World Nations

This history will be of interest to people who know nothing about Japan, but also full of insights for those who do. Lesley Downer takes the listener through the great sweep of Japanese history, focusing on the dramatic stories of larger-than-life individuals—from emperors descended from the Sun Goddess to warlords, samurai, merchants, court ladies, women warriors, geisha, and businessmen who shaped this extraordinary modern society.

In the scorching summer of 1878, with the Gilded Age in its infancy, three tenacious and brilliant scientists raced to Wyoming and Colorado to observe a rare total solar eclipse. One sought to discover a new planet. Another - an adventuresome female astronomer - fought to prove that science was not anathema to femininity. And a young megalomaniacal inventor, with the tabloid press fast on his heels, sought to test his scientific bona fides and light the world through his revelations.

The modern history of Africa was, until very recently, written on behalf of the indigenous races by the white man, who had forcefully entered the continent during a particularly hubristic and dynamic phase of European history. In 1884, Prince Otto von Bismark, the German chancellor, brought the plenipotentiaries of all major powers of Europe together, to deal with Africa's colonization in such a manner as to avoid provocation of war.

Henry Kissinger presenta una profunda y original reflexión sobre las causas que originan la armonía y los conflictos en los asuntos globales. A partir de su inmensa experiencia como uno de los principales estadistas del siglo XX, asesor de presidentes, conocedor del mundo, observador y participante en los temas centrales de política internacional de último medio siglo, Kissinger expone en esta obra su visión del reto fundamental del siglo XXI.

A tribute to the courageous chiefs and warriors who fought to protect their people and preserve the Native way of life in the face of European expansion across North America, including: Sequoyah, a Cherokee who invented a system of writing for his people; Sitting Bull, the powerful warrior and spiritual leader of the Lakota Sioux who doggedly fought white incursions on Sioux land; Chief Joseph, who led the Nez Perce on a heroic and doomed flight to freedom; and more.

An old silversmith's body is dumped along the highway, and Legal Services Investigator Charlie Yazzie isn't content to stand by while the FBI and Tribal look for clues—not when he sees his friends Thomas Begay and Harley Ponyboy sucked into a tightening web of evil.

Since Fidel Castro staged a coup and assumed power of Cuba in 1959, the United States has been obsessed with this small island nation, only 90 miles south of the Florida Keys. But because of the country's isolation, the island and its people have remained a mystery. This revised edition of Cuba takes listeners through the country's storied history, its people, and what the future holds for this island nation.

Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 by a United Nations mandate, the Middle East has been a flashpoint of conflict between the world's only Jewish state and the Palestinians, who lost their land because of the UN partition. This ready-reference volume explores the culture, geography, economy, and government of the state of Israel.

Dreams tell old man Paul T'Sosi he's dying. So why is Navajo trickster Magpie trying to tell him a far more terrifying secret? Hungry for revenge, Ma'iitsoh Dine', the Navajo Wolf, is out for blood. Summoning his darkest powers, the Witch of Ganado circles tribal investigator Charlie Yazzie's young son and close friends. Some may survive the witch's evil vendetta, but others will die to settle an old score.

The crash of a U.S. reconnaissance plane into the Colombian jungle on February 13, 2003, set off a series of events that, five years later, would bring three South American countries on a collision course toward war, pit a giant government contractor against its employer - the U.S. government - and catapult a 40-year-old guerrilla army to the international stage as one of the most active and successful terrorist organizations in the world.

Respected Christian author Brian Godawa shares the Biblical, ancient historical and mythical research that undergirds the fiction behind his best-selling novel series, Chronicles of the Watchers, Bible stories retold through a supernatural lens of the ancient Hebrew worldview.

We all know the bad news. The heady promise of the Arab Spring has given way to repression, civil war, and an epic refugee crisis. Economic growth is sputtering. Income inequality is rising around the world. And the threat of ISIS and other extremist groups keeps spreading. We are living in an age of unprecedented, irreversible decline - or so we're constantly being told. Jonathan Tepperman's The Fix presents a very different picture.

Fed up with her married Miami boyfriend, savvy Dulce has no problem stealing his drug-dealer stash and fleeing to the Caribbean. Between her special skills - and an eye for very rich and/or very smokin' men - Dulce stays a hustle ahead of trouble and makes her new life one endless party in Puerto Rico. Until she's caught in Hurricane Maria - and witnesses both the heartbreaking disaster of climate change, and the international vultures who plunder the tragedy for a financial killing, making shady use of relief funds to devastate the island even more....

In this fast-paced sequel to the highly acclaimed Navajo Autumn, Charlie Yazzie and Thomas Begay encounter danger and intrigue on the nation's largest Indian reservation. Old and new characters emerge to unravel ongoing corruption in the upcoming Patsy Greyhorse murder trials, and an irascible Ute family and their shrewd ranch-woman neighbor become caught up in the plot to place certain tribal leaders above the law.

Cyprus gained independence in 1960 without a strong national identity. Citizens considered themselves Greeks or Turks, not Cypriots. Ethnic pride, reinforced by proximity to both countries, inflamed the majority of the population, and was encouraged by the historic rivalry between the two homelands. While examining the nation-state as an institution, I discovered a mechanism I now call transnational nationalism. Analysis of the Cypriot crisis of 1974 gives further insight into cultural politics in lands such as Northern Ireland, Lebanon, Palestine, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Nazi Spy Ring in America tells the story of Hitler's attempts to interfere in American affairs by spreading anti-Semitic propaganda, stealing military technology, and mapping US defenses. This fast-paced history provides essential insight into the role of espionage in shaping American perceptions of Germany in the years leading up to US entry into World War II. Fascinating and thoroughly researched, The Nazi Spy Ring in America sheds light on a now-forgotten but significant episode in the history of international relations and the development of the FBI.

Many of us have never really considered how subtly and profoundly our sense of national spirit has colored our view of the world and of ourselves. The Psychology of Nations by GE Partridge shines a light on the philosophy of nationalism and uses this to delve deeply into its shaping of both psychology and sociology.

American military bases encircle the globe with nearly 1,000 locations in foreign lands. These bases are usually taken for granted or overlooked entirely. But, in an eye-opening account, Base Nation shows that the worldwide network of bases brings with it a panoply of ills - and actually makes the nation less safe in the long run.

At a time of much despair over the future of liberal democracy, Harvard historian Jill Lepore makes a stirring case for the nation in This America. Since the end of the Cold War, Lepore writes, American historians have largely retreated from the idea of "the nation", in part because the rise of political nationalism has rendered it suspect and unpalatable. Bucking this trend, however, Lepore argues forcefully that the nation demands scrutiny. Without an honest reckoning with America's collective past, we will be at the mercy of unscrupulous demagogues....

Colin Calloway uses the prism of George Washington's life to bring focus to the great Native leaders of his time and the tribes they represented: the Iroquois Confederacy, Lenape, Miami, Creek, Delaware; in the process, he returns them to their rightful place in the story of America's founding. The Indian World of George Washington spans decades of Native American leaders' interactions with Washington, from his early days as surveyor of Indian lands to his military career against both the French and the British to his presidency.