Critics said Ferdinand de Lesseps's ambitious scheme to link the waters of the Mediterranean and Red seas - thus cutting 5,800 miles off the India to Europe ocean voyage - was impractical, unwise, and even foolish. The hostile, empty desert of the Isthmus of Suez posed a seemingly insurmountable geographical challenge to the builder's ingenuity and persistence. During the ten years of its construction, from 1859 to 1869, the Suez Canal was the focus of worldwide attention. Around the globe...

In his three extraordinary voyages, Captain James Cook made history. He was the first to discover Australia and the Hawaiian Islands and the first to circumnavigate New Zealand. By the 1700s, England, eager to expand its realm of trade, promoted exploration of all the unclaimed regions of the world. The eighteenth century, the age of reason and enlightenment, required a new kind of explorer: not a rover or a plunderer or a seeker of adventure for its own sake, but a master of navigation an...

When the explorer René Caillié returned to France from Africa in 1828, he published a sketch of the legendary city he had discovered - Timbuctoo. But neither that simple drawing nor his matter-of-fact description gave Caillié's countrymen a sufficiently colorful picture to match their preconceptions of how Africa should look. They turned their backs on the young explorer, ignored his accomplishments, and let him die neglected. Here are the epic adventures of the European explorers who open...

The Tower of London was not simply a fortress: It was at various times a royal palace, a state prison, the home of the Mint, the treasury for the Crown Jewels, a repository for state papers, and an observatory. Since lions were considered a suitable gift for royalty, one tower - the Lion Tower - was a menagerie. Many historic events, stately and ceremonial, pathetic or dreadful - from the murder of King Edward IV's young sons to the beheadings of Henry VIII's queens to the imprisonment of ...

Introduction by David McCullough. The first truly comprehensive history of America's most compelling symbol, the Statue of Liberty, is the result of more than three years of research. The authors, Christian Blanchet and Bernard Dard, sought out original sources, interviewed over 1,000 people, and combed through more than 100 museums, collections, and libraries to compile this definitive history. Here is the little-known story of the statue's origins and the people who brought it to complet...

The Mexican-American War established the reputation of Major General Zachary Taylor, resulting in his election as president of the United States. It also gave invaluable experience to young American officers who would play leading parts in the Civil War - among them, Ulysses S. Grant, George H. Thomas, and George G. Meade on the Union side and Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, Joseph E. Johnston, and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson on the Confederate forces. Here are the battles from th...

We remember Thomas Alva Edison as the craggy, rumpled inventor of the light bulb and the phonograph - a prodigy, the affable "Wizard of Menlo Park." But he also was a visionary entrepreneur who changed the world. What Edison invented was the modern age. Here is his unforgettable story.

Against fantastic odds, a small group of men had built a fleet that proved one of the decisive factors in the American Revolution and the War of 1812. They had gathered the wealth that founded the first banks in the United States and built its first railroads, factories, and steamships. Now, they were to cap their achievements by making it equally superior in size, and in the process, producing the greatest, swiftest, and most beautiful craft the world had ever seen - the clipper ship. Thi...

The turbulent events that overtook Russia in 1917 are often called one of history's great turning points. In March of that year, a corrupt, outdated, careworn autocracy - the 300-year-old Romanov dynasty - was overthrown by a spontaneous uprising of Russia's long-oppressed masses. During the next few months, Alexander Kerensky and other liberals in the provisional government attempted to adopt reforms. But the continuing hardships of World War I and the pressure of Vladimir Lenin's Bolshev...

Today, the great cathedrals of Europe stand as beautiful, imposing monuments - the pride of parishioners and the wonder of tourists. It is difficult for us now, even with all our engineering and architectural skills, to imagine the extraordinary ways these medieval houses of worship were constructed. Midway through the twelfth century, the building of cathedrals became a crusade to erect awe-inspiring churches across Europe. In their zeal, bishops, monks, masons, and workmen created the ar...

Here is the story of the tormented, mercurial Ludwig van Beethoven cast against the panorama of the times in which he lived. What emerges is a portrait of a man and an age that adds another dimension to the music that has become part of our heritage.

More than 3,000 years ago, a young man of seventeen named Tutankhamen became pharaoh of Egypt. His reign came toward the end of a vital period in Egypt's history when Thebes was the wealthiest and most splendid city in the world. Great temples soared into the sky, and in the temple workshops, hundreds of craftsmen labored to turn the riches of Egypt into magnificent garments, furniture and houses, ornaments, and weapons for all their heavenly gods and for their earthly god, the pharaoh. In...