History / Modern Books

In the winter of 2002, Scottish writer Rory Stewart made a seemingly suicidal trek across Afghanistan to learn more about the inhospitable country that had leapt so terrifyingly into the global consciousness. Braving icy storms, arid deserts, wolves, warlords, and the still dangerous Taliban, Stewart came to understand the spirit of the Afghan people better than perhaps any other Westerner. His episodic yet brilliant descriptions of his travels are neither romanticized, sentimentalized, or prejudiced: with a clear eye and delicious prose Stewart brings to life a world that few will ever know--the harsh yet marvelous land of Afghanistan.

Thomas Paine's classic treatise on government in general, and on life under English rule, was first published in January, 1776, and is one of the primary texts of the revolutionary period. In it, Paine argues for the need for independence from England.

A HISTORY OF THE MODERN WORLD is a classic textbook that has been used, in various editions, for over 50 years. Beginning in the Middle Ages, it surveys the history and culture of Europe and has ample reference materials.

Popular historian David McCullough tells the story of the building of the Panama Canal, which connected the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. He relates the engineering, the politics, and the human drama. THE PATH BETWEEN THE SEAS won a National Book Award in history.

Imposing capitalistic ideals and practices on a population in a post-disaster crisis is an increasingly common occurrence, most vividly demonstrated by events in wartime Iraq. But journalist Naomi Klein (NO LOGO) maintains that this process of "disaster capitalism" has been in place for decades, with roots in the Chicago School and Milton Friedman's widely influential economic philosophies. Though she doesn't blame Friedman directly, she makes a compelling case that privileged nations have long made a practice of taking advantage of people who, in literal and metaphorical shock, have regressed to a childlike state and momentarily lose resistance to social control. In highly readable prose, Klein argues reasonably that a free market is not always so free, and that democracy and capitalism do not necessarily arise concomitantly.

An "alternative history" of the United States in the 20th century. Zinn deemphasizes the traditional historical landmarks such as wars and presidential elections to concentrate on the experience of the poor and the uneducated: workers, blacks, immigrants, and American Indians.

This history of the Armenian Genocide--the massacres of the 1890s and in 1915 by the Ottoman Turks--extends its reach, relating how the humanitarian impulses that were then an important part of America's growing internationalism came to the aid of the Armenians. Thanks to the American Committee on Armenian Atrocities, many individual Americans, outraged and sympathetic, substantially contributed to improving the lot of refugees and survivors. The Armenian Genocide has many parallels with the Jewish Holocaust, and this book seeks to enlighten people as to its enormity, and to the lack of action that was taken in the West to stop it. A New York Times Notable Book for 2003.

These accounts of everyday peasant life in China's Shantung province are told against the background of history--the fall of the Ming dynasty and the arrival of invaders--and are drawn from a variety of historical and literary sources.

I WILL BEAR WITNESS is the first volume of the diaries of Victor Klemperer, a German Jew and scholar who writes of quotidian happenings in 1930s Nazi Germany. This work covers the years 1933 to 1941. A New York Times Notable Book for 1998.

European-born journalist Fallaci takes a very pro-America stance on issues relating to 9/11/2001. She takes to task fellow Europeans for what she sees as their anti-Americanism, and she takes a harsh view of the Islamic world. Now residing in America, Fallaci translated the book herself from the Italian.

A chapter of World War II history is recovered in this astonishing story of a community of Russian Jews who fled to the forests around Belarus during the Nazi invasion of their country. Led by three brothers from the Bielski family, these "forest Jews" escaped the fate of those who remained in the ghettos, and their brigade mounted a resistance movement that harassed German troops. Most of the community survived the war, and some, like two of the Bielski brothers, moved to America, where they kept alive the memories of their experiences in the stories they told to their children.

This collection of stunning World War II dispatches and journal entries recovers and collects the early work of Russian novelist Vasily Grossman, who at the time was employed by the Red Army as a war correspondent. Grossman is a combination camera and microphone as he captures the hell of war for ordinary men and women and Russian soldiers, and he provides a first-hand account of the terrible suffering inflicted by the overwhelming Nazi invasion. Some of his pieces are sketches and vignettes, others are extended articles, and together they present an otherwise unavailable historical and literary account of what he and the Russian people saw and lived through.