A riveting history of the city that led the west out of the ruins of the Roman Empire. At the end of the fourth century, as the power of Rome faded and Constantinople became the seat of empire, a new capital city was rising in the West. Here, in Ravenna on the coast of Italy, Arian Goths and Catholic Romans competed to produce an unrivaled concentration of buildings and astonishing mosaics. For three centuries, the city attracted scholars, lawyers,...

"A newly belligerent Chinese government leaves US President Jack Ryan with only a few desperate options in this continuation of the #1 New York Times bestselling Tom Clancy series. Jack Ryan is dealing with an aggresive challenge from the Chinese government. Pawns are being moved around a global chessboard: an attack on an oil platform in Africa, a terrorist strike on an American destroyer and a storm tossed American spy ship that may fall into Chinese...

This documentary explores Egypt's awe-inspiring engineering accomplishments through the prism of its pharaohs' indomitable personalities. As Egypt's pharaohs alternately conquered and ceded vast expanses of land, they pushed their royal architects to stretch the boundaries of imagination and human potential, in effect inventing the science of structural engineering. Follow the empire's development from the First Dynasty of 3000 BC through the last...

"In Amazon Unbound, Brad Stone presents a deeply reported, vividly drawn portrait of how a retail upstart became one of the most powerful and feared entities in the global economy. Stone also probes the evolution of Bezos himself—who started as a geeky technologist totally devoted to building Amazon, but who transformed to become a fit, disciplined billionaire with global ambitions; who ruled Amazon with an iron fist, even as he found his personal...

Veuve Clicquot champagne epitomizes glamour, style, and luxury. But who was this young widow--the Veuve Clicquot--whose champagne sparkled at the courts of France, Britain, and Russia, and how did she rise to celebrity and fortune? Cultural historian Mazzeo brings to life the woman behind the iconic yellow label: Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin. A young witness to the French Revolution and a new widow during the chaotic years of the Napoleonic Wars,...

Smedley Butler was the most celebrated warfighter of his time. Bestselling books were written about him. Hollywood adored him. Wherever the flag went, “The Fighting Quaker” went―serving in nearly every major overseas conflict from the Spanish War of 1898 until the eve of World War II. From his first days as a 16-year-old recruit at the newly seized Guantánamo Bay, he blazed a path for empire: helping annex the Philippines and the land for the...

"Incorporating the latest scholarly developments to offer an in-depth account of the history of the Byzantine Empire, this revised edition sheds new light on the Empire's culture, theology, and economic and socio-political spheres. Charting from the Empire's origins, to its expansion and influence over the Mediterranean, later revival, and eventual fall - this book covers more than 1,000 years of history. With analysis of the Empire's changing social...

"Journey ... into the time after the end of Stars Wars: Episode VI 'Return of the Jedi!' [This collection] take[s] us past the destruction of the second Death Star-- and into the chaos of a shattered Empire. Everything you need to know if right here!"--Page 4 of cover.

Recounts the events of Reagan's historic, three-day 1988 Moscow Summit with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, examining the importance of Reagan's speech at Moscow State University that offered a new vision of the future to the Soviet people.

'Strange, what love does.' The role of a lifetime, a Hollywood mystery, a woman in trouble...David Lynch's first digitally shot feature makes visionary use of the medium to weave a vast meditation on the enigmas of time, identity, and cinema itself. Featuring a tour de force performance from Laura Dern as an actor on the edge, this labyrinthine Dream Factory nightmare tumbles down an endless series of unfathomably interconnected rabbit holes as it...