How a single day revealed the history and foreshadowed the future of Shanghai.It is November 12, 1941, and the world is at war. In Shanghai, just weeks before Pearl Harbor, thousands celebrate the birthday of China's founding father, Sun Yat-sen, in a new city center built to challenge European imperialism. Across town, crowds of Shanghai residents from all walks of life attend the funeral of China's wealthiest woman, the Chinese-French widow of a Baghdadi Jewish businessman whose death was symbolic of the passing of a generation that had seen Shanghai's rise to global prominence. But it is the racetrack that attracts the largest crowd of all. At the center of the International Settlement, the heart of Western colonization -- but also of Chinese progressivism, art, commerce, cosmopolitanism, and celebrity -- Champions Day unfolds, drawing tens of thousands of Chinese spectators and Europeans alike to bet on the horses.
W. W. Norton & Company
|
9780393635942
|
Hardcover
The Ultimate Evil
By Terry, Maury
On August 10, 1977, the NYPD arrested David Berkowitz for the Son of Sam murders that had terrorized New York City for over a year. Berkowitz confessed to shooting sixteen people and killing six with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver, and the case was officially closed. Journalist Maury Terry was suspicious of Berkowitz's confession. Spurred by conflicting witness descriptions of the killer and by the Queens District Attorney, who was convinced Berkowitz didn't act alone, Terry spent decades researching, gathering evidence, and interviewing those involved in the case. He released his initial findings in the original publication of The Ultimate Evil in 1987, in which he presented his theory that Berkowitz was a member of the Process Church of the Final Judgment, a cult responsible for the Son of Sam murders, as well as other ritual murders across the country.
Quirk Books
|
9781683692843
|
Paperback
The Great Divide
By Fleming, Thomas
In the months after her husband's death, Martha Washington told several friends that the two worst days of her life were the day George died - and the day Thomas Jefferson came to Mount Vernon to offer his condolences.What could elicit such a strong reaction from the nation's original first lady? Though history tends to cast the early years of America in a glow of camaraderie, there were, in fact, many conflicts among the Founding Fathers - none more important than the one between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The chief disagreement between these former friends centered on the highest, most original public office created by the Constitutional Convention - the presidency. They also argued violently about the nation's foreign policy, the role of merchants and farmers in a republic, and the durability of the union itself.
Da Capo
|
9780306821271
|
Hardcover
In the Hurricane's Eye
By Philbrick, Nathaniel
The thrilling story of the year that won the Revolutionary War from the New York Times bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea and Valiant AmbitionIn the fall of 1780, after five frustrating years of war, George Washington had come to realize that the only way to defeat the British Empire was with the help of the French navy. But as he had learned after two years of trying, coordinating his army's movements with those of a fleet of warships based thousands of miles away was next to impossible. And then, on September 5, 1781, the impossible happened. Recognized today as one of the most important naval engagements in the history of the world, the Battle of the Chesapeake--fought without a single American ship--made the subsequent victory of the Americans at Yorktown a virtual inevitability.In a narrative that moves from Washington's headquarters on the Hudson River, to the wooded hillside in North Carolina where Nathanael Greene fought Lord Cornwallis to a vicious draw, to Lafayette's brilliant series of maneuvers across Tidewater Virginia, Philbrick details the epic and suspenseful year through to its triumphant conclusion. A riveting and wide-ranging story, full of dramatic, unexpected turns, In the Hurricane's Eye reveals that the fate of the American Revolution depended, in the end, on Washington and the sea.
