"When we think of the Greeks, what comes to mind first is likely to be the artistic and scientific achievements of the group of city-states led by Athens and Sparta around two and a half thousand years ago-a civilization that laid foundation for much of the arts, science, politics, and law throughout the developed world today. But the story of the Greeks is far more than the story of this classical civilization alone. Greek is one of only three languages,...

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding is a heart-wrenching debut novel of family, forgiveness, and the exquisite pain of love.

When Amaterasu Takahashi opens the door of her Philadelphia home to a badly scarred man claiming to be her grandson, she doesn't believe him. Her grandson and her daughter, Yuko, perished nearly forty years ago during the bombing of Nagasaki. But the man carries with him a collection of sealed private letters

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"By the early 1950s Walt Disney's great achievements in animation were behind him, and he was increasingly bored by the two-dimensional film medium. He wanted to work in three, to build an entirely new sort of amusement park, one that relied more on cinematic techniques than on thrill rides, one from which all tawdriness had been purged. He achieved it, but just barely: he ran out of money, had to borrow against his life insurance, fell out with his...

"Silvia Ferrara leads a code cracking mission to decipher the hidden truths and histories of our greatest invention-the art of writing"--

A consideration of all things paper--the invention that revolutionized human civilization; its thousand-fold uses (and misuses); its sweeping influence on society; its makers, shapers, collectors, and pulpers--by the admired cultural historian.

In Continental Divide, Maurice Isserman tells the history of American mountaineering through four centuries of landmark climbs and first ascents. Mountains were originally seen as obstacles to civilization; over time they came to be viewed as places of redemption and renewal. The White Mountains stirred the transcendentalists; the Rockies and Sierras pulled explorers westward toward Manifest Destiny; Yosemite inspired the early environmental conservationists....

"A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted from the National Book Award winner 'Stamped from the Beginning.'" -- Provided by publisher.

"War, the instinct to fight, is inherent in human nature; peace is the aberration in history. War has shaped humanity, its institutions, its states, its values and ideas. Our very language, our public spaces, our private memories, some of our greatest cultural treasures reflect the glory and the misery of war. War is an uncomfortable and challenging subject not least because it brings out the most vile and the noblest aspects of humanity. Margaret...

"Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage -- and lost his mother and all memory of her when he was a child -- but he is also gifted with a mysterious power. Hiram almost drowns when he crashes a carriage into a river, but is saved from the depths by a force he doesn't understand, a blue light that lifts him up and lands him a mile away. This strange brush with death forces a new urgency on Hiram's private rebellion. Spurred on by his improvised plantation...