English Biography

Every year at Passover, Jews around the world gather for the seder, a festive meal where family and friends come together to sing, pray, and enjoy traditional food while retelling the biblical story of the Exodus. The Passover Haggadah provides the script for the meal and is a religious text unlike any other. It is the only sacred book available in so many varieties - from the Maxwell House edition of the 1930s to the countercultural Freedom Seder - and it is the rare liturgical work that allows people with limited knowledge to conduct a complex religious service.

In 1968 James T. Gillam was a poorly focused college student at Ohio University who was dismissed and then drafted into the Army. Unlike most African-Americans who entered the Army then, he became a Sergeant and an instructor at the Fort McClellan Alabama School of Infantry.

Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), a well-known religious figure in America, is cherished with respect and affection by an ever increasing number of readers of his books. His genius was revealed to the world at large in the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893, where he indicated India’s rightful place in the spiritual map of the world.

Timothy Snyder opens a new path in the understanding of modern nationalism and 20th-century socialism by presenting the often overlooked life of Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz, an important Polish thinker at the beginning of the 20th century. During his brief life in Poland, Paris, and Vienna, Kelles-Krauz influenced or infuriated most of the leaders of the various socialist movements of Central Europe and France. His central ideas ultimately were not accepted by the socialist mainstream at the time of his death.

This first-ever biography of the enigmatic Whittaker Chambers draws on materials from 40 archives, including still-classified KGB dossiers, to trace the remarkable journey that led Chambers to center stage in America's greatest political trial.

All throughout history, Black men have made important contributions to scientific discovery. This collection of biographies for kids explores 15 of these intelligent men and the extraordinary scientific accomplishments they achieved—even when they faced huge challenges. You’ll learn how they stood up against racism and inequality and never stopped following their passions for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

This essential biography, by the author most deeply familiar with the vast archives of the Soviet era, offers an unprecedented, fine-grained portrait of Stalin, the man and dictator. Without mythologizing Stalin as either benevolent or an evil genius, Khlevniuk resolves numerous controversies about specific events in the dictator's life while assembling many hundreds of previously unknown letters, memos, reports, and diaries into a comprehensive, compelling narrative of a life that altered the course of world history.

In this widely hailed book, NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten fuses the story of the Bacardi family and their famous rum business with Cuba's tumultuous experience over the last 150 years to produce a deeply entertaining historical narrative. The company Facundo Bacardi, launched in Cuba in 1862, brought worldwide fame to the island, and in the decades that followed, his Bacardi descendants participated in every aspect of Cuban life.

We know a great deal about Muhammad—or so it seems. Islamic tradition contains an astonishing wealth of information about the founding figure of the Islamic faith, and most historians take for granted that this material is generally reliable. In his latest book, historian and Islamic scholar Robert Spencer shows that there is no agreement in the earliest Islamic sources about the most fundamental details of this towering figure's life. Muhammad takes a detailed look at the Islamic traditions regarding Muhammad and lays bare their contradictions, inconsistencies, and incoherence.

Darkness engulfs the Indian subcontinent. The 17th century is destined to be an era of brutal wars, incessant oppression and physical and spiritual carnage in the name of religion. Shivaji, a warrior and thinker far ahead of his times, rises and renders a rousing dream - respect and dignity for human life, economic equity and empowerment. Destiny does not favour him; he faces terribile odds - a fallen and defeated populace, the might of the Mughal Empire, and naval supremacy of the Western powers.

Jonathan Rogers follows the roots of Flannery O’Connor’s fervent Catholicism and traces the outlines of a life marked by illness and suffering, but ultimately defined by an irrepressible joy. In her stories, and in her life story, Flannery O’Connor extends a hand in the dark, warning and reassuring us of the terrible speed of mercy.

Jackson Pollock was without a doubt one of the twentieth century’s most controversial painters. He started out painting abstracts in the style of Pablo Picasso but soon branched out, establishing the “drip” method, which entails dripping or flinging paint directly onto the canvas. For this, he was both praised and demonized; still, he persisted on his own chosen path.

In The Wife of Bath, Marion Turner tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer’s favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her many travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter.

Lionel Messi is a superstar soccer player. But what happens when he’s not scoring goals on the pitch? High-interest details of his fascinating life will enthrall listeners.

Rattler One-Seven puts you in the helicopter seat, to see the war in Vietnam through the eyes of an inexperienced pilot as he transforms himself into a seasoned combat veteran. Soon after the war, Gross wrote down his adventures, while his memory was still fresh with the events. Rattler One-Seven (his call sign) is written as he experienced it, using these notes along with letters written home to accurately preserve the mindset he had while in Vietnam.

A true story of ambition, wealth, betrayal, and how a ruthless Beverly Hills socialite became the ultimate momager and raked in billions.

In John Wooden: The Inspiring Life and Leadership Lessons of One of Basketball's Greatest Coaches, you will learn the inspirational story of arguably the greatest coach of the 20th century, John Wooden. Few coaches carry the same esteem as Wooden, known for not only being a highly effective coach, but also a mentor and friend to his players. Wooden consistently led by example by inspiring his players to build strong habits both on and off the court.

Consisting of fewer than 200 verses written in an obscure if not impenetrable language and style, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra is today extolled by the yoga establishment as a perennial classic and guide to yoga practice. As David Gordon White demonstrates in this groundbreaking study, both of these assumptions are incorrect. Virtually forgotten in India for hundreds of years and maligned when it was first discovered in the West, the Yoga Sutra has been elevated to its present iconic status.

Why did Harry Styles eat a water scorpion? What does he do when he can’t sleep? Listeners will find out these answers and more of everything they’re dying to know about Harry Styles. High-interest details of his fascinating life will enthrall listeners.

What are the names of Ariana Grande’s pets? Who was her first celebrity crush? Go behind the scenes to discover little-known facts about this superstar singer and actor. High-interest details of her fascinating life will enthrall listeners.