This "engrossing, well-paced" history reveals how England's first colony in the New World was forgotten—and rediscovered three centuries later ( New Yorker ).England's first attempt at colonizing the New World was not at Roanoke or Jamestown, but on a small, mostly frozen island in the Canadian Arctic. Queen Elizabeth I called that place Meta Incognita, the Unknown Shore. Backed by Elizabeth and her key advisors, the erstw...

It is a place both mythic and all too real, a place thought to be the site of one of our oldest human settlements and known to be a center of ancient cultures and annihilating conflicts. It sits at the bottom of a malarial valley, the lowest place on the surfact of the earth--"the overheated, earthen basement of the world," as Robert Ruby describes it. And yet, long before the world's modern religions began scrapping over its bones, Jericho was home to waves of colonization and floods of d...

Partly as a result of poor commanders and partly because the Romans had an innate and misguided belief in the invincibility of their legions, the first battles against the Cimbri were a series of disasters. These culminated in the Battle of Arausio in 105 BC when two Roman armies were utterly destroyed. Rome finally realized that their republic faced an existential threat, and made the necessary painful political and military changes that were needed to face that threat. Rome also found a ...

The book that inspired the stories of Gladiator & Gladiator II: Step into the ring with this classic, in-depth account of the ancient Romans' obsession with the bloody and brutal games."[ The Way of the Gladiator is] this crazy, tawdry, wild book about the Coliseum. . . . It hardwired in my brain the absolute similarities between who we are and who we were." —David Franzoni, Academy Award–nominated scree...

A wide-ranging and dramatic account of the Antonine plague, the mysterious disease that struck the Roman Empire at its pinnacleIn the middle of the second century AD, Rome was at its prosperous and powerful apex. The emperor Marcus Aurelius reigned over a vast territory that stretched from Britain to Egypt. The Roman-made peace, or Pax Romana, seemed to be permanent. Then, apparently out of nowhere, a sudden sickness struck the legions and laid waste to ci...

"A tremendous work of non-fiction" about the network that hid the "Angel of Death," the Nazi doctor who escaped justice for more than three decades ( Forbes).In 1985, six-year old Betina Anton watched Brazilian authorities apprehend her kindergarten teacher for allegedly using documents to bury in secrecy the remains of Josef Mengele, known worldwide for cruel human experiments and for sending thousands to the Auschwitz gas chambers. Decades later, as an ex...

The king killed the love of her life—and she's going to make him pay.Step into this epic revenge tale a la The Count of Monte Cristo**, based on the true story of France's most notorious lady pirate. By the author of** The Empress**—as seen on Netflix.**It's 1343 and Jeanne de Clisson is out for revenge.At forty-three, her perfect life—a loving husband, three young childre...

“A heart-pounding, mind-bending adventure.” —Ilyon WooA riveting biography of Alexander the Great’s final years, when the leader’s insatiable desire to conquer the world set him off on an exhilarating, harrowing journey that would define his legacy.By 330 B.C.E., Alexander the Great had reached the pinnacle of success. Or so it seemed. He had defeated the Persian ruler Darius III and seized the capital city of Persepolis. His exhausted and ...

Ranging from math to literature to philosophy, Uncountable explains how numbers triumphed as the basis of knowledge—and compromise our sense of humanity.Our knowledge of mathematics has structured much of what we think we know about ourselves as individuals and communities, shaping our psychologies, sociologies, and economies. In pursuit of a more predictable and more controllable cosmos, we have extended mathematical insights and methods to more and more a...

**The New York Times bestselling author of The Alienist tells the extraordinary story of Masha, a half-wild rescue cat who fought off a bear, tackled Caleb like a linebacker—and bonded with him as tightly as any cat and human possibly can.“The most brilliant feline portrait in literary history.” —People Magazine (Book of the Week)**Caleb Carr has had special relationships with cats since he was a young boy in a turbulent household, famously people...

National Book Award Finalist: The "impressive" conclusion to the "magisterial trilogy on the mythology of violence in American history" ( Film Quarterly)."The myth of the Western frontier—which assumes that whites' conquest of Native Americans and the taming of the wilderness were preordained means to a progressive, civilized society—is embedded in our national psyche. U.S. troops called Vietnam 'Indian country.' President John Kennedy invoked 'New Frontier...

The first book to study the four wives of Queen Victoria's sons as a family group—based partly on previously unpublished material from the Royal Archives.The first to join the family of the "Grandmama of Europe" was Alexandra, eldest daughter of the prince about to become King Christian IX of Denmark. Charming, ever sympathetic and widely considered one of the most attractive royal women of her time, she was prematurely deaf and suffered from a limp which was made f...