Viking
|
9780525426769
|
Hardcover
The Black Hand
By Talty, Stephan
The gripping true story of the origins of the mafia in America - and the brilliant Italian-born detective who gave his life to stop it *Film rights optioned by Paramount Studios, starring Leonardo DiCaprio* Beginning in the summer of 1903, an insidious crime wave filled New York City, and then the entire country, with fear. The children of Italian immigrants were kidnapped, and dozens of innocent victims were gunned down. Bombs tore apart tenement buildings. Judges, senators, Rockefellers, and society matrons were threatened with gruesome deaths. The perpetrators seemed both omnipresent and invisible. Their only calling card: the symbol of a black hand. The crimes whipped up the slavering tabloid press and heated ethnic tensions to the boiling point. Standing between the American public and the Black Hand's lawlessness was Joseph Petrosino. Dubbed the "Italian Sherlock Holmes," he was a famously dogged and ingenious detective, and a master of disguise. As the crimes grew ever more bizarre and the Black Hand's activities spread far beyond New York's borders, Petrosino and the all-Italian police squad he assembled raced to capture members of the secret criminal society before the country's anti-immigrant tremors exploded into catastrophe. Petrosino's quest to root out the source of the Black Hand's power would take him all the way to Sicily - but at a terrible cost.
Houghton Mifflin
|
9780544633384
|
Hardcover
An Uncommon History of Common Things, Volume 2
By Geographic., National
This vivid, engrossing book reveals the fascinating stories behind the objects in your world, what you wear, what you eat, what entertains you, and more. Discover the history behind the world's tallest skyscrapers, find out when people first started drinking caffeine and why it wakes us up, and learn how GPS came to be. For those who loved the first installment of An Uncommon History of Commmon Things come even more short entries illustrated by full color photos. These incorporate quirky anecdotes about the history of everyday objects, including the personalities and pitfalls along the path to innovation and unusual facts behind things we frequently see and use. Smart, surprising, and informative, this book is the ultimate resource for history and trivia buffs alike.
National Geographic Soc, 2015.
|
9781426215841
|
Print book
Last Boat Out of Shanghai
By Zia, Helen
The dramatic real life stories of four young people caught up in the mass exodus of Shanghai in the wake of China's 1949 Communist revolution - a heartrending precursor to the struggles faced by emigrants today. "A true page-turner. . . [Helen] Zia has proven once again that history is something that happens to real people." - New York Times bestselling author Lisa See Shanghai has historically been China's jewel, its richest, most modern and westernized city. The bustling metropolis was home to sophisticated intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and a thriving middle class when Mao's proletarian revolution emerged victorious from the long civil war. Terrified of the horrors the Communists would wreak upon their lives, citizens of Shanghai who could afford to fled in every direction. Seventy years later, members of the last generation to fully recall this massive exodus have revealed their stories to Chinese American journalist Helen Zia, who interviewed hundreds of exiles about their journey through one of the most tumultuous events of the twentieth century. From these moving accounts, Zia weaves together the stories of four young Shanghai residents who wrestled with the decision to abandon everything for an uncertain life as refugees in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States. Benny, who as a teenager became the unwilling heir to his father's dark wartime legacy, must decide either to escape to Hong Kong or navigate the intricacies of a newly Communist China. The resolute Annuo, forced to flee her home with her father, a defeated Nationalist official, becomes an unwelcome exile in Taiwan. The financially strapped Ho fights deportation from the U.S. in order to continue his studies while his family struggles at home. And Bing, given away by her poor parents, faces the prospect of a new life among strangers in America. The lives of these men and women are marvelously portrayed, revealing the dignity and triumph of personal survival. Herself the daughter of immigrants from China, Zia is uniquely equipped to explain how crises like the Shanghai transition affect children and their families, students and their futures, and, ultimately, the way we see ourselves and those around us. Last Boat Out of Shanghai brings a poignant personal angle to the experiences of refugees then and, by extension, today. "Zia's portraits are compassionate and heartbreaking, and they are, ultimately, the universal story of many families who leave their homeland as refugees and find less-than-welcoming circumstances on the other side." - Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club
