National Network for Equitable Library Service

British-Iraqi physicist Jim Al-Khalili here unveils the Arabic legacy of science and philosophy--a legacy that has long been hidden from the West.

Gordon Corera presents the untold story of how British intelligence secretly used homing pigeons as part of a clandestine espionage operation to gather information, communicate, and coordinate with members of the Resistance to defeat the Nazis in occupied Europe during World War II.

Jazz, flappers, flasks, rumble-seats, Rudolph Valentino, and Lucky Lindy-these were the catchwords of the Roaring Twenties. But so were the KKK, women's suffrage, Freud, and Black Tuesday. Frederick Lewis Allen presents a witty biography of this restless decade.

Tracking the entire sweep of the Middle Ages across Europe, Wickham focuses on important changes century by century, including such pivotal crises and moments as the fall of the western Roman Empire, Charlemagne's reforms, the feudal revolution, the challenge of heresy, the destruction of the Byzantine Empire, the rebuilding of late medieval states, and the appalling devastation of the Black Death. He provides illuminating vignettes that underscore how shifting social, economic, and political circumstances affected individual lives and international events.

This is the true story of two nineteenth-century explorers who discovered 1,500-year-old pyramids and temples in Central America and evidence of an astonishingly sophisticated culture. Their discovery of the Mayan civilization would change Western understanding of human history.

Fifty-five men met in Philadelphia in 1787 to write a document that would create a country and change a world: the Constitution. Here is a remarkable rendering of that fateful time, told with humanity and humor.

The true story of the last known survivor of the Atlantic slave trade, illegally smuggled from Africa on the last "black cargo" ship to arrive in the United States.

Why do we read our kids fairy tales about homicidal stepparents? How did helicopter parenting develop if it used to be socially acceptable to abandon your children? Moving from ancient Rome to the Dr. Spock craze of mid-century America, Traig cheerfully explores historic and present-day parenting techniques ranging from the misguided, to the nonsensical, to the truly horrifying.

Historian Albert Hourani provides a panoramic view covering twelve centuries of Arab history and culture. He looks at all sides of this rich, venerable civilization, from the beauty of the Alhambra to internal conflicts, poverty, and the Palestinian question.

The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. Beyond the purely physical horrors of an event that has only very recently been properly understood, the eruption changed the world in more ways than could possibly be imagined. Winchester's long experience in the world wandering as well as his knowledge of history and geology give an entirely new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event as he brings it telling back to life.