Biography & Autobiography - Historical

John Stuart Mill (1806-73), philosopher, economist, and political thinker, was the most prominent figure of nineteenth-century English intellectual life and his work has continuing significance for contemporary debates about ethics, politics, and economics. His father, James Mill, a close associate of the utilitarian philosopher...

A scholarly study of Sir Robert Cotton as antiquary and politician. It examines his antiquarian writings, the building of his library, his relations with European scholars, his place at court, in parliament, and in the literary society of Renaissance London.Author: Kevin SharpeISBN-10: 019821877XISBN-13: 9780198218777Publisher:...

On January 29, 1774, Benjamin Franklin was called to appear before the Privy Council--a select group of the king's advisors--in an octagonal-shaped room in Whitehall Palace known as the Cockpit. Spurred by jeers and applause from the audience in the Cockpit, Solicitor General Alexander...

Perhaps more than any other American, Abraham Lincoln has become a global figure, one who spoke--and continues to speak--to people across the world. Karl Marx judged Lincoln "the single-minded son of the working class"; Tolstoy reported his fame in the Caucasus; Tomas Masaryk, the...

Civil War officer, Reconstruction "carpetbagger," best-selling novelist, and relentless champion of equal rights--Albion Tourg馥 battled his entire life for racial justice. Now, in this engaging biography, Mark Elliott offers an insightful portrait of a fearless lawyer, jurist, and writer, who fought for equality long...

A gripping and beautifully written narrative that reads like a novel, Fire in the City presents a compelling account of a key moment in the history of the Renaissance, illuminating the remarkable man who dominated the period, the charismatic Girolamo Savonarola. Lauro Martines, whose...

Landon Carter, a Virginia planter, left behind one of the most revealing of all American diaries. In this astonishingly rich biography, Isaac mines this remarkable document--and many other sources--to reconstruct Carter's interior world as it plunged into revolution. The aging patriarch, though a fierce...

John Winthrop's effort to create a Puritan "City on a Hill" has had a lasting effect on American values, and many remember this phrase famously quoted by the late Ronald Reagan. However, most know very little about the first American to speak these words....

Moses Maimonides (1137/38-1204), scholar, physician, and philosopher, was the most influential Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages. In this magisterial biography, Herbert Davidson provides an exhaustive guide to Maimonides' life and works. After considering Maimonides' upbringing and education, Davidson expounds all of his many...

In 1840, Alexander Maconochie, a privileged retired naval captain, became at his own request superintendent of two thousand twice-convicted prisoners on Norfolk Island, a thousand miles off the coast of Australia. In four years, Maconochie transformed what was one of the most brutal convict...

Through a close and critical reading of biblical texts, ancient history, and recent archeological discoveries, Steven L. McKenzie concludes that David was indeed a real person. This David was not the humble shepherd who slew Goliath and became king, however, but was a usurper,...

A lively and compelling portrait of one of the most acerbic and distinctive voices in American literature, Ambrose Bierce: Alone in Bad Company is a clear-eyed but sympathetic account of a complex individual at odds with his country, his family, his times, and himself....

One of the world's preeminent historians, Marc Ferro is a leading member of the Annales School of France and a recognized authority on early twentieth-century European history. For well over two decades, in volumes such as The February Revolution of 1917 and October 1917,...

One of the most colorful characters in modern history, Catherine II of Russia began her life as a minor German princess, until the childless Empress Elizabeth and Catherine's own scheming mother married her off to the Grand Duke Peter of Russia at age sixteen....

When David Souter was nominated by President Bush to the Supreme Court, he cited John Marshall Harlan as his model. It was an interesting choice. Admired by conservatives and deeply respected by his liberal brethren, Harlan was a man, as Justice William Brennan lamented,...

Fostering the "pursuit of happiness" was an avowed purpose of the American Revolution, but what was the phrase to mean in practice? How would the new society being created achieve what Enlightenment egalitarians called the "common good"? In this dual biography of Benjamin Franklin...

