THE ADVENTURES OF HENRY THOREAU --- chronicling the 10 years in his life beginning with Harvard in 1837 and ending as he walked away from Walden Pond after living in his long dreamed-of cabin for only two years --- tells the dramatic (and at times heartbreaking) story of how a troubled young man found a meaningful life in a tempestuous era.

Our understanding of what it means to be a spy has been largely defined by the fictional worlds of Ian Fleming and John le Carré. Gordon Corera provides a unique and unprecedented insight into this secret world and the reality that lies behind the fiction. He tells the story of how MI6 has changed since the end of the Second World War and illustrates the danger, the drama and the moral ambiguities that come with working for British intelligence.

In 1407, Louis of Orleans was murdered by a band of masked men. The crime stunned and paralyzed France since Louis had often ruled in place of his brother King Charles, who had gone mad. In charge of the investigation was the Provost of Paris, Guillaume de Tignonville, the city's chief law enforcement officer --- and one of history's first detectives. As de Tignonville began to investigate, he realized that his hunt for the truth was much more dangerous than he ever could have imagined.

From acclaimed World War II historian Richard Overy comes this startling new history of the controversial Allied bombing war against Germany and German-occupied Europe. In the fullest account yet of the campaign and its consequences, Overy assesses not just the bombing strategies and pattern of operations, but also how the bombed communities coped with the devastation.

Calvin Coolidge, who served as president from 1923 to 1929, never rated highly in polls. The shy Vermonter, nicknamed "Silent Cal," has long been dismissed as quiet and passive. History has remembered the decade in which he served as a frivolous, extravagant period predating the Great Depression. Now Amity Shlaes provides a fresh look at the 1920s and its elusive president.

When a “neutral” United States becomes a trading partner for the Allies early in World War I, the Germans implement a secret plan to strike back. A team of saboteurs devise a series of “mysterious accidents” using explosives and biological weapons to bring down vital targets. New York Police Inspector Tom Tunney, head of the department’s Bomb Squad, is assigned the difficult mission of stopping them.

Much has been written about the enduring marriage of President John Adams and his wife, Abigail. But few know of the equally strong bond Abigail shared with her sisters, Mary Cranch and Elizabeth Shaw Peabody, accomplished women in their own right. Now acclaimed biographer Diane Jacobs reveals their moving story, which unfolds against the stunning backdrop of America in its transformative colonial years.

During the Vietnam War, hundreds of American prisoners-of-war faced years of brutal conditions and horrific torture at the hands of North Vietnamese guards and interrogators. To quash the powerful underground resistance of the POWs, their captors singled out its 11 leaders and banished them to an isolated jail that would become known as Alcatraz. As they suffered in Hanoi, their wives at home launched an extraordinary campaign that would ultimately spark the nationwide POW/MIA movement.

DOWN TO THE CROSSROADS is the story of the last great march of the Martin Luther King, Jr. era, and the first great showdown of the turbulent years that followed. Depicting rural demonstrators’ courage and the impassioned debates among movement leaders, Aram Goudsouzian reveals the legacy of an event that would both integrate African Americans into the political system and inspire even bolder protests against it.

ELIOT NESS follows the lawman through his days in Chicago and into his forgotten second act. As the public safety director of Cleveland, he achieved his greatest success: purging the city of corruption so deep that the mob and the police were often one and the same. And it was here, too, that he faced one of his greatest challenges: a serial killer known as the Torso Murderer who terrorized the city for years.

In PICTURES AT A REVOLUTION, Mark Harris turned the story of the five movies nominated for Best Picture in 1967 into a landmark work of cultural history, a book about the transformation of an art form and the larger social shift it signified. Now, in FIVE CAME BACK, he gives us the untold story of how Hollywood changed World War II, and how World War II changed Hollywood, through the prism of five film directors caught up in the war: John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra and George Stevens.

On October 25, 1944, the Samuel B. Roberts, along with the other 12 vessels comprising its unit, stood between Japan's largest battleship force ever sent to sea and MacArthur’s transports inside Leyte Gulf. Of 563 destroyers constructed during World War II, the Samuel B. Roberts was the only one sunk, going down with guns blazing. The men who survived faced a horrifying three-day nightmare in the sea, where they battled a lack of food and water, scorching sun and numbing nighttime cold, and nature’s most feared adversary --- sharks.

There has been more than half a century of raging conflict between Jews and Arabs --- a violent, costly struggle that has had catastrophic repercussions in a critical region of the world. In GENESIS, John B. Judis argues that, while Israelis and Palestinians must shoulder much of the blame, the United States has been the principal power outside the region since the end of World War II and as such must account for its repeated failed efforts to resolve this enduring strife.

As a journalist based in Cairo, Ashraf Khalil was an eyewitness to the perfect storm that brought down Hosni Mubarak and his regime. Khalil was subjected to tear gas alongside protestors in Tahrir Square, barely escaped an enraged mob, and witnessed the day-to-day developments from the frontlines. From the halls of power to the back alleys of Cairo, he offers a one-of-a-kind look at a nation in the throes of an uprising.

Abraham Lincoln’s official secretaries, John Hay and John Nicolay, enjoyed more access, witnessed more history, and knew Lincoln better than anyone outside of the president’s immediate family. As Joshua Zeitz shows, the image of a humble man with uncommon intellect who rose from obscurity to become a storied wartime leader and emancipator is very much their creation.

Spies, assassins, saboteurs and secret agents, Ninja have become the subject of countless legends that continue to enthrall us in modern movies, video games and comics --- and their arts are still practiced in our time by dedicated acolytes who study the ancient techniques. NINJA: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warrior, by British historian John Man, is as colorful and intriguing as the warriors it so vividly brings to life.

In the late 19th century, two brothers from one of the nation's great families --- Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York --- pursued the dream of his city digging America's first subway, and the great race was on. The competition between Boston and New York played out in an era not unlike our own: one of economic upheaval, life-changing innovations, class warfare, bitter political tensions, and the question of America’s place in the world.

The inspiration for the Jedi knights of Star Wars and the films of Akira Kurosawa, the legendary Japanese samurai have captured modern imaginations. Yet with these elite warriors who were bound by a code of honor called Bushido --- the Way of the Warrior --- the reality behind the myth proves more fascinating than any fiction. In SAMURAI, John Man provides a unique and captivating look at their true history, told through the life of one man: Saigo Takamori, known to many as "the last samurai."

In 1836 in East Texas, nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped by Comanches. She was raised by the tribe and eventually became the wife of a warrior. Twenty-four years after her capture, she was reclaimed by the U.S. cavalry and the Texas Rangers and restored to her white family, to die in misery and obscurity. Cynthia Ann's story has been told and retold over generations to become a foundational American tale.

They were the original power couple --- outlandishly rich, impossibly attractive and endlessly fascinating. Now, in this rare, behind-the-scenes portrait of the Kenne­dys in their final year together, biographer Christopher Andersen shows us a side of JFK and Jackie we’ve never seen before. Theirs is a love story unlike any other --- filled with secrets, scandals and bomb­shells that could never be fully revealed...until now.

From the award-winning historian and author of REVOLUTIONARY MOTHERS and CIVIL WAR WIVES, here is the remarkable life of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte --- renowned as the most beautiful woman of 19th-century Baltimore, whose marriage in 1803 to Jérôme Bonaparte, the youngest brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, became inextricably bound to the diplomatic and political histories of the United States, France and England.