Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

New Jersey

The Hinge of History

Acclaimed historian and New York Times bestselling author Craig Shirley delivers a compelling account of 1945, particularly the watershed events in the month of April, that details how America emerged from World War II as a leading superpower. In the long-awaited follow-up to the widely praised December 1941, Craig Shirley's April 1945 paints a vivid portrait of America--her people, faith, economy, government, and culture. The year of 1945 bought a series of watershed events that transformed the country into an arsenal of democracy, one that no longer armed the world by necessity but henceforth protected the world by need. At the start of 1945, America and the rest of the world were grieving millions of lives lost in the global conflict. As President Roosevelt was sworn into his fourth term, optimism over an end to the bloody war had grown--then, in April, several events collided that changed the face of the world forever: the sudden death of President Roosevelt followed by Harry S. Truman's rise to office; Adolph Hitler's suicide; and the horrific discoveries of Dachau and Auschwitz. Americans doubled down on their completion of the atomic bomb and their plans to drop them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the destruction ultimately leading the Japanese Empire to surrender on V-J day and ending World War II for good. Combining engaging anecdotes with deft research and details that are both diminutive and grand, April 1945 gives readers a front-row seat to the American stage at the birth of a brand-new world.

April 1945

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Oregon

World Library: Ireland 

Written by a two-time Newberry medal winning author, this book creates an intriguing answer to the puzzle behind the most famous painting, the Mona Lisa. 

￼The Mona Lisa... Why did Leonardo da Vinci lavish three years on a painting of the second wife of an unimportant merchant when all the nobles of Europe were begging for a portrait by his hand? 
No one knows for sure. But this story of Leonardo, his wayward apprentice Salai, and the Duke of Milan's plain young wife, Beatrice d'Este, may hold the clue to the most famous -- and puzzling -- painting of all time.


For ages 10-14.

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Maryland

The Second Mrs. Gioconda

New York

Here is the tragic, stormy life of Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. Her story is a chronicle of courage and faith, betrayal and treachery-set amidst the splendor, pageantry, squalor, and intrigue of sixteenth-century Europe.

The history of Mary Tudor is an improbable blend of triumph, humiliation, heartbreak, and devotion-and Ms. Erickson recounts it all against the turbulent background of European politics, war, and religious strife of the mid-1500s. The result is a rare portrait of the times and of a woman elevated to unprecedented power in a world ruled and defined by men.

Bloody Mary

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Nick Lloyd

Hardcover book in like new condition but listed as in excellent condition due underlining in pencil throughout the book as well as rippling across top and bottom of front cover and wear at top of jacket spine.

The Campaign That Ended World War I

Describes the difficult and bloody four-month battle that tipped the stalemate on the Western Front in favor of the Allies in 1918 and drove back the Germans, bringing World War I to an end.

Hundred Days

bbea2088-3ff0-44bf-8798-d6d3ada83552-1

Tom Reiss

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Michigan

Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo

Traces the story of the mixed-race swordsman and father of novelist Alexandre Dumas, discussing his rise to the French aristocracy, his military triumphs ,and the adventures that inspired such classics as "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo."

The Black Count

70ee9ff2-066e-49db-8d2d-91614a054949-1

María Rosa Menocal

How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain

The Ornament of the World

700a8bd3-27d2-4596-973b-a3649664b4e6-1

David Altschuler

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Judaic Treasures from the Czechoslavak State Collection

The Precious Legacy

fe524ae0-6420-4164-8c76-7a928adbca44-1

#paperback #romance #europeanhistory  #forbiddenlove #starcrossed  #casanova #italy

Minnesota

A True Tale of Forbidden Love in the 18th Century

The discovery of a box of eighteenth-century love letters thrusts Andrea di Robilant into an adventure of familial intrique that will carry him back hundreds of years to the golden era of Venice and into the middle of a secret love affair between Venetian statesman Andrea Memmo and Giustiniana Wynne, a beautiful, half-English girl. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.

