General History

An examination of the beliefs and history of the secretive Yezidi sect - Explains how the Yezidis worship Melek Ta'us, the Peacock Angel, an enigmatic figure often identified as "the devil" or Satan, yet who has been redeemed by God to rule a world of...

A groundbreaking history of the Black Joke, the most famous member of the British Royal Navy's anti-slavery squadron, and the long fight to end the transatlantic slave trade.The most feared ship in Britain's West Africa Squadron, His Majesty's brig Black...

Born in 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia, Nat Turner was one of millions of enslaved persons of African descent in the United States. Encouraged to learn to read and write, Turner immersed himself in the Bible and preached to his fellow slaves and...

While many publications claim to have captured the phenomenon that was "swinging London," only one magazine was present to illustrate this extraordinary moment as it unraveled. London Life magazine emerged in October 1965, and over the next fifteen...

Prior to the outbreak of war in September 1939, the German Army had focused exclusively on the operational, organizational and training preparations needed to wage war in continental Europe. The threat of an Italian collapse in North Africa in early...

After bitter debate, South Africa, a dominion of the British Empire at the time, declared war on Germany five days after the invasion of Poland in September 1939. Thrust by the British into the campaign against Erwin Rommel's German Afrika Korps in North...

The service of African-American soldiers during the Civil War is one of that conflict's most stirring, if still not completely understood, aspects. In this comprehensive account--from recruitment into combat, and covering all the military, political, and...

In The Mau Mau Rebellion, the author describes the background to and the course of a short but brutal late colonial campaign in Kenya. The Mau Mau, a violent and secretive Kikuyu society, aimed to restore the proud tribe's pre-colonial superiority and...

The ideological passions that, along with critical acclaim, greeted the publication of Paul Berman's A Tale of Two Utopias showed how persistent are some of the battle lines drawn in the tumultuous years around 1968.A Tale of Two Utopias recounts in...

The Algerian War lasted from 1954 to 1962. It brought down six French governments, led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic, returned de Gaulle to power, and came close to provoking a civil war on French soil. More than a million Muslim Algerians died...

Originally formed in order to lend support to the FNLA and UNITA in the Angolan war, 32 Battalion quickly gained the reputation of being an unconventional, secretive, yet highly effective group. Written by a man who was intimately involved with the unit...