During a lull in the tensions between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, Matthew Stevenson set out from his home in Geneva, Switzerland, to ride a series of trains around the contours of Iran.With a Kindle and a stack of railway maps and timetables in his backpack, he travels on a series of overnight trains to Mashhad, Esfahan, Yazd, and Shiraz, before flying home from Tehran.In Tehran he visits the grounds where in 1979 American diplomats ...

Here is the new collection of essays from Matthew Stevenson, a contributing editor of Harper'™s Magazine who lives in Switzerland and who is the author of the critically acclaimed Letters of Transit: Essays on Travel, History, Politics, and Family Life Abroad, which the poet Robert Watson called "a stunning book, the best travel writing I have seen in years."In 1991, Stevenson moved from Brooklyn to a house in the vineyards outside Geneva, Switzerland. In this book he writes about ...

Jack Wheatcroft (1925-2016) had a transformative impact on five decades of Bucknell students (1952-1996). He served the institution with great generosity of a kind that was rare for a teacher so immersed in his writing. He founded the Bucknell Seminar for Undergraduate Poets, the Philip Roth Visiting Writers Residency, and the magnificent Stadler Center for Poetry. He over saw the restoration of Bucknell Hall for the Stadler Center and today it is one of the most beautiful and distinguishe...

"Get up and see the world! This lying abed is the mother of seventy devils." -Rudyard Kipling, Kim From his home just outside Geneva, Switzerland, American writer Matthew Stevenson (Letters of Transit, An April Across America) sets out in October 2006 on a private railroad car for Chicago and Rapid City, in effect heading North by Northwest as in the Hitchcock film. It's a journey across the United States that takes him through the Bad Lands of South Dako...

THE TRUE STORY THAT INSPIRED THE HBO SERIESThrough most of the 20th century, Atlantic City was controlled by a powerful partnership of local politicians and racketeers. Funded by payoffs from gambling rooms, bars, and brothels, this corrupt alliance reached full bloom during the reign of Enoch "Nucky" Johnson — the second of three bosses to head the Republican machine that dominated city politics and society.In Boardwalk Empire, Nucky Johnson, Louis "the Commodore"...

New York Times bestselling author of The Wordy Shipmates and contributor to NPR’s This American Life Sarah Vowell embarks on a road trip to sites of political violence, from Washington DC to Alaska, to better understand our nation’s ever-evolving political system and history.Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation...

As Margaret Truman knows from firsthand experience, living in the White House can be exhilarating and maddening, alarming and exhausting–but it is certainly never dull. Part private residence, part goldfish bowl, and part national shrine, the White House is both the most important address in America and the most intensely scrutinized. In this splendid blend of the personal and historic, Margaret Truman offers an unforgettable tour of “the president’s house” across the span of two centuries...

Murder, Adultery, Gambling, UFOs - And the White House?!?Your high school history teachers never gave you a book like this one! Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents features outrageous and uncensored profiles of the men in the White House—complete with hundreds of little-known, politically incorrect, and downright wacko facts. You’ll discover that:• George Washington spent a whopping 7% of his salary on booze• John Quincy Adams loved to skinn...

How much do you actually know about New York City? Did you know they tried to anchor Zeppelins at the top of the Empire State Building? Or that the high-rent district of Park Avenue was once so dangerous it was called “Death Avenue”? This lively and comprehensive guidebook brings New York’s fascinating past to vivid life.This narrative history of New York City is the first to offer practical walking tour know-how. Fast-paced but thorough, its bite-size chapters eac...

Three cheers for the red, white, and bloopers . . . A US treasury of gaffes, goofs, and weird White House trivia!If they advertised the job opening for President of the United States, the ad would be pretty short. The only basic requirements are to be a natural-born American citizen and at least thirty-five years old. Now you can learn about some of the successful applicants in this special "Chief Executive" edition of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader!...

From one of America’s most revered journalists–a richly entertaining roundup of the extraordinary individuals with whom he crossed paths in our nation’s capital and of the events that marked the twentieth century.Here are firsthand profiles of Washington insiders that only an insider himself could have given us: Franklin D. Roosevelt counting out enough cigarettes to get through a half-hour debriefing with the press; May Craig, the first female reporter to penetrate Roosevelt’s inn...

"Entertaining…Carlson shifts deftly among sombre, macabre, and playful stories and shows how the death-tourism industry reveals more than amusing trivia." —The New YorkerIn Dead Presidents, public radio host and reporter Brady Carlson takes readers on an epic trip to presidential gravesites, monuments, and memorials from sea to shining sea. With an engaging mix of history and contemporary reporting, Carlson explores the death stories of o...