The plague, for all its horrors, became a known quantity that moved through a predictable progression, so by the 15th century, citizens learned to go on with their lives resigned to the fact that these curses seemed inescapable. However, in the mid-15th century, a new “febrile” disease of an entirely unknown cause struck again in Britain in a series of erratically paced and lethal outbreaks between 1485 and 1551. Confined almost entirely to England, the new and unfamiliar wave of illness p...

There were many great cities in the ancient Near East that influenced the course of history. Babylon and Jerusalem are two of the better known, but Nineveh, Damascus, Ur, Uruk, Memphis, Thebes, and Sidon were just a few of the great cities where science and literature were created, theologies proposed, and empires born. There are numerous reasons why these cities became prominent, many of which were related to the fortuitous circumstances of environment and politics, but for every one of t...

Exploration of the early American West, beginning with Lewis and Clark’s transcontinental trek at the behest of President Thomas Jefferson, was not accomplished by standing armies, the era’s new steam train technology, or by way of land grabs. These came later, but not until pathways known only to a few of the land’s indigenous people were discovered, carved out, and charted in an area stretching from the eastern Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and the present-day borders of Mexico a...

Outbreaks of disease, much like wars, inevitably produce a series of public figures who serve as emblematic heroes or villains of the era and event, and in the case of Mary Mallon, now known around the world as “Typhoid Mary,” only a few deaths and a relatively small group of infections actually occurred before she was arrested. That her small but deadly outbreak incited such a firestorm among New York’s health agencies was certainly driven by the fact that the “ghetto disease” had suddenl...

American history told from the bottom up by Howard Zinn himself—and the perfect all-ages introduction to his eye-opening viewpoint, published on Zinn's hundredth birthdayTruth Has a Power of Its Own is an engrossing collection of conversations with the late Howard Zinn and "an eloquently hopeful introduction for those who haven't yet encountered Zinn's work" ( Booklist). Here is an unvarnished, yet ultimately optimistic, tour of American history—told by someone wh...

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first issues of Weird Tales Magazine, 100 Years of Weird is a masterful compendium of new and classic stories, flash fiction, essays, and poems from the giants of speculative fiction, including R. L. Stine, Laurell K. Hamilton, Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft, Tennessee Williams, and Isaac Asimov.Marking a century of uniquely peculiar storytelling, each part of this anthology features a different genre, from ...

The Science Fiction Archive #2, an amazing collection of the greatest science fiction writing EVER! Featuring: With These Hands, by C.M. Kornbluth What is POSAT?, by Phyllis Sterling-Smith A Little Journey, by Ray Bradbury Hunt the Hunter, by Kris Neville Citizen Jell, by Michael Shaara Operation Distress, by Lester Del Rey Syndrome Johnny, by Charles Dye Psychotennis, anyone?, by Lloyd Williams Prime Difference, by Alan Nourse Doorstep, by Keith Laumer The Drug, by C.C. MacApp An Elephant...

Pedro Gomez of ESPN was a beloved figure in baseball. His death from sudden cardiac arrest on Feb. 7, 2021, unleashed an outpouring of heartfelt tributes. He was 58, both a hard-nosed reporter and a smiling ambassador of the sport. These 62 personal essays soar beyond sports to delve into life lessons.Pedro, a proud Cuban American, was known for his dramatic reporting from Havana. Fully and fluidly bilingual, he did as much as anyone to bridge the wide gap that had...

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first issues of Weird Tales Magazine, 100 Years of Weird is a masterful compendium of new and classic stories, flash fiction, essays, and poems from the giants of speculative fiction, including R. L. Stine, Laurell K. Hamilton, Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft, Tennessee Williams, and Isaac Asimov.Marking a century of uniquely peculiar storytelling, each part of this anthology features a different genre, from ...

When the mask comes off, can you handle what's underneath?When your secret identity is revealed …When the monster is unleashed …When the superhero's child has no power …When Death himself is caught unawares …Pull back the mask to reveal 21 tales from seasoned and award-winning authors, of magical masks, gas masks, death masks, superheroes, secret identities, disguised robots, alien symbionts, a Napoleonic thief, a swindling demon—eve...

Apes! Sex fiends! Gangsters! Mad scientists! Tentacles! Yes, this MEGAPACK has them all, no less than 25 lurid tales ripped from the pages of pulp fiction magazines. For The Pulp Fiction Megapack, we selected stories with great pulp titles. (Where else are you going to find stories like "Blood for the Vampire Dead," "Mistress of Snarling Death," or "When Super-Apes Plot"?) Of course, these stories were all written in a different time, with different standards of what was acceptable. They a...

LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST'Essential reading' - THE INDEPENDENT'Vital and insightful' - OWL FISHERWhat does it mean to be non-binary in the 21st Century?Our gender identity is impacted by our personal histories; the cultures, communities and countries we are born into; and the places we go and the people we meet. But the representation of contemporary non-binary identities has been limit...