Profiles some of the most deadly weapons in history, including the katana, war hammer, pike, and battleaxe.

We live in a world transformed by scientific discovery. Yet today, science and its practitioners have come under political attack. In this fascinating history spanning continents and centuries, historian David Wootton offers a lively defense of science, revealing why the Scientific Revolution was truly the greatest event in our history. The Invention of Science goes back five hundred years in time to chronicle this crucial transformation, exploring...

"This is the story of the 15,000 immigrants and refugees who used their native language skills and knowledge of their home countries to help America to victory in World War II. Beverley Driver Eddy tells their story thoroughly and colorfully, drawing heavily on interviews with surviving Ritchie Boys"--

During the fight for Scotland's independence, the mystical Order of the Knights Templar battles ancient evil and a treacherous king in this gripping alternate history.   A powerful order of warrior monks forged in the fires of the Crusades during the twelfth century, the legendary Knights Templar did not vanish entirely following their failed campaigns in the Holy Land. Having attained great power and arcane skill, they withdrew from the public...

"Finalist for the 2009 National Book Award, Nonfiction" "Winner of the 2010 Gold Medal in Biography, Independent Publisher Book Awards" "One of The Washington Post critics' Holiday Guide's "Best Books of 2009"" "Honorable Mention for the 2010 PROSE Award in Biography & Autobiography, Association of American Publishers" Adrienne Mayor is the author of Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World...

Between 1927 and 1979, more than 8,000 people were involuntarily sterilized in five hospitals across the state of Virginia. From this plain and terrible fact springs Elizabeth Catte's Pure America, a sweeping, unsparing history of eugenics in Virginia, and by extension the United States. Virginia's twentieth-century eugenics program was not the misguided initiative of well-meaning men of the day, writes Catte, with clarity and ferocity. It was a manifestation...

The first full cultural history of the ultimate modern structure: the airport, revealed as never before ... Since its origins in the muddy fields of flying machines, the airport has arguably become one of the defining institutions of modern life. In Naked Airport, critic Alastair Gordon ranges from global geopolitics to action movies to the daily commute, showing how airports have changed our sense of time, distance, travel, style, and even the way...

"The first book-length history of reproduction that centers [on] Native American women, Reproduction on the reservation documents the transformation of reproductive practices on Indian reservations from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first. Relying on extensive archival research as well as oral histories that allow Native women to tell their own stories, this study integrates a local history of childbearing, motherhood, and activism...

Step back in time to 1964, a year of cultural upheaval and political transformation. From the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the United States to the global phenomenon of Beatlemania, this was the year that gave us bold fashion, unforgettable music and social change that continues to shape society across the world today. While Britain's new Labour government promised the 'white heat of technology', on the world stage 1964 saw the escalation...

For centuries, most textile manufacturing relied on people working in their own homes. All that changed in 1761 when Richard Arkwright began construction of the first water-powered cotton mill in Derbyshire. The complex woollen industry was transformed as mills spread across the north of England and into Scotland, with tasks taken out of the cottage and into the factory. This informative guide tracks the development of the textile manufacturing industry,...