Winner of the Pulitzer Prize“A startling work — awesomely ambitious, faultlessly researched, daring in its thesis, and profound in its implications." — Business Week"Magnificent. . . . everything a political biography should be." — Richmond Times-DispatchThis rich and powerful political biography is now given fresh relevance with a new introduction by the author that explores how Hirohito’s legacy persists in Japan ...

In this groundbreaking biography of the Japanese emperor Hirohito, Herbert P. Bix offers the first complete, unvarnished look at the enigmatic leader whose sixty-three-year reign ushered Japan into the modern world. Never before has the full life of this controversial figure been revealed with such clarity and vividness. Bix shows what it was like to be trained from birth for a lone position at the apex of the nation's political hierarchy and as a revered symbol of divine status. Influence...

National Book Award Winner: The definitive account of Nazi Germany and "one of the most important works of history of our time" ( The New York Times).When the Third Reich fell, it fell swiftly. The Nazis had little time to destroy their memos, their letters, or their diaries. William L. Shirer's sweeping account of the Third Reich uses these unique sources, combined with his experience living in Germany as an international correspondent throughout the war....

'The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don't ask for their love - only for their fear.'- Heinrich HimmlerThe Schutzstaffel, or SS - the brutal elite of the Nazi Party - was founded by Hitler in 1925 to be his personal bodyguard. From 1929 it was headed by Heinrich Himmler, who built its numbers up from under 300 to well over a million by 1945 as the SS grew to be the backbone of Nazi Germany, ta...

The author of the international bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers a personal account of life in Nazi Germany at the start of WWII.By the late 1930s, Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Nazi Party, had consolidated power in Germany and was leading the world into war. A young foreign correspondent was on hand to bear witness.More than two decades prior to the publication of his acclaimed history, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,...

'No one can deny Paul Roland is a complete master of his subject.'Colin Wilson, author of The Occult and A Criminal History of MankindWhy did the country which produced Goethe, Beethoven, Bach, Schiller, Einstein, Kant and Hegel allow itself to be led to the precipice of self-destruction by a ragged collective of criminals, misfits, sadists and petty bureaucrats?Nazis and the Occult reveals the true nature of the T...

This thrilling account of WWII espionage by the former French secret service chief chronicles an Allied spy's actions in the German Cipher Office.A spy for the French Secret Service during World War II, Hans-Thilo Schmidt was embedded in the nerve center of the Third Reich. From deep within Hitler's most sensitive operations, Schmidt created an intelligence network between France, Poland, and England. In The Spy in Hitler's Inner Circle, France's former se...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “bracing” (Vox) guide for surviving and resisting America’s turn towards authoritarianism, from “a rising public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between past and present” (The New York Times)“Timothy Snyder reasons with unparalleled clarity, throwing the past and future into sharp relief. He has writ...

From its creation in 1933 until Hitler's death in May 1945, anyone living in Nazi-controlled territory lived in fear of a visit from the Gestapo an abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei or secret state police. Young or old, rich or poor, nobody was beyond the attentions of a brutally efficient organization that spread its malign influence into every corner of Europe in the wake of the all-conquering German armed forces. The Gestapo offers a detailed history of this evil operation commanded...

The New York Times bestseller chronicling the history of NYC’s infamous five mafia families is now the basis for the upcoming The HISTORY® Channel documentary series American Godfathers: The Five Families.Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo and Lucchese. For decades these Five Families ruled New York and built the American Mafia (or Cosa Nostra) into an underworld empire. Today, the Mafia is an endangered species, battered and beleaguered by aggre...

"Shocking. Revelatory. Compelling. A truly authentic and riveting read. A milestone in WWII and Holocaust history."-- Damien Lewis, author: The Nazi HuntersA harrowing, beautifully written and extremely well-researched account of a little-known aspect of the Holocaust. Patricia Posner's fine prose style grips from page one, and the horror will stay with you long after you finish the book." -- Andrew Roberts, author: The Storm of War"A grues...

Only days after Normandy, Hitler is taken out of the equation and Heinrich Himmler, brutal head of the SS, assumes control of the Reich. On the Allied side, there is confusion. Should attempts be made to negotiate with the new government or should unconditional surrender still be the only option? With the specter of a German super-weapon moving closer to completion and the German generals finally allowed to fight the kind of war at which they are masters, the allies are pushed toward a cou...