Catalog Search Results
1) The Diadochi: The History of Alexander the Great's Successors and the Wars that Divided His Empire
Author
Language
English
Description
On his deathbed, some historians claim that when he was pressed to name a successor, Alexander muttered that his empire should go "to the strongest". Other sources claim that he passed his signet ring to his general Perdiccas, thereby naming him successor, but whatever his choices were or may have been, they were ignored. Alexander's generals, all of them with the loyalty of their own corps at their backs, would tear each other apart in a vicious...
Author
Language
English
Description
Spanish accounts and Mesoamerican ruins have ensured that 500 years later, people remain fascinated by civilizations like the Maya and Aztec, as well as sites such as Chichen Itza and Tikal. What is often overlooked is that the Maya and Aztec established kingdoms on lands that had been inhabited for millennia before them, and ancient cultures had not only left ruins but also influenced the civilizations that came after them. Thus, while sites like...
3) Shays' Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion: The History and Legacy of Early America's Domestic In
Author
Language
English
Description
Even as the young United States successfully secured its independence, the new nation was beset by problems. The drafters of the Articles of Confederation had deliberately avoided giving the national legislature the power to tax, because Parliament had so abused that authority against the colonies, but this proved to be a severe limitation on the national government. Besides hampering the Continental Army, the inability of the national government...
Author
Language
English
Description
The Third Reich's Luftwaffe began World War II with significant advantages over other European air forces, playing a critical role in the German war machine's swift, powerful advance. By war's end, however, the Luftwaffe had been decimated by combat losses and crippled by poor decisions at the highest levels of military decision-making, and it proved unable to challenge Allied air superiority despite a last-minute upsurge in German aircraft production.
When...
Author
Language
English
Description
Some of the most iconic symbols of the Roman Empire that have survived into the modern world today are the arches that Romans erected to commemorate military victories and glorify individual emperors. The story of how arches came to be used throughout the Roman world in such a way is one that involves the evolution of the military and its leaders into the political forces that came to dominate the state, and those arches, along with the triumphs that...
6) The Miami: The History and Legacy of the Native American Tribe across the Great Lakes and Oklahoma
Author
Language
English
Description
The short war between a confederation of Native American tribes under Little Turtle's leadership has been referred to by many names, including the Northwest Indian War, the Ohio War, and the Miami War, but it is probably best known as Little Turtle's War. Before Little Turtle's War, it was believed that the U.S. did not need a professional army; that ordinary citizens would take up arms in times of threat and serve in militias as they had done in...
7) Operation Balak: The History of the Weapons Smuggling Operation that Helped Israel Win the 1948 A
Author
Language
English
Description
Less than two weeks after the creation of Israel, the state's leader, David Ben-Gurion, announced the creation of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). This represented the combined military forces that would protect the new state, and while it might have sounded impressive on paper, the reality was very different. The new army was comprised mainly of ex-members of several paramilitary organizations that had fought for the establishment of the new state,...
Author
Language
English
Description
Much has been written about Western intervention during the breakup of Yugoslavia, and whether it made matters worse, prevented worse atrocities, or was simply ineffective. In early 1992, however, what was clear was that Europe was hopelessly divided over the best course of action to take towards Yugoslavia, and after several years of fighting, the Bosnian War was one of the most violent conflagrations in Europe since the end of World War II.
That...
Author
Language
English
Description
The story of early Asian immigration to the United States is also one about race legislation and discrimination at a time when global populations were moving with more frequency and merging ahead of their ability to practically assimilate. The greatest involuntary migration in history took place as some 12.5 million black African crossed the Atlantic as slaves.[1] In the New World, the advent of abolition created a knock-on labor crisis that was filled...
Author
Language
English
Description
Famine — one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse in the Book of Revelation — continues to be one of the most crippling and destructive scourges of humanity. This inexorable affliction, traumatically fatal in the worst-case scenarios, has terrorized every single continent at some point throughout history, some more so than others. Perhaps the most famous was the notorious Irish Potato Famine of 1845, during which a noxious, fungus-like microorganism...
