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Showing 81 - 100 of 4426 items
By Bill Waiser. 2020
In May 1897, Almighty Voice, a member of the One Arrow Willow Cree, died violently when Canada's North-West Mounted Police…
shelled the fugitive's hiding place. Since then, his violent death has spawned a succession of conflicting stories — from newspaper features, magazine articles and pulp fiction to plays and film.Almighty Voice has been maligned, misunderstood, romanticized, celebrated, and invented. Indeed, there have been many Almighty Voices over the years. What these stories have in common is that the Willow Cree man mattered. Understanding why he mattered has a direct bearing on reconciliation efforts today.By Joseph J. Ellis. 2021
In one of the most "exciting and engaging" (Gordon S. Wood) histories of the American founding in decades, Pulitzer Prize–winning…
historian Joseph J. Ellis offers an epic account of the origins and clashing ideologies of America's revolutionary era, recovering a war more brutal, and more disorienting, than any in our history, save perhaps the Civil War. For more than two centuries, historians have debated the history of the American Revolution, disputing its roots, its provenance, and above all, its meaning. These questions have intrigued Ellis—one of our most celebrated scholars of American history—throughout his entire career. With this much-anticipated volume, he at last brings the story of the revolution to vivid life, with "surprising relevance" (Susan Dunn) for our modern era. Completing a trilogy of books that began with Founding Brothers, The Cause returns us to the very heart of the American founding, telling the military and political story of the war for independence from the ground up, and from all sides: British and American, loyalist and patriot, white and Black. Taking us from the end of the Seven Years' War to 1783, and drawing on a wealth of previously untapped sources, The Cause interweaves action-packed tales of North American military campaigns with parlor-room schemes and chicanery, creating a thrilling narrative that brings together a cast of familiar and long-forgotten characters. Here Ellis recovers the stories of Catharine Littlefield Greene, wife of Major General Nathanael Greene, the sister among the "band of brothers"; Thayendanegea, a Mohawk chief known to the colonists as Joseph Brant, who led the Iroquois Confederation against the Patriots; and Harry Washington, the enslaved namesake of George Washington, who escaped Mount Vernon to join the British Army and fight against his former master. Countering popular histories that romanticize the "Spirit of '76," Ellis demonstrates that the rebels fought under the mantle of "The Cause," a mutable, conveniently ambiguous principle that afforded an umbrella under which different, and often conflicting, convictions and goals could coexist. Neither an American nation nor a viable government existed at the end of the war. In fact, one revolutionary legacy regarded the creation of such a nation, or any robust expression of government power, as the ultimate betrayal of The Cause. This legacy alone rendered any effective response to the twin tragedies of the founding—slavery and the Native American dilemma—problematic at best. Written with the vivid and muscular prose for which Ellis is known, and with characteristically trenchant insight, The Cause marks the culmination of a lifetime of engagement with the founding era. A landmark work of narrative history, it challenges the story we have long told ourselves about our origins as a people, and as a nationBy Andrew Lawler. 2021
A sweeping history of the hidden world below the Holy City—a saga of biblical treasures, intrepid explorers, and political upheaval…
"These untold stories of archeological digs near and under Jerusalem&’s sacred sites convey all the colorful and violent and contentious history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ... A compulsive read.&” —Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and author of The Outlier In 1863, a French senator arrived in Jerusalem hoping to unearth relics dating to biblical times. Digging deep underground, he discovered an ancient grave that, he claimed, belonged to an Old Testament queen. News of his find ricocheted around the world, evoking awe and envy alike, and inspiring others to explore Jerusalem&’s storied past. In the century and a half since the Frenchman broke ground, Jerusalem has drawn a global cast of fortune seekers and missionaries, archaeologists and zealots, all of them eager to extract the biblical past from beneath the city&’s streets and shrines. Their efforts have had profound effects, not only on our understanding of Jerusalem&’s history, but on its hotly disputed present. The quest to retrieve ancient Jewish heritage has sparked bloody riots and thwarted international peace agreements. It has served as a cudgel, a way to stake a claim to the most contested city on the planet. Today, the earth below Jerusalem remains a battleground in the struggle to control the city above. Under Jerusalem takes readers into the tombs, tunnels, and trenches of the Holy City. It brings to life the indelible characters who have investigated this subterranean landscape. With clarity and verve, acclaimed journalist Andrew Lawler reveals how their pursuit has not only defined the conflict over modern Jerusalem, but could provide a map for two peoples and three faiths to peacefully coexist.  By Monica L. Smith. 2019
