panning the years 1773-1775 and drawing on new material from meticulous research and previously unpublished documents, letters, and diaries, Igniting the American Revolution sweeps readers from the rumblings that led to the Boston Tea Party to the halls of Parliament-where Ben Franklin was almost run out of England for pleading on behalf of the colonies-to that fateful Expedition to Concord which resulted in the shot heard round the world. With exquisite...

Delightful doses of medical miscellany about wacky doctors and their curious patients, from their smallest bones (the stapes) to their heaviest organs (the liver) In this addictive collection of trivia, Nicholas Bakalar, the "Vital Signs" columnist for The New York Times, spoons out the things you never realized you really want to know about your body and your health. Bakalar shares the wonders of medicine, from medical firsts (in 1667, the first...

On June 17, 1775, the entire dynamic of the newborn American Revolution was changed. If the Battle of Lexington and Concord was, in the immortal words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the "shot heard round the world," Bunker Hill was the volley that rocked Britain's Parliament and the ministry of King George III to its core. The Battle of Bunker Hill was the first hostile engagement of the Revolution between two organized armies, and the first time that a...

Examines the motivations for World War II from each side involved.

Robin Cook's "pressure cooker of a thriller" ("Booklist") takes medical technology into a new realm, where everything we know about the human body-and the universe we live in-is about to be challenged.

Examines the reasons why many American colonists were unhappy under British rule, discusses the decision to send British troops to Boston, describes the events of the Boston Massacre, a skirmish between British troops and colonists that led to the deaths of five Bostonians, and looks at how the incident added to the growing call for American independence.

Examines from both the American and Japanese points of view the political and military events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Teaches important dates and facts about the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

"In A Just and Generous Nation, the eminent historian Harold Holzer and the noted economist Norton Garfinkle present a groundbreaking new account of the beliefs that inspired our sixteenth president to go to war when the Southern states seceded from the Union. Rather than a commitment to eradicating slavery or a defense of the Union, they argue, Lincoln's guiding principle was the defense of equal economic opportunity. Lincoln firmly believed that...

A radically new view of the British policy of appeasement in the late 1930s, identifying the individuals responsible for a variety of miscalculations and moral surrender that made World War II inevitable. Appeasement failed in all its goals. The kindest thing that can be said of it is that postponed World War II by one year. Its real effect was to convince Hitler and Mussolini that Britain was weak and afraid of confrontation, encouraging them to...