An Italian journalist pleads her case for learning ancient Greek in modern times.For word nerds, language loons, and grammar geeks, an impassioned and informative literary leap into the wonders of the Greek language. Here are nine ways Greek can transform your relationship to time and to those around you, nine reflections on the language of Sappho, Plato, and Thucydides, and its relevance to our lives today, nine chapters that will leave readers with a new passion f...

On the evening of May 9, 1936, a slim, elegant woman stood in Rome’s Piazza Venezia and – in perfect English – broadcast Mussolini’s famous speech on the conquest of Ethiopia. Her name was Lisa Sergio (1905–1989), her nickname “the golden voice” of Mussolini. A Florentine journalist, with American parents, she was fired from her job at the Propaganda Ministry the following summer, most likely for gossiping about a brief affair with her boss, Mussolini’s son in law, Galeazzo Ciano.A...

An epic tale of war, revolution, economic crisis, and social transformation told through the story of twelve historic soccer games, with a gallery of unexpected heroes, thwarted tragedies, and stunning, world-changing results . . .Soccer has always intersected with history—sometimes during an anonymous match, sometimes in a major world final—because, from the sport's beginning in 1848, echoes of what's happening off the pitch have reached the global playing field i...

In 490 BCE the indefatigable Athenian herald Philippides made his legendary 26 mile run to deliver to the people of Athens news of their city's victory over the Persians. Each year, all over the world, thousands of athletes and millions of enthusiasts replicate Philippides's marathon.Why do we run? To what end all the effort and pain? The Greeks were the first to ask these questions and to wonder why we choose to measure ourselves against others; they were also the first to suspend...