In the tradition of the great narrative storytellers, Andrei Cherny recounts the exhilarating saga of the unlikely men who made the Berlin Airlift one of the great military and humanitarian successes of American history.“What an exciting, inspiring, and wonderfully-written book this is....Each page has lessons for today, and it is also a thrilling narrative to read.”—Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Steve Jobs

American politics today is run on scandal and sound bites because our politicians have become disconnected from the government and public that they serve. Vast changes brought about by the information revolution and the global economy-and by the new "Choice Generation" of Americans under the age of thirty-have yet to impact America's centralized, one-size-fits-all government programs. Enter Andrei Cherny, who uses his unique vantage point as a twentysomething with experience working closel...

"Like the cinema classic Casablanca , this is a gripping saga of undercover resistance, dangerous intrigue and inspiring courage in Nazi-occupied territory." — The Washington PostAs war raged against Hitler's Germany, an increasing number of Allied fliers were shot down on missions against Nazi targets in occupied Europe. Many fliers parachuted safely behind enemy lines only to find themselves st...

The astonishing story of America's airwaves, the two friends—one a media mogul, the other a famous inventor—who made them available to us, and the government which figured out how to put a price on air.This is the origin story of the airwaves—the foundational technology of the communications age—as told through the forty-year friendship of an entrepreneurial industrialist and a brilliant inventor.David Sarnoff, the head of RCA and equal parts Steve Jobs, Jack Welch, and Wil...

“Gripping . . . a highly readable tour de force that brings Queen Isabella vividly to life.”—The Washington Post Book WorldAn “insightful and compelling” (USA Today)biography of Isabella of England, one of history’s most notorious and charismatic queens, from the New York Times bestselling author hailed as “the finest historian of English monarchical succession writing” (The Boston Globe)Isabella arrived ...

In this monumental new book, award-winning author Mark Kurlansky has written his most ambitious work to date: a singular and ultimately definitive look at a pivotal moment in history.With 1968, Mark Kurlansky brings to teeming life the cultural and political history of that world-changing year of social upheaval. People think of it as the year of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Yet it was also the year of the Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy assassi...

**A New York Times–bestseller from an intelligence insider reveals the "fascinating new research" revealing Hemingway's hidden life in espionage ( New York Review of Books).A riveting epic, Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy reveals for the first time Ernest Hemingway's secret adventures in espionage and intelligence.While he was the historian at the CIA Museum, Nicholas Reynolds, former American intelligence officer and U.S. Marine colonel, un...

The New York Times–bestselling history of the first half of the twentieth century—five decades that transformed America—from the author of Only Yesterday.During the first fifty years of the twentieth century, the United States saw two world wars, a devastating economic depression, and more social, political, and economic changes than in any other five-decade period before. Frederick Lewis Allen, former editor of Harper's magazine, recount...

"An utterly compelling account of the African Americans who played a crucial and dangerous role in the invasion of Europe. . . . Long overdue." —Tom BrokawIn the early hours of June six, 1944, the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, a unit of African-American soldiers, landed on the beaches of France to man a curtain of armed balloons meant to deter enemy aircraft. One member of the 320th would be nominated for the Medal of Honor, an award he would never receive. The ...

“’The history of its Post Office is nothing less than the story of America,’ Ms. Gallagher’s opening sentence declares, and in this lively book she makes the case well.”—Wall Street JournalA masterful history of a long underappreciated institution, How the Post Office Created America examines the surprising role of the postal service in our nation’s political, social, economic, and physical development.The founders established the post off...

The tumultuous period in English history that marked the end of the medieval era and the rise of the Tudors comes to stunning life in the final volume of Alison Weir’s four-part Medieval Queens series, filled with dramatic true stories chronicling the turbulent reigns of the last five Plantagenet queens.The fifteenth century was a violent age. In Queens at War, Alison Weir chronicles the five queens who got caught up in wars that changed the courses of the...

The definitive Tolkien companion—an indispensable guide to The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and more, from the author of The Road to Middle-earth.This "highly erudite celebration and exploration of Tolkien's works [is] enormous fun," declared the Houston Chronicle, and Tom Shippey, a prominent medievalist and scholar of fantasy, "deepens your understanding" without "making you forget your initial, purely instinctive response to Middle-e...