Modern English History

Spend an entire year investigating the fascinating story of the modern world, from the American Civil War through the end of the twentieth century—from Europe and the Middle East through India, China, the Arabian Peninsula, Australia, and both North and South America!

Today, the US Constitution is the oldest, continually-operating instrument of government in the world. But to think of the Constitution as a fully-formed, canonical document is to miss out on an honest, well-rounded grasp of American history. Now, more than ever, any well-informed citizen should understand how the Constitution lives, breathes, and endures.

Accounts of seemingly impossible phenomena abounded in the early modern era—tales of levitation, bilocation, and witchcraft—even as skepticism, atheism, and empirical science were starting to supplant religious belief in the paranormal. In this book, Carlos Eire explores how a culture increasingly devoted to scientific thinking grappled with events deemed impossible by its leading intellectuals.

In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind, explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits, denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces objective analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of politics, violence, parenting, and the arts.

From the moment of her ascension to the throne in 1952 at the age of twenty-five, Queen Elizabeth II has been the object of unparalleled scrutiny. But through the fog of glamour and gossip, how well do we really know the world’s most famous monarch? Drawing on numerous interviews and never-before-revealed documents, acclaimed biographer Sally Bedell Smith pulls back the curtain to show in intimate detail the public and private lives of Queen Elizabeth II.

MODERN WARFARE: History’s Most Devastating Cyberattacks dives deep into the hidden battleground of the 21st century—where masked hackers, rogue states, and shadowy cyber units wage war on critical infrastructure, government networks, and private enterprises. From the Stuxnet worm that crippled Iran’s nuclear program to the NotPetya blitz that shattered global supply chains, this riveting chronicle unveils the anatomy of each attack and the real-world consequences of digital combat. Explore Pivotal Incidents: In-depth analysis of landmark events—Stuxnet, Sony Pictures breach, ...

From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes—this is Simon Winchester’s brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom?

The adoption of the landmark Voting Rights Act in 1965 enfranchised millions of Americans and is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. Yet fifty years later, we are still fighting heated battles over race, representation, and political power - over the right to vote, the central pillar of our democracy. A groundbreaking narrative history of voting rights since 1965, Give Us the Ballot tells the story of what happened after the act was passed.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu is much more than an ancient treatise on military strategy: it is a timeless guide on how to face challenges, make wise decisions, and win intelligently. This complete edition, translated into modern English and enriched with annotations and analyses, has been designed to make this masterpiece accessible and relevant in today’s world.

Steven L. Kent has been playing video games since Pong and writing about the industry since the Nintendo Entertainment System. In volume 1 of The Ultimate History of Video Games, he chronicled the industry’s first thirty years. In volume 2, he narrates gaming’s entrance into the twenty-first century, as Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft battle to capture the global market.

This is an in-depth and fascinating look at the history of the Masonic Organization. On that traces the origins of Masonry back to the days of Moses. Modern Masonry originated in London, England in the year 1717. It evolved from a brotherhood of artisan builders (or stonemasons) in the Middle Ages. Curiously, this was not even mentioned in the works of the early historians of the guild or in the first documents that refer to these groups. According to scholars, many historical documents referring to Masonry were destroyed in 1720 by the founders of the Grand Lodge, for fear that their ...

Known as the twice-born - first into the flesh and again when initiated into their vocation - the Brahmins are a caste devoted to sacred learning. But what Taseer finds in Benares, the holy city of death also known as Varanasi, is a window on an India as internally fractured as his own continent-bridging identity.

This is a story that starts off close and goes very big. The initial part of the story might sound familiar at first: it is about a platoon of mostly 19-year-old boys sent to Afghanistan, and an experience that ends abruptly in catastrophe. Their part of the story folds into the next: inexorably linked to those soldiers and never comprehensively reported before is the US Department of Defense’s quest to build the world’s most powerful biometrics database, with the ability to identify, monitor, catalog, and police people all over the world.

Aubrey Clayton traces the history of how statistics went astray, beginning with the groundbreaking work of the 17th-century mathematician Jacob Bernoulli and winding through gambling, astronomy, and genetics. Clayton recounts the feuds among rival schools of statistics, exploring the surprisingly human problems that gave rise to the discipline and the all-too-human shortcomings that derailed it.

Since premiering in 2009, the groundbreaking television sitcom Modern Family has garnered tens of millions of devoted fans, earning 75 Emmy nominations and 22 Emmy Awards, including five in a row for Outstanding Comedy Series (one of only two sitcoms to ever achieve that feat). Professors have written about it. Psychologists have lectured on it. Leading publications, such as The New York Times and Washington Post, have explained their love for it.

The trouble with history is that it’s full of famous people. Well … that isn’t real story of history - and history is a story, a story telling of a journey from the distant past through to the present and on in to the future. It is full of turmoil and challenge and sacrifice and struggle and the most incredible, undeniable dynamism. This is the story of the rise of the human race from the very beginniing of human time, to the year 1999. Well, we had to have a cut off date at some point. To be perfectly honest, the list of famous people some may think is history is only a very small ...

Highlighting the key events, ideas, and individuals that have shaped modern Europe, this fresh and lively book provides a concise history of the continent from the Enlightenment to the present. Drawing on the enduring theme of revolution, David S. Mason explores the political, economic, and scientific causes and consequences of revolution; the development of human rights and democracy; and issues of European identity and integration.

The library of Ashurbanipal, Assyria’s last great king, held an astonishing collection at the forefront of knowledge in its day, from ancient traditions in religion and literature to the latest developments in magic and medicine. When the Assyrian empire fell, the library burned to the ground, and its contents, clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing, lay buried for thousands of years until a team of Victorian archaeologists discovered the remnants in modern-day Iraq. The clay had baked and hardened; the very fire that consumed the library had helped its texts to survive for millennia.

The History of Slasher Films: From Cult Classics to Modern Horror Icons is your ultimate guide to one of cinema’s most enduring—and thrilling—genres. Whether you're a longtime horror fan or just discovering the thrill of the Final Girl, this engaging and in-depth book traces the evolution of the slasher film from its early roots in the 1930s to its 21st-century reinvention. Packed with fascinating film history, cultural analysis, iconic characters, and must-watch movie recommendations, this book explores how slasher movies reflect our fears, challenge social norms, and continue to ...

During the peak of the Somali piracy crisis, three ships - from Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan - were hijacked and then abandoned to their fate by their employers, who lacked the money to pay ransoms. All would still be there, were it not for Colonel John Steed, a retired British military attaché, who launched his own private mission to free them. Author Colin Freeman, who has himself spent time held hostage by Somali pirates, takes listeners on an inside track into the world of hostage negotiation and one man’s heroic rescue mission.