Ballantine Books
|
9780345522320
|
Hardcover
The Impossible Art
By Aucoin, Matthew
From its beginning, opera has been an impossible art. Its first practitioners, in seventeenth-century Florence, set themselves the unreachable goal of reproducing the glory of ancient Greek drama, which no one can be sure was sung in the first place. Its greatest artists have strived to capture more-than-human ideas and emotions in their compositions. Matthew Aucoin, a rising star of the opera world, posits that it is this impossibility, at the very core of the form, that gives opera its exceptional power. The strength required to sing and play its parts, the spectacle of the production, the creation of a whole new world -- in pursuit of impossible goals, opera's greatness comes into being.The Impossible Art tells the story of Aucoin's new opera, Eurydice, from its inception to its premiere on the Metropolitan Opera's iconic stage.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
|
9780374175382
|
Hardcover
Infamy
By Reeves, Richard
A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER * A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE * Bestselling author Richard Reeves provides an authoritative account of the internment of more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans and Japanese aliens during World War IILess than three months after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and inflamed the nation, President Roosevelt signed an executive order declaring parts of four western states to be a war zone operating under military rule. The U.S. Army immediately began rounding up thousands of Japanese-Americans, sometimes giving them less than 24 hours to vacate their houses and farms. For the rest of the war, these victims of war hysteria were imprisoned in primitive camps.In Infamy, the story of this appalling chapter in American history is told more powerfully than ever before.
Henry Holt and Company, 2015.
|
9780805094084
|
Print book
In Oceans Deep
By Streever, Bill
A thrilling exploration of the science and history of the deep sea.Full of mystery and danger, the deep sea has long been a symbol of the great unknown. In this dramatic and thrilling account, acclaimed biologist and deep sea diver Bill Streever shows us the incredible adventures happening in earth's almost incomprehensibly vast oceans.From the bottom of the Challenger Deep (the deepest known point in the ocean) , to the earliest submarine technologies and exploratory deep dives, into the world of competitive breath-hold divers and the riskiest thrill seekers on the planet, In Oceans Deep is a human history, and a natural history of the earth's last true frontier. With treasure ship wrecks, the echoing pings of trapped submariners, and the vast expanse of otherworldly robots and oil rigs that dominate the oceanic landscape, In Oceans Deep is a rare and fascinating trip to the wild, strange, night-dark place that lies beneath the waves.
Champions Day
By Carter, James
How a single day revealed the history and foreshadowed the future of Shanghai.It is November 12, 1941, and the world is at war. In Shanghai, just weeks before Pearl Harbor, thousands celebrate the birthday of China's founding father, Sun Yat-sen, in a new city center built to challenge European imperialism. Across town, crowds of Shanghai residents from all walks of life attend the funeral of China's wealthiest woman, the Chinese-French widow of a Baghdadi Jewish businessman whose death was symbolic of the passing of a generation that had seen Shanghai's rise to global prominence. But it is the racetrack that attracts the largest crowd of all. At the center of the International Settlement, the heart of Western colonization -- but also of Chinese progressivism, art, commerce, cosmopolitanism, and celebrity -- Champions Day unfolds, drawing tens of thousands of Chinese spectators and Europeans alike to bet on the horses.
The Ultimate Evil
By Terry, Maury
On August 10, 1977, the NYPD arrested David Berkowitz for the Son of Sam murders that had terrorized New York City for over a year. Berkowitz confessed to shooting sixteen people and killing six with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver, and the case was officially closed. Journalist Maury Terry was suspicious of Berkowitz's confession. Spurred by conflicting witness descriptions of the killer and by the Queens District Attorney, who was convinced Berkowitz didn't act alone, Terry spent decades researching, gathering evidence, and interviewing those involved in the case. He released his initial findings in the original publication of The Ultimate Evil in 1987, in which he presented his theory that Berkowitz was a member of the Process Church of the Final Judgment, a cult responsible for the Son of Sam murders, as well as other ritual murders across the country.