Author
Language
English
Description
In January 1848, Sicily had a major revolution, which provoked widespread uprisings and riots, after which the kingdoms of Sardinia, the Two Sicilies, the Papal States and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany all were granted constitutions. In February, the Pope fled Rome and a three-month long Republic was declared, headed by Giuseppe Mazzini. In March, a revolution in Venice led to the declaration of a republic. In April, Milan also rebelled and became a...
Author
Language
English
Description
For more than a century, radio has been a part of people's lives. No one alive today remembers a time when it hadn't always been there as a familiar, reliable source of information and entertainment. Today, it seems a bit mundane, overtaken by the Internet and satellite television. Even in the 1980s, the development of cable television (50 channels instead of five) and the start of MTV made radio seem quaint, and as many once claimed, "Radio is dead."...
Author
Language
English
Description
The borderlands of the paranormal include some bizarre stories. However, none are more strange or unsettling than the tale of what became known as the Philadelphia Experiment, an alleged effort during World War II to make a US Navy ship invisible by using electrical power.
The purported experiment gained international fame with the publication of a book by Charles Berlitz in 1978 and has now entered the lexicon of popular imagination. More than one...
Author
Language
English
Description
In today's modern world every political regime, even the most authoritarian or repressive, describes itself as democracy or a Democratic People's Republic. The concept of rule by the people, on behalf of the people, has come to be accepted as the norm, and very few would overtly espouse the cause of dictatorship, absolute monarchy or oligarchy as the most desirable political system upon which to base the government of any country.
It is also generally...
15) Magyars, The: The History and Legacy of the Medieval Tribe that Established the Kingdom of Hungary
Author
Language
English
Description
Of all the steppe peoples in the medieval period, perhaps none were more important to European history than the Magyars. Like the Huns and Avars before them and the Cumans and Mongols after them, the Magyars burst into Europe as a destructive, unstoppable horde, taking whatever they wanted and leaving a steady stream of misery in their wake. They used much of the same tactics as the other steppe peoples and lived a similar, nomadic lifestyle. The...
Author
Language
English
Description
The Cold War moved into one of its most dangerous phases after Brezhnev's death as both sides deployed nuclear weapons within alarming proximity in Europe. A NATO exercise, "Operation Able Archer," almost led to a Soviet miscalculation, and when the Soviets shot down a South Korean airliner in September 1983, claiming it had strayed into Soviet airspace, the Cold War became very tense indeed. After going through three elderly leaders in three years,...
Author
Language
English
Description
To date, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, and one of the poorest in the world. Numerous government coups have taken place over the years, and insecurity and periodic unrest have been a perpetual blight. Poverty and crime are widespread, and corruption endemic. Besides that, as a weak and impoverished nation, Haiti has been subject to outside interference, both direct and indirect, mainly on the part of the United States, which...
Author
Language
English
Description
The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is technically 69 years old and counting but has its roots in over 2,000 years of history. With so much time and history, the Middle East peace process has become laden with unique, politically sensitive concepts like the right of return, contiguous borders, secure borders, demilitarized zones, and security requirements, with players like the Quartet, Palestinian Authority, Fatah, Hamas, the Arab...
19) Hannibal and Scipio Africanus: The Lives and Careers of the Second Punic War's Legendary Generals
Author
Language
English
Description
In the history of war, only a select few men always make the list of greatest generals. Napoleon. Caesar. Alexander. They are always joined by Hannibal, who has the distinction of being the only man who nearly brought Rome to its knees before its decline almost 700 years later. Rome never suffered a more horrifying defeat in its history than at Cannae, and indeed, Hannibal nearly rewrote the course of Western history during the Second Punic War. Even...
Author
Language
English
Description
Throughout history, warfare has played an important role in the development of many cultures around the world, and Mesoamerica is no exception. As J.M. Francis and T.M. Leonard noted, "The history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica was one of violence, though no more so than that of any other region of the ancient world. It was a universe of shifting alliances and mutual antagonisms, in which increasingly strong political entities forged themselves and...
Didn't find it?
Can't find what you are looking for? Try our Materials Request Service. Submit Request