More than 1,500 years have passed since the last blood - human or animal - was spilled in the Colosseum, but the massive building erected by the Flavian emperors has continued to play a role in history. This book tells the dramatic story of the Colosseum - from its bloody gladiatorial games and the sacrifice of early Christians to the dismantling of the arena and its final restoration. The book also recounts the story of Rome as viewed from the vantage point of the empire's most impressive...

King Louis XIV had many loves, but none as compelling as Versailles, the modest country estate he transformed into one of the world's most spectacular palaces. Here is the dramatic - and tragic - story of Versailles and the men and women who made it their home.

Everyone has seen photographs of the Taj Mahal. The massive, bulbous central dome, the four slender minarets, the shimmering marble, the long reflecting pool, the manicured gardens - all seem too striking for adequate description and proper appreciation. But there is more to the Taj than its beauty. The world's best-known mausoleum celebrates the love story of the seventeenth-century Moghul emperor Shah Jahan and his queen, Mumtaz Mahal. They fell in love at first sight and were married fo...

Rarely in history has a great city arisen in a less likely place than the islands and mud flats of the Venetian lagoon. But they provided the city's founders with a refuge from the barbarians who had invaded their mainland homes. With energy and ingenuity, these displaced people created a maritime empire of unequaled splendor. At its height, the Republic of Venice was said to encompass "one quarter and one half of one quarter" of the known world. During those years, its merchant princess l...

There is only one New York. It didn't make America, but it made possible the America we've come to know. Here - from American Heritage magazine and such historians as Nathaniel Benchley, David McCullough, and William V. Shannon - is its remarkable story: from Henry Hudson's historic voyage and the sale of Manhattan Island to New York's occupation by British forces during the Revolution and the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, and the Whitney Museum.

The "aged queen of French cathedrals," Victor Hugo called Notre-Dame. And ancient it was - nearly 700 years had passed since the Bishop Maurice de Sully decided that Paris needed a cathedral worthy of France's capital. "Every face, every stone of the venerable monument," Hugo continued, "is a page not only of the history of the country but also of the history of science and art." Here, National Book Award Winner Richard Winston tells the dramatic story of the building of the great cathedra...

Hagia Sophia is more than 1,400 years old. It was a Christian Church, then a Muslim mosque, and is now a museum. Here, from National Book Award winner Richard Winston, is the extraordinary story of one of the world's great architectural treasures and its everchanging role in the history of Constantinople.

New York Times bestselling historian Emma Moreau exposes and analyzes the events that turned ordinary French citizens into revolutionaries - from the attack on the Bastille to the executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to the bloodthirsty Reign of Terror that claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people.

Here, acclaimed American historians - among them, Max Boot, Douglas Brinkley, and Stanley Karnow - tell the dramatic story of America's war in Vietnam. It's all here - from the first American deaths in Vietnam and the controversial Gulf of Tonkin attack to the Tet offensive, the My Lai massacre, and, finally, the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

In three years, the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, leading a few hundred Spanish soldiers, overcame a centuries-old empire that could put tens of thousands of warriors on the field. Even after his god-like reputation had been shattered, and his horses and cannons were no longer regarded as supernatural, his ruthless daring took him on to victory. Yet in the end, his prize was not the gold that he had sought, but the destruction of the entire Aztec civilization.

Joseph Stalin was one of the most frightening figures of the twentieth century. His name brings to mind brutal terrorism and ruthless oppression. Yet, as New York Times bestselling author Ian Grey shows, at the core of the Man of Steel was a humble, puritanical Georgian peasant. What set him above others was his intelligence, discipline, perception, indomitable will, and above all, a messianic determination to lead Russia to a grand destiny. Grey's comprehensive biography portrays Stalin a...

"Remarkably well balanced and sound . . . " - The New Republic. Here, from award-winning historian Henry Bamford Parkes and the editors of American Heritage, is the dramatic story of Mexico - from the Aztecs, Maya, and other ancient peoples who gave birth to a vast civilization to the Spanish Conquest, the Mexican-American War, the Mexican Revolution, and Mexico's role in World War II. Historian Parkes brings vividly to life the legendary figures Montezuma, Cortés, Santa Anna, Juárez, Maxi...