The Great Divide
By Fleming, Thomas
In the months after her husband's death, Martha Washington told several friends that the two worst days of her life were the day George died - and the day Thomas Jefferson came to Mount Vernon to offer his condolences.What could elicit such a strong reaction from the nation's original first lady? Though history tends to cast the early years of America in a glow of camaraderie, there were, in fact, many conflicts among the Founding Fathers - none more important than the one between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The chief disagreement between these former friends centered on the highest, most original public office created by the Constitutional Convention - the presidency. They also argued violently about the nation's foreign policy, the role of merchants and farmers in a republic, and the durability of the union itself.
In the Hurricane's Eye
By Philbrick, Nathaniel
The thrilling story of the year that won the Revolutionary War from the New York Times bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea and Valiant AmbitionIn the fall of 1780, after five frustrating years of war, George Washington had come to realize that the only way to defeat the British Empire was with the help of the French navy. But as he had learned after two years of trying, coordinating his army's movements with those of a fleet of warships based thousands of miles away was next to impossible. And then, on September 5, 1781, the impossible happened. Recognized today as one of the most important naval engagements in the history of the world, the Battle of the Chesapeake--fought without a single American ship--made the subsequent victory of the Americans at Yorktown a virtual inevitability.In a narrative that moves from Washington's headquarters on the Hudson River, to the wooded hillside in North Carolina where Nathanael Greene fought Lord Cornwallis to a vicious draw, to Lafayette's brilliant series of maneuvers across Tidewater Virginia, Philbrick details the epic and suspenseful year through to its triumphant conclusion. A riveting and wide-ranging story, full of dramatic, unexpected turns, In the Hurricane's Eye reveals that the fate of the American Revolution depended, in the end, on Washington and the sea.
The Black Hand
By Talty, Stephan
The gripping true story of the origins of the mafia in America - and the brilliant Italian-born detective who gave his life to stop it *Film rights optioned by Paramount Studios, starring Leonardo DiCaprio* Beginning in the summer of 1903, an insidious crime wave filled New York City, and then the entire country, with fear. The children of Italian immigrants were kidnapped, and dozens of innocent victims were gunned down. Bombs tore apart tenement buildings. Judges, senators, Rockefellers, and society matrons were threatened with gruesome deaths. The perpetrators seemed both omnipresent and invisible. Their only calling card: the symbol of a black hand. The crimes whipped up the slavering tabloid press and heated ethnic tensions to the boiling point. Standing between the American public and the Black Hand's lawlessness was Joseph Petrosino. Dubbed the "Italian Sherlock Holmes," he was a famously dogged and ingenious detective, and a master of disguise. As the crimes grew ever more bizarre and the Black Hand's activities spread far beyond New York's borders, Petrosino and the all-Italian police squad he assembled raced to capture members of the secret criminal society before the country's anti-immigrant tremors exploded into catastrophe. Petrosino's quest to root out the source of the Black Hand's power would take him all the way to Sicily - but at a terrible cost.
An Uncommon History of Common Things, Volume 2
By Geographic., National
This vivid, engrossing book reveals the fascinating stories behind the objects in your world, what you wear, what you eat, what entertains you, and more. Discover the history behind the world's tallest skyscrapers, find out when people first started drinking caffeine and why it wakes us up, and learn how GPS came to be. For those who loved the first installment of An Uncommon History of Commmon Things come even more short entries illustrated by full color photos. These incorporate quirky anecdotes about the history of everyday objects, including the personalities and pitfalls along the path to innovation and unusual facts behind things we frequently see and use. Smart, surprising, and informative, this book is the ultimate resource for history and trivia buffs alike.
