Birth History

The English-speaking peoples comprise perhaps the greatest number of human beings sharing a common language in the world today. These people also share a common heritage. For his four-volume work, Sir Winston Churchill took as his subject these great elements in world history. Volume 1 commences in 55BC, when Julius Caesar famously "turned his gaze upon Britain" and concludes with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

To an extraordinary extent we continue to live in the shadow of the classical world. At every level, from languages to calendars to political systems, we are the descendants of a “classical Europe,” using frames of reference created by ancient Mediterranean cultures. As this consistently fresh and surprising new audio book makes clear, however, this was no less true for the inhabitants of those classical civilizations themselves, whose myths, history, and buildings were an elaborate engagement with an already old and revered past - one filled with great leaders and writers....

There has never been a nation like the United States of America. Its impact on the world is unprecedented in all of human history. After two and a half centuries of existence, it is difficult to imagine what the world would be like without it. But how did it come into existence? Who has really done justice to this astonishing story? Innumerable books have been written about the American Revolution, but the definitive treatment of the full story simply does not exist—certainly not in our generation.

WWII forever changed what it means to go to war. After putting down this book, you'll understand exactly why.

Birth of a Dream Weaver charts the very beginnings of a writer’s creative output. In this wonderful memoir, Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o recounts the four years he spent at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda - threshold years during which he found his voice as a journalist, short story writer, playwright, and novelist just as colonial empires were crumbling and new nations were being born - under the shadow of the rivalries, intrigues, and assassinations of the Cold War.

Read the story of Christ's birth from a while new vantage point...from the viewpoint of Heaven. The Birth is the third in the series The Chronicles of Heaven written by beloved storyteller Gene Edwards. The Birth has become the most popular rendering of the Bethlehem story. The drama begins in the eternals. Just before the birth of John the Baptist, the skies had turned to brass.

Brought to you by Penguin. Motherhood is a political state. Helen Charman makes a radical case for what liberated mothering could be, and tells the story of what motherhood has been, from the 1970s to the 2010s. When we talk about motherhood and politics together, we usually talk about isolated...

Discover the spellbinding history of astrology and divination across the world. A History of Astrology, Divination & Prophecy traces the journey of astrology from its roots in the 3rd century BCE, when ancient Mesopotamians studied celestial bodies with the aim of predicting the future, through...

A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘History that reads like biography that reads like a novel – a fluid narrative that defies expectations and plays against type’ New York Times ‘Brilliant and savage’ Philip Hensher An unprecedented history of the personality test conceived a century ago by...

From the author of the acclaimed Invisible Generals comes the unsung history of the first Black US senators—two men who overcame fierce resistance to help America forge a multiracial democracy. In 1870—a mere five years after the Civil War ended—Hiram Revels became the first Black US...

Inspired by Sarah DiGregorio’s harrowing experience giving birth to her premature daughter, Early is a compelling and empathetic blend of memoir and rigorous reporting that tells the story of neonatology – and explores the questions raised by premature birth. ‘Early is a definitive history...

Penguin presents The Birth of the RAF by Richard Overy, read by Jonathan Keeble. The dizzying pace of technological change in the early 20th century meant that it took only a little over ten years from the first flight by the Wright Brothers to the clash of fighter planes in the Great War. A...

Based on a careful analysis of the earliest Christian documents and recent archaeological discoveries, The Jesus Dynasty offers a bold new interpretation of the life of Jesus and the origins of Christianity. The story is surprising, controversial and exciting as only a long-lost history can be...

Experience the raw, unflinching drama of America's most pivotal moments, from the brutal formation of its colonies to the explosive battles of the Civil War. Dive into the lives of people who shaped history: resilient pioneers conquering untamed prairies, enslaved individuals fighting for freedom, daring immigrants chasing the American Dream, and fearless gunslingers redefining law and order in the Wild West.

For many Americans, the birth certificate is a mundane piece of paper, unearthed from deep storage when applying for a driver's license, verifying information for employers, or claiming state and federal benefits. Yet as Donald Trump and his fellow "birthers" reminded us when they claimed that Barack Obama wasn't an American citizen, it plays a central role in determining identity and citizenship. The Birth Certificate: An American History traces the document's two-hundred-year history to explain when, how, and why birth certificates came to matter so much in the United States.

The untold story of how breaking – one of the most widely practiced dance forms in the world today – began as a distinctly African American expression in the Bronx, New York, during the 1970s. Breaking is the first and most widely practiced hip-hop dance in the world, with around one million...

The Birth of the Republic of Ireland: The History of Ireland’s Split from the British Empire in the Early 20th Century analyzes the tumultuous events that marked Irish history during the early 20th century. You will learn about Ireland in the early 20th century like never before.

The National Hockey League saw the birth of a new dynasty in 1980. The New York Islanders had been an expansion franchise in 1972 in the New York City suburbs of Long Island. For years they played in the long shadow of the big-city New York Rangers and were considered the league’s laughingstock during their first season. Miraculously, eight years later, they were champions.

Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is...

The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare, the first daughter to be born in five generations of Rares. As a child in an isolated village in Nova Scotia, she is drawn to Miss Babineau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a gift for healing. Dora becomes Miss B.’s apprentice, and together they...