely intertwined by their fierce competition for influence, markets, resources, and strategic advantage, China, India, and Japan are shaping the world to come. Emmott explores the ways in wh...

Newly revised and updated, this is the acclaimed companion volume to the hugely successful Basic Economics, by one of America’s most revered economists.Applied Economics is an accessible guide to how our economic decisions develop. It explains the application of economics to major world problems, including housing, medical care, discrimination, and the economic development of nations, illustrated with examples from around the world. This new, expanded edition has ...

Here I am, a self-respecting kitten just trying to survive in a rat-eat-cat world, when the humans in my life start acting crazy. Something about the kids, and grandkids, coming to visit for Christmas. I would have run away had I known what that meant! Mama accusing me of tearing up the presents. Noisy voices and grabby little hands. I tell you, it's a dog's world. Bite my tongue! If the grandkids are bad, they're nothing compared to the gift the kids gave Mama for Christmas...a puppy!

The Four Just Men, in this second of Wallace’s ingenious series of thrillers, pit themselves against The Red Hundred, an organisation dedicated to international anarchy, led by the charismatic, mysterious and beautiful assassin, the Woman of Gratz. As always, the avengers’ methods are meticulously planned and ruthlessly executed.