An account of cities throughout time that draws on archaeology, history, and contemporary observation. Discusses the rise of urban development…
and the role of cities in the development of civilization, networked infrastructure, the middle class, and more. 2019By Kerrie Logan Hollihan. 2019
Uncovers the mysteries behind unearthed human mummies from around the globe, from mutilated bodies preserved in Irish bogs to sacrificed…
children entombed in an Incan burial site on a mountaintop. For grades 5-8 and older readers. 2019By Brian Fagan. 2019
History of climatic shifts and adaptations by Europeans to them. Covers the last ten centuries, describing the Medieval Warm Period…
to the era of global warming that began in the 1850s. Examines human vulnerability in the face of sudden climate change. Includes author's afterword from 2019. 2000By Anton Treuer. 2012
By Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. 2017
An account of the conflict between Athens and Sparta that began in 431 BC and continued until Sparta's defeat at…
Leuctra in 371 BC. Describes how this long period of war affected life in the two city-states, as well as its impact on Greek cultural life. 2017By National Geographic Kids, Michael H. Cottman. 2017
Pulitzer Prize-winning author shares the wonders of diving, detective work, and the discovery of the remnants of the slave ship…
Henrietta Marie, while shedding light on the history of slavery. For grades 6-9. 2017Examination of the five known mass extinction events in the geologic record and their ties to Earth's carbon cycle. Discusses…
the dynamics for each event, which species survived and why, and the ways climate change could contribute to another extinction event. 2017By Richard Fidler. 2017
A historical account of the Byzantine Empire, particularly within Constantinople, tied in with the author's 2014 journey with his son…
to modern Istanbul. Discusses many aspects of Byzantine history, including the falls of empires, the rise of Christianity, and warring civilizations. 2017By Eric H. Cline. 2013
Professor of classics and anthropology gathers archaeological data and textual analysis of ancient documents to consider whether the war actually…
took place and whether archaeologists have really discovered the site of Troy in Hisarlik, Turkey. Investigates questions about the existence of Homer and the accuracy of the Iliad (DB 66356). 2013By Paul G. Bahn. 2012
Examines the study of the human past based on material remains. Traces history of archaeology from 2. 5 million years…
ago to the present. Discusses the importance of establishing chronologies, how sites are defined, social implications of studying human remains, challenges in balancing public presentation with conservation, and new technologies. 1996By Karen Radner. 2015
Professor of Ancient Near East history illuminates the multicultural kingdom whose heritage shaped life in the Mediterranean region and Middle…
East. Nineteenth-century excavations in cities of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Israel, and other sites provide detailed insights into Assyrians' government, religion, trade networks, living conditions, travel, warfare, and libraries. 2015By Penelope Wilson. 2004
Explores the cultural significance of hieroglyphs, the pictorial writing system used in ancient Egypt for more than three thousand years.…
Explains the purpose of hieroglyphs, the clues used to interpret them, and what they have taught us about life in the Nile Valley kingdom. 2003By Eric H. Cline. 2009
Biblical archaeology seeks to illuminate the ancient world over a two thousand-year period in the Middle East and North Africa,…
not necessarily to prove or disprove Bible stories. Cline traces its evolution from pioneers to the present, from pick and shovel to DNA analysis, petrography, magnetometers, and satellite photography. 2009By Barry W. Cunliffe. 2010
Oxford University archaeologist weighs literary accounts of the Druids against the remaining evidence of their culture. Discusses Druid religious and…
burial practices, the reports of ancient Greek and Roman writers, and the post-medieval revival of interest in--and fanciful reinvention of--the Druids. 2010A discussion of how leaders of the American Revolution united the thirteen colonies by using propaganda to link British tyranny…
to colonial prejudices and fears about insurrectionary slaves and violent Native Americans. 2016By Alvin M. Josephy. 2015
A collection of articles, speeches, papers, essays, and book introductions and chapters, provides a look at Native American history and…
policies related to their rights in North America. The time period covered stretches from the first settlements in the East to the long trek of the Nez Perce Indians in the Northwest. 2015By Nancy Marie Brown. 2015
The Lewis chessmen were discovered in Scotland in the early 1800s. A historian traces these carved ivory game pieces from…
their probable creation in Iceland, and chronicles the North Atlantic world that the Vikings ruled for four hundred years. 2015