In 1095, Pope Urban II delivered a powerful call-to-arms to begin the First Crusade. Robert the Monk, likely an eyewitness, recorded this speech years later, after the crusade had ended. In his account, Urban described horrific crimes committed against Christians living in the east, and Robert noted the emotional response of the gathered crowd. His account diverges widely from another eyewitness documentation of the same speech, written by Fulcher of Chartres, so most historians treat Robe...

This is the first English translation of Robert the Monk's Historia Iherosolimitana, a Latin prose chronicle describing the First Crusade. In addition to providing new and unique information on the Crusade (Robert claims to have been an eyewitness of the Council of Clermont in 1095), its particular interest lies in the great popularity it enjoyed in the Middle Ages. The text has close links with the vernacular literary tradition and is written in a racy style which would not disgrace a mod...

**An unforgettable story of discovery and unimaginable destruction and a major biography of one of America’s most brilliant—and most divisive—scientists, Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center vividly illuminates the man who would go down in history as “the father of the atomic bomb.”“Impressive. . . . An extraordinary story.”—The New York Times Book Review“Judicious, comprehensive and reliable. . . . By far the most thorough survey yet written of Op...

J. Robert Oppenheimer is among the most contentious and important figures of the twentieth century. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis to develop the first atomic bomb – a breakthrough which was to have eternal ramifications for mankind, and made Oppenheimer the 'father of the Bomb'.But his was not a simple story of assimilation, scientific success and world fame. A complicated and fragile personality, the implications of the di...

The story of a monk, a minstrel, and the music that brought them togetherIn 1965 writer-activist-monk Thomas Merton fulfilled a twenty-four-year dream and went to live as a hermit beyond the walls of his Trappist monastery. Seven months later, after a secret romance with a woman half his age, he was in danger of losing it all. Yet on the very day that his abbot uncovered the affair, Merton found solace in an unlikely place—the songs of Bob Dylan, who, as fate would have it,...

The story of a monk, a minstrel, and the music that brought them togetherIn 1965 writer-activist-monk Thomas Merton fulfilled a twenty-four-year dream and went to live as a hermit beyond the walls of his Trappist monastery. Seven months later, after a secret romance with a woman half his age, he was in danger of losing it all. Yet on the very day that his abbot uncovered the affair, Merton found solace in an unlikely place—the songs of Bob Dylan, who, as fate would have it...

Robert Oppenheimer was among the most brilliant and divisive of men. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis in the race to develop the first atomic bomb—a breakthrough that was to have eternal ramifications for mankind and that made Oppenheimer the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But with his actions leading up to that great achievement, he also set himself on a dangerous collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch-hunters. In ...

The Celestine monks of France represent one of the least studied monastic reform movements of the late Middle Ages, and yet also one of the most culturally impactful. Their order - an austere Italian Benedictine reform of the late thirteenth century, which came be known after the papal name of their founder, Celestine V (St Peter of Murrone) - arrived in France in 1300. After a period of marginal growth, they flourished in the region from the mid-fourteenth century, founding thirteen new h...

️ The Inner CathedralAncient Wisdom on Silence ♂️, Solitude , Inner Stillness , and the Apophatic Path to God ✨️ Enter the Cathedral Within...Step beyond words into the sacred hush of divine presence. The Inner Cathedral is a contemplative journey into the mystical heart of Christianity, where silence speaks louder than sermons, and solitude becomes the gateway to the Infinite.Rooted in the spiritual practices of Benedictine monks ♂️, Christian my...

Religious war erupts between church and king and shapes a young man's fate in eleventh-century France . . .Born of nobility in France in the year 1066, seven-year-old Tristan de Saint-Germain has his fate thrown to the winds upon the execution of his father for treason against William the Conqueror of Normandy. Abandoned by his mother, who remarries and departs for England, Tristan and his four-year-old brother, Guillaume, find themselves thrown into the monastic w...

The Pirate and the Monk is a picaresque work of fiction intended exclusively for its entertainment value, written for the mature, enlightened reader, and no historical inference must be derived from the text. The story depicted in this book is a retelling of the Libertalia sketch published in The History of the Pyrates, second volume of A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, written by the supposed author Captain Charles Johnson, which was a nom de pl...

He was a Siberian peasant turned holy man, a mystic who gained the trust of the Tsar and Tsarina. Grigori Rasputin, the "Mad Monk" of Russia, was a figure of immense power and controversy. His influence over the royal family was undeniable, but his alleged debauchery and political meddling made him a target of those who sought to protect the empire.This book delves into the final days of Rasputin's life, exploring his complex character and his role in the events that led to the fal...