Empire City

Two-time New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly opens up about his remarkable life, taking us inside 50 years of law enforcement leadership, offering chilling stories of terrorist plots after 9/11 and sharing his candid insights into the challenges and controversies cops face today.

Lying in the middle of a plain in modern-day Iran is a forgotten ancient city, Persepolis. Built two and a half thousand years ago, it was known in its day as the richest city under the sun. Persepolis was the capital of Persia, the largest empire the world had ever seen, but after its destruction, it was largely forgotten for nearly 2,000 years, and the lives and achievements of those who built it were almost entirely erased from history.

The Empire State Building was constructed using the art deco style, which was trendy during the era. It had been used for other skyscrapers like the Chrysler Building, but that's where the comparisons end. At the time, the Empire State Building was unprecedented in almost every aspect of its creation. With a race for dizzying heights underway, ground was broken on the Empire State Building on St. Patrick's Day 1930. The ceremony marking its completion would come just a little more than a year later.

Some secrets never die. When the mutilated corpse of an ex-con is found in the bowels of an old church, haunting Biblical verses scrawled at the crime scene speak of divine retribution, and a killer hellbent on revenge. Special Crimes detective Tom “Doc” Holliday doesn't need his fickle clairvoyance to see that a murder like this is only the beginning.

New York has long been both America’s leading cultural center and its sports capital, with far more championship teams, intracity World Series, and major prizefights than any other city. New York Sports collects the work of 14 leading sport historians, providing new insight into the social and cultural history of America’s major metropolis and of the United States.

Pompeii was destroyed by the horrific eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, which buried at least 2,000 unlucky people. Pompeii became a mysterious tomb, hiding secrets of Rome and other civilizations that influenced the life and culture of the city and its people. Who were the Pompeiians, and how did they live before that dreadful day? What did the last days of Pompeii look like, and did the Pompeiians know that the fate of their city would be sealed that day, not to be uncovered for centuries to come?  

Compared to the Puritans, Mormons have rarely gotten their due, often treated as fringe cultists or marginalized polygamists unworthy of serious examination. In Kingdom of Nauvoo, Benjamin E. Park excavates the brief, tragic life of a lost Mormon city, demonstrating that the Mormons are essential to understanding American history writ large. Using newly accessible sources, Park re-creates the Mormons' 1839 flight from Missouri to Illinois.

After the death of their father, it’s up to Grace O’Connell and her twin brother Patrick to support their family as the Great Depression takes its toll on New York City. When Grace is laid off from her dancing gig and Patrick is injured at work on the construction of the Empire State Building, desperation leaves them only one solution: Grace must disguise herself as Patrick and take his place on the half-built skyscraper. She soon proves herself as capable as any man on the steel, and her affection for the loyal men around her—especially Italian immigrant Joe—grows by the day.

 Perhaps you've heard about the ancient cities of Cuzco and Machu Picchu. They were once cradles of life and civilization. Although they are no longer existing today, they still leave a powerful impression and knowledge on culture, architecture, and life in general. There are lots more to learn from The Two Major Cities of the Inca Empire. Start listening (and learning) today! 

Oliver Archer is a wealthy, handsome young man enjoying the high life on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for one last summer before heading off to college - until a molecular black hole rips him away from his glittering life and thrusts him into the underworld of New York City...not the criminal underworld, but a secret society hidden beneath the sidewalks, in the sewers, and in the spaces behind old walls. There, Oliver is drawn into a deadly conflict as he faces mice with human genes, robotic vermin, and mysterious elfin creatures using 21st century technology. 

Empire of Water explores the history of New York City’s water system - from the late 19th century to the early 21st century - focusing on the geographical, environmental, and political repercussions of the city’s search for more water. By tracing the evolution of the city’s water conservation efforts and watershed management regime, Soll reveals the tremendous shifts in environmental practices and consciousness that occurred during the 20th century.

Macau, New Orleans, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco. All of these metropolitan centers were once frontier cities, urban areas irrevocably shaped by cross-cultural borderland beginnings. Spanning a wide range of periods and locations, and including stories of 18th-century Detroit, 19th-century Seattle, and 20th-century Los Angeles, Frontier Cities recovers the history of these urban places and shows how, from the start, natives and newcomers alike shared streets, buildings, and interwoven lives.

Learn about the rise of the Aztec civilization and the powerful cities they created, including the capital city of Tenochtitlan. Explore the daily lives of the Aztec people, their art and culture, and their architecture. Uncover the rituals and beliefs of the Aztec people, including human sacrifice and religious ceremonies. Discover the majestic kings of the Aztec Empire and the legacy they left behind.

April 28, 2015, West Baltimore, Maryland: ground zero in America's Opiate Wars. In this crime-plagued section of the city, the death of Freddie Gray has triggered the worst domestic rioting since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and created a terrifying new breed of criminal entrepreneur.

In northern Iraq, on the banks of the Tigris River, lie the ruins of the ancient city of Aššur. This was the first capital and the most important religious center of the Assyrian Empire. Underneath the cover of sand and soil are almost six meters of dense stratigraphic layers that reveal the passage of millennia. Known today as Qal'at Sherqat, and also as Kilah Shregat, the city dates back to the third millennium BCE.

The Greco-Persian Wars are often portrayed as a battle between good and evil. This is simultaneously an exaggeration and an oversimplification, but there is no doubt that this war, or series of wars, fought between some of the most powerful civilizations of the ancient era helped to plot the course of human history that we have been following up until this very day. 

New York City has countless landmarks and tourist spots, but few are as old or as associated with the city as the Brooklyn Bridge, the giant suspension bridge that spans nearly 1,600 feet as it connects lower Manhattan to Brooklyn. Indeed the bridge is so old that Manhattan and Brooklyn represented the largest and third-largest cities in America at the time of its construction. The East River posed a formidable enough challenge that taking a ferry across could be dangerous.

The Rise of Constantinople looks at the events that brought about the transformation of Byzantium, and how Constantinople became one of the most important cities in the world.

Within a generation of Christopher Columbus’ historic voyage to the Americas in 1492, a regional rivalry had developed between Spain and its closest neighbor as the Portuguese began to establish a colony in Brazil and push its boundaries southwards. However, while the Portuguese and Spanish grappled over South America, the Spanish began colonizing the Yucatan in the 16th century after defeating various Mesoamerican groups, most notably Hernan Cortés’ conquest of the Aztec Empire.

On his deathbed, some historians claim that when he was pressed to name a successor, Alexander the Great muttered that his empire should go "to the strongest". Other sources claim that he passed his signet ring to his general Perdiccas, thereby naming him successor, but whatever his choices were or may have been, they were ignored.