Richards' study presents not only a vivid portrait of John Quincy Adams but also provides an insightful exploration of American politics in the 1830s and 40s. Examining one of the few presidents who sustained a political career after his term in the White House,...

A far cry from the nineteenth-century slave narrative tradition, this book, written in 1857, is a special kind of success story. With delightful urbanity and wit, Mary Seacole, a free-born Jamaican Creole, recounts her childhood as a daughter of a Scottish army officer and...

Covering 400 years of Shakespeare scholarship, Schoenbaum's now classic William Shakespeare: A Documentary Life received high acclaim from critics and scholars. The New York Review of Books called it "a masterpiece," and the Guardian labeled it "our best life of Shakespeare." Making the resources...

John Ruskin was one of the most influential men of his day, and Praeterita, his autobiography, offers fascinating insights into many of the topics in which he was pre-eminent: art, architecture, J. M. W. Turner, nature, politics, and travel. This is the first major...

Whatever we may think of Alexander--whether Great or only lucky, a civilizer or a sociopath--most people do not regard him as a religious leader. And yet religion permeated all aspects of his career. When he used religion astutely, he and his army prospered. In...

With a single shot from a pistol small enough to conceal in his hand, John Wilkes Booth catapulted into history on the night of April 14, 1865. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln stunned a nation that was just emerging from the chaos and...

In the city of Puebla there lived an American who made himself into the richest man in Mexico. Driven by a steely desire to prove himself-first to his wife's family, then to Mexican elites-William O. Jenkins rose from humble origins in Tennessee to build...

Eliot's correspondence from his childhood in St. Louis until he had settled in England and published The Waste Land. Edited and with an Introduction by Valerie Eliot; Index; photographs.Author: Valerie EliotISBN-10: 0156508508ISBN-13: 9780156508506Publisher: Mariner BooksLanguage: EnglishPublished: 09/24/1990Pages: 704Format: PaperbackWeight: 2.20lbsSize: 8.87h x 5.69w x...

"[A] shimmering and rather wonderful biography." --The Guardian When Queen Victoria died in 1901, she had ruled for nearly sixty-four years. She was the mother of nine and grandmother of forty-two and the matriarch of royal Europe through her children's marriages. To many, Queen...

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, a powerful new reckoning with Jefferson Davis as military commander of the Confederacy "The best concise book we have on the subject... McPherson is... our most distinguished scholar of the Civil War era." --The...

In 1928, Rosina Harrison arrived at the illustrious household of the Astor family to take up her new position as personal maid to the infamously temperamental Lady Nancy Astor, who sat in Parliament, entertained royalty, and traveled the world. "She's not a lady as...

"Joyce fans should thank their lucky stars." -The New York Times Arguably the most influential writer of the twentieth century, James Joyce continues to inspire writers, readers, and thinkers today. Now Edna O'Brien, herself one of Ireland's great writers, approaches the master as only...

The country's most noted writers, poets, and artists converge at a singular moment in American life, a great companion to fans of the film A Quiet Passion, starring Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson. At the close of the Civil War, the lives of Emily...

View our feature on Sarah Gristwood's Elizabeth & Leicester.Though the story has been told on film--and whispered in historic gossip--this is the first book in almost fifty years to solely explore the great queen's attachment to her beloved Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester....

In 1612, Shakespeare gave evidence in a court case at Westminster-and it is the only occasion on which his actual spoken words were recorded. In The Lodger Shakespeare, Charles Nicholl applies a powerful biographical magnifying glass to this fascinating but little-known episode in the...

Called 'The most influential interpreter of American religion' by Bill Moyers, renowned historian and Lutheran pastor Martin Marty portrays the religious reformer Martin Luther as a man of conscience and courage who risked death to ignite the historic reformation of the Church. Luther's arguments,...