A Venetian Affair

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J. Randy Taraborrelli

Florida

Behind the Fairy Tale of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier

Grace Kelly was swept away when the handsome Prince Rainier, a man she barely knew, asked for her hand in marriage. After a series of relationships with married co-stars, she was exhausted by the show-business lifestyle. If she married Rainier, she would be more than just a movie star, she would be Her Serene RoyalHighness Princess Grace. Once in the palace, however, Grace found herself trapped in a fairy tale of her own making. Forced to make sacrifices that cut deeply into the core of who she was as a woman, she would then surrender her desires and ambitions for her spouse and her children. Grace and Rainier may have been royalty, but they were also husband and wife, and parents-and, as such, just as vulnerable to the conflicts that can contaminate any household. Drawing upon hundreds of exclusive interviews with family and friends, ONCEUPONATIME portrays its subjects with passion and sympathy, revealing Grace, Rainier,Caroline,Albert, and Stephanie in ways both startling and compelling.

Once Upon a Time

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#paperback #nonfiction #middleages #europeanhistory #medieval #knights #history

Utah

The Twilight of the Middle Ages and the Birth of the Modern Era

There may not be a more fascinating a historical period than the late fourteenth century in Europe. The Hundred Years' War ravaged the continent, yet gallantry, chivalry, and literary brilliance flourished in the courts of England and elsewhere. It was a world in transition, soon to be replaced by the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration -- and John of Gaunt was its central figure.

In today's terms, John of Gaunt was a multibillionaire with a brand name equal to Rockefeller. He fought in the Hundred Years' War, sponsored Chaucer and proto-Protestant religious thinkers, and survived the dramatic Peasants' Revolt, during which his sumptuous London residence was burned to the ground. As head of the Lancastrian branch of the Plantagenet family, Gaunt was the unknowing father of the War of the Roses; after his death, his son usurped the crown from his nephew, Richard II. Gaunt's adventures represent the culture and mores of the Middle Ages as those of few others do, and his death is portrayed in The Last Knight as the end of that enthralling period.

The Last Knight

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Michael Allin

In October 1826, a ship arrived at Marseille carrying the first giraffe ever seen in France. A royal offering from Muhammad Ali, Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt, to King Charles X, she had already traveled 2,000 miles down the Nile to Alexandria, from where she had sailed across the Mediterranean standing in the hold, her long neck and head protruding through a hole cut in the deck. In the spring of 1827, after wintering in Marseille, she was carefully walked 550 miles to Paris to the delight of thousands of onlookers.

The viceroy's tribute was politically motivated: He commanded the Turkish forces then fighting the Greeks in their war of independence, and hoped his gift would persuade the French not to intervene against him. But the viceroy and his intentions were quickly forgotten as France fell in love with its "beautiful stranger."
Zarafa chronicles the full story of this remarkable animal, revealing a kaleidoscope of history, science, and culture that opens an exotic window on the early nineteenth century. From the Enlightenment's blossoming fascination with science to Napoleon's ill-fated invasion of Egypt in 1798–from the eminent French naturalist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire to Bernardino Drovetti, French consul general in Egypt and tomb robber extraordinaire–the era was full of memorable events and characters. Michael Allin deftly weaves them into the story with an appreciation for detail and an uncommon affection.

The giraffe's strange and wonderful journey linked Africa and Europe in mutual discovery. Although her arrival did not keep the French out of Ali's war, she became an instant celebrity in Paris and over the next eighteen years she fascinated all of Europe. Through Michael Allin's narrative skill, Zarafa stirs the imagination as it provides a new context for the history of a distant age.

Texas

A Giraffe's True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris

In October 1826, a ship arrived at Marseille carrying the first giraffe ever seen in France. A royal offering from Muhammad Ali, Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt, to King Charles X, she had already traveled 2,000 miles down the Nile to Alexandria, from where she had sailed across the Mediterranean standing in the hold, her long neck and head protruding through a hole cut in the deck. In the spring of 1827, after wintering in Marseille, she was carefully walked 550 miles to Paris to the delight of thousands of onlookers.

