Western Biography

The dream of capturing and organizing knowledge is as old as history. From the archives of ancient Sumeria and the Library of Alexandria to the Library of Congress and Wikipedia, humanity has wrestled with the problem of harnessing its intellectual output. The timeless quest for wisdom has been as much about information storage and retrieval as creative genius. In Cataloging the World, Alex Wright introduces us to a figure who stands out in the long line of thinkers and idealists who devoted themselves to the task.

This is a brief account of an ordinary soldier's experiences at Ypres during the early part of World War I. Reginald Davis was a young boy who worked at the publishers Hodder & Stoughton, but like many others of his generation left his workplace to join the army and fight at Ypres and the Somme. It was John Ernest Hodder Williams who, after Davis returned to the offices of Hodder & Stoughton as one of the war-wounded — minus fingers and with other injuries — decided to put Davis' experiences between two covers.

Even when the dauphin’s own mother betrayed him, Yolande of Aragon, Queen of Sicily, fought to save her son-in-law and his claim to the throne. But the enemy seemed invincible. Just as French hopes dimmed, an astonishingly courageous young woman named Joan of Arc arrived from the farthest recesses of the kingdom, claiming that she carried a divine message. Now, on the 600th anniversary of the birth of Joan of Arc, this beautifully written book explores the relationship between these two remarkable women.

When asked in an interview what he most liked about rodeo, three-time world champion saddle-bronc rider “Cody” Bill Smith said simply, “Horses that buck.” Smith redefined the image of America’s iconic cowboy. Determined as a boy to escape a miner’s life in Montana, he fantasized a life in rodeo and went on to earn thirteen trips to the national finals, becoming one of the greatest of all riders.

The year 2021 marks the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri. His, like ours, was a world of moral uncertainty and political violence, all of which made not only for the agony of exile but for an ever deeper meditation on the nature of human happiness. In Why Dante Matters, John Took offers - by way of three of Dante’s works in particular - an account, not merely of Dante’s development as a poet and philosopher, but of his continuing presence to us as a guide to man’s wellbeing as man.

A harrowing dual memoir that braids the story of a Chinese-American woman’s search for identity with the dramatic tale of her great-aunt, who was born at the turn of the century in tradition-bound China and went on to become Vice President of China’s first women’s bank. "In China, a woman...

In 1939, a team of workers beneath the Vatican unearthed an early Christian grave. This surprising discovery launched a secret quest that would last decades a quest to discover the long-lost burial place of the Apostle Peter. From earliest times, Christian tradition held that Peter, a lowly fisherman from Galilee, whom Christ made leader of his church was executed in Rome by Emperor Nero and buried on Vatican Hill. But his tomb had been lost to history. Now, funded anonymously by a wealthy American, a small army of workers embarked on the dig of a lifetime.

When they fell in love in 1928, Rika and Waldemar could have not been more different. She was a thirty-seven-year-old Dutch-born mother, estranged from her husband. He was her immigrant boarder, not yet twenty, and a wealthy Surinamese descendant of slaves. The child they have together, brown skinned and blue eyed, brings the couple great joy yet raises some eyebrows. Until the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands explodes their promising life. What unfolds is more than the astonishing story of a love that prevailed over convention. It’s also the quest of a young boy.

Spaghetti Western is the story of Genesio (Gene) Cioni, his family, community, and the food that made him famous during the fabulous '50s when he introduced Calgary to Italian cooking. Gene's story is the quintessential immigrant success story told with a flair for narrative by his daughter Maria Cioni. Gene was just 16 when he arrived from Antrodoco, in the Abruzzi region of Italy, to find one vibrant, close-knit Italian community in the burgeoning city of Calgary in the 1920s.

