Revolution History

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. Benny must decide either to escape to Hong Kong or navigate the intricacies of a newly Communist China. Annuo, forced to flee with her father, a defeated Nationalist official, becomes an unwelcome exile in Taiwan. The financially strapped Ho fights deportation from the US in order to continue his studies while his family struggles at home. Bing, given away by her poor parents, faces the prospect of a new life among strangers in America.

From the acclaimed historian and author of The Last American Aristocrat—hailed as “marvelous” by The New York Times Book Review—comes an “elegant and immersive” (Publishers Weekly) new biography of Theodore Roosevelt, exploring the life of America’s twenty-sixth president and his...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER A bold case for reimagining the American project and making American democracy real—from a formidable new voice in political journalism “The first thing I’ve read that provides a rigorous vision of how to refound this nation if we manage to survive the current...

This genre-defying story of magic, war, and the struggle for freedom in the early modern history tells a sweeping tale of revolution and wonder in a world not quite like our own. The Concord has been broken, and a war of magic engulfs the world. In France, the brilliant young battle-mage...

Fifty-five men met in Philadelphia in 1787 to write a document that would create a country and change a world: the Constitution. Here is a remarkable rendering of that fateful time, told with humanity and humor. Decision in Philadelphia is the best popular history of the Constitutional Convention; in it, the life and times of 18th-century America not only come alive, but the very human qualities of the men who framed the document are brought provocatively into focus - casting many of the Founding Fathers in a new light.

As nationalism and anti-immigration rhetoric surge in France (and elsewhere), The Shortest History of France presents a portrait of a nation whose politics and society have always been shaped by global forces. Grounded in up-to-date historical scholarship that avoids the traps of national exceptionalism, Jones reminds us that it was only after the first millennium of French history that a nation-state began to emerge.

On the stormy night of August 29, 1776, the Continental Army faced annihilation after losing the Battle of Brooklyn. The British had trapped George Washington’s army against the East River, and the fate of the Revolution rested upon the shoulders of the soldier-mariners from Marblehead, Massachusetts. Serving side-by-side in one of the country’s first diverse units, they pulled off an “American Dunkirk” and saved the army by navigating the treacherous waters of the river to Manhattan.

From Cairo to cyberspace, from Main Street to Wall Street, today's social movements have a creative new edge that’s blurring the boundaries between artist and activist, hacker and dreamer. But the principles that make for successful creative action rarely get hashed out or written down.

In 1848, a violent storm of revolutions ripped through Europe. The torrent all but swept away the conservative order that had kept peace on the continent since Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815 - but which in many countries had also suppressed dreams of national freedom. Political events so dramatic had not been seen in Europe since the French Revolution, and they would not be witnessed again until 1989, with the revolutions in Eastern and Central Europe.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is the traditional title of the unfinished record of his own life written by Franklin from 1771 to 1790. it is an honest self-appraisal of the man who drafted the Declaration of Independence and negotiated the peace treaty with Britain. The work contains many passages on reading, self-improvement, and the art of conversation, and it has become one of the most famous and influential exemplars of an autobiography ever written.

Over a period of more than 10 years, following the overthrow of the government in 1910, Mexico experienced a period of intense and bloody warfare as a bewildering array of factions in ever-changing alliances took power and then lost it. Presidents were elected (or elected themselves) and were then deposed or assassinated. New factions appeared with impressive sounding slogans, took to the field, and were either wiped out and never heard of again or became the next government.

Jeff Shaara dazzled readers with his bestselling novels Gods and Generals, The Last Full Measure, and Gone for Soldiers. Now the acclaimed author who illuminated the Civil War and the Mexican-American War brilliantly brings to life the American Revolution, creating a superb saga of the men who...

In 1776, people could hear the Declaration of Independence proclaimed in public squares and could read it in the pages of their local newspapers. Although stories of the Declaration typically recount the work of the Continental Congress, the work of spreading the news involved printers, post riders, ship captains, civic leaders, soldiers, clerks, orators, preachers, diplomats, and translators. When the Declaration of Independence Was News reveals the stories behind how the Declaration was communicated in the New and Old worlds.

As a major political event and a crucial turning point in the history of the People's Republic of China, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) marked the zenith as well as the nadir of Mao Zedong's ultra-leftist politics. Reacting in part to the Soviet Union's "revisionism" that he regarded as a threat to the future of socialism, Mao mobilized the masses in a battle against what he called "bourgeois" forces within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This 10-year-long class struggle on a massive scale devastated traditional Chinese culture as well as the nation's economy.

After a long pre-history, the actual Cuban revolutionary war itself only lasted, incredibly, a little more than two years, from Dec 2, 1956, to January 1, 1959 - from the disastrous first battle, in which three-quarters of the expeditionary force of 82 revolutionaries that traveled to Cuba on the Granma were killed, to total victory at the beginning of January 1959. And there is no better account of the war than this little book by guerilla leader Che Guevara.

Hungary is more than just vampire stories and cheesy violin-playing waiters named “Laszlo”. It has a rich history that goes back to the first wild Magyar horsemen, who arrived there in the late ninth century. For a time, the Magyars were both mercenaries and raiders, a horse-bound version of the Vikings in France and Britain. They terrorized the populations of Austria, Germany, and even Italy and eastern France. After the Austro-Hungarian defeat in WWI, Hungary became an independent nation.

This classic work explains the evolution of American political thought from the Declaration of Independence to the ratification of the Constitution. In so doing, it greatly illuminates the origins of the present American political system.

A riveting and revealing look at the shows that helped cable television drama emerge as the signature art form of the twenty-first century. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the landscape of television began an unprecedented transformation. While the networks continued to chase the lowest...

AI isn’t evil. AI is easy. And easy has a way of winning — even when it shouldn’t. Human Is the New Vinyl is a soulful, surprising journey through the past and future of creativity, showing why flaws, grit, and the human voice still matter in an age of machine-made everything.

A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist "Extraordinary...Sensitive and perceptive, Mr. Hessler is a superb literary archaeologist, one who handles what he sees with a bit of wonder that he gets to watch the history of this grand city unfold, one day at a time.” —Wall Street Journal...