The secret history of the gay rights movement, a generation before Stonewall.In The Deviant's War, young historian Eric Cervini uncovers the forgotten story of Frank Kameny, an astronomer-turned-activist who fought against the systematic persecution of gay federal employees in the 1960s. Based on firsthand accounts, declassified FBI records, and thousands of personal documents, Cervini traces the ties that bound the gay rights movement to Black freedom, th...

"Vikas Adam draws the listener in, expertly narrating Cervini's work, which charts the beginning of the gay rights movement in the United States...Vikas Adam does an excellent job lending unique voices to real historical figures." -- AudioFile MagazineA Publishers Weekly most anticipated spring bookFrom a young Harvard- and Cambridge-trained historian, the secret history of the fight for gay rights that began a gen...

On fire for God—a sweeping history of puritanism in England and America.Begun in the mid–sixteenth century by Protestant nonconformists keen to reform England's church and society while saving their own souls, the puritan movement was a major catalyst in the great cultural changes that transformed the early modern world. Providing a uniquely broad transatlantic perspective, this groundbreaking volume traces puritanism's tumultuous history from its initial attempts ...

After 40+ years of writing about Europe, Rick Steves has gathered 100 of his favorite memories together into one inspiring collection: For the Love of Europe: My Favorite Places, People, and Stories.Join Rick as he's swept away by a fado singer in Lisbon, learns the dangers of falling in love with a gondolier in Venice, and savors a cheese course in the Loire Valley. Contemplate the mysteries of centuries-old stone circles in England, dangle from a cliff i...

The groundbreaking work on being homosexual in America—available again only from Penguin Classics and with a new foreword by Dan SavageOriginally published in 1971, Merle Miller’s On Being Different is a pioneering and thought-provoking book about being homosexual in the United States. Just two years after the Stonewall riots, Miller wrote a poignant essay for the New York Times Magazine entitled “What It Means To Be a Homosexual” in response to a...

This is the story of the last acrimonious days of the Beatles, a final chapter reconstructing for the first time the seismic events of 1969, the year that saw the band reach new highs of musical creativity and new lows of internal strife. Two years after Flower Power and the hippie idealism of the Summer of Love, the Sixties dream had perished on the vine. By 1969, violence and vindictiveness had replaced the Beatles' own mantra of peace and love, and Vietnam and the Cold War had supplante...

A new edition of the "brilliantly original and highly sophisticated" study of saint worship after the fall of the Roman Empire ( Library Journal).In this groundbreaking work, Peter Brown explores how the worship of saints and their corporeal remains became central to religious life in Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. During this period, earthly remnants served as a heavenly connection, and their veneration is a fascinating window into the...

The remarkable, moving story of Prince Philip's mother by eminent biographer Hugo Vickers, updated in this new edition - for fans of Kingmaker and The Lives and Deaths of the Princesses of Hesse'Gripping. Hugo Vickers has pulled off an extraordinary feat in describing the life - in many ways tragic - of Princess Andrew of Greece. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is a masterpiece.' - A. N. WilsonPrincess Alice, mo...

Delve into the fascinating world of dirt in this history of culture, cleanliness, and our evolving perceptions of what is and isn't gross.In this engaging and often humorous study of life's imperfections, public health and hygiene authority Terence McLaughlin dissects our attitudes toward the filth that has accompanied society throughout human history. According to him, "dirt" is a matter of opinion.Cultural attitudes about everything from factory smoke to ...

A brisk, concise, and readable overview of Irish history from the Protestant Reformation to the dawn of the twenty-first century.Five centuries of Irish history are explored in this informative and accessible volume. Beginning with Ireland's modern period at the dawn of the sixteenth century, John Gibney continues through to virtually the present day, offering an integrated overview of the island nation's cultural, political, and socioeconomic evolution.This ...

An NPR Best Book of the YearThe incredible true story of the last ship to carry enslaved people to America, the remarkable town its survivors founded after emancipation, and the complicated legacy their descendants carry with them to this day—by the journalist who discovered the ship’s remains.Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, the Clotilda became the last ship in history to bring enslaved Afr...

This definitive, single-volume edition of the Pulitzer Prize–winning biography delivers "a Lincoln whom no other man . . . could have given us" ( New York Herald Tribune Book Review).Celebrated for his vivid depictions of the nineteenth-century American Midwest, Carl Sandburg brings unique insight to the life of Abraham Lincoln in this distinguished biography. He captures both the man who grew up on the Indiana prairie and the president who held the countr...