Crises are never the best of times and the era of the Great Western Schism (1378-1417) easily qualifies as one of the worst of times. As a professor of canon law at the University of Padua and later cardinal, and as a major theorist in the conciliarist movement, Franciscus Zabarella (1360-1417) tried to do what a good legal mind does: find and explicate a viable and legal solution to the crises of his time, a solution that would stand up in his own era and for the generations that followed...

Donegan and the Panama Canal is a fictionalized, first person story of why and how the United States built a canal in Panama in 1903. This story is a sequel to Mr. Morrisseys previous novel of the Spanish-American War, Donegan and the Splendid Little War. No one had previously written an historical novel of either of these events. The title character of Donegan and the Panama Canal is Patrick Donegan (1875-1958), the son of Irish immigrants to Philadelphia. Donegan belatedly wrote this mem...

A study of the collapse of Roman rule in ancient Gaul and the shift to Germanic power.Skin-clad barbarians ransacking Rome remains a popular image of the "decline and fall" of the Roman Empire, but why, when, and how the Empire actually fell are still matters of debate among students of classical history. In this pioneering study, Ralph W. Mathisen examines the "fall" in one part of the western Empire, Gaul, to better understand the shift from Roman to Germanic pow...

Originally published in 1957, this classic work has guided generations of scholars through the arcane mysteries of medieval political theology. Throughout history, the notion of two bodies has permitted the postmortem continuity of monarch and monarchy, as epitomized by the statement, “The king is dead. Long live the king.” In The King’s Two Bodies, Ernst Kantorowicz traces the historical dilemma posed by the “King’s two bodies”—the body natural and the body politic—back to the Mi...

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in HistoryFinalist for the National Book Award in NonfictionFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award“Grandin tells a gripping story of high hopes and deep failure, a saga that in some ways is a morality tale for the American century.” —The Boston GlobeFrom Pulitzer Prize-winning author Greg Grandin comes the stunning,...

From the late fifteenth century onwards, scholars across Europe began to write books about how to read and evaluate histories. These pioneering works grew from complex early modern debates about law, religion and classical scholarship. Anthony Grafton's book is based on his Trevelyan Lectures of 2005, and it proves to be a powerful and imaginative exploration of some central themes in the history of European ideas. Grafton explains why so many of these works were written, why they attained...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERThe "masterful chronicle" of the discovery of the legendary lost civilization of the Maya and the quest to unlock their secrets.Featuring a history and description of the major Maya sites, including **Chichen Itza, Tulum,**Palenque, Uxmal, Copan, and more. Illustrated with a map and more than 100 images.In 1839, rumors of extraordinary yet baffling ...

One of the enduring ironies of medieval history is the fact that a group of Italian lay penitents, begging in sackcloths, led by a man who called himself simple and ignorant, turned in a short time into a very popular and respectable order, featuring cardinals and university professors among its ranks. Within a century of its foundation, the Order of Friars Minor could claim hundreds of permanent houses, schools, and libraries across Europe; indeed, alongside the Dominican...

History casts a spell on our minds more powerful than science or religion. It does not root us in the past at all. It rather flatters us with the belief in our ability to recreate the world in our image. It is a form of self-assertion that brooks no opposition or dissent and shelters us from the experience of time.So argues Constantin Fasolt in The Limits of History, an ambitious and pathbreaking study that conquers history's power by carrying the fight into the center of i...

A sweeping saga of the Spanish history and influence in North America over five centuries, from the acclaimed author of Empire's Crossroads.Because of our shared English language, as well as the celebrated origin tales of the Mayflower and the rebellion of the British colonies, the United States has prized its Anglo heritage above all others. However, as Carrie Gibson explains with great depth and clarity in El Norte, the nation has much ...

A path-breaking work at last available in paper, History, Medicine, and the Traditions of Renaissance Learning is Nancy G. Siraisi’s examination of the intersections of medically trained authors and history from 1450 to 1650. Rather than studying medicine and history as separate traditions, Siraisi calls attention to their mutual interaction in the rapidly changing world of Renaissance erudition. With remarkably detailed scholarship, Siraisi investigates doctors’ efforts to explor...

The Panama Canal was the costliest undertaking in history; its completion in 1914 marked the beginning of the “American Century.” Panama Fever draws on contemporary accounts, bringing the experience of those who built the canal vividly to life. Politicians engaged in high-stakes diplomacy in order to influence its construction. Meanwhile, engineers and workers from around the world rushed to take advantage of high wages and the chance to be a part of history. Filled with remarkabl...