With the coming of the railroads, the American cowboy's job changed drastically, as the great trail herds became a thing of the past. Many cowboys faded into history, but there was a place in northwest Colorado and northeast Utah that still prized their skills. Val FitzPatrick's family homesteaded in this region, and Val became a rider for the Two-Bar at the age of 14. In later years, Val wrote many accounts of his life, and The Arbuckle Cafe is a collection of the best of his stories, all classic and authentic insights of what life on the range was really like.

From the early 1800s to the end of his life in 1917, Buffalo Bill Cody was as famous as anyone could be. Annie Oakley was his most celebrated protegee, the "slip of a girl" from Ohio who could (and did) outshoot anybody to become the most celebrated star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

History called on Harry Truman to unite the Western world against Soviet communism, but first he had to rally Republicans and Democrats behind America’s most dramatic foreign policy shift since George Washington delivered his farewell address. How did one of the least prepared presidents to...

Zwei Männer auf einem epischem Roadtrip durch Schottland. Die beiden "Outlander"-Stars und langjährigen Freunde Sam Heughan und Graham McTavish begeben sich auf eine abenteuerliche Reise, um ihre Heimat Schottland neu zu entdecken. Clanlands erzählt davon, wie die beiden Schauspieler mit dem Wohnmobil, dem Kajak, Fahrrad und Motorrad von der Küste bis zu den Seen und von den Gipfeln bis zu den Tälern reisen und dabei tief in die Geschichte und Kultur des Landes eintauchen.

While Pang-Mei Natasha Chang was a Chinese Studies major at Harvard University, she stumbled across the name of her 83-year-old great aunt Chang Yu-i in a history book. Over the next several years, Pang-Mei spent long afternoons drawing forth her aunt's story. Born in Shanghai to a well-to-do family, Chang Yu-i lived a life of defiance, continually breaking class and culture barriers.

For listeners looking for inspiration in times of uncertainty, Journey to the West provides a blueprint for sticking to a seemingly impossible ambition and getting past the winning post. With a focus on ‘lessons learnt’, Wang draws conclusions from the formative events in his life, which gradually emerge as a useful guide to avoiding life’s pitfalls and maximising the chances of success. His story demonstrates how, with a strong sense of direction and friends by your side, barriers to success can be overcome.

From the award-winning historian: the remarkable life of "the most beautiful woman of 19th-century Baltimore", whose marriage in 1803 to Jérôme Bonaparte, the youngest brother of Napoleon, became inextricably bound to the diplomatic and political 19th-century histories of the United States, France, and England.

Where nature writing meets humor—a raucous, hilarious look at life in the high desert of Nevada, from the author of Raising Wild and Rants from the Hill.

Encounters in Avalanche Country tells the story of mountain communities' responses to disaster over a century of social change and rapid industrialization. As mining and railway companies triggered new kinds of disasters, ideas about environmental risk and responsibility were increasingly negotiated by mountain laborers, at the elite levels among corporations, and in socially charged civil suits.

A brutal siege. A forgotten heroine. A war-torn romance. And a historian determined to uncover the truth. Untold millions who saw Band of Brothers can finally know the whole story of what happened to American soldiers and civilians in Bastogne during that arduous Winter of 1944/45. In the television version of Band of Brothers, a passing reference is made to an African nurse assisting in an aid station in Bastogne. When military historian Martin King watched the episode, he had to know who that woman was; thus began a multi-year odyssey.

In de jaren zestig groeit Harm Edens op in een gezin met Groningse roots waarin hij vaak het gevoel heeft dat hij er niet bij hoort. Hij lacht om dingen waar niemand de humor van inziet, ziet dingen die niemand ziet en zegt dingen die niemand begrijpt. Totdat hij kennismaakt met Groot-Brittannië en zijn inwoners. Aan de hand van een twintigtal bijzondere ontmoetingen probeert Harm te achterhalen waarom hij zich zo thuis voelt op de Britse eilanden. Harm neemt de lezer mee op reis van het zuidelijkste puntje van Ierland tot de meest westelijke eilanden van Schotland naar Sint Kilda.