Showing results by publisher "Charles River Editors" in Biographies & Memoirs

In Charles River Editors' Legends of the West series, listeners can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most famous frontier figures in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. Legends of the West: The Life and Legacy of Butch Cassidy chronicles the outlaw's life, while also analyzing his legacy and the mythology that has enveloped his story, attempting to separate fact from fiction to determine what the notorious robber was really like.

The Middle Ages in Europe were some of the most precarious centuries in recorded history, bristling with war, excitement, and chaos. The Western Roman Empire had crumbled, territories were rapidly expanding, and heavy ploughs, hourglasses, spectacles, tidal mills, and more pioneering inventions were popping up across the continent. It was also a time of extreme prejudice, when women were treated as second-class citizens. Their only purpose in life was to procreate by the dozen.

Rosa Parks is one of the most famous women in American history, and an instantly recognizable name among Americans of all ages, thanks to the events of December 1, 1955. That afternoon, on her way home from work, Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white person in defiance of Montgomery’s segregated bus policies. Within days of her arrest, Montgomery’s civil rights activists had organized a wide-scale boycott of Montgomery’s buses by blacks.

The Civil War is best remembered for the big battles and the legendary generals who fought on both sides, like Robert E. Lee facing off against Ulysses S. Grant in 1864. In kind, the Eastern theater has always drawn more interest and attention than the West. However, while massive armies marched around the country fighting each other, there were other small guerrilla groups that engaged in irregular warfare on the margins, and among these partisan bushwhackers, none is as infamous as William Quantrill and Quantrill's Raiders.

During one of the most turbulent periods in the history of Rome, men like Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Octavian participated in two civil wars that would spell the end of the Roman Republic and determine who would become the Roman emperor. In the middle of it all was history's most famous woman, the Egyptian pharaoh Cleopatra (69-30 B.C.), who famously seduced both Caesar and Antony and thereby positioned herself as one of the most influential people in a world of powerful men.

There was little about the childhood of Phoebe Ann Mosey that indicated that she would grow up to become Annie Oakley, one of the best sharpshooters the world has ever seen, and an icon of the West. Her parents, Jacob and Susan, were Quakers who migrated from Pennsylvania to Darke County, Ohio. Their daughter, who would become a national celebrity during her own life for "The Little Sure Shot of the West", learned her gun skills out of necessity, using them to hunt for food around the Cincinnati area, thousands of miles away from the Wild West.

Francesco Forgione might be a name lost to history, but over the course of his life, he became one of Catholicism's most well known figures during the 20th century as Padre Pio. It was a remarkable path for a man who was legendarily afflicted by a series of illnesses and most famously bore the stigmata, very noticeably bearing what appeared to be the crucifixion wounds Jesus's hands suffered. Padre Pio was also known for his eccentricities, including unique forms of deep meditation and experiencing visions.

For someone whose career ended over 30 years ago, Audrey Hepburn continues to retain her popularity and exert a strong influence over how people view beauty and sophistication.

Genghis Khan is one of history's greatest and most famous conquerors. No man, before or since, has ever started with so little and gone on to achieve so much. From a noble family, but raised in poverty that drove him to the brink of starvation, Genghis Khan rose to control the second-largest empire the world has ever known. Genghis Khan was not a peaceful man, nor a particularly merciful one, but the image of him as a bloodthirsty barbarian is largely the result of hostile propaganda; he was far more complex.

Johnny Cash, "The Man in Black", is among the most recognized and iconic vocal artists in the history of blues, country and gospel singing. His trademark bass-baritone voice is instantly identifiable to listeners today, and his "parlando" style (combining an unaffected singing tone with a speech-like rhythm and pacing) has been taken up by the generation following his death in the early 21st century.

Even someone with a casual knowledge of the Bible will recognize the name Judas Iscariot. Well known as the disciple who betrayed Jesus, the Messiah, with a kiss, Judas has become synonymous with betrayal and deception. The most infamous of the apostles, Judas goes from true follower to a turncoat who seemingly sacrifices the cause for personal benefit. Not surprisingly, the names of the disciples will appear in birth registries around the world except for Judas, whose name is still associated with suspicion and even fear.

Betsy Ross is one of the few women in American history whose name is known to every American, but that is not the only reason she's such a unique figure. Indeed, Betsy Ross is a true rarity in that she has been turned into a mythological heroine. Every country has legends, and tales that grow out of its founding, but given that the United States is a relatively young country, there is ample historical information on the lives and exploits of its Founders.

The sports world has never suffered from a shortage of self-promoters, but none have ever walked the walk and backed up the talk like Muhammad Ali, boxing's greatest icon and possibly history's most famous athlete. Indeed, even referring to Ali just as a boxer does a disservice to the transcendent figure he has become around the world as a living legend.

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, listeners can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

"Ambition is like the balloonist. To some extent, the rise is nice and he does enjoy a splendid view and a vast landscape. But when he rises more, vertigo occurs, the air becomes thin and the risk of a big fall increases." With this parable, the Austrian Archduke Maximilian of Hapsburg inadvertently predicted the destiny to which he would bravely ride, despite the warnings and the sweet talkers. In any case, he followed his heart's mandate. And Charlotte, the princess, was "one of the most cultured and beautiful" in Europe.

Americans have long been fascinated by the Civil War, marveling at the size of the battles, the leadership of the generals, and the courage of the soldiers. Since the war's start over 150 years ago, the events have been subjected to endless debate among historians and the generals themselves. The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in American history, and had the two sides realized it would take four years and inflict over a million casualties, it might not have been fought.

In the early 20th century, over 3,000 years after her death, Nefertiti became a household name and one of the most famous women of the ancient world. Egyptologists were aware that she was a queen of the New Kingdom Egypt during the later portion of the 18th dynasty, but she was little-known until the presentation of a reconstructed bust depicting her at the Berlin Museum in 1924. Nefertiti means "the beautiful one has come", and if the presented bust is anything to judge by she, was indeed a beautiful woman.

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees?

In the 1940s, film noir was at its peak, and Hollywood was churning out dark, mysterious, exotic and erotic classics. In 1944, the premiere femme fatale was Barbara Stanwyck, who was the highest paid woman in America that year, thanks to roles in films like Double Indemnity (1944), in which she uses her persuasive powers to convince a man to commit murder. That film would earn Stanwyck the first of her four Academy Award nominations. After a nearly 60-year career in acting, the American Film Institute would recognize her as the 11th greatest female screen legend of the 20th century.

Of all of the important Catholic men and women who have been venerated over the last 2,000 years, one of the faith's most popular and influential men also lived one of the most unique lives. Like Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) found God about as far away from church as possible; it was during military service that he underwent a remarkable conversion.