Basic Books: 1466 books
Heaven's Bride
The Unprintable Life of Ida C. Craddock, American Mystic, Scholar, Sexologist, Martyr, and Madwoman
Language: English
Release Date: December 7, 2010
The nineteenth-century eccentric Ida C. Craddock was by turns a secular freethinker, a religious visionary, a civil-liberties advocate, and a resolute defender of belly-dancing. Arrested and tried repeatedly on obscenity charges, she was deemed a danger to public morality for her candor about sexuality....
A Time to Every Purpose
Letters to a Young Jew
Language: English
Release Date: February 23, 2009
At the turn of the twenty-first century, the central question confronting Jewish leaders in America is simple:
Why be Jewish?
Jonathan D. Sarna, acclaimed scholar of American Judaism, believes that Why be Jewish?” is the wrong question. Judaism, he believes, is not so much a why”...
by Bernard Lewis
Language: English
Release Date: August 5, 2008
Language: English
Release Date: August 5, 2008
From a master historian, the definitive account of history's first terrorists
An offshoot of the Ismaili Shi'ite sect of Islam, the Assassins were the first group to make systematic use of murder as a political weapon. Established in Iran and Syria in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, they...
Renewal
A Guide to the Values-Filled Life
Language: English
Release Date: May 25, 2010
Our culture is showing the cracks of a growing fracture. Soaring divorce rates; a crippled economy that rewards the few and punishes the many; religious-fueled hatred; record rates of depression—the headlines paint a grim picture. We inhabit a society that desperately needs fixing. But as Rabbi...
Islam And Democracy
Fear Of The Modern World With New Introduction
Language: English
Release Date: March 5, 2009
Is Islam compatible with democracy? Must fundamentalism win out in the Middle East, or will democracy ever be possible? In this now-classic book, Islamic sociologist Fatima Mernissi explores the ways in which progressive Muslims--defenders of democracy, feminists, and others trying to resist fundamentalism--must...
A History of Iran
Empire of the Mind
Language: English
Release Date: May 24, 2016
The definitive history of Iran, from the ancient Persian empires to today
Iran is a land of contradictions. It is an Islamic republic, but one in which only 1.4 percent of the population attend Friday prayers. Iran's religious culture encompasses the most censorious and dogmatic Shi'a Muslim...
The Field of Blood
The Battle for Aleppo and the Remaking of the Medieval Middle East
Language: English
Release Date: February 20, 2018
A history of the 1119 Battle of the Field of Blood, which decisively halted the momentum gained during the First Crusade and decided the fate of the Crusader states
During the First Crusade, Frankish armies swept across the Middle East, capturing major cities and setting up the Crusader States...
Coal
A Human History
Language: English
Release Date: February 9, 2016
"Engrossing.... Coal, to borrow a phrase, is king." --New York Times Book Review
In this remarkable book, Barbara Freese takes us on a rich historical journey that begins hundreds of millions of years ago and spans the globe. Prized as "the best stone in Britain" by Roman...
The Day The Voices Stopped
A Memoir of Madness and Hope
Language: English
Release Date: August 5, 2008
For thirty-two years Ken Steele lived with the devastating symptoms of schizophrenia, tortured by inner voices commanding him to kill himself, ravaged by the delusions of paranoia, barely surviving on the ragged edges of society. In this inspiring story, Steele tells the story of his hard-won recovery...
Game of Queens
The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe
Language: English
Release Date: November 29, 2016
"Sarah Gristwood has written a masterpiece that effortlessly and enthrallingly interweaves the amazing stories of women who ruled in Europe during the Renaissance period."--Alison Weir
Sixteenth-century Europe saw an explosion of female rule. From Isabella of Castile, and her granddaughter...
How Could This Happen
Explaining the Holocaust
Language: English
Release Date: April 8, 2014
The Holocaust is the defining event of the twentieth century and perhaps all of modern history. Yet for too long, we have ignored the vital question of how and why such a monstrous event could have happened at all. Now, in How Could This Happen, historian Dan McMillan distills the existing Holocaust...
by George Weigel
Language: English
Release Date: August 11, 2015
Language: English
Release Date: August 11, 2015
The modern spiritual classic, from a celebrated Catholic writer
In this remarkable exploration of the Catholic world, prominent Catholic author and papal biographer George Weigel offers a luminous collection of letters to young Catholics, not-so-young Catholics, and curious souls who wonder...
The Knights Templar
The History and Myths of the Legendary Military Order
Language: English
Release Date: April 29, 2009
This book is an essential exploration into the history of a legendary group of Crusaders, which are prominently featured in Dan Brown's recent best seller, The Da Vinci Code. The Knights Templar rose from humble beginnings to become the most powerful military religious order of the Middle Ages. Formed...
Three Victories and a Defeat
The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire
Language: English
Release Date: December 9, 2008
In the eighteenth century, Britain became a world superpower through a series of sensational military strikes. Traditionally, the Royal Navy has been seen as Britain's key weapon, but in Three Victories and a Defeat Brendan Simms argues that Britain's true strength lay with the German aristocrats...