The original sketch for the Biltmore, George Washington Vanderbilt's grand estate in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina, laid out plans for a modest Tuscan villa. But ambition quickly took wing. The house swelled to 225 rooms and became - until 2012 when it was topped by the home of a billionaire in Mumbai, India - the world's largest residence ever built for a private citizen. Here, in this short-form book, New York Times bestselling author Robert Wernick tells the story of the ...

Ezra Pound, the expatriate American poet, returned home in ignominy, and the postwar world watched as a literary giant was charged with treason. Here, in this short-form book by award-winning journalist Robert Wernick, is the strange, inscrutable case of Ezra Pound.

Here, from New York Times bestselling author Robert Wernick, is the unforgettable story of the Byzantine Empire, which dominated the world for more than 1,000 years. Here, too, are the stories of the extraordinary emperors and generals who brought the empire into being and ultimately presided over its demise. We witness the glittering city of Constantinople from its rise to greatness through its deadly conclusion. Though Byzantium has faded away, its everlasting contributions to our world ...

In the eighth century, The Vikings, the water-borne warriors of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, conquered much of the British Isles. They pillaged the coast of France, pushed inland to sack Paris, and seized Normandy. Sweeping south down the great rivers of central Europe, they overwhelmed the Slavs of Russia, captured Kiev, and clashed with the people of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. In all this, the Vikings took untold treasures, but they weren't just barbarians, cont...

A child of the Romantic Age, George Sand had high standards for love, maintaining that life should be ruled by emotion and instinct, the heart rather than the brain. But underneath her romantic impulses was a bedrock of common sense. While other Romantics like Lord Byron and Alfred de Musset found no alternative to unattainable ideals but random sex, steady drinking, and early death, she examined her ideals coolly; if finding them wanting, she went on to something else. But she never lost ...

At the end of the seventeenth century, English investors began to see money-making in a new light. A piece of paper - a share or a bond - could be as profitable as holdings in land and far less cumbersome to administer. Furthermore, while land was taxed, profits from these new securities were not. This inevitably led to abuse. In this short-form book, New York Times bestselling author Robert Wernick traces the remarkable history of the South Sea Bubble, one of the greatest financial scanda...

A terror to the outside world, Viking longships were a source of great, understandable pride to Norsemen. At a time when the majority of men and women in the West lived and died within walking distance of their birthplaces and travel was slow and dangerous, Vikings seemed to skitter over the globe like water birds over a pond, appearing when and where they were least expected, disappearing when they chose. Unlike the other peoples of Europe in the early Middle Ages, they understood and mas...

Here is the surprising story of Swiss hero William Tell. With one shot of his bow, writes New York Times bestselling author Robert Wernick in this essay, Tell started the centuries-long series of events that turned a few, isolated settlements of poor, backward, medieval mountaineers into the proud and prosperous modern nation of Switzerland.

The Vikings thought of themselves as the ultimate warriors. But this one-dimensional image belies considerable complexity. They were, in fact, as much merchants as marauders. Among the commodities they sold was one that brought them the greatest profit of all - more than amber, silver, or pelts. That commodity was human beings. Few people know that during their days of dominance, the Vikings were slavers to the world. Here, in this essay, is that little-told aspect of their story.

When the Vikings invaded and conquered England, France, and Ireland, they opened a new and fascinating chapter in their history. The nature of the beset lands, the traditions and character of their peoples, and the strengths and weaknesses of the various Viking leaders made each of these three invasions distinct from the others. And each produced a different and surprising result. In sum, award-winning journalist Robert Wernick asserts in this provocative short-form book, they forever alte...

What in the world could be so extraordinary about pepper that men willingly died for it? If you enlarge your historical horizon a bit, and look back just a few centuries, there is nothing at all bizarre about the obstinacy of those pepper seekers. They were dealing with one of the great motive forces of human events. Closely examine any of the great events that have shaped the world as we know it - the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, the Crusades, the discovery of America - and often...

The Vikings sailed to Iceland not as raiders but as settlers. They sought farmland and goods with which to trade. For the land-hungry Norwegians, the call of the new country, where vast stretches of real estate were open for the taking, must have seemed every bit as alluring as any treasure. As added inducement to emigration, Norway's King Harald Fairhair was consolidating his power with a strong hand, and, in the words of an Icelandic saga, "He made everyone do one thing or the other: Bec...