Known as the “Angel of Rome,” Alessandro Moreschi was the last surviving castrato singer of the Vatican choir, and the only castrati whose voice was recorded. Its ethereal, haunting quality was highly prized for centuries in the papal basilicas and opera houses of Europe (readers can request ...

For many, the role of Georges Clemenceau is still based on John Maynard Keynes' misjudged caricature-that he had imposed a treaty of overwhelming harshness and severity. The French, however, have often maintained that that he was too lenient. David Watson considers the implications of Clemenceau'...

Friedrich Ebert only reluctantly accepted the need for Germany to sign the Treaty of Versailles, at one point saying he might be prepared to resume the war. He continued as president until 1925, forced to confront the issues that arose from the treaty and its political and economic consequences.<...

Gustav Mannerheim was one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century and the only man to be decorated by both sides in both World Wars. He witnessed the coronation of the last Tsar, and he was both reprimanded for foolhardiness and decorated for bravery in the Russo-Japanese War. He spent t...

"I would rather have been a pianist than anything," Sybil Thorndike said late in her life, but posterity would never know her as anything other than a majestic actress of stage and screen, whether alongside Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier, or, most famously, as Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan.

Wellington Koo achieved notoriety at the Paris Peace Conference for sternly resisting Japanese attempts to hold onto seized German colonial territory in mainland China. In protest, the Chinese were the only dele gates not to sign the subsequent Treaty of Versailles. Koo was later a founding membe...

The legend of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel—the “Desert Fox”—is threefold: he was a simple soldier who did his duty and knew nothing about Nazism; he was a commander of superlative talent who ran rings around the British in North Africa in 1941–42; and he was a leader of the resistance to ...

Passion and concern for the Gulf Stream motivated Erik Orsenna to travel far and wide to meet scholars and scientists who hold the key to the mysteries of this powerful ocean current. Spanning thousands of years of history, this book weaves between poetry and science to trace the influence of cur...

Best known for his historical novels I, Claudius and Claudius the God, Robert Graves was recognized as one of the better Edwardian and First World War poets, although, for a time, his work was somewhat sidelined by the modernists. His autobiography Good-Bye to All That ...

It is the bitterly cold winter of 194445. The Red Army is advancing and millions of East Prussians are desperate to flee, but the Nazis refuse to let them. Finally, with the Russian guns within earshot, they realize that they are surrounded. With them are thousands of the most superb horses in th...

David Lloyd George's six months in Paris in 1919, pitting his wits against Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau, and others, were among the most enjoyable but exhausting of his life. This study investigates the extent to which Lloyd George succeeded in his aims and evaluates the immediate and longe...

Roughly 6.6 billion people live on our planet. By 2050 there will be 9 billion. Population growth mainly occurs in rapidly developing nations, but can we sustain it? How will the power shift? This book explains the causes and effects of population growth and the effect of aging populations in the...

When Patricia Clough bought a house in Umbria, she knew that buying her dream home did not mean that one's life became a dream. By the end of this book she is sure that "if one has basic requirements for being happy, then Umbria provides some of the best surroundings for happiness."

Aleksandur StamboliAlong The River that Flows Uphill weaves t...