Publisher's description: Frederick Douglass was the most important African American of the nineteenth century and one of the most significant writers and orators in American history. David Blight's long-awaited authoritative biography of this great American is based in part on papers never seen by previous biographers. Douglass was born a slave and escaped at the age of twenty. He was fortunate to have learned to read as a boy, and he would develop...

"Parveen Shams, a college senior in search of a calling, feels pulled between her charismatic and mercurial anthropology professor and the comfortable but predictable Afghan-American community in her Northern California hometown. When she discovers a bestselling book called Mother Afghanistan, a memoir by humanitarian Gideon Crane that has become a bible for American engagement in the country, she is inspired. Galvanized by Crane's experience, Parveen...

When disaster struck San Francisco on April 18, 1906, photographer Arnold Genthe grabbed a pocket camera and ventured out to document the destruction. Now, over a century later, the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts presents the definitive collection of Genthe's historic photographs.

The first full account of how the Cold War arms race finally came to a close, this narrative history sheds light on the people who struggled to end this era of massive overkill, and examines the legacy of the nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that remain a threat today. Drawing on memoirs, interviews in both Russia and the US, and classified documents from inside the Kremlin, David E. Hoffman examines the inner motives and secret decisions...