An Economist Best Book of 2004: "Destined to remain the reference on the subject for the coming generations."—U.S. Naval InstituteThe Command of the Ocean describes with unprecedented authority and scholarship the rise of Britain to naval greatness, and the central place of the Navy and naval activity in the life of the nation and government. Bas...more

With interest in nautical adventure stories reaching unprecedented heights -- as evidenced by the success of The Perfect Storm, Patrick O'Brian's bestselling Aubrey/Maturin novels, the Titanic phenomenon, etc. -- now is the ideal time for readers to rediscover the pleasures and excitement of C. S. Forester's epic saga of turmoil and triumph on the ...more

"Gifford uses the charged story of . . . an apprentice smuggler as an occasion for his own literary and cinematic smuggling-from Conrad, Hemingway, Camus, John Hawkes, Howard Hawks, Welles and Ozu, among others-and to discover a new literary form."-The New York Times Book Review"A poet's nuanced prose runs through Port Tropique . . . a spellbinding...more

With interest in nautical adventure stories reaching unprecedented heights -- as evidenced by the success of The Perfect Storm, Patrick O'Brian's bestselling Aubrey/Maturin novels, the Titanic phenomenon, etc. -- now is the ideal time for readers to rediscover the pleasures and excitement of C. S. Forester's epic saga of turmoil and triumph on the ...more

The definitive work on Stalin's purges, Robert Conquest's The Great Terror was universally acclaimed when it first appeared in 1968. Edmund Wilson hailed it as "the only scrupulous, non-partisan, and adequate book on the subject." George F. Kennan, writing in The New York Times Book Review, noted that "one comes away filled with a sense of the rele...more

Criminal exploits, secret agent intrigue, and clever -disguises fill the pages of Francois Eugene Vidocq's memoirs. A legendary figure in history, Vidocq is known as the first detective and an inspiration to great writers such as Honore de Balzac, Victor Hugo and Edgar Allen Poe. As a player in the criminal underworld, Vidocq is a master of disguis...more

In A False Spring, Pat Jordan traces the falling star of his once-promising pitching career, illuminating along the way his equally difficult personal struggles and quest for maturity. When the reader meets Jordan, he is a hard-throwing pitcher with seemingly limitless potential, one of the first “bonus babies” for the Milwaukee Braves organiza...more