The viceroy's tribute was politically motivated: He commanded the Turkish forces then fighting the Greeks in their war of independence, and hoped his gift would persuade the French not to intervene against him. But the viceroy and his intentions were quickly forgotten as France fell in love with its "beautiful stranger."
Zarafa chronicles the full story of this remarkable animal, revealing a kaleidoscope of history, science, and culture that opens an exotic window on the early nineteenth century. From the Enlightenment's blossoming fascination with science to Napoleon's ill-fated invasion of Egypt in 1798-from the eminent French naturalist #65533;tienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire to Bernardino Drovetti, French consul general in Egypt and tomb robber extraordinaire-the era was full of memorable events and characters. Michael Allin deftly weaves them into the story with an appreciation for detail and an uncommon affection.

The giraffe's strange and wonderful journey linked Africa and Europe in mutual discovery. Although her arrival did not keep the French out of Ali's war, she became an instant celebrity in Paris and over the next eighteen years she fascinated all of Europe. Through Michael Allin's narrative skill, Zarafa stirs the imagination as it provides a new context for the history of a distant age.

Zarafa

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Emil Ludwig's biography of Napoleon continues its remarkable presence as a classic of Napoleonic literature and has yet to be surpassed for its unique presentation. Writing in the present tense, Ludwig brings to life his subject's character better than any other biography of Napoleon.
~ The book is in good condition with tight binding and clean pages. The spine has some fading due to age and there is a name written in pen and marked out on the inside page along with a small spot as shown in the photos. A good tight copy.

New Mexico

Napoleon ~  Vintage Edition 

Tom Clavin

West Virginia

A World War II Story of Survival

Lightning Down

222f7e81-b727-4016-bb58-a6bc8c476607-1

Tim Blanning

A History

“A splendidly pithy and provocative introduction to the culture of Romanticism.”—The Sunday Times “[Tim Blanning is] in a particularly good position to speak of the arrival of Romanticism on the Euorpean scene, and he does so with a verve, a breadth, and an authority that exceed every expectation.”—National Review From the preeminent historian of Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries comes a superb, concise account of a cultural upheaval that still shapes sensibilities today. A rebellion against the rationality of the Enlightenment, Romanticism was a profound shift in expression that altered the arts and ushered in modernity, even as it championed a return to the intuitive and the primitive. Tim Blanning describes its beginnings in Rousseau’s novel La Nouvelle Héloïse, which placed the artistic creator at the center of aesthetic activity, and reveals how Goethe, Goya, Berlioz, and others began experimenting with themes of artistic madness, the role of sex as a psychological force, and the use of dreamlike imagery. Whether unearthing the origins of “sex appeal” or the celebration of accessible storytelling, The Romantic Revolution is a bold and brilliant introduction to an essential time whose influence would far outlast its age. “Anyone with an interest in cultural history will revel in the book’s range and insights. Specialists will savor the anecdotes, casual readers will enjoy the introduction to rich and exciting material. Brilliant artistic output during a time of transformative upheaval never gets old, and this book shows us why.”—The Washington Times “It’s a pleasure to read a relatively concise piece of scholarship of so high a caliber, especially expressed as well as in this fine book.”—Library Journal

The Romantic Revolution

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This hardcover copy of How the Scots Invented the Modern World is in excellent condition with its dust jacket, wuth minor wear to the front cover.

How the Scots invented the modern world

Robert Darnton

Text with black and white illustrations and a few charts

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Reflections in Cultural History

At home in the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries, Robert Darnton is a shrewd and entertaining guide to the shifting borderlands of history and culture. These wide-ranging essays appear under various headings: "Current Events" --this section includes the wonderful story of the moment in 1792 when all the delegates in the French Legislative Assembly kissed each other; "Media," on television, pounding a newspaper beat, and tips to academics on how to get a book published; "The Printed Word," with an essay on the history of books; "The Lay of the Land," on aspects of intellectual history; and "Good Neighbors," on the relation of history to literature anthropology, and the sociology of knowledge.

