Biography & Autobiography : Historical

100 articles on meetings between historical figures explore the details of famous (and some not so famous) conversations and events. Meetings range from the time of the ancient Greeks to the present day. Articles explain why meetings were important (although some are just funny or downright bizarre). Historical context explains ‘what happened next’. This informative and entertaining look at our past and present explores the pleasantries, pardons, interrogations and arguments that have passed between the likes of Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana, Lew Wallace and Billy the Kid, Kurt Waldheim and John Simpson, Queen Victoria and Black Elk, and JS Bach and Frederick the Great. The meetings in this book offer a unique perspective on brief moments in our history. As Donald Rumsfeld (who almost made it into the book) would perhaps put it, this is ‘stuff’ as it happened, and we are all interested in stuff. more...

Price: $15.99

In the early 1870s, Hubert H. Bancroft recorded memoirs of early Californios, among them 83-year-old Don Jose Maria Amador, and his friend Lorenzo Asisara. Gregorio Mora-Torres presents their voices in English translation (with annotations) and in the original Spanish on facing pages. more...

Price: $29.95

Offers a narrative overview of the nature and culture of the Pacific Northwest; reflecting on its ecological and racial turmoil. This book provides a fresh perspective on the aesthetic, historical, cultural, anthropological, and social contexts in which Winthrop wrote his sometimes disturbing, sometimes enlightening, and always riveting account. more...

Price: $13.95

John Harris Rogers served in Texas law enforcement for more than four decades. He is recognised in history as one of the legendary "Four Captains" of the Ranger force. Paul N. Spellman presents a full-length biography of this enigmatic man. more...

Price: $29.95

In 1745 a little-known German princess named Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst married the nephew of Empress Elizabeth of Russia. Seventeen years later she overthrew her husband to become Catherine the Great, one of the most celebrated monarchs in history, turning eighteenth-century Russia into arguably the largest and most powerful state since the fall of the Roman Empire. Admired for her achievements and satirized for her personal life, she wrote the most revealing memoirs by any European ruler. She promoted radical political ideas and emphasized moderation in government. Ruthless when necessary, she charmed everyone she met, joking at private dinner parties in the Hermitage, which she had built for her own use. Determined to endear herself to the Russians, she made religious devotions in which she never believed. Intimate and revealing, Simon Dixon's new biography examines the lifelong friendships that sustained the empress throughout her personal life, and places her within the context of the royal court: its politics, its flourishing literature, and the very culture that became central to her exercise of absolute power. more...

Price: $27.99