Last Boat Out of Shanghai
By Zia, Helen
The dramatic real life stories of four young people caught up in the mass exodus of Shanghai in the wake of China's 1949 Communist revolution - a heartrending precursor to the struggles faced by emigrants today. "A true page-turner. . . [Helen] Zia has proven once again that history is something that happens to real people." - New York Times bestselling author Lisa See Shanghai has historically been China's jewel, its richest, most modern and westernized city. The bustling metropolis was home to sophisticated intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and a thriving middle class when Mao's proletarian revolution emerged victorious from the long civil war. Terrified of the horrors the Communists would wreak upon their lives, citizens of Shanghai who could afford to fled in every direction. Seventy years later, members of the last generation to fully recall this massive exodus have revealed their stories to Chinese American journalist Helen Zia, who interviewed hundreds of exiles about their journey through one of the most tumultuous events of the twentieth century. From these moving accounts, Zia weaves together the stories of four young Shanghai residents who wrestled with the decision to abandon everything for an uncertain life as refugees in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States. Benny, who as a teenager became the unwilling heir to his father's dark wartime legacy, must decide either to escape to Hong Kong or navigate the intricacies of a newly Communist China. The resolute Annuo, forced to flee her home with her father, a defeated Nationalist official, becomes an unwelcome exile in Taiwan. The financially strapped Ho fights deportation from the U.S. in order to continue his studies while his family struggles at home. And Bing, given away by her poor parents, faces the prospect of a new life among strangers in America. The lives of these men and women are marvelously portrayed, revealing the dignity and triumph of personal survival. Herself the daughter of immigrants from China, Zia is uniquely equipped to explain how crises like the Shanghai transition affect children and their families, students and their futures, and, ultimately, the way we see ourselves and those around us. Last Boat Out of Shanghai brings a poignant personal angle to the experiences of refugees then and, by extension, today. "Zia's portraits are compassionate and heartbreaking, and they are, ultimately, the universal story of many families who leave their homeland as refugees and find less-than-welcoming circumstances on the other side." - Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club
The Impossible Art
By Aucoin, Matthew
From its beginning, opera has been an impossible art. Its first practitioners, in seventeenth-century Florence, set themselves the unreachable goal of reproducing the glory of ancient Greek drama, which no one can be sure was sung in the first place. Its greatest artists have strived to capture more-than-human ideas and emotions in their compositions. Matthew Aucoin, a rising star of the opera world, posits that it is this impossibility, at the very core of the form, that gives opera its exceptional power. The strength required to sing and play its parts, the spectacle of the production, the creation of a whole new world -- in pursuit of impossible goals, opera's greatness comes into being.The Impossible Art tells the story of Aucoin's new opera, Eurydice, from its inception to its premiere on the Metropolitan Opera's iconic stage.
Infamy
By Reeves, Richard
A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER * A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE * Bestselling author Richard Reeves provides an authoritative account of the internment of more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans and Japanese aliens during World War IILess than three months after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and inflamed the nation, President Roosevelt signed an executive order declaring parts of four western states to be a war zone operating under military rule. The U.S. Army immediately began rounding up thousands of Japanese-Americans, sometimes giving them less than 24 hours to vacate their houses and farms. For the rest of the war, these victims of war hysteria were imprisoned in primitive camps.In Infamy, the story of this appalling chapter in American history is told more powerfully than ever before.
In Oceans Deep
By Streever, Bill
A thrilling exploration of the science and history of the deep sea.Full of mystery and danger, the deep sea has long been a symbol of the great unknown. In this dramatic and thrilling account, acclaimed biologist and deep sea diver Bill Streever shows us the incredible adventures happening in earth's almost incomprehensibly vast oceans.From the bottom of the Challenger Deep (the deepest known point in the ocean) , to the earliest submarine technologies and exploratory deep dives, into the world of competitive breath-hold divers and the riskiest thrill seekers on the planet, In Oceans Deep is a human history, and a natural history of the earth's last true frontier. With treasure ship wrecks, the echoing pings of trapped submariners, and the vast expanse of otherworldly robots and oil rigs that dominate the oceanic landscape, In Oceans Deep is a rare and fascinating trip to the wild, strange, night-dark place that lies beneath the waves.