The Kiss of Lamourette

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Rated 4 out of 5 on Goodreads. ￼
Price sticker residue on back cover.

Debunking the Myths

Those Terrible Middle Ages!

Pennsylvania

Smaller History of Rome (18th Printing, 1966)

The book has firm binding and clean pages inside. There are no markings. The outside edges of the pages on the bottom have shelf marks.

~ Myths, legends & literary mysteries mix with maps, relics & historical facts in "The Discovery of King Arthur." Scholars, students & general readers of all ages have wondered for centuries about whether Britain was ever really ruled by an Arthur who held court at a place called Camelot. In this book, the distinguished scholar Geoffrey Ashe offers convincing proof that King Arthur not only existed, but was more like the Arthur of legend than historians have previously suspected. In this study, drawing upon myriad sources both literary & historical, Ashe traces the legend of Arthur to its roots in the 12th-century chronicles of Geoffrey of Monmouth. He then illustrates that a great deal of Geoffrey's history, which set out ot depict events & persons of 5th-century Britain, was based on fact. After challenging previous assumptions about where Arthur's court & other remnants can be found, Ashe identifies the "real" King Arthur & provides powerful evidence to support his theory. Riothamus, an actual 5th-century British monarch, is the figure whom Ashe painstakingly identifies. But his study also investigates the histories behind other Arthurian phenomena, such as the key concepts of knighthood & chivalry. Throughout the book, the sweep & grandeur of a tumultuous era in British & European history is vividly recounted as Ashe describes the origins & development of the Arthurian legend—a legend that seems to grow ever more enchanting.

The Discovery of King Arthur

California

John Brunton

Fascinating accounts of the outrageous criminals, murderous fanatics, unrepentant heretics and audacious pioneers of the medieval era.

Rogues, Rebels and Mavericks of the Middle Ages

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James Bruce Ross

Illinois

History

Essential passages form the works of more than 100 fifteenth-and sixteenth-century thinkers and writers, including Erasmus, Cervantes, Boccaccio, Montaigne, Bodin, Dürer, Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Rabelais, Leonardo, Cellini, Copernicus, Galileo, Savonarola, Luther, and Calvin.

The Portable Renaissance Reader

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#hardcover #theaccidentalempress #adventure #austria #europeanhistory #fiction #historicalfiction #history 

Ohio

A Novel

The New York Times best-selling author of The Traitor's Wife fictionalizes the little-known and tumultuous love story of “Sisi,” the 19th-century Austro-Hungarian empress and captivating wife of Emperor Franz Joseph.

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Craig Shirley

April 1945

Time Life

World Library: Ireland

E. L. Konigsburg

The Second Mrs. Gioconda

Carolly Erickson

Bloody Mary

Nick Lloyd

Hundred Days

Tom Reiss

The Black Count

María Rosa Menocal

The Ornament of the World

David Altschuler

The Precious Legacy

Andrea Di Robilant

A Venetian Affair

J. Randy Taraborrelli

Once Upon a Time

Norman F. Cantor

The Last Knight

Michael Allin

Zarafa

Emil Ludwig

Napoleon ~ Vintage Edition

Tom Clavin

Lightning Down

Tim Blanning

The Romantic Revolution

Arthur Herman

How the Scots invented the modern world

Robert Darnton

The Kiss of Lamourette

Regine Pernoud

Those Terrible Middle Ages!

Sir William Smith

Smaller History of Rome (18th Printing, 1966)

Geoffrey Ashe

The Discovery of King Arthur

J. Randy Taraborrelli

Once Upon a Time

John Brunton

Rogues, Rebels and Mavericks of the Middle Ages

James Bruce Ross

The Portable Renaissance Reader

Allison Pataki

The Accidental Empress