An entertaining and eye-opening biography of America's most memorable first daughter From the moment Teddy Roosevelt's outrageous and charming teenage daughter strode into the White House--carrying a snake and dangling a cigarette--the outspoken Alice began to put her imprint on the whole of the...

COSTA AWARD FINALIST ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR Film rights acquired by Gold Circle Films, the team behind My Big Fat Greek Wedding. A groundbreaking reconsideration of our favorite Tudor queen from the author of Queen of Scots, now a feature film starring Saoirse...

Louis XVI was at the center of the French Revolution, one of the major turning points in world history, but he remains relatively little known, often portrayed only as the weak, lazy, and treasonous king dominated by Marie-Antoinette. This new investigation by John Hardman,...

In this engaging study, Walter L. Arnstein explores both the private life and the public role of the young princess who inherited Britain's throne as a teenager and who became the octogenarian symbolic head of the largest empire in the history of the world....

This new entry in the Longman Library of World Biography series offers an intimate and provocative account of the Manchu emperor Qianlong (1711-1799), one of the world's great empire-builders, who helped build the foundation of the modern Chinese nation. During the 64 years of...

Author: Dumas MaloneISBN-10: 0316544752ISBN-13: 9780316544757Publisher: Little Brown and CompanyLanguage: EnglishPublished: 01/30/1962Pages: 545Format: HardcoverWeight: 2.65lbsSize: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.70d

The first of five volumes in a full-length biography of Jefferson.Author: Dumas MaloneISBN-10: 0316544728ISBN-13: 9780316544726Publisher: Back Bay BooksLanguage: EnglishPublished: 01/30/1967Pages: 484Format: PaperbackWeight: 1.23lbsSize: 8.12h x 5.08w x 1.22d

The second volume in this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography tells the story of the eventful middle years in the life of Thomas Jefferson: his ministry to France in the years just before the French Revolution and during the early stages of that conflict; his service...

A revealing and dramatic chronicle of the twelve months leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. Martin Luther King, Jr. died in one of the most shocking assassinations the world has known, but little is remembered about the life he led in...

In spreading the message of freedom, equality, and human dignity, Nelson Mandela helped transform not only his own nation, but the entire world. Now his most important speeches are collected in a single volume. From the eve of his imprisonment to his release twenty-seven...

Evan Thomas's startling account of how the underrated Dwight Eisenhower saved the world from nuclear holocaust. Upon assuming the presidency in 1953, Dwight Eisenhower set about to make good on his campaign promise to end the Korean War. Yet while Eisenhower was quickly viewed...

A vivid and whip-smart memoir from the legendary editor who spent decades leading newspapers in London and New York. In My Paper Chase, Harold Evans recounts the wild and wonderful tale of newspapering life. His story stretches from the 1930s to his service in...

This biography examines the life of George W. Bush--one of the most controversial U.S. presidents in recent history--before, during, and after his two terms in the White House. George W. Bush served as president of the United States through some of the most pivotal...

This biography of W.E.B. Du Bois gives full measure to his entire life, including his controversial final decades. This revealing biography captures the full life of W.E.B. Du Bois--historian, sociologist, author, editor--a leader in the fight to bring African Americans more fully into the...

This concise biography of Harriet Tubman, the African American abolitionist, explores her various roles as an Underground Railroad conductor, Civil War scout and nurse, and women's rights advocate. The legendary Moses of the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman was a fiery and tenacious abolitionist who...

The first biography of Geronimo aimed at the high school and undergraduate student audience, this book provides a balanced account of Geronimo's life in the context of key historical and cultural events of his lifetime. A revered Apache spiritual and military leader and a...

One of the most important Native American leaders in history, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh protested land cession, and was a major catalyst of the Battle of Tippecanoe. He harnessed the tradition of American Indian pan-tribal unity to become the most important symbol of multi-national...

Cesar Chavez, the labor organizer and founder of the United Farm Workers of America, was, perhaps, an unlikely hero. In this biography, his early life is shown to be fairly typical for a boy in a close-knit family of Mexican Americans who worked the...